Yes Minister: Parliamentary System in the United States
**This story is based on the premise of a successful impeachment and conviction of President Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States, in May of 1868. This series will be told as a series of news articles, "scholarly articles" and book excerpts on the history that follows.
An excerpt from the Preface of One Vote: The Decision That Shook The World, by Fredrick Marshall,
Much attention has been paid by scholars on the fall of Andrew Johnson, the 17th and last man to hold the office of President of the United States of America. Such an ignoble distinction is a testament to the character of the man. What cannot be doubted was that Andrew Johnson was a knave, a veritable modern day King John I whose ruinous leadership irrevocably altered the world.
But like King John, whose manifest failure to govern led to the creation of the Magna Carta, Johnson's political downfall influenced a complete reorganisation of the American system of government.
Let us not try to romanticise the past events that led to nation we know today. Johnson was a horrible head of state, but his removal from office by the Radical faction of the Republican Party should be remembered as the power grab it was. However, we must recognise how much of our national legacy that we owe to the upheaval to American Constitutional government in the wake of Johnson's conviction.
To ponder the course that history might have taken had the impeachment not occurred is but idle speculation. Be that as it may, we must still carefully study these events to understand the gravity of the decision that was made on May 16th, 1868. What is most extraordinary, when we view this event from our safe perch in the 20th century, is that it all came down to a single vote...