After Craig left,: “Testimony of Joseph W. McClurg,” May 16, 1868, “Impeachment Investigation,” NA.
“Can your friends”: these telegram exchanges are often quoted; see Ibid, p. 140 ff, but also Daily Missouri Republican, May 14, 1868, or Henderson, “Emancipation and Impeachment,” p. 208.
“Fessenden, Trumbull, Grimes, Henderson have expressed themselves for acquittal,”: Charles Woolley to Washington McLean, May 12, 1868, quoted in BB, [for the committee], “Raising of Money,” p. 47.
“Everything has gone to hell,”: quoted in “Washington,” Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, May 12, 1868, p. 3.
Policemen in blue broadcloth uniforms: see M.C.A., “A Woman’s Letter from Washington,” The Independent, May 28, 1868, p. 1.
“Well, I don’t give up yet,”: Moorfield Storey to Susan Storey, May 14, 1868, quoted in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, p. 105.
“we might have carried it.”: Moorfield Storey to Helen Appleton, May 17, 1868, quoted in Howe, Portrait of an Independent, p. 107.
“Henderson matter all right,”: see “Testimony of Alfred Lacy, “Impeachment Investigation,” NA; [for the committee], “Raising of Money,” p. 17.
Montgomery Blair…save him.”: quoted in D.W.B. [David W. Bartlett], “Washington Letter,” The Independent, May 21, 1868, p. 1.
Gideon Welles wondered what McCulloch knew: see May 5, 1868, and May 9, 1868, Welles, Diary, vol. 3, pp. 346, 350.
“I desire to glide into history ez a marter”: quoted in “Nasby,” Chicago Republican, May 13, 1868, p. 2.
“Every great question”: see “The Anniversaries,” New York Evangelist, May 21, 1878, p. 2.
“Those who are well advised think the success of the impeachment certain”: Edwin Stanton to John Russell Young, May 13, 1868, LC.
“great danger to the peace of the country”: quoted in “The Senators from West Virginia,” National Intelligencer, May 16, 1868, p. 2.
Chase had been spotted at dinner: see “Impeachments Speculations,” Boston Journal, May 16, 1868, p. 1.
“It is treachery”: James Garfield to Harry Rhodes, May 20, 1868, in Smith, Life and Letters of James Abram Garfield, p. 426.
On Thursday, May 14: see “Note on the Impeachment Trial,” New York Evening Post, May 16, 1868, p. 4; see also Charles Woolley to Washington McLean, “Testimony of Charles Woolley,” May 14, 1868, NA.
“at the altar of political ambition,”: R. W. Bayless, “Peter G. Van Winkle and Waitman Willey,” p. 79.
“Who will take a place in the cabinet now?”: see “Testimony of Samuel Pomeroy,” May 18, 1868, “Impeachment Investigation,” NA.
After the meeting: see “Impeachment,” Boston Advertiser, May 16, 1868, p. 1; see also “Washington: Vote to Be Taken Today,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 16, 1868, p. 3.
“Without any suggestion or requirement from us, you offered to resign your position,”: “Washington: Vote to Be Taken Today,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 16, 1868, p. 3.
The next morning: see for example, “Washington,” Chicago Republican, May 16, 1868, p. 5.
“may be artfully,”: J. R. Briggs to John Russell Young, April 17, 1868, LC.
“Mr. Ross is suffering from the effects of bad associations,”: National Anti-Slavery Standard, March 14, 1868.
“Kansas has heard the evidence, and demands the conviction of the President”: The telegrams were widely published, and the first two are located in the Ross/Ream collection, LC. See also, for instance, “Impeachment,” Chicago Republican, May 16, 1868, p. 1, and Plummer, “Profile in Courage?” p. 39.
“Stanton is a brick,”: Francis Lieber to Thayer, March 2, 1868, quoted in Perry, ed. The Life and Letters of Francis Lieber, p. 381.
He was beginning to make plans: William Moore, diary, April 25, 1868, LC.
“What in the name of all that’s honest is the matter with our party,”: to [Jared Shock] to Thaddeus Stevens, May 14, 1868, LC; see also George Hicks to Elihu Washburne, May 15, 1868, LC.
Radical Republicans: see Warrington [William S. Robinson] “Warrington Upon Events at Washington,” Springfield Republican, May 16, 1868, p. 5: “They have been growling and swearing at radicalism for years. Not a measure of congressional reform have they supported without the kick of admonition from their constituents and the war itself would have been continued until this time, or have ended in the triumph of the rebellion, if they had not been taken by the collar, dragged up to a standing position, and then shored up by radical men on each side.”
“History will record that Andrew Johnson”: quoted in “Senatorial Recreancy,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 16, 1868, p. 2.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: POINT-BLANK LYING
Several of the conference delegates: see “The Hon. Thaddeus Stevens to the Negroes,” New-York Tribune, May 14, 1868, p. 1.
“Methodistical darkydom,”: see “Impeachment,” New York Herald, May 16, 1868, p. 3.
“His temperament is more excitable”: see WPF to John Murray Forbes, June 21, 1868, in Forbes, ed. Letters and Recollections of John Murray Forbes, vol. 2, p. 110.
“There has been more point-blank lying”: “Washington,” New York Times, May 16, 1868, p. 1.
“If the impeachment managers”: “Justice” to BB, May 20, 1868, LC.
“The shrewdest politician of them all,”: Mark Twain, “Vinnie Ream,” Chicago Republican, Feb. 19, 1868, p. 3.
“Why, I can do that”: the quote was repeated as early as 1869, if not earlier. See “Miss Vinnie Ream,” American Phrenological Journal (September, 1869), p. 339; see also Vinnie Ream Hoxie, “The Story of My Lincoln Statue,” La Follette’s Weekly Magazine, Feb. 13, 1909, p. 10.
“Vinnie had a faculty for catching the fancy of older men,”: Cooper, Vinnie Ream, p. 3.
“self-satisfied and rather presuming”: Mary Todd Lincoln to Charles Sumner, Sept. 10, 1867, quoted in Turner and Turner, Life and Letters of Mary Todd Lincoln, p. 387.
“American girl,”: see George Brandes, Recollections, p. 323.
“Five minutes’ conversation with Miss Vinnie Ream”: Parton, Topics of the Times, p. 76.
He signed: Petition, May 14, 1867, LC.
“Ross though a man of family…interests of the family,”: C. C. Warner to BB, April 5, 1868, Vinnie Ream Hoxie file, WHS.
“bought his election…Internal Revenue,”: C. C. Warner to BB, April 5, 1868, Vinnie Ream Hoxie file, WHS.
“I have suffered too much…‘done by,’ ”: copy of letter from C. C. Warner to BB, April 15, 1868, Vinnie Ream Hoxie file, WHS, and note from BB on the letter. BB notes that the original is at Ross’s disposal, should he wish to see it.
“it would exert a salutary influence”: May 4, 1868, The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning, vol. 2, p. 195.
So was Vinnie Ream: see pencil notes from interview with Fiske Mills, [June 11–20] but dated May 19, 1868, Butler papers, LC.
“I stated to him in the course of the conversation”: “Testimony of Thomas Ewing, Jr.,” “Impeachment Investigation,” NA.
“Gentlemen, I do not recognize your right to demand…perjurers and skunks”: The telegrams were widely published, and the first two are located in the Ross/Ream collection, LC. See also, for instance, “Impeachment,” Chicago Republican, May 16, 1868, p. 1, and Plummer, “Profile in Courage?” p. 39.
“Impeachment is likely to fail,”: USG to Charles W. Ford, May 15, 1868, in PUSG: 18, p. 257.
“I would rather have my right arm cut off”: “Testimony of Perry Fuller,” May 18, 1868, “Impeachment Investigation,” NA.
“demented Moses of Tennessee.”: “Impeachment,” New York Herald, May 16, 1868, p. 3.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: THE CROWNING STRUGGLE
“President will…We have beaten the Methodist Episcopal Church north”
: see “Testimony of Charles Woolley,” May 20, 1868, and June 11, 1868, NA; see also “Raising of Money,” p. 48.
Ushers steered: “Impeachment!” New York Times, May 17, 1868, p. 1, and M.C.A. [Mary Clemmer Ames], “A Woman’s Letter from Washington,” The Independent, June 4, 1868, p. 1.
“Through the glass doors of the ante-room”: Moorfield Storey to Susan Storey, May 14, 1868, quoted in Storey, Portrait of an Independent, pp. 106–07.
“probably his own”: “The Impeachment,” Albany Evening Journal, May 17, 1868, p. 2.
John Henderson chatted: see M.C.A., “A Woman’s Letter from Washington,” The Independent, May 28, 1868, p. 1.
“Mr. Ross is gone,”: quoted in “New from Washington,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 18, 1868, p. 1.
“Ross has been bought, so has Fowler,”: quoted in “Washington Reminiscence of the Impeachment Trial,” Boston Daily Journal, May 18, 1868, p. 4.
“The grass would be green”: “The Impeachment,” New-York Tribune, May 17, 1868, quoted in Albany Evening Journal, May 18, 1868, p. 2.
“We do not hear the answer,”: “A Scene in the Impeachment Court,” The Anamosa [Iowa] Eureka, May 28, 1868.
“The Chair did not hear the Senator’s answer,”: see also, in addition to above, Durham, “How Say You, Senator Fowler?” pp. 39–57.
“if we refuse to impeach Andrew Johnson”: see M.C.A., “A Woman’s Letter from Washington,” The Independent, May 28, 1868, p. 1.
“It’s all up,”: This and the rest of the paragraph from M.C.A., “A Woman’s Letter from Washington,” The Independent, May 28, 1868, p. 1.
“Messrs. Fowler,”: “From Washington: The Test Vote,” Commercial Advertiser, May 16, 1868, p. 3.
It was said: see “The Impeachment Trial,” Chicago Republican, May 17, 1868, p. 1, or “Impeachment: The Vote,” Boston Advertiser, May 18, 1868, p. 1.
“Virtue has triumphed over vice,”: “Testimony of Charles Woolley,” June 11, 1868, “Impeachment Investigation,” NA.
“The valley of the Shadow is passed safely,”: Jerome Stillson to S.M.L. Barlow, May 16, 1868, Barlow-Stillson correspondence, Huntington.
“Mr. President,”: Crook, “Andrew Johnson in the White House, second paper,” p. 870.
Colonel Crook then ran upstairs: see Stryker, Andrew Johnson, pp. 723–24.
“There goes the rascal to get his pay,”: quoted in Bumgardner, Edmund G. Ross, p. 86
“Well, thank God, Mr. President”: as the information in this paragraph: see “Impeachment! The Scene in the Senate,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 18, 1868, p. 2.
“went on reading”: Samuel J. Barrows and Isabel C. Barrows, “Personal Reminiscences of William H. Seward,” p. 389.
“I do not know”: quoted in “Impeachment! The Scene in the Senate,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 18, 1868, p. 2.
“The country is going to the devil,”: quoted in Crook, Through Five Administrations, p. 133.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: THE CEASE OF MAJESTY
“Anglo-Saxon justice”: Jan. 19, 1867, Clemenceau, American Reconstruction, p. 80.
“blasted public functionary,”: CG 40: 2, May 16, 1868, p. 2493.
“Who so excuses himself, accuses himself,”: CG 40: 2, May 16, 1868, p. 2495.
“How does it happen that just enough”: BB to John Russell Young, May 16, 1868, LC.
“The Democrats only smile…bought up”: “White House Report” [no name] to Benjamin Butler, May 16, 1868, LC.
But since the Constitution: see CG 40: 2, May 16, 1868, p. 2503.
“Probably the rope with which Judas hanged himself is lost”: quoted in Ruddy, Edmund G. Ross, p. 154.
“The people have not heard”: Trial III, p. 31.
“It is a mistake to suppose that”: Trial III, p. 280.
“Had he openly joined the enemy”: Charles Sumner to Francis Lieber, May 2, 1868, quoted in Sumner, Selected Letters, vol. 2, p. 424.
“For more than two years”: Trial III, pp. 279–80.
“1. Bad articles”: “The Great Failure,” Chicago Tribune, May 17, 1868, p. 1.
“If two and two were four”: “Address of Col. T.W.H.,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, May 30, 1868.
“died”: quoted in Philadelphia Press, May 26, 1868, p. 2.
“Impeachment is dead,”: “Impeachment. Exciting Scenes Saturday at Washington,” Memphis Avalanche, May 19, 1868, p. 1.
“with cordial approbation by reflecting men of all parties”: “The President’s Acquittal,” Baltimore Sun, May 19, 1868, p. 1.
Conservative Republicans: see “Who Killed Cock Robin?” New York Herald, May 17, 1868, p. 6.
“side-splitting farce,”: “The Week,” The Nation, May 21, 1868, p. 401.
“We are beaten and must take it quietly,”: Horace Greeley to John Russell Young, May 17, 1868, LC.
that the Republicans’ stupid choice: These were John Bigelow’s arguments in very long letter protesting a guilty verdict, printed in the New York Evening Post, May 4, 1868, and quoted in Bigelow, Retrospections, vol. 4, pp. 170–75.
“Democrats have voted together”: May 16, 1868, quoted in Strong, The Diary of George Templeton Strong, vol. 4, p. 209.
“His speeches and the general course of his administration”: Trial III, p. 328.
“Putting aside such causes of the Senate’s action”: Wendell Phillips, “Impeachment,” National Anti-Slavery Standard, June 6, 1868.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: LET US HAVE PEACE
“I think the failure of the impeachment”: John Hay to John Bigelow, July 14, 1868, quoted in Bigelow, Retrospections, vol. 4, p. 196.
The ticket could mean: see “The Fate of Impeachment,” Boston Daily Journal, May 23, 1868, p. 4.
“We make platforms”: “About the Anti-Impeachers,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, May 21, 1868, p. 3.
“Impeachment, I see, has failed,”: John Greenleaf Whitter to Henry Raymond, May 1868, NYPL.
Wade took defeat: see “Impeachment,” Boston Advertiser, May 22, 1868, p. 1; see also “The President Thinks He Could Beat Grant If Nominated,” Boston Journal, May 22, 1868, p. 2.
“The President is surrounded”: Jerome B. Stillson to S.L.M. Barlow, June 30, 1868, Barlow papers, Huntington.
“I should think he had had enough”: Samuel Ward to S.L.M. Barlow, June 17, 1868, Barlow papers, Huntington.
“I think there was buying and selling”: Jeremiah Black to Howell Cobb, April 1868, quoted in “The Correspondence of Robert Toombs, Alexander Stephens, and Howell Cobb,” p. 694.
“Did you state in Mr. Woolley’s rooms,”: “Testimony of Sheridan Shook,” May 23, 1868, “Impeachment Investigation,” NA.
“I think ‘circle’ was the word he used; it may have been ‘ring,’ ”: “Testimony of James F. Legate,” May 23, 1868, “Impeachment Investigation,” NA.
“People here are afraid to write letters”: Jerome Stillson to S.M.L. Barlow, May 22, 1868, Barlow papers, Huntington.
“smelling” committee: see for example “Investigations of the Impeachment Managers,” New York Herald, May 21, 1868, p. 7.
“Butler has ruined the cause”: Jerome Stillson to S.M.L. Barlow, May 22, 1868, Barlow papers, Huntington.
“The managers are pushing the investigation & profess to believe”: Thomas Ewing, Jr., to Thomas Ewing, June 3, 1868, LC.
“I followed the President into the Ditch,”: quoted in Van Deusen, Thurlow Weed, p. 326.
He told the committee: for a description of the men involved, see Gath [George Alfred Townsend], “From Washington: The Sequel of Impeachment,” Chicago Tribune, May 28, 1868, p. 2.
“Mr. Seward also looked at matters”: “The Impeachment Trial: Here’s Richness for You!” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Dec. 25, 1869, p.
3.
The conspirators: see “The Impeachment Trial,” Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Dec. 25, 1869, p. 3; see also “Letter from Washington, Cincinnati Daily Gazette, Oct. 18, 1869, p 1; “Letter from Washington: The Secret History of Impeachment,” Dec. 20, 1869, Cincinnati Daily Gazette, p. 5; “The National Capital,” April 4, 1869, Cincinnati Daily Gazette, p. 1. Henry Van Ness Boynton was responsible for most of this investigative journalism and likely used sources similar to those used by James Parton.
“tainted,”: see “The Tainted Verdict,” New-York Tribune, May 27, 1868, p. 4.
“wonderfully patriotic, courageous, far-seeing,”: Traubel, Walt Whitman in Camden, vol. 3, p. 58.
“Mr. Evarts has been”: Edwards Pierrepont to Edwin Stanton, May 9, 1868, LC.
“General”: quoted in Badeau, Grant in Peace, p. 144.
“Let us have peace,”: USG to Joseph Hawley, May 29, 1868, PUSG 18: 264.
“From the date of his infamous speech of 22nd of February, down to the present time,…ahead.”: “Look Ahead!” Daily Morning Chronicle, May 26, 1868, p. 2.
“the life, soul, body, boots and breeches of impeachment,”: Benjamin Perley Poore to William W. Clapp, May 27, 1868, LC.
The result: Those voting guilty included Fessenden, Fowler, Grimes, Henderson, Ross, Trumbull and Van Winkle.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: HUMAN RIGHTS
By his side: O’Reilly and Ewers were from the Providence Hospital, which, thanks to Stevens, had been granted congressional funds. Recently, it’s been argued that the two nuns were not black, as has been supposed, but white: see Sister Anthony Scally, “Two Nuns and Old Thad Stevens,” pp. 66–73.
“My sands are nearly run”: CG 40: 2, July 7, 1868, p. 3791.
“I am very sick indeed,”: “Death of Thaddeus Stevens,” New-York Tribune, August 13, 1868, p. 1.
“They’ll miss me at the Council board”: “Death of Thaddeus Stevens,” Louisville Daily Journal, August 13, 1868, p. 1.
The Impeachers Page 55
