Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy by David O. Stewart Page B

Sherman of Ohio wrote his brother, General William Sherman, “I almost fear he contemplates civil war.” At a Republican caucus that month, Radical George Boutwell of Massachusetts accused Johnson of being part of a conspiracy to turn the government over to the Southern rebels. Shortly after Congress adjourned in late July, the governor of Virginia reactivated that state’s militia and petitioned the federal government for weapons. The prospect of armed Virginians in uniform chilled many Northern hearts. Johnson had the power to deny the request but did not do so. Wary of both Virginians and the president, General Grant dragged his feet in responding.
    In the third week of August, shortly before his Swing Around the Circle, Johnson suspended martial law everywhere in the country. Charles Sumner of Massachusetts feared that the president was planning a coup d’état, which would mean “revolution and another civil war.” Another Republican senator remembered that the president’s supporters freely discussed the use of force against Congress, a prospect that became “rather common talk.”
    Rumors focused on schemes by Johnson to replace Congress. One report had him asking his attorney general whether a Congress consisting only of Northern Democrats and Southern congressmen could supplant the hated Congress of Thad Stevens. Johnson mused to General Grant about the possibility of such an alternative Congress. Versions of this alarming conversation spread like wildfire, often including a follow-up question from the president to Grant: which side would the army support in a showdown? Grant’s reported response ranged from the Delphic “whichever side the law was on” to the steadfast assertion that the army would stand by the current Congress.
    Republicans grew jumpy. Stanton told congressional allies that he and Grant feared an armed takeover by the president. An Ohio congressman formed a “club for watchfulness” in August of 1866, while Grant sent an aide to Tennessee to “ascertain all you can with reference to secret Military organizations that are rumored to be forming within the state.” Grant sent a warning to his wartime protégé, General Philip Sheridan, then commanding troops in the South.
    I much fear that we are fast approaching the point where he [Johnson] will want to declare [Congress] itself illegal, unconstitutional, and revolutionary. Commanders in the Southern states will have to take great care to see, if a crisis does come, that no armed headway can be made against the Union.
     
    As a precaution, Grant quietly transferred weapons away from federal arsenals in the South and canceled plans that would take him out of Washington.
    The anxiety on the president’s side was equally high. Reports circulated that midwestern governors met in St. Louis to commission 30,000 “boys in blue” to march on Washington as soon as Congress convened in December. Johnson suspected the Grand Army of the Republic, the new organization of Union Army veterans. In September, he dispatched an agent to investigate its activities. The agent claimed that the GAR, with arms provided by midwestern governors, would march on Washington to unseat the president by force. Citing a report from Indiana, a Cabinet Secretary insisted that “there was a conspiracy on foot to overthrow the government and set up a military dictatorship.” A North Carolina newspaper suggested that Congress might need to be cleared of Radicals “at the point of the bayonet,” as the police in New Orleans had used bullets to clear out the Louisiana Negroes earlier that summer.
    Tensions boiled higher when the pro-Johnson governor of Maryland demanded federal troops to keep the peace during that state’s November elections. A former slave state with strong Southern identification, Maryland had just revived its militia, mostly Confederate veterans. The state was angrily divided over the controversial process of deciding which ex-rebels would be