Why Americans Are So Skeptical of Impeachment

The Case Against Andrew Johnson in 1868 Taught Us That Trying to Remove a President Doesn’t Fix the Nation’s Deeper Problems

In light of sharp disagreements about whether House Democrats should impeach President Donald Trump, it is worth noting that, by their very nature, impeachment efforts have always stirred controversy, and surely none more so than the first one, which finally resulted in President Andrew Johnson retaining his office by a single vote in 1868. Revisiting that first impeachment and the conflicting narratives that grew out of it can provide a clearer sense, both of the fundamentally political nature of the process and of the critical importance of historical context in …