Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson in the context of "Andrew Johnson"

In the United States, impeachment is the process by which a legislature may bring charges against an elected member of the executive branch or an appointed official for severe alleged misconduct, and may result in removal of the guilty from their position after a trial. In addition to Congress at the federal level, impeachment may occur at the state level if the state or commonwealth has provisions for it under its constitution. Impeachment might also occur with tribal governments as well as at the local level of government. Separate procedures are in place for elected members of the legislature to remove a peer for a comparable level of misconduct.

The federal House of Representatives can impeach a party with a simple majority of the House members present or such other criteria as the House adopts in accordance with Article One, Section 2, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution. This triggers a federal impeachment trial in the United States Senate, which can vote by a two-thirds majority to convict an official, removing them from office. The Senate can also further, with just a simple-majority vote, vote to bar an individual convicted in a senate impeachment trial from holding future federal office.

Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 4 of the Constitution of the United States, the vice president of the United States is the ex officio president of the Senate but may only cast a vote in the Senate to break a tie. As of July 15, 2025, vice presidents have cast a total of 308 tie-breaking votes in the Senate. There are also two tie-breaking votes cast by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase during the 1868 impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, although it is still debated whether he had the authority to do so.

John Armor Bingham (January 21, 1815 – March 19, 1900) was an American politician who served as a Republican representative from Ohio and as the United States ambassador to Japan. In his time as a congressman, Bingham served as both assistant Judge Advocate General in the trial of the Abraham Lincoln assassination and a House manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson. He was also the principal framer of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

The impeachment of Andrew Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors" was initiated by the United States House of Representatives on February 24, 1868. The alleged high crimes and misdemeanors were afterwards specified in eleven articles of impeachment adopted by the House on March 2 and 3, 1868. The primary charge against Johnson was that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Specifically, that he had acted to remove Edwin Stanton from the position of Secretary of War and to replace him with Brevet Major General Lorenzo Thomas as secretary of war ad interim. The Tenure of Office Act had been passed by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto with the primary intent of protecting Stanton from being fired without the Senate's consent. Stanton often sided with the Radical Republican faction and had a good relationship with Johnson.

Johnson was the first United States president to be impeached. After the House formally adopted the articles of impeachment, they forwarded them to the United States Senate for adjudication. The trial in the Senate began on March 5, with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding. On May 16, the Senate voted against convicting Johnson on one of the articles, with its 35–19 vote in favor of conviction falling one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority. A 10-day recess of the Senate trial was called to before reconvening to convict him on additional articles. On May 26, the Senate voted against convicting the president on two more articles by margins identical to the first vote. After this, the trial was adjourned sine die without votes being held on the remaining eight articles of impeachment.

George Sewall Boutwell (January 28, 1818 – February 27, 1905) was an American politician, lawyer, and statesman from Massachusetts. He served as Secretary of the Treasury under President Ulysses S. Grant, the 20th governor of Massachusetts, a U.S. senator and representative from Massachusetts, and the first Commissioner of Internal Revenue under President Abraham Lincoln. He was a leader in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and served as a House manager (prosecutor) in the impeachment trial.

Boutwell, an abolitionist, is known primarily for his leadership in the formation of the Republican Party, and his championship of African American citizenship and suffrage rights during Reconstruction. As a congressman, he was instrumental in the drafting and passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. As Secretary of the Treasury, he made needed reforms in the Treasury Department after the chaos of the American Civil War and the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. He controversially reduced the national debt by selling Treasury gold and using greenbacks to buy up Treasury bonds, a process that created a cash shortage. Boutwell and President Grant thwarted an attempt to corner the gold market in September 1869 by releasing $4,000,000 (~$83.5 million in 2024) of gold into the economy. As a U.S. senator, Boutwell sponsored the Civil Rights Act of 1875 and was chair of a Senate select committee investigating white supremacist violence against Black citizens and their white Republican Party supporters during the 1875 Mississippi state election campaign.