With the death of President Lincoln on April 15, 1865, a month after his second inauguration, Vice President Andrew Johnson became the seventeenth President of the United States.
President Johnson Defies Congress and is Made to Stand Trial for Impeachment
On August 12, 1867 President Johnson, in direct defiance of the new Tenure of Office Act, dismissed Secretary of War Edwin J. Stanton and replaced him with General Ulysses S. Grant, without seeking the Senate's approval. On June 13, 1868, Congress declared President Johnson's actions illegal and reinstated Stanton as Secretary of War. President Johnson countered the Congressional censure of his actions by again dismissing Stanton, this time replacing him with Major General Lorenzo Thomas, as Grant was not prepared to go against Congress a second time. On February 24, 1868 the United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly voted to impeach President Johnson for his violation of the Tenure of Office Act. President Johnson, who did not speak on own his behalf at the trial, was acquitted. The final tally fell one vote short of the two thirds majority required for President Johnson's removal from office. The deciding vote was not a denial of the President's guilt, but rather an expression of doubt as to whether the matter merited the severe punishment of removal from office.
Alaska Purchased from Russia
In 1867 Secretary of State William Seward purchased Alaska from Russia for the price of $7.2 million. Critics of the purchase called it "Seward's Folly," as the land was believed worthless. Gold was discovered in Juneau, Alaska in 1880.
Legislation
Fourteenth Amendment
In June of 1866 Congress introduced the Fourteenth Amendment, which made all former slaves citizens, and prohibited former members of the Confederacy from holding public office. The Fourteenth Amendment was ratified July of 1868.
Reconstruction Act of 1866
In 1866 Congress passed the Reconstruction Act which established martial law in the South and
limited the voting rights of southern whites. The Act also provided universal suffrage for the recently freed slaves. Universal suffrage was intended to further limit the voice of southern whites in the central government, but actually had the opposite effect when put into practice. It eliminated the Three-Fifths Rule by enabling the South to count slaves as part of the population when determining the number of representatives sent to the House. Corruption and white terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan enabled the South to keep the black vote from having any effect on their stronger voice in the federal government. President Johnson promptly vetoed the bill. Congress easily retaliated by overriding the President's veto. The Reconstruction Act became law on March 2, 1867.
Tenure of Office Act of 1867
Designed to limit the power of unpopular Presidents, the Tenure of Office Act required the President to obtain the approval of the Senate before dismissing any members of his cabinet.
