Andrew Johnson

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Template:Infobox President Template:Otherpeople Andrew Johnson (December 29 1808 – July 31 1875) was the sixteenth Vice President (1865) and the seventeenth President of the United States (1865–1869), succeeding to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Johnson was president during part of the Reconstruction following the 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.

1 Early life
2 Early political career
3 Political ascension
4 Presidency 1865-1869
5 Post-Presidency
6 See also
7 References
- 7.1 Primary sources
8 External links

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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 10 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, Eliza McCardle Johnson, has historically been credited with teaching him to read and write.

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Early political career

Johnson served as an alderman in Greeneville from 1828 to 1830 and mayor of Greeneville from 1830 to 1833. He was a member of the State House of Representatives from 1835 to 1837 and from 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 U.S. House Committee on Public Expenditures (Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses).

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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.

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Presidency 1865-1869

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Assumption

As a leading War Democrat and pro-Union southerner, Johnson was an ideal candidate for the Republicans in 1864 as they tried to enlarge their base to include War Democrats and temporarily changed the party name. He was elected Vice President of the United States on the National Union ticket headed by Lincoln in 1864 and was inaugurated March 4 1865. At the ceremony Johnson, who had been drinking, gave a rambling, incoherent speech and had to be led away. In early 1865 Johnson talked harshly of hanging traitors like Jefferson Davis, which endeared him to the Radicals. {Trefousse 198] 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.

Johnson had an ambiguous party status. The National Union party vanished after the 1864 election but he did not identify with either party while president--though he did try for the Democratic nomination in 1868. 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?" [Trefouse p 339]

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Policies

The Johnson Administration negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia on April 9 1867 for $10,900,000.

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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 was run by the North. Johnson's public criticisms of Congress provoked much talk of impeachment over the months.

Image:3a05488v.jpg In February 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 in March 2 1867 over 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 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.

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 impeached Johnson for intentionally violating the Tenure of Office Act.

Image:AJohnsonimpeach.jpg 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.

There were three votes in the Senate: one on May 16, 1868 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 sine die. On all three occasions, thirty-five Senators voted "Guilty" and nineteen "Not Guilty". As the United States Constitution requires a two-thirds majority for conviction in impeachment trials, Johnson was acquitted.

A single changed vote would have sufficed to return a "Guilty" verdict. The decisive vote had been that of a young Radical Republican named Edmund G. Ross. Despite monumental pressure from fellow Radicals prior to the first vote, and dire warnings that a vote for acquittal would end his political career, Ross stood up at the appropriate moment and quietly announced "not guilty," effectively ending the impeachment trial.

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Administration and 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

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States admitted to the Union

Nebraska: 1867

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Post-Presidency

Image:Pres andrew johnson.jpg Johnson was an unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States Senate in 1868 and to the House of Representatives in 1872. He eventually succeeded and was elected as a Democrat to the Senate and served from March 4, 1875, until his death near Elizabethton, Tennessee, on July 31, 1875. He is the only President to serve in the Senate after his presidency. Interment was in the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery, Greeneville, Tennessee.

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References

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
Albert E. Castel, The Presidency of Andrew Johnson (1979). ISBN 0700601902
D. M. DeWitt, The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson (1903).
Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction (1961). ISBN 0195057074
L. P. Stryker, Andrew Johnson: A Study in Courage (1929). ISBN 0403012317
Hans L. Trefousse, Andrew Johnson: A Biography (1989). ISBN 0393317420