Classic Book Library : History : History Of The Impeachment Of Andrew Johnson : Chapter 11 : Page 1 of 25 The Impeachers In A Maze. A Recess Ordered. THE FINAL VOTE TAKEN.The defeat of the Eleventh Article was the second official set-back to the Impeachment movement--the first being the practical abandonment of the First Article by the change in the order of voting. The vote had been taken on what its friends seemed to consider its strongest proposition; the Eleventh Article having been so framed as to group the substance, practically, of all the pending ten Articles. The impeachers had staked their cause upon that Article, and lost. They seemed not to have contemplated the possibility of its defeat. So confident were they of its success, in which event it would be immaterial what became of the other Articles, that they apparently had agreed upon no order of procedure after that should have been defeated. They were in the condition of a flock of game into which the sportsman had fired a shot and broken its ranks. They were dazed, and for a moment seemed not to know what next to do, or which way to turn. They did not dare now go back to the fated First Article, according to the program agreed upon, as Mr. Sherman and Mr. Howe had demonstrated its weakness, and they were fearful of going to the Second or Third, as in the then temper of the anti-impeachers it was manifest there would be little hope for either of them, and the other eight had been already beaten without a vote, at the conference previously held, and by Republican commitals. Copyright © 2004-2005 Classic Book Library |