“THIS LITTLE BOY WOULD PERSIST IN HANDLING BOOKS ABOVE HIS CAPACITY”

(March 21, 1868)

This two-panel wood engraving appeared in Harper’s Weekly eight days before Andrew Johnson’s impeachment trial opened. The cartoon depicts Johnson atop a stepladder reaching for the U.S. Constitution, only to be flattened by the weight of the heavy tome. Though the House of Representatives impeached Johnson on eleven articles, the Senate vote dashed the cartoonist’s wishful thinking. It acquitted Johnson by one vote on May 16.