Andrew Johnson, a self-taught former tailor from Tennessee, was the only Southern senator to stay loyal to the Union, served as military governor of Tennessee and joined Lincoln’s 1864 ticket. After the assassination he issued broad amnesty, let former Confederates form new state governments, and vetoed the Freedmen’s Bureau expansion and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which Congress passed over his vetoes. His 1866 speaking tour, the Swing Around the Circle, featured shouting matches with hecklers and calls to hang his opponents, and the midterms handed Radical Republicans veto-proof majorities.

Congress divided the South into five military districts and passed the Tenure of Office Act to protect Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Johnson suspended Stanton, named Ulysses S. Grant interim secretary, then fired Stanton and appointed Lorenzo Thomas, while Stanton barricaded himself in his office and had Thomas arrested. The House impeached Johnson 126 to 47 on February 24, 1868, on 11 articles. With Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding, the Senate voted 35 to 19 on three articles, one vote short of the 36 needed to convict.

• Grant returned the office to Stanton, and Johnson accused him of breaking a promise.
• Article 10 charged Johnson with bringing Congress into disgrace, ridicule and contempt through his speeches.
• The Senate issued color-coded single-day tickets to manage crowds at the trial.
• Benjamin Butler allegedly told Senator Edmund Ross there was a bushel of money for a guilty vote, and Senator Samuel Pomeroy allegedly sought $40,000 to acquit.
• None of the seven Republicans who voted to acquit held elected office again, and the Tenure of Office Act was repealed in 1887.