![[JOHNSON, Andrew, IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS]. Manuscript petition, signed by W. P. Fessenden and 28 other Senators, to H. B. Anthony, Washington, 17 February 1868. 2 pages, 8vo, on United States Senate Chamber stationery.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01685_0112_000(110642).jpg?w=1)
細節
[JOHNSON, Andrew, IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS]. Manuscript petition, signed by W. P. Fessenden and 28 other Senators, to H. B. Anthony, Washington, 17 February 1868. 2 pages, 8vo, on United States Senate Chamber stationery.
THE RADICAL REPUBLICANS GIRD FOR WAR AGAINST ANDREW JOHNSON FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE IMPEACHMENT PROCESS BEGINS
H. B. Anthony, chair of the Republican Conference, was the recipient of this short but urgent communication from a distinguished list of his fellow Republican Senators: "The undersigned request that a meeting of republican Senators be called for to consider pending political questions." The substance of this meeting is unspecified, but undoubtedly pertains to the impending collision between President Johnson and the Congress over the removal of Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War. Johnson had been shopping for possible replacements, and the Senators must surely have gotten wind of an impending move. Stanton's removal (see lot 113) was the most dramatic of a series of battles in the great political war over Reconstruction policy. That was the "pending political question" and all action flowed from it. The Radical Republicans wanted to expunge all traces of the Confederacy from Southern politics, and to institute legal equality between whites and blacks. Johnson's liberal use of the pardon powers outraged the Radicals as they saw the Southern old guard resuming their places of power and thwarting reform efforts. Congress passed a series of harsh military reconstruction measures over Johnson's vetoes, but as long as Lincoln's Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton was still at his post, the Radicals felt sure their measures would be enforced. They passed the Tenure in Office Act just to be sure--forbidding Johnson from firing Cabinet officers without Congressional consent. When Johnson went ahead and did it anyway on 21 February in spite of explicit Congressional opposition, both the House and Senate were ready for a showdown. Stanton barricaded himself in his office, refusing to leave and the House quickly voted articles of impeachment. In the Senate trial, however, seven Republicans voted not to convict, including a few whose name appears here: Fessenden, Van Winkle, Fowler and Grimes. Johnson won acquittal by a single vote.
THE RADICAL REPUBLICANS GIRD FOR WAR AGAINST ANDREW JOHNSON FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE IMPEACHMENT PROCESS BEGINS
H. B. Anthony, chair of the Republican Conference, was the recipient of this short but urgent communication from a distinguished list of his fellow Republican Senators: "The undersigned request that a meeting of republican Senators be called for to consider pending political questions." The substance of this meeting is unspecified, but undoubtedly pertains to the impending collision between President Johnson and the Congress over the removal of Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War. Johnson had been shopping for possible replacements, and the Senators must surely have gotten wind of an impending move. Stanton's removal (see lot 113) was the most dramatic of a series of battles in the great political war over Reconstruction policy. That was the "pending political question" and all action flowed from it. The Radical Republicans wanted to expunge all traces of the Confederacy from Southern politics, and to institute legal equality between whites and blacks. Johnson's liberal use of the pardon powers outraged the Radicals as they saw the Southern old guard resuming their places of power and thwarting reform efforts. Congress passed a series of harsh military reconstruction measures over Johnson's vetoes, but as long as Lincoln's Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton was still at his post, the Radicals felt sure their measures would be enforced. They passed the Tenure in Office Act just to be sure--forbidding Johnson from firing Cabinet officers without Congressional consent. When Johnson went ahead and did it anyway on 21 February in spite of explicit Congressional opposition, both the House and Senate were ready for a showdown. Stanton barricaded himself in his office, refusing to leave and the House quickly voted articles of impeachment. In the Senate trial, however, seven Republicans voted not to convict, including a few whose name appears here: Fessenden, Van Winkle, Fowler and Grimes. Johnson won acquittal by a single vote.