The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
The impeachment hearings going on now in Washington, D.C. are historic, in that it is only the third time in our nation’s history they have been conducted. I can remember the last time, when Richard Nixon was under fire. But no one living can remember what happened when the first hearings took place.
But through the magic of the Internet (and FamSite), we can visit what went on in 1867 when President Andrew Johnson was impeached and survived by one vote. The site is called The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, and here you will find contemporary coverage from the Harper’s Weekly publication over the entire sequence of events. Harper’s Weekly was a major publication in the 19th century, sort of a Time/Newsweek/People/ New Yorker magazine all rolled into one. It’s coverage of current events rivals today’s news organizations, but you will see after reading some of the articles that reporting styles have changed over the past 130 years.
Here you can get a first hand look at an event that has been put into it’s historical perspective. One can only wonder if history will treat current events in the same way.