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JOHNSON, Andrew
(1808–75), 16th vice-president (1865) and 17th president
of the U.S. (1865– 69).
Johnson was born on Dec. 29, 1808, in Raleigh, N.C., the son
of poor servants at an inn. After the death of his father, Johnson’s
mother remarried, and in 1822 she apprenticed him to a tailor. Two
years later he ran away from his employer, who advertised for his
recapture. Returning to Raleigh, Johnson decided to move to Tennessee,
finally settling in Greeneville in 1827. He established a tailor
shop and married Eliza McCardle (1810–76), the daughter
of a local shoemaker, who helped him in his efforts to overcome
the lack of a formal education. Prospering in his trade, he eventually
made enough money to buy a few slaves.
Johnson was popular with the small craftsmen of the town,
and in 1829 he was elected councilman and later mayor of Greeneville;
in 1835 he was sent to the state general assembly. Defeated in 1837,
he was reelected in 1839. In the following year he actively campaigned
for the Democratic party. He was elected to the state senate in
1841 and two years later to the U.S. House of Representatives, in
which he served until 1853. In Congress, Johnson was known for his
advocacy of cheap western land for homesteaders and support for
the Mexican War. Twice elected (1853 and 1855) governor of Tennessee,
in 1857 he was elevated to the U.S. Senate and again took up the
fight for a homestead bill. The measure passed in 1860 but was vetoed
by President James Buchanan.
Closely identified with the small farmers of eastern Tennessee,
Johnson held conventional Southern views on slavery and in 1860
supported John C. Breckinridge, the presidential candidate of the
Southern Democrats. Despite this, he opposed Tennessee’s
secession from the Union. Even after the beginning of the American
Civil War, he alone among Southern senators remained loyal to the
U.S.
As the only Southern senator who refused to resign, Johnson
was a symbol of wartime Unionism. Barely escaping from a lynch mob
when returning to his home in 1861, he eventually had to flee, but
he never abandoned the effort to liberate eastern Tennessee. Although he
introduced resolutions disavowing any intentions of interfering
with the domestic institutions of the states, he became a member
of the radical Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, which
advocated such intervention. After the capture of Nashville, Tenn.,
President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee
(March 1862), and he took up his post at the state capital. Often
in personal danger, he sought to reanimate the Unionist cause in
his home state and insisted on the determined defense of its capital. In
1864, in order to balance Lincoln’s Union ticket with a
Southern Democrat, the Republicans nominated him for vice-president.
After his victory as Lincoln’s running mate, he summoned
a convention that set up a new state government and abolished slavery
in Tennessee.
Although Johnson made a poor impression when he appeared at
the inauguration ceremony under the influence of alcohol, he enjoyed
widespread support when he succeeded to the presidency following
Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865. This goodwill began
to evaporate as his Reconstruction plans unfolded. Offering pardons
to all but a few wealthy and leading former Confederates, he invited
them to reassume control of the Southern states. He required little
of them, permitted them to exclude blacks from the franchise, and
ordered that land awarded to former slaves be returned to the original
owners. Shocked by the enactment of racially discriminatory police
regulations (the Black Codes) and the election of prominent ex-Confederates,
the Republican majority refused to seat any Southern representatives
when Congress met in December 1865. Instead of seeking an accommodation
with the Republicans, Johnson widened the breach by vetoing the
moderate Freedmen’s Bureau and Civil Rights bills (February
and April 1866). Overriding the Civil Rights Bill veto, Congress
framed its own Reconstruction plan, which later became the 14th
Amendment to the Constitution. Johnson tried to block the congressional
plan and made an unsuccessful attempt to win support by forming
a new party in the autumn of 1866. Congress then countered with
the Tenure of Office Act and other measures curtailing the president’s
power. It also instituted a more radical policy of Reconstruction
based on black suffrage.
Totally opposed to congressional Reconstruction, the president
found himself hampered by the radical secretary of war, Edwin M.
Stanton, who refused to resign; in August 1867 the president dismissed
him, appointing Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in his place. Soon afterward
he also began to replace radical generals in charge of Southern
districts. These actions gave new urgency to the movement to impeach
him, which had been under way since January. The first attempt to
remove him failed (December 1867). The Senate, acting under the
provisions of the Tenure of Office Act, reinstated Stanton in January
1868. When Johnson again dismissed the secretary in February, the
House passed resolutions impeaching him for high crimes and misdemeanors.
In the ensuing trial, the president was arraigned on 11 articles,
ostensibly charging him in the main with violating the Tenure of
Office Act but actually responding to his opposition to congressional
Reconstruction. Johnson employed distinguished counsel, made promises
to leading moderates, and was acquitted by one vote. The failure
of the impeachment was a severe blow to the radicals.
After his acquittal, Johnson continued to castigate congressional Reconstruction
policies, but did not refuse to carry them out. Grant was nominated
by the Republicans in 1868, and at the Democratic convention Johnson
was defeated by Horatio Seymour of New York. At the end of his term
he retired to his home in Tennessee. Following several failures
to stage a political comeback, he was returned to the Senate in
1874. He took his seat the following year but died at Carter Station,
Tenn., on July 31, 1875.
A thoroughly honest but stubborn man of limited abilities,
Johnson rendered important services to the Union during the war.
Because of his hostility to congressional Reconstruction and his
lack of sympathy for the problems of the freed slaves, however,
he contributed materially to the failure of the postwar effort to reach
an equitable solution of the country’s racial problems.