Feature Article on Andrew Johnson. TOPIC: POLITICS
& PEOPLE
Written by Rich Wallace in
January, 1999
IMPEACHMENT IN PAST NOT SO DIFFERENT |
|
| Even if you had the desire, it would be
almost impossible to escape the volume of information and the level of rhetoric swirling
around the impeachment trial of William Jefferson Clinton. The media talking heads spin
and re-spin the details. The Alcove and the Spot
serve as community centers of discussion. National polls document public opinions on the subject. Regardless of our individual status as defenders or opponents of the President, two themes weave their way through this process: Most people now do not follow the details and want to get this process behind them, and virtually everyone has tired of the partisan attacks by both political parties. Everyone is saying it: If only we could return to the good old days when honor and personal integrity were the guideposts of Congress and the media. It is worth taking a brief look at the 'good old days' of 1868 and the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson to determine whether or not people have changed much. In the aftermath of the Civil War, a faction of Republican party known as the 'Radical Republicans' controlled Congress. The Radicals insisted on the passage of punitive measures designed to punish the residents of the South, especially the former slave owners. President Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln after his assassination, favored a more moderate course to reconstruct the South. Battle lines were drawn after he vetoed several laws he viewed as too harsh on the former slave owners. Adam Cohen, in reviewing Johnson's plight 130 years ago recently in an article for Time Magazine, described the highly charged political atmosphere of the times. Then Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles felt the Radicals would have impeached Johnson "had he been accused of stepping on a dog's tail." |
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