The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. What law was Johnson accused of violating?

Answer: The Tenure of Office Act

This law prevented Johnson from dismissing Cabinet secretaries without the approval of the Senate - the logic being that the Senate had to approve the secretary's appointment. In reality, it was to ensure that the radical Republican Edwin Stanton stayed on a Secretary of War. The Tenure of Office Act was repealed in 1887 and declared unconstitutional in 1926 in Meyers v. United States.

2. Whom did Andrew Johnson pick to permanently replace Stanton?

Answer: Lorenzo Thomas

General Thomas was Adjutant-General of the Army. Johnson asked for Stanton's resignation while Congress was in recess. Stanton refused and so Johnson fired him and named Ulysses. S. Grant as interim Secretary. The Senate returned and voted 35-16 (these numbers will be important later) to keep Stanton under the Tenure Act. Johnson appointed Thomas in hopes of forcing a judicial review of the Tenure Act.

3. This was a hard fact to locate. What was the House vote for the impeachment of Andrew Johnson?

Answer: 126-47

The House had tried to impeach Johnson a few times before this, but those attempts had always failed. His biggest "crime" before the Tenure of Office Act was that he disagreed with Congress, so when a valid reason to impeach him came up, it was passed with an overwhelming majority.

4. Which of these House managers was the chairman and wrote the Articles of Impeachment?

Answer: John Bingham

Bingham wrote up 11 charges against Johnson. The first 9 dealt with various acts of firing Stanton and replacing him with Thomas. Number 10 charged him with publicly insulting Congress and number 11 charged him with impeding Congress' attempt to pass the XIVth Amendment. By the way, Bingham had written the first section of the XIVth Amendment himself.

5. Who presided over the trial of President Andrew Johnson?

Answer: Chief Justice Salmon Chase

Although the President of the Senate presides over all other impeachment trials, the Constitution states that the Chief Justice presides over the trial of a president. Why? To avoid a major conflict of interest - The President of the Senate is also the Vice-President.

6. The House managers felt sure that the XIth article of impeachment against Johnson would win a conviction. What was this charge?

Answer: Denying the validity of the laws passed by the 39th Congress

This charge was all about the XIVth Amendment. Johnson opposed this amendment, and when the Southern states that Johnson had readmitted to the US voted against it, it died . . . but did it? The Radical Republicans claimed that those states had not yet re-entered the Union, therefore they did not have voting rights. Thus by Congress' calculation, the Amendment had the necessary 3/4 votes of the states to pass AND that Johnson exceeded his authority in readmitting the former Confederate States. Johnson did not hide his feelings on this issue.

7. President Clinton is famous for arguing the meaning of the word "is" during his impeachment process. What word held a similar ambiguity during Johnson's impeachment?

Answer: term

The Tenure of Office Act protected Stanton for the term that the Senate approved him for. This would allow Cabinet member to be replaced when a new President was elected. However, verbage in the Constitution implied that President Lincoln's term ended when he died and so President Johnson's presidency was a new term - therefore Stanton was not protected by the Act.

This interpretation by some of the Senators had the Radical Republicans questioning the certainy of the conviction before the vote.

8. Who was threatened with arrest just before the Senate's vote on the charges against President Andrew Johnson?

Answer: The spectators

Chief Justice Chase admonished the spectators to be silent during the voting. Anyone creating a disturbance would be arrested immediately.

9. Whose vote is considered the one that acquitted Andrew Johnson?

Answer: Senator Ross of Kansas

Ross was appointed in 1866 to replace a senator who had committed suicide. He broke with the Republican Party and voted for acquittal. What is less known is that there were six other Republicans that had previously announced that they would vote for acquittal (and did) and four other Republicans would have voted for acquittal if Ross had not.

10. Andrew Johnson was impeached on 11 charges. Of these, how many was he aquitted of?

Answer: 3

On May 16,1868 the Senate voted on Article XI. The vote failed to receive 2/3 of the votes needed for conviction by 1 vote (35-19). This devastated the hopes of the Radical Republicans. Article I was then read but Senator Williams (who voted for conviction) asked for an adjournment.

The Senate reconvened on May 26,1868. Chief Justice Chase allowed the impeachment articles to be read out of order and Article II was read and voted on. Again the vote was 35-19. Article III was read and voted on with the vote 34-16. Realizing that there was no hope of conviction, Sen. Williams asked for adjournment "sine die" [indefinitely].

This adjourment was approved and the trial was over.

Source: Author tralfaz

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
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The impeachment of Andrew Johnson was the first time Congress tried to remove a president. How much do you know about this defining moment in US politics?

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