Andrew Johnson: Upheaval and Impeachment
Andrew Johnson
President from: Apr. 15, 1865–Mar. 3, 1869
Age at inauguration: 56
Political Party: Union Party (The only Union Party President)
What I read:
Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed
Age at death: 66
Cause of Death: Stroke
Health & Appearance: Johnson stood 5’10” with brown eyes and dark brown hair. He purportedly had a larger than normal head and chest. He had typhoid fever as an adult and took longer than normal to recover. He had the reputation of a drunkard due to an incident during the second inauguration of Lincoln, but by all accounts, was not an alcoholic. He suffered from kidney stones several times while president. This painful condition is said to have had ramifications on his decision making.
Pre-Presidency: Born in a dirt floor, log cabin to illiterate parents. Johnson and his brother were sold into indentured servitude. He and his brother ran away from their “apprenticeship” and for two years had bounties on their heads. At 17, he moved to Greenville, Tennessee and set up shop as a tailor. His 16-year-old wife Eliza taught him to read and write. She also taught him how to invest his money in real estate.
He was a Jacksonian Democrat and an excellent stump speaker. By the age of 32, he had served as town alderman and mayor by identifying with the town's White working people. His connection to the farmers and laborers helped him get elected to the lower house of the Tennessee state legislature. Next, he was elected State Senator, and then on to the U.S. Congress, where he served until he was gerrymandered out of his district. Next, he served two terms as Governor of Tennessee and then the Tennessee Senate elected him unanimously to the U.S. Senate. He entered the Senate at the start of the Civil War.
He supported the Compromise of 1850 and the gag rule that stopped any debate on slavery from even reaching the floor. He supported Texas and Oregon statehood and Stephen Douglas’ Kansas-Nebraska Act. This put him firmly in the Democrats states’ rights, pro slavery, wing.
He also stood firmly against secession. He faulted Buchanan for not dealing firmly with South Carolina when they seceded. Johnson stood firmly for religious freedom. His speeches were filled with racist language against Black people. Johnson was hated in the South and hung in effigy. His family was run out of town with barley and the clothes on their backs. When the Union army took Tennessee, Lincoln made Johnson the war Governor of the state. Johnson ruled Tennessee with a heavy hand, jailing mayors, clergy, and anyone who stood in his way or supported the South.
Although he had supported slavery before the war, he came to see Emancipation and the 13th Amendment as a way to punish the plantation elite of the South that he hated so much. Lincoln needed Tennessee’s electoral votes and Johnson’s popularity in the North to help win reelection, so he replaced his current VP candidate with Johnson.
Major accomplishments: Johnson single handedly decided Reconstruction rules as the Congress was not in session for the first six months of his presidency. Southerners were forgiven if they pledged to support the Union. Excluded from forgiveness were politicians who supported secession, military members who went to West Point, and individuals who had taxable land over 20k. These people had to petition the President directly for the restitution of their full rights.
Secretary of State Seward bought Alaska from the Russians for 2 cents an acre during Johnson’s presidency. This was called “Seward’s Folly” but Senators liked it, believing it would eventually lead to the U.S. acquiring all of Canada. The purchase gave U.S. citizenship to all inhabitants of the territory, including those indigenous to the region.
At the end of the Civil War, France had taken over Mexico and Napoleon III wanted to complete the deal by bringing more troops into Mexico to quell the rebellion. Secretary of State Seward put 80k battle-hardened U.S. troops on the Mexico border and said, “Go home Frenchie.” The French left.
First President Impeached: Johnson tried to give Congress the finger by firing his Secretary of War while Congress was on recess and appointing U.S. Grant to fill the position. Congress came back and said, “Not so fast, Drew” and reversed the firing. Johnson said, “Screw you” and fired his Secretary of War again and Congress said, “You are an ass.” Grant supported Congress and Johnson’s trial began. He was impeached by the House but fell one vote short of being convicted by the Senate.
Are you kidding me? He was sick on Lincoln’s inauguration day and asked to be excused. Lincoln convinced him to show up and so Johnson downed three shots of whiskey, which resulted in a rambling, barely coherent acceptance speech.
As a child, he and his brother were indentured servants to a tailor. They ran away and were never caught. Johnson used his skills while in office and made all of his suits.
As an adult, he was taught to read by his wife.
What I learned: Johnson took over the presidency six weeks after being sworn in as Vice President. He was also supposed to be assassinated along with Lincoln, but his assassin lost his nerve. He had a mountainous task dropped in his lap. At that time, the VP position had no real duties. Instead, he had to figure out what to do with the South, slave rights, political prisoners, reparations, military disbandment, military rule of southern districts, and how to lead a nation mourning a great president.
Though Johnson supported the notion that States did not have the right to succeed, he also was a firm states rights advocate. He made southern states write anti-slavery into their reconstruction constitutions, but he did not support Black men getting the right to vote.
He officially forgave all who requested it. Johnson, coming from a dirt-poor background, enjoyed the rich men he hated so much coming to him on bended knee. He wanted to create a White man’s voting block of conservative southern and northern men to reelect him president. Congress (majority Republicans) changed these plans by supporting Black suffrage. Republicans knew they would be voted out of office without Black votes. Thus began a cycle of congressional votes, presidential vetoes, and congressional overruling of the vetoes. Johnson tried to veto every Republican bill to give Black people equal rights. The Freedman Bureau was formed to protect freed people’s rights. Johnson vetoed it, Congress overruled his veto. Congress passed The Civil Rights act of 1866 which essentially gave Black people equal rights to White people. Johnson vetoed it; Congress overruled his veto. Congress, worried that Johnson and those like him would overturn their laws in the courts, passed the 14th amendment which codified these laws and struck the 3/5’s rule from the constitution. It was, sadly, barely enforced across the South.
Johnson tried to campaign to get Democrats elected to congress to overturn the Republican laws. It backfired and Republicans instead achieved veto proof control of Congress. They then proceeded to institute Military districts in the South (except Johnson’s home state of Tennessee), required new state constitutions and southern states' ratification of the 14th amendment in order to be allowed their full constitutional rights back. Congress further limited Johnson’s ability to change things in the south by making Grant the overseer of reconstruction. They also changed the law to make it illegal for the president to fire a secretary or congressionally appointed position without the support of congress. The congressional strategy was effective, but it pissed off Johnson and the southern leaders. Military leaders, supported by the Republican-controlled Congress moved progressive Northerners into the South and took over state conventions to pass progressive laws. These changes included forcing southern states to adopt the 13th and 14th amendments in order to be considered for reinstatement in The Union.
PRECEDED BY: Abraham Lincoln
SUCCEEDED BY: Ulysses S. Grant
he/him. Screenwriter. Actor. Producer. History fiend.