Jr. Patriot Report

by John Stumpner

We’ve been hearing a lot of talk in the news lately about something called impeachment. According to the United States Constitution, the President can be impeached and removed from office if he or she commits treason or otherwise breaks the law while President. An important thing to remember is that impeachment and removal from office are two separate things. According to our Constitution, the House of Representatives can only impeach the President, and only the Senate can remove him or her from office. Just because the House impeaches the president, that does not mean he or she is removed from office, and the Senate cannot remove the President from office unless the House impeaches him or her. This can be referred to as a balance of power.

The first President to be impeached was our 17th President, Andrew Johnson. At the start of the Civil War, Andrew Johnson, from Tennessee, was the only Senator from a Southern State to stay loyal to the Union. In the election of 1864, Abraham Lincoln chose Andrew Johnson for Vice President to show good will to the Southern States. Although a popular person and a gifted speaker, Johnson was not a good politician and had trouble reaching agreements with others. When Andrew Johnson became President after Lincoln’s assassination, he wanted to continue Lincoln’s plan to bring the Southern States back into the Union quickly. Others, however, wanted to punish the Southern States for leaving the Union and did not trust Andrew Johnson because he was from the South and had been a slave owner before the Civil War.

After Andrew Johnson became President, Congress passed a law that the President could not fire a Cabinet Secretary without Congress’ OK. President Johnson had a disagreement with the Secretary of War and fired him. The House of Representatives thought President Johnson broke the law and voted to impeach him. The Senate did not agree though and did not remove President Johnson from office.

President Andrew Johnson, by trying to be fair to the Southern States, had taken a position unpopular with the rest of the Government. ABATE of Wisconsin sometimes takes a position which is unpopular with some people and government officials. Just as the Southern States were re-admitted to the Union, many of ABATE’s legislative efforts are adopted by our Wisconsin state government.

John