Pence, apparently, submitted an op-ed to the WSJ

I did not read it, doubt that he wrote it but like the letters responding to it

Vice President Mike Pence’s historical “lesson” about President Andrew Johnson and impeachment is wrong in every generality, and in every particular as well (“A Partisan Impeachment, a Profile in Courage,” op-ed, Jan. 17).

Historians from every part of the political spectrum have demolished all of the myths that the vice president insists on repeating. Mr. Pence draws from John Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage,’’ but the chapter specifically on this episode is a travesty of the history involved, as all historians have known for a long time.

Far from being a mere “difference in policy,’’ Johnson’s Reconstruction policy consisted of allowing the same southern politicians who had led secession to impose draconian Black Codes on new black citizens and deny the most basic civil rights to them. As he put it, “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am president, it shall be a government for white men.” And far from demanding a “far harsher policy,’’ congressional Republicans, in fact, pursued some recognition of the basic results of the Civil War and emancipation (including creating the Freedmen’s Bureau, passing the Civil Rights Bill, and creating the fundamental structure of the 14th Amendment). There was no “stampede” to impeach Johnson, and there were ample reasons for doing so far beyond the specific violation of the Tenure of Office Act.

As for the self-pitying Sen. Edmund G. Ross, he changed his vote because he sought a never-ending series of political favors and outright bribes from President Johnson.

Andrew Johnson was an erratic and explosive personality who governed by personal insult, and whose rhetoric was full of gross distortions and outright lies about both his own policies and those of his opponents.

Prof. Paul Harvey

University of Colorado

Colorado Springs, Colo.

Vice President Pence gets the concept correct about the meaning of John Kennedy’s book, but he bungles the contemporary application. It isn’t for a Democrat to vote to acquit President Trump at his Senate impeachment trial, it’s whether several Republican senators can muster the courage to follow their constitutional oath and convict President Trump of his crimes against the U.S. Thus, the real question is: Do any Republicans have the courage to do the right thing? Sadly, the answer appears to be no.

Marc Chafetz

Washington

https://www.wsj.com/articles/pence-gets-history-wrong-on-impeachment-11579726252 (subscription)