Close calls in politics

G. GEORGE OSTROM / For the Hungry Horse News

It came as a surprise for many of us to recently read that some locals, both private and political, were opposed to creating Glacier National Park, though local history buffs did know it took hard work and a little skullduggery to get the bill through Congress.

Politics will always be confusing, inefficient and controversial in democratic society. That possibility was knowingly acknowledged as part of the system by Founding Fathers. No matter what duly elected law makers do, the opposed will curse, blame and complain, and it seems the media often chooses what turns out to be, "the wrong side." The more complicated the issue, the more far and unrealistic complaints can become. Somehow though … democracy amazingly works.

We tend to forget how uninformed and biased State Legislatures, the U.S. Congress and a bulk of the people can sometimes be on big issues. After making the above statements some examples are in order.

On April 9, 1867, our farsighted Secretary of State, William H. Seward, realized a long-standing dream by getting the U.S. Senate to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Opponents called it an "utterly useless land of perpetual snow," an insane investment. Seward was mocked in the press, the victim of silly cartoons. Many wanted him removed from office. Big-time journalists suggested the new territory be named "Icebergia," or "Polaria." Across the nation the purchase became widely known as "Seward's Folly." Things finally quieted down a few decades later when vast gold fields were discovered along the Yukon.

Presently that largest state in the Union produces much more revenue per week than it costs, even allowing for inflation. The Alaska purchase legislation passed the U.S. Senate … by one vote.

Andrew Johnson was born in North Carolina and settled in Tennessee, where he eventually was elected to Congress. Although he had held slaves, he fought against his state seceding from the Union. He was carefully chosen to be Lincoln's vice president in 1864 and took over when our 16th president was shot in April of 1865. This nation had been split asunder by four years of agonizing Civil War and Johnson's greatest challenge was to continue Lincoln's hopes for bringing the American people together again. He angered Congress by refusing to sign the first Reconstruction Act, which would have divided the southern states into military districts under control of military commanders. He was against "harsh" reconstruction policies, which he felt would widen the division of the nation, and proclaimed amnesty of all Confederates except for a few leaders.

These actions were controversial in the Capital, and many members of Congress allegedly became "enraged" when Johnson fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without notifying the Senate, and that body did not approve the gist of his public speeches pleading for an end to America's split over slavery. Impeachment charges were brought against him. A massive propaganda campaign even included the claim he was in on the conspiracy to murder Lincoln. Many foes remembered the fact Alaska had been purchased under Johnson's administration.

Andrew Johnson was tried by the U.S. Senate on two articles of impeachment. It is the opinion of many historians, that was a time when the United States was teetering on the brink of dictatorship. The worst did not happen.

On May 26, 1868, the plan to throw President Johnson out of the White House failed on both counts … by one vote.

Sometimes it's too close for comfort, but … things work out.

G. George Ostrom is a Kalispell resident and a national award-winning Hungry Horse News columnist.