The Election of 1868

The Civil War came to a close on April 9, 1865, when Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. Five days later Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Vice President Andrew Johnson had succeeded Lincoln, and at first Republicans, who controlled both houses of Congress, expected an amiable relationship with the new president, even

though he had been a Democrat. Instead, what followed was the most tumultuous struggle between a president and Congress in the nation's history, as the two sides immediately clashed over plans for readmitting the Confederate states to the Union. Johnson, an inveterate racist as well as a fervent states' rights advocate, opposed civil rights for the freed slaves, which the Radical Republicans sought. He stubbornly vetoed congressional Reconstruction bills, and for the

first time in history Congress overrode presidential vetoes, and did so with astonishing regularity. Congress sought an opportunity to remove Johnson from office, and when he attempted to fire his secretary of war, Congress charged him with violating the Tenure of Office Act. In February 1868 the House impeached Johnson, making him the first of only two presidents ever to be impeached. In the Senate trial that followed, Johnson was acquitted by just one vote. He served out the balance of his term politically impotent, and the nation looked for new leadership as the election of 1868 approached.