Andrew Johnson's impeachment

A new book by Brenda Wineapple entitled The Impeachers details the efforts by congressional leaders to impeach Andrew Johnson.  Johnson, a supporter of the Union, was picked by Lincoln as his Vice President in 1864 and took over upon Lincoln’s assassination.

He was a terrible President.  He took the view that the South had never legally seceded and gave pardons to Confederates, appointing traitors to positions of power.  Many former Confederate soldiers, now officials and sheriffs, some still in uniform, immediately began to harass and kill blacks.  Militias in Memphis and New Orleans massacred black men and women and Republicans in the streets while U.S. troops stood by.  

Johnson did not disapprove.  He said, “This is a country for white men and by God, as long as I am president it will be a government for white men.”  He hated the idea of blacks voting and said blacks had no capacity to govern.

Here was the problem.  The Constitution has very narrow grounds for impeachment.  It uses the phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors,” and Johnson had committed no actual crime.  Congress then cooked up a law that Johnson couldn’t fire cabinet officials without Congressional approval.  When Johnson did that, they tried to impeach him for that dubious “crime.”  The effort failed.

The irony is that Johnson was unfit to be President.  He was an ignorant racist who reached office on a fluke and should have been removed.  Unfortunately, our Constitution has no mechanism for removing evil and incompetent presidents.