Lessons from the impeachment of Andrew Johnson By Eric Foner

[William S. Lear]

On Sat, December 19, 1998 at 11:12:15 (-0500) James Farmelant writes:
>On Sat, 19 Dec 1998 09:45:16 -0600 (CST) "William S. Lear"
><rael at zopyra.com> writes:
>>...
>>The following is a different, I think more accurate take, by
>>Thomas Ferguson from chapter one of his excellent *Golden Rule*....
>>     .... Johnson had to be rescued by superlawyer William Everts,
>>     attorney for the Astors and the New York Central, and barely
>>     escaped impeachment.
>...
>I hope for Ferguson's sake that Bill Lears's last line was a misquote
>since in fact Johnson was most certainly impeached by the House
>of Representatives but he narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate
>by just one vote.

The quote from Ferguson is accurate.  I do believe that there is a bit
more room for disagreement over exactly what the word "impeachment"
means than James thinks; it often is an elision of "conviction of
impeachment".  *Black's Law Dictionary* (Sixth Edition) for example,
states that "A two thirds vote of the Senate is required for
impeachment"; not, "for conviction of impeachment".

Bill