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Chapter 5 1867: Johnson’s Wounded Leadership Johnson and Congress clashed on the battlefields of leadership and power in 1867. The ensuing warfare resulted in overall victory for the legislative branch but also a few successes for the executive. In the process Congress seized dramatic, even ruthless, control over Reconstruction in the South by eroding Johnson’s constitutional duties and powers as commander-in-chief.Ever pugnacious and vigilant,however, the president fought back, rightly believing that he had to, in order to preserve his administration in particular,a reconstruction policy that he fervently supported, and the presidency in general. If 1865 was the year of “executive hegemony,” there is no dispute that 1867 was the year of “legislative hegemony.”One early example of congressional power in the latter year was the unprecedented decision by that body to commence the 1st Session of the 40th Congress as soon as the 2nd Session of the 39th Congress ended in March 1867. Moreover ,Congress also stipulated that when the abbreviated March session adjourned, it would reconvene in July, and after another truncated session in that month, Congress would meet again in November. By determining the calendar in this manner, Congress intended to shape the outcome of its battles with the president and to erode his authority. In addition to seizing the right to set the calendar, Congress also attempted to undermine Johnson’s prerogatives and authority by attaching an amendment to the Military Appropriations bill. It prescribed that the president—the commander-in-chief—could issue military orders only through the general of the army. Not content to stop there 1867 146 in its grasp for domination, Congress also authorized the controversial Tenure of Office bill in late February. This legislation denied the president’s right to remove any high federal official whose appointment had been confirmed by the Senate, without the consent of the Senate. If nothing else had happened in 1867, these two bills, plus capture of the congressional calendar,guaranteed that legislative hegemony would become a reality. A certain amount of apprehension permeated the relationship between Congress and the president throughout the year.This was evident in the responses to the 1867 elections. Often minimized by scholars (who have lavished attention on the 1866 elections) is the reality that the Democratic Party enjoyed a resurgence at the polls across the country—much to the delight of Johnson, who justifiably claimed some degree of vindication. Probably the most curious reaction to the elections came from the quintessential radical Thaddeus Stevens, who exclaimed: “I thank God for our late defeat,” because, as his soul mate, Charles Sumner, declared, the elections “only show more imperatively the necessity for impeachment.”1 Congressional leaders who had been riding high all year in their power quest were somewhat unnerved by the outcome of the elections. And according to Stevens, Sumner, and others, the appropriate response was to oust the president. Such was the climate of the times. Johnson and Congress engaged in combat on at least three major battle fronts that were contiguous and often overlapping. They fought over the question of southern reconstruction, over the military, and over control of the executive branch of government. Admittedly, this is a somewhat arbitrary structure for an examination of the sturm und drang of 1867,but there is no denying that these major conflicts absorbed the lion’s share of the energy and strategy of both the president and Congress. I Concerning clashes over the South, the struggle over black suffrage in 1866 continued in 1867. Indeed, the question of the black franchise in the District of Columbia originated in the former year but had not been resolved. Although the House passed the suffrage bill in early Johnson’s Wounded Leadership 147 1866, the Senate did not even consider it, lacking sufficient votes to enact it (discussed in chapter 4). The bill went into winter hibernation but reawakened in the summer. Finally, when Congress convened in December 1866, it focused on and easily passed the District of Columbia bill.This action thus compelled Johnson, who had expected to deal with it in early 1866, to wrestle with it a year later. Unlike previously, Johnson received scant advice from political friends in late 1866 and early 1867 about the black suffrage bill. Secretary Welles confided to his diary that “Negro suffrage in the District is the Radical hobby of the moment and is the great object of some of the leaders throughout the Union.” Naturally, he criticized the...

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