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by John Adler,
Publisher
Harper’s Weekly discussed Republican party loyalty at length as the Impeachment
trial was coming to a close, and afterwards when several key Senators had voted for
acquittal. George William Curtis agreed that every man had both the right and the
obligation to vote his conscience. He counter-attacked Horace Greeley whose influential New
York Tribune took a strongly opposite point of view that said Republicans who voted
for acquittal should be considered traitors to the party.What
Harper’s Weekly did not discuss in depth was the antipathy that several of the
Senators had for Benjamin Wade, who was elected President pro tempore of the Senate
on March 4, 1868. In the event of Andrew Johnson’s suspension, resignation or removal
from office, Wade would have become President until the next national election in
November.
Hans L. Trefousse, on pages 176-7 of his 1975 book Impeachment
of a President (U. of Tennessee Press), points out that Senators William P. Fessenden
(ME), Lyman Trumbull (IL), and James W. Grimes (IA) all held personal grudges against Wade
because of prior clashes with him on political and economic questions. While they
justified their dissents on Constitutional grounds ("The Dissenting Senators,"
June 6, 1868), their dislike of Wade probably played an important role in their respective
decisions.
Other Articles in this Section:
Reconstruction:
Radicalism versus Conservatism
Future Control of Congress
The Tenure of Office Act |
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