🏛️ The Glitched Gavel S01E10: The House vs. The President (The Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson)

Gavel (The Narrator/Prosecutor): "Washington D.C., 1868. The nation was still reeling from the Civil War, and the battle lines had simply moved from the battlefield to the Senate floor. This week, we cover the first-ever impeachment trial of a U.S. President: Andrew Johnson. Accused of high crimes and misdemeanors, Johnson stood before the Senate, facing a furious Republican Congress determined to punish him for obstructing Reconstruction and defying the will of the legislature." (The sound of a large, ticking clock is amplified, accelerating rapidly before failing with a corrupted electronic buzz.)

Static (The Analyst/Defense): "The core charge was his violation of the Tenure of Office Act—a highly questionable law passed by Congress to specifically restrict the President's power to fire cabinet members. Johnson dared to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, an act Congress seized upon. This trial wasn't about criminal activity; it was a bare-knuckle brawl over the balance of power. We scrutinize the evidence and the political calculus: Was this trial legitimate, or was it a thinly veiled legislative coup designed to make the President a puppet of Congress?"

Gavel: "We detail the dramatic, seven-week proceedings, presided over by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, and the intense pressure applied to every Senator. The vote came down to a single senator, Edmund G. Ross, whose 'not guilty' vote by the narrowest possible margin—one vote shy of the necessary two-thirds—spared Johnson. The verdict was an acquittal, but the precedent was set: impeachment would forever remain a political weapon. The Glitched Gavel analyzes the fragility of democracy when the Gavel itself is swayed by partisan fury."