LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Andrew Johnson: June Congress
built 657 days ago
To test the law, Johnson asked for the resignation of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and then suspended him when he refused to resign. On January 13, 1868, the Senate refused to concur in Stanton's suspension. Disregarding the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson fired Stanton on February 21. Three days later the House of Representatives impeached Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors.†The articles of impeachment concentrated on this violation of the law but added that Johnson's conduct toward Congress had involved “disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt and reproach.†It did not include the charge by one member, George S. Boutwell, that Johnson himself was part of the plot to murder Lincoln. The Senate acquitted Johnson on May 16, 1868. The vote was 35 for conviction and 19 for acquittal, one vote short of the two-thirds majority necessary for conviction.
Source:
Johnson made great efforts to carry out this task. But he was unable to reduce the bitterness between North and South and bring the country's affairs back to normal. He was a man of courage and good intentions, but he did not know how to take advice or how to work with people. His disagreements with Congress led to his impeachment--a formal charge of misconduct or crime. He was the first U.S. president to be impeached, and he barely avoided being removed from office.
Source:
Johnson mirrored Lincoln's views on a benevolent period of reconciliation with the South after the Civil War. However, there was a strong faction within Johnson's inherited cabinet and within the Northern states that favored a policy of harsh retribution for the rebellious states. This radical faction within the Republican Party overrode Johnson's plan for reconstruction and sought to destroy the political elements within the South which had been very influential before the war. These actions caused resentment in the South and local opposition to federal legislation. Johnson vetoed many of the harsh measures passed by Congress, but half of these vetoes were overturned by majority vote.
Source:
Johnson-appointed governments all passed Black Codes that gave the Freedmen second class status. In response to the Black Codes and worrisome signs of Southern recalcitrance, the Radical Republicans blocked the re-admission of the ex-rebellious states to the Congress in fall 1865. Congress ... renewed the Freedman's Bureau, but Johnson vetoed it. Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, leader of the moderate Republicans, took affront at the Black Codes. Trumbull proposed the first Civil Rights bill.
Source:
Johnson began as a Jacksonian Democrat at the lowest rungs of public service, then climbed steadily. He was a local alderman (1828-30), mayor (1830-33), state senator (1835-37 and 1839-41). He was elected to Congress in 1843 and served five terms. He returned to Tennessee in 1853 and was elected governor, and worked to establish the first tax-funded public schools in the state.
Source:
Having lost both congressional and popular support, Johnson was finished. Blocked at every turn, he felt he had no choice but to challenge the Tenure of Office Act as a blatant usurpation of presidential authority. In direct opposition to the act, he fired Secretary of War Stanton. Congress then voted to impeach Johnson by a vote of 126 to 47 in February 1868, citing his violation of the Tenure of Office Act and charging that he had brought disgrace and ridicule on Congress. By a margin of one vote, the Senate voted not to convict Johnson, and he served the duration of the term won by Lincoln.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
June Congress