President Johnson’s defense rested on April 18, 1868. As the two legal teams prepared their closing statements, newspapers around the country weighed in with their assessments of the evidence presented. Few predicted that the country was more than a month away from a verdict in the Impeachment Trial.
The conservative Charleston Mercury denounced the trial and seemed convinced that Johnson was about to be convicted:
Charleston Mercury
Tuesday, April 21, 1868
Charleston, South Carolina
