Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (56 page)

In debate on the day: New York Times
, May 15, 1868;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 16, 1868, reprinting editorial from
Philadelphia Press
, May 15, 1868;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 2465 (May 15, 1868); Brodie, pp. 352–53;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 15, 1868;
New York World
, May 16, 1868;
Philadelphia Press
, March 10 and 26, 1868;
New York Herald
, May 8, 1868.

Pomeroy assured them: New York Herald
, May 16, 1868;
New York Times
, May 16, 1868; Badeau, p. 136.

In one sermon: New York Herald
, May 16, 1868.

A warning went out: Cincinnati Gazette
, May 14, 1868.

More shocking: New York Times
, May 14, 1868;
Baltimore Sun
, May 14, 1868; Gustavus Fox Diary, May 15, 1868.

23. FREE AGAIN

“Glory enough”: Impeachment Money
, p. 28.

The Republicans resolved: Chicago Tribune
, May 18, 1868;
Philadelphia Press
, May 18, 1868;
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 18, 1868.

Ignoring reporters: New York World
, May 17, 1868; Howe,
Portrait of An Independent
, p. 108.

The quiet: New York Tribune
, May 18, 1868.

Though it was a warm day: New York World
, May 17, 1868.

“All turns on Ross’ vote”: Baltimore Gazette
, May 17, 1868;
Chicago Tribune
, May 18, 1868;
New York Herald
, May 17, 1868;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 18, 1868; Henderson, “Emancipation and Impeachment,” p. 207;
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 18, 1868.

He said, clearly: New York Tribune
, May 18, 1868.

Colleagues around him:
Julian, p. 316.

Aware that every eye:
Edmund Ross, “Historic Moments: The Impeachment Trial,”
Scribner’s
11:524 (1892); “A Woman’s Letters from Washington,”
The Independent
, May 28, 1868;
New York World
, May 17, 1868;
New York Tribune
, May 18, 1868.

John Logan spat:
Blaine, vol. 2, p. 317;
Baltimore Gazette
, May 18, 1868; Mushkat, p. 283; Henderson, p. 208.

“Black with rage”:
W. H. Crook,
Through Five Administrations
, New York: Harper & Brothers (1910) (edited by Margarita Spalding Gerry), p. 133.

Johnson and his men:
Ibid., p. 134;
New York World
, May 17, 1868.

“Men’s consciences”: New York Times
, May 18, 1868;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 18, 1868. Mrs. Johnson received the news of the acquittal separately, from the White House steward. “I knew he’d be acquitted,” she said in response. “I knew it.” Crook,
Memories of the White House
, p. 67.

After congratulating:
Samuel J. Barrows and Isabel C. Barrows, “Personal Reminiscences of William H. Seward,”
Atlantic Monthly
63:379, 389 (1889); Van Deusen, p. 480.

“There goes the rascal”:
Bumgardner, p. 86;
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 18, 1868.

They were still drunk: Impeachment Managers’ Investigation
, p. 11;
Impeachment Money
, p. 41.

The president also attended:
Unsigned Memorandum, May 16–18, 1868, in Butler Papers;
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 18, 1868;
New York World
, May 17, 1868.

Less than three hours: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 2503–5 (May 16, 1868); Archives,
Impeachment: Various House Papers
(resolution drafted by John Bingham).

He denied knowledge:
Archives,
Managers’ Journal
, pp. 71–72.
Philadelphia Press
, May 18, 1868.

“How does it happen”:
Butler to James Russell Young, May 16, 1868, in Young Papers. Republican assumptions that bribery occurred are described in correspondence from Morefield Storey, aide to Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, and in newspapers. Storey to his father, May 17, 1868, in Howe,
Portrait of an Independent
, pp. 112–14;
Daily Cleveland Herald
, May 18, 1868.

Richmond received: New York Times
, May 17, 1868;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 18, 1868;
Daily News and Herald
(Savannah, GA), May 18, 1868.

Those supporting impeachment:
Henderson, “Emancipation and Impeachment,” p. 208;
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 19, 1868 (the defectors “have been deeply mortified and greatly disappointed at the universal cry of shame, where they had expected, at least toleration, if not applause”);
Arkansas Daily Gazette
, June 4, 1868; Bayless, p. 86;
The Independent
, May 21, 1868.

1. Bad articles: Chicago Tribune
, May 17, 1868.

Despairing of bringing Ross: Impeachment Managers’ Investigation
; Blaine, vol. 2, p. 375; Archives,
Managers’ Journal
, p. 73 (May 23, 1868);
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 23, 1868;
Chicago Tribune
, May 23 and 26, 1868; Trefousse,
Benjamin Butler
, p. 204.

The Senate never voted: Globe
Supp., pp. 413–15 (May 26, 1868).

The officer delivered:
E. P. Townsend, pp. 132–33; Thomas and Hyman, pp. 608–9.

Much of his booty:
Richardson, pp. 24, 38; Ritchie, p. 87.

Grimes called the incumbent: Globe
Supp., pp. 419–20, 424.

Henderson’s explanation: Globe
Supp., pp. 457, 520.

Finally, the senator denied:
Ibid., pp. 432–33. A brief flurry of attention surrounded a report in the
New York Tribune
that Chief Justice Chase persuaded Van Winkle to vote for acquittal. As the story evolved, Van Winkle supposedly was influenced only by Chase’s description to the Senate of the impeachment charge in Article XI, but there was no private conversation between the two men on the subject.
Daily Cleveland Herald
, June 5, 1868;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 25, 1868. Chase was certainly capable of discussing his views of the impeachment articles with individual senators, and acknowledged that he did so in a letter to the
Tribune
’s editor (Horace Greeley) on May 19, 1868. Warden, p. 696.

Calling them “parasitic insects”: Globe
Supp., p. 472.

Decrying the impeachment effort: Daily Cleveland Herald
, June 16, 1868.

He denied that his vote:
Ross to Mrs. Ross, May 22, 1868, in Bumgardner, p. 89;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 2599 (May 27, 1868) (Sen. Ross);
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 28, 1868.

An ally of the Astor House group: Impeachment Money
, p. 12.

The listing of Nye:
Trefousse,
Impeachment of the President
, p. 169;
Chicago Tribune
, May 18, 1868; Benjamin C. Truman, “Anecdotes of Andrew Johnson,”
Century
85:435–40 (1913); Henderson, “Emancipation and Impeachment,” p. 207; Horace White,
The Life of Lyman Trumbull
, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. (1913), p. 321;
Impeachment Money
, p. 22. Senator Nye, who voted to convict, was originally from New York, where he was an ally of Seward and Thurlow Weed. Michael Green, “Diehard or Swing Man: Senator James W. Nye and Andrew Johnson’s Impeachment and Trial,”
Nevada Historical Society Quarterly
29:176 (1986);
Cincinnati Commercial
, March 9, 1868. Nye was described as leaning toward the president by one observer. Edmund Goold to Samuel Barlow, March 26, 1868, Barlow Papers, Box 66. Nye is listed as a vote for sale in an undated newspaper article about postal agent James Legate of Kansas, in Box 74 of the Thomas Ewing Family Papers.
Chicago Tribune
, May 29, 1868.

Johnson also had expected:
Moore Diary/Large Diary, p. 39 (May 17, 1868).

24. SEARCHING FOR SCANDAL

People here
[
in Washington
]: Barlow Papers, Box 68.

What about the businessman:
John Bisk to Butler, May 21, 1868; Morris Alberger to Butler, June 1, 1868; Sidney Bates to Butler, May 25, 1868; S. F. Norton to Butler, May 26, 1868; G. Weitzel to Butler, May 28, 1868; R. Bartiteu to Butler, May 19, 1868; “Justice” to Butler, May 20, 1868; Thomas Church to Butler, May 19, 1868; James Pine to Butler, May 21, 1868; L. B. Halsey to Butler, all in Butler Papers, Box 45.

Like many sporting men:
Alexander Saxton, “George Wilkes: The Transformation of a Radical Ideology,”
American Quarterly
33:437 (1981);
New York World
, May 7, 13, and 19, 1868;
New York Tribune
, May 15, 1868.

Charley Morgan, Wilkes pointed out:
Wilkes to Butler, May 21 and 23, 1868, in Butler Papers, Box 45. For a lurid description of Morrissey’s colorful life, there is William E. Harding,
John Morrissey: His Life, Battles, and Wrangles
, New York: Police Gazette (1881).

Butler never proved: New York Times
, June 1, 1868. M. Alberger to Butler, June 1, 1868, in Butler Papers, Box 45; Ward to Barlow, June 19, 1868, in Barlow Papers, Box 68. According to Ward, Butler “took me aside and begged me to believe that he had no hand in Charley’s arrest—on the contrary, he had resisted attempts of parties to have him subpoenaed and brought before the Committee to mortify me..

Missouri’s Henderson appeared: Chicago Tribune
, May 29, 1868; Archives,
Managers’ Journal
, p. 75;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 21, 1868;
St. Louis Morning Republican
, May 22, 1868. Henderson’s resentment of Butler’s methods led him to propose that the Senate investigate Butler’s investigation.
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 23, 1868;
New York World
, May 21, 1868. Such a Senate committee was approved, but it took no significant actions.
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 3d sess., p. 1865 (March 3, 1869); Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer,
A History of the United States Since the Civil War
, New York: Macmillan Co. (1928), pp. 146–47.

Butler, acutely aware: Impeachment Managers’ Investigation
, p. 5;
Boston Post
, undated, in Young Papers; Matthew Carey, Jr.,
The Democratic Speaker’s Handbook
, Cincinnati: Miami Printing & Publishing Co. (1868), p. 59.

Unfortunately for Woolley:
Archives,
Managers’ Journal
, pp. 73–75;
Chicago Tribune
, May 21, 1868;
Chicago Tribune
, May 20, 1868;
Impeachment Money
, p. 39;
Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., p. 2947 (June 8, 1868).

Woolley accompanied that message:
D. H. Bliss to Butler, May 21, 1868, in Butler Papers, Box 45; affidavit of Charles Woolley, May 21, 1868, in Butler Papers, Box 45;
Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 22, 1868.

That report admitted: Impeachment Managers’ Investigation
, p. 12;
Cincinnati Gazette
, May 24, 1868.

The House found him: Cong. Globe
, 40th Cong., 2d sess., pp. 2585–90 (May 26, 1868).

She was forced: Washington Daily National Intelligencer
, May 27 and 28, 1868;
New York Times
, May 30, 1868;
Bangor Daily Whig & Courier
, May 29, 1868.

Another Seward intimate:
Ransom Van Valkenburg served as a mid-level courier for Seward, and was involved in the secretary of state’s negotiation with Denmark to acquire the Virgin Islands.
Impeachment Money
, p. 40; Seward to Butler, October 26, 1864, in
Private and Official Correspondence of General Benjamin F. Butler During the Period of Civil War
, Norwood, MA: Plimpton Press (1917), p. 286.