- Historic Sites Why They Impeached Andrew Johnson One of the
saddest tales in American history tells how a well-intentioned
President lost a dazzling opportunity December 1956 | Volume 8,
Issue 1 At St. Louis, when a Radical voice shouted that Johnson
was a “Judas,” the President flamed up in rage. “There was a
Judas and he was one of the twelve apostles,” he retorted. “…
The twelve apostles had a Christ. … If I have played the Judas,
who has been my Christ that I have played the Judas with? Was it
Thad Stevens? Was it Wendell Phillips? Was it Charles Sumner?”
Over mingled hisses and applause, he shouted, “These are the men
that stop and compare themselves with the Saviour; and everybody
that differs with them … is to be denounced as a Judas.” Johnson
had played into his enemies’ hands. His Radical foes denounced
him as a “trickster,” a “culprit,” a man “touched with insanity,
corrupted with lust, stimulated with drink.” More serious in
consequence was the reaction of northern moderates, such as
James Russel