Vinnie Ream

and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

by Francis Ellington Leupp

in Walks about Washington, 1915.

From Vinnie Ream by Richard Leveridge Hoxie, 1908.

Of {Andrew Johnson's} administration, the most broadly interesting incident was the impeachment trial described in an earlier chapter; and in our reflections on how history is shaped, another personal anecdote seems worthy of a place. Its heroine was Miss Vinnie Ream, the sculptor, who later became Mrs. Hoxie.

As his trial drew near its close, and Johnson's friends and enemies were able to figure out pretty accurately how the Senate was going to divide, it became plain that the issue would hang on a single vote. If all the Senators counted against the President stood firm, he would be convicted, thirty-six to eighteen; but Secretary Stanton insisted that Ross of Kansas was preparing to go over from the majority to the minority. Ross was occupying a room in the same house with Miss Ream on Capitol Hill, and General Daniel E. Sickles, who was acquainted with him, was deputed to see him on the night before the roll-call and try to hold him fast against the President. Miss Ream happened to meet the General at the door, ushered him into the parlor but refused to let him see the Senator, and held him at bay till dawn the following morning, when he gave up the effort as fruitless and went home. If she had weakened for a moment, there is no telling what might have happened, for Sickles was in a position to have brought very heavy pressure to bear upon Ross. The roll-call showed thirty-five for conviction to nineteen against less than the two-thirds required to convict; and it was Ross's vote that saved Johnson.

Walks about Washington by Francis Ellington Leupp, illustrated by Lester George Hornby, 1915, Pages 211-13.