Reconstruction II: The First Presidential Impeachment
HISTORY This Week
The HISTORY® Channel | Back Pocket Studios
4.5 • 4.2K Ratings
🗓️ 16 May 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
May 16, 1868. The Capitol is filled with spectators, anxiously trying to predict how each Senator will vote. It’s the first presidential impeachment trial in American history, and its outcome will have profound effects on Reconstruction, the great project of rebuilding the nation after the Civil War. What made many members of Congress declare President Andrew Johnson unfit to lead that effort? And what motivated this former ally of Abraham Lincoln to declare himself an enemy of true Reconstruction?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The History Channel, original podcast. |
| 0:04.0 | Previously on Reconstruction. |
| 0:06.0 | If anyone committed treason, Jefferson Davis committed treason, right? |
| 0:10.0 | He's sort of criminal defendant number one. |
| 0:13.0 | As the nation claws its way out of civil war, |
| 0:16.0 | President Andrew Johnson has to decide what to do with all those Confederates. |
| 0:21.0 | Should we kill a few? |
| 0:23.0 | What part of execute is off the table on this? |
| 0:26.0 | By 1868, Johnson's big talk about holding Confederate leaders accountable has faded away. |
| 0:33.0 | He's got problems of zone. |
| 0:35.0 | He's the defendant in an unprecedented trial, |
| 0:38.0 | a trial that is barreling toward affording. |
| 0:42.0 | History this week, May 16, 1868. |
| 0:56.0 | I'm Sally Helm. |
| 1:01.0 | In Washington, D.C. this morning, |
| 1:03.0 | it seems like the sky itself is engaged in an epic battle. |
| 1:08.0 | One minute, it's bright, cheerful, sunny. |
| 1:11.0 | The next low-grade clouds have people whipping out umbrellas. |
| 1:16.0 | Beneath that sky, |
| 1:19.0 | a crowd is making its way toward the U.S. Capitol. |
| 1:22.0 | A reporter on the scene stops to wonder whether the issue between the clouds and the sunshine |
| 1:28.0 | would prove prophetic of the consequences to the nation. |
... |
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