Road to the Presidency: Andrew Johnson

May 17, 2023 02:44

Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, where his father had been the town constable. His father died from an apparent heart attack, shortly after rescuing three drowning men. His son, the future president, was three years old at the time, and his mother had a difficult time supporting the family following her husband's death. Andrew was apprenticed to tailor William Selby at the age of ten. He was legally bound to serve in that position until his 21st birthday. Johnson was not happy in the job and at about age 15, he ran away. Selby offered a reward of ten dollars for Johnson's capture but Johnson was never returned. He went to Carthage, North Carolina, where he worked as a tailor for several months, before moving on to Laurens, South Carolina. Johnson later returned to Raleigh, hoping to buy out his apprenticeship, but he could not come to terms with Selby.



Johnson left North Carolina for Tennessee. He worked as a tailor in Columbia, Tennessee, but returned to Raleigh. Johnson and his family resettled in Greeneville, Tennessee where he once again established a tailoring business at which he did well. In 1827, at the age of 18, he married 16-year-old Eliza McCardle, the daughter of a local shoemaker. The pair were married by Justice of the Peace Mordecai Lincoln, first cousin of Thomas Lincoln, whose son Abraham would later become president. Eliza taught her husband mathematics skills and tutored him to improve his reading and writing.

Johnson's tailoring business prospered and he used his profits to invest in real estate. His first political venture was to run in the 1829 Greeneville municipal election. He was elected town alderman, along with Mordecai Lincoln. On January 4, 1834, his fellow aldermen elected him mayor of Greeneville. In 1835, Johnson ran for a seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives. He won the election with almost a two to one margin. While in Greeneville, Johnson joined the Tennessee Militia as a member of the 90th Regiment. He attained the rank of colonel.

Johnson was defeated in his bid for for re-election in 1837. He would not lose another election for the next thirty years. In 1839, he ran as a Democrat to regain his seat and was elected. Johnson became noted for his entertaining public speaking. He was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1841, where he served a two-year term. At that time he sold his successful tailoring business in order to concentrate on politics. By then he had built a large home and acquired a farm. He "owned" nine enslaved persons.



Johnson next ran for Congress in 1842. He defeated Jonesborough lawyer John A. Aiken by 5,495 votes to 4,892. In Washington, he was a member of a new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. There he maintained an anti-abolitionist stance, and argued for limited spending by the government. He opposed protective tariffs. Fellow Tennessee Democrat, James K. Polk, was elected president in 1844, and Johnson had campaigned for him, but the two men were not close and Polk even refused some of Johnson's patronage suggestions. In his diary, Polk wrote of Johnson: "Professing to be a Democrat, he has been politically, if not personally hostile to me during my whole term."

Johnson won a second term in 1845. In his second term, Johnson supported the Polk administration's decision to fight the Mexican War and opposed the Wilmot Proviso, a proposal to ban slavery in any territory gained from Mexico. He introduced his Homestead Bill, to grant 160 acres (65 ha) to people willing to settle the land and gain title to it. In the presidential election of 1848, the Democrats split over the slavery issue, and abolitionists formed the Free Soil Party, with former president Van Buren as their nominee. Johnson supported the Democratic candidate, former Michigan senator Lewis Cass, who ended up losing the election.

In won a fourth term in Congress in August 1849, with a greater margin of victory than in previous campaigns. At the time slavery was the main issue before Congress. Northerners wanted to admit California as a free state to the Union. Kentucky's Henry Clay introduced in the a series of resolutions know as the Compromise of 1850. Johnson voted for all the provisions except for the abolition of slavery in the nation's capital. He also pressed for constitutional amendments to provide for popular election of senators (then elected by state legislatures) and of the president (he wanted to abolish the Electoral College). These proposals were all defeated.

Johnson faced a tough fight in running for his fifth term. His main opponent was another Democrat and the Whigs supported that candidate, and chose not to run their own. Despite this, Johnson won the election by more than 1600 votes.

The Whigs had gained control of the Tennessee legislature, and, under the leadership of Gustavus Henry, redrew the boundaries of Johnson's First District to make it a safe seat for their party. Johnson decided not to seek re-election to congress and instead sought his party's nomination for governor. The Democratic convention unanimously selected him as their candidate. The Whigs had won the past two elections for governor and still controlled the legislature. Johnson won the election by 63,413 votes to 61,163, defeating the man who had redrawn the boundaries of his former congressional district.

Tennessee's governor had little power. As Governor of Tennessee Johnson could propose legislation but not veto it. Most appointments were made by the Whig-controlled legislature. Johnson used the office to publicize himself. He bargained for appointments he wanted in return for his endorsement of John Bell, a Whig, for one of the state's U.S. Senate seats.

In 1855 the Whig Party was on the decline nationally, but it remained strong in Tennessee. despite this, Johnson ran for re-election as Governor and won a surprise victory. When the presidential election of 1856 approached, Johnson hoped to become his party's nominee. he was unsuccessful and decided not to seek a third term as governor. Instead he set his sights on election to the U.S. Senate. His party won the governor's race in 1856 as well as control of the legislature. The legislature elected him to the Senate. He took his seat when Congress convened in December 1857.

In October 1859, as tensions in Washington between pro and anti-slavery forces increased, Johnson gave a major speech in the Senate criticizing Northerners for endangering the Union by seeking to outlaw slavery. He stated that "all men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence did not apply to African-Americans. Johnson hoped that he would be a compromise candidate for the Democrats in the 1860 presidential nomination. But the convention deadlocked with no candidate able to gain the required two-thirds vote. The party split, with Northerners backing Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas while Southerners, including Johnson, supported Vice President John Breckinridge for president. Former Tennessee senator John Bell ran as a fourth-party candidate, further dividing the vote. In the end the Republican Party elected its first president, Abraham Lincoln. The election of Lincoln, who was known to be against slavery, was unacceptable to many in the South.

Johnson returned to the Senate after the election urging preservation of the union. He tried to convince Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis that if Southerners would only hold to their seats, the Democrats would control the Senate, and could defend the South's interests against Lincoln. When southern states began to secede, Johnson returned home when his state took up the question of secession. In Tennessee the legislature organized a referendum on whether to have a constitutional convention to authorize secession. It failed. Next they put the question of leaving the Union to a popular vote. Johnson endured threats to his life and actual assaults, campaigning against both questions. He spoke with a gun close by. Johnson's eastern region of Tennessee voted against secession, but the second referendum passed, and in June 1861, Tennessee joined the Confederacy. Johnson believed he would be killed if he remained in the state. He returned to Washington, but left his wife and family in Greeneville.

Lincoln was impressed by Johnson's loyalty to the union. In March of 1862 Lincoln appointed Johnson to the post of military governor of Tennessee. Much of the central and western portions of the state had been recovered by the Union. Johnson's nomination came along with the rank of brigadier general. In retaliation, the Confederates confiscated Johnson's land and his slaves. His home was made his home into a military hospital.

As military governor, Johnson required loyalty oaths from public officials, and shut down newspapers run by Confederate sympathizers. The Confederates did allow Johnson's wife and family to pass through the lines to him. Nashville was continually harassed with cavalry raids led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest until Union General William S. Rosecrans defeated the Confederates at Murfreesboro at the start of 1863. Much of eastern Tennessee was retaken later that year.

When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in January 1863, he exempted Tennessee at Johnson's request. However Johnson realized that slavery was at an end. He reluctantly supported the enlistment of 20,000 black troops for the Union.

In 1864, facing uncertainty about his re-election, Lincoln decided to run under the banner of the National Union Party, rather than the Republican Party. At the party's convention in Baltimore in June, Lincoln was easily nominated. With Lincoln's support, Andrew Johnson was nominated for vice president and he scored a second ballot victory. In the campaign Johnson gave a number of speeches in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. Lincoln and Johnson won the state of Tennessee by 25,000 votes. Congress refused to count Tennessee's electoral votes, but Lincoln and Johnson did not need them.

Johnson traveled to Washington to be sworn in with Lincoln. Just before his departure, the voters of Tennessee ratified a new constitution, abolishing slavery, on February 22, 1865. On inauguration day, Johnson may have been ill. On the evening of March 3, Johnson attended a party in his honor; he drank heavily. Hung over the following morning at the Capitol, he asked Vice President Hamlin for some whiskey. Hamlin produced a bottle, and Johnson partook of its contents, stating "I need all the strength for the occasion I can have." In the Senate Chamber, an apparently intoxicated Johnson delivered a rambling address as Lincoln, the Congress, and dignitaries looked on. When he meandered to a pause, Hamlin hastily swore him in as vice president. Lincoln, was subsequently sworn in, and delivered his acclaimed Second Inaugural Address.

In the weeks after the inauguration, Johnson only presided over the Senate briefly, and hid from public ridicule at the Maryland home of Francis Preston Blair. He planned to return to Tennessee to re-establish his family in Greeneville. But he remained after word came that General Ulysses S. Grant had captured the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Lincoln defended Johnson's inauguration day antics, stating "I have known Andy Johnson for many years; he made a bad slip the other day, but you need not be scared; Andy ain't a drunkard."



On the afternoon of April 14, 1865, Lincoln and Johnson had a meeting in which Johnson sought to persuade Lincoln not to show leniency to the Confederates. That night, Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. The shooting of the President was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward the same night. Johnson escaped attack as his would-be assassin, George Atzerodt, got drunk instead of killing Johnson. Johnson was awoken with news of Lincoln's shooting and he rushed to the President's deathbed. There he stated: "They shall suffer for this." Lincoln died at 7:22 am the next morning. Johnson was sworn in as the 17th President later that morning between 10 and 11 am with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. At noon, Johnson conducted his first Cabinet meeting in the Treasury Secretary's office, and asked all members to remain in their positions. Johnson presided over Lincoln's funeral ceremonies in Washington, before his predecessor's body was sent home to Springfield, Illinois, for burial.

abraham lincoln, stephen douglas, andrew johnson, civil war, john bell, ulysses s. grant, jefferson davis, john c. breckinridge, lewis cass, james k. polk, martin van buren

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