The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1900-04-19
IMPEACHMENT OF
ANDREW JOHNSON.
ONLY ONE VOTE SAVED HIM.

SIX NCpu DltCan senators hCluSCN to
Follow Their Party-Ross, of Kan
sas, the Doubtful Senator
Milton Harlan Northup, Syracuse, \. y.
Aaron Burr tieing Thomas Jefferson
in tho electoral college and, therefore,
failing by one vote TO reach the pin
naclo Of an Americans ambition :
Samuel }. Tilden counted out OF the
presidency, first in the electoral col
legc, then in tho electoral commission,
by one vote, and Andrew Johns on
saved from deposition from the prcsi.
| dcncy b. one vote in the United States
Senatc-thcse constituted crises in
American history only second to scces-
sion and civil war. Presidents have
been made by very narrow margins
sometimes in the electora! College,
sometimes on the popular vote, as when
Grover Cleveland was saved from de-
feat by q fcw hundred votes in his own
State. But only one President was
ever saved from being unlnade by IL : in.
gle vote. On the roll call Of tho Senate
sitting rs Court OF impeachment
thirty-Evc Senators answered "guilty'
and nineteen Senators "not guilty"
1t needed but the transfer Of one vote
from the not guilty" to the Equity :"
wherein to have convicted the rrrsi-
dent OF the United State oi high crimes
and mlsuemeanors and worked his re.
mOval from office, with Old B n Wade
Of OliO, the President pro tenn. Of the
Senate, taking his place. What the
cOnsu Qucnccs OF such action on the
future OF the republic would have been
Is, nf course, all guess work, but they
could hardly have failed TO bo momen-
tOus and far reaching. The elk Re-
publican Senators who refused TO fol.
low their party associates to the eX.
trCme Of cOpviCting the President
were at the time the victims OF untold
abuse and Villllicatiun, but what Re
publican would to-day say their course
IN separating from their associates was
not wise and patrlOticI History has
been their vindication.
The doubtful Senator in whose hands
it WAS conceded The fate OF the Presi.
dent, II not the republic lay, was ROSS,
OF Kansas. When th0 stately Chief
Justice Salmon i. Chase, as presiding
Hlhccr OF The high court Of impeach-
meht, put the stereotype question
"Mr. Senator Ross, how say you, guilty
or not guilty = and the Kansas Sena.
tor, rising in his place, pronounced
the words not guilty. that settled
II the lmDcaChHrs were fOiicd. The
other five Republicans counted as anti
impGuCherS were known to be irOnciad: !:
the verdict was as indisputably in the
hands Of Senator Ross Is was the
award Of the presidency nine years
later within the power OF Justice "Jo'
Bradley ia he IS TO I" game Of the
electoral commission.
The sCeuc OF the impeachment story
Is laid in the winter and spring Of 1868.
For the three years following john
sons accession TO the chair vacated by
the untimely death or Abraham Lin
coin nauShL but irritation had marked
the relations OF the President TO the
Republican leaders. The friction
finally eliminated in Il movement to
impnach and remove the President
from his great OlliGc.
The impeachment Congress was
the FOrticth, elected in 1866. IN the
House, presided over by Speaker
Schuyler ColfaX, afterwards Vice
President, SAT many meE of disiing ui3h-
cd abili,y-on the Republican side
such men as james g. Blaine, James
u. Garfield, Benjamin +. Butler,
William b. Allison, John a. Logan,
General II. G. Schcnck, subsequently,
minister TO England: old Thad S.evcns,
General n. Il. Banks, who had been
| both Governor OF Massac husctts and
| Speaker OF the House, and cX. Cover
nor Boutwell,, Of Massachusetts on
the Democratic side James Brooks,
Judge Niblock, OF Indiana: General
Morgan, Of Ohio, and l.. =. G.. Lamar,
OF Mississippi. Roscoe Conkling had
in that Congress just gone over to the
other wing Of the capitol and taken
his place in the Senate with Charles
Sumner. William Pitt Fesscnden,
John Sherman, Simon Cameron,
George II. Elmunds, Oliver =. Morton,
James Harlan, Lyman Trumbull and
James Il DoOlittle, Republicans, and
R1vcruy johnson, Thomas il Hendricks
and the elder Bayard, among the
bakers dozen OF Democrats. COnkling,
who mad not yet reached forty, WAS
| like Il gamO cock as he struttGd up and
down the &islcs Of the Senate chamber,
always with a bright red rose in his
coat buttOnholc. His special delight
| dlSniiiCd Summer. The lconinc orator
and scholar OF Massachusctt, plainly
| wiGced under the New Workers. re-
pcatGd goads. "The Senator from
New York;" broke cut the irritatcd
Sumner in querulOus tone one day as |
sat in the reporters gallery, with
manners which he has evidently i'm.
pOr ted from the other end OF the capi-
tOt giving a cOntemptuous waive Of
| the nand In the direction OF the House
| as he spoke" sees fit to assal me, -
emphasizing the me" as if it were a
sacrilcgc. And then Sumner pro.
cccdcG to rcpel Conklings attacks. 70
appreciate !hc fun measure Of the
contempt implied in Summers gesture
We must bear in mind that the Senator
whose entrance TO Congro, . is through
| the Senate door supposcs himself to be
IL superior being to the Senator who
comes TO the Senate by way OF the
House. 1T corresponds 10 the feeling
OF an educated West Point officer, who
has mover worn aught but an officers
! uniform, toward the man who climbs
| up TO q commission from subaltcrn.
This caste feeling still exists. Conk-
ling smiled scrcnely while Sumner
scO!ded like an old woman.
Impeachment was, as has been
stated, many months brewing before it
was actually tried. AS obstinate as a
muIo from his own Tennessee, johnson
had pulled one way while Congress
mad pulled the other from the start.
AS the Republicans couldn't manage
| hlm, they SAW no WaV hit IN ppt rid of