Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson Click to enlarge

• Born: 29 December 1808
• Birthplace: Raleigh, North Carolina
• Died: 31 July 1875
• Best Known As: The president who followed Abraham Lincoln

Andrew Johnson became the 17th president of the United States after the 1865 assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was an unlikely man for the job: he had been a poor tailor in Tennessee before he entered politics. A fast learner with a flair for oratory, he worked his way up through Tennessee politics to the U.S. Senate. During the Civil War he was the only Southern Democrat to support Lincoln, and that helped him be chosen for the vice-presidency in the elections of 1864. Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth on 14 April 1865 and died the next day, making Johnson president after just six weeks as vice-president. As chief executive he clashed with Radical Republicans, who held a majority in the U.S. Congress, and had little support from postwar Southern legislators. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, restricting presidential powers, and when Johnson defied them, he was impeached in 1868. A few months later the Senate acquitted him by one vote. It was on Johnson's watch, in 1867, that the United States bought Alaska from Russia for $7 million. Johnson did not run for reelection, and was followed as president by the popular Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. Johnson was reelected to the U.S. Senate in 1875, four months before his death, becoming the only ex-president to serve in the Senate.

Johnson married the former Eliza McCardle in 1827; he was 18 and she 16 at the time of their wedding. They had five children: Martha (1828-1901), Charles (1830-1863), Mary (1832-1883), Robert (1834-1869), and much later, Andrew Jr. (1852-1879)... The purchase of Alaska is often called "Seward's Folly," after William Seward, the Secretary of State who promoted the deal. Gold was discovered in Alaska in the 1890s, making Johnson and Seward look like geniuses.

(click to enlarge)
Andrew Johnson. (credit: Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.)

(born Dec. 29, 1808, Raleigh, N.C., U.S. — died July 31, 1875, near Carter Station, Tenn.) 17th president of the U.S. (1865 – 69). Born in poverty, he never attended school, and he taught himself to read and write. After a short apprenticeship as a tailor, he moved with his family to Greeneville, Tenn., where he opened his own tailor shop. Before he was 21 he organized a workingman's party. Elected to the state legislature (1835 – 43), he became a spokesman for small farmers. He then served in the U.S. House of Representatives (1843 – 53) and as governor of Tennessee (1853 – 57). Elected to the U.S. Senate (1857 – 62), he opposed antislavery agitation, but, in 1860, after the election of Pres. Abraham Lincoln, he vehemently rejected Southern secession, a position he maintained even after Tennessee seceded in 1861. During the American Civil War he was the only Southern senator who refused to join the Confederacy. In 1862 he was appointed military governor of Tennessee, then under Union control. In 1864 he was selected to run for vice president with President Lincoln; he assumed the presidency after Lincoln's assassination. During Reconstruction he favoured a moderate policy of readmitting former Confederate states to the Union with few provisions for reform or civil rights for freedmen. In 1867, Johnson's vetoes of legislation to establish a Freedmen's Bureau and other civil rights measures angered moderate as well as Radical Republicans; in response, they united to pass the Tenure of Office Act (1867), which forbade the president from removing civil officers without senatorial consent. In 1868, in defiance of the act, Johnson dismissed secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton, an ally of the Radicals. The House then voted to impeach the president — the first such occurrence in U.S. history. In the subsequent Senate trial, the charges proved weak, and the necessary two-thirds vote needed for conviction failed by one vote. Johnson remained in office until 1869, but he had lost the ability to lead. He returned to Tennessee, where he won reelection to the Senate shortly before he died.

For more information on Andrew Johnson, visit Britannica.com.

As a Tennessee congressman in 1843–53 and senator in 1857–62, Johnson provided mixed signals on military issues. In 1850, he remarked that he might like to have one of his sons in the navy, and he worked to get Tennessee boys into West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy. Yet Johnson was at heart a small government Democrat, with special concerns about money and class privilege. Thus in a speech on appropriations in August 1852 he derided the “imbecile” congressional sons who got preference; proposed to close both academies; attacked the wasteful War and Navy Department bureaucracies; and called the army and navy expensive and oppressive in the European style.

Johnson was a strong nationalist, who favored expansion and strongly supported the administration during the Mexican War, even though he and PresidentJames K. Polk openly despised each other. During the secession crisis, Johnson remained firmly loyal to the Union. Abraham Lincoln, needing a strong‐willed figure to begin Reconstruction in Tennessee, appointed Johnson military governor in 1862. This was an anomalous position in American law, and one that the fortunes of war and necessities of politics made frustrating. Johnson's relations with Union generals were often strained.

Upon Lincoln's death (1865), Johnson succeeded to the assassination presidency. In implementing Reconstruction policy the army played a central role in the institutional struggle between Congress and the president in 1866–67. Johnson's efforts to bring Ulysses S. Grant into his political circle led to a public breach with the popular general. Johnson did have friendly relations with William Tecumseh Sherman, who nonetheless refused a political role. Impeachment proceedings in 1868 were on an asserted violation of the Tenure of Office Act, arising out of the removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton—a step Johnson justified both on his general executive authority under the Constitution and his specific function as commander in chief.

[See also Civil War: Postwar Impact; Commander in Chief, President as; Expansionism.]

Bibliography

• James E. Sefton, Andrew Johnson and the Uses of Constitutional Power, 1980.
• Hans L. Trefousse, Andrew Johnson: A Biography, 1989

Johnson, Andrew (1808-75) 17th president of the United States (1865-69) and the first president to be impeached, born in Raleigh, North Carolina. He later settled in Tennessee, where he twice served in the state house (elected 1835, 1839) and later in the senate (1841), establishing a reputation as a Jacksonian Democrat with a firm commitment to fiscal economy. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for ten years (first elected 1843) and was twice elected governor of Tennessee (1853, 1855) before being sent to the U.S. Senate in 1857. Johnson was a firm defender of slavery who nonetheless opposed secession and remained loyal to the Union, making him a traitor in the South and a hero in the North. Although he came to recognize the need for, and consequently support, emancipation, he never abandoned his racist prejudices. Johnson, a so-called war Democrat, was nominated for vice president on the Union ticket in 1864, sworn in in March 1865, and inaugurated as president six weeks later, following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. His Reconstruction policies for dealing with the South after the war allowed for a resurgence of conservative power there, bringing him into conflict with the Republicans in Congress. Eventually the split became so great that Congress was able to override all his vetoes of more stringent Reconstruction legislation. His dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton led to his impeachment by the House, on the grounds that he had violated the tenure of office act, as well as other tenuous charges (1868). The Senate failed to convict him, by one vote. During the remainder of his term in office, he had little power. The most significant achievement of his tenure was the purchase of Alaska (1867). After leaving office, Johnson returned to Tennessee, eventually again winning election to the Senate (1875) after two unsuccessful attempts.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), seventeenth president of the United States, was the only president ever to be impeached.

Andrew Johnson was born on Dec. 29, 1808, in Raleigh, N.C. After serving an apprenticeship with a tailor, he moved to Greeneville, Tenn., where he opened a tailor shop in 1826. Johnson laboriously taught himself to read and write with the help of Eliza McCardle, whom he married in 1827. His business prospered, and Johnson entered the rough-and-tumble world of politics, becoming a formidable stump speaker.

A Jacksonian Democrat, Johnson moved up through local elective offices to U.S. senator in 1857. In the Senate he crusaded for a homestead law and was bitter when the South blocked its passage. Yet he supported Jefferson Davis's demand for a congressional guarantee of slave property in the territories and in 1860 backed the proslavery presidential candidate.

When the Southern states began seceding, however, Johnson was the only senator from the Confederate states to remain in Congress. In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of partly reconquered Tennessee with instructions to begin restoring the state to the Union. Johnson did a good job under trying circumstances. Converted by the Civil War to an antislavery position, he set in motion the machinery for a constitutional convention that abolished slavery in Tennessee (January 1865).

Accident President

In 1864 the Republicans, hoping to attract support from Unionist Democrats, nominated Johnson for vice president. When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, heavy responsibilities fell upon Johnson. The new president indicated that he would impose severe punishment on "traitors," but his actual policy during 1865 was surprisingly lenient. He extended amnesty to all but the most prominent and wealthy Confederates and provided for the election (by white voters only) of delegates to the conventions to draw up new Southern state constitutions. Subsequently, Johnson granted thousands of pardons to Southerners exempted from the general amnesty.

Under their new constitutions the Southern states elected several prominent Confederates to high office. Some of the states passed "black codes" restricting the rights of freed slaves to a level little better than slavery. Republicans in Congress grew alarmed and feared that the South would regain by Johnson's leniency much of what it had lost in war; they sought a settlement that would provide Federal protection for freedmen and restrict the power of former Confederates. Congress passed a civil rights bill and a Freedmen's Bureau bill in 1866, but Johnson vetoed both. Congress sent the 14th Amendment to the states for ratification, but Johnson influenced Southern states to reject it.

Impeachment Proceedings

Johnson's belief that "the people" supported his policies should have been shaken by the 1866 congressional elections, which gave the Republicans an overwhelming mandate. Nevertheless, he continued to force Congress to pass every Reconstruction measure over his veto. He tried to weaken enforcement of Reconstruction laws by appointing conservative commanders for some Southern military districts.

An exasperated and vengeful House of Representatives finally impeached Johnson on Feb. 25, 1868. The ostensible grounds were technical transgressions; in reality he was impeached for resisting Congress's will on vital national issues. At Johnson's trial before the Senate, his lawyers proved that he had committed no constitutional crimes or misdemeanors; the verdict for conviction fell one vote short of the necessary two-thirds majority. Johnson served out his term as a powerless president.

Six years later, in 1875, Johnson was elected to the U.S. Senate by Tennessee. However, he suffered a paralytic attack and died on July 31.

Further Reading

Pro-Johnson biographies include Robert W. Winston, Andrew Johnson (1928); Lloyd Paul Stryker, Andrew Johnson (1929); George F. Milton, The Age of Hate: Andrew Johnson and the Radicals (1930); and Howard K. Beale, The Critical Year: A Study of Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1930). Recent scholarship is critical of Johnson; see Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1960); LaWanda Cox and John H. Cox, Politics, Principle, and Prejudice, 1865-66 (1963); and William R. Brock, An American Crisis: Congress and Reconstruction, 1865-1867 (1963). A collection of essays that attempts balanced appraisal is Eric L. McKitrick, ed., Andrew Johnson: A Profile (1969).

• Born: Dec. 29, 1808, Raleigh, N.C.
• Political party: Democrat; elected Vice President as Unionist
• Education: no formal education
• Military service: military governor of Tennessee, 1862–64
• Previous government service: alderman, Greeneville, Tenn., 1829–30; mayor of Greeneville, 1831–35; Tennessee State Constitutional Convention, 1834; Tennessee House of Representatives, 1835–37, 1839–41; Tennessee Senate, 1841–43; U.S. House of Representatives, 1843–53; governor of Tennessee, 1853–57; U.S. Senate, 1857–62; Vice President, 1865
• Succeeded to Presidency, 1865; served, 1865–69
• Subsequent government service: U.S. Senate, 1875
• Died: July 31, 1875, Carter Station, Tenn.

Andrew Johnson was a Southern Democrat elected on the Unionist ticket with President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. His Southern sympathies and conciliatory Reconstruction policies caused him to flout the Reconstruction Acts passed by Congress, and he became the first and so far the only President to be impeached by the House of Representatives and tried by the Senate. This conflict with Congress weakened the Presidency for the remainder of the century.

Johnson's father was a laborer and his mother a barmaid. His father died when he was three, and his mother barely survived by sewing and taking in laundry. She could not afford to send him to school, and Johnson became a tailor's apprentice at 14. He and his brother opened their own tailor shop in Carthage, North Carolina; then, at 18, he opened his own shop in Greeneville, Tennessee. He married the next year and his wife, Eliza, taught him how to read, write, and count. He learned how to speak in public by participating in a debating society at a nearby college.

Johnson became active in local politics, identifying with poor whites and denouncing the rich planters and financiers. As governor of Tennessee, he supported free public education. He also supported slavery (and actually owned several slaves himself) and attacked abolitionists. But he broke with his party while he was in the Senate to support homesteading on Western lands (providing 160 acres for each settler who worked the land for five years), eventually getting the Homestead Act passed by Congress in 1862.

Johnson ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1860, but was never in real contention. He supported Democrat John C. Breckinridge over Lincoln in the election.

When the Civil War came, Johnson denounced the secessionists, and by June 1861 he was the only Southern senator to remain in his seat and refuse to join the Confederacy. He sponsored a resolution in the Senate declaring that the aim of the war was reunion and not the emancipation of slaves.

President Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of Tennessee in 1862, and he managed to end rebellion in the state by 1864. Johnson was an obvious choice for the Vice Presidential nomination, running as a Democrat with the Republican Lincoln on a coalition Unionist ticket. Only 42 days into his second term Lincoln was shot, and Johnson succeeded to the Presidency on April 15, 1865.

Johnson began his Presidency by issuing a proclamation of amnesty on May 29, 1865, to all citizens in the states that had seceded except for certain civil and military officers and citizens with property worth more than $20,000; he appointed provisional civil governors in the Southern states; he reestablished state governments on lenient terms (requiring merely that they ratify the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery and absolved the U.S. government from paying Confederate debts); and he issued pardons to 14,000 Southern officers who applied, including General Robert E. Lee. Johnson refused to confiscate the property of former rebels. He left questions of voting rights to the states and did nothing when the new state governments instituted “black codes” that deprived former slaves of the right to vote, serve on juries, testify in lawsuits, or possess firearms (and in many states banned them from occupations other than farming). In 1866 he vetoed a civil rights bill that would have extended citizenship and legal protection to the former slaves and denounced the proposed 14th Amendment, which would have accomplished the same thing. On August 20, 1866, Johnson announced that the “insurrection” was over and that “peace, order, tranquility and civil authority now exist in and throughout the whole of the United States.”

Radical Republicans in Congress fought Johnson and pushed stiffer Reconstruction measures on the South. When Congress reconvened in December 1865, it refused to seat Southern congressional delegations, thus preventing the South from obtaining a majority in Congress. In April 1866 Congress developed its own plans for Reconstruction, which would guarantee blacks the right to vote but take it away from former Confederate soldiers. In June Congress passed the 14th Amendment, guaranteeing black voting rights and due process of law. All the Southern states except Tennessee refused to ratify it, and Congress refused to lift its ban on their representation in the national legislature. In July Congress extended the life of the Freedmen's Bureau, the agency to protect freed slaves, over Johnson's veto.

To defeat the radical Republicans, Johnson organized a National Union Movement of Democrats and conservative Republicans to try to elect supporters of his Reconstruction policies in the 1866 elections. He campaigned across the Midwest for his candidates and policies. The result was that voters chose radical Republicans over the Democrats favored by Johnson, and the new Congress had a veto-proof Republican majority determined to bend the President to its will.

On March 2, 1867, Congress passed the first Reconstruction act: it divided the South into five military districts, with Freedmen's Bureau officials and military tribunals protecting the rights of blacks. The military would create a new list of voters in each state, who would, in turn, organize state constitutional conventions. The military governors could purge civil officials and state legislators whom they viewed as “disloyal.” An army of occupation, 20,000 strong, enforced military rule. Johnson vetoed this Reconstruction law, which was then passed over his veto, and thereafter did as little as possible to enforce it. He began removing Republican office holders from the executive branch and replacing them with Democrats, and he encouraged Southern states to vote against ratification of the 14th Amendment.

To prevent Johnson from interfering with congressional policies, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act on March 2, 1867. Johnson vetoed this law, but Congress passed it over his veto. It prevented Johnson from dismissing cabinet secretaries or other high-level officials until the Senate had consented to their successors, thus giving the final word on dismissals to the Senate. It also passed a law preventing Johnson from dismissing the commander of the army without Senate consent and requiring the President to issue his military orders through the general of the army, Ulysses S. Grant.

To test the law, Johnson asked for the resignation of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and then suspended him when he refused to resign. On January 13, 1868, the Senate refused to concur in Stanton's suspension. Disregarding the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson fired Stanton on February 21. Three days later the House of Representatives impeached Johnson for “high crimes and misdemeanors.” The articles of impeachment concentrated on this violation of the law but added that Johnson's conduct toward Congress had involved “disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt and reproach.” It did not include the charge by one member, George S. Boutwell, that Johnson himself was part of the plot to murder Lincoln. The Senate acquitted Johnson on May 16, 1868. The vote was 35 for conviction and 19 for acquittal, one vote short of the two-thirds majority necessary for conviction. Seven Republicans voted to dismiss the charges. The acquittal was unpopular, and all five of these senators who sought reelection were defeated.

Why did the Senate acquit Johnson? A few Republicans who favored the nomination of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868 voted to acquit because if Johnson had been removed, the president pro tempore of the Senate, Benjamin Wade, would have become President. That would have made it likely that Wade would have secured the Republican party's next Presidential nomination over Grant. Johnson agreed, even before the vote, to end his defiance of the Senate and nominate General John M. Schofield—a military man who would follow the Reconstruction policy of the Congress—to become the new secretary of war. In effect, Johnson gave up the powers and influence of his office as the price of maintaining his place in office.

In spite of the domestic turmoil and impeachment crisis, in foreign affairs the Johnson administration was quite successful. Most of the credit rests with Secretary of State William Seward, who had a free hand to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, warning European powers not to interfere in the Western Hemisphere. In 1863 the French emperor Napoleon III had put Maximilian on the throne as emperor of Mexico. At the end of the Civil War, U.S. pressure forced the French to pull their troops out of Mexico and abandon Maximilian, who soon fell victim to a Mexican firing squad. The Johnson administration tamped down a crisis with Great Britain by enforcing neutrality laws, which prohibited U.S. citizens from using military force against other nations, against the Irish-American Fenians who made several armed forays into Canada in an attempt to annex Canadian territory. Civil War claims against Great Britain for building Confederate naval vessels that sank Union ships were sent to arbitration. In another foreign policy triumph, Secretary Seward negotiated a treaty to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. Though at the time it was ridiculed as “Johnson's Polar Bear Garden” and “Seward's Folly,” the purchase of Alaska turned out to be a great bargain. But Seward was unable to get Senate consent to acquire the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Greenland, or Iceland.

Andrew Johnson left office embittered, riding out of the capital without even speaking to his successor on Inauguration Day. He was defeated in a House election in 1872. When he returned to the Senate in 1875, only 13 of the 35 senators who had voted for his impeachment remained. One of them, Oliver P. Morton of Indiana, shook his hand in a gesture of reconciliation. Three months later, on vacation at his daughter's home in Tennessee, Johnson collapsed from a stroke. He requested that he be buried with a copy of the Constitution as a pillow and the Stars and Stripes for his shroud.

See also Grant, Ulysses S.; Impeachment; Lincoln, Abraham; Removal power

Sources

• Michael Les Benedict, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson (New York: Norton, 1973).
• Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).
• James Sefton, Andrew Johnson and the Uses of Constitutional Power (Boston: Little, Brown, 1980)

(1808-1875), seventeenth president of the United States. Johnson, the only president ever to be impeached, was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, into very moderate circumstances. Apprenticed to a tailor as a youth, he ran away from his employer and settled in Greeneville, Tennessee, where he established himself as a tailor.

Johnson soon turned to politics, rising to governor and U.S. senator. He became a spokesman for the Jacksonian Democrats of his state, favoring populist measures, particularly a homestead bill. In 1860-1861, he remained loyal to the Union, the only senator from a seceding state to do so, and in 1862, Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee.

In 1864 Johnson was elected vice president. Inaugurated as president after Lincoln's assassination, he announced his hatred for "traitors," but in reality embraced a lenient Reconstruction policy. A firm believer in states' rights, he held that blacks were innately inferior. Consequently, he asserted that the southern states had never left the Union and ought to be restored quickly, without regard to the safety of the freedmen. This was the rationale for his granting amnesty to all but a few ex-Confederates and appointing provisional governors charged with calling on white voters to reestablish loyal governments. The resulting administrations enacted Black Codes that virtually remanded the freedmen to slavery.

Congress, however, refused to seat the newly elected southern members and broke with the president when he vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau and civil rights bills and opposed the Fourteenth Amendment. His attempt to create a new conservative party and his "swing around the circle," a national tour during which he delivered unbecoming harangues, contributed to the defeat of his supporters in the 1866 midterm elections. Congress then curtailed his powers by passing the Tenure of Office Act to protect radical appointees and a measure to restrict his authority as commander in chief of the army. His objections proved unavailing, as was his bitter opposition to the Reconstruction Acts.

Because Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton opposed his policies, Johnson sought to replace him with Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Not only did the House attempt to impeach the president, but the Senate refused to concur in the secretary's suspension and ordered his reinstatement. After Grant refused to cooperate with Johnson, the president decided to rid himself of Stanton once and for all, this time in defiance of the Tenure of Office Act. In February 1868 he announced the appointment of Lorenzo Thomas as secretary ad interim, whereupon the House passed a resolution of impeachment. In the trial that followed, Johnson's opponents failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds for conviction, and the Senate acquitted him by one vote. After his retirement, Johnson was reelected to the Senate in 1875. He served only briefly, for he died soon thereafter.

Although not successful as president, Johnson was a shrewd politician who repeatedly defeated both Whigs and Democrats in his home state. But by failing to take advantage of the opportunity of remaking the South in the months after Appomattox and by undermining Congressional Reconstruction, he contributed materially to its failure and kept the South a "white man's country."

Bibliography:

James E. Sefton, Andrew Johnson and the Uses of Constitutional Power (1980); Hans L. Trefousse, Andrew Johnson: A Biography (1989).

Author:

Hans L. Trefousse

See also Elections: 1864. For events during Johnson's administration, see Alaska Purchase; Black Codes; Freedmen's Bureau; Granger Movement; Impeachment; Reconstruction; Tenure of Office Act.

A political leader of the nineteenth century. Johnson was elected vice president in 1864 and became president when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. Johnson is one of two presidents to have been impeached (see impeachment); the House of Representatives charged him with illegally dismissing a government official. The Senate tried him, and Johnson was acquitted by only one vote.

Andrew Johnson ascended to the U.S. presidency after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He was the seventeenth president and the first to undergo an impeachment trial.

Johnson was born December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina. Little is known of his early life. His ancestry is usually traced only to the family of his father, Jacob Johnson, who raised his family in Raleigh and served as the city's constable and sexton, was a porter to the state bank, and was a respected captain in the militia of North Carolina. He was viewed as a hero after saving two men from drowning in a pond outside Raleigh. He died of health complications only a year later, leaving the Johnson family in poverty.

From the age of ten to the age of seventeen, Johnson worked as an apprentice to a Raleigh tailor, J.J. Selby. Shortly after, he settled in Greeneville, Tennessee, where he opened his own tailor shop. Before he reached the age of nineteen, he had met Eliza McCardle, a respected teacher in Greeneville, whom he married on May 17, 1827.

Johnson's wife encouraged his aspirations to become politically active, and Johnson turned his tailor shop into a center for men throughout Greeneville to debate and practice their oratory. In 1828 Johnson was overwhelmingly elected city alderman. Two years later his supporters elected him mayor. From 1835 to 1843, he served in the Tennessee legislature. For the next ten years, he served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He returned to Tennessee in 1853 and was elected governor of the state. When his term expired in 1857, he became a member of the U.S. Senate, where he served until 1862. He was the only southern senator who refused to resign during the Civil War.

Johnson attracted the attention of Union president Lincoln. In 1862 Lincoln appointed the Tennessee congressman to serve as military governor of the state. After Johnson effectively managed the state throughout the Civil War, Lincoln selected him to run for vice president in the 1864 election. The pro-Union ticket of Lincoln and Johnson was victorious.

Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, and Johnson assumed the duties of president on April 15. He had been left with the daunting task of assimilating the former confederacy of southern states back into the United States. Johnson sought to overlook the secession of the South. He granted many pardons and allowed southern politicians to restore oppressive practices toward former slaves, such as forcing them to give land back to their old masters, and depriving them of the right to vote. A group of congressional Republicans, led by Thaddeus Stevens, a representative from Pennsylvania, opposed Johnson's practices. Against Johnson's wishes, the South was put under military rule. The Civil Rights Act of 1866, passed in spite of Johnson's veto, granted blacks the right to vote.

In 1867 Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act (14 Stat. 430), also over Johnson's veto. This act declared that the president could not, without the Senate's permission, remove from federal office any official whose appointment had been approved by the Senate. In August 1867, Johnson refused to follow the Tenure Act when he requested the removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. He did so on the ground that Stanton had conspired with radical Republicans against the president.

In removing Stanton from his position, Johnson aroused the wrath of even moderate Republicans in Congress. On February 24, 1868, the House passed resolutions to impeach Johnson for high crimes and misdemeanors. By early March, the House had drawn up twelve articles of impeachment against Johnson. Eight of these concerned his alleged violations of the Tenure of Office Act. The ninth alleged a lesser charge, that he had overstepped his boundaries in suborning a U.S. general. The tenth and eleventh articles accused Johnson of defaming Congress in public speeches. A twelfth and final article, dubbed the omnibus article, was intended to induce senators who might have qualms about specific charges against Johnson to find him guilty on general grounds.

Under the Constitution at least two-thirds of the Senate must vote to impeach the president. In Johnson's case this meant that thirty-six senators would have to vote for impeachment. The defense knew that vote would have to come from the Senate's forty-two Republican members—the Senate's ten Democrats and two Johnsonites were bound to support his acquittal. Johnson's lawyers were confident that if they could appeal to the senses of moderate Republicans—whom the defense presumed were loyal to the restoration of the Union—the impeachment effort would fail.

On May 16 and May 26, 1868, the Senate voted 35-19 against Johnson on three of the articles of impeachment. By only one vote less than the two-thirds majority necessary to remove him, Johnson was acquitted of the most serious charges. The Senate subsequently adjourned its court, and Johnson was allowed to finish his term. His presidency ended in 1869, and he returned to Tennessee.

The people of Tennessee welcomed Johnson home, and elected him to the U.S. Senate in 1875. He died soon after the election, on July 31, 1875, near Carter Station, Tennessee.

Ultimately, the consensus of scholars, historians, and even the Supreme Court was that removing Johnson on the specified charges would have set a dangerous precedent. In 1887 the Tenure of Office Act was repealed. In 1926 the Supreme Court rendered an ex post facto (retroactive) judgment declaring it unconstitutional (272 U.S. 52, 47 S. Ct. 21).

For other persons of the same name, see Andrew Johnson (disambiguation).

Andrew Johnson
17th President of the United States
In office April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869
Vice President	None
Preceded by	Abraham Lincoln
Succeeded by	Ulysses S. Grant
16th Vice President of the United States
In office March 4, 1865 – April 15, 1865
President	Abraham Lincoln
Preceded by	Hannibal Hamlin
Succeeded by	Schuyler Colfax
Military Governor of Tennessee
In office March 12, 1862 – March 4, 1865
Appointed by	Abraham Lincoln
Preceded by	Isham G. Harris
Succeeded by	E. H. East (Acting)
United States Senator from Tennessee
In office October 8, 1857 – March 4, 1862 March 4, 1875 – July 31, 1875
Preceded by	James C. Jones William G. Brownlow
Succeeded by	David T. Patterson David M. Key
17th Governor of Tennessee
In office October 17, 1853 – November 3, 1857
Preceded by	William B. Campbell
Succeeded by	Isham G. Harris
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 1st district
In office March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1853
Preceded by	Thomas D. Arnold
Succeeded by	Brookins Campbell
Born	December 29, 1808(1808-12-29) Raleigh, North Carolina
Died	July 31, 1875 (aged 66) Elizabethton, Tennessee
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic National Union Independent
Spouse(s)	Eliza McCardle Johnson
Children	Martha Johnson Charles Johnson Mary Johnson Robert Johnson Andrew Johnson, Jr.
Occupation	Tailor
Religion	Christian with no denominational affiliation[1][2]
Signature

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875), the 17th President of the United States (1865–69), was the first U.S. President to be impeached, as well as the first U.S. president to succeed to the presidency upon the assassination of his predecessor. He is consistently ranked by historians as being among the worst U.S. presidents.

At the time of the secession of the Southern states, Johnson was a U.S. Senator from Greeneville in East Tennessee. As a Unionist, he was the only southern senator not to quit his post upon secession. He became the most prominent War Democrat from the South and supported the military policies of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln during the American Civil War of 1861–1865. In 1862, Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of occupied Tennessee, where he proved to be energetic and effective in fighting the rebellion and beginning transition to Reconstruction.^[3]

Johnson was nominated for the Vice President position in 1864 on the National Union Party ticket. He and Lincoln were elected in November 1864. Johnson succeeded to the presidency upon Lincoln's assassination on April 15, 1865.

As president, he took charge of Presidential Reconstruction – the first phase of Reconstruction  – which lasted until the Radical Republicans gained control of Congress in the 1866 elections. His conciliatory policies towards the South, his hurry to reincorporate the former Confederate states back into the union, and his vetoes of civil rights bills embroiled him in a bitter dispute with some Republicans.^[4] The Radicals in the House of Representatives impeached him in 1868, charging him with violating the Tenure of Office Act, a law enacted by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto, but he was acquitted by a single vote in the Senate.

While Johnson is the most recent president to represent a party other than the Republican or Democratic parties, having represented both the Democrats and the National Union Party, his party status was ambiguous during his presidency. As president, he did not identify with the two main parties—though he did try for the Democratic nomination in 1868—and so he while President he attempted to build a party of loyalists under the National Union label. Asked in 1868 why he did not become a Democrat, he said, "It is true I am asked why don't I join the Democratic Party. Why don't they join me ... if I have administered the office of president so well?" His failure to make the National Union brand an actual party made Johnson effectively an independent during his presidency, though he was supported by Democrats and later rejoined the party as a Democratic Senator from Tennesee from 1875 till his death. For these reasons he is usually counted as a Democrat when identifying presidents by their political parties.^[5]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Early political career 3 Political ascendancy 3.1 Vice presidency 3.1.1 Lincoln assassination 4 Presidency 1865–1869 4.1 Reconstruction 4.2 Break with the Republicans: 1866 4.3 Impeachment 4.3.1 First attempt 4.3.2 Second attempt 4.4 Christmas Day amnesty for Confederates 4.5 Administration and Cabinet 4.5.1 Judicial appointments 4.6 States admitted to the Union 4.7 Foreign policy 4.8 Legacy 5 Post-presidency 6 Historians' changing views on Andrew Johnson 7 See also 8 Bibliography 8.1 Primary sources 9 Notes 10 External links

Early life

Reconstruction of Johnson's boyhood home in North Carolina, located at the Mordecai Square Historic Park in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Johnson was born on December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Jacob Johnson (1778–1812) and Mary McDonough (1783–1856). Jacob died when Andrew was around three years old, leaving his family in poverty. Johnson's mother then took in work spinning and weaving to support her family, and she later remarried. She bound Andrew as an apprentice tailor when he was 10 or 14 years old.^[6] In the 1820s, he worked as a tailor in Laurens, South Carolina.^[7] Johnson had no formal education and taught himself how to read and write.^[3]

At age 16 or 17, Johnson left his apprenticeship and ran away with his brother to Greeneville, Tennessee, where he found work as a tailor.^[3][8] At the age of 18, Johnson married Eliza McCardle in 1827. Between 1828 and 1852, the couple had five children: Martha (1828), Charles (1830), Mary (1832), Robert (1834), and Andrew Jr. (1852).^[9] Eliza taught Johnson arithmetic up to basic algebra and tutored him to improve his literacy and writing skills.^[3]

Early political career

Johnson participated in debates at the local academy at Greeneville, Tennessee^[10] and later organized a worker's party that elected him as alderman in 1829. He served in this position until he was elected mayor in 1833.^[3] In 1835, he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives where, after serving a single term, he was defeated for re-election.^[9]

Johnson was attracted to the states' rights Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson. He became a spokesman for the more numerous yeomen farmers and mountaineers against the wealthier, but fewer, planter elite families that had held political control both in the state and nationally.^[3][10] In 1839, Johnson was elected to a second, non-consecutive term in the Tennessee House, and was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1841, where he served one two-year term.^[9][11] In 1843, he became the first Democrat to win election as the U.S. representative from Tennessee's 1st congressional district. Among his activities for the common man's interests as a member of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Johnson advocated 'a free farm for the poor' bill, in which farms would be given to landless farmers.^[10] Johnson was a U.S. representative for five terms until 1853, when he was elected governor of Tennessee.^[9]

Political ascendancy

Pre-Civil War photo of Johnson.

Johnson was elected governor of Tennessee, serving from 1853 to 1857. He was then elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate, serving from October 8, 1857 – March 4, 1862. He was chairman of the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expense (Thirty-sixth Congress). As a U.S. senator, he continued to push for the Homestead Act. It finally passed in 1862, after the Civil War had begun and Southerners had resigned from Congress.

As the slavery question became more critical, Johnson continued to take a middle course. He opposed the antislavery Republican Party because he believed the Constitution guaranteed the right to own slaves. He supported President Buchanan's proslavery administration. He also approved the Lecompton Constitution proposed by proslavery settlers in Kansas. At the same time, he made it clear that his devotion to the Union exceeded his devotion to slavery.

Johnson's stand in favor of both the Union and slavery might have made him a logical compromise candidate for president. However, he was not nominated in 1856 because of a split within the Tennessee delegation. In 1860, the Tennessee delegation nominated Johnson for president at the Democratic National Convention, but when the convention and the party broke up, he withdrew from the race. In the election, Johnson supported Vice President John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, the candidate of most Southern Democrats.^[12]

Before Tennessee voted on secession, Johnson, who lived in Unionist East Tennessee, toured the state speaking in opposition to the act, which he said was unconstitutional. Johnson was an aggressive stump speaker and often responded to hecklers, even those in the Senate. At the time of the secession of Tennessee, Johnson was the only Senator from the seceded states to continue participation in Congress. His explanation for this decision was "Damn the negroes, I am fighting those traitorous aristocrats, their masters."^[3]

Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of occupied Tennessee in March 1862 with the rank of brigadier general.^[3] During his three years in this office, he "moved resolutely to eradicate all pro-Confederate influences in the state." This "unwavering commitment to the Union" was a significant factor in his choice as vice president by Lincoln.^[13] Johnson vigorously suppressed the Confederates and later spoke out for black suffrage, arguing, "The better class of them will go to work and sustain themselves, and that class ought to be allowed to vote, on the ground that a loyal negro is more worthy than a disloyal white man."^[14] According to tradition and local lore, on August 8, 1863, Johnson freed his personal slaves.^[15]

Vice presidency

Currier and Ives print of the National Union Party presidential & vice presidential candidates, 1864. Lithograph and watercolor.

As a leading War Democrat and pro-Union southerner, Johnson was an ideal candidate for the Republicans in 1864 as they enlarged their base to include War Democrats. They changed the party name to the National Union Party to reflect this expansion. During the election, Johnson replaced Hannibal Hamlin as Lincoln's running mate. He was elected vice president of the United States and was inaugurated March 4, 1865. At the ceremony, Johnson, who had been drinking to offset the pain of typhoid fever (as he explained later), gave a rambling speech and appeared intoxicated to many. In early 1865, Johnson talked harshly of hanging traitors like Jefferson Davis, which endeared him to radicals.^[16]

Lincoln assassination

Main article: Abraham Lincoln assassination

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer, while the president was attending a play at Ford's Theater. Booth's plan was to destroy the administration by ordering conspirators to assassinate Johnson, lieutenant general of the Union army Ulysses S Grant, and Secretary of State William H. Seward that night. Grant survived when he failed to attend the theater with Lincoln as planned, Seward narrowly survived his wounds, while Johnson escaped attack as his would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, failed to go through with the plan.

Presidency 1865–1869

Engraving of Johnson

The morning after Lincoln's assassination, Johnson was sworn in as President of the United States on April 15, 1865 by Lincoln's newly appointed Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. Johnson was the first vice president to succeed to the presidency upon the assassination of a president and the third vice president to become a president upon the death of a sitting president.^[10][17]

Reconstruction

Main article: Reconstruction era of the United States

A political cartoon of Andrew Johnson and Abraham Lincoln, 1865. The caption reads (Johnson to the former rail-splitter): Take it quietly Uncle Abe and I will draw it closer than ever!! (Lincoln to the former tailor): A few more stitches Andy and the good old Union will be mended!

Northern anger over the assassination of Lincoln and the immense human cost of the war led to demands for harsh policies. Vice President Andrew Johnson had taken a hard line and spoke of hanging rebel Confederates. In late April, 1865, he was noted telling an Indiana delegation that, "Treason must be made odious ... traitors must be punished and impoverished ... their social power must be destroyed." However, when he succeeded Lincoln as president, Johnson took a much softer line, commenting, "I say, as to the leaders, punishment. I also say leniency, reconciliation and amnesty to the thousands whom they have misled and deceived,"^[18] and ended up pardoning many Confederate leaders and ex-Confederates to maintain their control of Southern state governments, Southern lands, and black people.^[19]

His class-based resentment of the rich appeared in a May 1865 statement to W.H. Holden, the man he appointed governor of North Carolina: "I intend to confiscate the lands of these rich men whom I have excluded from pardon by my proclamation, and divide the proceeds thereof among the families of the wool hat boys, the Confederate soldiers, whom these men forced into battle to protect their property in slaves."^[20] In practice, Johnson was seemingly not harsh toward the Confederate leaders. He allowed the Southern states to hold elections in 1865, resulting in prominent ex-Confederates being elected to the U.S. Congress; however, Congress did not seat them. Congress and Johnson argued in an increasingly public way about Reconstruction and the manner in which the Southern secessionist states would be readmitted to the Union. Johnson favored a very quick restoration, similar to the plan of leniency that Lincoln advocated before his death.

Break with the Republicans: 1866

Johnson-appointed governments all passed Black Codes that gave the freedmen second class status. In response to the Black Codes and worrisome signs of Southern recalcitrance, the Republicans blocked the readmission of the ex-rebellious states to the Congress in fall 1865. Congress also renewed the Freedman's Bureau, but Johnson vetoed it. Senator Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, leader of the moderate Republicans, took affront at the Black Codes. Trumbull proposed the first Civil Rights bill.

Although strongly urged by moderates in Congress to sign the Civil Rights bill, Johnson broke decisively with them by vetoing it on March 27. His veto message objected to the measure because it conferred citizenship on the freedmen at a time when eleven out of thirty-six states were unrepresented and attempted to fix, by federal law, "a perfect equality of the white and black races in every State of the Union." Johnson said it was an invasion by federal authority of the rights of the states; it had no warrant in the Constitution and was contrary to all precedents. It was a "stride toward centralization and the concentration of all legislative power in the national government."^[21] Johnson, in a letter to Gov. Thomas C. Fletcher of Missouri, wrote, "This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men."^[22]

The Democratic Party, proclaiming itself the party of white men, North and South, aligned with Johnson.^[23] However, the Republicans in Congress overrode his veto (the Senate by the vote of 33:15, the House by 182:41) and the Civil Rights measure became law.

The last moderate proposal was the Fourteenth Amendment, also written by moderate Trumbull. It was designed to put the key provisions of the Civil Rights Act into the Constitution, but it went further. It 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 guaranteed the federal war debt and voided all Confederate war debts. Johnson unsuccessfully sought to block ratification of the amendment.

The moderates' effort to compromise with Johnson had failed and an all-out political war broke out between the Republicans (both radical and moderate) on one side, and on the other Johnson and his allies in the Democratic party in the North, and the conservative groupings in the South. The decisive battle was the election of 1866. Johnson campaigned vigorously, undertaking a public speaking tour of the north that was known as the "Swing Around the Circle"; the tour proved politically disastrous, with Johnson widely ridiculed and occasionally engaging in hostile arguments with his audiences.^[24] The Republicans won by a landslide (the Southern states were not allowed to vote), and took full control of Reconstruction. Johnson was almost powerless.

Historian James Ford Rhodes explained Johnson's inability to engage in serious negotiations:

As Senator Charles Sumner shrewdly said, "the President himself is his own worst counselor, as he is his own worst defender." Johnson acted according to 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. At all events from his December message to the veto of the Civil Rights bill, he did not yield to Congress. The moderate senators and representatives, who constituted a majority of the Union party, asked him for only a slight compromise. Their action was really an entreaty that he would unite with them to preserve Congress and the country from the policy of the radicals. The two projects which Johnson had most at heart were the speedy admission of the Southern senators and representatives to Congress and the relegation of the question of 'negro suffrage' to the States themselves. Johnson, shrinking from the imposition on these communities of the franchise for the colored people, took an unyielding position regarding matters involving no vital principle and did much to bring it about. His quarrel with Congress prevented the readmission into the Union on generous terms of the members of the late Confederacy. For the quarrel and its unhappy results, Johnson's lack of imagination and his inordinate sensitiveness to political gadflies were largely responsible. He sacrificed two important objects to petty considerations. His pride of opinion and his desire to win, blinded him to the real welfare of the South and of the whole country.^[25]

Theodore R. Davis' illustration of Johnson's impeachment trial in the United States Senate, published in Harper's Weekly.

Impeachment

First attempt

There were two attempts to remove President Andrew Johnson from office. The first occurred in the fall of 1867. On November 21, 1867, the House Judiciary committee produced a bill of impeachment that consisted of a vast collection of complaints against him. After a furious debate, a formal vote was held in the House of Representatives on December 5, 1867, which failed 57–108.^[26]

Second attempt

Main article: Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

The 1868 Impeachment Resolution

Johnson notified Congress that he had removed Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War and was replacing him in the interim with Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas. Johnson had wanted to replace Stanton with former general Ulysses S. Grant, who refused to accept the position. This violated the Tenure of Office Act, a law enacted by Congress in March 1867 over Johnson's veto, specifically designed to protect Stanton.^[27] Johnson had vetoed the act, claiming it was unconstitutional. The act said, "...every person holding any civil office, to which he has been appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate ... shall be entitled to hold such office until a successor shall have been in like manner appointed and duly qualified," thus removing the president's previous unlimited power to remove any of his cabinet members at will. Years later in the case Myers v. United States in 1926, the Supreme Court ruled that such laws were indeed unconstitutional.^[28]

The Senate and House entered into debate. Thomas attempted to move into the war office, for which Stanton had Thomas arrested. Three days after Stanton's removal, the House impeached Johnson for intentionally violating the Tenure of Office Act.

On March 5, 1868, a court of impeachment was constituted in the Senate to hear charges against the president. William M. Evarts served as his counsel. Eleven articles were set out in the resolution, and the trial before the Senate lasted almost three months. Johnson's defense was based on a clause in the Tenure of Office Act stating that the then-current secretaries would hold their posts throughout the term of the president who appointed them. Since Lincoln had appointed Stanton, it was claimed, the applicability of the act had already run its course.

The Situation
A Harper's Weekly cartoon gives a humorous breakdown of "the situation". Secretary of War Edwin Stanton aims a cannon labeled "Congress" on the side at President Johnson and Lorenzo Thomas to show how Stanton was using congress to defeat the president and his unsuccessful replacement. He also holds a rammer marked "Tenure of Office Bill" and cannon balls on the floor are marked "Justice". Ulysses S. Grant and an unidentified man stand to Stanton's left.

There were three votes in the Senate. One came on May 16 for the 11th article of impeachment, which included many of the charges contained in the other articles, and two on May 26 for the second and third articles, after which the trial adjourned. On all three occasions, thirty-five senators voted "guilty" and nineteen "not guilty." As the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority for conviction in impeachment trials, Johnson was acquitted. The 35–19 vote was one less than the majority required. A single changed vote for guilty would have convicted and removed Johnson from office. Seven Republican senators were disturbed by how the proceedings had been manipulated to give a one-sided presentation of the evidence. Senators William Pitt Fessenden, Joseph S. Fowler, James W. Grimes, John B. Henderson, Lyman Trumbull, Peter G. Van Winkle,^[29] and Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, who provided the decisive vote,^[30] defied their party and public opinion and voted against conviction.

Christmas Day amnesty for Confederates

One of Johnson's last significant acts was granting unconditional amnesty to all Confederates on Christmas Day, December 25, 1868, after the election of U.S. Grant to succeed him, but before Grant took office in March 1869. Earlier amnesties, requiring signed oaths and excluding certain classes of people, had been issued by Lincoln and by Johnson.

Administration and Cabinet

The A. Johnson Cabinet
Office	Name	Term
President	Andrew Johnson	1865–1869
Vice President	None	1865–1869
Secretary of State	William H. Seward	1865–1869
Secretary of Treasury	Hugh McCulloch	1865–1869
Secretary of War	Edwin M. Stanton	1865–1868, replaced ad interim by Ulysses Grant before being reinstated by Congress in Jan 1868
	John M. Schofield	1868–1869
Attorney General	James Speed	1865–1866
	Henry Stanberry	1866–1868
	William M. Evarts	1868–1869
Postmaster General	William Dennison	1865–1866
	Alexander W. Randall	1866–1869
Secretary of the Navy	Gideon Welles	1865–1869
Secretary of the Interior	John P. Usher	1865
	James Harlan	1865–1866
	Orville H. Browning	1866–1869

Judicial appointments

Johnson appointed only nine federal judges during his presidency, all to United States district courts:

Judge	Court	Began active service	Ended active service
Blatchford, SamuelSamuel Blatchford	S.D.N.Y.	01867-05-03 May 3, 1867[31]	01878-03-04 March 4, 1878
Bryan, George SeabrookGeorge Seabrook Bryan	D.S.C.	01866-03-12 March 12, 1866	01886-09-01 September 1, 1886
Clark, DanielDaniel Clark	D.N.H.	01866-07-27 July 27, 1866	01891-01-02 January 2, 1891
Dundy, Elmer ScipioElmer Scipio Dundy	D. Neb.	01868-04-09 April 9, 1868	01896-10-28 October 28, 1896
Erskine, JohnJohn Erskine	N.D. Ga. S.D. Ga.	01865-07-10 July 10, 1865[32]	April 25, 1882 01883-12-01 December 1, 1883
Fox, EdwardEdward Fox	D. Me.	01866-05-31 May 31, 1866	01881-12-14 December 14, 1881
Hill, Robert AndrewsRobert Andrews Hill	S.D. Miss. N.D. Miss.	01866-05-01 May 1, 1866	01891-08-01 August 1, 1891
Sherman, Charles TaylorCharles Taylor Sherman	N.D. Ohio	01867-03-02 March 2, 1867	01872-11-25 November 25, 1872

States admitted to the Union

• Nebraska – March 1, 1867

Foreign policy

Johnson forced the French out of Mexico by sending an army to the border and issuing an ultimatum. The French withdrew in 1867, and the government they supported quickly collapsed. Secretary of State Seward negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia on April 9, 1867 for $7.2 million. This is equivalent to $109 million in present day terms.^[33] Critics sneered at "Seward's Folly" and "Seward's Icebox" and "Icebergia." Seward also negotiated to purchase the Danish West Indies, but the Senate refused to approve the purchase in 1867 (it eventually happened in 1917). The Senate likewise rejected Seward's arrangement with the United Kingdom to arbitrate the Alabama Claims.

The U.S. experienced tense relations with the United Kingdom and its colonial government in Canada in the aftermath of the war. Lingering resentment over the perception of British sympathy toward the Confederacy resulted in Johnson initially turning a blind eye towards a series of armed incursions by Irish-American civil war veterans into British territory in Canada, named the Fenian Raids.^[34] Eventually, Johnson ordered the Fenians disarmed and barred from crossing the border, but his hesitant reaction to the crisis helped motivate the movement toward Canadian Confederation.^[34]

Legacy

Andrew Johnson is one of only four presidents^[35] who did not have an opportunity to nominate a judge to serve on the Supreme Court.

Post-presidency

The Johnson home in Greeneville, Tennessee, 1886, today restored and known as the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.

Johnson was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate from Tennessee in 1868 and to the House of Representatives in 1872. However, in 1874 the Tennessee legislature did elect him to the U.S. Senate. Johnson served from March 4, 1875, until his death from a stroke near Elizabethton, Tennessee, on July 31 that year. In his first speech since returning to the Senate, which was also his last, Johnson spoke about political turmoil in Louisiana.^[36] His passion aroused a standing ovation from many of his fellow senators who had once voted to remove him from the presidency.^[37] He is the only former president to serve in the Senate.^[36]

Interment was in the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery, Greeneville, Tennessee. His body was wrapped in an American flag according to his wishes. Under his head lay a copy of the U.S. Constitution. Andrew Johnson National Cemetery is now part of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.

Historians' changing views on Andrew Johnson

Today, historians generally regard Johnson as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.^[38][39] Eric Foner called him a "fervent white supremacist" who foiled Reconstruction.^[40] Sean Wilentz wrote that he "actively sided with former Confederates" in his attempts to derail it.^[38] This has been a modern trend of dis-esteem, primarily as the Reconstruction program itself has come to be seen as a "noble" effort to build an interracial nation.^[39][40] However, it should be noted that W. E. B. Du Bois, had proposed this view in his pioneering study, Black Reconstruction, first published in 1935 (to which Foner and other recent historians are heir).

By the 1930s a series of favorable biographies enhanced his prestige.^[41]. Furthermore, a Beardian School (named after Charles Beard and typified by Howard K. Beale) argued that the Republican Party in the 1860s was a tool of corrupt business interests, and that Johnson stood for the people. They rated Johnson "near great," but have later changed their minds, rating Johnson "a flat failure".^[40] The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s brought a new perspective to the practice of history as well as to civil legislation. Historians noted African American efforts to establish public education and welfare institutions, gave muted praise for Republican efforts to extend suffrage and provide other social institutions, and excoriated Johnson for siding with the opposition to extending basic rights to former slaves.^[40]

Johnson's purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 is believed to be his most important foreign policy action. The idea and implementation is credited to Seward as Secretary of State, but Johnson approved the plan. Gold was not discovered in Alaska until 1880, thirteen years after the purchase and five years after Johnson's death, and oil was not discovered until 1968.

See also

American Civil War portal

United States Army portal

Tennessee portal

• List of American Civil War generals
• United States presidential election, 1864
• History of the United States (1865-1918)
• Tennessee Johnson

Bibliography

• Howard K. Beale, The Critical Year. A Study of Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1930). ISBN 0804410852
• Michael Les Benedict, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson (1999). ISBN 0393319822
• Boulard, Garry, "The Swing Around the Circle—Andrew Johnson and the Train Ride that Destroyed a Presidency" (2008) ISBN 978-1-4401-0239-4
• Albert E. Castel, The Presidency of Andrew Johnson (1979). ISBN 0700601902
• D. M. DeWitt, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson (1903).
• Du Bois, W. E. B. 'The Transubstantiation of a Poor White' in Black Reconstruction: An Essay Toward the History of the Part Which Black People Have Played in the Attempt to Reconstruct Democracy in America, 1860–1880 (1935). ISBN 0527252808.
• W. A. Dunning, Essays on the Civil War and Reconstruction (New York, 1898)
• W. A. Dunning, Reconstruction, Political and Economic (New York, 1907) online edition
• Foster, G. Allen, Impeached: The President who almost lost his job (New York, 1964).
• Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1961). ISBN 0-19-505707-4
• Martin E. Mantell; Johnson, Grant, and the Politics of Reconstruction (1973)
• Hatfield, Mark O., with the Senate Historical Office, Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789–1993.(U.S. Government Printing Office, 1997), p. 219
• Howard Means, The Avenger Takes His Place: Andrew Johnson and the 45 Days That Changed the Nation (New York, 2006)
• Milton; George Fort. The Age of Hate: Andrew Johnson and the Radicals (1930) online edition
• Patton; James Welch. Unionism and Reconstruction in Tennessee, 1860–1869 (1934) online edition
• Rhodes; James Ford History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896 Volume: 6. 1920. Pulitzer prize.
• Schouler, James. History of the United States of America: Under the Constitution vol. 7. 1865–1877. The Reconstruction Period (1917)
• Sledge, James L. III. "Johnson, Andrew" in Encyclopedia of the American Civil War. edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. (2000)
• Stewart, David, O. Impeached: the Trial of President Andrew Jackson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy (2009) Simon and Schuster, New York, NY. ISBN 978-1-4165-4749-5.
• Lloyd P. Stryker, Andrew Johnson: A Study in Courage (1929). ISBN 0-403-01231-7 online edition
• Trefousse, Hans L. Andrew Johnson: A Biography (1989). ISBN 0-393-31742-0 online edition
• Winston; Robert W. Andrew Johnson: Plebeian and Patriot (1928) online edition

Primary sources

• Ralph W. Haskins, LeRoy P. Graf, and Paul H. Bergeron et al., eds. The Papers of Andrew Johnson 16 volumes; University of Tennessee Press, (1967–2000). ISBN 1572330910. Includes all letters and speeches by Johnson, and many letters written to him. Complete to 1875.
• Newspaper clippings, 1865–1869
• Series of Harper's Weekly articles covering the impeachment controversy and trial
• Johnson's obituary, from the New York Times

Notes

1. ^ "American President: Andrew Johnson: Family Life". Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/johnson/essays/biography/7. Retrieved 2009-05-26. 
2. ^ Milton, George Fort (1930). The Age of Hate: Andrew Johnson And The Radicals. New York: Coward-McCann. p. 80. ISBN 1417916583. OCLC 739916. http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=14804076. "As for my religion, it is the doctrine of the Bible, as taught and practiced by Jesus Christ." 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} 'Andrew Johnson', Encyclopædia Britannica
4. ^ Hall, Kermit; Paul Finkelman, James W. Ely (2005). American Legal History (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 259–260. ISBN 0-19-516225-0. 
5. ^ Trefousse, Hans Louis. Andrew Johnson: A Biography (1997), p. 338–339.
6. ^ 14 according to Britannica, 10 according to Karin L Zipf
7. ^ Laurens Historic District historical marker
8. ^ Karin L Zipf. Labor Of Innocents: Forced Apprenticeship in North Carolina, 1715–1919 (2005) pp 8–9
9. ^ ^{a b c d} "The Andrew Johnson Collection". Archived from the original on 2007-06-07. http://web.archive.org/web/20070607123406/http://ajmuseum.tusculum.edu/ajcollect.html.  Timeline of President Andrew Johnson's Life (PDF) from the Web site of the president Andrew Johnson Museum and Library at Tusculum College
10. ^ ^{a b c d} Biography of Andrew Johnson – www.whitehouse.gov
11. ^
    • Andrew Johnson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
12. ^ World Book
13. ^ Sledge pg. 1071–1072
14. ^ Patton p 126
15. ^ "Tennessee Recalls Emancipation, Segregation", National Public Radio
16. ^ Trefousse p. 198
17. ^ Complete list of U.S. presidents
18. ^ Milton 183
19. ^ Trefousse, Hans L. Andrew Johnson: A Biography (1989)
20. ^ "Memoirs of W.W. Holden: Electronic Edition".
21. ^ Rhodes, History 6:68
22. ^ Trefousse pg. 236. Online reference to the quote available at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/grant/peopleevents/e_impeach.html
23. ^ Trefousse 1999
24. ^ Andrew Johnson Cleveland Speech (September 3, 1866)
25. ^ Rhodes, History 6:74
26. ^ Trefousse, 1989 pages 302–3
27. ^ Tenure of office act – Britannica Online Encyclopedia
28. ^ Tenure of office act – Britannica Concise
29. ^ "Andrew Johnson Trial: The Consciences of Seven Republicans Save Johnson".
30. ^ "The Trial of Andrew Johnson, 1868".
31. ^ Recess appointment; formally nominated on July 13, 1867, confirmed by the United States Senate on July 16, 1867, and received commission on July 16, 1867.
32. ^ Recess appointment; formally nominated on December 20, 1865, confirmed by the United States Senate on January 22, 1866, and received commission on January 22, 1866.
33. ^ "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–2008". Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. http://www.minneapolisfed.org/community_education/teacher/calc/hist1800.cfm. Retrieved 2009-08-01. 
34. ^ ^{a b} The Fenian Raids
35. ^ The other three presidents are William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor and Jimmy Carter.
36. ^ ^{a b} United States Senate: Death of Andrew Johnson
37. ^ Andrew Johnson. American-Presidents.com. Accessed November 1, 2009.
38. ^ ^{a b} The Worst President in History?, Sean Wilentz, Rolling Stone, April 21, 2006; accessed December 15, 2008.
39. ^ ^{a b} The 10 Worst Presidents: No. 3 Andrew Johnson (1865-1869), Jay Tolson, U.S. News & World Report, February 16, 2007; accessed December 15, 2008.
40. ^ ^{a b c d} He's The Worst Ever, Eric Foner, Washington Post, December 3, 2006; accessed December 15, 2008.
41. ^ Highly favorable were Winston (1928), Stryker (1929), Milton (1930), and Claude Bowers, The Tragic Era (1929).

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Learning resources from Wikiversity

• Works by Andrew Johnson at Project Gutenberg
• The Impeachment trial of President Johnson as reported in Harper's Monthly Magazine April 1868
• Obituary, NY Times, August 1, 1875, Andrew Johnson Dead
• Articles of Impeachment
• White House Biography
• Vice Presidential biography. From the Senate Historical Office.
• Mr. Lincoln's White House: Andrew Johnson
• Andrew Johnson Cleveland Speech (September 3, 1866)
• Congressional Globe transcript of Johnsons inaugural address
• Speeches of Andrew Johnson : President of the United States 1866 collection at archive.org
• Andrew Johnson's 200th Birthday Celebration site at DiscoverGreeneville.com
• Andrew Johnson: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• Tennessee State Library & Archives, Andrew Johnson Papers, 1846-1875
• Tennessee State Library & Archives, Papers of Governor Andrew Johnson, 1853-1857
• Tennessee State Library & Archives, Papers of (Military) Governor Andrew Johnson, 1862-1865
• Andrew Johnson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2009-03-02
• Essay on Andrew Johnson and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
• Paper comparing the impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton

Political offices
Preceded by Abraham Lincoln	President of the United States April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869	Succeeded by Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by Hannibal Hamlin	Vice President of the United States March 4, 1865 – April 15, 1865	Vacant Title next held by Schuyler Colfax
Preceded by William B. Campbell	Governor of Tennessee 1853 – 1857	Succeeded by Isham G. Harris
United States Senate
Preceded by William G. Brownlow	United States Senator (Class 1) from Tennessee March 4, 1875 – July 31, 1875 Served alongside: Henry Cooper	Succeeded by David M. Key
Preceded by James C. Jones	United States Senator (Class 1) from Tennessee October 8, 1857 – March 4, 1862 Served alongside: John Bell, Alfred O. P. Nicholson	Succeeded by Vacant Secession of Tennessee from the Union Office next held by David T. Patterson
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Thomas D. Arnold	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee's 1st congressional district March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1853	Succeeded by Brookins Campbell
Party political offices
Preceded by Hannibal Hamlin	Republican Party¹ vice presidential candidate 1864	Succeeded by Schuyler Colfax
Military offices
Preceded by Isham G. Harris as Governor of Tennessee	Military Governor of Tennessee 1862 – 1865	Succeeded by Edward H. East as Acting Governor of Tennessee
Honorary titles
Preceded by Millard Fillmore	Oldest U.S. President still living March 8, 1874 – July 31, 1875	Succeeded by Ulysses S. Grant
Notes and references
1. Lincoln and Johnson ran on the National Union ticket in 1864.

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v • d • e Cabinet of President Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865) Vice President Hannibal Hamlin (1861-1865) • Andrew Johnson (1865) Secretary of State William H. Seward (1861-1865) Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase (1861-1864) • William P. Fessenden (1864-1865) • Hugh McCulloch (1865) Secretary of War Simon Cameron (1861-1862) • Edwin M. Stanton (1862-1865) Attorney General Edward Bates (1861-1864) • James Speed (1864-1865) Postmaster General Montgomery Blair (1861-1864) • William Dennison (1864-1865) Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles (1861-1865) Secretary of the Interior Caleb Blood Smith (1861-1862) • John Palmer Usher (1863-1865)

v • d • e Cabinet of President Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) Vice President None (1865-1869) Secretary of State William H. Seward (1865-1869) Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch (1865-1869) Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton (1865-1868) • John Schofield (1868-1869) Attorney General James Speed (1865-1866) • Henry Stanberry (1866-1868) • William M. Evarts (1868-1869) Postmaster General William Dennison (1865-1866) • Alexander Randall (1866-1869) Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles (1865-1869) Secretary of the Interior John Palmer Usher (1865) • James Harlan (1865-1866) • Orville Hickman Browning (1866-1869)

Persondata
NAME	Johnson, Andrew
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	seventeenth President of the United States Union Army General
DATE OF BIRTH	December 29, 1808(1808-12-29)
PLACE OF BIRTH	Raleigh, North Carolina
DATE OF DEATH	July 31, 1875
PLACE OF DEATH	Greeneville, Tennessee

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