The President's Message Condemned: Senate and National Convention
On the 25th of February, Messrs. Stevens and Boutwell appeared before the Senate in behalf of the managers, and in the name of the people of the United States, impeached "Andrew Johnson of high crimes and misdemeanors," and demanded of that body an order for the accused President to answer the impeachment. The Senate, by a provision of the National Constitution, composes a jury for the trial of such cases; and on the 5th of March (1868) it was organized as such, with Chief-Justice Salmon P. Chase as president of the court. The accused was summoned to appear at the bar on the 7th; but the Senate was not formally opened as a High Court of Impeachment until the 13th, when he did so appear, by his counsel, who asked for a delay of forty days wherein to prepare an answer to the indictment. Ten days were granted, and the answer was presented on the 23d, when the House of Representatives, which was the accuser, solemnly denied every averment of that answer. Then the President's counsel asked for a postponement of the trial for thirty days, but only seven were allowed.
On the 30th of March the trial was begun. Public feeling was profoundly excited by the event, and there was danger that the reason and judgement of the Senate might be swayed by unwise influences. Fortunately there were men in that body whose prescience clearly comprehended the future, and they were governed by that more than by their feelings or the mandates of present expediency. All through the trial, these men counselled moderation, and their advice was heeded. They pointed out the danger, that a verdict of guilty might create greater evils than the foolish President could possibly inflict, in his comparatively helpless state.
When, after an examination of witnesses, which was concluded on the 22d of April; the presentation of the arguments of counsel, which continued until the 5th of May, and the debates, which consumed twenty days more, the votes of the fifty-four Senators present were taken on the verdict, thirty-five of them were for conviction, and nineteen were for acquittal. Some of the latter votes were by Republicans. As two-thirds of the votes were necessary for conviction, the President was acquitted by one vote.
This verdict caused Secretary Stanton to send a letter to the President, informing him that as the resolution of the Senate reinstating the Secretary had not been supported by two-thirds of that body present and voting upon the articles of impeachment, he had relinquished the office; whereupon Mr. Johnson nominated General John M. Schofield to be Mr. Stanton's successor. The President, in his communication nominating General Schofield, said he was to succeed "E. M. Stanton, removed." The Senate adopted the following preamble and resolution: "Whereas, the order of the President removing Secretary Stanton from office was unconstitutional and illegal; but on account of Mr. Stanton having, on Tuesday, relinquished said office, therefore Resolved, That the Senate do advise and consent to the appointment of General Schofield."
The brilliancy and intrinsic value of General Grant's military services in behalf of the Republic, and his firmness and patriotism in defeating the designs of President Johnson at the capital, endeared him to the loyal people; and on the 19th of June (1868) the Republicans, in National Convention assembled at Chicago, nominated him for President of the United States, and Schuyler Colfax of Indiana for Vice-President. On the 4th of July following, a National Convention of representatives of the Democratic party met in Tammany Hall, in the city of New York, and nominated Horatio Seymour of the State of New York for President, and Francis P. Blair of Missouri for Vice-President. Wade Hampton, N. B. Forrest, and other prominent Confederate leaders, were members of that Convention, and were controlling architects of the platform there adopted, in which the acts of Congress for the reorganization of the Union were declared to be "usurpations, unconstitutional, revolutionary and void."
A few days before the meeting of the Convention, General Blair, the nominee for Vice-President, wrote a letter to James O. Brodhead, to be used at the Convention. In that letter he said, in contemplation of the election of the nominees: "There is but one way to restore the Government and the Constitution, and that is for the President-elect to declare these acts of Congress null and void; compel the army to undo its usurpations at the South; disperse the carpet-bag State governments (governments established under the authority of Congress); allow the white people to organize their own governments, and elect Senators and Representatives. The House of Representatives will contain a majority of Democrats from the North, and they will admit the Representatives elected by the white people of the South; and with the co-operation of the President, it will not be difficult to compel the Senate to submit, once more, to the obligations of the Constitution."
This revolutionary scheme--a scheme for inaugurating another Civil War--was so acceptable to the Convention, that its author was nominated for the second office in the gift of the people. But it was so distasteful to vast numbers of the patriotic and thinking members of the Democratic party, that the nominees were defeated at the polls by an overwhelming vote that elected Grant and Colfax.