1865 Presents American Elections: Wicked Game

Hi, I'm Lindsey Graham, executive producer of 1865. The first three episodes of season two of 1865 have been what we've called a prologue. Rewinding a bit from where season one ended, getting into more detail about the political ramifications of Andrew Johnson's impeachment, the row over the Tenure of Office Act, and to introduce a new but major character, General Ulysses S. Grant.

Episode four of season two begins just before Grant's inauguration. I don't think it's a spoiler that he won the presidency. But though anyone who's ever seen a $50 bill knows Grant did become president, The details of his victory in 1868 aren't so well known. This week we're going to fill in those gaps with an episode from another of my podcasts, American Election's Wicked Game.

It's an in-depth tour of all 59 presidential elections, and in 1868, while Andrew Johnson went on an early and norm-breaking campaign tour to promote his re-election, he was ultimately not chosen to lead the Democratic ticket. Instead, it was Horatio Seymour of New York that went head-to-head with Grant. But the battle lines were the same.

Was the country to remain a white man's government as Seymour promised it would? Or could Grant take back the reins of Reconstruction and lead a broken nation to healing through equity? Here's episode 21 from the podcast American Election's Wicked Game. 1868 Seymour v. Grant, The Rise of the General. 1865 returns with Episode 4 of Season 2 next week.

It's April 25th, 1865, at a tobacco farm near a small hamlet town of Port Royal, Virginia. It's the middle of the night. The woods are eerily quiet. Inside the main house, the Garrett family is sound asleep. All but Richard. head of the family. The old man hasn't slept a wink. That's because there are two men, two strangers, sleeping in the tobacco barn outside. The men claim to be wounded Confederate soldiers on their way home from the war. One of the men is on crutches.

which supports their story. But there's something about these men that makes Garrett suspicious. His churning thoughts are interrupted by a loud knock on the front door. Garrett turns to his wife, who awakes with the start. Fetch my clothes. Dressed only in a nightgown, Garrett makes his way downstairs and peers through a window. Outside, a swarm of Union troops and detectives. Garrett opens the door, and an Army officer named Everton Conger wastes no time.

Are you Mr. Garrett? Yes, sir, Richard Garrett. Who is in the house with you? My family? My wife and children? Where are the two men who stopped here at your house? Garrett grows nervous. They've gone? Gone where? To the woods? A lame man gone to the woods? He walked with the help of crutches. Show me where they went. Just then, Mrs. Garrett appears in the doorway, her husband's clothes in hand. Her son, John, a young man, follows behind her.

Garrett turns to the soldier. May I go inside and dress myself? You may dress here. As Garrett slides on his pants and boots, Conger continues the interrogation. Where in the woods have they gone? I came here without my consent, sir. I did not want them to stay. I do not want any long story out of you. I just want to know where these men have gone. Please, sir, you must believe me. I did not want them to stay. Conger interrupts him and barks orders at one of his men. Bring in a lairate rope.

I will put this man at the top of a locust tree. Just then, John steps forward and calls out. Don't hurt the old man. He's scared. One of Conger's soldiers grabs John by the collar, drags him off the front porch, and puts a revolver to his head. Tell us where they are, son. In the barn. Which one? The tobacco barn. I'll take you there.

In late April 1865, members of the Union Manhunt surrounded the tobacco barn on the Garrett Farm and ordered the two fugitives inside to surrender their arms and come out. One of the fugitives obeyed. The other refused. calling out to the soldiers, Prepare a stretcher for me, boys. The tense standoff lasted throughout the night. Ultimately, the barn was lit ablaze. Shots rang out, and when the smoke cleared, the wounded fugitive was carried out of the barn.

and placed beneath the nearby locust tree. There, as the life drained from his body, the actor John Wilkes Booth, the assassin of President Abraham Lincoln, uttered his final words, useless, useless. The WNBA playoffs are in full swing, and Tommy Alters, the young man in the three, brings you closer to the game. Get complete WNBA playoff coverage as Tommy sits down with the game's biggest stars and delivers unmatched analysis.

The Young Men and the Threes WNBA playoff coverage is presented by Quest Nutrition. From irresistibly crunchy protein chips to rich chocolatey protein bars, these treats make giving in feel so good. Quest, big on protein. Low on sugar, huge on flavor. Shop Quest on Amazon at Amazon.com slash Quest Nutrition and enjoy all the WNBA action on The Young Man and the Three wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American Election's Wicked Game.

The death of Abraham Lincoln, the first U.S. president to be assassinated, devastated the Union. The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and his band of conspirators also attempted to assassinate Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Seward, and his vice president, Andrew Johnson.

There was allegedly another target as well, Lincoln's war secretary, Edwin M. Stanton. While the nation mourned the death of Lincoln, Edwin Stanton took control. He declared martial law and presided over the largest manhunt in U.S. history. Booth was ultimately killed. His conspirators captured, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death or life in prison. But Stanton never believed Booth and his gang of conspirators were rogue actors.

He believed that they were taking orders from Jefferson Davis, the president of the newly defeated Confederate government. Though the evidence proving the South's complicity was lacking, Stanton always believed the rebels were behind the attacks. The death of Abraham Lincoln also set the table for one of the greatest political showdowns in American history. On one side stood President Andrew Johnson, a notorious drunk and bigot who was sympathetic to the South.

Edwin M. Stanton, and the radical Republicans in Congress who wanted to secure Abraham Lincoln's legacy and protect the four million freed slaves in the South. The run-up to the 1868 contest, the beginning of what would come to be called the Reconstruction Era, brought about many firsts. The end of a civil war, the first president assassinated, and the first impeachment of a president in U.S. history.

In the midst of this tumult, one man would rise to power and fight to keep the country together, a hero of the Civil War who despised politics but deeply loved his country, General Ulysses S. Grant. This is Episode 21. 1868, Seymour v. Grant, The Rise of the General. The main source of disagreement between President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

centered around the issue of Reconstruction. The Civil War was over, but the Union Army still occupied the newly defeated South. The task of putting the country back together and of readmitting the southern states was President Johnson's cross to bear. Stanton and his radical Republican allies in Congress favored a punitive policy towards the South. The rebels had seceded from the Union and attempted to put down the American government. Stanton and the radicals wanted there to be consequences.

They wanted the states readmitted through an official process, whereby a southern state would only be readmitted to the Union after a substantial portion of its citizens signed a loyalty oath to uphold emancipation and support the Union. President Johnson favored a policy of universal amnesty, or pardon, towards the South. Though he had given lip service to Stanton and the radicals, Johnson wanted to readmit the Southern states with almost no strings attached.

to restore to the people of the South all rights of citizenship, including property rights to lands confiscated during the war. But hanging in the balance of this question was the future of four million freed slaves in the South. Johnson's priority was restoring the South and uniting the country. Stanton's priority was keeping the peace and using the military to support the operations of the Freedmen's Bureau, a government agency charged with the protecting of the freedmen down South.

and providing them with government support like hospitals, schools, resources, and land. Land was at the heart of the issue. The freedmen had been promised 40 acres and a mule per man. Those 40 acres would be parceled out of lands confiscated during the war. Landowners in the South wanted that land back. By all accounts, Johnson wanted to give it to them. It therefore did not take long for Stanton and Johnson to come to blows.

In April of 1866, one year after Lincoln's assassination, Johnson officially declared the rebellion over. To Johnson, his proclamation meant that army commanders in the South could no longer enforce martial law. Johnson wanted the southern state and local governments to take back control. After Johnson's proclamation, Stanton bucked the president hard. He instructed the generals to ignore Johnson's order.

to enforce martial law as needed, and to use the army to protect the freedmen and to support the Freedmen's Bureau. Stanton also ordered his generals to arrest lawbreakers and civil rights offenders who perpetrated violence against the freedmen. stanton was sending a message to the south if local authorities refused to enforce the law the military would stanton was of course putting himself in harm's way but in his mind it was a risk worth taking

Stanton was a lifelong abolitionist. Johnson, a self-professed bigot. In Stanton's mind, Johnson was an existential threat to the Union, and Stanton was the only person standing in his way. By the summer of 1866, Johnson's advisors were growing weary of the irascible, obstinate War Secretary Stanton. One advisor wrote that Edwin Stanton came to cabinet meetings not as an advisor, but as an opponent.

Johnson's Navy Secretary, Gideon Wells, despised Stanton, a man he called treacherous. But Johnson exercised restraint. He feared that firing Stanton would start a political war with the radical Republicans. But also, in the summer of 1866, Johnson had bigger worries, mainly his re-election in the 1868 contest. Johnson was an accidental president. To win in 1868, he'd have to prove himself to the people.

So in the fall of 1866, two years before the election, Johnson broke from the political norms of the day and launched what was, in effect, a full-scale presidential campaign tour. For this Swing Around the Circle tour to be successful, Johnson would need to draw large crowds. So he brought along a bona fide national hero, General Ulysses S. Grant.

Johnson had hoped that the swing around the circle tour would rally the country behind him. The result was something altogether different. Johnson's rambling and sometimes incoherent speeches were self-congratulatory, boastful, and inarticulate.

One Johnson supporter described his speaking style as aggressive and belligerent to a degree that rendered him insensitive to considerations of prudence. In a speech in St. Louis, Johnson invoked the New Orleans Riot, which had taken place in July of 1866. That riot was a bloody massacre where a mob of white Democrats, policemen, and firemen attacked a crowd of black protesters. The tragedy had resulted in over a hundred casualties. But in his speech, Johnson didn't blame the perpetrators.

He blamed the radical Republicans in Congress for inciting racial tensions. In a self-pitying turn, Johnson said of his opponents in Congress, If I have played the Judas, who has been my Christ that I have played the Judas with? Was it Thad Stevens? Was it Wendell Phillips? Was it Charles Sumner?

These are the men that stop and compare themselves to the Savior, and everybody that differs with them in opinion and to try and stay and arrest their diabolical and nefarious policy is to be denounced as a Judas. On the tour, Johnson repeatedly attacked the legitimacy of the 39th Congress and the lawfulness of the recently ratified 14th Amendment, the one that gave equal civil rights to freed slaves. General Grant was mortified at Johnson's conduct.

He wrote to his wife, I've never been so tired of anything before as I have been with the political stump speeches of Mr. Johnson. I look upon them as a national disgrace. It's not surprising then that the tour backfired.

In the 1866 midterm elections, Republicans swept both houses of Congress, winning 173 out of 226 seats in the House and all but a handful of seats in the Senate. Whispers of impeachment had begun circulating as early as the spring of 1866, but in the wake of the midterms, the radicals stopped whispering and started to take action. Republican Congressman Thaddeus Stevens wrote to a colleague that,

The time to impeach is now if we are brave enough. Yes, there is the rub, and how few brave men are there. In January of 1867, the House opened an investigation into Andrew Johnson. By February, impeachment hearings had begun behind closed doors. Johnson's Navy Secretary, Gideon Wells, wrote in his diary, There is nothing judicial or fair in this proceeding. It is sheer partisanism.

A committee is sitting in secret, a foul conspiracy, trying to hunt up charges and evidence against as pure, as honest, as patriotic a chief magistrate as we have ever had. In those closed-door hearings, the accusations against Johnson went far beyond corruption or abuse of power. Among other things, Andrew Johnson was accused of conspiring with the rebels. As President Lincoln's wife Mary Todd had written one year after her husband's murder,

As sure as you and I live, Johnson had some hand in all this. In early February, in another closed-door session, Congress heard the testimony of a military man named Colonel Lafayette C. Baker. During the war, Baker had worked as a Union spy. At the time of his testimony, he was the chief of the War Department's National Detective Police and was a central figure in the hunt for Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Baker's testimony to the members of the House Judiciary Committee was explosive. He claimed to have carried a letter from Andrew Johnson to Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Baker told the committee that he no longer had the letter in his possession. He also told the committee that he could not remember the precise contents, but he was certain that in the letter, Johnson indicated that he would go with them, meaning he would go along with Jefferson Davis' plot against Abraham Lincoln.

Baker did not tell the committee who gave him the letter, and he could not recall the date when he saw it. He was accusing Johnson of treason, of conspiring with the Confederacy against the Union. But Baker didn't stop there. He also accused Johnson of bribery. and soliciting prostitution. Baker testified that he had repeatedly prevented a Washington prostitute named Mrs. Cobb from visiting Johnson at the White House.

Baker told the committee that Mrs. Cobb had relayed to him Johnson's methods for communicating with his friends down south. Baker also alleged that Mrs. Cobb claimed that she sold pardons to former rebels on Johnson's behalf. Baker was unable to provide evidence to substantiate his claims. In the wake of Baker's testimony, even the radical Republicans were skeptical.

As one member of the Judiciary Committee explained, it is doubtful whether Baker has in any one thing told the truth, even by accident. But during the trial, there was another explosive piece of new information unearthed by the Judiciary Committee. the existence of John Wilkes Booth's diary. Most explosive of all, there were pages missing. The question of who removed those pages is one of history's unanswered mysteries. Some accused Johnson of covering his tracks by tampering with evidence.

Others accused Edwin Stanton, suggesting that he was complicit in Lincoln's assassination and that he removed the pages to protect himself. In the end, due to lack of evidence, the first attempt to impeach Andrew Johnson came up short.

But the radical Republicans did not back off the fight. They took the battle to a different front. In the spring of 1867, Congress simultaneously passed two laws that set the stage for a political showdown between the president... and his ornery war secretary, Edwin Stanton. It's March 4th, 1867, just after 10 a.m. in the President's Room at the Capitol Building.

President Andrew Johnson has assembled his entire cabinet for an emergency session on Capitol Hill. Congress has just passed a new law, a military appropriations bill. The bill is unusual for several reasons. One, it restricts Johnson's authority over the Army's military occupation of the South. Two, the bill was not written by Congress, not entirely. It was authored in part by Johnson's War Secretary, Edwin M. Stanton.

As Johnson plops a copy of the bill down on his desk in front of him, Stanton silently observes from the back of the room. Question is simple, gentlemen. Should I sign it? Or should I issue a veto? I want everyone to weigh in on this.

Johnson's Secretary of the Interior, Orville Hickman Browning, leads off. Mr. President, this bill is an attack on your presidency. It curtails your authority over the Army. It makes it illegal for you to issue military orders without the express approval of General Grant.

You must issue a veto. But the radicals have the numbers in Congress, Mr. Browning. What good is a symbolic veto? In the interest of protecting the office of the presidency, you must reject the bill. Symbolic or not, your veto will most certainly find its way before the courts.

And suppose the court side with Congress? The law is unconstitutional, sir, and the radicals in Congress know it. Browning sets a piece of paper on Johnson's desk. Mr. President, I've taken the liberty of drafting a veto. Sign it, sir. Defend your presidency. Johnson picks up the paper and considers it for a moment. Then he turns to his war secretary and stares daggers at him. If someone has an argument to make in favor of this bill, now is the time to make it.

As the cabinet debates the appropriations bill, Johnson doesn't take his eyes off Edwin Stanton. Stanton hardly says a word. Johnson knows Stanton is the author of the bill. and he knows his war secretary wants nothing more than to limit his presidential authority. After hearing both sides of the question, Johnson presses Stanton. Mr. Stanton. Yes, Mr. President. I wish to know your thoughts on this Army bill.

The decision is yours, Mr. President. Yes, but I wish to know your opinion. I do not approve of a veto, Mr. President. I thought you might not. As Secretary Seward already explained, sir, if you veto the bill, the Army will be thrown into disarray. Now more than ever, the military is critical to stability in the southern states. He must give General Grant the authority to uphold the law, to keep the peace, and to do his job. And suppose I disagree. As I said, Mr. President.

The decision is yours. I do not wish to jeopardize our troops on the ground. Then you must sign it, Mr. President. Johnson hesitates for a moment. Then he reaches for a pen and signs the bill. I will be issuing a statement of protest to Congress. Do you have any objections to that, Mr. Stanton? Do you approve? I approve you're taking whatever course you may think best.

President Johnson signed the first bill, a bill limiting his military authority, making it illegal for the president to issue military orders that were not first approved by the head of the army. It was a bill Stanton wrote and a bill Stanton wanted passed. The second bill was the Tenure of Office Act, introduced in March of 1867, and it was even more controversial. Throughout his presidency, Johnson aggressively dismantled President Lincoln's government.

removing over a thousand Lincoln Loyalists and replacing them with Johnson men. The radical Republicans in Congress feared Johnson might go after Lincoln's cabinet as well. In no uncertain terms, the Tenure of Office Act stated that Just as the Senate must give its approval for cabinet-level positions, the Senate must also give its approval for firing them. Johnson could not dismiss any Senate-appointed executive without the Senate's blessing. Edwin Stanton was one of the men protected.

Again, Johnson asked Stanton his opinion of the law. This time, Stanton feigned outrage. He emphatically urged Johnson to wield his veto power. Stanton called the Tenure of Office Act unconstitutional and derided Congress for going too far. Johnson heeded Stanton's advice and vetoed the bill. But as expected, Congress wielded its two-thirds majority and passed the law anyway. It's likely that Stanton's outrage was pure theatrics.

It's also likely that the Tenure of Office Act was Stanton's brainchild. Indeed, the radical Republicans had passed the law specifically to protect Stanton, their greatest ally in the White House. Congressman Stevens had been clever with the language in the Tenure of Office Act. Section 6 stated that violations of law were high misdemeanors. This was a direct reference to language in Article 2, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution.

The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United States shall be removed from office on impeachment for and conviction of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. The radical Republicans were laying a trap, an impeachment trap for President Johnson. And in the end, Johnson would take the bait.

By the summer of 1867, Johnson was ready to rid himself of Edwin Stanton. Johnson and his allies suspected that Stanton and the radical Republicans in Congress were conspiring to undermine his presidency. As part of the earlier impeachment inquiry, Congress had subpoenaed Johnson's personal finance records in an attempt to prove Johnson had been illegally selling off pardons to Southerners. Though Johnson hemmed and hawed, he ultimately complied with Congress's request.

The records had not produced any evidence, but the subpoena had angered Johnson and his allies. In May, Navy Secretary Wells wrote in his diary, No facts, no charges, no malconduct are known or preferred. more scandalous villainy never disgraced the country. Adding insult to injury, Congress continued to pass laws that limited Johnson's authority over Reconstruction and put power into the hands of War Secretary Edwin Stanton.

Finally, for Johnson, enough was enough. So he hatched a plan. To make his scheme work, he would again need the help of his general-in-chief, Ulysses S. Grant. General Grant was not a perfect man. Like Johnson, Grant had often been accused of drunkenness, but his military service had earned him widespread respect. As his colleague General Sherman said, General Grant is a great general. I know him well.

He stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk. Now, sir, we stand by each other always. Not everyone agreed. Navy Secretary Wells called Grant an ignoramus, who had no political principles and no intelligent ideas of constitutional government. General Grant was, at his core, a soldier. He was not instinctively savvy to the political games being played in Washington. But in the late summer of 1867, Grant would have to learn through a trial by fire.

On August 1, 1867, Johnson summoned Grant to his office and made his intentions known. He wanted to be rid of Edwin Stanton, and he wanted Grant to replace him. Grant and Johnson had not always seen eye to eye. Since the war's end, Johnson had grown more sympathetic to the South's plight. Grant had grown more aligned with the radical Republicans. The two men butted heads often. When Johnson offered Grant the role of interim war secretary,

Grant bridled, insisting that Stanton's removal was a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson also expressed his desire to remove General Sheridan, one of Grant's subordinates, a man tasked with overseeing Reconstruction in the South. Grant was stunned. But Grant was also a soldier, and President Johnson was his superior. Grant would do as he was instructed. After the meeting, Grant returned to his office and drafted a letter explaining his opposition to Johnson's decision.

In the letter, Grant insisted that the removal of Stanton and Sheridan was illegal and improper, but Johnson moved forward anyway. Four days later, on August 5th, the president sent Stanton a message. Public considerations of a high character constrain me to say, that your resignation as Secretary of War will be accepted. Stanton quickly sent his reply. Public considerations of a high character, which alone have induced me to continue at the head of this department, constrain me not to resign.

Again, Johnson summoned Grant to the White House. This time, he demanded to know if Grant had a personal problem with him that might interfere with his duties as interim war secretary. Grant expressed to Johnson that their disagreement was over policy.

Over the 14th Amendment and the Reconstruction Acts, it was nothing personal. On August 12th, Johnson sent Stanton another letter, this time modulating his position in a bit of political strategy. Johnson was not firing Stanton. The letter explained, only suspending him and appointing Grant as interim war secretary. In the end, the Senate would have to weigh in. Stanton had no choice. He surrendered the War Department to General Grant. With Stanton out of the way, Johnson went right to work.

First, he removed General Sheridan, then General Daniel Sickles. Sickles had aggressively enforced Reconstruction laws in the South, which made him Johnson's political enemy. Grant was furious. He protested the decision, but there was little else he could do.

Johnson replaced Sheridan and Sickles with conservative generals who would defer to the southern state governments over the military. Next, Johnson passed an amnesty proclamation. giving full pardon to all Southerners except for certain classes of Confederate officers and government officials. Throughout the late fall and winter of 1867, Congress went back and forth on whether or not to impeach Andrew Johnson.

The problem was a lack of criminal evidence. After months of investigations, the House Judiciary Committee issued its findings. Johnson was an immoral man, a bigot, but he had violated no law. The Radical Republicans worried that impeaching Johnson on purely moral grounds would be seen as a partisan political maneuver. So in December of 1867, the Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee again voted against moving forward with impeachment.

But on the question of Edwin Stanton, they fired a shot across Johnson's bow. On January 11th, the Senate voted in favor of reinstating Stanton. The next morning, General Grant gathered his things. composed a letter to Johnson explaining his decision to step aside, and surrendered his office back to Edwin Stanton. Less than an hour later, Stanton took possession of the War Department. Furious at the General's betrayal, Johnson attacked Grant in the press.

calling him a duplicitous traitor. Grant responded by writing a letter that would set Johnson's impeachment in motion. In the letter, Grant recalled that President Johnson had indeed attempted to violate the Tenure of Office Act. that he had wanted Grant to remove Stanton with or without the Senate's approval. It was only Grant's refusal that prevented Johnson from sacking Stanton. On February 3rd, the House clerk read Grant's letter to the members of Congress. It was thanks to this letter...

that the House had their first piece of evidence. Johnson had solicited Grant to violate the Tenure of Office Act. Days later, Congressman Thaddeus Stevens was hard at work on a new impeachment resolution. On February 10th, the House transferred the impeachment inquiry from the Judiciary Committee to the Committee on Reconstruction. As chair, Thaddeus Stevens was now in control of the inquiry.

To vindicate himself, Johnson released letters from multiple cabinet members backing his decision to suspend Stanton. Johnson's argument was that he had not actually fired Stanton. Even after Grant's betrayal, though he was well within his rights,

He had not taken punitive action against the general. On the floor of the House, Thaddeus Stevens attacked this position. If the president's statement is true, then he has been guilty of a high official misdemeanor. If the general's statement is true... then Johnson has been guilty of a high official misdemeanor. By suspending Stanton, Johnson had walked right up to the precipice of his own impeachment. In February of 1868, he would jump off the ledge.

He would leave Congress with little choice but to take action. It's late February 1868 at the War Department in Washington. General Lorenzo Thomas storms through the front door of the War Department, an armed colonel at his side. Inside his office, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton is conversing with a handful of Republican congressmen.

As Thomas barges into Stanton's office, one of the congressmen grabs a pen and paper and takes notes of the ensuing standoff. Mr. Thomas, what are you doing? That's Secretary Thomas. Days ago, President Johnson fired Edwin Stanton. He named Lorenzo Thomas interim war secretary and ordered Thomas to take possession of Stanton's office. Thomas tried to follow Johnson's orders, but Stanton responded by having Thomas arrested and thrown in jail.

Now out on bail, Thomas is none too happy. I am the Secretary of War at interim, and I am ordered by the President of the United States to take charge of this office. But Stanton is stubborn. I order you to repair to your own room. Exercise your office as Adjutant General. I shall not do so. Then you may stand there if you please, Mr. Thomas, but you will attempt to act as Secretary of War at your peril. I shall act as Secretary of War.

A broad smile spreads across Stanton's face. And what, may I ask, is so amusing that you claim to be here as Secretary of War and refuse to obey my orders as Secretary of War? This is no laughing matter, Mr. Stanton. I have orders from the President. You will surrender this office and turn over to me all official correspondences. Just then, Stanton turns to one of his subordinates. Fetch a bottle for the General. Yes, sir. Come.

Have a seat, William. Lorenzo Thomas is the sort of man who never says no to a drink, so he joins Stanton for a moment of reprieve. Thomas warily takes the seat across from Stanton. Next time you have me arrested, please do not do it before I get something to eat. I've had nothing to eat or drink all day. Stanton laughs. He puts his hand on Thomas' neck and tussles his hair. Stanton pours two glasses of scotch.

and says with a smile, now this, at least, is neutral ground. After their drink, Thomas was forced to accept a hard fact about Edwin Stanton, a man who was often called rough and despotic. He was also stubborn as a mule. Stanton did not leave his office. Lorenzo Thomas was forced to return to the White House in defeat. After their confrontation, Stanton barricaded himself inside the War Department. Stanton was in poor health.

wracked with an asthmatic condition that had plagued him throughout his life. But still, Stanton refused to leave his office, even to see his doctor or visit his family. With few exceptions, he would remain in the War Department for months.

until the matter of Johnson's impeachment was settled once and for all. On February 25th, Thaddeus Stevens stood before the members of the House and declared, We do impeach Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors. The impeachment resolution passed the House along party lines, 126 to 47.

Based largely on the testimony of General Lorenzo Thomas, the House would ultimately adopt 11 articles of impeachment. The majority of the articles focused on the various legal ramifications of Johnson's violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The last two articles, Articles 10 and 11, got to the heart of the matter. Johnson had attempted to undermine Congress and its laws.

As president, he had been unmindful of the high duties of his oath, and he sought to bring into disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States. On Wednesday, March 4th, the House presented the articles to the Senate, where Johnson's presidency would be put on trial. The next day, the Court on Impeachment convened, and Salen P. Chase, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, took the oath as presiding officer.

Throughout the trial, which would last through May of 1868, rumors in the press were rampant. Many papers claimed that Stanton had called up troops to defend his right to the War Department. Others claimed Johnson had called up the Southern militias to defend his presidency. Behind the scenes, political maneuvering was equally abundant. Supporters of Johnson's scheme to seduce senators to their side. Allegedly, friends of Johnson went so far as to buy votes with a slush fund of $150,000.

the equivalent of over $2 million in today's money. In order to convict Johnson, the Republicans needed 36 senators to find Johnson guilty. In the end, the Republicans would be one vote short. On May 16th, Johnson was acquitted on the 11th article, which was believed to be the surest bet for the radical Republicans. The tally was 35 guilty, 19 not guilty. Ten days later, after an adjournment,

The Senate voted on the first and second article. Both votes achieved the same results. The Republicans gave up. A motion to adjourn passed the Senate, and the trial was over. Stanton had no choice but to surrender the War Department. His health failing him, Stanton would not be long for the world. His final act of public service would be on the campaign trail, where he would be an advocate for his candidate of choice in the upcoming presidential election, General Grant.

President Johnson had been acquitted, but his reputation and his pride had been severely wounded. Johnson blamed two men, Edwin Stanton and General Grant. During the impeachment kerfuffle, Johnson had told reporters that by opposing him, Grant was playing a political game and trying to position himself as the radical candidate for the presidency. But Grant had not angled for the White House.

He had only done what he had thought was right. When his wife Julia asked him if he wanted the presidency, Grant replied, No, but I do not see that I have anything to say about it. The convention is about to assemble, and from all I hear, they will nominate me. And I suppose if I am nominated, I will be elected. Ulysses Grant was never a political man. In fact, he had only voted in one presidential contest in 1856 when he voted for Democrat James Buchanan.

The Civil War and the fight for Reconstruction had caused Grant to abandon the Democrats and gravitate towards the Republican Party. By May of 1868, Grant was starting to realize that his fame, popularity, and war hero status... put him in a unique position to unite the Republican Party, win the White House, and protect free slaves from a growing threat in the South, the Ku Klux Klan.

It's May 1868 in Washington. General Grant sits at his desk at his office at Army headquarters, hard at work. The knock at the door hardly breaks his concentration. Come in. Grant's military aide, Adam Badeau, enters the room with a stack of papers in his hand. These are for you, General. Dispatches from the convention in Chicago. Is there any word? No, sir. Not as of yet. I'll let you know the moment word arrives. Set them on my desk.

Yes, sir. Badeau does as he's told, but he doesn't leave Grant to his work. He lingers for a moment. Is that all? Sir, will you accept the nomination? A soldier must always do his duty. Badeau can see from the expression on Grant's face that the prospect of the presidency weighs heavily on him. Badeau does his best to offer comfort. May I bring you anything, sir? No. That will be all. Yes, sir.

But before Bado has a chance to exit, he stops short when he hears the sound of heavy panting and clomping footsteps making their way up the stairs in the hallway outside. Like a bull in a china shop, Former Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton bursts into Grant's office. General. Grant leaps to his feet, perturbed. Don't you know how to knock? It's done. What's done? Stanton catches his breath and gathers himself before he speaks.

I've come to tell you that you have been nominated by the Republican Party for President of the United States. Badeau turns to look at Grant. On his face, Badeau sees no signs of joy or exultation. No agitation or despair, Grant is stone-faced. Without a word, he says only, I would light the room, please. Yes, General. Of course. As Stanton and Badeau give him the room, Grant sits down at his desk.

He takes out a fresh piece of paper, grabs a pen, and tries to write an acceptance speech. But the words don't come easily. In the end, Grant will speak from the heart. His speech, recorded for posterity by Adam Bodeau, read, Gentlemen. Being entirely unaccustomed to public speaking, without the desire to cultivate the power, it is impossible for me to find appropriate language to thank you for this demonstration. All that I can say is, that to whatever position I may be called by your will,

I shall endeavor to discharge its duties with fidelity and honesty of purpose. Of my rectitude in the performance of public duties, you will have to judge for yourselves by the record before you.

In late May 1868, just a few days after Andrew Johnson's acquittal, General Grant was nominated as the Republican candidate for president. Schuyler Colfax, the Speaker of the House from Indiana, was selected as Grant's running mate. In his acceptance letter, Grant wrote four words that summed up the spirit of his campaign, words that would become the official slogan of the Grant Colfax ticket. Let us have peace. Republicans had lost the impeachment battle.

But they had succeeded in weakening Andrew Johnson. At the Democratic National Convention in early July, Democrats cut ties with Johnson and rallied instead around Horatio Seymour, a popular former governor of New York. The Democratic platform was an appeal to the country's bigotry. Democrats chided radical Republicans in Congress, calling Reconstruction the tyrannical work of despots who were hell-bent on subjugating the South under the banner of Negro supremacy.

The Republican platform played to the other side of America. They attacked Democrats as a party of disloyal traitors. Their motto, not every Democrat was a rebel, but every rebel was a Democrat. The election of 1868 was, therefore, a referendum on Reconstruction. Slavery had been eradicated by the 13th Amendment, and the 14th Amendment, which was meant to guarantee black citizenship, had been ratified in July of 1868.

But the question of how best to put the country back together still loomed large. So did an even bigger question. Whose country would it be? In the 1868 campaign, Horatio Seymour broke from precedent and launched a campaign tour throughout the North. The Democrats' motto was a clear appeal to bigotry. This is a white man's country. Let white men rule.

One of Seymour's fiercest campaigners was his vice presidential nominee, former Union General Frank Blair. Just before the convention, Blair had demanded that the Democratic nominee declare the Reconstruction Act's null and void. compel the army to undo its usurpations at the South and allow the white people to reorganize their own governments. In late July, Blair was on the attack, telling the New York Times that General Grant was a tyrant.

who wanted to subjugate millions of white people in the South, fixed to the earth with his bayonets. Blair promised to prevent the people of our race from being driven out of the country or trodden underfoot by an inferior and semi-barbarous race. On the campaign trail, Democrats mocked and ridiculed Grant. One popular anti-Grant song went, I am Captain Grant of the Black Marines, the stupidest man that ever was seen. Democrats painted Grant as a drunk.

a race traitor and a useful idiot for the radical Republicans in Congress. Grant did not openly campaign, nor did he defend himself against Seymour and Blair's attacks. Taking his cues from George Washington, Grant remained a silent spectator to the wicked game. But in the election of 1868, that game turned violent. In many states like South Carolina and Mississippi, black Americans were able to vote.

for the first time. Between Grant and Seymour, the choice for the black community was largely an easy one. As the famous abolitionist crusader Frederick Douglass wrote, does anybody want a revised edition of Andrew Johnson in the presidential chair for the next four years?

But as many black Americans prepared to cast the first vote of their lives for Grant, many white Americans violently resisted. Throughout the 1868 campaign, the Ku Klux Klan, which had recruited hundreds of thousands of new members in 1868 alone,

terrorized Black Americans and white Republicans in the South. Many of these white Republicans were what Southerners called carpetbaggers, Northern transplants who moved down South to facilitate Reconstruction. Southern Democrats did not take kindly to their presence.

In Louisiana, Democrats destroyed a Republican newspaper office and ran its editor out of town by force. In Georgia, a mob of armed whites opened fire on a crowd of largely black Americans marching peacefully in support of General Grant. These were not isolated incidents. During the 1868 campaign, violence against the freedmen was rampant. President Johnson's White House was no help. In the face of this violence, Johnson looked the other way.

But in the end, the Klan's intimidation tactics were not enough to overcome General Grant's popularity. On November 3rd, Grant went to the polls to participate in only his second presidential election. He voted Republican all the way down the ballot, save for one category. He left President blank. After voting, Grant spent the evening at a friend's home where a telegraph was set up so he could receive real-time updates.

But according to Adam Badeau, Grant was calm and collected. As Badeau would later write, I often saw Grant show more interest over a game of cards than on that night when the presidency was played for. Around midnight, the final results came in. Grant had won. He walked outside to the front porch of his friend's home and made a speech to a gathering crowd. Grant kept it brief. The responsibilities of the position I feel, but I accept them without fear.

If I can have the same support which has been given to me thus far. Grant won the popular vote by just over 300,000 ballots. Winning all but eight states, Grant's victory was a true electoral route. 214 to 80. with nearly every southern state going to Grant. The two notable exceptions were Louisiana and Georgia, both hotbeds of Klan violence and voter intimidation. Klan violence was rampant in other southern states as well.

including Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina. Still in the face of intimidation and under threat, hundreds of thousands of freed slaves showed up to the polls, cast their votes for the Republican Party, and helped put General Grant in the White House. The Grant administration would, in part at least, make good on its promise to black America. But the path towards progress would be riddled with opposition, as the resistance in the South grew more organized, more oppressive, and more violent.

Grant's first term would also be beset by scandal, leading many to wonder if he would be the second president to be impeached. On the next episode of Wicked Game, the election of 1872... During his first term, President Grant faces down the KKK, a slew of scandals, and a political movement aimed at deposing his presidency and turning back the clock on social progress. Don't miss a single week of our march from 1789 to 2020.

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and I'm at Lindsey A. Graham. Another way to support this show is to go to wickedgamepodcast.com. Members there get early access to ad-free episodes as well as bonus content only available to patrons. Find out more at wickedgamepodcast.com.

and about our reenactments. In most cases, we can't know exactly what was said, but everything in our show is heavily researched and based on surviving historical documents. Wicked Game is an airship production. Created, hosted, and executive produced by me, Lindsey Graham.

Sound design by Derek Behrens. Co-executive produced by Stephen Walters in association with Ritual Productions. This episode was written and researched by Stephen Walters. Fact-checking by Greg Jackson and CL Salazar from the podcast History That Doesn't Suck. Music by Lindsey Graham. distributed by Wondery.