Andrew Johnson - Pre-Presidential Life

Andrew Johnson could have been an American success story.  Instead, he became the first impeached President and is considered one of our worst Presidents.

Johnson’s Tailor Shop

Born into poverty in North Carolina in 1808, he never had a day of schooling.  His father died when Johnson was three, after he made a heroic rescue of men from a capsized boat. With his mother unable to support her son, she apprenticed him at 10 years old to a tailor. While working in the tailor shop, Johnson learned to read from co-workers. A few years later, he ran away, eventually heading west to Tennessee. There were no trains yet, so he had to walk over 300 miles to get there. He started a tailoring business and became prosperous.

Johnson developed an interest in politics and, at age 21, won his first election as alderman in Greeneville, TN. From there, his political career was a steady climb: Alderman, Mayor, State Representative, State Senator, Governor, U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, Vice President, President. He was one of the main reasons for the passage of the Homestead Act, giving settlers free land (160 acres) in return for farming and developing it.  Johnson worked on this issue starting in the 1840s, and the bill finally was passed and signed into law by Lincoln in 1862, almost 20 years later.

When Tennessee seceded from the Union, Johnson became the only Southern Senator to remain loyal to the Union. At considerable personal risk, he opposed succession. When the Union armies occupied Tennessee, Lincoln made Johnson military governor. Tennessee created a new state constitution that emancipated enslaved people.  Johnson stated in an October 1864 pro-Civil Rights speech:

“I, Andrew Johnson, do hereby proclaim freedom to every man in Tennessee! I invoke the colored people to be orderly and law-abiding, but at the same time let them assert their rights, and if traitors and ruffians attack them, while in the discharge of their duties, let them defend themselves as all men have a right to do.”

He continued, referring children born of enslaved black women and their white masters:

 “Your wives and daughters shall no longer be dragged into a concubinage, compared to which polygamy is a virtue, to satisfy the brutal lusts of slaveholders and overseers!”

He concluded with:

“Rebellion and slavery shall…no longer pollute our State. Loyal men, whether white or black, shall alone control her destinies…we shall all rejoice that honest labor reaps the fruit of its own industry, and that every man has a fair chance in the race of life." 

In 1863 Lincoln issued a proclamation known as the ’10 percent plan’.  Under this plan, a state could be reintegrated into the Union when 10% of the 1860 voters from that state had taken an oath of allegiance to the U.S. and pledged to abide by Emancipation. Voters could then elect delegates to draft revised state constitutions and establish new state governments. Some Republicans in Congress feared that under this plan, the planter aristocracy would be restored, and the blacks forced back into slavery. In 1864, they passed the ‘Wade Davis Bill,’ with more stringent requirements before States could be readmitted to the Union. Lincoln vetoed the bill. This difference of opinion between Congress and the President became the major issue in Johnson’s subsequent Presidency.

Lincoln was looking ahead to re-unifying the country when the war ended. He replaced his first term Vice President, a Maine Republican, with Johnson, a pro-unionist southerner as a move in this direction.

Johnson was one of the targets of the Lincoln assassination plot, which killed Lincoln and injured the Secretary of State. Johnson’s assailant lost his nerve and did not attack him.

Shortly after Lincoln’s death, Johnson gave a short speech:

“GENTLEMEN: I must be permitted to say that I have been almost overwhelmed by the announcement of the sad event which has so recently occurred. I feel incompetent to perform duties so important and responsible as those which have been so unexpectedly thrown upon me…The best energies of my life have been spent in endeavoring to establish and perpetuate the principles of free government, and I believe that the Government in passing through its present perils will settle down upon principles consonant with popular rights more permanent and enduring than heretofore…I have long labored to ameliorate and elevate the condition of the great mass of the American people…gentlemen, let me say that I want your encouragement and countenance. I shall ask and rely upon you and others in carrying the Government through its present perils…”

At this point, there was reason to be optimistic about Johnson’s Presidency. He had overcome illiteracy and abandonment to become a small business owner and successful politician. Although a Southern Democrat, he supported Emancipation and the Union. And Lincoln changed Vice Presidents mid-stream to pick Johnson as his VP.

But it was not to be.

(to be continued)