AJ did not change his political course after the acquittal. AJ rejected Reconstruction, and vetoed the readmission of Southern states (with reconstruction governments). There was much violence in TX. For a price, gangs would kill blacks, Republicans, or federal soldiers. AJ hated U.S. Grant, and vice versa. The Dems nominated Governor Seymour of NY to run against Grant. AJ opposed the 14th Amendment, but it was ratified anyway. Ben Butler became Governor of MA in 1879. In JFK’s Profiles in Courage, the 7 Republicans who voted to acquit were portrayed as broken men who sacrificed everything for “principal.” This was NOT true, as none of the 7 was a victim of postimpeachment retribution. US Grant won only 52.7% of the popular vote in 1868. AJ boycotted Grant’s inauguration. After losing twice, AJ ran for Senator from TN in 1875 and won. Four months later he died of a stroke. In the 1876 scandalous election, the Republicans finally agreed to withdraw Federal troops from the south.

Books by Woodrow Wilson and JFK held that (1) the impeachers were filled with hate and wished only to oppress noble Southern whites, and (2) AJ saved the nation from congressional Radicals who lusted to destroy the presidency and Southern culture. (Ross and others were bribed with both money and patronage positions). JFK said that Edmund Ross’s vote was the most heroic act in American history. Movies like Birth of a Nation and Tennessee Johnson (with Van Heflin as AJ and Lionel Barrymore as Thaddeus Stevens) portrayed AJ as a hero and Stevens as villain. That opinion has altered drastically since that time. Congressmen and Senators in 1868 almost drove AJ from office because he would do nothing to stop the mistreatment of the former slaves.