Excerpt from "Argument for the Impeachment of President Johnson"

Delivered in May 1868; reprinted on From Revolution to Reconstruction … and What Happened Afterwards (Web site)

A fierce enemy of Andrew Johnson tells why the president should be impeached

"Slavery has been our worst enemy, assailing all, murdering our children, filling our homes with mourning, and darkening the land with tragedy; and now it rears its crest anew, with Andrew Johnson as its representative."

When the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865; served 1861–65) in April 1865 propelled Andrew Johnson (1808–1875; served 1865–69) to the presidency, Northerners thought they had a strong ally in the man who once declared that "treason must be made infamous, and traitors must be impoverished." During the American Civil War (1861–65), Johnson had been the only...