Andrew Johnson

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For other people named Andrew Johnson, see Andrew Johnson (disambiguation).
Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson
Term of office April 15, 1865 – March 3, 1869
Preceded by Abraham Lincoln
Succeeded by Ulysses S. Grant
Date of birth December 29, 1808
Place of birth Raleigh, North Carolina
Spouse Eliza McCardle Johnson
Political party Democratic (elected on National Union ticket)

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808July 31, 1875) was the sixteenth Vice President (1865) and the seventeenth President of the United States (18651869), succeeding to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He is regarded to be one of the worst presidents.

Johnson presided over the Reconstruction of the United States following the American Civil War, and his conciliatory policies towards the defeated rebels and his vetoes of civil rights bills embroiled him in a bitter dispute with the Congressional Republicans, leading the House of Representatives to impeach him in 1868; he was the first President to be impeached. He was subsequently acquitted by a single vote in the Senate.

Contents

Early life

Johnson was born on December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Jacob Johnson and Mary McDonough. When Johnson was four his father died. At the age of 13 he was apprenticed to a tailor, but ran away to Greeneville, Tennessee in 1826, where he continued his employment as a tailor. He never attended any type of school; his wife has historically been credited with teaching him to read and write.

Early political career

Johnson served as an alderman in Greeneville from 1828 to 1830 and mayor of Greeneville from 1834 to 1838. He was a member of the State House of Representatives from 1835 to 1837 and 1839 to 1841. He was elected to the State Senate in 1841, and elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1843 to March 3, 1853). He was chairman of the Committee on Public Expenditures (Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses).

Andrew Johnson
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Andrew Johnson

Political ascension

Johnson did not seek renomination, having become a candidate for the governorship of Tennessee. He was Governor of Tennessee from 1853 to 1857, and was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from October 8, 1857 to March 4, 1862, when he resigned. He was chairman of the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expense (Thirty-sixth Congress). At the time of secession of the Confederacy, Johnson was the only Senator from the seceded states to continue participation in Congress. Johnson was then appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as Military Governor of Tennessee in 1862.

National office

He was elected Vice President of the United States on the National Union ticket headed by Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1864 and was inaugurated March 4, 1865. He became President of the United States on April 15, 1865, upon the death of Lincoln. He was the first Vice President to succeed to the U.S. Presidency upon the assassination of a President and the third to succeed upon the death of a President.

Cabinet

OFFICE NAME TERM
President Andrew Johnson 1865–1869
Vice President None  
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 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 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


Impeachment

Congress and Johnson argued in an increasingly public way about Reconstruction: the manner in which the Southern secessionist states would be readmitted to the Union. Johnson favored a very quick restoration of all rights and privileges of other states. However, "Congressional Reconstruction", enforced by repeated acts passed over Johnson's veto, provided for provisional state governments run by the military and ensuring the local passage of civil rights laws and otherwise imposing the will of the United States Congress — which, of course, was run by the North. Johnson's public criticisms of Congress provoked much talk of impeachment over the months.

Harper's Weekly illustration of Johnson's impeachment trial in the United States Senate.
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Harper's Weekly illustration of Johnson's impeachment trial in the United States Senate.

On February 21, 1868, 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. This violated the Tenure of Office Act, a law enacted by Congress on March 2, 1867 over the Johnson's veto, specifically designed to protect Stanton. 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 fire any of his Cabinet members at will. (Years later in Myers v. United States (1926), the Supreme Court ruled that such laws were indeed unconstitutional.)

The Senate and House entered into hot debate. Thomas attempted to move into the War office, for which Stanton had Thomas arrested. Three days after Stanton's removal, the House passed a resolution to impeach Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors", specifically, for intentionally violating the Tenure-of-Office Act and thus violating the law of the land, which he had sworn an oath to enforce.

The 1868 Impeachment Resolution
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The 1868 Impeachment Resolution

On March 5, 1868 a court of impeachment was organized 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 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.

Johnson was acquitted by a vote of thirty-five for conviction to nineteen for acquittal. He had avoided removal from office by a single vote. There were two votes in the Senate: one on May 16, 1868 for the 11th article, and another on May 26 for the other 10.

Johnson was the first President to be impeached, and the only one until Bill Clinton on December 19, 1998. Both presidents were acquitted.

States Admitted to the Union

Post-Presidency

President Andrew Johnson
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President Andrew Johnson

Johnson was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1868 and to the House of Representatives in 1872. He was elected as a Democrat to the Senate and served from March 4, 1875, until his death near Elizabethton, Tennessee, on July 31, 1875. Interment was in the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery, Greeneville, Tennessee.

See also

References

External links

Wikisource
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Preceded by:
Thomas Dickens Arnold
U.S. Congressman for the 1st District of Tennessee
18431853
Succeeded by:
Brookins Campbell
Preceded by:
William B. Campbell
Governor of Tennessee
18531857
Succeeded by:
Isham G. Harris
Preceded by:
James C. Jones
U.S. Senator from Tennessee
October 8, 1857March 4, 1862
Succeeded by:
David T. Patterson (a)
Preceded by:
Isham G. Harris
Governor of Tennessee
18621865
Succeeded by:
E. H. East
Preceded by:
Hannibal Hamlin
Republican Party(b) vice presidential candidate
1864 (won)
Succeeded by:
Schuyler Colfax
Preceded by:
Hannibal Hamlin
Vice President of the United States
March 4, 1865April 15, 1865
Succeeded by:
Schuyler Colfax (b)
Preceded by:
Abraham Lincoln
President of the United States
April 15, 1865March 3, 1869
Succeeded by:
Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by:
William Gannaway Brownlow
U.S. Senator from Tennessee
March 4, 1875July 31, 1875 (died in office)
Succeeded by:
David McKendree Key
(a) Due to Tennessee's secession, the Senate seat was vacant for four years before Patterson succeeded Johnson.
(b) After Johnson became president in 1865, the Vice Presidency was vacant until Schuyler Colfax was inaugurated on March 4, 1869.
(c) Lincoln and Johnson ran on the National Union ticket in 1864.
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