Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (48 page)

Stevens’s Reconstruction Committee:
Clemenceau, p. 138 (January 3, 1868);
Chicago Tribune
, January 12 and 24, 1868;
New York Herald
, January 19, 1868.
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 476–89, 664; (January 13, 1868);
New York Herald
, February 13 and 19, 1868.

A reporter who visited:
Stillson to Barlow, February 12, 1868, in Barlow Papers, Box 68.

To many Americans:
The
Boston Daily Advertiser
wrote on February 6, 1868, that Johnson’s dispute with Grant was a “petty attempt to raise an issue of personal veracity on a collateral incident.” Presidents, the newspaper continued, “have usually found more important and creditable business to occupy their time and thoughts.” The
Chicago Tribune
wrote on that day that a “more miserable exhibition of official turpitude and littleness is not to be found in the history of the United States.”

11. SHOWDOWN ON SEVENTEENTH STREET

The President called upon:
Clemenceau, p. 151 (February 28, 1868).

His terms were so magnanimous:
Simpson, p. 96; Charles Bracelen Flood,
Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won The Civil War
, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux (2005), pp. 337–46.

One Cabinet member:
Michael Fellman, “Lincoln and Sherman,” in Gabor S. Borritt, ed.,
Lincoln’s Generals
, New York: Oxford University Press (1994), pp. 141, 142 (citing Sherman to John Sherman, April 26, 1863, in Sherman Papers); Lloyd Lewis,
Sherman: Fighting Prophet
, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. (1932), p. 303; Sherman to Salmon P. Chase, January 11, 1865, in Brooks D. Simpson and Jean V. Bertin, eds.,
Sherman’s Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860–1865
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (1999), p. 795; Sefton, p. 23, quoting
Army and Navy Journal
, 4:514 (March 30, 1867), as reprinted from the
Worcester (MA) Spy
; W. Sherman to J. Sherman, February 23, 1866, in Thorndike,
Sherman Letters
, p. 263; Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 163 (October 9, 1867). Sherman’s racist views—which he mostly recanted at the end of his life—are discussed at length by Michael Fellman in
Citizen Sherman: A Life of William Tecumseh Sherman
, New York: Random House (1995).

Johnson’s attorney general:
Ewing to Johnson, March 15, 1866, in
Johnson Papers
10:257.

“Washington is as corrupt as Hell”:
Sherman to Ellen Ewing Sherman, May 8, 1865, in Howe, The
Home Letters of General Sherman
, p. 352.

Stanton would be gone:
Moore Diary/AHR, February 19, 1868, p. 120 and January 26, 1868, p. 116.

I have been with General Grant:
Sherman to Johnson, January 31, 1868,
Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman
, p. 427.

Johnson finally issued:
Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 60 (March 6, 1867); Moore Diary/AHR, February 6, 7, and 8, 1868, p. 117; Johnson to Grant, February 12, 1868, in
Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman
, p. 426.

When Johnson received:
Sherman to Grant, February 14, 1868; Sherman to John Sherman, February 14, 1868; Sherman to Johnson, February 14, 1868, in
John Sherman’s Recollections
, pp. 418–19; Johnson to Sherman, February 19, 1868, in
Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman
, p. 433.

To buoy his troops’ flagging spirits:
Willard Sterne Randall,
George Washington: A Life
, New York: Henry Holt & Co. (1997), pp. 42–43.

Johnson, Colonel Moore concluded:
Moore Diary/AJ, February 16, 1868, p. 87. Another Johnson aide also reported the president’s fondness for
Cato
. Upon discovering that the aide knew the play, the president spoke more often with him. Cowan, p. 12. Though political leadership and literary taste are not necessarily related, Johnson’s enthusiasm for the wooden
Cato
contrasts with Lincoln’s devotion to Shakespeare’s complex tragedies
Hamlet, Macbeth
, and
King Lear
. Lincoln’s favorite speech from Shakespeare is delivered by Claudius, the uncle of Hamlet, as he despairs over how he murdered his brother. Johnson had no such taste for moral ambiguities.

Navy Secretary Welles wondered: New York Times
, February 4, 1868, reprinting report from
New York Evening Post
, February 3, 1868; Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 291 (February 24, 1868).

Anticipating that both Potts:
Moore Diary/AJ, February 17, 1868, pp. 87–89.

[
Johnson
]
said he was determined:
Moore Diary/AJ, February 19, 1868, p. 93.

One contemporary recalled Stanton:
Piatt, p. 58. Newsman Noah Brooks reported encountering Thomas in 1863 “with all his glory and epaulets on.” Staudenraus, ed., p. 62.

Stanton never flushed:
Michael T. Meier, “Lorenzo Thomas and the Recruitment of Blacks in the Mississippi Valley, 1863–1865,” in John David Smith,
Black Soldiers in Blue
, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press (2003); Fellman, “Lincoln and Sherman,” pp. 141–42; Ezra Warner,
Generals in Blue
, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press (1994), p. 503; Handon B. Hargrove,
Black Union Soldiers in the Civil War
, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. (1988), p. 89.

On February 13, the president: Globe
Supp., pp. 136, 142 (April 10, 1868) (testimony of Lorenzo Thomas); Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 279 (February 13, 1868); Johnson to Grant, February 13, 1868, in Archives,
Impeachment: Various House Papers; New York Herald
, February 15, 1868; Townsend,
Anecdotes of the Civil War
, p. 125. At the beginning of the Civil War, desperate for a command, Ulysses Grant wrote to Thomas for help, invoking their shared service in Mexico in the 1840s. Grant to Thomas, May 24 1861, in Grant,
Memoirs
, vol. 1, pp. 239–40. Thomas never responded to Grant’s plea. The delicacy of the adjutant general’s position, and the ease with which he could make enemies, was illustrated by his experience with General William Sherman in 1861, when Sherman’s erratic behavior led to his temporary removal from command. Sherman’s wife—the sister-in-law of a senator, the daughter of Washington power Thomas Ewing—wrote to Lincoln accusing Thomas of being part of a “conspiracy” against her husband. Ellen Ewing Sherman to Lincoln, December 19, 1861, Sherman Papers, cited in Fellman, p. 136; Flood, p. 76. Neither episode would have endeared Thomas to General Grant.

With conscious dignity:
Moore Diary/AJ, February 20, 1868, p. 93; ibid., February 21, 1868, p. 94;
Globe
Supp., p. 137 (April 10, 1868) (Thomas testimony). Johnson also ordered Moore to prepare papers promoting George H. Thomas to full general.

The situation drove Navy Secretary Welles:
Welles Diary, vol. 3, p. 289 (February 22, 1868); Smith,
Grant
, p. 453; The
Chicago Tribune
wrote, “Upon comparing notes…it appears that everyone was taken by surprise by the President’s action, not only the Republicans, but the Conservatives and Democrats, who are supposed to be in constant communication with Mr. Johnson.”

The general-in-chief added:
Thomas and Hyman, p. 585;
Globe
Supp., p. 137 (April 10, 1868) (testimony of Lorenzo Thomas).

“Very well,” the president said:
Townsend, p. 125;
Globe
Supp., p. 143 (April 10, 1868) (testimony of Lorenzo Thomas).

The news struck “like a thunderbolt”: New York Times
, February 22, 1868;
New York Herald
, February 22, 1868.

Others sent messages:
Thomas and Hyman, p. 585;
New York Times
, February 22, 1868;
Baltimore Sun
, February 22, 1868.

Radicals Ben Butler, George Boutwell: New York Herald
, February 22, 1868;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 1329–30 (February 21, 1868);
Baltimore Sun
, February 22, 1868.

“If you don’t kill the beast”:
Clemenceau, pp. 153–54;
New York Herald
February 22, 1868.

Political Washington: New York Times
, February 22, 1868;
Chicago Tribune
, February 23, 1868;
Baltimore Sun
, February 22, 1868. Senator Fessenden of Maine thought that the Senate’s resolution on February 21 forced the House to impeach the president, making the Senate “responsible both as accuser and judge.” Fessenden, p. 204 (letter of May 3, 1868).

By 3
A.M.
:
New York Herald,
February 23, 1868;
Chicago Tribune
, February 23, 1868;
Philadelphia Press
, February 24, 1868.

As one newspaper phrased it:
Archives,
Impeachment: Various House Papers
(testimony of John F. Coyle, April 11, 1868);
Globe
Supp., p. 53 (testimony of J. W. Jones, keeper of the stationery of the Senate); ibid., p. 71 (April 1, 1868) (testimony of Walter Burleigh, delegate from the Dakota territories); ibid., p. 75 (April 1, 1868) (testimony of Samuel Wilkeson);
Philadelphia Press
, February 25, 1868.

It was a false alarm:
John M. Thayer, “A Night with Stanton in the War Office,”
McClure’s
8:441–42 (March 1, 1897);
New York Herald
, February 24, 1868.

“Either I am very stupid”:
Fessenden, pp. 154–55.

12. THE DAM BURSTS

There was a widespread feeling:
Schurz,
Reminiscences
, vol. 3, p. 252.

Two local merchants: Chicago Tribune
, February 23, 1868;
Globe
Supp., p. 140 (April 10, 1868) (testimony of Lorenzo Thomas). Thomas’s bail was provided by George B. Hall, a coachmaker in Washington, and Elias A. Eliason, a tanner in Georgetown.
New York Times
, February 23, 1868;
Philadelphia Press
, February 24, 1868.

After reporting to the attorney general:
Moore Diary/AJ, February 22 1868, pp. 95–96;
Globe
Supp., p. 140 (testimony of Lorenzo Thomas).

Thomas:
I
shall
act as Secretary of War:
Townsend, pp. 126–27. Rep. Burt Van Horn from Niagara County, New York, was the scribe for the encounter. Also present in Stanton’s office were Gen. Charles Van Wyck and Rep. Freeman Clarke of New York, Rep. G. M. Dodge of Iowa, Rep. J. K. Moorhead and Rep. W. D. Kelley of Pennsylvania, Rep. Columbus Delano of Ohio, Rep. Thomas Perry of Michigan, and Secretary Stanton’s son, who served as his assistant.

Pouring drinks: Globe
Supp., pp. 140–41.

In the coming days:
Ibid., p. 141;
New York Herald
, February 23, 1868; Archives,
Impeachment: Various House Papers
, testimony of Lorenzo Thomas, pp. 10–11 (February 26, 1868).

The spectacle smacked:
The
New York Herald
observed on February 25 that the removal of “an obnoxious Cabinet Minister…has never been questioned [before], much less characterized as a ‘high crime and misdemeanor.’”

Arriving in the midst: New York Herald
, February 22 and 23, 1868;
New York Times
, February 22, 1868;
New York Tribune
, March 2, 1868;
Chicago Tribune
, February 28, 1868. The
Baltimore Sun
reported on February 22 that “habitués of the Capitol say that for years there has not been such excitement as that of to-day,” a remarkable judgment for a city that had endured four years of civil war that included several frights over possible assault by nearby Confederate armies.

A number of congressmen: Chicago Tribune
, February 25, 1868;
New York Times
, February 25, 1868;
New York Herald
, February 24, 1868;
Baltimore Sun
, February 26, 1868; Russ, p. 39;
New York Times
, February 28, 1868.

The
New York Herald
reported: New York Herald
, February 24, 1868.