Only three presidents in American history have ever been
impeached, with our current president, Donald Trump being the third. The
current impeachment trial is just a way for the democratic lawmakers to take
down Donald Trump without having to win an election against him. Throughout
history it has been used as, sort of a checks and balance system to make sure
the president follows the laws of the constitution. With the current
presidency, it is used as a political weapon simply to undo the result of the
2016 election. But there have also been appropriate cases, when Impeachment has
been used for a for a good reason, and to keep the President from overstepping
the boundary of the constitution.
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| Andrew Johnson |
Andrew Johnson served as the seventh president of the United States, and
the first president to be impeached. It was in the wake of the Civil War, there
was a great deal of disagreements between the southerners and the northerners,
Democrats and the Republicans. Mr. Johnson repeatedly clashed with the
Republicans (which controlled the congress). The bulk of their disagreements
had to do with the Southern states, and how they were going to rebuild after
the war. The President favored the southerners; therefore, he vetoed a law
passed by congress that would protect the rights of freed slaves. After Andrew
Johnson tried to fire Edwin Stanton (the secretary of war), Edwin raised
awareness to the Tenure of Office Act of which President Johnson was unaware
of. A President cannot fire appointed officials without the consent of congress
at the time. Once they had an impeachable offense against the president,
congress ran with it. They were able to impeach Johnson but he was not
convicted by senate so he stayed in office until the end of his term on March
4th 1869.
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