ON THIS DAY IN AMERICAN HISTORY | |
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On May 26, 1868, President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during a Senate impeachment trial. The House of Representatives had found Johnson guilty of violating the Tenure in Office Act, which curbed presidential powers to remove cabinet members from office. The law was later found to be unconstitutional. Thirty-five senators found the president guilty, while 19 voted not guilty. That fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority needed to remove the president. Ten days earlier, Johnson narrowly survived another impeachment trial by the same vote. Johnson, a Democrat, was Republican president Abraham Lincoln’s vice president and became president after Lincoln was assassinated. |
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