Brenda Wineapple

I came across this one on Overdrive, and given current events here in DC, it couldn’t be more timely. Wineapple tells the story of the first impeachment of a US President - Andrew Johnson - during Reconstruction. And as the title says, it’s also about the people involved in the impeachment, with very interesting looks at the personalities involved.

What most fascinated me about the story is how similar it is to today. Johnson was a boorish egotist with an over-inflated sense of show more Presidential power, and a populist who played to the white South for support. He was opposed by Radical Republicans, the progressives of the day, who couldn’t quite pull together enough support to make impeachment happen. Since there was no Vice President, the Senator next in line to take over was eerily like Bernie Sanders in his politics. The fights in trial could be word-for-word from the current proceedings - whether to allow witness testimony, was there enough evidence to convict, did an actual crime have to take place for this to be impeachable?

Wineapple’s book is well worth a read, and a worthy antidote for anyone who thinks we live in special circumstances. My only criticism is that the editor should have tightened up the story - it did get a bit repetitive towards the end. show less

A readable and well-crafted account of the presidency of Andrew Johnson, focusing on the efforts of the Radicals to remove him from the office (which they probably would have succeeded in doing had there been a vice president in place and Ben Wade not in line for the presidency). I don't think Wineapple is entirely fair to Seward, and she's a little too sympathetic to Johnson, but it's a good read, anyway.

Summary: A history of the accidental presidency of Andrew Johnson, his resistance to the civil rights fought for in the Civil War, and the impeachment proceedings against him.

Impeachment. Only twice in American history has Congress pursued impeachment proceedings against a President of the United States. Neither instance resulted in conviction of "high crimes and misdemeanors." This book chronicles the first instance where this remedy was pursued, during the presidency of Andrew show more Johnson.

Brenda Wineapple gives us a well-crafted account of the presidency of Andrew Johnson, the circumstances leading to his impeachment, the key figures from the House of Representatives that prosecuted the impeachment, as well as the presiding Chief Justice, the defense, and the final denouement.

Andrew Johnson was always a bit of a lone wolf, rising from tailor to accidental president when Lincoln was assassinated. When the Civil War began, though sympathetic with the white supremacy of the South, Johnson argued against secession as unconstitutional, and that in fact it was impossible for states to secede from the Union, a position he maintained later on as president. When Tennessee seceded, he continued to take his seat in the Senate. Later, Lincoln named him military governor of Tennessee. When it came time for Lincoln the Republican to run for his second term, he did the unusual thing of offering Johnson, a Democrat, the Vice Presidency, partly to weaken the Democrats, and perhaps with a view toward the restoration of the Union.

Wineapple describes how Johnson quickly instituted his own version of Reconstruction, allowing many of the old leaders of the south to return to office, undercutting newly won civil rights for blacks, and looking the other way when blacks were violently attacked, lynched, and slaughtered. He undercut the efforts of moderate Republican Lyman Trumbull to extend the Freedman's Bureau by vetoing the bill, even after Lyman's extensive consultations with Johnson led him to think it would be passed. It increasingly appeared that all the sacrifice of Union troops was for naught, as Blacks still were treated as slaves in all but name. The crowning insult was Johnson's campaign trip, the "swing around the circle" during the 1866 elections where he denounced Republicans Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, and Wendell Philips by name.

While Republicans in Congress seethed at this treatment and the reversal of gains fought for during the Civil War, all of this occurred under the cloak of legality. Wineapple then discusses the efforts to limit the military occupation, including the work of Secretary of War Stanton and General Grant. This was one of the remaining protections for Black citizens. To protect Stanton, Congress passed over Johnson's veto the Tenure in Office Act, prohibiting the firing of cabinet officials without Congressional approval. Johnson, believing the act unconstitutional, eventually sacked (or tried to) Secretary Stanton, which represented the crossing of a threshold that triggered the vote of impeachment in the House, and the impeachment trial in the Senate.

Wineapple takes us through the trial, introducing us to the managers for the House prosecution: Benjamin Butler who presented much of the evidence, and George Boutwell, and the courageous Thaddeus Stevens, enfeebled and dying. She gives us sketches of Chief Justice Chase, the defense for the president, key senators like Ben Wade, who stood to succeed to the presidency if Johnson was convicted, and correspondents including Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Georges Clemenceau. Then came the vote, 35-19, with a key Republican, Edmund Ross changing his vote to acquit at the last hour. Six other Republicans joined him and twelve Democrats in voting to acquit. Though never proven, there was evidence of payoffs.

Johnson served out his term, but was disappointed not to receive the appointment of his party. He eventually returned to the Senate, dying in office in 1875. Ulysses Grant succeeded to the presidency, reversing to some degree the effects of Johnson's "Reconstruction." But the promise briefly glimpsed by Lincoln was never to be.

Wineapple does an outstanding job of unfolding the history and the fascinating characters around the impeachment. Her account of the life and death of Thaddeus Stevens was particularly striking. Her book makes the case for the challenges of impeachment: the ambiguities of language and procedure. The truth was, Andrew Johnson was a disaster and a white supremacist and could not be removed for these reasons alone. Only the violation of a questionable law (later ruled unconstitutional) provided the pretext. Even this effort fell short. Wineapple also shows us that white supremacy is nothing new but has a long and ugly history in our country, one accustomed to the commission of sordid acts and the constraining of civil liberties with the pretext of respectable legality.

Essentially, impeachment is an unproven remedy for the removal of presidents considered to have committed "high crimes and misdemeanors." Section IV of the 25th Amendment has never been attempted. This brings us back to the critical importance of the choices we make for who we elect to be president and vice-president. Whether in office by vote or accident, the only proven way presidents may be removed from office is by the Electoral College, reflecting (hopefully) on a state by state basis the results at the ballot box, an opportunity that comes only every four years. The attacks of White Supremacists on voting rights in Johnson's day also remind us of the vital task of rigorously protecting voting rights for all our citizens, recognized as critical for "liberty and justice for all" then--and now.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review e-galley of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. show less

In the summer of 1925, the attention of the entire nation was concentrated on a small town in the hills of eastern Tennessee. The town was Dayton and the event was the Scopes Trial, in which free speech was pitted against Christian doctrine and the separation of church and state was at issue. In her historical narrative, "Keeping the Faith: God, Democracy, and the Trial that Riveted a Nation", Brenda Wineapple has written a superb account of this crucial event.

High school biology teacher show more John T. Scopes was charged with violating a law recently enacted by the Tennessee state legislature, a law that made it illegal for any instructor in a public school or state college to teach the theory of the evolution of species or to call into question the divine Creation of Man as described in the Holy Bible. Scopes was the first teacher to be charged with violating the law and his trial was seen as a test case, by both sides, of the validity of the law. But many saw it as concerning much bigger questions than the constitutionality of the law; was Darwinian theory a contradiction of Christian faith? Did the state have the right to mandate religious indoctrination in the public schools?

To contest these questions, while also prosecuting and defending Scopes, the most celebrated and talented lawyers in the land volunteered to argue the case. For the prosecution, and for the cause of Christian America and a literal interpretation of the Bible, there was William Jennings Bryan, three times the Democratic candidate for president and a hero to millions. For the defense, serving with the ACLU team, was Clarence Darrow, the greatest criminal trial lawyer of the age, defender of radical causes including labor unions, socialists, and African American civil rights activists, and a confirmed agnostic.

Wineapple's account is scholarly and balanced. It's clear that she's on the side of the First Amendment, but she gives Bryan and his followers a fair hearing. Many readers will already know the outcome of the trial, but Wineapple is excellent in her analysis of its meaning and context- and her lively style brings those events of a century ago to vivid life. show less