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The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson came about as the result of political conflict between the President and the Republican congress. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, the two sides differed on reconstruction and neither side seemed willing to compromise. Before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln had formulated a plan of reconstruction that would be lenient toward the defeated South as it rejoined the Union. Lincoln planned to grant a general amnesty to those who pledged an oath of loyalty to the United States and agreed to obey all federal laws pertaining to slavery. Lincoln's plan also stated that when a tenth of the voters who had taken part in the 1860 election had agreed to the oath within a particular state, then that state could formulate a new government and start sending representatives to Congress.
Johnson was intent on carrying out this plan when he assumed the Presidency. This policy, however, did not sit well with certain radical Republicans in Congress who wanted to set up military governments and implement more stringent terms for readmission of the seceded states. As neither side was willing to compromise, and a clash of strong wills resulted.
The political backing to begin impeachment came when Johnson breached the Tenure of Office Act by removing Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, from his cabinet. The Tenure of Office Act had been passed over Johnson's veto in 1867 and stated that a President could not dismiss appointed officials without the consent of Congress. Stanton was seen by Johnson as an ally of the Radicals in Congress. Johnson believed the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional and wanted it to be tested in the courts.
The House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson, though the vote in the House Judiciary Committee passed only by a margin of 5 to 4. Having voted to impeach Johnson, the Senate conducted a trial which trial lasted from March to May, 1868.
On May 26th, the Senate voted to acquit Andrew Johnson by a margin of 35 guilty to 19 not guilty. Two convict Johnson, a two-thirds majority (36 votes) was needed. Seven Republican senators were concerned that the proceedings had been manipulated to give a one-sided presentation of the evidence and defied their party by voting to acquit Johnson. These were Senators William Pitt Fessenden (Maine), Joseph S. Fowler (Tennessee), James W. Grimes (Iowa), John B. Henderson (Missouri), Lyman Trumbull (Illinois), Peter G. Van Winkle (West Virginia),[4] and Edmund G. Ross (Kansas). Ross provided the decisive vote.
After the trial, Ben Butler conducted hearings on the widespread reports that Republican senators had been bribed to vote for Johnson's acquittal. In Butler's hearings, and in subsequent inquiries, there was increasing evidence that some acquittal votes were acquired by promises of patronage jobs and cash bribes. In 1926 the Supreme Court ruled all Tenure of Office Acts unconstitutional. proving Johnson correct in this assertion.
This is an example of one of those times in history when principles were placed behind personalities. Andrew Johnson may have been an unlikeable man, a racist and he may have destroyed much of Lincoln's good work. But according to the rules, he probably didn't deserve to be impeached.