Andrew Johnson: Lincoln's Terrible Successor

Early Life and Family

Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina, to impoverished parents. His father died when Andrew was three; his mother struggled as a weaver and laundress. He was apprenticed to a tailor at 13 and never attended school. He taught himself to read with help from his fellow workers, and his wife Eliza McCardle — whom he married at 18 — helped him learn to write and do arithmetic. He opened his own tailor shop in Greeneville, Tennessee and entered politics through workingmen's advocacy, championing the rights of poor white farmers against the planter aristocracy.

Before the Presidency

Johnson served in the Tennessee legislature, as a U.S. Congressman, as Governor of Tennessee, and as a U.S. Senator. He was the only Southern senator to retain his seat when the Southern states seceded in 1861 — a stance that required genuine courage in Tennessee. This loyalty made him the obvious choice for Lincoln's Vice Presidential running mate in 1864 on the "National Union" ticket, designed to attract border-state and War Democrat votes.

Johnson delivered an embarrassing, apparently intoxicated speech at his Vice Presidential inauguration on March 4, 1865 — Lincoln reportedly told a marshal to keep Johnson away from him. Six weeks later, Lincoln was dead.

The Presidency (1865–1869): The Reconstruction Catastrophe

Betraying the Freedmen

Johnson's Reconstruction policy was built on two convictions: that the Southern states had never legally left the Union and should be readmitted quickly, and that Black Americans were not entitled to political rights. He granted sweeping pardons to former Confederates, restored their lands (including lands that had been distributed to freed Black families), and allowed Southern states to install former Confederate leaders in positions of power. The Black Codes — laws that effectively re-enslaved Black workers through vagrancy laws, labor contracts, and property restrictions — were enacted under his watch.

War with Congress

The Radical Republican Congress responded by passing the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the 14th Amendment, and a series of Reconstruction Acts that placed the South under military governance. Johnson vetoed everything; Congress overrode him. The conflict escalated until Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, prohibiting the president from removing Senate-confirmed officials without Senate approval. Johnson deliberately violated it by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Impeachment

The House voted to impeach Johnson on February 24, 1868 — the first presidential impeachment in American history — on eleven articles related to the Tenure of Office Act violation. The Senate trial ran from March to May 1868. The final vote was 35 guilty, 19 not guilty — one vote short of the two-thirds required for conviction and removal. Seven Republican senators broke with their party to acquit, believing the charges were politically motivated.