With the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, the Presidency fell upon an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states' rights views. Although an honest and honorable man, Andrew Johnson was one of the most unfortunate of Presidents. Arrayed against him were the Radical Republicans in Congress, brilliantly led and ruthless in their tactics.

Andrew Johnson was a man with whom nearly every American can relate, from the poorest to the wealthiest. With unyielding determination, he rose from dire circumstances to the nation's most prestigious office without having attended a single day of school. Andrew Johnson was a Democrat; Abraham Lincoln was a Republican. For the first time in 1864, the National Union Party existed as a structured, nationwide party for the Lincoln and Johnson ticket. It was an attempt to unify Republicans and pro-war Democrats. During secession, Johnson was the only Southern Senator that refused to resign.

Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 29, 1808, to Jacob and Mary ("Polly") Johnson. In 1811 his father saved some acquaintances from drowning in a river, but the effort weakened him irrevocably. He died in January 1812, when Andrew was three years old.

Jacob Johnson had been a respected man, but one of meager means. With his death, his wife and two sons were left destitute. Polly Johnson apprenticed her sons, William and Andrew, to a local tailor. They ran away in 1824 and there was $10.00 reward posted for their return. In 1826 Andrew arrived in Greeneville, Tennessee, and opened a tailor shop and participated in debates at the local academy. Andrew married in 1827; Mordecai Lincoln, a relative of Abraham Lincoln's, performed the marriage ceremony for Andrew Johnson and Eliza McCardle.

He was a capable tailor, and his flourishing shop became a gathering place for political discussion and debate. By 1829, Johnson was elected alderman of the town of Greeneville. He had embarked on his political career and would hold nearly every elective office between alderman and president.

Entering politics, he became an adept stump speaker, championing the common man and vilifying the plantation aristocracy. As a Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 1840s and 1850s, he advocated a homestead bill (see Homestead Act) to provide a free farm for the poor man.

Andrew Johnson was injured in a train wreck in 1857. Consequently, his right elbow was virtually immobile and he often used a signature stamp for documents.

During the secession crisis, Johnson remained in the United States Senate even when Tennessee seceded, which made him a hero in the North and a traitor in the eyes of most Southerners. In 1862, President Lincoln appointed him Military Governor of Tennessee, and Johnson used the state as a laboratory for reconstruction. In 1864 the Republicans, contending that their National Union Party was for all loyal men, nominated Johnson, a Southerner and a Democrat, for Vice President.

After Lincoln's death, President Johnson proceeded to reconstruct the former Confederate States while Congress was not in session in 1865. He pardoned all who would take an oath of allegiance, but required leaders and men of wealth to obtain special Presidential pardons.

By the time Congress met in December 1865, most southern states were reconstructed, slavery was being abolished, but "black codes" to regulate the freedmen were beginning to appear.

Radical Republicans in Congress moved vigorously to change Johnson's program. They gained the support of northerners who were dismayed to see Southerners keeping many prewar leaders and imposing many prewar restrictions upon Negroes.

The Radicals' first step was to refuse to seat any Senator or Representative from the old Confederacy. Next, they passed measures dealing with the former slaves. Johnson vetoed the legislation. The Radicals mustered enough votes in Congress to pass legislation over his veto--the first time that Congress had overridden a President on an important bill. They passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which established Negroes as American citizens and forbade discrimination against them.

A few months later, Congress submitted to the states the Fourteenth Amendment, which specified that no state should "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

All the former Confederate States, except Tennessee, refused to ratify the amendment; furthermore, there were two bloody race riots in the South. Speaking in the Mid-West, Johnson faced hostile audiences. The Radical Republicans won an overwhelming victory in Congressional elections that fall.

In March 1867, the Radicals effected their own plan of Reconstruction, again placing southern states under military rule. They passed laws placing restrictions upon the President. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote.

In 1867, during Andrew Johnson's administration, Alaska was purchased from Russia for $7,200,000. Secretary of State William Seward was instrumental in the purchase. People who thought the investment a bad idea called the purchase "Seward's Folly."

In 1875, Tennessee returned Johnson to the Senate. He died a few months later and was buried in Greeneville, Tennessee, with the Constitution resting under his head and with his body wrapped in the American flag. 

A constant champion of the common man and defender of the Constitution, Johnson had faced opposition and impeachment; he is remembered as the "Constitutional President."

President Andrew Johnson History, Impeachment Trial, Pardon, Reconstruction Acts, Era, Photo,  Picture, President Andrew Johnson's Secession Crisis, Civil Rights Acts of 1866, Slavery Black Codes, American Civil War