Historians and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

Abstract: Historians have analyzed and debated the impeachment of Andrew Johnson since it occurred in 1868. While most historians studying Johnson's impeachment have relied on similar sources and legal framing, their own backgrounds, lived experience, racial attitudes, and views of Reconstruction have led to very different interpretations. In the century and a half of literature, four broad schools of interpretation emerged: traditionalists, hagiographers, revisionists, and conservative revisionists. Traditionalists during the turn of the Twentieth Century and the hagiographers who followed had negative attitudes toward African Americans. Both groups also generally disliked Reconstruction and impeachment, while traditionalists often faulted Johnson the hagiographers lionized him. The revisionists came about during the civil rights movement with the broader revisionist positive interpretation of Reconstruction and support of African American rights. While the revisionists disliked Johnson and gradually became more supportive of impeachment, conservative revisionists arose in opposition to echo many of the positions of the earlier traditionalists and hagiographers. Renewed interest impeachment because of President Donald Trump and upheaval in race relations during the summer of 2020 suggest a new period of reexamining the first impeachment of a US President.