After five Aprils of a Civil War that neither side was willing to forget, new battle lines had been drawn in the United States capital. On one side was President Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat committed to a more relaxed Reconstruction process similar to President Abraham Lincoln’s proposed plan. On the other side were the Radical Republicans in Congress, led by Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner and aided in their efforts by gaining control of both houses in the off-year elections of 1866.

The fight was on.

One of the first congressional actions taken was the passage of the Reconstruction Act of 1867, dividing the 11 Southern states into five military districts, minus Johnson’s Tennessee, which had endorsed the 13th Amendment and signed oaths of allegiance much earlier than the other former Confederate states. The fact that the president vetoed the legislation only slowed the process, as Congress readily overrode his veto. New districts and new rules for restoration were imposed immediately.

For a former state of the Confederacy to be welcomed back into the Union, each was required to hold a constitutional convention elected by “manhood suffrage”; create a new state government; ratify the 14th Amendment; and guarantee a protection of voting rights for male blacks. Each district would be governed by a military “governor” who had the authority to use the armed forces of the nation to maintain and enforce control according to legislative authority. Once a state had complied in all areas, that state could be readmitted to the Union upon congressional approval.

Where was the president in this plan? Absent.

Moreover, the plan was just unfolding, and implementation of the next group of laws would directly limit the power of the presidency.

In early March 1867, Congress took bold steps to restrict Johnson’s authority. First, congressional leaders feared Johnson’s use of the military and passed a Command of the Army Act that limited his military prerogative. All orders had to be channeled through the General of the Army — i.e., General Ulysses S. Grant — and neither he nor his command troops could leave Washington, DC, without Senate authorization. Then, Congress upped the game, passing the Tenure of Office Act, which prohibited the president from removing certain federal officials without approval also from the Senate. Since cabinet members were appointed and served at the pleasure of the president with Senate approval, for the first time in our nation’s history, the president could not dismiss a member of his own cabinet.

Rhetoric and reactions escalated.

When several Southern states refused to call new constitutional conventions, Congress reacted swiftly with a series of additional Reconstruction Acts that broadened the power of the military commanders to call the conventions and ascertain with examination that the delegates represented all voters. Union military officials would only respond to orders originating in Congress and channeled through congressional and military lines of authority. When most Southern states finally called constitutional conventions in late 1867, the seated delegates often included a majority of Northern transplants (“Carpetbaggers”), Scallywags (“disloyal Southerners”), and recently freed former slaves. Seven states — North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas — reentered the Union months later in mid-1868.

President Johnson railed against congressional overstep of authority, claiming they were acting with “absolute despotism” in ways that would destroy the South and the United States’s proud history. While he believed most Southern and Northern whites agreed with him, he was disheartened to find that Congress would override each veto, and deeper lines had been drawn in the sand. The presidency was no longer an office with any authority.

Johnson then chose to defy congressional legislation regarding his cabinet appointments, believing that the citizenry would rise in his defense. In a staged confrontation of the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton on August 12, 1867. He followed the legislative guidelines and submitted his reasons to the Senate, which refused to concur. While the president had hoped that General Grant would support the presidential tradition regarding cabinet appointments and dismissals, Grant stepped aside, refusing to challenge senatorial authority.

Johnson, the hot-tempered, stubborn former senator and now president, stepped over the imaginary line and dismissed Stanton again in February 1868. Three days later, the House voted 126 to 47 to impeach Johnson. What remains historically interesting it that there were no formal charges, nor was there a hearing — only a called vote.

By March 4, two weeks after the second dismissal, the House of Representatives sent the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, and on March 20, Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase slammed his gavel in the Senate, authorizing opening arguments in the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson.

It was about to get really interesting!