So this is it. We started in January with Millard Fillmore, and we ended today with Andrew Johnson. It's a little crazy I'm about to write my last blog, but even those take a bit of time- so I can't quite celebrate yet.
When we sat down for our last timeline today, we had an Andy Johnson favorite: popcorn.
Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Andy is believed to have had the poorest upbringing of any future president. His family were known as "mudsills", a term used for lower class citizens.
When Andy was just three, his father died of a heart attack.
What you need to know about Andy Johnson is that he just could not catch a break, ever.
Sure, he was president, so there are worse fates to have, but from the minute he was born until the minute he died, Any Johnson was an underdog who never really belonged anywhere.
Polly Johnson got married again, to Turner Doughtry, who was as poor as she was. They never sent Andy to school, and instead she and her second husband sold Andy and his brother as an indentured servant to a tailor when he was just ten years old.
His poverty made him an outsider in Raleigh, and he had to put up with being called “poor, white trash”. Feeling the sting of prejudice from the higher classes, Andy developed a white-supremacist attitude to compensate, a perception he held all his life.
Andy and William were legally bound to serve the tailor until they turned 21. Though Andy was a hard worker, and gifted tailor making clothes and quilts, he hated being a servant and after 5 years the boys decided to run away. His “owner” placed in ad in the newspaper offering ten dollars for the return of his apprentices.
Andy, with no education, and nearly illiterate, made a living working as a tailor throughout the south. But fearing his arrest for running away, a now 17 year old Andy ended up in Greenville, Tennessee, traveling mostly by foot.
When Andy arrived in Greenville, he caught the eye of 15 year old Eliza McCardle. Like Andy, Eliza had lost her father when she was young, but unlike Andy she had been educated. Eliza was shy, smart, and good looking, and Andy instantly took a liking to her.
Andy opened a successful tailor shop out of his house, while Eliza taught him how to read and write (our 17th president didn’t learn how to read until he was 17) and counseled him on business
investments.
Together, they had five kids: Martha, Charles, Mary, Robert, and Andrew.
Andy’s tailor shop became a haven for political discussion and he began to take an interest in
politics.
He identified himself with the Democratic policies of Andrew Jackson, advocating for the poor and being opposed to non-essential government spending. He was also a strong anti-abolitionist and a promoter of states' rights.
Andy gained the support of the local working class and by the age of 22 he was elected the mayor of Greeneville, Tennessee, where he served for four years.
He parlayed that success into the state legislature and then in 1843, Andy became the first Democrat from Tennessee to be elected to the United States Congress.
He served as a Representative for the next ten years. The big issue in Congress was slavery, and Andy didn’t exactly fit in. He took a slightly different view from his fellow Democrats, who were beginning to talk about leaving the Union if slavery was abolished. Andy thought that slavery was essential to the preservation of the Union, and leaving the Union wasn’t a constitutional option. (And Andy was ALL about following the Constitution.)
Eventually Andy left Congress to become the governor of Tennessee. But unfortunately for him, he didn’t fit in there either. He had been elected by a small margin, and only then because he promised to support a Whig candidate for his old spot in Congress. As a Southerner who supported the Union, Andy was hated by all of Tennessee (even though his position was “hey, I like slaves too, but wouldn’t it be better if we weren’t all killing each other over the issue?).
It might seem strange that someone so disliked would become governor, but this is Andy Johnson were talking about, so we have to assume his presidency was fairly Charlie Browny. A Tennessee's governor in the 1800’s was mostly a powerless, pretend position. As governor, Andy could propose legislation but he couldn’t veto it, and most appointments were made by the Whig-controlled legislature (even though the Whigs were on the decline nationally, they were very much thriving in TN).
Andy moved to the U.S. Senate, a position he again nearly won, and only because he had the support of the farmers and self-employed tradesmen that made up the electorate. He came to Washington, alone, as usual without his wife and family; Eliza would visit Washington only once while Andy was Senator. Without his wife, and with little support, Andy still wasn’t fitting in.
It was now 1859, and tensions in Washington between pro- and anti-slavery forces were reaching its breaking point. Andy gave a major speech in the Senate scolding Northerners/Republicans who would endanger the Union by seeking to outlaw slavery. He argued "all men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence did not apply to African-Americans. Andy supported the Fugitive Slave Act and the right to own slaves but, he didn’t agree with the Democrats and the idea of succession either. Andy saw both secessionists and abolitionists as enemies to the union.
Despite his best efforts to the contrary, Tennessee succeeded (because nobody ever listened to Andy Johnson). Every Senator from the South left their seat in Congress, except for Andy Johnson. He was the only southern to continue working for the U.S. government after his state seceded.
Andy was vilified in the South, they viewed him as a traitor. His property was confiscated, and his wife and two daughters were driven out of Tennessee. However, his pro-Union passion did not go unnoticed by the Lincoln Administration.
Once Union troops occupied Tennessee in 1862, Lincoln appointed Andy as military governor and Andy was off to his new post in Nashville. But, as in the past, Andy Johnson still was not taken seriously. People in a Confederate state like Tennessee didn’t even recognize the authority of Abraham Lincoln, and by extension, Andy Johnson.
This meant he had the very unenviable job of having to hold the state together and punish anyone who was anti-Union, which involved shutting down Confederate newspapers, firing anyone in his office that didn’t support the president, and arresting pro-succession members of the clergy. Needless to say, this didn’t exactly make him a hometown hero.
Making matters worse for Andy was a family tragedy. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles Johnson, Andy’s son, remained loyal to the Union. While recruiting Tennessee boys for the Union Army, he became the object of an intense Confederate manhunt. He joined the Infantry as an assistant surgeon, and was thrown from his horse and killed. (Mary’s husband also died in the war).
Eliza was devastated at the loss of her son, and things were getting worse for her back in Greenville. She was ordered to evacuate for her own safety, and she had to cross enemy lines to rejoin her husband in Nashville. But Nashville wasn’t much better. The city was constantly under attack by Confederate rebels attempting to seize control, but he never let them take over, and at one point told a panicked staff: “anyone who talks to surrender, I will shoot.” By the end of the war, Andy Johnson restored civil government in Tennessee, but that didn’t stop the people from hanging ANDREW JOHSNON: TRAITOR banners all over town. But, Andy believed “despised military governor” was a step up from “powerless, pretend governor”, so he kept his head down, worked hard, and continued to do what he thought was right. Andy originally opposed the Emancipation Proclamation, but after gaining an exemption for Tennessee and realizing that it was an important tool for ending the war, he accepted it. Southern papers caught his flip-flopping and accused him of seeking a higher office.
To send a theme of unity, Lincoln selected Andy Johnson as his new running mate (even though there was nothing wrong with his current Veep). The two ran in 1864 under the banner of the "National Union Party", rather than the Republicans (and War Democrats). Together, Abraham Lincoln, and Andy Johnson won in a landslide.
Unfortunately, if you ask the average person about Andy Johnson, they talk about his impeachment (which we will get to) or his drunkenness. Andy might have been a little cold, and very direct, always speaking what he thought (even if nobody was really listening), but he was a good guy, and a hard worker, so it’s a shame that is how he’s remembered.
Various staffers tried to shush him off stage, but he wasn’t having it- and finished his much too long rant by saying “I kiss this book in the face of my nation of the United States” and then drunkenly kissing the Bible on which he took his oath. Lincoln came to Andy’s defense, telling anyone who asked “You need not be scared, Andy ain’t a drunkard.” But Gossip of “Drunkard Andy Johnson” spread all over Washington anyway. In reality, Andy wasn’t a drinker, and hardly ever touched the stuff.
There are a few reasons why he could have been drunk that day. The likely reason was that Andy had been suffering from typhoid fever, and was medicating himself with whiskey (because yay, 1800’s medicine). Others say he had a few drinks at a party that went too late the night before. Still others, say that outgoing VP Hamlin offered him whiskey as liquid courage. Either way, because he wasn’t a drinker, even a little bit got him very, very drunk.
In the weeks after the inauguration, Andy mostly hid from the public, and wasn’t even seen for fear of public ridicule.
On the afternoon of April 14, 1865, Lincoln and Andy met for the first time since the inauguration. Five days earlier Lee had surrendered to Grant, and the war was over. The two men were meeting to discuss Reconstruction.
That night, President Lincoln was shot and mortally killed by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer.
The shooting of the President was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Johnson, and Secretary of State, William Seward the same night. Seward was stabbed, and barely survived. Andy’s would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, however, never went after his target. Atzerodt got drunk instead of killing the vice president, which has led to all kinds of conspiracy theories.
Lincoln died on the morning of April 15, and three hours later, Andrew Johnson, at age 56, was sworn in as the 17th president of the United States. He was the first Vice President ever to replace an assassinated president. Eliza, meanwhile, moved to the White House, but was hardly seen and left the hosting duties to their oldest daughter, Martha.
Andy began his presidency by presiding over Lincoln's funeral ceremonies in Washington.
And, then he was faced with the problems of what to do with the Confederacy. In a strange irony often found in American history, the racist Southerner Andy was charged with the reconstruction of the South and the extension of civil rights to former black slaves. Andy didn’t feel good about the task at hand, saying “I feel incompetent to perform duties... which have been so unexpectedly thrown upon me."
”
Even the fact that he was made president when he was is completely unfair in some grand cosmic sort of way. Being president is never easy, but Andy had to step up and fill in for one of our greatest presidents, during Reconstruction, one of the roughest periods in United States History.
As president Andy was a disrespected as he was as governor, military governor, and human being, which is to say, very. But don’t mistake that for self-loathing, because Andy Johnson was anything but. He wasn’t exactly warm and inviting. He was a racist, and he was known for being arrogant. The guy even spoke in third person, saying: “I am sworn to uphold the Constitution as Andy Johnson understands it and interprets it.” He also once suggested God had Lincoln assassinated so he could become president.
It quickly became apparent that Andy was going to go easy on the leaders of the Confederacy and would not force Southern states to grant full equality to blacks. However, many northerners were angry over Lincoln's assassination and wanted to punish the South. An all-out war broke out between Andy and his Congress. Andy began to veto many of the bills passed by Congress. He vetoed so many bills he became known as "The Veto President".
But Congress wouldn’t take no for an answer. They began to override Andy’s vetoes. (Overriding a veto is not an easy process- you need 2/3 vote in the House and the Senate and historically, Congress has only overriden less than 10 percent of presidential vetoes.)
Radical Republicans in Congress were concerned with the “Black Codes”- a series of measure adopted by southern states to re-establish white dominance by denying the freed slaves basic rights- like the rights of Citizens to vote. Because many white Southerners resisted Reconstruction and wanted to restore their old world, the Black Codes were enforced by violent vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Congress answered by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It was the first United States federal law to define US citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law passing the 14th and 15th amendments. The 14th amendment reaffirmed that the free slaves were state and federal citizens, and should have rights as such. The 15th amendment, forbade states from denying any person the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Andy vetoed the Civil Rights Act because he felt that Southern states were not represented in Congress and believed that setting suffrage policy was the responsibility of the states, not the federal government (remember he was all about states rights). But, again, Congress overrode his veto.
President Johnson retaliated by appealing directly to the people in a series of speeches during the 1866 congressional elections. But Andy came off as arrogant, and cold. He antagonized more than convinced his audiences. The campaign was a complete disaster, and Johnson faced a further loss of support from the public.
Congress and the public weren’t the only ones displeased; even Andy’s own cabinet was speaking out against him. Andy had kept Lincoln’s cabinet, and his Secretary of War, Edward Stanton, not only vocally opposed Andy’s reconstruction plans, but actively undermined Andy’s decisions.
Andy wanted civil authorities to have control over the south, Stanton wanted generals and other military leaders in control. So Andy asked for Stanton's resignation.
But, Stanton refused. Then, Congress went and passed the Tenure of Office Act, which took away Andy’s ability to fire any cabinet members without approval of the Senate.It was a move designed to specifically keep Stanton’s position secured.
Andy fired him anyway and put war hero Ulysses S. Grant in his place. (Andy didn’t believe he was breaking the law, because he thought the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional).
Congress now had the ammunition they needed to impeach Andy Johnson (he and Bill Clinton hold the distinction of the two presidents to be impeached), since he had fired Stanton and broken the law. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove Andy from the presidency.
He was tried in the Senate, but managed to keep his job by just one vote. He remained president, but the writing on the wall was clear. Both Democrats and Republicans thought Andy Johnson was a traitor. Both his credibility and effectiveness were destroyed.
.
Even the good things that happened during Andy’s presidency were labeled mistakes. Secretary of State William Seward arranged in 1867 for the United States to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. People labeled the purchase as "Seward's Folly", feeling it was foolish. As it turns out, the purchase of Alaska was anything but foolish for US economic and foreign policy interests.
Andy Johnson was short on friends in Washington. The only people on his side were the family of White Mice had had found in the White House and was now feeding (his only “pets”). So it surprised no one when Andy Johnson wasn’t even nominated for re-election, and war hero Ulysses S. Grant was elected the 18th president of the United States.
Andy spent his lame duck months in the presidency issuing pardons. His pardons included Jefferson Davis, and Dr. Samuel Mudd, controversially convicted of involvement in the Lincoln assassination (he had set Booth's broken leg).
Sam Grant had made it known that he was unwilling to ride in the same carriage as Andy, which was customary, to the inauguration and so Andy refused to go to the inauguration at all. (He joined John Adams & JQA as the only president’s not to go to his successors inauguration- not including Nixon).
Andy and Eliza returned home to a farm in Greenville, TN. But, retirement was not easy for Andy. His son, Robert committed suicide, Eliza was once again devastated, and Andy was bored with civilian life.
Seeking vindication for himself, and revenge against his political enemies, he launched a bid for a return to the U.S. Senate.
Six years after leaving office, with no real opposition, Andy Johnson was once again elected U.S. Senator for the state of Tennessee. His comeback garnered national attention, with newspapers calling it, "the most magnificent personal triumph in the history of American politics.” Many Republicans in the Senate (the same ones who had impeached him) ignored Andy, while some shook his hand. Andy Johnson remains the only former president to ever serve in the Senate.
But in true Charlie Brown/Andy Johnson fashion, even his comeback was taken away from him. He suffered a stroke four months later and died on July 31, 1875. He was 66 years old.
President Grant had the "painful duty" of announcing the death of the only surviving past president. Northern newspapers, in their obituaries, tended to focus on Johnson's loyalty during the war, while Southern ones paid tribute to his actions as president. Andy was buried in Greenville, TN with his body wrapped in an American flag and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes.
Some historians view Andrew Johnson as the worst person who could have been president at the end of the Civil War. People never expected Andy Johnson to amount to anything, but he gave himself an education and rose to national prominence and eventually became president. But the people never wanted or expected Andy to be president, his Congress hated him, and even his own cabinet members disobeyed him. Andy was always on his own. It probably goes without saying that his presidency was unspectacular. He purchased Alaska for America, which was great, but sort of paled in comparison to Lincoln’s slave-freeing, war ending one-two punch. If Andy had followed someone like Millard Fillmore, or Franklin Pierce, or one of those other terrible presidents, history would likely remember him more fondly. Unfortunately, his opening act was Lincoln, and that’s a performance no one can follow. Andy consistantly ranks in the bottom three of presidents with James Buchanan (proving it's hard to go before of after Lincoln), and Warren Harding.
We opened our Andrew Johnson book....
And added our fun facts..
...presidential issues....
...and presidential quote.
And we added all our props to complete the book.
This morning we had our very last owl mail.
We watched our very last president in 60 seconds..
And made our last birthday cards.
(Calib note: he purposefully used the wrong your/you're because of Andy Johnson's lack of education.)
Andy Johnson's historical hashtag:They say I'm the worst #I'mAlwaysLast (You know, because he was our last birthday).
Since Andy Johnson was an accomplished tailor (he even made his own suits when he was president!), we got out my sewing machine, and the boys made their own pillows.
They did a good job, even though they were all freaked out about using the sewing machine!
For dinner tonight we had some of Andy's favorites. He liked fish and sweet potatoes (Asa made some sweet potato fried rice recipe from his new Christmas cookbook-- and a sweet potato pudding, another Andy favorite), and fresh butter (and bread) and milk from the White House dairy.
.
That my friends is it for Andrew Johnson.
And for December presidents.
And for every single president. Can you even believe it?
What a feat. I don't often feel like I deserve a big pat on the back, but holy geez you guys.
Next Up: I'll be back in the next couple days with a presidential round up. We are having a big presidents themed New Years Eve Waterstraut party to wrap things up!
When we sat down for our last timeline today, we had an Andy Johnson favorite: popcorn.
Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
His mother, Polly and his father, Jacob were both illiterates who worked at a local inn. Jacob watched over the stables and Polly did the laundry.
Andy is believed to have had the poorest upbringing of any future president. His family were known as "mudsills", a term used for lower class citizens.
When Andy was just three, his father died of a heart attack.
What you need to know about Andy Johnson is that he just could not catch a break, ever.
Sure, he was president, so there are worse fates to have, but from the minute he was born until the minute he died, Any Johnson was an underdog who never really belonged anywhere.
Polly Johnson got married again, to Turner Doughtry, who was as poor as she was. They never sent Andy to school, and instead she and her second husband sold Andy and his brother as an indentured servant to a tailor when he was just ten years old.
His poverty made him an outsider in Raleigh, and he had to put up with being called “poor, white trash”. Feeling the sting of prejudice from the higher classes, Andy developed a white-supremacist attitude to compensate, a perception he held all his life.
Andy and William were legally bound to serve the tailor until they turned 21. Though Andy was a hard worker, and gifted tailor making clothes and quilts, he hated being a servant and after 5 years the boys decided to run away. His “owner” placed in ad in the newspaper offering ten dollars for the return of his apprentices.
Andy, with no education, and nearly illiterate, made a living working as a tailor throughout the south. But fearing his arrest for running away, a now 17 year old Andy ended up in Greenville, Tennessee, traveling mostly by foot.
When Andy arrived in Greenville, he caught the eye of 15 year old Eliza McCardle. Like Andy, Eliza had lost her father when she was young, but unlike Andy she had been educated. Eliza was shy, smart, and good looking, and Andy instantly took a liking to her.
Andy opened a successful tailor shop out of his house, while Eliza taught him how to read and write (our 17th president didn’t learn how to read until he was 17) and counseled him on business
investments.
Together, they had five kids: Martha, Charles, Mary, Robert, and Andrew.
Andy’s tailor shop became a haven for political discussion and he began to take an interest in
politics.
He identified himself with the Democratic policies of Andrew Jackson, advocating for the poor and being opposed to non-essential government spending. He was also a strong anti-abolitionist and a promoter of states' rights.
Andy gained the support of the local working class and by the age of 22 he was elected the mayor of Greeneville, Tennessee, where he served for four years.
He parlayed that success into the state legislature and then in 1843, Andy became the first Democrat from Tennessee to be elected to the United States Congress.
He served as a Representative for the next ten years. The big issue in Congress was slavery, and Andy didn’t exactly fit in. He took a slightly different view from his fellow Democrats, who were beginning to talk about leaving the Union if slavery was abolished. Andy thought that slavery was essential to the preservation of the Union, and leaving the Union wasn’t a constitutional option. (And Andy was ALL about following the Constitution.)
Eventually Andy left Congress to become the governor of Tennessee. But unfortunately for him, he didn’t fit in there either. He had been elected by a small margin, and only then because he promised to support a Whig candidate for his old spot in Congress. As a Southerner who supported the Union, Andy was hated by all of Tennessee (even though his position was “hey, I like slaves too, but wouldn’t it be better if we weren’t all killing each other over the issue?).
It might seem strange that someone so disliked would become governor, but this is Andy Johnson were talking about, so we have to assume his presidency was fairly Charlie Browny. A Tennessee's governor in the 1800’s was mostly a powerless, pretend position. As governor, Andy could propose legislation but he couldn’t veto it, and most appointments were made by the Whig-controlled legislature (even though the Whigs were on the decline nationally, they were very much thriving in TN).
Andy moved to the U.S. Senate, a position he again nearly won, and only because he had the support of the farmers and self-employed tradesmen that made up the electorate. He came to Washington, alone, as usual without his wife and family; Eliza would visit Washington only once while Andy was Senator. Without his wife, and with little support, Andy still wasn’t fitting in.
It was now 1859, and tensions in Washington between pro- and anti-slavery forces were reaching its breaking point. Andy gave a major speech in the Senate scolding Northerners/Republicans who would endanger the Union by seeking to outlaw slavery. He argued "all men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence did not apply to African-Americans. Andy supported the Fugitive Slave Act and the right to own slaves but, he didn’t agree with the Democrats and the idea of succession either. Andy saw both secessionists and abolitionists as enemies to the union.
Despite his best efforts to the contrary, Tennessee succeeded (because nobody ever listened to Andy Johnson). Every Senator from the South left their seat in Congress, except for Andy Johnson. He was the only southern to continue working for the U.S. government after his state seceded.
Andy was vilified in the South, they viewed him as a traitor. His property was confiscated, and his wife and two daughters were driven out of Tennessee. However, his pro-Union passion did not go unnoticed by the Lincoln Administration.
Once Union troops occupied Tennessee in 1862, Lincoln appointed Andy as military governor and Andy was off to his new post in Nashville. But, as in the past, Andy Johnson still was not taken seriously. People in a Confederate state like Tennessee didn’t even recognize the authority of Abraham Lincoln, and by extension, Andy Johnson.
This meant he had the very unenviable job of having to hold the state together and punish anyone who was anti-Union, which involved shutting down Confederate newspapers, firing anyone in his office that didn’t support the president, and arresting pro-succession members of the clergy. Needless to say, this didn’t exactly make him a hometown hero.
Making matters worse for Andy was a family tragedy. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles Johnson, Andy’s son, remained loyal to the Union. While recruiting Tennessee boys for the Union Army, he became the object of an intense Confederate manhunt. He joined the Infantry as an assistant surgeon, and was thrown from his horse and killed. (Mary’s husband also died in the war).
Eliza was devastated at the loss of her son, and things were getting worse for her back in Greenville. She was ordered to evacuate for her own safety, and she had to cross enemy lines to rejoin her husband in Nashville. But Nashville wasn’t much better. The city was constantly under attack by Confederate rebels attempting to seize control, but he never let them take over, and at one point told a panicked staff: “anyone who talks to surrender, I will shoot.” By the end of the war, Andy Johnson restored civil government in Tennessee, but that didn’t stop the people from hanging ANDREW JOHSNON: TRAITOR banners all over town. But, Andy believed “despised military governor” was a step up from “powerless, pretend governor”, so he kept his head down, worked hard, and continued to do what he thought was right. Andy originally opposed the Emancipation Proclamation, but after gaining an exemption for Tennessee and realizing that it was an important tool for ending the war, he accepted it. Southern papers caught his flip-flopping and accused him of seeking a higher office.
To send a theme of unity, Lincoln selected Andy Johnson as his new running mate (even though there was nothing wrong with his current Veep). The two ran in 1864 under the banner of the "National Union Party", rather than the Republicans (and War Democrats). Together, Abraham Lincoln, and Andy Johnson won in a landslide.
Unfortunately, if you ask the average person about Andy Johnson, they talk about his impeachment (which we will get to) or his drunkenness. Andy might have been a little cold, and very direct, always speaking what he thought (even if nobody was really listening), but he was a good guy, and a hard worker, so it’s a shame that is how he’s remembered.
Various staffers tried to shush him off stage, but he wasn’t having it- and finished his much too long rant by saying “I kiss this book in the face of my nation of the United States” and then drunkenly kissing the Bible on which he took his oath. Lincoln came to Andy’s defense, telling anyone who asked “You need not be scared, Andy ain’t a drunkard.” But Gossip of “Drunkard Andy Johnson” spread all over Washington anyway. In reality, Andy wasn’t a drinker, and hardly ever touched the stuff.
There are a few reasons why he could have been drunk that day. The likely reason was that Andy had been suffering from typhoid fever, and was medicating himself with whiskey (because yay, 1800’s medicine). Others say he had a few drinks at a party that went too late the night before. Still others, say that outgoing VP Hamlin offered him whiskey as liquid courage. Either way, because he wasn’t a drinker, even a little bit got him very, very drunk.
In the weeks after the inauguration, Andy mostly hid from the public, and wasn’t even seen for fear of public ridicule.
On the afternoon of April 14, 1865, Lincoln and Andy met for the first time since the inauguration. Five days earlier Lee had surrendered to Grant, and the war was over. The two men were meeting to discuss Reconstruction.
That night, President Lincoln was shot and mortally killed by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathizer.
The shooting of the President was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Johnson, and Secretary of State, William Seward the same night. Seward was stabbed, and barely survived. Andy’s would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, however, never went after his target. Atzerodt got drunk instead of killing the vice president, which has led to all kinds of conspiracy theories.
Lincoln died on the morning of April 15, and three hours later, Andrew Johnson, at age 56, was sworn in as the 17th president of the United States. He was the first Vice President ever to replace an assassinated president. Eliza, meanwhile, moved to the White House, but was hardly seen and left the hosting duties to their oldest daughter, Martha.
Andy began his presidency by presiding over Lincoln's funeral ceremonies in Washington.
And, then he was faced with the problems of what to do with the Confederacy. In a strange irony often found in American history, the racist Southerner Andy was charged with the reconstruction of the South and the extension of civil rights to former black slaves. Andy didn’t feel good about the task at hand, saying “I feel incompetent to perform duties... which have been so unexpectedly thrown upon me."
”
Even the fact that he was made president when he was is completely unfair in some grand cosmic sort of way. Being president is never easy, but Andy had to step up and fill in for one of our greatest presidents, during Reconstruction, one of the roughest periods in United States History.
As president Andy was a disrespected as he was as governor, military governor, and human being, which is to say, very. But don’t mistake that for self-loathing, because Andy Johnson was anything but. He wasn’t exactly warm and inviting. He was a racist, and he was known for being arrogant. The guy even spoke in third person, saying: “I am sworn to uphold the Constitution as Andy Johnson understands it and interprets it.” He also once suggested God had Lincoln assassinated so he could become president.
It quickly became apparent that Andy was going to go easy on the leaders of the Confederacy and would not force Southern states to grant full equality to blacks. However, many northerners were angry over Lincoln's assassination and wanted to punish the South. An all-out war broke out between Andy and his Congress. Andy began to veto many of the bills passed by Congress. He vetoed so many bills he became known as "The Veto President".
But Congress wouldn’t take no for an answer. They began to override Andy’s vetoes. (Overriding a veto is not an easy process- you need 2/3 vote in the House and the Senate and historically, Congress has only overriden less than 10 percent of presidential vetoes.)
Radical Republicans in Congress were concerned with the “Black Codes”- a series of measure adopted by southern states to re-establish white dominance by denying the freed slaves basic rights- like the rights of Citizens to vote. Because many white Southerners resisted Reconstruction and wanted to restore their old world, the Black Codes were enforced by violent vigilante groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Congress answered by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866. It was the first United States federal law to define US citizenship and affirm that all citizens are equally protected by the law passing the 14th and 15th amendments. The 14th amendment reaffirmed that the free slaves were state and federal citizens, and should have rights as such. The 15th amendment, forbade states from denying any person the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Andy vetoed the Civil Rights Act because he felt that Southern states were not represented in Congress and believed that setting suffrage policy was the responsibility of the states, not the federal government (remember he was all about states rights). But, again, Congress overrode his veto.
President Johnson retaliated by appealing directly to the people in a series of speeches during the 1866 congressional elections. But Andy came off as arrogant, and cold. He antagonized more than convinced his audiences. The campaign was a complete disaster, and Johnson faced a further loss of support from the public.
Congress and the public weren’t the only ones displeased; even Andy’s own cabinet was speaking out against him. Andy had kept Lincoln’s cabinet, and his Secretary of War, Edward Stanton, not only vocally opposed Andy’s reconstruction plans, but actively undermined Andy’s decisions.
Andy wanted civil authorities to have control over the south, Stanton wanted generals and other military leaders in control. So Andy asked for Stanton's resignation.
But, Stanton refused. Then, Congress went and passed the Tenure of Office Act, which took away Andy’s ability to fire any cabinet members without approval of the Senate.It was a move designed to specifically keep Stanton’s position secured.
Andy fired him anyway and put war hero Ulysses S. Grant in his place. (Andy didn’t believe he was breaking the law, because he thought the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional).
Congress now had the ammunition they needed to impeach Andy Johnson (he and Bill Clinton hold the distinction of the two presidents to be impeached), since he had fired Stanton and broken the law. The U.S. House of Representatives voted to remove Andy from the presidency.
He was tried in the Senate, but managed to keep his job by just one vote. He remained president, but the writing on the wall was clear. Both Democrats and Republicans thought Andy Johnson was a traitor. Both his credibility and effectiveness were destroyed.
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Even the good things that happened during Andy’s presidency were labeled mistakes. Secretary of State William Seward arranged in 1867 for the United States to purchase Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. People labeled the purchase as "Seward's Folly", feeling it was foolish. As it turns out, the purchase of Alaska was anything but foolish for US economic and foreign policy interests.
Andy Johnson was short on friends in Washington. The only people on his side were the family of White Mice had had found in the White House and was now feeding (his only “pets”). So it surprised no one when Andy Johnson wasn’t even nominated for re-election, and war hero Ulysses S. Grant was elected the 18th president of the United States.
Andy spent his lame duck months in the presidency issuing pardons. His pardons included Jefferson Davis, and Dr. Samuel Mudd, controversially convicted of involvement in the Lincoln assassination (he had set Booth's broken leg).
Sam Grant had made it known that he was unwilling to ride in the same carriage as Andy, which was customary, to the inauguration and so Andy refused to go to the inauguration at all. (He joined John Adams & JQA as the only president’s not to go to his successors inauguration- not including Nixon).
Andy and Eliza returned home to a farm in Greenville, TN. But, retirement was not easy for Andy. His son, Robert committed suicide, Eliza was once again devastated, and Andy was bored with civilian life.
Seeking vindication for himself, and revenge against his political enemies, he launched a bid for a return to the U.S. Senate.
Six years after leaving office, with no real opposition, Andy Johnson was once again elected U.S. Senator for the state of Tennessee. His comeback garnered national attention, with newspapers calling it, "the most magnificent personal triumph in the history of American politics.” Many Republicans in the Senate (the same ones who had impeached him) ignored Andy, while some shook his hand. Andy Johnson remains the only former president to ever serve in the Senate.
But in true Charlie Brown/Andy Johnson fashion, even his comeback was taken away from him. He suffered a stroke four months later and died on July 31, 1875. He was 66 years old.
President Grant had the "painful duty" of announcing the death of the only surviving past president. Northern newspapers, in their obituaries, tended to focus on Johnson's loyalty during the war, while Southern ones paid tribute to his actions as president. Andy was buried in Greenville, TN with his body wrapped in an American flag and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes.
Some historians view Andrew Johnson as the worst person who could have been president at the end of the Civil War. People never expected Andy Johnson to amount to anything, but he gave himself an education and rose to national prominence and eventually became president. But the people never wanted or expected Andy to be president, his Congress hated him, and even his own cabinet members disobeyed him. Andy was always on his own. It probably goes without saying that his presidency was unspectacular. He purchased Alaska for America, which was great, but sort of paled in comparison to Lincoln’s slave-freeing, war ending one-two punch. If Andy had followed someone like Millard Fillmore, or Franklin Pierce, or one of those other terrible presidents, history would likely remember him more fondly. Unfortunately, his opening act was Lincoln, and that’s a performance no one can follow. Andy consistantly ranks in the bottom three of presidents with James Buchanan (proving it's hard to go before of after Lincoln), and Warren Harding.
We opened our Andrew Johnson book....
And added our fun facts..
...presidential issues....
...and presidential quote.
And we added all our props to complete the book.
This morning we had our very last owl mail.
We watched our very last president in 60 seconds..
And made our last birthday cards.
(Calib note: he purposefully used the wrong your/you're because of Andy Johnson's lack of education.)
Andy Johnson's historical hashtag:They say I'm the worst #I'mAlwaysLast (You know, because he was our last birthday).
Since Andy Johnson was an accomplished tailor (he even made his own suits when he was president!), we got out my sewing machine, and the boys made their own pillows.
They did a good job, even though they were all freaked out about using the sewing machine!
For dinner tonight we had some of Andy's favorites. He liked fish and sweet potatoes (Asa made some sweet potato fried rice recipe from his new Christmas cookbook-- and a sweet potato pudding, another Andy favorite), and fresh butter (and bread) and milk from the White House dairy.
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That my friends is it for Andrew Johnson.
And for December presidents.
And for every single president. Can you even believe it?
What a feat. I don't often feel like I deserve a big pat on the back, but holy geez you guys.
Next Up: I'll be back in the next couple days with a presidential round up. We are having a big presidents themed New Years Eve Waterstraut party to wrap things up!
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