Johnson’s struggle against the Radicals precipitated serious Republican attempts to remove the president from office. The drive for impeachment sprang from Johnson’s contest with Edwin Stanton, but it was hard to separate the accusations against Johnson, which were important, from the larger political context. Impeaching Johnson would install a new president and would influence the upcoming 1868 election. Because the country lacked a vice president following the assassination of Lincoln, the 1792 law governing presidential succession would make Sen. Benjamin Wade, as president pro tempore of
...more
