TRUMP’S TERRIBLE PRECEDENT: GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT BLOCKS PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON’S ATTEMPT TO REVERSE THE RESULTS OF THE CIVIL WAR

THIS SEMINAR, DISCUSSES THE SECOND OF THREE PRECEDENTS WHERE THE U.S. ARMY REFUSED PRESIDENTIAL ORDERS. THIS SEMINAR WILL BE IN TWO PARTS. PART 1 TODAY

Contemporary charcoal sketch published in Leslie’s Illustrated News

THE FLOOR OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ON THE PASSAGE OF THE 13TH AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY JANUARY 31, 1865

Case II. Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant Part 1.

I. INTRODUCTION:

In 1865 with the passage of the 13th Amendment outlawing slavery, the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the succession of Vice President Andrew Johnson, a border State Democrat, to the Presidency, an historic split occurred between the Republican abolitionist Congress and the sitting President. The Congress had just abolished slavery ( see above contemporary ink drawing) but the plantations owned by the southern aristocracy made so wealthy by slavery still existed. If the plantations were not also abolished, the freed slaves would become serfs, tied to the land, with nowher…