Traitor Archetype on Trial

The impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson was the first time in American history that the legislature successfully indicted an American president. There is much debate surrounding the true grounds of impeachment with division primarily falling along two lines-either Johnson over-stepped his bounds in attempting to reconstruct the South and usurped the power of Congress, or Congress attempted to strip the executive department of its constitutional powers of removal and command of the military. The transcripts created during this trial offer insight regarding both of these perspectives. This rhetorical study focuses on these transcripts. Walter Fisher's narrative paradigm and Jungian archetypal theory are combined to examine the main narrative threads created.