Congressional Reconstruction and Johnson’s Impeachment

Congressional Reconstruction and Johnson’s Impeachment

CLEP History of the United States II, Chapter 1

Congress takes control

By 1867, repeated veto confrontations, Southern violence, and rejection of the Fourteenth Amendment persuaded most congressional Republicans that presidential restoration had failed. The Reconstruction Act of March 1867 divided ten unreconstructed former Confederate states into five military districts; Tennessee had already been readmitted after ratifying the Fourteenth Amendment. Military commanders supervised registration of eligible voters. States had to write new constitutions providing Black male suffrage, ratify the Fourteenth Amendment, and obtain congressional approval before full representation. This was congressional, often called Radical, Reconstruction: not permanent military dictatorship, but military supervision tied to a constitutional process for creating new civilian governments.

Why 1867 was a turning point

The act shifted the basis of restoration. Johnson had organized governments primarily through pardoned white voters and presidential authority. Congress now required new electorates that included Black men and excluded some former Confederate leaders, at least temporarily. Subsequent Reconstruction Acts clarified registration and military powers. Readmission could also be reversed when a state violated those terms: Congress returned Georgia to military rule in 1869 after its legislature expelled thirty-three Black members while seating white men disqualified by the Fourteenth Amendment. The policy joined two goals: establishing loyal governments and protecting a political constituency capable of defending emancipation. It was radical relative to prior American practice because the federal government directly conditioned state restoration on new constitutional rules. Yet it did not transfer most land to freedpeople or permanently exclude every former Confederate.

A struggle over administration

Congress feared Johnson would obstruct its policy by removing officials committed to enforcement. The Tenure of Office Act of 1867 required Senate consent before the president could remove certain officeholders whose appointments had received Senate confirmation. A companion provision, commonly called the Command of the Army Act, required presidential and War Department orders to pass through General of the Army Ulysses S. Grant and barred Johnson from removing him without Senate consent. The Tenure Act's ambiguous application to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton became the immediate impeachment crisis. Stanton supported congressional Reconstruction. Johnson suspended him while the Senate was out of session; the Senate later refused to concur. In February 1868 Johnson removed Stanton and appointed Lorenzo Thomas as an interim replacement. The House regarded this as deliberate defiance of the statute and moved rapidly to impeach.

Impeachment is an accusation, not removal

The House of Representatives impeached Johnson on February 24, 1868. Eleven articles followed, most centered on violation of the Tenure of Office Act, with another attacking his inflammatory public speeches. Under the Constitution, the House impeaches by majority vote; the Senate conducts a trial, and conviction and removal require two-thirds of senators present. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presided because the president was tried. On three articles, the Senate voted 35 guilty to 19 not guilty-one vote short of the necessary two-thirds. The Senate then adjourned without voting on the remaining articles. Johnson therefore was impeached but not convicted or removed.

Why some Republicans voted to acquit

The seven Republican senators who joined Democrats for acquittal had varied motives. Some doubted the Tenure of Office Act covered Stanton, who had been appointed by Lincoln; some feared turning policy conflict into grounds for removing a president; some disliked the prospect of Senate president pro tempore Benjamin Wade succeeding Johnson; and some believed Johnson had already been politically contained. Evidence of political pressure and patronage circulated, but a single explanation cannot account for every vote. The constitutional issue was larger than Johnson's conduct: how far could impeachment be used to resolve a fundamental struggle between Congress and the executive?

Johnson loses the policy war

Acquittal did not restore Johnson's control of Reconstruction. Congress had overridden key vetoes, enacted military Reconstruction, and imposed constitutional conditions. Johnson promised greater compliance as the trial approached and completed his term in March 1869. Ulysses S. Grant, the Republican victor in 1868, supported congressional Reconstruction more reliably. In 1869 Congress passed the Fifteenth Amendment and states ratified it in 1870. The episode thus separates personal survival from institutional success: Johnson survived the Senate trial, but the congressional program he opposed largely governed the next phase.

Modeled reasoning: distinguish the constitutional steps

A test item may say that Johnson was "impeached by Congress and narrowly remained president".

Limits and later perspective

Do not confuse the Reconstruction Acts with the constitutional amendments. The acts were statutes laying out restoration procedures; the amendments altered the Constitution. Do not assume military districts meant that civil life disappeared or that the Army could guarantee safety everywhere. In Ex parte McCardle (1869), Congress repealed the statute granting the Supreme Court appellate jurisdiction over a pending habeas challenge to military Reconstruction; the Court accepted Congress's constitutional power to make exceptions to its appellate jurisdiction and dismissed the case without deciding Reconstruction's validity. The Tenure of Office Act was partially revised in 1869 and repealed in 1887; later doctrine rejected comparable restrictions in a different setting. That history reinforces why congressional Reconstruction involved questions about institutional power as well as partisan conflict.

Watch the history in motion

This short lesson adds voices, images, and chronology to the ideas you just studied.

Video: RECONSTRUCTION [APUSH Review Unit 5 Topic 10] Period 5: 1844-1877, Heimler's History.

Try four CLEP-style questions

  1. Who presided over Andrew Johnson's Senate trial, as the Constitution requires when a president is tried?
    1. The Senate president pro tempore acting as the chamber's regular presiding officer
    2. The senior associate justice
    3. The Speaker of the House
    4. The vice president
    5. The chief justice of the United States
  2. Johnson's acquittal in the Senate is best interpreted as
    1. a ruling that the House lacked power to impeach for alleged statutory violations
    2. a rejection of every article by a majority of senators
    3. a restoration of Johnson's control over military Reconstruction
    4. a narrow escape from removal even though Congress retained policy dominance
    5. a judicial invalidation of congressional readmission conditions
  3. Which comparison of the Reconstruction Acts and the Reconstruction Amendments is most accurate?
    1. The acts were executive directives, while the amendments were ordinary congressional statutes.
    2. The acts established constitutional citizenship and equal protection, while the amendments directly administered five Southern military districts.
    3. The acts prescribed statutory restoration procedures, while the amendments placed enduring rules in the Constitution.
    4. The acts dealt chiefly with cabinet tenure, while the amendments prescribed presidential succession.
    5. The acts became permanent constitutional text when the last state was readmitted.
  4. Which sequence correctly traces the impeachment crisis?
    1. Stanton's removal; First Reconstruction Act; House impeachment; Senate acquittal
    2. First Reconstruction Act; Stanton's removal; House impeachment; Senate acquittal
    3. House impeachment; Stanton's removal; Senate acquittal; First Reconstruction Act
    4. First Reconstruction Act; House impeachment; Stanton's removal; Senate acquittal
    5. First Reconstruction Act; Senate acquittal; Stanton's removal; House impeachment
Check your answers and reasoning
1. E Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presided because the Constitution assigns the chief justice that role when the president is tried in the Senate.
2. D Johnson avoided conviction by one vote, but Congress's statutes and constitutional program continued to direct Reconstruction. Acquittal did not undo House impeachment.
3. C The acts were ordinary legislation governing restoration and administration; the amendments changed the nation's supreme constitutional law.
4. B Congress enacted military Reconstruction in March 1867; Johnson removed Stanton in February 1868; the House then impeached him; and the Senate fell short of conviction in May.

Independent preparation. CLEP is a registered trademark of the College Board, which does not endorse this lesson.

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