Show Notes
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States (1865–1869). He assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, inheriting the monumental task of reuniting the country after the Civil War.
He was a lifelong Democrat from Tennessee who was placed on Lincoln's 1864 "National Union" ticket to project bipartisan unity. He was the only Southern senator who refused to secede with his state when the Civil War began.
His presidency is widely regarded as a catastrophic failure. Johnson's deeply racist vision for Reconstruction allowed former Confederates to return to power and implement oppressive "Black Codes," essentially attempting to re-enslave the newly freed population in all but name.
He engaged in an unprecedented, bitter political war with the "Radical Republicans" in Congress. Johnson aggressively vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill and the Civil Rights Act of 1866, leading Congress to override his vetoes—the first time in American history that Congress overrode a President on major legislation.
He was the first U.S. President to be impeached. After repeatedly clashing with Congress, Johnson violated the newly passed Tenure of Office Act by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. He was impeached by the House but survived conviction in the Senate by a single vote.
Despite his disastrous domestic legacy, his administration did achieve one massive foreign policy victory: Secretary of State William Seward's purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire in 1867 for $7.2 million.
"He inherited the victory of the Civil War and immediately surrendered the peace. Andrew Johnson's disastrous presidency allowed white supremacy to re-entrench itself in the South, delaying civil rights for a century."
Day 59 | Andrew Johnson: The Sabotage of Reconstruction
If Abraham Lincoln’s presidency represents the greatest triumph of the American experiment, Andrew Johnson’s presidency represents its most tragic missed opportunity. Born into severe poverty in North Carolina in 1808, Johnson never attended a day of school in his life. He worked as a tailor’s apprentice before running away to Tennessee, where his wife taught him how to read and write. Entering politics as a Jacksonian Democrat, Johnson possessed a furious, lifelong hatred of the wealthy, aristocratic Southern planter class. Yet, despite his hatred for the Southern elites, he was a staunch white supremacist who held a deep hostility toward the abolition of slavery.
When the Civil War erupted, Johnson was serving as a U.S. Senator from Tennessee. He became the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union, a courageous stance that made him a hero in the North and a traitor in the South. To send a message of national unity in the 1864 election, Lincoln’s Republican Party temporarily rebranded as the "National Union Party" and selected the War Democrat Johnson as the vice-presidential nominee. It was a purely political marriage of convenience that became a national nightmare when John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln just weeks into their second term.
Taking the oath of office in April 1865, Johnson initially promised to hang Confederate traitors, delighting the "Radical Republicans" in Congress who wanted to completely rebuild the Southern social order. But as soon as Congress went into recess, Johnson executed a staggering political betrayal. Operating under his own executive authority, he implemented "Presidential Reconstruction." He granted sweeping pardons to thousands of wealthy former Confederates, returning their confiscated land and allowing the very men who had just waged a treasonous war to retake control of Southern state governments.
Under Johnson's protection, the South immediately implemented "Black Codes," brutal laws designed to strip the newly freed African American population of their basic human rights, mobility, and economic freedom. When Congress returned to Washington and saw what Johnson had done, they were enraged. Led by figures like Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner, the Radical Republicans went to war with the White House. When Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to guarantee citizenship and legal protection for Black Americans, Johnson vetoed it, arguing it discriminated against white people. Congress overrode the veto, signaling a total breakdown of the federal government.
The crisis reached its climax in 1868. To prevent Johnson from completely dismantling the military occupation of the South, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which forbade the President from firing cabinet members without Senate approval. When Johnson deliberately violated the law by firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton—who had barricaded himself inside his office—the House of Representatives impeached him. The subsequent Senate trial was a chaotic, bitterly partisan spectacle. Johnson survived conviction and removal from office by a single vote. He finished out his term completely stripped of his political power, leaving behind a fractured, deeply scarred nation.
Constituency Context: The United States (1865–1869) Population: ~35 Million (Heading into the 1870 Census).
The Post-War Devastation: The American South was physically and economically decimated. Railroads, farms, and entire cities like Atlanta and Richmond were in ruins, and the region's currency was completely worthless.
The 14th Amendment: In direct response to Johnson's vetoes and the implementation of Southern Black Codes, Congress drafted and passed the 14th Amendment, formally guaranteeing birthright citizenship and equal protection under the law for all Americans, fundamentally altering the U.S. Constitution.
The Rise of Terror: Because Johnson quickly withdrew federal oversight and pardoned Southern leaders, white supremacist vigilante groups—most notably the Ku Klux Klan—formed in 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee. They launched a campaign of systemic domestic terrorism to suppress the Black vote and assassinate Republican leaders throughout the South.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau & The Miller Center
