Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson
Born	Andrew Johnson 29 12, 1808
Birthplace	Raleigh, North Carolina, U.S.
Died	Template:Death date and age Elizabethton, Tennessee, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	Politician, tailor
Known for	17th President of the United States; first president to be impeached
Spouse(s)	Eliza McCardle Johnson

Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was an American politician who served as the 17th President of the United States from 1865 to 1869. Born into deep poverty in Raleigh, North Carolina, Johnson never attended school and was apprenticed to a tailor as a young boy — yet he rose through the ranks of Tennessee politics to become an alderman, mayor, state legislator, United States congressman, governor, and United States senator before ascending to the vice presidency under Abraham Lincoln in 1865. When Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, Johnson assumed the presidency at a moment of extraordinary national crisis, as the American Civil War drew to a close and the question of how to reconstruct the defeated Southern states consumed the nation's political life. As president, Johnson pursued a lenient policy toward the former Confederate states, opposing civil rights protections for formerly enslaved people and vetoing legislation passed by the Republican-controlled Congress. His clashes with Congress over Reconstruction policy led to his impeachment by the United States House of Representatives on February 24, 1868, making him the first president in American history to be impeached. He was acquitted by the United States Senate by a single vote. Johnson's presidency is broadly viewed by historians as one of the least successful in American history, largely due to his opposition to rights for freedmen during the critical Reconstruction era.

Early Life

Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina. His parents, Jacob Johnson and Mary ("Polly") McDonough, were of modest circumstances; the family lived in poverty. His father, Jacob, worked as a porter and handyman at a local inn, and died when Andrew was three years old, leaving the family in even more dire financial straits. Johnson's mother subsequently remarried, but the family remained impoverished.

Johnson never received any formal education. As a young boy, he was apprenticed to a local tailor, James Selby, where he learned the trade that would support him for years. It was during this apprenticeship that Johnson began to learn to read, reportedly taught in part by fellow workers and customers who would read aloud in the tailor shop. He ran away from his apprenticeship before it was completed and eventually made his way westward, settling in Greeneville, Tennessee, around 1826, where he established his own tailor shop.

In Greeneville, Johnson married Eliza McCardle in 1827. Eliza, who had received more schooling than her husband, helped teach him to write and improve his reading skills. She would remain an important influence throughout his political career. The couple settled into community life in Greeneville, where Johnson's tailor shop became a gathering place for local political discussion. Johnson quickly became involved in civic affairs, and his skill as a public speaker drew notice among his neighbors.

Johnson's early life — marked by poverty, lack of formal education, and self-made advancement — shaped his political identity. He identified throughout his career as a champion of the common working man and maintained a deep suspicion of planter elites and established wealth, even as he himself acquired property, including enslaved people, as his fortunes improved in Tennessee.

Career

Early Political Career in Tennessee

Johnson's entry into politics began at the local level in Greeneville, Tennessee. He was elected as an alderman in 1829 and subsequently served as mayor of Greeneville. His oratorical abilities and identification with working-class voters propelled him into the Tennessee General Assembly, where he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835. He served briefly in the Tennessee Senate before moving to the national stage.

In 1843, Johnson was elected to the United States House of Representatives, representing Tennessee's 1st congressional district. He served five consecutive two-year terms in the House, remaining in office until 1853. During his time in Congress, Johnson was a member of the Democratic Party and aligned himself with the Jacksonian tradition, advocating for the interests of small farmers and working people against what he perceived as the dominance of the planter aristocracy. One of his principal legislative causes was the Homestead Bill, which sought to grant free parcels of public land to settlers willing to develop them. Although Johnson championed this legislation for years, it was not enacted until after he left his Senate seat in 1862, when the Homestead Act was signed into law by President Lincoln.

Governor of Tennessee

In 1853, Johnson was elected as the 15th Governor of Tennessee, serving from October 17, 1853, to November 3, 1857. As governor, he continued to advocate for the interests of common citizens, supporting public education and infrastructure improvements. He won re-election and served two terms before being elected by the Tennessee state legislature to the United States Senate in 1857.

United States Senator and the Civil War

Johnson entered the United States Senate on October 8, 1857, representing Tennessee. He continued to press for the Homestead Bill and remained a strong advocate for the Union even as sectional tensions escalated in the late 1850s. When Southern states began to secede following the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Johnson stood firmly against secession. He was the only sitting United States senator from a Confederate state who did not resign his seat upon his state's secession, a decision that made him a figure of both admiration in the North and intense hostility in much of the South.

Johnson's Unionist stance was rooted in his strict constructionist interpretation of the Constitution and his belief that secession was unconstitutional. His loyalty to the Union brought him to the attention of President Lincoln, who in 1862 appointed Johnson as Military Governor of Tennessee after Union forces had recaptured much of the state. In this role, which he held from March 12, 1862, to March 4, 1865, Johnson worked to restore civil government in Tennessee and to suppress Confederate resistance. His tenure as military governor was marked by considerable difficulty, as guerrilla warfare and divided loyalties plagued the state throughout the war.

Vice Presidency

In 1864, President Lincoln chose Johnson as his running mate on the National Union Party ticket for the presidential election. Lincoln, a Republican, selected Johnson, a War Democrat from a Confederate state, to broaden the appeal of the ticket and to send a message of national unity. The Lincoln-Johnson ticket won the election, and Johnson was inaugurated as the 16th Vice President of the United States on March 4, 1865.

Johnson's vice presidency was brief and inauspicious. His inauguration was marred by an incident in which he appeared visibly intoxicated while delivering his inaugural address in the Senate chamber, which drew widespread embarrassment and criticism. Johnson later attributed his condition to illness and the effects of whiskey consumed to steady his nerves. He served as vice president for only 42 days before the assassination of President Lincoln on April 14, 1865, thrust him into the presidency.

Presidency (1865–1869)

Accession and Presidential Reconstruction

Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency on April 15, 1865, following Lincoln's death. He took office at a moment when the nation faced the enormous challenge of reintegrating the former Confederate states into the Union and determining the status and rights of approximately four million formerly enslaved people. Johnson's approach to Reconstruction differed markedly from the direction that many Republicans in Congress had envisioned.

Johnson implemented his own form of Presidential Reconstruction during the summer of 1865, while Congress was in recess. He issued a series of proclamations directing the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to reform their civil governments. His plan required the former Confederate states to repudiate secession, abolish slavery, and ratify the Thirteenth Amendment, but it did not require them to extend civil rights or suffrage to the formerly enslaved. Johnson also issued broad amnesty proclamations, pardoning most former Confederates who took an oath of allegiance, though wealthy planters and high-ranking Confederate officials were required to apply individually for presidential pardons — which Johnson granted liberally.

Under Johnson's lenient terms, the former Confederate states quickly reconstituted their governments. Many of these states returned their prewar leaders to power and enacted so-called Black Codes — restrictive laws designed to control the labor and movement of freedmen and to deprive them of many civil liberties. The Black Codes varied by state but commonly restricted African Americans' rights to own property, conduct business, buy or lease land, and move freely in public spaces.

Conflict with Congress

When Congress reconvened in December 1865, Republican members refused to seat the representatives and senators elected under Johnson's Reconstruction plan. Congress established the Joint Committee on Reconstruction to investigate conditions in the Southern states and to develop alternative policies. The resulting conflict between the president and Congress would define Johnson's presidency.

Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which aimed to protect the rights of freedmen, but Johnson vetoed the legislation. Congress overrode the veto, marking the first time in American history that a significant piece of legislation was enacted over a presidential veto. This set a pattern: Congress would pass legislation to protect the rights of formerly enslaved people and to impose stricter terms on the former Confederate states, and Johnson would veto it, only to be overridden by the necessary two-thirds majority in both chambers.

Johnson also opposed the Fourteenth Amendment, which granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States and guaranteed equal protection under the law. He urged Southern states not to ratify the amendment. The amendment was nonetheless ratified in 1868.

In 1866, Johnson undertook an unprecedented national speaking tour, known as the "Swing Around the Circle," in which he traveled across the Northern states to promote his Reconstruction policies and to campaign against Republican congressional candidates in the midterm elections. The tour was widely considered a political disaster; Johnson was heckled at several stops and made intemperate remarks that damaged his public standing. Republicans won overwhelming victories in the 1866 midterm elections, strengthening their control of Congress and emboldening them to pursue their own Reconstruction program over Johnson's objections.

Impeachment

The confrontation between Johnson and Congress reached its climax in 1867 and 1868. In March 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which prohibited the president from removing certain officeholders, including Cabinet members, without the consent of the Senate. The act was widely understood as an effort to prevent Johnson from dismissing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who was sympathetic to the Republican Reconstruction program and who served as a key link between Congress and the military commanders enforcing Reconstruction in the South.

In February 1868, Johnson defied the Tenure of Office Act by attempting to remove Stanton from office. The House of Representatives responded by voting to impeach Johnson on February 24, 1868, by a vote of 126 to 47. The House adopted eleven articles of impeachment, most of which centered on Johnson's alleged violation of the Tenure of Office Act, though some articles addressed broader charges related to his conduct in office.

The Senate trial began in March 1868, with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding. The trial lasted several weeks. On May 16, 1868, the Senate voted on three of the articles of impeachment; on each, the vote was 35 guilty to 19 not guilty — one vote short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction and removal from office. Seven Republican senators broke with their party to vote for acquittal, concluding that conviction on the charges presented would set a dangerous precedent for the independence of the executive branch. Johnson remained in office for the remainder of his term, though his political influence was effectively spent.

Remaining Months in Office

Following the impeachment trial, Johnson's presidency was largely ineffectual. He continued to issue vetoes, most of which were overridden by Congress. The Reconstruction Acts, passed over Johnson's vetoes, imposed military rule on the former Confederate states and required them to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and to grant suffrage to African American men as conditions for readmission to the Union. Johnson completed his term on March 4, 1869, and was succeeded by Ulysses S. Grant, who had won the 1868 presidential election.

One notable action during the final months of Johnson's presidency was his issuance of a universal amnesty proclamation on Christmas Day 1868, granting unconditional pardons to all who had participated in the Confederate rebellion, including former Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Return to the Senate

After leaving the presidency, Johnson returned to Tennessee and sought to re-enter public life. After unsuccessful bids for the U.S. Senate and for a House seat, he was elected by the Tennessee state legislature to the United States Senate in January 1875. He took his seat on March 4, 1875, becoming the only former president to serve in the Senate after leaving the White House. Johnson's return to the Senate was brief; he participated in a special session called by President Grant, during which he delivered a speech criticizing Grant's administration and Reconstruction policies.

Personal Life

Andrew Johnson married Eliza McCardle on May 17, 1827, in Greeneville, Tennessee. Eliza was the daughter of a local shoemaker and was reportedly instrumental in furthering her husband's education, teaching him to write and helping to refine his reading skills. The couple had five children together. Eliza Johnson suffered from tuberculosis for much of her adult life and rarely appeared in public during her husband's presidency, delegating many of the social duties of the White House to their daughter Martha Johnson Patterson.

Johnson himself owned enslaved people during his years in Tennessee, a fact that complicates his legacy as a Unionist during the Civil War. While he opposed the planter aristocracy and framed his political identity around the interests of white working people, he did not advocate for racial equality and consistently opposed civil and political rights for African Americans throughout his career.

Andrew Johnson died on July 31, 1875, at the age of 66, while visiting his daughter in Elizabethton, Tennessee. He had suffered a stroke several days earlier. He was buried in Greeneville, Tennessee, wrapped in an American flag with a copy of the Constitution placed under his head, in accordance with his wishes. His burial site is now part of the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery.

Recognition

Johnson's historical legacy has been the subject of extensive scholarly reassessment. In the decades following his death, some historians — particularly during the early twentieth century — portrayed Johnson sympathetically, casting him as a defender of constitutional principles against a vindictive Radical Republican Congress. This interpretation has been largely rejected by modern historians, who view Johnson's opposition to civil rights for freedmen as a central failure of his presidency and as a contributing factor to the incomplete nature of Reconstruction.

The Andrew Johnson National Historic Site in Greeneville, Tennessee, which includes his tailor shop, two of his homes, and the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery, is maintained by the National Park Service. The site draws visitors interested in the history of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. A women's club bearing his name continues to operate in Greeneville.

The date of Johnson's impeachment — February 24, 1868 — continues to be noted in annual "Today in History" compilations as a significant event in American political history.

The Library of Congress maintains a comprehensive collection of resources related to Johnson's life and presidency as part of its presidential bibliography series.

Legacy

Andrew Johnson's presidency occupies a contentious place in American historical memory. He assumed office at one of the most consequential moments in the nation's history and faced decisions that would shape the lives of millions of formerly enslaved people and define the terms on which the defeated South would rejoin the Union. His choices — favoring rapid restoration of Southern state governments without protections for freedmen, opposing the Fourteenth Amendment, and vetoing civil rights legislation — had lasting consequences for the trajectory of American race relations and for the political development of the Reconstruction era.

Johnson was the first American president to be impeached, a distinction he held alone until President Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1998 and President Donald Trump was impeached in 2019 and again in 2021. Like Johnson, Clinton and Trump were acquitted by the Senate. Johnson's impeachment established important precedents regarding the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches and the scope of congressional authority to hold presidents accountable.

Historians have consistently ranked Johnson among the lowest-performing presidents in American history. His opposition to rights for formerly enslaved people, his combative relationship with Congress, and his failure to provide leadership during a period of national transformation have been cited as central reasons for these assessments. His presidency is often contrasted unfavorably with the vision that Lincoln had begun to articulate for a more inclusive postwar nation.

Johnson's life story — from illiterate tailor's apprentice to president of the United States — remains a notable example of social mobility in nineteenth-century America. Yet his presidency serves as a reminder that personal rise does not guarantee effective or just governance. The incomplete nature of Reconstruction, and the decades of racial oppression that followed in the American South, are part of Johnson's historical legacy, and scholars continue to examine his role in shaping the conditions that allowed the rollback of freedmen's rights in the post-Civil War era.