Andrew Johnson - Presidential Term — Parks, Presidents and Parks

Shortly after Andrew Johnson assumed office, in April 1865, the final Confederate armies surrendered. The North faced the issue of reconstructing the Union. The conflict about Reconstruction between the executive and legislative branches started while Lincoln was alive. In December 1863, Lincoln issued a proclamation that provided a pardon and restoration of property for all Southerners except for high ranking Confederate officials and military. It also allowed the Southern States back into the Union once 10% of the voters signed a loyalty oath, and the state abolished slavery. Congress passed a more stringent bill requiring 50% of the voters to sign the loyalty oath and to guarantee black voting rights (the 1864 ‘Wade Davis’ Bill). Lincoln vetoed the bill. Lincoln’s second inaugural address included the phrase “With malice toward none, with charity for all,” signaling his intention to bring the Union back together on friendly terms.

In May 1865, President Johnson renewed Lincoln’s 1863 offer of amnesty and pardon to most Confederates (including the 10% of voters signing a loyalty oath, and banning slavery). To Lincoln’s exclusions of senior officials and military, Johnson added owners of large plantations, those who mistreated Union prisoners and Confederate naval personnel who raided commerce on the open seas.

Johnson then appointed governors to the Southern States asking them to set up state governments and to approve the 13th Amendment banning slavery. And here is where the trouble started. The Southern States held elections. Former secessionists emerged triumphant and passed ‘Black Codes’ that constituted a virtual re-establishment of slavery. There were violent riots against blacks. As a result, in December 1865, the Republican-led Congress refused to seat the new Congressmen from the South. They wanted full equality and voting rights for the newly freed blacks.

Congress in 1866 passed the first Civil Rights bill, guaranteeing blacks citizenship and equal protection. Johnson vetoed the bill. Congress overrode the veto. Johnson provided several reasons for his veto:

He believed the newly freed slaves might not yet be ready for citizenship. Immigrants required a 5-year naturalization period, proof of good character, and other requirements before earning citizenship, he thought similar terms should be required for the former slaves.
He believed the law usurped the rights of States to manage their affairs as they felt best: “It is another step…toward centralization and the concentration of all legislative powers in the National Government.”
Johnson felt the bill favored blacks over whites, as stated in his veto message: “They establish for the security of the colored race safeguards which go infinitely beyond any that the General Government has ever provided for the white race.”
Although Johnson stated he supported Civil Rights – “I will cheerfully cooperate with Congress in any measure that may be necessary for the protection of the civil rights of the freedmen…”

Passed during the Civil War, the Freedman’s Bureau helped newly freed slaves. Congress passed an extension of term for the Bureau, Johnson vetoed it, and Congress overrode Johnson’s veto. Here Johnson explained:

At the time the bill was passed, the 11 former states of the Confederacy were unrepresented in Congress. He believed it was wrong to pass legislation affecting those states if they did not have a chance to vote on proposed laws.
He agreed with the goals of the legislation: “I share with Congress the strongest desire to secure to the freedmen the full enjoyment of their freedom and property and their entire independence and equality in making contracts for their labor, but the bill before me contains provisions which…are not well suited to accomplish the end in view.”
He believed it was wrong to provide support for one race only: “The bill authorizes a general and unlimited grant of support to the destitute and suffering refugees and freedmen, their wives and children…Congress has never…expended the public money for the rent or purchase of homes for the thousands, not to say millions, of the white race who are honestly toiling from day to day for their subsistence.”
He disagreed with ongoing support for the former slaves: “The idea on which the slaves were assisted to freedom was that…they would be a self-sustaining population… they will…soon show the world that in a condition of freedom they are self-sustaining, capable of selecting their own employment and their own places of abode, of insisting for themselves on a proper remuneration, and of establishing and maintaining their own asylums and schools.”
The bill was costly and would require military occupation: “Large appropriations would therefore be required to sustain and enforce military jurisdiction in every country or parish from the Potomac to the Rio Grande (to enforce the law).”
The freedmen can move if not happy where they are: “… if he does not find in one community or State a mode of life suited to his desires or proper remuneration for his labor, he can move to another where that labor is more esteemed and better rewarded.”

In the summer of 1866, Johnson went on a nationwide speaking tour (known as the ‘swing around the circle’) to lobby for his positions in advance of the 1866 elections. His attempt failed, and the Republicans won an even larger, veto-proof majority in Congress.

In 1867, again over Johnson’s veto, Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts, placing the South under military control with martial law. The purpose was to enforce Civil Rights. Blacks were able to vote during this period, and states were required to support the 14th amendment (providing for citizenship) before being allowed back into the Union.

Three more Reconstruction Acts were passed in 1867 and 1868, each dealing with further problems with Reconstruction. Johnson vetoed all of them, and all the vetoes were overridden. The actual impeachment of Johnson occurred over something called the ‘Tenure of Office Act,’ although that may have been a pretense for Congress to dispose of what they perceived to be an obstructionist President who opposed Civil Rights. The Tenure of Office act denied the President the power to remove officers who had been appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate unless the Senate approved the removal during the next full session of Congress. The intent was to keep Johnson from removing Cabinet members, such as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, who disagreed with his approach to Reconstruction. When Johnson removed Stanton anyway, Congress moved to impeach Johnson for violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Johnson survived by one vote in the Senate. There is an irony here: the Supreme Court later ruled the law unconstitutional.

For a time, Johnson enjoyed a reputation as a President who took the courageous high ground in challenging Congress's unconstitutional usurpation of presidential authority. President Kennedy, in his book “Profiles in Courage”, described the Senator who cast the deciding vote in favor of acquittal as:

“…the man who… may well have preserved for ourselves and posterity constitutional government in the United States — the man who performed in 1868 what one historian has called the most heroic act in American history, incomparably more difficult than any deed of valor upon the field of battle.”

Now, Johnson is considered a failed President. He failed to support Civil Rights and refused any compromise with Congress, resulting in his near impeachment.

There was a movie made in 1942 called ‘Tennessee Johnson.’ The movie presents Johnson as Lincoln’s worthy successor who runs afoul of the Radical Republicans. It shows Johnson as a visionary who heals the rift between North and South despite the efforts of his shortsighted foes, the ‘Radical Republicans’ (Republicans who wanted full equality for the newly freed slaves). But I have always wondered what is radical about wanting to guarantee blacks their civil rights, including citizenship, equal treatment under the law, and the right-to-vote? The movie itself was a flop. As was Johnson’s Presidency.