July 19: First Women's RIghts Convention

On this date in History .... July 19, 1848:  

The first women's rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, NY.  Over 200 women attended. 

The organizers, Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, were abolitionists who had met in London at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention. Because they were women, they were barred from the convention floor, igniting an indignation that became the seed of the women’s rights movement in the U.S.  

12 resolutions were passed at the convention, 11 of them unanimously.  The one that caused conflict was to enable women to vote. After much debate it passed and received much public ridicule, causing some of the supporter to back off. 

The 19^th Amendment, giving women the right to vote, was finally passed over 70 years later, in 1920.



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May 16: President Andrew Jackson's Impeachment Vote

On this date in History ... May 16, 1868:

The U.S. Senate votes against impeaching President Andrew Johnson and acquits him of committing "high crimes and misdemeanors."  The main core of the 11 charges was Johnson’s aversion to the Reconstruction Plan after the Civil War.  The War Dept, and Sec’y of War Edwin Stanton, was in charge of implementing the plan and Johnson is charged with illegally removing Stanton from office. By a vote of 35-19, Johnson was acquitted and finished out his term. 

Presidents Johnson and Clinton are the only presidents for whom the impeachment process went as far as a Senate trial. Nixon resigned before the House of Representatives could vote on impeachment.