Last week, I was scanning the local radio stations when I happened upon an NPR interview featuring Jon Meacham. If I’m not mistaken, this man was an editor for Newsweek magazine and now fashions himself a presidential historian. As far as I’m concerned, liberals are incapable of truth, and their historiographies should be looked upon with a suspect eye.
The following excerpt is an illustration of Mr. Meacham's history:
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The election of President Trump got Jon Meacham thinking. Meacham is a journalist and historian. He's written biographies of presidents. He wrote a book about faith. The 2016 election prompted him to combine those two subjects and more in a book called "The Soul Of America." It's an exploration of the history of a country whose soul, he says, includes Martin Luther King and the Ku Klux Klan and much in between.
JON MEACHAM: The question I get asked all the time is, has it ever been this bad? And the answer is yes. In fact, it's been worse. We are in a very, I believe, perilous moment because of the president of the United States. I will state that. But I also think it's worth pointing out that Andrew Johnson announced that African-Americans were genetically incapable of self-government.
INSKEEP: This is the president after the Civil War.
MEACHAM: He was a bully. He was self-absorbed. He gave self-pitying speeches. Any of this sound familiar? You know, as Mark Twain is reputed to have said - history may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. The story of American history is that we have, in fact, moved forward. And what we've done - and the reason I wanted to look back at these moments - is what have been the moments where presidents have either been really right and led us forcefully and proactively? And what about the moments where they've been really wrong? And how did we overcome that?
Now that’s libtard history for you. First of all, Andrew Johnson was a man of his times, meaning the vast majority of Americans believed ex-slaves were incapable of self-government. Hell, there were blacks who acknowledged that they, in their present state of ignorance, had no understanding of Western civilization and the principles of our federalist system. Negro rule in South Carolina and Louisiana was a perfect example of what President Andrew Johnson, and others like him, feared.
However, I will say Presidents Johnson and Trump have a lot in common but not for the reasons Mr. Meacham spewed. What our glorified historian omitted is that both men had to deal with radicals in both Congress and their administrations. We all know what President Trump is going through; President Johnson dealt with something very similar.
The administrative state didn’t exist during the time of Reconstruction; instead, President Johnson had to deal with an overzealous Congress and their embeds in his cabinet. When the Radical Republicans forced the Reconstruction Acts along with the Tenure of Office Act over Johnson’s veto, he knew he had a battle on his hands especially after the 14th Amendment was forced upon the states. Here is an excerpt from Southern Reconstruction:
After the Fourteenth Amendment was submitted to the states for ratification in June, Johnson realized he was in a fight to the finish with Congress for control of Reconstruction. The next month, three of his cabinet members resigned because they declined to support his plan over the one emerging from Congress. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton felt the same way but remained in the cabinet to spy for the Republican Radicals and as their tool to implement congressional Reconstruction policies through the force of arms.
Consequently, Johnson decided to make his case to the public. Although not a common practice at the time , the president set out on a trip to visit every outside of New England. He pleaded his case in public speeches during August and September, before the autumn elections. Secretary of State William Seward, Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, and General Ulysses S. Grant Accompanied him.
I guess this is what Mr. Meacham means by self-absorbed and self-pitying speeches. God forbid a president takes his case to the American people.
The goal of the Radicals was to impose their will upon the Southern states by turning them into military districts. Secretary of War Stanton was to be the enforcer of these policies completely bypassing the commander-in-chief. Stanton’s duplicity can be traced to a race riot in New Orleans. Radicals back then, as they do today, had a high tolerance level for violence. Here is another excerpt from Southern Reconstruction:
The mayor of New Orleans asked the local military commander to intervene and block the convention to prevent violence. The commander wired Secretary Stanton for instructions, but Stanton did not reply. He failed to even mention the tense New Orleans situation to President Johnson. His silence on the matter, and similar duplicitous actions, eventually led Johnson to request the secretary’s resignation. Meanwhile, a New Orleans mob broke up the convention before military units arrived to end the violence. Thirty-four blacks and one white were killed.
The Tenure of Office Act was designed to trap President Johnson. One of the articles of impeachment was Johnson’s unauthorized firing of Stanton. This charge was completely unconstitutional and was recognized as such years later. Here is another excerpt from Southern Reconstruction:
Years later, when President Grover Cleveland questioned the Tenure Act’s legitimacy, it was repealed. If the Tenure Act had prevailed, the presidency could not have remained an independent branch of government. Those voting for acquittal realized that Congress was running amok, intimidating the executive, and increasingly, the judicial government branches. Some senators voting for conviction, including John Sherman and even Charles Sumner, later admitted they were wrong.
In 1926, almost sixty years after the Tenure Act was passed over Johnson’s veto, the Supreme Court ruled in a test case involving Woodrow Wilson’s removal of his postmaster general that a president had the right to remove cabinet members. Nine years later, it also ruled that Congress could limit a president’s power to remove other officers. The court never addressed the Tenure Act specifically.
I would say Presidents Trump and Johnson have a lot in common; just not in Jon Meacham’s historiography.
Source:
https://www.npr.org/2018/05/01/607303543/has-the-partisan-divide-ever-been-this-bad-author-jon-meacham-says-yes
https://www.amazon.com/Southern-Reconstruction-Philip-Leigh/dp/159416276X
