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| Andrew Johnson was chosen to be Abraham Lincoln's
running mate for the President's reelection
bid in 1864 for political reasons. Johnson,
a Southerner, belonged to the Democratic-Union
Party, and was the only senator from a seceding
state to remain in congress. Lincoln reasoned
that putting Johnson on the ticket would broaden
his political base by attracting border-state
Unionists and northern Democrats. It was never
intended that Johnson would ever become President.
Less than a month after Lincoln's second inauguration,
however, the bullet fired by presidential assassin
John Wilkes Booth put Johnson in the oval office.
Johnson had some prejudices that quickly put
him at odds with leading congressional Republicans.
Though he had eventually accepted Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation while still military
governor of Tennessee in 1863, he did so only
as a necessary war measure. In reality, Johnson
held strict racist views and believed in the
intellectual superiority of Whites over Blacks.
Johnson also had a reverence for the Constitution
and believed in a strict interpretation of the
document. |
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Issue: Reconstruction
When Johnson was sworn in , the war was over,
but the enormous task of Reconstruction loomed
before him. Congress was not scheduled to convene
until December 1865, which gave Johnson eight months
to pursue his own Reconstruction policies. Johnson believed
that the Confederate states had never technically left
the Union, and he wanted their immediate restoration
to the Union. He also wanted to maintain White supremacy
in the South. He issued several proclamations, elections
were held in the South, and by the time Congress convened
in December, many of the Southern state governments
were made up of former Confederates (including Confederate
President Jefferson Davis) who refused to repeal their
succession ordinances or abolish slavery. Instead, they
had passed "black codes"; state and local
laws that kept freed blacks in a state of virtual slavery.
The Republicans in the new Congress who would
control the forthcoming Reconstruction legislation
were divided into two groups. The larger group
were the moderates, who believed in some form group were the Radical Republicans.
Led by Thaddeus Stevens, the Radicals opposed
such accommodation. Their agenda included civil
rights for blacks and a much harsher treatment
of the South. |
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The Radicals set the tone of the
new congress by having the House clerk pass
over the names of all Southerners during the
first roll call. Johnson might have controlled
the minority Radical Republicans by working
with the majority moderate Republicans, but
he missed his opportunity. When the moderates
worked to write reasonable civil rights legislation,
including the Freedman's Bureau, Johnson vetoed
the bills. He also opposed the Fourteenth Amendment
on the grounds that the Constitution should
not be changed without representation from the
Southern States. His strict views on race and
the Constitution wouldn't allow him to compromise.In addition to the moderates and the radicals,
there were also conservative Republicans. During
the midterm elections in 1866, Johnson sought
to win over these conservatives. He made a series
of speeches in the West in which he blamed the Radicals for a race riot in New Orleans.
This backfired, and the election results saw
the Radicals gain seats. As a result of Johnson's
beliefs and actions, power shifted to the Radicals,
who quickly took control of Reconstruction. The new Congress convened immediately so that
Johnson would not be left alone in Washington
for most of a year to again pursue his own agenda.
They passed a series of Reconstruction Acts,
which entailed |
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the following:
* Creation of five military districts in the
seceded states (not including Tennessee, which
had ratified the 14th Amendment and was readmitted
to the Union)
* Required congressional approval for new state
constitutions (which were required for Confederate
states to rejoin the Union)
* Confederate states gave voting rights to all
men
* All states must ratify the 14th Amendment.Johnson vetoed each of the acts, but the new
congress had the votes to override his vetoes.
There was now a stalemate between congress and
the President. The Radicals soon came to the
conclusion that Reconstruction was impossible
while Johnson remained in the White House. Having
displayed his stubbornness numerous times through
his presidential vetoes, the Radicals set a trap for him. Most of the cabinet
members who had been chosen by Lincoln had resigned over their differences |
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Cartoon: Johnson Vetoes the Freedman's
Bureau |
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Cartoon:
Johnson constantly evokes
the Constitution |
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with the new president.
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, however,
had stayed on, mainly to be a thorn in the side
of Johnson. Congress set a trap for Johnson
by passing the Tenure of Office Act, which said
that the President much seek approval of Congress
to fire any person in a position who hiring
had been approved by Congress. Eventually, Johnson
fired Stanton in open defiance of Congress,
who then impeached the President for having
broken the law.
Issue: Impeachment
A lengthy trial followed in the Senate. Though
the evidence against Johnson was clear, politics
weighed heavily on the outcome. Johnson worked
behind the scenes to make deals with some Senators.
Some voted for acquittal because they despised
the man who would become president if Johnson
were convicted (the ultraradical Benjamin F.
Wade of Ohio, who was president pro tempore
of the Senate). Others feared that a conviction
would undermine the division of power between
the three branches of government. There were
a series of charges, and the closest Johnson
came to conviction on any of them was on the
eleventh article. The vote on that charge was
35-19 in favor of conviction, one vote short
of the required two-thirds majority. |
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| Johnson's national political career ended shortly
after the trial, but he remained extremely popular
in his native state of Tennessee, and voters
there returned him to the Senate in 1875. He
died in office a few months later. Because of
Johnson's racist views and their contribution
to White supremacy in the South, historians
tend to view his administration as a failure. |
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