Modern Parallelism with President Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment

As I read over my latest “The Week” magazine, I note on p. 11, Oct. 25, 2019 edition, an article entitled “The impeachment of Andrew Johnson.” What an interesting recounting of the history of one of our presidents who was impeached and then not removed from office in 1868 due to a single vote that prevented the 2/3 majority needed in the Senate.

Read the whole article for yourself: https://theweek.com/articles/872463/impeachment-andrew-johnson

To me the parallelism of President Johnson’s style and actions to modern times jumped out at me in many ways:

• Johnson rode into office as Vice President because he opportunistically masked his true underlying beliefs, taking the side of the Union as the only Senator to do so from a slave state. Thus, as a radical Democrat, he was placed on the Radical anti-slavery Republican ticket for VP by Lincoln in Lincoln’s second term campaign.
• Johnson began his term by ripping members of the Cabinet with harangues that shocked the nation.
• With the death of Lincoln, Johnson reverted to his true beliefs of white supremacy, suggesting the deportation of millions of blacks.
• Johnson accused members of congress of a conspiracy and plotting to overthrow him.
• Johnson dubbed bimself “King Andy” and claimed Divinity directly from God in his actions.
• He publicly threatened to fire Cabinet members who differed from his true line of thinking and did so including the firing of the Secretary of War; the straw that finally broke the camel’s back for congress and brought about impeachment.

The Articles of Impeachment dealt with:

1. Overreaching his executive authority in the firing of Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton.
2. Circumventing the proper chain of command.
3. Conduct and tone unbecoming of a President in attempting to bring “disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt and reproach” onto members of Congress.

Read some Great Mags like “The Week”, or “Time”, or “U.S. News”, because it allows you to turn off the TV pundits and form and discuss your own opinions from facts written by award winning reporting.

This is all food for thought, because it is beginning to sound an awful lot like someone I know and hear about daily!

Enjoy!>)