Will Clinton Follow the Two Andrews?
16 September, 1998
By Bruce Sullivan
CNS Staff Writer
(CNS) When Vice-President Andrew Johnson got too drunk to give a speech at his inauguration with President Lincoln in 1864 he made a bad first impression with Congress. Three years later, they reminded him of the incident when he became the first and only U.S. president to be impeached by the House and brought to trial before the Senate. Johnson escaped ouster from office by one vote, 35-19, a two-thirds majority was needed in the Senate to remove him.
President Andrew Jackson never drank on duty, but he did kill a man in a duel for insulting his beloved wife Rachel, whom Jackson married while she still was legally the wife of her first husband. Some members of the Senate used that fact to attack his character when they censured Jackson in 1834.
However, President William Jefferson Clinton faces an entirely different set of circumstances. He has admitted lying under oath and to the American public and Clinton is facing a bipartisan effort that may bring about censure or impeachment.
The Senate's action against Jackson was the first and last censure of a president and of course Old Hickory protested the motion, which the House did not endorse. Later that year, after the elections, the Senate expunged Jackson's censure from the record.
Both censure and impeachment have been mentioned as possible actions for Congress to take against President Clinton, unfortunately neither President Andrew Johnson's nor President Andrew Jackson's cases can be used for much guidance, except in what not to do.
The main lesson learned from the tale of the two Andrews is that censure and impeachment must not be used for political purposes. When the Senate censured Jackson it was largely the result of partisan feuding between the Democratic President Jackson and the Whig Party led by Senators Henry Clay (KY), John Calhoun (SC), and Daniel Webster (MA).
Jackson and the Whigs disagreed strongly on matters concerning the Treasury and the Bank of the United States. The Senate's censure, while an attempt by the Whigs to weaken the presidency, did not succeed.
President Andrew Johnson also clashed with Congress, particularly over the question of Reconstruction for the newly defeated Confederacy.
Johnson, a Democrat, advanced to the presidency after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Johnson's views on Reconstruction were far more sympathetic to the rights of the defeated confederate states than many members of his Congress cared for and his impeachment was the result.
Most members of the majority party, the Republicans, voted to impeach Johnson and most of the Democrats voted not to impeach their fellow Democrat. However, enough Republicans recognized the political motivation for Johnson's impeachment and voted no, thus sparing him the ignominy of being removed from the presidency by one vote.
Johson was not elected, jackson was censured
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