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Comparison between Republicans and Democrats
Comparison between Republicans and Democrats
Comparison between Republicans and Democrats
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One man’s bullet would force him into the presidency, and but for one man’s vote he would have been forced out.
Like the impeachment of President Clinton, the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson in 1868 also ended in an acquittal.And like President Clinton, Johnson was a Democratic president who faced a Republican-controlled Congress. And while many were hostile to him for his political agenda, it would be an event separate from his policies that would nearly bring him down.Before it would end, a drama would play out in the Senate filled with partisanship, legal hairsplitting, and the swing votes of a handful of Republicans.
The Road to Impeachment
A “war” Democrat opposed to secession, in 1864 Johnson was tapped by Republican President Abraham Lincoln as his running mate to balance the Union ticket. He became president following Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865, just days after the Civil War ended. As president, Johnson’s desire to scale back Lincoln’s Reconstruction legislation following the Civil War angered the Radical Republican majority that sought to punish the former rebels of the Confederacy.
The stage was set for a partisan fight that would ultimately center around a single act. In February 1868, Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who was sympathetic to the Radical Republicans and who was overseeing the military’s Reconstruction efforts. A year earlier, Congress had passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prohibited a president from dismissing any officer confirmed by the Senate without first getting its approval. With Stanton’s firing, the call for Johnson’s impeachment began.
“To say that they seized the opportunity was too strong,” says Michael Les Benedict, a history professor at Ohio State University and the author of The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson. “The president was in obvious defiance. He was daring them, it seemed, to impeach him. And if they didn’t, it would have given him a green light to basically dismantle the Reconstruction program that Congress had passed.”
Political Opportunism?
But others today see that impeachment as political opportunism. “Namely, Johnson was opposed to congressional Reconstruction,” says Hans Louis Trefousse, author of Andrew Johnson: A Biography. “So Johnson blocked that and, because he did, they [Republicans] eventually decided they should throw him out.” “A more technical inquiry can hardly be imagined, and as a separate basis for removing a president from office it bordered on the absurd,” wrote U.S.
Johnson was put into office as the 36th president of the United States after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in November of 1963, his first task was one close to his heart, which was to alleviate poverty and create what he called a “Great Society” for all Americans. This is where Medicare and the Head Start program came from which led to better healthcare, education, urban renewal, conservation and civil rights. Despite his amazing achievements at home in the US, he was also known very well for his failure to lead the nation out of the devastation of the Vietnam War which was travesty from 1954 to 1975. It was after this that he decided not to run for office again and he quietly retired to his ranch in Texas in January of 1969 (History.com Staff.
On January 16, 1883 the U.S. legislation established a law, which gave employment based on merit rather than on political party affiliation that leads to corruption in the government system. Widespread public demand for reform in the government was stirred after the Civil War by accusations of incompetence, corruption, and theft in federal departments. After a guy who was refused an office job that he was capable of assassinated President James A. Garfield in 1881, civil service reform became a leading issue in the elections of 1882. In January 1883, Congress passed a comprehensive civil service bill sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton, providing for the open selection of government employees and guaranteeing the right of citizens to compete for federal jobs without regard to politics, religion, race, or national origin. The new law covered only about 10 percent of the positions in the federal government, but nearly every president after Chester A. Arthur, who signed the bill into law, broadened its scope. By 1980 more than 90 percent of federal employees were protected by the act.
In July 1864, the Radical Republican proposed the Wade-Davis Bill in response to Lincoln’s lenient plan (Keene 412). The Radical Republicans Reconstruction Plan had called for the punishment of the South (SparkNotes). The Wade-Davis bill asserted congressional control over the rehabilitation of the defeated Confederacy and it also prohibited Confederate officials and veterans from voting (Keene 413). Lincoln, however, vetoed the bill because it was a harsher means to unite the country. This refusal had angered the Republicans and showed the contrasting opinions that the legislative and executive branch obtain about Reconstruction (Keene 413). With the ratification of the Amendments, tension built around the southern districts. To enforce the security of the African Americans elections, martial law (1867-1870) was implemented throughout the southern districts that included the Carolinas and Texas (Dockswell). The ex-Confederates were directly affected by the martial law and the upcoming Johnson plan because it had ultimately kept the southerners in surveillance and in strict provisions. Upon the assassination of Lincoln in 1865, the preceding President (Andrew Johnson) took a whole different approach to Lincolns Plan
The relationship between these two nations was highly strained following the Revolutionary War. The War of 1812 also added to the strain. Both nations, however, collaborated in the doctrine’s formulation, hence bettering their relations. For the US, the formulation was crucial, considering that in comparison to Great Britain (which was already a superpower then), the US was vulnerable. As the US grew in strength, the Doctrine confirmed its “entitlement” to exert its influence over North and Latin America, hence allowing it to threaten an intervention in Mexico when the French refused to remove Maximilian from power. The Doctrine is what allowed the US at the beginning of the 20th century to justify its occupation of countries like the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Essentially, the doctrine gave the United States a basis that allowed it to exercise extensive control over several Latin-American
Readmission to the union was a dividing factor between Republicans in politics. Lincoln advocated for the "Ten Percent Plan". This demanded that only ten percent of voters in a state take an oath to uphold the values presented in the constitution in order to rejoin the union. Lincoln would then pardon all but Confederate government figures and rights of citizenship would be readmitted. Radical Republicans opposed this plan, claiming that it was too lenient. They then passed the Wade Davis Bill. This bill required that a majority of the population take an oath stating that they had never supported the Confederacy. The Wade Davis Bill also required more rights for freedmen including the right to vote, hold office, own property and testify in court. Lincoln, wanting an easy transition into a unified country, used a pocket veto so he could continue with his plan. Lamentably, Lincoln was assassinated months after his decision and his successor, Andrew Johnson, took on the role of president. Johnson, having grown up in a poor southern household, sympathized with the south yet, abhorred the planter class. In his Reconstruction plan he issued a blanket pardon to all southerners except important confederate figures who would have to personally meet with the pres...
Andrew Jackson has been described as a great hero of his time and a man who was atrocious and would destroy the Union. Andrew Jackson accomplished a great number of things during his life but some of his actions were quite questionable. Looking from the present to the past gives insight into areas where the events can be examined more objectively. However, it is vital when examining past events to keep in mind the mindsets of the past. People had a different point of view and a different perspective than the current one. This must be kept in the forward part of the mind to understand the actions of those in the past. This paper will serve as a guide into the life of Andrew Jackson, his trials and tribulations, decisions and contradictions. From the beginning of his life, he was headstrong and that would lead him straight into the history books.
1. Two or more shooters would of had to engage in the assassination, partaking in one of the most memorable deaths in history (Nelson, “Breach of Trust”).
This was one of the deeply anxious election outcomes for both, the Republican and Pro-war Democrats. They both joint together and formed the National Union Party, which re-nominated Lincoln and selected Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee a prominent War Democrats. The campaign of 1864 was noisy and abusive. The threat posed by the Democratic Party, which met in Chicago in August. The Democrats came forward boldly and proclaimed the Civil War a failure, demanded the immediate ending of hostilities, and called for the convening of a national convention to restore the Union by negotiation with the Confederate government (American President: A Reference Resource). The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan, former commander of Union forces whom Lincoln had fired because of his failure to pursue Confederate General Robert E. Lee's army after the battle at Antietam in 1862. Some of the Radical Republicans were completely against Lincoln’s reelection (Mintz).
... The cause was forfeited not by Republicans, who welcomed the African-American votes, but to the elite North who had concluded that the formal end of slavery was all the freed man needed and their unpreparedness for the ex-slaves to participate in the Southern commonwealth was evident. Racism, severe economic depression, an exhausted North and troubled South, and a campaign of organized violence toward the freed man, overturned Reconstruction. The North withdrew the last of the federal troops with the passing of The Compromise of 1877. The freed slaves continued to practice few voting rights until 1890, but they were soon stripped of all political, social and economic powers. Not until the civil rights movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s were the freedoms that were fought for by our Republican forefathers nearly 100 years before, finally seen through to fruition.
Andrew Jackson was like no other president before him. The previous presidents had one thing in common, they were all part of the founding fathers or in John Quincy Adam’s case was the son of a founding father. However Jackson was a plantation owner from the west who had no connections with the government. He also had different views from other presidents that made his presidency unique. Two things that separated Andrew Jackson’s presidency from previous presidencies were he reached out to the common people and he was disapproving of the Bank of United States.
...ights for African Americans as well as a political rights for the people, his goal was to abolish slavery and felt that “all men created equally” should uphold for everybody, everybody that was man at least. Johnson the president, in the beginning proved to be loyal to his radicals by chastising the confederacy making sure there would be repercussions for their actions. Also his amnesty plan to reinstate the south states was far harsher than that of Lincoln's. Johnson’s sanctions deprived confederacy officers, people in high power, and anyone who owned valuable assets could be subject to confiscation. The purpose was to shift political power in south and reward it to freed blacks and white southerners who stayed neutral during the war. Hahn states in his article that, “During reconstruction, black men held political offices in every state of the former confederacy”
As President, Johnson decided to follow Lincolns plans by granting amnesty to almost all former confederates; establishing a Provisional government; and ratifying the thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery. However, Johnson was not the same man as Lincoln for he was quite unpopular, especially with Congress. As the south was in a transitional period, its politics were changing as well. First, the Reconstruction Act allowed blacks to v...
The Monroe Doctrine can be considered as the United States first major declaration to the world as a fairly new nation. The Monroe Doctrine was a statement of United States policy on the activity and rights of powers in the Western Hemisphere during the early to mid 1800s. The doctrine established the United States position in the major world affairs of the time. Around the time of the Napoleonic Wars in the 1820s, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia all gained their independence from Spanish control ("Monroe Doctrine" 617). The United States was the first nation to recognize their independence from Spain. The European powers had still considered the new nations as still belonging to Spain. The Americans had a sense of pride in the former Spanish colonies gaining independence. They felt as if the American Revolution was a model for these new Latin American nations (Faragher 265). After Napoleon went down, the monarchy in Spain regained power ("Monroe Doctrine" 617). The Spanish had felt embarrassed after losing their colonies to independence. In 1815 Tsar Alexander I of Russia and the monarchs of Austria and Prussia formed the Holy Alliance. This alliance was a group set out to maintain autocracy (Migill 594). Spain then demanded the return of its colonies of the New World (Migill 594). With the possibility of help from the Holy Alliance and France, Spain’s goal was looking realistic. The Americans also feared that if the Spanish colonies were recaptured the United States might be next ("Monroe Doctrine" 617).
This address set forth an American written policy on European intervention in the Western Hemisphere, and would soon become one of the foundations of United States policy in Latin America (Allison). President James Monroe made this declaration in his seventh annual address to the Congress of the United States on December 2, 1823. The Monroe Doctrine affirmed the two main policies of non-colonization and non-intervention (Monroe). These notable declarations asserted that European nations could no longer colonize the American continents, and that they should not interfere with the newly independent Spanish American republics (Bolivar). Monroe specifically warned European powers against attempting to impose a monarchy on independent American nations but added that the United States would not interfere in existing European colonies or in Europe itself (Monroe). Previous presidents, especially Thomas Jefferson, had vaguely hinted at these practices influencing Monroe’s decision (Jefferson). By separating Europe from American nations, Monroe was trying to preserve the existence of a distinct Western Hemisphere, and more specifically the United States’ interests in it (Monroe to Jefferson). He opposed the European political system of monarchy believing that no American nation should adopt it, and felt that its presence anywhere in the Western Hemisphere endangered the peace and safety of the still young United States. He also believed that the United States, alone, should complete the colonization of North America and that European nations in North American would restrict it (Erikson). Despite his strong assertions, however, Monroe did not suggest any means to assure the policy, and he knew the United States could not ensure it alone, so the debate of rallying for British support became a great debate Monroe’s
Erik Erikson developed eight psychosocial stages that occur through life. These stages help parents of younger children understand what the child is thinking and why they are acting the way that they do. For a person to become a well-rounded adult they need to succeed in each level. This essay will discuss the first six stages into young adulthood.