Civil War by Other Means by Jeremi Suri;

Author:Jeremi Suri; [Suri, Jeremi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Published: 2022-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

The trial of Andrew Johnson made the intemperate president appear moderate and safe in comparison to what might follow his removal. He was the devil everyone knew. Johnson encouraged this perception by staying mostly silent in public during the long trial as his opponents raged against him. His absence from the proceedings was an advantage.

Johnson also made personal appeals to moderate Republican senators, promising to avoid actions that would further antagonize Congress. During a private meeting with Senator Grimes, the president pledged that in exchange for votes to acquit, he would refrain from any new “rash act” or “indiscretion,” and he “would consult with and listen to the advice of his Cabinet.” If he survived impeachment, Johnson would offer the cautious moderation that some senators craved.25

To prove his seriousness, the president withdrew his original secretary of war–designate, Lorenzo Thomas. Following his meeting with Grimes, Johnson nominated General John Schofield. A decorated Civil War commander and graduate of West Point, Schofield had served as the military governor of Virginia, where he facilitated African American voting in the state. He was respected by congressional Republicans for his independence and commitment to the law. Johnson had previously criticized the “radicalism” of Schofield, which made his nomination a meaningful concession to Republicans and a sign the president was committed to cooperating with Congress after impeachment.26

Grimes shared Johnson’s promises of more congenial behavior with other Republican moderates. Senators Fessenden and Trumbull were especially receptive. With Grimes, they formed an emerging Republican opposition to removal of the president in the second month of his trial. To stay in office, the president needed seven Republicans to join all twelve Senate Democrats in voting against conviction. Grimes, Fessenden, and Trumbull began to build a coalition of Republicans that would soon come close to that number. There were forty-two Republicans in the Senate at the time, representing very diverse states, all of which were dominated by white voters. Finding the handful necessary to back the moderate position became possible once these respected figures stepped forward to express their doubts about convicting Johnson.

The resistance to removal from the moderates divided the Republican Party across the country. The Iowa Daily State Register demanded Grimes’s immediate resignation for collaborating with the presidential enemy. Senator Sumner accused Fessenden, Trumbull, and their followers of searching for an “excuse” to place their personal interests above the party’s “great cause.” Sumner also called out what he perceived as the “vindictive hate” of these party leaders for the multiracial advocacy of Benjamin Wade, Thaddeus Stevens, Sumner, and other radicals. To Republicans intent on expanding democracy and removing a president who defied their authority, the moderates had become apologists for the worst of white supremacy.27

The old divisions on slavery within the Republican Party were now manifest in divisions over how far Congress could go to enforce racial justice. Major figures like Fessenden and Trumbull still preferred inaction to decisive change. They were more comfortable with an incompetent and resistant white president than a more inclusive democracy with diverse political actors, including former slaves.

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