Introduction to Andrew Johnson
Johnson, Andrew (1808–1875), the 17th President of the United States. He succeeded to the Presidency six weeks after his inauguration as Vice President, on April 15, 1865, the day after the assassination of President Lincoln. He was the third Vice President to assume the office upon the death of an incumbent President.
Johnson had been born into extreme poverty and had no formal education. Yet with determination and hard work, he had risen rapidly through local politics, to state government, and on to national office. His tenure as President, however, was to prove a tragedy both for himself and for the country. It was marked by bitter clashes with Congress over how the defeated Confederate states would be reconstructed (restored to the Union) following the Civil War and by whom—the President or Congress—and was climaxed by his impeachment.
Johnson was an honest and honorable man, but he was also a Southern Democrat and a states' rights advocate, whose views on the treatment of the South differed sharply from those of the Radical Republicans in Congress. Johnson sought to put into effect the main points of Lincoln's moderate Reconstruction program, while the Radical plan was to treat the Southern states as defeated belligerents. The Radicals also wished to delay the South's return to the Union in order to keep their party in power. The resulting hostility between Johnson and Congress, with Johnson seeking to prevent Congressional usurpation of Presidential powers, led to his impeachment on charges that even then were recognized as without foundation and politically motivated. Johnson won acquittal by one vote.
Although vilified during his Presidency, Johnson gained some measure of vindication by winning election to the U.S. Senate after leaving office, the only former Chief Executive ever to do so.
Johnson's Youth
Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, December 29, 1808. His father, Jacob Johnson, was a handyman, porter, and sexton. He drowned when Andrew was three, leaving the family in poverty. His widow, Mary McDonough Johnson, attempted to support herself and her two sons, Andrew and his older brother, William, by becoming a weaver. The burden, however, was too great. In 1814 she apprenticed William to a local tailor. At about the same time, she remarried, but her second husband, Turner Daugherty of Raleigh, was also penniless.
At the age of 14 Andrew joined his brother as an apprentice tailor. At the tailor shop, he received his first education, being taught how to read. The life of an apprentice was hard, and in 1824 the Johnson boys ran away. They first stopped in nearby Carthage, where Andrew opened a tailor shop. They later went to Laurens, South Carolina.
In 1826 the Johnson boys returned to Raleigh. Soon after, the whole family set out for Tennessee, making the long, arduous journey over the mountains with all their belongings in a two-wheeled cart. They settled in Greeneville, where Andrew opened a tailor shop. On May 17, 1827, the 18-year-old tailor married 16-year-old Eliza McCar-dle, a schoolteacher. She played an important role in his education, helping him learn writing and arithmetic. The Johnsons became the parents of three sons and two daughters.
Early Political Career
Johnson was an ambitious young man with an interest in public affairs. His tailor shop became a center for political debate. He entered politics in 1828 at the age of 20, when he was elected an alderman of Greeneville as the candidate of a working-man's party. He was reelected twice. In 1830 Johnson was chosen mayor, holding that post for three years. In 183S he was elected to the state house of representatives, running as a champion of small farmers and tradesmen. He then served in the Tennessee senate. In 1843, when 34, Johnson ran for Congress as a states' rights Democrat and won. In 1853 he was elected governor of Tennessee. As governor, Johnson helped to establish a public school system and continued to support small farmers and tradesmen in opposition to the state's slaveholding aristocracy. He was reelected in 1855.
In 1857 Johnson won election to the U.S. Senate. Although from the South, he was a staunch supporter of the Union. He was the only Southerner to remain in the Senate after his state seceded from the Union. He was regarded by pro-Confederate Tennesseeans as a renegade. In March, 1862, President Lincoln made Johnson military governor of Tennessee. He proved to be an able and fair-minded administrator.
In an effort to promote national harmony, the Republican party, calling itself the National Union Party, in 1864 chose Johnson, a Democrat, to be the Vice Presidential nominee on the ticket with Lincoln. (
Johnson As President
After his election as Vice President, Johnson returned to Tennessee to complete the job of restoring the state to the Union. He worked to exhaustion and contracted typhoid fever. He was still ill when he went to Washington for the inauguration. On March 4, 1865, while waiting outside the Senate chamber to take the oath of office, Johnson felt ill and asked for a stimulant. He was given liquor and, in his weakened condition, became intoxicated. During the ceremony, his speech was slurred and his manner undignified. Although Johnson was a temperate drinker, he gained the reputation of “drunken tailor,” which followed him throughout the rest of his career.
Only 41 days later, Johnson was President of the United States. On April 15, he was officially notified of his succession following Lincoln's death. The oath of office was administered in his hotel room by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. While making no “pledges or promises,” Johnson at first seemed bitter toward the South, and was quoted as saying, “Treason must be made infamous, and traitors must be punished and impoverished.” This convinced the Radical Republicans, who controlled Congress, that he shared their determination to impose a harsh rule upon the defeated Confederacy.
However, after the shock of the assassination had subsided, Johnson indicated that he planned to follow Lincoln's conciliatory policy toward the South. He said that it was his object “to escape from the sway of momentary passions and to derive a healing policy from the fundamental and unchanging principles of the Constitution.”
The basic terms of Johnson's policy were announced in two proclamations issued May 29, 1865. The first granted amnesty to all but the most prominent former Confederates. The other restored civil government in North Carolina, foretelling similar arrangements for the other Confederate states. The Radicals, led by Thaddeus Stevens in the House and Charles Sumner in the Senate, denounced what they considered the President's leniency, fearing that the South would regain much of what it had lost during the war.
Beginning in 1866, Congress began to pass bills designed to curb the President's program. He vetoed these measures. However, after the Radicals gained supporters in the 1866 elections, most bills were enacted over his veto. He also lacked Lincoln's adroitness at political maneuver. The Radical program, set forth in two Reconstruction bills passed in March, 1867, called for military rule in the South, disenfranchisement of the former rebels, and unrestricted suffrage for blacks. Also, to further weaken executive authority, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, prohibiting the President from removing from office officials who had been appointed with Senate confirmation. All these bills were enacted over Johnson's veto.
After Lincoln's death, Johnson had persuaded the assassinated President's cabinet to continue to serve under him. Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, however, was an ally of the Radicals. In August, 1867, Johnson dismissed Stan ton, violating the Tenure of Office Act. The Radicals used this move to take drastic action against Johnson.
On February 24, 1868, Congressman Stevens initiated impeachment -proceedings against the President for high crimes and misdemeanors. The trial lasted two months. At the end, the final vote in the Senate was 35 for conviction, 19 against. Since a two-thirds majority was required, he was spared by one vote. Although acquitted, Johnson served out his term as a powerless President, and made no serious attempt for the 1868 Presidential nomination. He was succeeded by Ulysses S. Grant, a Republican.
The Johnson administration, however, was not without notable successes in foreign policy. Johnson, ably assisted by Secretary of State William H. Seward, succeeded in getting the French to withdraw from Mexico in 1867, thus upholding the Monroe Doctrine. Seward also negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia that same year.
Final Years
After leaving office, Johnson returned to Tennessee, where he took an active interest in state politics. In 1869 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. Senate, and in 1872 he was defeated for representative-at-large from Tennessee to Congress. He again ran for the Senate in 1874, and this time was elected. When he returned to the Senate in March, 1875, he received a standing ovation. Soon after Congress adjourned that summer, Johnson visited a daughter in Carter County, Tennessee, where he suffered a stroke and died on July 31.
Johnson was buried on a hilltop in Greeneville, wrapped in a 37-star flag with a copy of the Constitution under his head.