Impeachment

<p><span class="deck">One of the saddest tales in American history tells how a well-intentioned President lost a dazzling opportunity</span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> Was it, as Navy Secretary Welles believed, “a conspiracy to overthrow the government”?</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck"> <span class="typestyle"> In which a President fails to fulfill his constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.” And a reluctant Congress acts.</span> </span></p>

<p><span class="deck">William Jefferson Clinton, Andrew Johnson, and the judgment of history</span></p>

<p>The Senate convened 20 years ago to determine whether President Bill Clinton had committed "high crimes and misdemeanors"</p>

<p>Representatives objected to Tyler’s vetoes, arguing that the president should be “dependent upon and responsible to” Congress.</p>

<p>Congress debated a resolution to impeach Jefferson because of an appointment that Federalists thought suspicious — an early precedent that clarified Congressional roles in oversight.</p>

<p>Although he was scrupulously honest, Andrew Johnson angered members of Congress by thwarting their plans for Reconstruction.</p>

<p>Distinguished historians have written extensively on the misconduct in presidential administrations since George Washington.</p>

<p>What is this latest impeachment gambit really about? Of course, it is meant to discredit President Trump’s supporters and perhaps stop him from running for president again.</p>

<p>Partisan politics, plus the media’s focus on Clinton’s personal life, created a presidency under siege and consumed by scandals—some serious, others trivial.</p>

<p>Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.</p>

<p>Trump is the most transformative one-term President in 175 years, but historians will not be kind.</p>