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Scene in the House - Apathy of the Members A Race for the Wires - Energy of the Reporters The Last Speech on Impeachment - Thaddeus Stevens Closing the Debate in the House

Page from Harper’s Weekly, March 21, 1868, with text and three prints. One print shows a Member speaking and gesturing as another Member sleeps at his desk, captioned, “Scene in the House-Apathy of the Members.” Another print shows men running to a desk, each holding papers, near a door marked “Reporters Gallery,” captioned, “A Race for the Wires-Energy of the Reporters.” The third print shows Thaddeus Stevens in the House Chamber, speaking with his hand raised, as Members stand below him, captioned, “The Last Speech on Impeachment—Thaddeus Stevens Closing the Debate in the House, March 2.- [Sketched by T. R. Davis.]” The article reads, “. . . impeached a few years since on charges of uttering secession sentiments, preferred by Andrew Johnson, then Military Governor of Tennessee. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and is now fifty-three years of age. George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, is among the most positive and unflinching as well as one of the ablest of the impeachers, and was originally elected chairman of the managers, but resigned in favor of Mr. Bingham. With Generals John A. Logan and Benjamin Butler the whole country is familiar, their military and legal abilities having in times past been made clearly manifest. James F. Wilson, of Iowa, is now but forty years of age, but as a leading senator of his State, and as its representative in three several Congresses, he has displayed marked abilities, which entitle him to take high rank as a lawyer even among those with whom he is associated in the great trial of the age. Thomas Williams, of Pennsylvania, is a native of Pennsylvania, and sixty-two years of age. His legal career has been a very successful one, and he has served as a legislator in the three last Congresses with great credit.”/tiles/collection/6/6750.xml
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Page from Harper’s Weekly, March 21, 1868, with text and three prints. One print shows a Member speaking and gesturing as another Member sleeps at his desk, captioned, “Scene in the House-Apathy of the Members.” Another print shows men running to a desk, each holding papers, near a door marked “Reporters Gallery,” captioned, “A Race for the Wires-Energy of the Reporters.” The third print shows Thaddeus Stevens in the House Chamber, speaking with his hand raised, as Members stand below him, captioned, “The Last Speech on Impeachment—Thaddeus Stevens Closing the Debate in the House, March 2.- [Sketched by T. R. Davis.]” The article reads, “. . . impeached a few years since on charges of uttering secession sentiments, preferred by Andrew Johnson, then Military Governor of Tennessee. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and is now fifty-three years of age. George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts, is among the most positive and unflinching as well as one of the ablest of the impeachers, and was originally elected chairman of the managers, but resigned in favor of Mr. Bingham. With Generals John A. Logan and Benjamin Butler the whole country is familiar, their military and legal abilities having in times past been made clearly manifest. James F. Wilson, of Iowa, is now but forty years of age, but as a leading senator of his State, and as its representative in three several Congresses, he has displayed marked abilities, which entitle him to take high rank as a lawyer even among those with whom he is associated in the great trial of the age. Thomas Williams, of Pennsylvania, is a native of Pennsylvania, and sixty-two years of age. His legal career has been a very successful one, and he has served as a legislator in the three last Congresses with great credit.”
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Date

1868-03-21

Artist

Theodore Russell Davis

Publication

Harper's Weekly

Publisher

Harper & Brothers

Dimensions

16 3/16 x 10 7/8 in. (41.1 x 27.6 cm)

Accession Number

2009.129.001

Credit Line

Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives

Object Details

News journals like Harper’s Weekly were so riveted by the nation’s first presidential impeachment that they documented even the minutiae of its progress. These illustrations showed A. G. Burr sleeping through John Chanler’s “loud, shrill” speech; reporters sprinting to the telegraph office as soon as the impeachment articles were published; and what was regarded as the last speech of the leader of the impeachment forces, the ailing Thaddeus Stevens, which brought Members, reporters, and even young Pages to rapt attention.

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