In 1974, Congress adopted three articles of impeachment against Nixon. They declared him as being an unindicted co-conspirator of the incident. The articles of impeachment adopted by Congress proclaimed Nixon as guilty of “...attempting to impede the investigation into the Watergate break-in...abuse of power...refusing to cooperate with the Judiciary Committee’s investigation.” Before the full House had the chance to vote on these articles, however, Nixon resigned from office. There are still disputes about the impeachment that never happened. President Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974 by giving a speech from the Oval Office. He knew there was a threat of being imprisoned. Plus, the events of Watergate had completely thrown off his political …show more content…
Or more specifically, his insistence on not being involved and refusing to hand over potential evidence. But, of course, he doesn’t explicitly say that. The whole reason for Nixon resigning was because it was better than being impeached. He still has something left in his career. Nixon hoped to leave office on a good note by resigning, so not directly speaking about the scandal was a key factor in his speech. After President Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford took office. Barely a month after he was sworn into office, he gave Nixon a presidential pardon. Reasons for him doing so are still disputed to this day. Some like to think he did it in exchange for the presidency, that it was planned with Nixon from the beginning. Ford claimed that his concern wasn’t Nixon’s fate, rather “...the immediate future of this great country.” His reasoning for pardoning Nixon was to fix the tears in the country and bring the people together after the shocking events of Watergate. Ford believed that only by pardoning Nixon would the country be able to move forward and recover from the lasting effects of