Tide Turns Case 1
Ward Hill Lamon on Johnson’s Impeachment
Ward Hill Lamon, U.S. marshal of Washington D.C., carried this William Trantor 5-cylinder revolver while protecting President Lincoln. It was a gift from Lt. Col. Elias Greene.
Lamon not only acted to safeguard Lincoln; he was protector of Lincoln’s peaceful unification plans for the South long after his death. Lamon believed President Andrew Johnson’s Amnesty Proclamations were in keeping with Lincoln’s ideals. But Radical Republicans disagreed and for many reasons wanted Johnson impeached. In this letter written September 19, 1867, Lamon declined an invitation to speak in support of Johnson because of a prior engagement. But “Hill,” as friends called him, opined “we shall have…a pretend free republican constitutional government…[that] plunder[s] and decimate[s] its people,” if a man elected by the people loses the presidency. He believed Radical Republicans must be stopped: no “revolutionist [should be placed in] [Johnson’s] office.”
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MS-SC2931
Ward H. Lamon to P. W. Browning, Dr. Charles Wells, and Others, 19 September 1867
1
Washington DC
Sept 19. 1867–
To Messrs
P W Browning, Dr. Charles Wells and others– committee &c–
Gentleman
I have received your invitation to be present and address a mass meeting of the friends of President Johnson on the 21st instant.
If my professional engagements for that day did not prevent, I should certainly be with you, and add my voice to swell the prayer of the people for an economical & constitutional administration of the government.
I good citizen can no more adhere to the dominating faction in congress, at this critical moment in our country’s affairs, than he could have given “aid and comfort” to the public enemy in the late war.
2
The claim that any partisan majority in the national legislature, represents the people at large in a closer and more direct manner than the President, is false in fact and in theory. Representatives are elected by single districts, and senators by State Legislatures. The latter often plot bargain & bug the way to their seats, while the former are often floated in on petty local questions, or little trades in county politics– On the contrary, the President is chosen by the whole people, voting on the same day and is essentially and solely their representative—their tribune armed with their veto, and charge specially to “preserve, protect and defend,” their constitution. They “the people” ordained and established it as “the supreme law of the land.” Mr. Johnson is not the first President who has had to look at the holiest part of the his oath and shield that sacred instrument against the assaults of a fierce faction, which claimed to represent the country.
Letter Audio