President andrew johnson impeachment

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U.S. Senate trial

For impeachment in the House of Representatives, see Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. For impeachment inquiries against Johnson, see Second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson and First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson.

The impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, 17th president of the United States, was held in the United States Senate and concluded with acquittal on three of eleven charges before adjourning sine die without a verdict on the remaining charges. It was the first impeachment trial of a U.S. president and was the sixth federal impeachment trial in U.S. history. The trial began March 5, , and adjourned on May

The trial was held after the United States House of Representativesimpeached Johnson on February 24, In the eleven articles of impeachment adopted in early March , the House had chiefly charged Johnson with violating the Tenure of Office Act by attempting to remove Secretary of WarEdwin Stanton from office and name Lorenzo Thomas secretary of war ad interim.

During the trial, the prosecution offered by the impeachment managers that the House had appointed argued that Johnson had explicitly violated the Tenure of Office Act by dismissing Stanton without the consent of the Senate. The managers contended that United States presidents were obligated to carry out and honor the laws passed by the United States Congress, regardless of whether the president believed them to be constitutional. The managers argued that, otherwise, presidents would be allowed to regularly disobey the will of Congress (which they argued, as elected representatives, represented the will of the American people).

Johnson's defense both questioned the criminality of the alleged offenses and raised doubts about Johnson's intent. One of the points made by the defense was that ambiguity existed in the Tenure of Office Act that left open a vagueness as to whether it was actually applicable to Johnson's firin

impeachment of Andrew Johnson, 17th US president

The impeachment of Andrew Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors" was initiated by the United States House of Representatives on February 24, The alleged high crimes and misdemeanors were afterwards specified in eleven articles of impeachment adopted by the House on March 2 and 3, The primary charge against Johnson was that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Specifically, that he had acted to remove Edwin Stanton from the position of Secretary of War and to replace him with Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas as secretary of war ad interim. The Tenure of Office Act had been passed by Congress in March over Johnson's veto with the primary intent of prot