The United States Senate expels Missouri Senators Waldo Johnson and Trusten Polk for treason

Calls for the immediate expulsion of the two Missouri senators had been made in December 1861 but the Senate insisted on proper procedure.  The Judiciary Committee took up the case and found that both had crossed into Confederate territory, had sworn oaths of allegiance there, and were therefore guilty of treason.  The Committee recommended expulsion the day before and the full Senate ended the tenure of Waldo Porter Johnson and Trusten Polk on votes of 35-0 and 36-0, respectively.  (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
Robert C. Byrd, Mary S. Hall,  The Senate, 1789-1989: Addresses on the History of the United States Senate (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1988), 236. 
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    Lawmaking/Litigating
    How to Cite This Page: "The United States Senate expels Missouri Senators Waldo Johnson and Trusten Polk for treason," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/38656.