Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-12-26
IMPEACHMENT OF JOHNSON
Described by Gen. n. G. Otis of Los
Angeles Times"

Angeles Times"
Cen Harrison Grey Otis. editor of the
Los Angeles ''Times,'' who, with Gen.
John Il. Henderson. contributes to the
December Century" the second feature
Of that magazines after the War"
series, had a particularly close view of
the events that led mp to the attempt TO
unseat President johnson. In the course
of his article, which is entitled 1.-The
Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Gen.
Otis outlines the political events that
resulted i'm a clash between Johnson and
the Northern Legislators, and his per-
sonal relations thereto The first of
these relations were included in his SER
vice as provost-marshal in Virginia III
1868
Incidents within my personal knowl-
edge, he says, illustrate the inconyen-
fence caused by the total absence of civil
law in the South at that juneture In
June, 1866, ] was serving as provost
marshal at the town of Harrisonhurg,
in the Valley of the Shenandoah, with
instructions TO preserve order gather up
various sorts of United States military
to, bands of scattered Confederate SOL
arrest outlaws and marauders, and re-
eeive the surrender of, and give paroles
: 10, bands of scattered Confederate sol
diers who had not been in" at the all
compelling surrender at AppomattoX
Court House two months before. The
country was honeycombed with strag
glers, aud ! was burdened with my
unique tasks. Civil government being
non-existent, there was not even au
thority for the Issuance of marriage
licenses and for the performance of Ke
civic duties. One day. in this emergency,
| received a personal application from an
ardent Yirginian swain, who announced
that he wished to get married, and ap-
pealed to me for Instructions as to how
to go about the tender though antimely
task. Rising to the occasion, i told him
that l would issue him a license, and ac-
cordingly did so in my capacity as a
captain of the United States Volunteers.
and for the time being provost-marshal
of that district. / wrote out the neces-
sary authority. observing no forms. en-
towering any minister of the gospel, or
any former justice of the peace under
the Confederacy, to perform the cere-
mony. Then | sent the happy lover on
his way rejoicing, and assumed that the
knot was tied with due solemnity, that
the couple would live happily ever after,
and rear a family of Virginia children.
Two great national conventions We're
held in the year 1896, one at Pittsburgh
and the other at Philadelphia, The lat
ter. beginning on September 8. was made
up in large measure of Southern loyal
lists and 2other civilians, among whom
the tide of patriotism ran high 1t made
a tremendous impression upon the coun-
try and upon the reealcitrant and dis
satisfied South. Among the delegates
were Ralph Waldo Emerson. James Rus
sell Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes,
John G. Whittier, IL governors, and eight
United States senators. Among the
thousands of Unionists whom L met there
was James A. Garfield, who had won his
spurs as a major-generaI in the neId.
who subsequently served in the House
of Representatives, became President,
and died that tragic death which history
has sadly recorded. In his joyousness
and geniality he seemed to me like a
great over-grown boy. While masses of
shouting, cheering, and singing men
were parading through Independence
Square, within the sound of the Liberty
Bell, that big man passed his arms at
fectionately about the shoulders of a
young soldier, whom he did not Kuow,
and strobe proudly along as though the
latter had been his lifelong friend 1t
was enough Tor Garfield TO know that
the other was comrade. | was the OBJ
scure young soldier. IA
In 1867 an act of Congress was passed
depriving the President of the power TO
issue an amnesty proclamation, which he
OVERRIDE. His disposition and his plans
TO defy Congress and pursue his own
method of reconstructing the South
caused Congress to Deprive him OF the
command of the army, a bold act, the
constitutionality of which might we'll be
disputed at any stage, but which illus
trates the almost desperate frame of
mind in which Congress then was. John
sons continued defiance was met by the
enactment into law of the Tenure-of-
Office bill. which prevented him from
making "A change in his cabinet, his own
official household.
These strained relations between the
President and Congress, which had ex-
listed for more than two years, reached
an open rupture on February 81 1868
when the President informed the Senate
that he had removed Edwin NJ. Stanton
as Secretary of War, contrary to the
Tenure-of-O Office act. The House at once
adopted resolution. by a vote of 122 to
AZ mot voting 10 to 'timpeach Andrew
Johnson President of the United States
of high crimes and misdemeanors"
James G.. Blaine, in his Twenty Years
of Congress" says that, in adopting this
resolution of Impeachment Congress
acted hastily; but 1t is the opinion of
many still living that he did not con-
slider the precedent circumstances, which
as much as the removal of Stanton, led
122 congressman to cast their votes for
Impeachment. STILL it was probably for
tunate for the nation that johnson was
saved from Impeachment by one sena-
torial vote. If Johnson had been i'm
peache d, Ben Wade of Ohio, fearless
Republ lean statesman would have be-
come Z resident, Wade was a Radical of
the Rad jcals, who always had the cour-
age of his convictions. He probably
would h; I'VE given the whole force of his
ration to the plan of Thal
Stevens / 70 organize the South into ter
ritories a nd govern it as such. Yet grant
r. - 1.x..s ii