First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson
The first impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson was launched by a vote of the United States House of Representatives on January 7, 1867, to investigate the potential impeachment of the President of the United States, Andrew Johnson.
It was run by the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The vote authorizing the inquiry was viewed as giving Republicans an opportunity to register their disdain for Johnson without formally impeaching him. Most congressmen had expected that the sentiments in House Committee on the Judiciary would side against impeachment. However, surprising many, the committee voted 5–4 on November 25, 1867, to recommend impeachment. Despite this recommendation, the House voted 57–108 on December 7, 1867, against impeaching Johnson, with more Republicans voting against impeachment than for it.
This impeachment inquiry preceded the second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson, which played a role in the lead-up to Johnson's impeachment on February 24, 1868.
Background
Some Radical Republicans had entertained the thought of impeaching President Andrew Johnson since as early as 1866. However, the Republican Party was divided on the prospect of impeachment, with moderates in the party, who held a plurality, widely opposing it at this point. The radicals were more in favor of impeachment, as their plans for strong reform in reconstruction were greatly imperiled by Johnson. Among of the first Radical Republicans to explore impeachment was House Territories Committee chairman James Mitchell Ashley. Ashley was convinced of a baseless conspiracy theory that faulted Johnson for involvement in conspiring in the assassination of Lincoln. Thus, Ashley had strong personal motivation for wanting to remove Johnson from office. Ashley quietly began researching impeachment. Federal impeachment was rare in the United States.Several attempts were made by Radical Republicans to initiate impeachment, but these were successfully rebuffed by moderate Republicans in party leadership. After the December 1866 meeting of the House Republican caucus, in an effort to block any further efforts to impeach Johnson, the moderate Republicans leading the party's caucus passed a rule for the Republican caucus which required that both a majority of House Republicans and a majority of members on the House Committee on the Judiciary would be required to approve any measure regarding impeachment in party caucus prior to it being considered in the House. Radical Republicans continued to seek Johnson's impeachment. They disobeyed the rule put in place for the Republican caucus. Radicals proposed a number of impeachment resolutions, which the moderate Republicans often stifled by referring to committees.
By the start of the year 1867, on a daily basis, Congress was receiving petitions demanding the removal of Johnson. These petitions came primarily from the Midwestern states. The petitions were the result of an organized campaign to demand Johnson's removal. The number of signatures on these petitions varied, as some had as few as three signatures, while other petitions had as many as three hundred signatures.
By the December 1866 start of the lame-duck third session of the 39th Congress, a number of Radical Republicans were demanding the creation of a select committee to investigate the prospect of impeaching Johnson, but this still faced resistance within the Republican Party caucus. On December 17, 1866, James Mitchell Ashley attempted to open a house impeachment inquiry, but his motion to suspend the rules to consider his resolution saw a vote of 88–49, which was short of the needed two-thirds majority to suspend the rules. Nevertheless, Ashley agreed with Thaddeus Stevens to again bring an impeachment resolution before the full House.
House passage of the resolution authorizing the inquiry
On January 7, 1867, Benjamin F. Loan, John R. Kelso, and James Mitchell Ashley each introduced three separate impeachment resolutions against Johnson. The House refused to hold debate or vote on either Loan or Kelso's resolutions. However, they did allow a vote on Ashley's impeachment-related resolution. Unlike the other two impeachment bills introduced that day, Ashley's bill offered a specific outline of how an impeachment process would proceed, and it did not start with an immediate impeachment. Rather than going to a direct vote on impeaching the president, his resolution would instruct the Judiciary Committee to "inquire into the official conduct of Andrew Johnson", investigating what it called Johnson's "corruptly used" powers and "usurpation of power", including Johnson's political appointments, use of his pardon powers, vetoes of legislation, selling of confiscated property, and alleged interference with elections. While it gave the general charge of "high crimes and misdemeanors" and named numerous instances of alleged corruption, Ashley's resolution did not specify what the high crimes and misdemeanors Johnson had committed were. The grievances listed in the resolution amounted largely to political grievances which Ashley had against Johnson.The resolution read,
The resolution passed in the House 108–39. It was seen as offering Republicans a chance to register their displeasure with Johnson, without actually formally impeaching him. Many Republicans believed that, in the Judiciary Committee, any impeachment resolution would die a quiet death. Of the 108 members of the House that are recording as having voted in favor of the resolution, 1 was a Democrat, 99 were Republicans, and 7 were Unconditional Unionists, 1 was an independent Republican. Of the 6 to vote against it, 25 were Democrats, 6 were Republicans, 3 were Unconditional Unionists, and 5 were Unionists. 44 members of congress were absent. Additionally, Speaker Schuyler Colfax did not vote, as House rules do not require the speaker to vote during ordinary legislative proceedings, unless their vote would be decisive or if the vote is being cast by ballot.
The official record shows Democrat John Winthrop Chanler as voting in favor of the resolution. However, the New-York Tribune, following the vote, strongly suspected that this was a clerical error.
Inquiry
The resulting inquiry lasted eleven months, saw 89 witnesses interviewed, and saw 1,200 pages of testimony compiled. Among those that appeared before the House Committee on the Judiciary as part of the inquiry were John Covode Joseph Scott Fullerton, Joseph S. Fowler, Edwin Stanton, Lafayette C. Baker, William Barclay Napton, Rufus Saxton, and Thomas W. Conway, and Jeremiah S. Black. Included among those interviewed were men pardoned by Johnson and men he had fired. John Evans and Jerome B. Chaffee gave testimony related to Johnson's veto of a bill for the admission of Colorado as a state.President Johnson was reported to have been angered by the authorization of the inquiry. He kept secret tabs on the inquiry through the Pinkerton Detective Agency. Per the findings of Hinds’ Precedents of the House of Representatives, it does not appear that Johnson sought to be represented by counsel before the committee during the inquiry.
Members of House Committee on the Judiciary during the inquiry
39th Congress
In the 39th Congress the House Committee on the Judiciary consisted of seven Republicans, one Democrat, and one Unconditional Unionist.| Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary during the 39th United States Congress | - | - |
| Republican Party | Democratic Party | Unconditional Union Party |
|
40th Congress
In the 40th Congress, the House Committee on the Judiciary consisted of seven Republicans and two Democrats. All of the committee members from the previous Congress returned to the committee for the 40th Congress, with the two exceptions of Democrat Sydenham Elnathan Ancona and Republican Daniel Morris, who had both departed the United States House of Representatives. In their place were two new committee members, Democrat Charles A. Eldredge and Samuel S. Marshall and Republican John C. Churchill. Committee member Francis Thomas, who had been elected to the previous congress as a member of the Unconditional Union Party, was now elected to the 40th Congress as a member of the Republican Party.| Members of the House Committee on the Judiciary during the 40th United States Congress | - |
| Republican Party | Democratic Party |
|
Initial investigation during the 39th Congress
To comply with Ashley's impeachment resolution, the Judiciary Committee began to slowly conduct an impeachment inquiry, gathering evidence from witnesses in closed sessions.On January 14, 1867, the resolution that had been proposed by Benjamin F. Loan on the inquiry was established was finally debated by the full House. Loan gave a long speech to the House in which he used language that was largely interpreted as accusing Johnson of complicity in the assassination of President Lincoln, and which further accused him of participation in a conspiracy to capture the United States Government in the interest of those involved in the southern secession. The resolution was again considered on January 28 and February 4 due to a motion by Thomas Jenckes to refer the resolution to the Committee on the Judiciary. This motion to refer Loan's resolution to the committee already tasked with addressing a prospective impeachment was ultimately agreed to by the House.
The allegations of misconduct given in the testimony taken by the committee was largely unsupported by evidence. The committee investigated a myriad of allegations against Johnson. Among the matters investigated and for which testimony was taken was the question of whether Johnson played a role in the removal of eighteen missing pages from Lincoln assassin John Wilkes Booth's personal journal. It was speculated whether these pages might have implicated Johnson in the conspiracy behind the assassination. Another allegation investigated was that Johnson had used intimidation or patronage appointments as influence to prevent the admission of the Colorado territory as a state. The committee also investigated whether Johnson had provided pardons to deserters from West Virginia. It also investigated whether or not the commission for the United States' minister to Sweden had been correctly issued. Another matter investigated was the New Orleans massacre of 1866. Also investigated were allegations of fraud in New York City related to import taxes. One allegation investigated turned out to be a story fabricated by a journalist.
The early hearings by the Judiciary Committee were an outlandish affair and were unsuccessful in providing substantive testimony of malfeasance. The Judiciary Committee's first closed-door hearings had been held February 6, 1867, with testimony from Detective Lafayette C. Baker. Baker was famous for having tracked John Wilkes Booth down after Booth assassinated President Lincoln. Baker's testimony set the tone for the series of evidence-devoid allegations that would be delivered in various testimonies, with Baker implication Johnson in several crimes without providing any evidence. He first implicated Johnson in treason, testifying of a wartime letter that he claimed he had once came into possession of on a date he could not recall which he alleged had been sent from Johnson to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Baker did not know the contents of the letter. He also declined to disclose who he had received the letter from. However, he testified that he believed that the letter's existence implied that Johnson would "go with" the Confederates. Baker next implicated Johnson with, among other things, involvement with prostitution and bribery. Baker testified about Lucy Cobb, "a disreputable woman, or, in other words, woman of the town", who he had prevented from visiting the White House the previous year. He testified that had disclosed to him that Johnson had secret methods for communicating with "his friends in the South" and that she was herself involved in a trade of selling presidential pardons to confederates.
The committee investigated whether Johnson had improper connections to southerners that had been sold back railroad assets that had been seized by the Union Army during the Civil War. The possibility that corrupt personal favoritism by Johnson had been involved in these sales was explored. However, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton took responsibility for these sales. Stanton told the committee that he believed the sales were justified because the federal government did not have the know-how needed to successfully run the railroads and the nation's post-war economic recovery required that the railroads be placed into the management of individuals who had the knowledge to successfully operate them.
The Judiciary Committee ran out of time to complete its inquiry, with the 39th Congress expiring, However, the committee ruled that they had received "sufficient testimony" to continue their investigation in the new 40th Congress. March 2, 1867, two days before the end of the 39th congress, the committee recommended that the matter be further reviewed in the next congress, with committee member James F. Wilson presenting this recommendation to the whole of congress. The full House was then read the committee's majority report which argued that, in the expiring hours of the 39th congress, no affirmative report could be properly considered, and opined that it was "inexpedient to submit any conclusion," with the committee having not fully investigated all charges against the president. This report had been approved by the committee's Republican chairman James F. Wilson, as well as Republican committee members George S. Boutwell, Burton C. Cook, William Lawrence, Daniel Morris, Thomas Williams, and Frederick E. Woodbridge and Unconditional Unionist committee member Francis Thomas. The sole Democratic committee member, Sydenham Elnathan Ancona, submitted a minority report against a continuation of the inquiry. Both reports were ordered printed and laid on the table.