reconstruction and to his use of the
patronage against the radicals. Specific grievances were found in
his vetoes of the various reconstruction bills, in his criticisms of
Congress and the radical leaders, and in the fact, as Stevens asserted,
that he was a "radical renegade." Johnson was a Southern man, an
old-line State Rights Democrat, somewhat anti-Negro in feeling. He knew
no book except the Constitution, and that he loved with all his soul.
Sure of the correctness of his position, he was too stubborn to change
or to compromise. He was no more to be moved than Stevens or Sumner. To
overcome Johnson's vetoes required two-thirds of each House of Congress;
to impeach and remove him would require only a majority of the House and
two-thirds of the Senate.

The desired occasion for impeachment was furnished by Johnson's attempt
to get Edwin M. Stanton, the Secretary of War, out of the Cabinet.
Stanton held radical views and was at no time sympathetic with or loyal
to Johnson, but he loved office too well to resign along with those
cabinet members who could not follow the President in his struggle
with Congress. He was seldom frank and sincere in his dealings with
the President, and kept up an underhand correspondence with the
radical leaders, even assisting in framing some of the reconstruction
legislation which was designed to render Johnson powerless. In him the
radicals had a representative within the President's Cabinet.

Wearied of Stanton's disloyalty, Johnson asked him to resign and, upon
a refusal, suspended him in August 1867, and placed General Grant in
temporary charge of the War Department. General Grant, Chief Justice
Chase, and Secretary McCulloch, though they all disliked Stanton,
advised the President against suspending him. But Johnson was
determined. About the same time he exercised his power in removing
Sheridan and Sickles from their commands in the South and replaced
them with Hancock and Canby. The radicals were furious, but Johnson had
secured at least the support of a loyal Cabinet.

The suspension of Stanton was reported to the Senate in December
1867, and on January 13, 1868, the Senate voted not to concur in the
President's action. Upon receiving notice of the vote in the Senate,
Grant at once left the War Department and Stanton again took possession.
Johnson now charged Grant with failing to keep a promise either to hold
on himself or to make it possible to appoint some one else who would