University at Buffalo Rare Books Acquires Rare Horoscope of President Andrew Johnson's Impeachment

by Carrie Tirado Bramen

The Rare Books Collection at the University at Buffalo added an unusual document to its archive: a horoscope by Boston astrologer Thomas Lister (1825-1878) to President Andrew Johnson during his impeachment trial. Dated April 10, 1868, the letter includes a hand-drawn horoscope for March 30, 1868, at 3 p.m.— the date and time that the impeachment trial began. Based on his interpretation of the chart, Lister believes that it is his "professional duty" to write the president directly and to assure him that the planets show that he will be acquitted. Thanks to the favorable position of the Sun on the Midheaven, together with Venus's "good aspect to Jupiter," Lister confidently predicts that he will be exonerated. Lister's prediction proved to be correct, as the Senate acquitted Johnson six weeks later on May 26, 1868. "The horoscope offers a unique perspective on U.S. history, joining the other materials in the Rare Books Collection that illuminate the past in surprising ways," says Curator Alison Fraser.

During his lifetime, Thomas Lister was most famous for his uncanny prediction of Lincoln’s assassination in a letter that was published in the Boston Herald in September 1864, seven months before it happened. He warned: “A deep base plot will be formed against the person of the President, as shown by the planet Mars. It indicates death from pistol shot.”

The purchase of the horoscope was made possible by Carrie Tirado Bramen, Professor of English, and interim chair of the Edward H. Butler funds in the English Department.