Presidency of Andrew Johnson

Presidency of Andrew Johnson
Mathew Benjamin Brady · Public domain · source
Name	Andrew Johnson
Term start	April 15, 1865
Term end	March 4, 1869
Predecessor	Abraham Lincoln
Successor	Ulysses S. Grant
Party	Democratic (National Union ticket 1864)
Vice president	None
Vice president2	None

Presidency of Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson succeeded Abraham Lincoln after the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, presiding over the immediate post-American Civil War era, confronting Reconstruction Acts, Congressional opposition, and national debates over rights for formerly enslaved people, states' reintegration, and federal authority. His tenure intersected with figures and institutions such as Ulysses S. Grant, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, the Radical Republicans, and the Ku Klux Klan, generating conflict across the United States Congress, the Supreme Court of the United States, and state governments.

Background and 1864 Election

Johnson, a Tennessee native and former Unionist (American) senator and Military governor, was selected by the National Union Party ticket in 1864 as Abraham Lincoln's running mate to broaden Unionist appeal alongside military leaders like Ulysses S. Grant and political figures such as Salmon P. Chase and Edwin M. Stanton. The 1864 campaign involved alignments among the Republican Party (United States), War Democrats, and National Union Party (United States), while opponents included the Democratic Party (United States) ticket of George B. McClellan, the Peace Democrats, and critics like Clement Vallandigham and Fernando Wood. Johnson's background as a tailor-turned-politician and his 1862 elevation to the United States Senate amid the Secession crisis shaped expectations that he would negotiate with Southern state governments and moderate figures such as Andrew Hunter and Alexander Stephens.

Reconstruction Policies and Legislative Battles

Johnson pursued a lenient approach toward former Confederate States of America leaders and proposed rapid restoration of state governments via proclamations and Presidential pardons, clashing with Radical Republicans including Thaddeus Stevens, Benjamin Wade, and Charles Sumner who championed protections under the Fourteenth Amendment and the Freedmen's Bureau. Congressional responses produced the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, and the Tenure of Office Act, opposing Johnson's policy of returning former Confederate officials to power and resisting measures linked to figures like Oliver O. Howard, Frederick Douglass, and the American Equal Rights Association. Johnson's vetoes of major legislation—overridden by Congressional override majorities—heightened confrontations involving committees chaired by Thaddeus Stevens and debates about enforcement through the Military Reconstruction Act and the Army of the Potomac's role under commanders such as Ulysses S. Grant and Winfield Scott Hancock.

Impeachment and Trial

Conflict culminated when Johnson dismissed Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, provoking enforcement of the Tenure of Office Act and leading the United States House of Representatives to pass articles of impeachment under managers like John A. Logan and Thaddeus Stevens. The subsequent trial in the United States Senate featured prosecutors and defense figures including Benjamin F. Butler, Henry Stanbery, and presiding officer Salmon P. Chase; testimony invoked precedents from the English Civil War and legal theorists such as James Madison and cases cited before the Supreme Court of the United States. The Senate fell one vote short of the two-thirds majority required to convict, with pivotal votes by senators like Edwin D. Morgan and Lyman Trumbull, leaving Johnson in office but politically weakened amid continuing disputes involving Radical Republicans and moderate Republican Party (United States) factions.

Foreign Policy and Domestic Administration

Johnson's foreign policy was modest compared with his Reconstruction focus: he managed relations with Great Britain, including issues stemming from Alabama Claims and the actions of diplomats such as Charles Francis Adams Sr., navigated tensions with France over intervention in Mexico and the regime of Maximilian I of Mexico, and engaged with matters involving Samoa and Pacific commerce tied to merchants like Cornelius Vanderbilt. Domestically Johnson supervised patronage conflicts, appointments contested by Congressional Republicans and loyalists including William H. Seward, handled crises such as labor strikes and Southern violence instigated by organizations like the Ku Klux Klan and leaders such as Nathan Bedford Forrest, and faced economic issues in the wake of the Panic of 1873's antecedents and debates over greenbacks championed by figures like W. G. Brownlow.

Legacy and Historical Assessment

Johnson's presidency remains controversial: historians contrast his opposition to Radical Republican measures protecting freedmen with his support among Democratic Party (United States) states' rights advocates, evaluating his stewardship in light of the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment and the eventual enforcement of civil rights during the Reconstruction era and later Civil Rights Movement. Scholars citing partisan contemporaries—Mark Twain among cultural critics—and modern historians such as Eric Foner and C. Vann Woodward consider Johnson's vetting of pardon policies, confrontations with Congress, and near-conviction impeachment as central to debates about executive power traced to thinkers like Alexander Hamilton and cases in the Supreme Court of the United States. Johnson's impact on subsequent administrations, including the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, and on Southern political realignment, Reconstruction rollback, and long-term racial dynamics continues to shape interpretations in works examining Reconstruction politics, the rise of Jim Crow laws, and constitutional development.

Category:Andrew Johnson Category:Presidencies of the United States