Professor Dave here, let’s discuss Andrew Johnson.
Andrew Johnson ascended to the Presidency after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
He was a Southern Democrat, chosen by Lincoln to be the 1864 vice presidential nominee,
and he presided over the post-war era Lincoln did not live to see.
Unfortunately, Johnson’s views on reconstruction were arguably at odds with Lincoln’s vision
for the South, and he became the first president to be impeached.
He was born into poverty in Raleigh, North Carolina, and apprenticed as a tailor, settling
in Greeneville, Tennessee.
There he served as alderman and mayor before he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives
and then the House of Representatives in 1843, where he served for ten years.
He became Governor of Tennessee for four years, and was elected to the Senate in 1857, where
he fought for passage of the Homestead Bill.
When the bill was finally passed as the Homestead Act in 1862, it opened public lands in the
West to settlement.
As the Civil War broke out in 1861, Tennessee seceded from the Union to join the other Southern
slave states forming the Confederacy, yet Johnson refused to resign his Senate seat,
becoming the only Senator from a Confederate state who didn’t quit upon his state’s
secession.
In 1862, Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee, and in 1864, Johnson, as a War
Democrat and Southern Unionist, was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wanted
to project an image of national unity in his re-election campaign.
The night before he was sworn in, Johnson attended a party in his honor; and drank heavily.
Hung over the following morning at the Capitol, he asked Vice President Hannibal Hamlin for
some whiskey.
Hamlin produced a bottle, and Johnson took two stiff drinks, stating “I need all the
strength for the occasion I can have.”
In the Senate Chamber, Johnson delivered a rambling address as Lincoln, the Congress,
and dignitaries looked on.
Almost incoherent at times, he finally meandered to a stop, and Hamlin hastily swore him in
as vice president.
Lincoln, who had watched sadly during the debacle, was sworn in, and delivered his acclaimed
Second Inaugural Address.
Johnson later secluded himself to avoid public ridicule.
Nevertheless, Lincoln defended him, saying, “I have known Andy Johnson for many years;
he made a bad slip the other day, but you need not be scared; Andy ain’t a drunkard.”
On the afternoon of April 14th, 1865, Lincoln and Johnson met for the first time since the
inauguration.
Johnson supposedly urged Lincoln not to be too lenient with traitors.
That night, John Wilkes Booth fatally shot President Lincoln.
This was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Johnson, and Secretary of State Seward
on the same night.
Seward barely survived his wounds, while Johnson’s would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, lost his
nerve and got drunk instead of killing the vice president.
Hearing of Lincoln’s shooting, Johnson rushed to the President’s deathbed, where he vowed,
“They shall suffer for this.”
Lincoln died the next morning, and Andrew Johnson was sworn in.
The assassination of Lincoln caused suspicion that Johnson was aware of the plot even though
Atzerodt never said anything to support such a charge.
Yet it was discovered that on the day of the assassination, John Wilkes Booth went to Johnson’s
residence and left his card with the inscription, “Are you at home?
Don't wish to disturb you.
J. Wilkes Booth,” and ever since, conspiracy theorists have had a field day claiming Johnson
knew of the plot.
Controversially, Johnson permitted the execution of boarding house owner Mary Surratt for her
part in Lincoln’s assassination.
Surratt was executed along with Atzerodt, David Herold, and Lewis Powell on July 7th, 1865.
As President, Johnson implemented his version of Reconstruction – a series of proclamations
directing the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to reform their civil governments.
He sought a swift restoration of the states, once loyal citizens formed a government.
He attempted to wrest political power from the Southern planter class and give it to
the common man, magnifying the Jacksonian ideal.
And he hoped to recreate a Democratic coalition in the South that would ensure his re-election.
When Johnson set timetables for elections in the South, there was no mention of black
suffrage.
To Johnson, black suffrage was a distraction; it had always been a state responsibility
to decide who should vote, and Johnson feared that freed slaves, many still economically
bound to their former masters, might simply vote at their direction.
Northern Democrats were opposed to black suffrage, seeing it as a threat to their party’s control
in the South.
And the radical republicans of the North, determined to make the South acknowledge its
defeat and improve the lives of African-Americans, failed to convince Johnson that black suffrage
should be a priority.
The North tolerated Johnson’s inaction regarding black suffrage if it hastened reunification.
But this hesitancy emboldened the South, and soon, most of the Southern states had elected
many of their old racist leaders.
Restrictive legislation called “Black Codes,” deprived free African-Americans of their civil
liberties and indentured them into working on the plantations of their former masters.
Northerners were outraged at the idea of unrepentant Confederate leaders rejoining the federal
government while the memory of the war’s savagery still remained fresh, and they viewed
the Black Codes as little more than slavery.
Congressional Republicans refused to seat legislators from those states and advanced
legislation to overrule the Southern actions.
Though Congress was initially reluctant to confront the president, Johnson was convinced
that winning a showdown with the Radical Republicans would be advantageous for the success of Reconstruction
as well as his chances for re-election in 1868.
It was a miscalculation of colossal proportions, compounded by a speech Johnson gave claiming
that Radical Republicans were plotting his assassination.
The final nail in Johnson’s political coffin was his veto of the Civil Rights Bill of 1866
that affirmed all Americans have equal rights under the law.
Congress passed it again, Johnson vetoed it again, and then his veto was overridden.
He also vetoed a bill that extended the life of the Freedmen’s Bureau, a government agency
that monitored labor relations between whites and blacks on former slave plantations and
helped former slaves locate lost family members.
From this point, Johnson had lost support of certain Republicans yet had gained little
Southern support for his actions.
It was the crucial blunder of his presidency.
His repeated vetoes of the Civil Rights Bill convinced Republicans they could no longer
work with him.
Johnson’s greatest character flaw was his inordinate stubbornness; a hardheaded resistance
to compromise that bordered on the delusional.
Johnson opposed the Fourteenth Amendment that gave citizenship to former slaves, and in
1866 he went on a disastrous national tour to promote his policies.
He sought popular support for his programs, hoping it would help him combat his growing
Republican detractors.
It was a fiasco, and he continued to turn public opinion against him.
The anti-Johnson Republican Congressional candidates won in a landslide.
The conflict between Johnson and Congress continued to grow as Johnson vetoed the admission
of Kansas into the Union, and Congress again overrode his veto.
Yet bizarrely, with all evidence to the contrary, Johnson continued to think he was in a strong
position, though by this point even the Southern Democrats were turning against him as his
home state of Tennessee ratified the 14th Amendment.
In January 1867, abolitionist Congressman Thaddeus Stevens introduced legislation to
dissolve the Southern state governments and reconstitute them into five military districts
under martial law.
The states would begin again by holding constitutional conventions and African-Americans could vote
for or become delegates but former Confederates could not.
In the legislative process, Congress added to the bill that restoration to the Union
would follow the state’s ratification of the 14th Amendment and Constitutional adoption.
Johnson attempted a compromise, whereby the South would agree to a modified version of
the amendment without the disqualification of former Confederates, and included limited
black suffrage.
The Republicans insisted on the full language of the amendment, and the deal fell through.
Johnson vetoed it on March 2nd, 1867, but Congress overruled the veto.
A Constitutional crisis loomed as Johnson attempted to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin
Stanton, who Johnson felt was undermining his Reconstruction policies.
Johnson waited until Congress was in summer recess and dismissed Stanton, replacing him
with General Ulysses S. Grant.
Johnson notified Congress of Stanton’s suspension and Grant’s interim appointment.
In January 1868, the Senate reinstated Stanton, contending the President had violated the
Tenure of Office Act, which restricted the president from removing certain office-holders
without Senate approval.
Grant stepped down, over Johnson’s objections, causing a total break between them.
Johnson then dismissed Stanton and appointed Lorenzo Thomas to replace him.
Stanton refused to leave and on February 24th, 1868, the House impeached the President by
a vote of 128 to 47, alleging he had questioned the legitimacy of Congress.
Johnson’s defense relied on the provision of the Tenure of Office Act that made it applicable
only to appointees of the current administration.
Since Lincoln had appointed Stanton, the defense maintained the president had not violated
the act, also arguing that the President had the right to test the Constitutionality of
an act of Congress.
Johnson’s counsel wisely insisted he make no appearance at the trial, nor comment about
the proceedings, and but for a pair of interviews, he complied and was eventually acquitted by
a single vote.
His term was nearly at an end, and the Republicans were already preparing for their convention
where Ulysses S. Grant would be the nominee.
Not all of Johnson’s Administration was involved with Reconstruction or such high
drama.
Expansionist Secretary of State William Seward had been allowed free reign to conduct foreign
policy, and in 1867 he negotiated a sale with Russia to purchase its North American colony
of Alaska for seven million dollars.
Though ridiculed at the time as “Seward’s Folly,” it has since justified its hefty
price tag many times over.
Returning to Tennessee after his presidency, Johnson sought political vindication and gained
it, at least in his eyes, when he was elected to the Senate in 1875 - the only former president
to serve there.
But he died just months later, never truly getting a second chance.
Historians rank Johnson among the worst American presidents for his needless provocations of
Congress that led to impeachment and his opposition to Constitutionally guaranteed rights for
African Americans.