Source: Patriot Post | VIEW ORIGINAL POST ==>
Abraham Lincoln — “Father Abraham” to many Americans — had been assassinated, and the new president, Andrew Johnson, had a massive task before him: to unite the nation following a civil war that had resulted in almost 700,000 deaths. A Southerner with a stubborn independent streak who refused to work with his own party or the opposition, Johnson was not an abolitionist, nor was he willing to advance Lincoln’s plans regarding equality and citizenship for former slaves. He is often seen as the adversary of freedom who refused to support the creation of the Freedman’s Bureau, the 14th Amendment — critical to the extension of civil rights and citizenship and the Civil Rights Act of 1866.
Indeed, many historians view Johnson as the reason Reconstruction failed and issues related to racial equality would continue to plague the United States into the future.
So, how did Andrew Johnson become president? And who was this difficult-to-define man?
Johnson was born at the beginning of the 19th century to an almost illiterate working class family in North Carolina. His humble beginnings were further impacted when his father died while Andrew was still a young boy. A young apprenticed tailor, Andrew moved westward to Tennessee in the 1820s and established his own shop. Set on improving his position in life, the young tailor began teaching himself to read and write, but success came when he married Eliza McCardle, a well-educated young woman who understood business finances and investments. Together, the young Johnsons began to prosper, and Eliza encouraged Andrew’s civic involvement. In the 1830s, Andrew first emerged as an alderman and later mayor of Greenville, Tennessee. He projected the “common man” image that appealed on the frontier, and his straightforward approach to politics seemed refreshing when viewed alongside more polished politicians.
He then served in the Tennessee General Assembly, first as a member of the House of Representatives and later as a senator. He was elected in 1843 as a U.S. representative. Ten years later, Johnson was elected governor of Tennessee. After serving two terms, he was chosen as one of Tennessee’s two U.S. senators. He was serving in the Senate when Abraham Lincoln was elected president and threatening clouds of war darkened the capital city.
Johnson remains difficult to define. A member of the states’ rights, pro-slavery faction of the Democratic Party — sometimes viewed as an heir to Andrew Jackson’s stance — Senator Johnson, like Jackson, was a supporter of the Union. His opposition to secession is often viewed as an extension of his hatred for the elite planter class that, in his experience, attempted to rule the South, to the detriment of the working class and subsistence farmers. He had years earlier advocated that the mountainous regions of the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Georgia should form their own state that would protect the hardworking families of the region. At the same time, Johnson’s personal beliefs found him supporting religious freedom for Catholics and other minority faiths while vocally declaring the “inferiority” of blacks.
Johnson fought to keep Tennessee in the Union as the secessionists urged the state to join the Deep Southern states that had seceded in December 1860. He believed that the destruction of the Union would not only destroy the Founders’ dreams of a republic but would lead to lawlessness and chaos, where the most powerful would emerge in leadership — an oligarchy that threatened survival for the working class.
Despite his efforts, Tennessee seceded. Johnson, however, refused to abandon his constituents, nor was he willing to leave the U.S. Senate. The only Southerner remaining in the U.S. Senate, Johnson became an ardent supporter of President Lincoln’s attempts to save the Union, an action that caused him to be vilified across the South. Loud voices decried his treacherous behavior while others suggested that his death would be a “blessing” for Southerners.
The president valued Johnson’s support for the Union and the U.S. Constitution, and once Tennessee was in the hands of the Union Army and General U.S. Grant, the senator was appointed Military Governor of his home state. In effect, Johnson became governor, legislature, and judiciary all rolled into his own person — and, quite frankly, he ruled in a manner that allowed no questioning of his actions. Not only did he have political critics of the federal policies arrested, but he arrested ministers who used their pulpits to condemn federal actions related to the war and actions toward the “treasonous” leaders. To support his control of business in the state — he seized the railroads and other vital industries — Johnson heavily taxed the wealthy, assisted with military operations, and by 1863 began advocating that Tennessee should legislatively abolish slavery. He had persuaded the president to exclude his state from the Emancipation Proclamation, and his plan worked. Tennessee would abolish slavery and ultimately be readmitted to the Union without the political and military force used in other former states of the Confederacy.
Johnson had earned Abraham Lincoln’s support, and Lincoln would reach out his hand with a reward — the vice president’s slot on the 1864 ticket.
Wow! The winning ticket promoted one Northerner and one Southerner, a Republican and a Democrat, but two individuals who remained united in their belief that the Union must be preserved.
It seemed like a brilliant plan. What could go wrong?
