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Johnson, Andrew (1808-1875) Expulsion of Mr. Bright. Speech of Hon. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, in the Senate of the United States, Jan. 31, 1862

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Gilder Lehrman Collection #: GLC05255.01 Author/Creator: Johnson, Andrew (1808-1875) Place Written: Washington, D.C. Type: Pamphlet Date: 1862 Pagination: 13 p. ; 24 x 16 cm. Order a Copy

Published Scammell & Co. Printers. Explains his reasons for voting to expel Senator Bright of Indiana from the Senate. Senator Bright was charged with writing a letter to Jefferson Davis ( president of the Confederacy) on March 1, 1861. Accuses Senator Bright of aiding a rebel (Thomas B. Lincoln) in the selling of a fire-arm to Jefferson Davis.

Representative and Senator from Tennessee and a Vice President and 17th President of the United States; born in Raleigh, N.C., on December 29, 1808; self-educated; at the age of 13 was apprenticed to a tailor; moved to Tennessee in 1826; employed as a tailor; alderman of Greeneville, Tenn., 1828-1830; mayor of Greeneville 1834-1838; member, State house of representatives 1835-1837, 1839-1841; elected to the State senate in 1841; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1853); chairman, Committee on Public Expenditures (Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses); did not seek renomination, having become a gubernatorial candidate; Governor of Tennessee 1853-1857; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from October 8, 1857, to March 4, 1862, when he resigned; chairman, Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses (Thirty-sixth Congress); appointed by President Abraham Lincoln Military Governor of Tennessee in 1862; elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket with Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and was inaugurated on March 4, 1865; became President of the United States on April 15, 1865, upon the death of Abraham Lincoln; wide differences arising between the President and the Congress, a resolution for his impeachment passed the House of Representatives on February 24, 1868; eleven articles were set out in the resolution and the trial before the Senate lasted three months, at the conclusion of which he was acquitted (May 26, 1868) by a vote of thirty-five for conviction to nineteen for acquittal, the necessary two-thirds vote for impeachment not having been obtained; retired to his home in Tennessee upon the expiration of the presidential term, March 3, 1869; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1869 and to the House of Representatives in 1872; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1875, until his death near Elizabethton, Carter County, Tenn., July 31, 1875.

Johnson, Andrew, 1808-1875
Bright, Jesse David, 1812-1875

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