In tense silence each Senator rose and gave his verdict "guilty"
or "not guilty". And when the votes were counted it was found that
the President was declared guilty. There were forty-eight Senators,
and to convict the President it was necessary that two-thirds
should declare him guilty. Thirty-five said guilty, and nineteen
not guilty. Thus he was saved by just one vote.
Stanton then quietly gave up the post to which he had clung so
persistently. Another man took his place, and the President remained
henceforth undisturbed until the end of his term.
During Johnson's Presidency another state was admitted to the
Union. This was Nebraska. It was formed out of part of the Louisiana
Purchase, the name being an Indian one meaning "shallow water."
It had been formed into a territory at the time of the famous
Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and now in March, 1867, it was admitted to
the Union as the 37th State.
This year too, the territory of Alaska was added to the United States.
Alaska belonged to Russia by right of Vitus Bering's discovery. It
was from this Vitus Bering that the Bering Strait and Bering Sea
take their names. The Russians did very little with Alaska, and
after a hundred years or more they decided that they did not want
it, for it was separated from the rest of the Empire by a stormy
sea, and in time of war would be difficult to protect.
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