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President [[Andrew Johnson]], a Democrat elected vice president in 1864 at the height of the war on a national unity ticket with Republican [[Abraham Lincoln]], was in constant conflict with the [[Radical Republicans]] who controlled Congress.  The [[media]] called Republicans "radical" because they advocated full equality and [[civil rights]] for [[blacks]], and wanted to punish Confederates and Southern slaveholders who engaged in open rebellion.   

President [[Andrew Johnson]], a Democrat elected vice president in 1864 at the height of the war on a national unity ticket with Republican [[Abraham Lincoln]], was in constant conflict with the [[Radical Republicans]] who controlled Congress.  The [[media]] called Republicans "radical" because they advocated full equality and [[civil rights]] for [[blacks]], and wanted to punish Confederates and Southern slaveholders who engaged in open rebellion.   

Johnson handed out numerous [[pardon]]s to former slaveholders, Confederate officers, and the rank and file.  This brought Johnson into conflict with Lincoln's [[Secretary of War]], who had been confirmed by the Senate, vowing to carry out the Republicans' civil rights efforts for Blacks in occupied military districts of [[the South]] after the war.

Johnson handed out numerous [[pardon]]s to former slaveholders, Confederate officers, and the rank and file.  This put him at odds with Lincoln's [[Secretary of War]], who had been confirmed by the Senate, vowing to carry out the Republicans' civil rights efforts for Blacks in occupied military districts of [[the South]] after the war.

President Johnson vetoed Republican civil rights legislation and even called their leaders "traitors". Flush from winning the war, Republican Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (PA) and Sen. Charles Sumner (MA) were not about to back down on the agenda of delivering equality for former black slaves and punishing Democrats who ripped society apart and tried to destroy the Union. In 1856, shortly before the outbreak of war, Sumner delivered a speech critical of South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, author of the [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]] which legalized [[slavery]] in Western territories north of the [[Mason-Dixon Line]]. It was symptomatic of how bad the situation in the United States had deteriorated in the debate over slavery, both North and South, among the people and their elected leaders. Butler's outraged nephew Preston Brooks beat Sumner senseless with a cane on the floor of the U.S Senate.<ref>Sumner's Senate floor speech accused proponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of the "rape of virgin territory" by bringing slavery into Kansas.  Sumner said of Butler, "The senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight — I mean the harlot, slavery."</ref>

President Johnson vetoed Republican civil rights legislation and even called their leaders "traitors". Flush from winning the war, Republican Rep. Thaddeus Stevens (PA) and Sen. Charles Sumner (MA) were not about to back down on the agenda of delivering equality for former black slaves and punishing Democrats who ripped society apart and tried to destroy the Union. In 1856, shortly before the outbreak of war, Sumner delivered a speech critical of South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, author of the [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]] which legalized [[slavery]] in Western territories north of the [[Mason-Dixon Line]]. It was symptomatic of how bad the situation in the United States had deteriorated in the debate over slavery, both North and South, among the people and their elected leaders. Butler's outraged nephew Preston Brooks beat Sumner senseless with a cane on the floor of the U.S Senate.<ref>Sumner's Senate floor speech accused proponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of the "rape of virgin territory" by bringing slavery into Kansas.  Sumner said of Butler, "The senator from South Carolina has read many books of chivalry, and believes himself a chivalrous knight with sentiments of honor and courage. Of course he has chosen a mistress to whom he has made his vows, and who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight — I mean the harlot, slavery."</ref>

2/3rd vote was necessary for conviction, and it all turned on Republican Senator [[Edmund Ross]] of Kansas. Like real jurors, he spoke to no one during the proceedings and no one knew which way he was leaning. But he voted "not guilty," and President Johnson was acquitted by one vote. The Radical Republicans were defeated, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and [[Jim Crow]] arose, and Republicans shied away from civil rights issues for the next 100 years in the face of Klan terror and media opposition.  Ross was characterized as a hero in [[John F. Kennedy]]'s book ''Profiles in Courage'', for resisting Republican civil rights reform efforts for Blacks in the South, and working with Democrats.  Andrew Johnson did not run for re-election and died a drunk.

2/3rd vote was necessary for conviction, and it all turned on Republican Senator [[Edmund Ross]] of Kansas. Like real jurors, he spoke to no one during the proceedings and no one knew which way he was leaning. But he voted "not guilty," and President Johnson was acquitted by one vote. The Radical Republicans were defeated, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and [[Jim Crow]] arose, and Republicans shied away from civil rights issues for the next 100 years in the face of Klan terror and media opposition.  Ross was characterized as a hero in [[John F. Kennedy]]'s book ''Profiles in Courage'', for resisting Republican civil rights reform efforts for Blacks in the South, and working with Democrats.  Andrew Johnson did not run for re-election and died a drunk.

===Richard Nixon (1974)===

===Richard Nixon (1974)===