With impeachment talk in the air back in 1866, Andrew Johnson came out swinging at the Radical Republicans. Hoping to shift the political scene in his favor through agressive confrontation with the supporters of black civil rights, Johnson wound up alienating many moderate and conservative Republicans. Without this self-chosen alienation from the Party of Lincoln, Johnson might not have been a ripe target for the impeachers.
In a Feb. 22, 1866 speech, Andrew Johnson denounced several men then sitting in Congress as “still opposed” to the Union. You can find the passage by following the link to page 60:
https://archive.org/stream/politicalhistor01mcphgoog#page/n76/mode/1up
In the speech he calls out specific Republican leaders and says that they are disloyal to the Union while comparing them to assassins.
Here is where he depicts the Radicals as assassins:
Although Wendell Phillips is denounced as one of the three Congressional assassins, as far as I know he was not in Congress.
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