Cord Byrd: “Mr. President, when former President John F. Kennedy wrote ``Profiles in Courage,'' I believe he wrote about Edmund G.…”

“Mr. President, when former President John F. Kennedy wrote ``Profiles in Courage,'' I believe he wrote about Edmund G. Ross, of Kansas, during the debate in 1868 on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. At the conclusion of the trial when the vote was taken, the first vote was on article 11. That was a test vote. The House managers felt that was kind of a catch-all provision on which the guilty verdict would most likely be rendered--would have its best chance. But on that vote, 7 Republicans voted with 12 Democrats to acquit President Andrew Johnson. Thirty-six votes were needed for a guilty verdict, for a conviction; 36 votes. The vote was 35 to 19. And so those who sought to convict President Johnson failed by one vote, and President Kennedy mentions the name, I believe, of Edmund G. Ross, of Kansas, who was one of the Republicans who cast a vote for acquittal and thus, apparently, sealed his political doom in so doing. But there was another Senator who cast such a vote and that was Peter G. Van Winkel, of West Virginia.”