The Impeachers: The Trial of Andrew Johnson and the Dream of a Simply Nation

When Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and Vice-President Andrew Johnson turned “the Unintended President,” it was a harmful time in America. Congress was divided over how the Union ought to be reunited: when and the way the secessionist South ought to regain full standing, whether or not former Confederates ought to be punished, and when and whether or not black males ought to be given the vote. Devastated by warfare and resorting to violence, many white Southerners hoped to revive a pre–Civil Warfare society, if with out slavery, and the pugnacious Andrew Johnson appeared to share their objectives. With the unchecked energy of government orders, Johnson ignored Congress, pardoned insurgent leaders, promoted white supremacy, opposed civil rights, and referred to as Reconstruction pointless. It fell to Congress to cease the American president who acted like a king.

With profound insights and making use of in depth analysis, Brenda Wineapple dramatically evokes this pivotal interval in American historical past, when the nation was rocked by the first-ever impeachment of a sitting American president. And she or he brings to vivid life the extraordinary characters who introduced that impeachment ahead: the willful Johnson and his retinue of advocates—together with difficult males like Secretary of State William Seward—in addition to the equally difficult visionaries dedicated to justice and equality for all, like Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, Frederick Douglass, and Ulysses S. Grant. Theirs was a last-ditch, patriotic, and Constitutional effort to render the objectives of the Civil Warfare into actuality and to make the Union free, truthful, and complete.

Reward for The Impeachers

“On this fantastically lyrical work, Brenda Wineapple has plugged a obvious gap in our historic reminiscence by means of her vivid and sweeping portrayal of President Andrew Johnson’s 1868 impeachment. She serves up not merely meals for thought however a veritable feast of observations on that almost all making an attempt choice for a democracy: whether or not to oust a sitting president. Teeming with fiery passions and unforgettable characters,
The
Impeachers can be devoured by up to date readers looking for enlightenment on this situation. . . . A landmark examine.”
—Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize–profitable creator of Grant