red him to obey the subpoena. Nixon finally did.On July 29 and 30 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment. The first one said that the president knowingly covered-up the crimes of Watergate. The second said that he used Government Agencies to violate the Constitution of the United States. The third asserted that he would be impeached because of the withholding of evidence from Congress.Nixon's ResignationNixon's support in Congress and popularity nationwide steadily eroded. On August 5, 1974, three tapes revealed that Nixon had ordered the FBI to stop investigation of the Watergate break-in. The tapes also showed that Nixon himself had helped to direct the cover-up of the administration's involvement in the affair.Rather than face almost certain impeachment, Nixon resigned on August 9, the first United States president to do so. A month later his successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him for all crimes he might have committed while in office; Nixon was then immune from federal prosecution.ConclusionMany Americans expressed relief and exhilaration that the national nightmare was over. Many were relieved to be rid of Richard Nixon, who had lost virtually all the wide popularity that had won him his landslide reelection victory only two years before. And many were also exhilarated that the system had worked. But the wave of good feeling could not obscure the deeper and more lasting damage of the Watergate crisis. The Watergate burglary and the scandals associated with the burglary were about more than Nixon's fall from power. Watergate was a symptom of the times, an age of war and deep national division. Watergate was about the constitutional balance of power, the limits of power, and the abuse of power. Watergate was about a seamy side of politics that before the scandal most Americans scarcely imagined existed. Watergate was about ambition overriding good judgement and fair play; but it was al...
