Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was the 17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. As Abraham Lincoln's vice president, Johnson became president when Lincoln was assassinated.
Sony PCG-61317L KeyboardA Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. The new president favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union.
Sony PCG-61316L KeyboardHis plans did not give protection to the former slaves, and he came into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. The first American president to be impeached, he was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
Johnson was born in poverty in Raleigh, North Carolina. Apprenticed as a tailor, he worked in several frontier towns before settling in Greeneville, Tennessee. He served as alderman and mayor there before being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835.
Sony PCG-71317L Keyboard After brief service in the Tennessee Senate, Johnson was elected to the federal House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year terms. He became Governor of Tennessee for four years, Sony PCG-41112L Keyboard
and was elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857. In his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill, which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862. Sony PCG-51311L Keyboard
As Southern states, including Tennessee, seceded to form the Confederate States of America, Johnson remained firmly with the Union. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as military governor of Tennessee after it had been retaken. In 1864, Johnson, Sony PCG-51312L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61215L Keyboardas a War Democrat and Southern Unionist, was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his re-election campaign; their ticket easily won. Johnson was sworn in as vice president in March 1865, Sony PCG-51411L Keyboard
giving a rambling and possibly drunken speech, and he secluded himself to avoid public ridicule. Six weeks later, the assassination of Lincoln made him president.
Johnson implemented his own form of Presidential Reconstruction – a series of proclamations directing the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to re-form their civil governments. When Southern states returned many of their old leaders, Sony PCG-51412L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61313L Keyboard and passed Black Codes to deprive the freedmen of many civil liberties, Congress refused to seat legislators from those states and advanced legislation to overrule the Southern actions. Johnson vetoed their bills, and Congress overrode him, setting a pattern for the remainder of his presidency.
Sony PCG-61312L Keyboard Johnson opposed the Fourteenth Amendment, that gave citizenship to African American males. As the conflict between the branches of government grew, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act,
Sony PCG-61311L Keyboard restricting Johnson in firing Cabinet officials. When he persisted in trying to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, he was impeached by the House of Representatives, and narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate and removal from office. Returning to Tennessee after his presidency, Johnson sought political vindication, Sony PCG-51113L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61211L Keyboard and gained it in his eyes when he was elected to the Senate again in 1875 (the only former president to serve there), just months before his death. Although Johnson's ranking has fluctuated over time, he is generally considered among the worst American presidents for his opposition to federally guaranteed rights for African-Americans. Sony PCG-51211L Keyboard
Johnson's boyhood home, located at the Mordecai Historic Park in Raleigh, North Carolina
Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina on December 29, 1808, to Jacob Johnson (1778–1812) and Mary ("Polly") McDonough (1783–1856), Sony PCG-51511L Keyboard
Sony PCG-61511L Keyboard a laundress. He had a brother William, four years his elder, and an older sister Elizabeth, who died in childhood. (Being born in a log cabin was a political asset in the 19th century, and in the years to come Johnson would not hesitate to remind voters of his humble birth.)[
Sony PCG-61611L Keyboard 2] Jacob Johnson was a poor man, as was his father, William, but became town constable of Raleigh before marrying and starting a family. He died of an apparent heart attack while ringing the town bell, shortly after rescuing three drowning men when Andrew was three.[3
Sony PCG-81411L Keyboard ] Polly Johnson had worked as a washerwoman; she continued in that trade as the sole support of her children. At the time, her occupation was considered less than respectable as it often took her into others' homes unaccompanied; the Johnsons were considered white trash,
Sony PCG-81312L Keyboard and there were rumors that Andrew, who did not resemble his siblings, was fathered by another man. Eventually, Polly Johnson married Turner Doughtry, who was also poor.[4]
Polly Doughtry apprenticed her elder son, William, to a tailor, James Selby. Andrew followed his brother as an apprentice in Selby's shop at the age of ten; he was legally bound to serve until his 21st birthday. Selby does not appear to have had any great influence on the future president. The apprentice was boarded with his mother for part of his service; Sony PCG-51513L Keyboard
Sony PCG-81214L Keyboard one of Selby's employees was detailed to teach him rudimentary literacy skills.[5] This minimal education was augmented by citizens who came to Selby's shop to read to the tailors as they worked;
Sony PCG-81115L Keyboard even before he was an apprentice, young Andrew came to listen. These readings began a lifelong love of learning for the boy; his biographer, Annette Gordon-Reed, suggests that Johnson, who would be acclaimed as a public speaker, learned the basics of that art as he threaded needles and cut cloth.[6] Sony PCG-81113L Keyboard
Andrew Johnson was not happy at James Selby's, and at about age 15, ran away with his brother. Selby responded by placing an advertisement in the paper, as customary for masters seeking missing apprentices, "Ten Dollars Reward.
Sony PCG-71318L Keyboard Ran away from the subscriber, two apprentice boys, legally bound, named William and Andrew Johnson ... [payment] to any person who will deliver said apprentices to me in Raleigh, or I will give the above reward for Andrew Johnson alone."[7Sony PCG-71211L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71316L Keyboard ] The boys went to Carthage, North Carolina, where Andrew Johnson worked as a tailor for several months. Fearing he would be taken and returned to Raleigh, Andrew moved on to Laurens,
Sony PCG-71315L Keyboard South Carolina. There, he found work in his craft, and met his first love, Mary Wood, for whom he made a quilt. After his marriage proposal to her was rejected, Johnson returned to Raleigh, hoping to buy out his apprenticeship, but he could not come to terms with Selby. Then, like many others in the late 1820s, he journeyed west.[8] Sony PCG-71212L Keyboard
[9]
Move to Tennessee [edit]
Johnson left North Carolina for Tennessee, traveling mostly on foot. After a brief period in Knoxville, he moved to Mooresville, Alabama.[8][1Sony PCG-71311L Keyboard
Sony PCG-71314L Keyboard 0] He then worked as a tailor in Columbia, Tennessee, but was called back to Raleigh by his mother and stepfather, who saw limited opportunities there and who wished to emigrate west. Johnson and his party traveled through the Blue Ridge Mountains to Greeneville, Tennessee.
Sony PCG-71313L Keyboard Andrew Johnson fell in love with the town at first sight, and when he became prosperous purchased the land where he had first camped and planted a tree in commemoration.[11] Sony PCG-71312L Keyboard
In Greeneville, Johnson established a successful tailoring business in the front of his home. In 1827, at the age of 18, he married 16-year-old Eliza McCardle, the daughter of a local shoemaker. The pair were married by Justice of the Peace Mordecai Lincoln, first cousin of Thomas Lincoln, whose son would become president. Sony PCG-7191L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7133L Keyboard The Johnsons were married for almost 50 years and had five children: Martha (1828), Charles (1830), Mary (1832), Robert (1834), and Andrew Jr. (1852). Though she suffered from consumption, Eliza supported her husband's endeavors. She taught him mathematics skills and tutored him to improve his writing.[12][1Sony PCG-7173L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7132L Keyboard 3] Shy and retiring by nature, Eliza Johnson usually remained in Greeneville during Johnson's political rise. She was not often seen during her husband's presidency; their daughter Martha usually served as official hostess.[14] Sony PCG-7172L Keyboard
Johnson's tailoring business prospered during the early years of the marriage, enabling him to hire help and giving him the funds to invest profitably in real estate.[15] He later boasted of his talents as a tailor, "my work never ripped or gave way."[1Sony PCG-7174L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7113L Keyboard 6] He was a voracious reader. Books about famous orators aroused his interest in political dialogue, and he had private debates with customers with opposing views on issues of the day. He also took part in debates at Greeneville College.[17] Sony PCG-7181L Keyboard
Political rise [edit]
Tennessee politician [edit]
Johnson helped organize a mechanics' (working men's) ticket in the 1829 Greeneville municipal election. He was elected town alderman, along with his friends Blackston McDannel and Mordecai Lincoln.[18][
Sony PCG-7112L Keyboard 19] Following the 1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion, a state convention was called to pass a new constitution, including provisions to disenfranchise free people of color. The convention also wanted to reform real estate tax rates, and provide ways of funding improvements to Tennessee's infrastructure. Sony PCG-7182L Keyboard
Sony PCG-7111L Keyboard The constitution was submitted for a public vote, and Johnson spoke widely for its adoption; the successful campaign provided him with statewide exposure. On January 4, 1834, his fellow aldermen elected him mayor of Greeneville.[20][21]
Eliza McCardle Johnson
In 1835, Johnson made a bid for election to the "floater" seat which Greene County shared with neighboring Washington County in the Tennessee House of Representatives. According to his biographer, Hans Trefousse, Johnson "demolished" the opposition in debate and won the election with almost a two to one margin.[22][
Sony PCG-7161L Keyboard 23] Soon after taking his seat, Johnson purchased his first slave, Dolly, aged 14. Dolly had three children over the years. Johnson had the reputation of treating his slaves kindly, but the fact that Dolly was dark-skinned, and her offspring much lighter, led to speculation both during and after his lifetime that he was the father.[24] Sony PCG-7183L Keyboard
In his first term in the legislature, which met in the state capital of Nashville, Johnson did not consistently vote with either the Democratic or the newly formed Whig Party, though he revered President Andrew Jackson,
Sony PCG-7154L Keyboard a Democrat and Tennessean. The major parties were still determining their core values and policy proposals with the party system in a state of flux. The Whig Party had organized in opposition to Jackson,
Sony PCG-7153L Keyboard fearing the concentration of power in the Executive Branch of the government; Johnson differed from the Whigs as he opposed more than minimal government spending and spoke against aid for the railroads, while his constituents hoped for improvements in transportation.
Sony PCG-7152L Keyboard After Brookins Campbell and the Whigs defeated Johnson for re-election in 1837, Johnson would not lose another race for thirty years. In 1839, he sought to regain his seat, initially as a Whig, but when another candidate sought the Whig nomination, he ran as a Democrat and was elected.
Sony PCG-7171L Keyboard From that time he supported the Democratic party and built a powerful political machine in Greene County.[2
[26] Johnson became a strong advocate of the Democratic Party, noted for his oratory, and in an era when public speaking both informed the public and entertained it, people flocked to hear him.[27] 5] Sony PCG-7184L Keyboard
In 1840, Johnson was selected as a presidential elector for Tennessee, giving him more statewide publicity. Although Democratic President Martin Van Buren was defeated by former Ohio senator William Henry Harrison, Sony PCG-61A11L Battery
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Johnson was instrumental in keeping Tennessee and Greene County in the Democratic column.[28] He was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1841, where he served a two-year term.[29]
Sony PCG-71411L Battery He had achieved financial success in his tailoring business, but sold it to concentrate on politics. He had also acquired additional real estate, including a larger home and a farm (where his mother and stepfather took residence), and among his assets numbered eight or nine slaves.[30]
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Congressman (1843–1853) [edit]
Having served in both houses of the legislature, Johnson saw election to Congress as the next step in his political career. He engaged in a number of political maneuvers to gain Democratic support, including the displacement of the Whig postmaster in Greeneville, and defeated Jonesville lawyer John A. Aiken by 5,495 votes to 4,892. Sony PCG-61A12L Battery
Sony PCG-71C11L Battery [31][32] In Washington, he joined a new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. Johnson advocated for the interests of the poor, maintained an anti-abolitionist stance,
Sony PCG-91311L Batteryargued for only limited spending by the government and opposed protective tariffs.[33] With Eliza remaining in Greeneville, Congressman Johnson shunned social functions in favor of study in the Library of Congress. Sony PCG-61A13L Battery
Sony PCG-91211L Battery [34] Although a fellow Tennessee Democrat, James K. Polk, was elected president in 1844, and Johnson had campaigned for him, the two men had difficult relations, and President Polk refused some of his patronage suggestions.[35] Sony PCG-61A14L Battery
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Johnson believed, as did many Southern Democrats, that the Constitution protected private property, including slaves, and thus prohibited the federal and state governments from abolishing slavery.[
Sony PCG-71914L Battery6] He won a second term in 1845 against Wiliam G. Brownlow, presenting himself as the defender of the poor against the aristocracy. In his second term, Johnson supported the Polk administration's decision to fight the Mexican War, seen by some Northerners as an attempt to gain territory to expand slavery westward, 3Sony PCG-61911L Battery
Sony PCG-71913L Battery and opposed the Wilmot Proviso, a proposal to ban slavery in any territory gained from Mexico. He introduced for the first time his Homestead Bill, to grant 160 acres (65 ha) to people willing to settle the land and gain title to it.[37][ Sony PCG-61913L Battery
38] This issue was especially important to Johnson because of his own humble beginnings.[37][39]
In the presidential election of 1848, the Democrats split over the slavery issue, and abolitionists formed the Free Soil Party, with former president Van Buren as their nominee. Johnson supported the Democratic candidate, Sony PCG-71911L Battery
Sony PCG-71912L Battery former Michigan senator Lewis Cass. With the party split, Whig nominee General Zachary Taylor was easily victorious, and carried Tennessee.[40] Johnson's relations with Polk remained poor; the President recorded of his final New Year's reception in 1849 that
Among the visitors I observed in the crowd today was Hon. Andrew Johnson of the Ho. Repts.
Sony PCG-71318L Battery [House of Representatives] Though he represents a Democratic District in Tennessee (my own State) this is the first time I have seen him during the present session of Congress. Professing to be a Democrat, he has been politically, Sony PCG-61611L Battery
if not personally hostile to me during my whole term. He is very vindictive and perverse in his temper and conduct. If he had the manliness and independence to declare his opposition openly, he knows he could not be elected by his constituents. I am not aware that I have ever given him cause for offense.[41]
Johnson, in the face of the national interest in new railroad construction, and in response to the need in his own district for better transportation, changed his position. Thereafter, he supported government assistance for the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad.[42]
The Andrew Johnson House, built in 1851, Greeneville, Tennessee
In his campaign for a fourth term, Johnson concentrated on three issues: slavery, homesteads and judicial elections. He defeated his opponent, Nathaniel G. Taylor, in August 1849, with a greater margin of victory than in previous campaigns. Sony PCG-61511L Battery
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When the House convened in December, the party division caused by the Free Soil Party precluded the formation of the majority needed to elect a Speaker. Johnson proposed adoption of a rule allowing election of a Speaker by a plurality; some weeks later others took up a similar proposal, and Democrat Howell Cobb was elected.[43] Sony PCG-61311L Battery
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Once the Speaker election had concluded and Congress was ready to conduct legislative business, the issue of slavery took center stage. Northerners sought to admit California, a free state, to the Union. Kentucky's Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a series of resolutions, the Compromise of 1850,
to admit California and pass legislation sought by each side. Johnson voted for all the provisions except for the abolition of slavery in the nation's capital.[44] He pressed resolutions for constitutional amendments to provide for popular election of senators (then elected by state legislatures) and of the president (chosen by the Electoral College), Sony PCG-61313L Battery
Sony PCG-71313L Battery and limiting the tenure of federal judges to 12 years. These were all defeated.[45]
A group of Democrats nominated Landon Carter Haynes to oppose Johnson as he sought a fifth term; the Whigs were so pleased with the internecine battle among the Democrats in the general election that they did not nominate a candidate of their own. Sony PCG-61215L Battery
Sony PCG-71312L Battery The campaign included fierce debates: Johnson's main issue was the passage of the Homestead Bill; Haynes contended it would facilitate abolition. Johnson won the election by more than 1600 votes.[45] Though he was not enamored of the party's presidential nominee, former New Hampshire senator Franklin Pierce, Johnson campaigned for him. Pierce was elected, but he failed to carry Tennessee.[4Sony PCG-71317L Battery
Sony PCG-71311L Battery6] In 1852, Johnson managed to get the House to pass his Homestead Bill, but it failed in the Senate.[47] The Whigs had gained control of the Tennessee legislature, and, under the leadership of Gustavus Henry, Sony PCG-61315L Battery
Sony PCG-71213L Batteryredrew the boundaries of Johnson's First District to make it a safe seat for their party. The Nashville Union termed this "Henry-mandering";[a][48] lamented Johnson, "I have no political future.
Governor of Tennessee (1853–1857) [edit]
If Johnson considered retiring from politics upon deciding not to seek re-election, he soon changed his mind.[50] The congressman's political friends began to maneuver to get him the nomination for governor. The Democratic convention unanimously named him, "[49]
Sony PCG-71211L Battery though some party members were not happy at his selection. The Whigs had won the past two gubernatorial elections, and still controlled the legislature.[51Sony PCG-61316L Battery
Sony PCG-61317L Battery] That party nominated Henry, making the "Henry-mandering" of the First District an immediate issue.[51] The two men debated in county seats the length of Tennessee before the meetings were called off two weeks before the August 1853 election due to illness in Henry's family.[50][
Sony PCG-81411L Battery 52] Johnson won the election by 63,413 votes to 61,163; some votes for him were cast in return for his promise to support Whig Nathaniel Taylor for his old seat in Congress.[53][54]
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Tennessee's governor had little power—Johnson could propose legislation but not veto it, and most appointments were made by the Whig-controlled legislature. Nevertheless, the office was a bully pulpit that allowed him to publicize himself and his political views.[55] Sony PCG-41112L Battery
Sony PCG-81311L Battery He succeeded in getting the appointments he wanted in return for his endorsement of John Bell, a Whig, for one of the state's U.S. Senate seats. In his first biennial speech, Johnson urged simplification of the state judicial system, Sony PCG-51311L Battery
Sony PCG-81214L Battery abolishment of the Bank of Tennessee and establishment of an agency to provide uniformity in weights and measures; the last was passed. Johnson was critical of the Tennessee common school system and suggested funding be increased via taxes, either statewide or county by county—a mixture of the two was passed.[56] Sony PCG-51312L Battery
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Although the Whig Party was on its final decline nationally, it remained strong in Tennessee, and the outlook for Democrats there in 1855 was poor. Feeling that re-election as governor was necessary to give him a chance at the higher offices he sought, Johnson agreed to make the run. Meredith P. Gentry received the Whig nomination. A series of more than a dozen vitriolic debates ensued.[57
Sony PCG-81114L Battery ] The issues in the campaign were slavery, the prohibition of alcohol, and the nativist positions of the Know Nothing Party. Johnson favored the first, but opposed the others. Gentry was more equivocal on the alcohol question, Sony PCG-51411L Battery
Sony PCG-81113L Battery and had gained the support of the Know Nothings, a group Johnson portrayed as a secret society.[58] Johnson was unexpectedly victorious, albeit with a narrower margin than in 1853.[57]
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When the presidential election of 1856 approached, Johnson hoped to be nominated; some Tennessee county conventions designated him a favorite son. His position that the best interests of the Union were served by slavery in some areas made him a practical compromise candidate for president.
Sony PCG-51511L Battery He was never a major contender; the nomination fell to former Pennsylvania senator James Buchanan. Though he was not impressed by either, Johnson campaigned for Buchanan and his running mate, former Kentucky representative John C. Breckenridge, who were elected.[59]
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Johnson decided not to seek a third term as governor, with an eye towards election to the U.S. Senate. In 1857, while returning from Washington, his train derailed, causing serious damage to his right arm. This injury would trouble him in the years to come.[60] Sony PCG-51412L Battery
United States Senator [edit]
Homestead Bill advocate [edit]
The victors in the 1857 state legislative campaign would, once they convened in October, elect a United States Senator. Former Whig governor William B. Campbell wrote to his uncle, "The great anxiety of the Whigs is to elect a majority in the legislature so as to defeat Andrew Johnson for senator. Sony PCG-51111L Battery
Sony PCG-51113L Battery Should the Democrats have the majority, he will certainly be their choice, and there is no man living to whom the Americans[b] and Whigs have as much antipathy as Johnson."[61] The governor spoke widely in the campaign, and his party won the gubernatorial race and control of the legislature.[6Sony VPCF115FM battery
Sony VPCF119HX battery2] Johnson's final address as governor gave him the chance to influence his electors, and he made proposals popular among Democrats. Two days later the legislature elected him to the Senate. The opposition was appalled, with the Richmond Whig newspaper referring to him as "the vilest radical and most unscrupulous demagogue in the Union."[6Sony VPCF11JFX battery
3]
Johnson gained high office due to his proven record as a man popular among the small farmers and self-employed tradesmen who made up much of Tennessee's electorate. He called them the "plebians"; he was less popular among the planters and lawyers who led the state Democratic Party, but none could match him as a vote-getter. Sony VPCF11MFX battery
Sony VPCF114FX batteryAfter his death, one Tennessee voter wrote of him, "Johnson was always the same to everyone ... the honors heaped upon him did not make him forget to be kind to the humblest citizen."[6
Sony VPCF11PFX battery4] Always seen in impeccably tailored clothing, he cut an impressive figure,[65] and had the stamina to endure lengthy campaigns with daily travel over bad roads leading to another speech or debate. Mostly denied the party's machinery, he relied on a network of friends,
advisers, and contacts.[49] One friend, Hugh Douglas, stated in a letter to him, "you have been in the way of our would be great men for a long time. At heart many of us never wanted you to be Governor only none of the rest of us Could have been elected at the time and we only wanted to use you.
Then we did not want you to go to the Senate but the people would send you."[66]
The new senator took his seat when Congress convened in December 1857 (the term of his predecessor, James C. Jones, had expired in March). Sony VPCF11FGX battery
Sony VPCF11AFX batteryHe came to Washington as usual without his wife and family; Eliza would visit Washington only once during Johnson's first time as senator, in 1860. Johnson immediately set about introducing the Homestead Bill in the Senate, but as most senators who supported it were Northern (many associated with the newly founded Republican Party), Sony VPCF113FX battery
Sony VPCF1190X batterythe matter became caught up in suspicions over the slavery issue. Southern senators felt that those who took advantage of the provisions of the Homestead Bill were more likely to be Northern non-slaveholders. Sony VPCF11LFX battery
Sony VPCF119GX batteryThe issue of slavery had been complicated by the Supreme Court's ruling earlier in the year in Dred Scott v. Sandford that slavery could not be prohibited in the territories. Johnson, a slaveholding senator from a Southern state, Sony VPCF11DGX battery
Sony VPCF11GGX battery made a major speech in the Senate the following May in an attempt to convince his colleagues that the Homestead Bill and slavery were not incompatible.
Sony VPCF11NFX battery Nevertheless, Southern opposition was key to defeating the legislation, 30–22.[67][68] In 1859, it failed on a procedural vote when Vice President Breckinridge broke a tie against the bill, and in 1860, a watered-down version passed both houses, only to be vetoed by Buchanan at the urging of Southerners.[69] Sony VPCF117FX battery
Johnson continued his opposition to spending, chairing a committee to control it. He argued against funding to build Washington, D.C.'s infrastructure, stating that it was unfair to expect state citizens to pay for the city's streets,
Sony VPCF116FX batteryeven if it was the seat of government. He opposed spending money for troops to put down the revolt by the Mormons in Utah Territory, arguing for temporary volunteers as the United States should not have a standing army.[70] Sony VPCF112FX battery
Secession crisis [edit]
Johnson about 1860
In October 1859, abolitionist John Brown and sympathizers raided the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (today West Virginia). Sony VPCF11KFX battery
Sony VPCF11CGX batteryTensions in Washington between pro- and anti-slavery forces increased greatly. Johnson gave a major speech in the Senate in December, decrying Northerners who would endanger the Union by seeking to outlaw slavery. Sony PCG-61211M CPU cooling fan
The Tennessee senator stated that "all men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence did not apply to African-Americans, since the Constitution of Illinois contained that phrase—and that document barred voting by African-Americans.[71][72] Sony PCG-71211M CPU cooling fan
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Johnson hoped that he would be a compromise candidate for the 1860 presidential nomination as the Democratic Party tore itself apart over the slavery question. Busy with the Homestead Bill during the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston,
Sony PCG-71313M CPU cooling fanSouth Carolina, he sent two of his sons and his chief political adviser to represent his interest in the backroom dealmaking. The convention deadlocked, with no candidate able to gain the required two-thirds vote, but the sides were too far apart to consider Johnson as a compromise.
Sony PCG-71311M CPU cooling fanThe party split, with Northerners backing Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas while Southerners, including Johnson, supported Vice President Breckinridge for president.
Sony PCG-71312M CPU cooling fan With former Tennessee senator John Bell running a fourth-party candidacy and further dividing the vote, the Republican Party elected its first president, former Illinois representative Abraham Lincoln.
Sony PCG-71212M CPU cooling fanThe election of Lincoln, known to be against slavery, was unacceptable to many in the South. Although secession from the Union had not been an issue in the campaign, talk of it began in the Southern states.[73][74] Sony PCG-71213M CPU cooling fan
Johnson took to the Senate floor after the election, giving a speech well received in the North, "I will not give up this government . Sony VPC EL series Keyboard
.. No; I intend to stand by it ... and I invite every man who is a patriot to ... rally around the altar of our common country ... and swear by our God, and all that is sacred and holy, that the Constitution shall be saved,
Sony VPCS13L9E/B Keyboardand the Union preserved."[75][76] As Southern senators announced they would resign if their states seceded, he reminded Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis that if Southerners would only hold to their seats, Sony VPCEL2S1E/B Keyboard
the Democrats would control the Senate, and could defend the South's interests against any infringement by Lincoln.[77
Sony PCG-71C11M Keyboard] Gordon-Reed points out that while Johnson's belief in an indissoluble Union was sincere, he had alienated Southern leaders, including Davis, who would soon be the president of the Confederate States of America, formed by the seceding states. Sony VPCEL2S1E/W Keyboard
If the Tennessean had backed the Confederacy, he would have had small influence in its government.[78]
Johnson returned home when his state took up the issue of secession. His successor as governor, Isham G. Harris, and the legislature, organized a referendum on whether to have a constitutional convention to authorize secession;
Sony 9Z.N5CSW.A0U Keyboard when that failed, they put the question of leaving the Union to a popular vote. Despite threats on Johnson's life, and actual assaults, he campaigned against both questions, sometimes speaking with a gun on the lectern before him. Although Johnson's eastern region of Tennessee was against secession, Sony VPCEL3S1E/W Keyboard
Sony VPCEL2S1E Keyboard the second referendum passed, and in June 1861, Tennessee joined the Confederacy. Believing he would be killed if he stayed, the senator fled the state through the Cumberland Gap, where his party was fired upon; he left his wife and family in Greeneville.[79][80]
As the only member from a seceded state to remain in the Senate and the most prominent Southern Unionist, he had Lincoln's ear in the early months of the war.[81] With most of Tennessee in Confederate hands,
Sony VPCEB2M1R KeyboardJohnson spent congressional recesses in Kentucky and Ohio, trying in vain to convince any Union commander who would listen to conduct an operation into East Tennessee.[82]
Military Governor of Tennessee [edit]
Johnson's first tenure in the Senate came to a conclusion in March 1862 when Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee. Much of the central and western portions of that seceded state had been recovered. Sony VPCEB1B4E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2L9E KeyboardAlthough some argued that civil government should simply resume once the Confederates were put down in an area, Lincoln chose to use his power as commander in chief to appoint military governors over Union-controlled Southern areas.[83] The Senate quickly confirmed Johnson's nomination along with the rank of brigadier general.[ Sony VPCEB1C5E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2G4E Keyboard4] In response, the Confederates confiscated his land, took away his slaves, and made his home into a military hospital.[8Sony VPCEB1E0E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2F4E Keyboard5] Later in 1862, after his departure from the Senate and in the absence of most Southern legislators, the Homestead Act was finally enacted; it, along with legislation for land grant colleges and for the transcontinental railroad, has been credited with opening the American West to settlement.[86] Sony VPCEB1E8E Keyboard
As military governor, Johnson sought to eliminate rebel influences in the state, demanding loyalty oaths from public officials, and shutting down newspapers run by Confederate sympathizers. At that time, much of eastern Tennessee remained in rebel hands, Sony VPCEB1E9E Keyboard
and the ebb and flow of war through 1862 sometimes brought Confederate control close to Nashville. The Confederates did allow his wife and family to pass through the lines to him.[87][88] Johnson undertook the defense of Nashville as best he could; Sony VPCEB1E9J Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2E9R Keyboard the city was continually harassed with cavalry raids led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Relief from Union regulars did not come until William S. Rosecrans defeated the Confederates at Murfreesboro at the start of 1863. Much of eastern Tennessee was retaken later that year.[89] Sony VPCEB1E9R Keyboard
When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, freeing the slaves in rebel-controlled areas, he exempted Tennessee at Johnson's request. Sony VPCEB1J8E Keyboard
The document increased the debate over what should happen to the slaves after the war—not all Unionists supported abolition. Johnson decided that slavery had to end, stating, "If the institution of slavery .
Sony VPCEB2E1R Keyboard.. seeks to overthrow it [the Government], then the Government has a clear right to destroy it".[90] He reluctantly supported efforts to recruit former slaves for the Union Army, feeling it more appropriate that African-Americans should perform menial tasks and free up whites to fight.[
Sony VPCEB2C5E Keyboard91] Nevertheless, he succeeded in enlisting 20,000 black troops for the Union.[92]
Vice President [edit]
Poster for the Lincoln and Johnson ticket by Currier and Ives
Main article: United States presidential election, 1864
In 1860, Lincoln's running mate had been Maine Senator Hannibal Hamlin. Vice President Hamlin had served competently,
Sony VPCEB2C4E Keyboardwas in good health, and had not expressed an unwillingness to run. Nevertheless, Johnson emerged as running mate for Lincoln's re-election bid in 1864.[93]
Lincoln considered several War Democrats for the ticket in 1864, and sent an agent to sound out General Benjamin Butler as a possible running mate. Sony VPCEB1M0E Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2B4E Keyboard In May 1864, the President dispatched General Daniel Sickles to Nashville on a fact-finding mission. Although Sickles denied he was there either to investigate or interview the military governor, Johnson biographer Hans L. Trefousse believes Sickles's trip was connected to Johnson's subsequent nomination for vice president.[9Sony VPCEB1M1R Keyboard
Sony VPCEB2A4E Keyboard3] According to historian Albert Castel in his account of Johnson's presidency, Lincoln was impressed by Johnson's administration of Tennessee.[87] Gordon-Reed points out that while the Lincoln-Hamlin ticket might have been considered geographically balanced in 1860,
Sony VPCEB1Z1E Keyboard"having Johnson, the southern War Democrat, on the ticket sent the right message about the folly of secession and the continuing capacity for union within the country."[94]
Sony VPCEB1Z0E KeyboardAnother factor was the desire of Secretary of State William Seward to frustrate the vice-presidential candidacy of his fellow New Yorker, former senator Daniel S. Dickinson, a War Democrat,
Sony VPCEB1S8E Keyboardas Seward would probably have had to yield his place if another New Yorker became vice president. Johnson, once he was told by reporters the likely purpose of Sickles' visit, was active on his own behalf, Sony VPCEB1S0E Keyboard
giving speeches and having his political friends work behind the scenes to boost his candidacy.[95]
To sound a theme of unity, Lincoln in 1864 ran under the banner of the National Union Party, rather than the Republicans.[ IBM Thinkpad E525 Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad X201S Keyboard94] At the party's convention in Baltimore in June, Lincoln was easily nominated, although there had been some talk of replacing him with a Cabinet officer or one of the more successful generals. IBM Thinkpad E520S Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad X201 Keyboard After the convention backed Lincoln, former Secretary of War Simon Cameron offered a resolution to nominate Hamlin, but it was defeated. Johnson was nominated for vice president by C.M. Allen of Indiana with an Iowa delegate as seconder. On the first ballot, Johnson led with 200 votes to 150 for Hamlin and 108 for Dickinson. On the second ballot, Kentucky switched to vote for Johnson, IBM Thinkpad E520 Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad X200 Keyboard beginning a stampede. Johnson was named on the second ballot with 491 votes to Hamlin's 17 and eight for Dickinson; the nomination was made unanimous. Lincoln expressed pleasure at the result, IBM Thinkpad E425 Keyboard
"Andy Johnson, I think, is a good man."[96] When word reached Nashville, a crowd assembled and the military governor obliged with a speech contending his selection as a Southerner meant that the rebel states had not actually left the Union.[96] IBM Thinkpad E420S Keyboard
Although it was unusual at the time for a national candidate to actively campaign, Johnson gave a number of speeches in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. He also sought to boost his chances in Tennessee while re-establishing civil government by making the loyalty oath even more restrictive,
IBM Thinkpad SL400 Keyboardin that voters would now have to swear they opposed making a settlement with the Confederacy. The Democratic candidate for president, George McClellan, hoped to avoid additional bloodshed by negotiation, and so the stricter loyalty oath effectively disenfranchised his supporters.
IBM Thinkpad SL500 KeyboardLincoln declined to override Johnson, and their ticket took the state by 25,000 votes. Congress refused to count Tennessee's electoral votes, but Lincoln and Johnson did not need them, having won in most states that had voted, and easily secured the election.[97]
1865 cartoon showing Lincoln and Johnson using their talents as rail-splitter and tailor to repair the Union
Now Vice President-elect, Johnson was anxious to complete the work of re-establishing civilian government in Tennessee,
IBM Thinkpad SL310 Keyboard although the timetable for the election of a new governor did not allow it to take place until after Inauguration Day, March 4. He hoped to remain in Nashville to complete his task, but was told by Lincoln's advisers that he could not stay, but would be sworn in with Lincoln. In these months,
IBM Thinkpad E220 KeyboardUnion troops finished the retaking of eastern Tennessee, including Greeneville. Just before his departure, the voters of Tennessee ratified a new constitution, abolishing slavery, on February 22, 1865. One of Johnson's final acts as military governor was to certify the results.[98]
Johnson duly traveled to Washington to be sworn in, although according to Gordon-Reed, "in light of what happened on March 4, 1865, it might have been better if Johnson had stayed in Nashville."[99] He may have been ill; IBM Thinkpad E120 Keyboard
IBM Thinkpad E220S Keyboard Castel cited typhoid fever,[87] though Gordon-Reed notes that there is no independent evidence for that diagnosis.[99] On the evening of March 3, Johnson attended a party in his honor; he drank heavily. Hung over the following morning at the Capitol, he asked Vice President Hamlin for some whiskey. Dell Inspiron 1521 Keyboard
Dell Precision M2400 Keyboard 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, Dell Inspiron 1525 Keyboard
Dell Precision M6500 Keyboard and dignitaries looked on. Almost incoherent at times, he finally meandered to a halt, whereupon Hamlin hastily swore him in as vice president.[100] Lincoln, who had watched sadly during the debacle, was sworn in, and delivered his acclaimed Second Inaugural Address.[101] Dell Inspiron 1526 Keyboard
In the weeks after the inauguration, Johnson only presided over the Senate briefly, and hid from public ridicule at the Maryland home of a friend, Francis Preston Blair. When he did return to Washington, Dell Inspiron 1520 Keyboard
Dell Precision M4400 Keyboard it was with the intent of leaving for Tennessee to re-establish his family in Greeneville. Instead, he remained after word came that General Ulysses S. Grant had captured the Confederate capital of Richmond, Dell Inspiron N4110 Keyboard
Dell Precision M2400 Keyboard Virginia, presaging the end of the war.[102] Lincoln stated, in response to criticism of Johnson's behavior, that "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."[103] Dell Inspiron 1764 Keyboard
Presidency (1865–1869) [edit]
Accession [edit]
Main article: Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
On the afternoon of April 14, 1865, Lincoln and Johnson met for the first time since the inauguration. Trefousse states that Johnson wanted to "induce Lincoln not to be too lenient with traitors"; Gordon-Reed agrees.[104][105] Dell -Inspiron 14R Keyboard
Contemporary woodcut of Johnson being sworn in by Chief Justice Chase as Cabinet members look on, April 15, 1865
That night, President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer. The shooting of the President was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward the same night. Seward barely survived his wounds, while Johnson escaped attack as his would-be assassin, Dell Inspiron N4010 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5400 Keyboard George Atzerodt, got drunk instead of killing the vice president. Leonard J. Farwell, a fellow boarder at the Kirkwood House, awoke Johnson with news of Lincoln's shooting at Ford's Theater. Johnson rushed to the President's deathbed, where he remained a short time, on his return promising,
Dell Latitude E5500 Keyboard "They shall suffer for this. They shall suffer for this."[106] Lincoln died at 7:22 am the next morning; Johnson's swearing in occurred between 10 and 11 am with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding in the presence of most of the Cabinet. Johnson's demeanor was described by the newspapers as "solemn and dignified".[107Dell Inspiron N4030 Keyboard
] Some Cabinet members had last seen Johnson, apparently drunk, at the inauguration.[108] At noon, Johnson conducted his first Cabinet meeting in the Treasury Secretary's office, and asked all members to remain in their positions.[109Dell Inspiron N4050 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6500 Keyboard ]
The events of the assassination resulted in speculation, then and subsequently, concerning Johnson and what the conspirators might have intended for him. In the vain hope of having his life spared, after his capture
Dell Latitude E6400 Keyboard Atzerodt spoke much about the conspiracy, but did not say anything to indicate that the plotted assassination of Johnson was merely a ruse. Conspiracy theorists point to the fact that on the day of the assassination, , Dell Inspiron N5030 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6510 Keyboard Booth came to the Kirkwood House and left one of his cards. This object was received by Johnson's private secretary, William A. Browning, with an inscription, "Are you at home? Don't wish to disturb you. J. Wilkes Booth."[110] Dell Inspiron N7010 Keyboard
Johnson presided with dignity over Lincoln's funeral ceremonies in Washington, before the leader's body was sent home to Springfield, Illinois, for burial.[1Dell Inspiron N7110 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5510 Keyboard 11] Shortly after Lincoln's death, Union General William T. Sherman reported he had, without consulting Washington, reached an armistice agreement with Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston for the surrender of Confederate forces in North Carolina in exchange for the existing state government remaining in power, Dell Inspiron N4020 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5410 Keyboard with private property rights to be respected. This did not even acknowledge the freedom of those in slavery, and was not acceptable to Johnson or the Cabinet. Johnson sent word for Sherman to secure the surrender without making political deals, and he did. This action, Dell Latitude E4200 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E4300 Keyboard together with his placing a $100,000 bounty on the head of Confederate President Davis, then a fugitive, gave him the reputation of a man who would be tough on the South. More controversially, he permitted the execution of Mary Surratt, Dell XPS M1710 Keyboard
Dell XPS M1730 Keyboard the only woman convicted as a member of the conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln. Johnson refused to grant clemency, and Surratt was executed with three others, including Atzerodt, on July 7, 1865.[112] Dell XPS M1720 Keyboard
Reconstruction [edit]
Main article: Reconstruction era of the United States
Background [edit]
Upon taking office, Johnson faced the question of what to do with the Southern states. President Lincoln had authorized loyalist governments in Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Tennessee as the Union came to control large parts of those states. HP V112846AS1 keyboard
Dell Pk1303i0a50 keyboard Lincoln had advocated a ten percent plan that would allow recognized elections after ten percent of the voters in any state took an oath of future loyalty. Congress considered this too lenient; its own plan, requiring a majority of voters to take the loyalty oath for a state to be admitted, passed both houses in 1864, but Lincoln pocket vetoed it.[113] HP V112846AS1 keyboard
Johnson had three goals in Reconstruction. He sought a speedy restoration of the states, on the grounds that they had never truly left the Union, and thus should again be recognized once loyal citizens formed a government. HP 606743-031 keyboard
Dell NSK-DBB0U keyboard To Johnson, African-American suffrage was a delay and a distraction; it had always been a state responsibility to decide who should vote. Second, political power in the Southern states should pass from the planter class to his beloved "plebians". Johnson feared that the freedmen,
Dell NSK-DB101 keyboard many of whom were still economically bound to their former masters, might vote at their direction. Johnson's third priority was election in his own right in 1868, a feat no one who had succeeded a deceased president had managed to accomplish.[114] HP 597635-031 keyboard
The Republicans had formed a number of factions. The Radical Republicans sought voting and other civil rights for African-Americans. They believed that the freedmen could be induced to vote Republican in gratitude for emancipation, HP 593296-031 keyboard
and that black votes could keep the Republicans in power and Southern Democrats, including former rebels, out of influence. They believed that top Confederates should be punished. The Moderate Republicans sought to keep the Democrats out of power at a national level, and prevent former rebels from resuming power. Dell RX221 keyboard
Dell V082025AS1 keyboardThey were not as enthusiastic about the idea of African-American suffrage as their Radical colleagues, either because of their own local political concerns, or because they believed that the freedman would be likely to cast his vote badly. Dell P0XM3 keyboard
Dell V081325AS1 keyboardNorthern Democrats favored the unconditional restoration of the Southern states. They did not support African-American suffrage, which might threaten Democratic control in the South.[115] Dell ORX221 keyboard
Presidential Reconstruction [edit]
Johnson was initially left to devise a Reconstruction policy without legislative intervention, as Congress was not due to meet again until December 1865.[11Dell 0FM760 keyboard
Dell PK1303I0600 keyboard6] Radical Republicans told the President that the Southern states were economically in a state of chaos and urged him to use his leverage to insist on rights for freedmen as a condition of restoration to the Union. But Johnson, Dell 0UK717 keyboard
Dell NSK-DB301 keyboard with the support of other officials including Seward, insisted that the franchise was a state, not a federal matter. The Cabinet was divided on the issue.[117] Dell PTP49 keyboard
Johnson's first Reconstruction actions were two proclamations, with the unanimous backing of his Cabinet, on May 29. One recognized the Virginia government led by provisional Governor Francis Pierpont.
Dell NSK-DB001 keyboardThe second provided amnesty for all ex-rebels except those holding property valued at $20,000 or more; it also appointed a temporary governor for North Carolina and authorized elections.
Dell 0WX4JF keyboardNeither of these proclamations included provisions regarding black suffrage or freedmen's rights. The President ordered constitutional conventions in other former rebel states.[118]
As Southern states began the process of forming governments, Johnson's policies received considerable public support in the North, which he took as unconditional backing for quick reinstatement of the South.
Dell HT514 keyboard While he received such support from the white South, he underestimated the determination of Northerners to ensure that the war had not been fought for nothing. It was important, in Northern public opinion, Dell HT517 keyboard
that the South acknowledge its defeat, that slavery be ended, and that the lot of African-Americans be improved. Voting rights were less important—after all, only a handful of Northern states (mostly in New England) gave African-American men the right to vote on the same basis as whites, and in late 1865, Dell P0XM3 keyboard
Dell FM760 keyboardConnecticut, Wisconsin, and Minnesota voted down African-American suffrage proposals by large margins. Northern public opinion tolerated Johnson's leniency as an experiment, to be allowed if it brought Southern acceptance of defeat. Instead, white Southerners were emboldened.
Sony PCG-81313M AC Adapter A number of Southern states passed Black Codes, binding African-American laborers to farms on annual contracts they could not quit, and allowing law enforcement at whim to arrest them for vagrancy and rent out their labor. Most Southerners elected to Congress were former Confederates, Sony PCG-81111M AC Adapter
Sony PCG-81113M AC Adapter with the most prominent being Georgia Senator-designate and former Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens. Congress assembled in early December 1865; Johnson's conciliatory annual message to them was well received. Sony PCG-81112M AC Adapter
Sony PCG-81212M AC Adapter Nevertheless, Congress refused to seat the Southern legislators and established a committee to recommend appropriate Reconstruction legislation.[119] Dell Latitude E4310 Keyboard
Northerners were outraged at the idea of unrepentant Confederate leaders, such as Stephens, rejoining the federal government at a time when emotional wounds from the war remained raw. They saw the Black Codes placing African-Americans in a position barely above slavery. Republicans also feared that restoration of the Southern states would return the Democrats to power.[120][12
Dell Latitude E6500 Keyboard 1] In addition, according to David O. Stewart in his book on Johnson's impeachment, "the violence and poverty that oppressed the South would galvanize the opposition to Johnson".[122] Dell Latitude E4320 Keyboard
Break with the Republicans: 1866 [edit]
Congress was reluctant to confront the President, and initially only sought to fine-tune Johnson's policies towards the South.[123] According to Trefousse, "If there was a time when Johnson could have come to an agreement with the moderates of the Republican Party, Dell Latitude E4200 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6400 Keyboard it was the period following the return of Congress".[124] The President was unhappy about the provocative actions of the Southern states, and about the continued control by the antebellum elite there, but made no statement publicly, believing that Southerners had a right to act as they did, Dell Latitude E4300 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5420M Keyboard even if it was unwise to do so. By late January 1866, he was convinced that winning a showdown with the Radical Republicans was necessary to his political plans, both for Reconstruction and for re-election in 1868. Dell Latitude E6500 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5220 Keyboard He would have preferred that the conflict be over the legislative efforts to enfranchise African-Americans in the District of Columbia, a proposal that had been defeated overwhelmingly in an all-white referendum. A bill to accomplish this passed the House of Representatives, but to Johnson's disappointment, stalled in the Senate before he could veto it.[125] Dell Latitude E5400 Keyboard
Thomas Nast cartoon of Johnson disposing of the Freedman's Bureau as African-Americans go flying
Illinois Senator Lyman Trumbull, leader of the Moderate Republicans and Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Dell Latitude E5410 Keyboard
was anxious to reach an understanding with the President. He ushered through Congress a bill extending the Freedman's Bureau beyond its scheduled abolition in 1867, and the first Civil Rights Bill, to grant citizenship to the freedmen. Dell Latitude E5510 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6530 Keyboard Trumbull met several times with Johnson, and was convinced the President would sign the measures. Johnson rarely contradicted visitors, often fooling those who met with him into thinking he was in accord. Dell Latitude E5420 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6520N Keyboard The President opposed both bills as infringements on state sovereignty. Additionally, both of Trumbull's bills were unpopular among white Southerners, whom Johnson hoped to include in his new party. The President vetoed the Freedman's Bureau bill on February 18, 1866,
Dell Latitude E6430-XFR Keyboard to the delight of white Southerners and the puzzled anger of Republican legislators. He considered himself vindicated when a move to override his veto failed in the Senate the following day.[12Dell Latitude E5520 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6430S Keyboard 5] Johnson believed that the Radicals would now be isolated and defeated, and that the Moderate Republicans would form behind him; he did not understand that Moderates too wanted to see African-Americans treated fairly.[126] Dell Latitude E6420 Keyboard
On February 22, 1866, Washington's Birthday, Johnson gave an impromptu speech to supporters who had marched to the Executive Mansion (as the White House was still formally known) and called for an address in honor of the first president. Dell Latitude E6520 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6430-ATG Keyboard In his hour-long speech, he instead referred to himself over 200 times. More damagingly, he also spoke of "men ... still opposed to the Union" to whom he could not extend the hand of friendship he gave to the South.[127Dell Latitude E5530 Keyboard
][128] When called upon by the crowd to say who they were, Johnson named Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens, Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner, and abolitionist Wendell Phillips,
Dell Latitude E6430 Keyboard and accused them of plotting his assassination. Republicans viewed the address as a declaration of war, while one Democratic ally estimated Johnson's speech cost the party 200,000 votes in the 1866 congressional midterm elections.[129] Dell Latitude E6220 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6420-ATG Keyboard
Although strongly urged by Moderates to sign the Civil Rights Bill, Johnson broke decisively with them by vetoing it on March 27. Dell Latitude E6230 Keyboard
Dell Latitude E6330 Keyboard In his veto message, he objected to the measure because it conferred citizenship on the freedmen at a time when 11 out of 36 states were unrepresented in the Congress, and that it discriminated in favor of African-Americans and against whites.[130
Dell Precision M4400 Keyboard ][131] Within three weeks, Congress had overridden his veto, the first time that had been done in American history.[132] The veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, often seen as a key mistake of Johnson's presidency, Dell Latitude E6400-ATG Keyboard
Dell Precision M6500 Keyboard convinced Moderates there was no hope of working with him. Historian Eric Foner in his volume on Reconstruction views it as "the most disastrous miscalculation of his political career". According to Stewart, the veto was "for many his defining blunder, setting a tone of perpetual confrontation with Congress that prevailed for the rest of his presidency".[133]
Congress also proposed the Fourteenth Amendment to the states. Written by Trumbull and others, it was sent for ratification by state legislatures in a process in which the president plays no part, though Johnson opposed it.
Dell Precision M4500 Keyboard The amendment was designed to put the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act into the Constitution, but also went further. The amendment extended citizenship to every person born in the United States (except Indians on reservations), penalized states that did not give the vote to freedmen,
and most importantly, created new federal civil rights that could be protected by federal courts. It also guaranteed that the federal debt would be paid and forbade repayment of Confederate war debts. Further, it disqualified many former Confederates from office, although the disability could be removed—by Congress, not the president.[ Dell Latitude E6400-XFR Keyboard
134] Both houses passed the Freedmen's Bureau Act a second time, and again the President vetoed it; this time, the veto was overridden. By the summer of 1866, when Congress finally adjourned, Johnson's method of restoring states to the Union by executive fiat, without safeguards for the freedmen,
was in deep trouble. His home state of Tennessee ratified the Fourteenth Amendment despite the President's opposition.[135] When Tennessee did so, Congress immediately seated its proposed delegation, embarrassing Johnson.[136] Dell Latitude E6410 Keyboard
Efforts to compromise failed,[137] and a political war ensued between the united Republicans on one side, and on the other, Johnson and his allies in the Democratic Party, North and South. He called a convention of the National Union Party. Dell Latitude E6410-ATG Keyboard
Dell Latitude E5430 Keyboard Republicans had resumed their own banner; the President intended to use the discarded name to unite his supporters and gain re-election.[138] The battleground was the election of 1866; Southern states were not allowed to vote. Johnson campaigned vigorously, undertaking a public speaking tour, Dell Latitude E4310 Battery
known as the "Swing Around the Circle". The trip, including speeches in Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Columbus, proved politically disastrous, with the President making controversial comparisons between himself and Christ, Dell Latitude E4320 Battery
Dell Latitude E5430 Battery and engaging in arguments with hecklers. These exchanges were attacked as beneath the dignity of the presidency. The Republicans won by a landslide, increasing their two-thirds majority in Congress, Dell Latitude E4200 Battery
Dell Latitude E6410-ATG Battery and made plans to control Reconstruction.[139] Johnson blamed the Democrats for giving only lukewarm support to the National Union movement.[140]
Radical Reconstruction [edit] Dell Latitude E4300 Battery
Even with the Republican victory in November 1866, Johnson considered himself in a strong position. The Fourteenth Amendment had been ratified by none of the Southern or border states except Tennessee, Dell Latitude E6500 Battery
Dell Latitude E6410 Batteryand had been rejected in Kentucky, Delaware, and Maryland. As the amendment required ratification by three-quarters of the states to become part of the Constitution, he believed the deadlock would be broken in his favor, leading to his re-election in 1868. Once it reconvened in December 1866, Dell Latitude E5400 Battery
Dell Latitude E6400-XFR Battery an energized Congress began passing legislation, often over a presidential veto; this included the District of Columbia voting bill. Congress admitted Nebraska to the Union over a veto, and the Republicans gained two senators, and a state that promptly ratified the amendment. Dell Latitude E5500 Battery
Johnson's veto of a bill for statehood for Colorado Territory was sustained; enough senators agreed that a district with a population of 30,000 was not yet worthy of statehood to win the day.[141]
Dell Latitude E6400-ATG Battery
In January 1867, Congressman 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. Dell Latitude E5420 Battery
African-Americans could vote for or become delegates; 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 Fourteenth Amendment, Dell Latitude E5520 Battery
Dell Latitude E6500 Battery and completion of the process of adding it to the Constitution. Johnson and the Southerners attempted a compromise, whereby the South would agree to a modified version of the amendment without the disqualification of former Confederates, and for limited black suffrage. Dell Latitude E6420 Battery
The Republicans insisted on the full language of the amendment, and the deal fell through. Although Johnson could have pocket vetoed the First Reconstruction Act as it was presented to him less than ten days before the end of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, he chose to veto it directly on March 2, 1867; Dell Latitude E6520 Battery
Dell Latitude E6400 BatteryCongress overruled him the same day. Also on March 2, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over the President's veto, in response to statements during the Swing Around the Circle that he planned to fire Cabinet secretaries who did not agree with him.
Dell Latitude E5420M Battery This bill, requiring Senate approval for the firing of Cabinet members during the tenure of the president who appointed them and for one month afterwards, was immediately controversial, with some senators doubting that it was constitutional or that its terms applied to Johnson, whose key Cabinet officers were Lincoln holdovers.[141]
Impeachment [edit]
"The Situation", a Harper's Weekly editorial cartoon shows Secretary of War Stanton aiming a cannon labeled "Congress" to defeat Johnson. The rammer is "Tenure of Office Bill" and cannon balls on the floor are "Justice".Dell Latitude E5530 Battery
Main article: Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was an able and hard-working man, but difficult to deal with.[14
Dell Latitude E6520N Battery2] Johnson both admired and was exasperated by his War Secretary, who, in combination with General of the Army Grant, worked to undermine the president's Southern policy from within his own administration. Johnson considered firing Stanton, Dell Latitude E6120 Battery
Dell Latitude E6430-XFR Batterybut respected him for his wartime service as secretary. Stanton, for his part, feared allowing Johnson to appoint his successor and refused to resign, despite his public disagreements with his president.[143] Dell Latitude E6220 Battery
The new Congress met for a few weeks in March 1867, then adjourned, leaving the House Committee on the Judiciary behind, charged with reporting back to the full House whether there were grounds for Johnson to be impeached. Dell Latitude E6230 Battery
Dell Latitude E6430-ATG BatteryThis committee duly met, examining the President's bank accounts, and summoning members of the Cabinet to testify. When a federal court released former Confederate president Davis on bail on May 13 (he had been captured shortly after the war), Dell Latitude E6330 Battery
the committee investigated whether the President had impeded the prosecution. It learned that Johnson was eager to have Davis tried. A bipartisan majority of the committee voted down impeachment charges; the committee adjourned on June 3.[144]
Dell Latitude E6420-ATG Battery
Later in June, Johnson and Stanton battled over the question of whether the military officers placed in command of the South could override the civil authorities. The President had Attorney General Henry Stanbery issue an opinion backing his position that they could not. Dell Precision M2400 Battery
Johnson sought to pin down Stanton either as for, and thus endorsing Johnson's position, or against, showing himself to be opposed to his president and the rest of the Cabinet. Stanton evaded the point in meetings and written communications. When Congress reconvened in July, it passed a Reconstruction Act against Johnson's position, Dell Precision M6600 Battery
Dell XPS L701X Battery waited for his veto, overruled it, and went home. In addition to clarifying the powers of the generals, the legislation also deprived the President of control over the Army in the South. With Congress in recess until November, Johnson decided to fire Stanton and relieve one of the military commanders, Dell Precision M4500 Battery
Dell XPS L502X Battery General Philip Sheridan, who had dismissed the governor of Texas and installed a replacement with little popular support. He was initially deterred by a strong objection from Grant. On August 5, the President demanded Stanton's resignation; the secretary refused to quit with Congress out of session. Dell Precision M6400 Battery
Dell XPS L501X Battery 145] Johnson then suspended him pending the next meeting of Congress as permitted under the Tenure of Office Act; Grant agreed to serve as temporary replacement while continuing to lead the Army.[146] Dell Precision M6500 Battery
Grant, under protest, followed Johnson's order transferring Sheridan and another of the district commanders, Daniel Sickles, who had angered Johnson by firmly following Congress's plan. The President also issued a proclamation pardoning most Confederates, exempting those who held office under the Confederacy, Dell Precision M4400 Battery
Dell XPS 17-L701X Battery or who had served in federal office before the war and had breached their oaths. Although Republicans expressed anger with his actions, the 1867 elections generally went Democratic. No seats in Congress were directly elected in the polling, but the Democrats took control of the Ohio General Assembly, Dell XPS 14 Battery
Dell XPS L702X Battery allowing them to defeat for re-election one of Johnson's strongest opponents, Senator Benjamin Wade. Voters in Ohio, Connecticut, and Minnesota turned down propositions to grant African-Americans the vote.[1Dell XPS 14D Battery
Dell XPS 17 Battery 47] The adverse results momentarily put a stop to Republican calls to impeach Johnson, who was elated by the elections.[148Dell XPS 14D-L401X Battery
] Nevertheless, once Congress met in November, the Judiciary Committee reversed itself and passed a resolution of impeachment against Johnson. After much debate about whether anything the President had done was a high crime or misdemeanor, Dell XPS 15D Battery
the standard under the Constitution, the resolution was defeated by the House of Representatives on December 7, 1867, by a vote of 57 in favor to 108 opposed.[149]
Johnson notified Congress of Stanton's suspension and Grant's interim appointment. In January 1868, the Senate disapproved of his action, Dell XPS 15-L502X Battery
Dell XPS 15Z Battery and reinstated Stanton, contending the President had violated the Tenure of Office Act. Grant stepped aside over Johnson's objection, causing a complete break between them. Johnson then dismissed Stanton and appointed Lorenzo Thomas to replace him. Stanton refused to leave his office, and on February 24, Dell Inspiron 14V battery
1868, the House impeached the President for intentionally violating the Tenure of Office Act, by a vote of 128 to 47. The House subsequently adopted eleven articles of impeachment, for the most part alleging that he had violated the Tenure of Office Act, and had questioned the legitimacy of Congress.[150] Dell Inspiron N4030 battery
Theodore R. Davis' illustration of Johnson's impeachment trial in the United States Senate, published in Harper's Weekly
On March 5, 1868, the impeachment trial began in the Senate and lasted almost three months; Congressmen George S. Boutwell, Benjamin Butler and Thaddeus Stevens acted as managers for the House, or prosecutors, Dell Inspiron N7110 battery
Dell Inspiron 14R batteryand William M. Evarts, Benjamin R. Curtis and former Attorney General Stanbery were Johnson's counsel; Chief Justice Chase served as presiding judge.[151] The 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, Dell Inspiron N7010R battery
Dell Inspiron 13R battery the defense maintained Johnson had not violated the act, and also argued that the President had the right to test the constitutionality of an act of Congress.[152]
Dell Inspiron N4110 batteryJohnson's counsel insisted that he make no appearance at the trial, nor publicly comment about the proceedings, and except for a pair of interviews in April, he complied.[153]
Johnson maneuvered to gain an acquittal; for example, he pledged to Iowa Senator James W. Grimes that he would not interfere with Congress's Reconstruction efforts. Grimes reported to a group of Moderates, many of whom voted for acquittal, that he believed the President would keep his word. Johnson also promised to install the respected John Schofield as War Secretary. [154]
Dell Inspiron N5010D batteryKansas Senator Edmund G. Ross received assurances that the new, Radical-influenced constitutions ratified in South Carolina and Arkansas would be transmitted to the Congress without delay, an action which would give him and other senators political cover to vote for acquittal.[155
Dell Inspiron 15R battery] One reason senators were reluctant to remove the President was that his successor would have been Ohio Senator Wade, the president pro tempore of the Senate. Wade, a lame duck who left office in early 1869, was a Radical who supported such measures as women's suffrage,
Dell Inspiron 17R batteryplacing him beyond the pale politically in much of the nation.[156][157] Additionally, a President Wade was seen as an obstacle to Grant's ambitions.[158]
With the dealmaking, Johnson was confident of the result in advance of the verdict, and in the days leading up to the ballot, newspapers reported that Stevens and his Radicals had given up. On May 16, the Senate voted on the 11th article of impeachment, accusing Johnson of firing Stanton in violation of the Tenure of Office of Act once the Senate had overturned his suspension. Dell Inspiron N7010D battery
Dell Inspiron N4010R batteryThirty-five senators voted "guilty" and 19 "not guilty", thus falling short by a single vote of the two-thirds majority required for conviction under the Constitution. Seven Republicans—Senators Grimes, Ross, Trumbull, William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, John B. Henderson,
Dell Inspiron N4010D batteryand Peter G. Van Winkle—voted to acquit the President. With Stevens bitterly disappointed at the result, the Senate then adjourned for the Republican National Convention; Grant was nominated for president. Dell Inspiron N5110 battery
Dell Inspiron N4010 battery The Senate returned on May 26 and voted on the second and third articles, with identical 35–19 results. Faced with those results, Johnson's opponents gave up and dismissed proceedings.[159
Dell Inspiron N3010 battery][160] Stanton "relinquished" his office on May 26, and the Senate subsequently confirmed Schofield.[161] When Johnson renominated Stanbery to return to his position as Attorney General after his service as a defense manager, the Senate refused to confirm him.[162]
Allegations were made at the time and again later that bribery dictated the outcome of the trial. Even when it was in progress, Representative Butler began an investigation, held contentious hearings, and issued a report, unendorsed by any other congressman. Butler focused on a New York–based "Astor House Group",Dell Inspiron N5030 battery
Dell Inspiron N5010R battery supposedly led by political boss and editor Thurlow Weed. This organization was said to have raised large sums of money from whiskey interests through Cincinnati lawyer Charles Woolley to bribe senators to acquit Johnson. Butler went so far as to imprison Woolley in the Capitol building when he refused to answer questions, but failed to prove bribery.[163]
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Foreign policy [edit]
Soon after taking office as president, Johnson reached an accord with Secretary of State William H. Seward that there would be no change in foreign policy. In practice, this meant that Seward would continue to run things as he had under Lincoln. HP Pavilion dv6-6000 Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6C04SA Battery Seward and Lincoln had been rivals for the nomination in 1860; the victor hoped that Seward would succeed him as president in 1869. At the time of Johnson's accession, the French had intervened in Mexico, HP Pavilion DV6-6B06SA Battery
sending troops there. While many politicians had indulged in saber-rattling over the Mexican matter, Seward preferred quiet diplomacy, warning the French through diplomatic channels that their presence in Mexico was not acceptable. HP Pavilion DV6-6B08SA Battery
Although the President preferred a more aggressive approach, Seward persuaded him to follow his lead. In April 1866, the French government informed Seward that its troops would be brought home in stages, to conclude by November 1867.[164] HP Pavilion DV6-6B09SA Battery
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Seward was an expansionist, and sought opportunities to gain territory for the United States. By 1867, the Russian government saw its North American colony (today Alaska) as a financial liability, and feared losing control as American settlement reached there. HP Pavilion DV6-6B50SA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6C01SA Battery It instructed its minister in Washington, Baron Eduard de Stoeckl, to negotiate a sale. De Stoeckl did so deftly, getting Seward to raise his offer from $5 million (coincidentally, the minimum that Russia had instructed de Stoeckl to accept) to $7 million, and then getting $200,000 added by raising various objections.[16HP Pavilion DV6-6B51SA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6C01EA Battery 5] This sum of $7.2 million is equivalent to $118 million in present day terms.[166] On March 30, 1867, de Stoeckl and Seward signed the treaty, working quickly as the Senate was about to adjourn. Johnson and Seward took the signed document to the President's Room in the Capitol, only to be told there was no time to deal with the matter before adjournment.
HP Pavilion DV6-6B60EA Battery The President summoned the Senate into session to meet on April 1; that body approved the treaty, 37–2.[16HP Pavilion DV6-6B57SA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6B59EA Battery 7] Emboldened by his success in Alaska, Seward sought acquisitions elsewhere. His only success was staking an American claim to uninhabited Wake Island in the Pacific. He came close with the Danish West Indies as Denmark agreed to sell and the local population approved the transfer in a plebiscite, but the Senate never voted on the treaty and it expired.[168]
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Another treaty that fared badly was the Johnson-Clarendon convention, negotiated in settlement of the Alabama Claims, for damages to American shipping from British-built Confederate raiders. Negotiated by the United States Minister to Britain, former Maryland senator Reverdy Johnson,
HP Pavilion DV6-6B51EA Battery in late 1868, it was ignored by the Senate during the remainder of the President's term. The treaty was rejected after he left office, and the Grant administration later negotiated considerably better terms from Britain.[169][170] HP Pavilion DV6-6B58SA Battery
Administration and Cabinet [edit]
Johnson appointed nine Article III federal judges during his presidency, all to United States district courts; he did not appoint a justice to serve on the Supreme Court. In April 1866, he nominated Henry Stanbery to fill the vacancy left with the death of John Catron, HP Pavilion DV6-6C11EA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6B50EA Battery but Congress eliminated the seat to prevent the appointment, and to ensure that he did not get to make any appointments eliminated the next vacancy as well, providing that the court would shrink by one justice when one next departed from office.[1
HP Pavilion DV6-6B07EA Battery 71] Johnson appointed his Greeneville crony, Samuel Milligan, to the United States Court of Claims, where he served from 1868 until his death in 1874.[172][173]
Completion of term [edit]
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Johnson sought nomination by the 1868 Democratic National Convention in New York in July 1868. He remained very popular among Southern whites, and boosted that popularity by issuing, just before the convention,
HP Pavilion DV6-6004EA Battery a pardon ending the possibility of criminal proceedings against any Confederate not already indicted, meaning that only Davis and a few others still might face trial. On the first ballot, Johnson was second to former Ohio representative George H. Pendleton, who had been his Democratic opponent for vice president in 1864. HP Pavilion DV6-6C12EA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6002SA Battery Johnson's support was mostly from the South, and fell away as the ballots passed. On the 22nd ballot, former New York governor Horatio Seymour was nominated, and the President received only four votes, all from Tennessee.[174] HP Pavilion DV6-6C56EA Battery
The conflict with Congress continued. Johnson sent Congress proposals for amendments to limit the president to a single six-year term and make the president and the Senate directly elected, and for term limits for judges. HP Pavilion DV6-6C57EA Battery
HP Pavilion DV6-6C75EA Battery Congress took no action on them. When the President was slow to officially report ratifications of the Fourteenth Amendment by the new Southern legislatures, Congress passed a bill, again over his veto, requiring him to do so within ten days of receipt. He still delayed as much as he could, but was required, in July 1868, to report the ratifications making the amendment part of the Constitution.[175] Sony VPCSA2Z9E Battery
"Farewell to all my greatness": Harper's Weekly cartoon mocking Johnson on leaving office
Seymour's operatives sought Johnson's support, but he long remained silent on the presidential campaign. It was not until October, with the vote already having taken place in some states, that he mentioned Seymour at all, Sony VPCSA3N9E Battery
and he never endorsed him. Nevertheless, Johnson regretted Grant's victory, in part because of their animus from the Stanton affair. In his annual message to Congress in December, Johnson urged the repeal of the Tenure of Office Act and told legislators that had they admitted their Southern colleagues in 1865, Sony VPCSA3S9E Battery
Sony VPCSE2M9E Batteryall would have been well. He celebrated his 60th birthday in late December with a party for several hundred children, though not including those of President-elect Grant, who did not allow his to go.[176] Sony VPCSA3X9E Battery
On Christmas Day 1868, Johnson issued a final amnesty, this one covering everyone, including Davis. He also issued, in his final months in office, pardons for crimes, including one for Dr. Samuel Mudd, controversially convicted of involvement in the Lincoln assassination (he had set Booth's broken leg) and imprisoned on Florida's Dry Tortugas.[176] Sony VPCSA4W9E Battery
On March 3, the President hosted a large public reception at the White House on his final full day in office. Grant had made it known that he was unwilling to ride in the same carriage as Johnson, as was customary, and Johnson refused to go to the inauguration at all. Despite an effort by Seward to prompt a change of mind, he spent the morning of March 4 finishing last-minute business, and then shortly after noon rode from the White House to the home of a friend.[177][178]
Post-presidency [edit]
Senator Andrew Johnson in 1875 (age 66)
After leaving the presidency, Johnson remained for some weeks in Washington, then returned to Greeneville for the first time in eight years. He was honored with large public celebrations along the way, especially in Tennessee, where cities hostile to him during the war hung out welcome banners. He had arranged to purchase a large farm near Greeneville to live on after his presidency.[179] Sony VPCSB1A7E Battery
Some expected Johnson to seek to be Tennessee's governor again or to attempt a return to the Senate, others that he would become a railroad executive.[170] Johnson found Greeneville boring, and his private life was embittered by the suicide of his son Robert in 1869.[180] Seeking vindication for himself, Sony VPCSB1A9E Battery
Sony VPCSE1Z9E Batteryand revenge against his political enemies, he launched a Senate bid soon after returning home. Tennessee had gone Republican, but court rulings restoring the vote to some whites and the violence of the Ku Klux Klan kept down the African-American vote, leading to a Democratic victory in the legislative elections in August 1869. Sony VPCSB1B7E Battery
Sony VPCSE1V9E Battery Johnson was seen as a likely victor in the Senate election, although hated by Radical Republicans, and also by some Democrats because of his wartime activities. Although he was at one point within a single vote of victory in the legislature's balloting, the Republicans eventually elected Henry Cooper over Johnson, 54–51.[181Sony VPCSB1B9E Battery
Sony VPCSE1L1E Battery] In 1872, there was a special election for an at-large congressional seat for Tennessee; Johnson initially sought the Democratic nomination, but when he saw that it would go to former Confederate general Benjamin F. Cheatham, Sony VPCSB1C5E Battery
Sony VPCSE1J1E Batterydecided to run as an independent. The former president was defeated, finishing third, but the split in the Democratic Party defeated Cheatham in favor of an old Johnson Unionist ally, Horace Maynard.[182] Sony VPCSB1C7E Battery
In 1873 Johnson contracted cholera during an epidemic but recovered; that year he lost about $73,000, when the First National Bank of Washington went under, though he was eventually repaid much of the sum.[1
Sony VPCSE1E1E Battery83] He began looking towards the next Senate election, to take place in the legislature in early 1875. Johnson began to woo the farmers' Grange movement; with his Jeffersonian leanings, he easily gained their support. Sony VPCSB1D7E Battery
Sony VPCSB3T9E BatteryHe spoke throughout the state in his final campaign tour. Few African-Americans outside the large towns were now able to vote as Reconstruction faded in Tennessee, setting a pattern that would be repeated in the other Southern states; the white domination would last almost a century. Sony VPCSB1S1E Battery
In the Tennessee legislative elections in August, the Democrats elected 92 legislators to the Republicans' eight, and Johnson went to Nashville for the legislative session. When the balloting for the Senate seat began on January 20, 1875, Sony VPCSB1V9E Battery
Sony VPCSB3S9E Battery he led with 30 votes, but did not have the required majority as three former Confederate generals, one former colonel, and a former Democratic congressman split the vote with him. Johnson's opponents tried to agree on a single candidate who might gain majority support and defeat him, but failed, Sony VPCSB1V9R Battery
Sony VPCSB3N9E Battery and he was elected on January 26 on the 54th ballot, with a margin of a single vote. Nashville erupted in rejoicing;[184][185] remarked Johnson, "Thank God for the vindication."[180] Sony VPCSB1X9E Battery
Johnson's comeback garnered national attention, with the St. Louis Republican calling it, "the most magnificent personal triumph which the history of American politics can show".[185] At his swearing-in in the Senate on March 5, 1875, Sony VPCSB1Z9E Battery
he was greeted with flowers and sworn in with another former vice president, Hamlin, by that office's current incumbent, Henry Wilson, who as senator had voted for his ouster. Many Republicans ignored Senator Johnson, Sony VPCSB1Z9R Battery
Sony VPCSB2M9E Battery though some, such as Ohio's John Sherman (who had voted for conviction), shook his hand. Johnson remains the only former president to serve in the Senate. He spoke only once in the short session, HP Pavilion DV7-1105EA Keyboard
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on March 22 lambasting President Grant for his use of federal troops in support of Louisiana's Reconstruction government. The former president asked, "How far off is military despotism?" and concluded his speech, "may God bless this people and God save the Constitution."[186]
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Johnson returned home after the special session concluded. In late July, convinced some of his opponents were defaming him in the Ohio gubernatorial race, he decided to travel there to give speeches. He began the trip on July 28, HP Pavilion DV7-1210EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3112EA Keyboard and broke the journey at his daughter Mary's farm near Elizabethton, where his daughter Martha was also staying. That evening he suffered a stroke, but refused medical treatment until the next day, HP Pavilion DV7-1135EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3110EA Keyboardwhen he did not improve and two doctors were sent for from Elizabethton. He seemed to respond to their ministrations, but suffered another stroke on the evening of July 30, and died early the following morning at the age of 66. President Grant had the "painful duty"
HP Pavilion DV7-3105EA Keyboardof announcing the death of the only surviving past president. Northern newspapers, in their obituaries, tended to focus on Johnson's loyalty during the war, while Southern ones paid tribute to his actions as president. Johnson's funeral was held on August 3 in Greeneville.[187][ HP Pavilion DV7-1130EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3101SA Keyboard188] He was buried with his body wrapped in an American flag and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes. The burial ground was dedicated as the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery in 1906, and with his home and tailor's shop, is part of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.[189] HP Pavilion DV7-1125EA Keyboard
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Historical view and legacy [edit]
According to Castel, "historians [of Johnson's presidency] have tended to concentrate to the exclusion of practically everything else upon his role in that titanic event [Reconstruction]".[190] Through the remainder of the 19th century, HP Pavilion DV7-1213EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-3001EA Keyboard there were few historical evaluations of Johnson and his presidency. Memoirs from Northerners who had dealt with him, such as former vice president Henry Wilson and Maine Senator James G. Blaine, HP Pavilion DV7-1211EA Keyboard
depicted him as an obstinate boor who tried to favor the South in Reconstruction, but who was frustrated by Congress.[19
HP Pavilion DV7-3000 Keyboard1] According to historian Howard K. Beale in his journal article about the historiography of Reconstruction, "Men of the postwar decades were more concerned with justifying their own position than they were with painstaking search for truth. Thus [Alabama congressman and historian]
HP Pavilion DV7-2230SA Keyboard Hilary Herbert and his corroborators presented a Southern indictment of Northern policies, and Henry Wilson's history was a brief for the North."[192]
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The turn of the 20th century saw the first significant historical evaluations of Johnson. Leading the wave was Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James Ford Rhodes, who wrote of the former president:[191]
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Johnson acted in accordance with his nature. He had intellectual force but it worked in a groove. Obstinate rather than firm it undoubtedly seemed to him that following counsel and making concessions were a display of weakness. HP Pavilion DV7-1212EA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-1214EA KeyboardAt all events from his December message to the veto of the Civil Rights Bill he yielded not a jot to Congress. The moderate senators and representatives (who constituted a majority of the Union party) asked him for only a slight compromise; HP Pavilion DV7-4020SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-4180SA Keyboardtheir action was really an entreaty that he would unite with them to preserve Congress and the country from the policy of the radicals ... His quarrel with Congress prevented the readmission into the Union on generous terms of the members of the late Confederacy ... His pride of opinion, his desire to beat, blinded him to the real welfare of the South and of the whole country.[193] HP Pavilion DV7-4015SA Keyboard
Rhodes ascribed Johnson's faults to his personal weaknesses, and blamed him for the problems of the postbellum South.[192] Other early 20th-century historians, such as John Burgess, Woodrow Wilson (who later became president himself) and William Dunning, all Southerners, concurred with Rhodes, believing Johnson flawed and politically inept, HP Pavilion DV7-4035SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-4150EA Keyboard but concluding that he had tried to carry out Lincoln's plans for the South in good faith.[1
HP Pavilion DV7-4144EA Keyboard94] Author and journalist Jay Tolson suggests that Wilson "depict[ed Reconstruction] as a vindictive program that hurt even repentant southerners while benefiting northern opportunists, the so-called Carpetbaggers, and cynical white southerners, or Scalawags, who exploited alliances with blacks for political gain".[195] HP Pavilion DV7-4040SA Keyboard
The grave of Andrew Johnson, Greeneville, Tennessee
Even as Rhodes and his school wrote, another group of historians was setting out on the full rehabilitation of Johnson, using for the first time primary sources such as his papers, provided by his daughter Martha before her death in 1901, HP Pavilion DV7-4045SA Keyboard
HP Pavilion DV7-4143EA Keyboard and the diaries of Johnson's Navy Secretary, Gideon Welles, first published in 1911. The resulting volumes, such as David Miller DeWitt's The Impeachment and Trial of President Andrew Johnson (1903), HP Pavilion DV7-4130SA Keyboard
presented him far more favorably than they did those who had sought to oust him. In James Schouler's 1913 History of the Reconstruction Period, the author accused Rhodes of being "quite unfair to Johnson",
HP Pavilion DV7-4141SA Keyboard though agreeing that the former president had created many of his own problems through inept political moves. These works had an effect; although historians continued to view Johnson as having deep flaws which sabotaged his presidency, they saw his Reconstruction policies as fundamentally correct.[ HP Pavilion DV7-4131SA Keyboard
196] A series of highly favorable biographies in the late 1920s and early 1930s that "glorified Johnson and condemned his enemies" accelerated this trend.[197][198] HP Pavilion DV7-4132EA Keyboard
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Beale wondered in 1940, "is it not time that we studied the history of Reconstruction without first assuming, at least subconsciously, that carpetbaggers and Southern white Republicans were wicked, that Negroes were illiterate incompetents, and that the whole white South owes a debt of gratitude to the restorers of 'white supremacy'?"[1Sony PCG-81113L Battery
99] Despite these doubts, the favorable view of Johnson survived for a time. In 1942, Van Heflin portrayed the former president as a fighter for democracy in the Hollywood film Tennessee Johnson. In 1948,
Sony PCG-81411L Battery a poll of his colleagues by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger deemed Johnson among the average presidents; in 1956, one by Clinton L. Rossiter named him as one of the near-great Chief Executives.[
Sony PCG-81312L Battery 200] Foner notes that at the time of these surveys, "the Reconstruction era that followed the Civil War was regarded as a time of corruption and misgovernment caused by granting black men the right to vote".[201]
Earlier historians, including Beale, Sony PCG-81311L Battery believed that money drives events, and had seen Reconstruction as an economic struggle. They also accepted, for the most part, that reconciliation between North and South should have been the top priority of Reconstruction. In the 1950s,
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historians began to focus on the African-American as central to Reconstruction. They rejected completely any claim of black inferiority, which had marked many earlier historical works, and saw the developing Civil Rights Era as a second Reconstruction; Sony PCG-7181L Battery
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Sony PCG-7183L Battery some writers stated they hoped their work on the postbellum era would advance the cause of civil rights. Sony PCG-81114L Battery
Sony PCG-81115L Battery These authors sympathized with the Radical Republicans for their desire to help the African-American, and saw Johnson as callous towards the freedman. In a number of works from 1956 onwards by such historians as Fawn Brodie, Sony PCG-7191L Battery
Sony PCG-7162L Battery the former president was depicted as a successful saboteur of efforts to better the freedman's lot. These volumes included major biographies of Stevens and Stanton.[202] Reconstruction was increasingly seen as a noble effort to integrate the freed slaves into society.[195][201]
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In the early 21st century, Johnson is among those commonly mentioned as the worst presidents in U.S. history.[195] According to historian Glenn W. Lafantasie, who believes Buchanan the worst president, "Johnson is a particular favorite for the bottom of the pile because of his impeachment ..
Sony PCG-7154L Battery . his complete mishandling of Reconstruction policy ... his bristling personality, and his enormous sense of self-importance."[203] Tolson suggests that "Johnson is now scorned for having resisted Radical Republican policies aimed at securing the rights and well-being of the newly emancipated African-Americans".[19Sony PCG-7192L Battery
Sony PCG-7153L Battery 5] Gordon-Reed notes that Johnson, along with his contemporaries Pierce and Buchanan, are generally listed among the five worst presidents, but states, "there have never been more difficult times in the life of this nation. The problems these men had to confront were enormous. It would have taken a succession of Lincolns to do them justice."[204] Sony PCG-7173L Battery
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Trefousse considers Johnson's legacy to be "the maintenance of white supremacy. His boost to Southern conservatives by undermining Reconstruction was his legacy to the nation, one that would trouble the country for generations to come."[205] Gordon-Reed concludes her account of his life:
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We know the results of Johnson's failures—that his preternatural stubbornness, his mean and crude racism, his primitive and instrumental understanding of the Constitution stunted his capacity for enlightened and forward-thinking leadership when those qualities were so desperately needed. Sony PCG-7172L Battery
Sony PCG-7185L Battery At the same time, Johnson's story has a miraculous quality to it: the poor boy who systematically rose to the heights, fell from grace, and then fought his way back to a position of honor. For good or ill, "only in America", as they say, could Johnson's story unfold in the way that it did.[206] Sony PCG-7174L Battery
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