Andrew Johnson campaigned vigorously for a program of reactionary presidential Reconstruction in the 1866 midterms. His efforts failed completely. The power to mold Reconstruction passed from the executive to the Radical Republicans in Congress, an unsuccessful impeachment ensued, and the rest is history.
It sounds a bit like last week, no? Except that Johnson was an accidental president without a faithful base, so the ultimate outcome of the coming battle between the two branches of the federal government is likely to be quite different.