Part 17 of My Presidential Review Series
Let my apologize for how long this took, and here's Andrew Johnson. Johnson was the first Vice President to become president because the president was assassinated. He was supposed to be assassinated as well, but the man John Wilkes Booth assigned to the job lost his nerve. He had been one of the very few Southern politicians to remain in the Union. With the Radical Republicans in firm control, he was denied renomination in 1868. When he returned to Tennessee, a sign was hung that said "Andrew Johnson, Patriot," a sharp contrast to the sign that hung there 8 years earlier, "Andrew Johnson, Traitor." He served April 15, 1865 to March 3, 1869.
Johnson wanted to carry out the lenient Reconstruction of the South Lincoln had planned on. He used the position that the states had never left the Union since it is constitutionally indissoluble to try and restore their legal status swiftly, without recrimination, and with as little disruption in the lives of his fellow southerners as possible. He planned on appointing a local provisional governor, who would call a state constitutional convention, which would write up a constitution repudiating secession, slavery, and Confederate war debts. All southerners who swore an oath of allegiance to the U.S. would have full citizenship restored. Then, the South would be allowed to govern itself again and send politicians of their choosing to Congress. As for the newly-freed blacks, Johnson hoped that the South would see the wisdom in giving the vote to literate, responsible blacks. But Johnson's plan was not given a chance. The South did not wish to share political power with the blacks, and Radical Republicans under the leadership of Thaddeus Stevens in the House and Charles Sumner in the Senate were determined to punish the South and prevent it from becoming a Democratic power base again (ironically, it was their reconstruction that caused this to happen).
The southern states enacted the Black Codes, severely restricting black rights, denying them the right to vote, to serve on juries or testify against whites in court, to marry a white person, and to contract for their labor on an equal basis with rights. The Radical Republicans responded by passing the 1868 Civil Rights Act to protect blacks and incorporated this protection into the Constitution with the Fourteenth Amendment. In an attempt to stop them, Johnson vetoed 29 bills, 15 of which were overriden (a record that still stands). In addition to the Civil Rights Act, the Freedmen's Bureau Act, which extended the life of the Freedman's Bureau, the District of Columbia Suffrage Act, which enfranchised residents of the District of Columbia, four Reconstruction Acts, which divided the South into five military districts, each controlled by a general empowered to organize civil government within guidelines set by Congress in preparation for readmission to the Union; under these guidelines, blacks were able to vote but many whites were disenfranchised, and elected officials had to take an "ironclad oath" that they never collaborated with the Confederacy, and others were vetoed and overriden. As a precondition to acceptance into the Union, the southern states had to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment and adopt a new constitution that granted black suffrage, while federal troops maintained peace in the meantime. Radical Reconstruction was opposed by most white southerners, who referred derisively to northern officials administering the program as Carpetbaggers and the southern whites who worked with them as Scalawags. The Ku Klux Klan was founded in Pulaski, Tennessee in 1866 to promote white supremacy and resist Reconstruction through terrorism.
In 1867, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act over Johnson's veto, which required public officials approved by the Senate to be approved for removal as well. In February 1868 Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Stanton, a staunch Radical Republican who had been undermining the president's policies. On February 24, 1868, the House voted 126-47 to impeach Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanors." Johnson requested 40 days to prepare for the trial but was allowed only 10. Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presided over the Senate trial. 11 articles of impeachment had been lodged against the president by the House, most dealing with his alleged violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The eleventh article, which was an umnbrella article encompassing the other 10, was approved on May 16 by a vote of 35-19, just one vote short of the necessary two-thirds to convict him. Ten days later, Johnson was acquitted of two other articles by the same margin. The rest were never brought to vote. Johnson owed his acquittal to the courage of 7 Republican senators who risked their political careers to side with the Democrats in exonerating the president. They were Edmund G. Ross of Kansas, William P. Fessenden of Maine, John B. Henderson of Missouri, Peter Van Winkle of West Virginia, Lyman Trumbull of Illinois, Joseph S. Fowler of Tennessee, and James W. Grimes of Iowa.
The United States bought Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7.2 million. Residents were given three years to decide to remain in Alaska as Americans or move back to Russia.
Johnson is commonly thought of as the worst president because of his impeachment. However, Johnson's impeachment was a trap set by the Radical Republicans, whose efforts were anathema to Johnson's plans. He attempted to continue Lincoln's plan, which was what we should have done. Johnson really just had the unfortunate circumstance of being president at the wrong time. Presidents aren't rated for intentions, though, so Johnson will be remembered as an average president.
Overall Ranking: 30
"There are some who lack confidence in the integrity and capacity of the people to govern themselves. To all who entertain such fears I will most respectfully say that I entertain none...If a man is not capable, and is not to be trusted with the government of himself, is he to be trusted with the government of others...Who, then, will govern? The answer must be, Man - for we have no angels in the shape of men, as yet, who are willing to take charge of our political affairs."