Andrew Johnson: The President Who Wasn’t Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln had actually been assassinated. To take the reins of power at this turbulent moment needed a guy of discernment, discipline, and empathy. Was Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson, that man? Allen Guelzo of Princeton University has the answer.
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Script:
It was April 1865. The Civil War was finally over. A tired, bloodied nation breathed a deep sigh of relief …
Then, suddenly, shockingly, President Abraham Lincoln was dead, dropped by an assassin’s bullet while watching a play.
To take the reins of power at this turbulent moment required a terrific guy, a guy of empathy, discipline, and discernment. Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice president, was not that guy.
This is not to say he didn’t have virtues. He did. He just didn’t have the things it took to satisfy the minute.
Born into abject poverty on December 29, 1808, Johnson was apprenticed– “offered” would be more precise– to a tailor at the age of 10. Legally bound to serve up until he was 21, he ran away after five years. He ultimately settled in Greeneville, Tennessee, where he set up his own tailor’s store and flourished.
In 1834, he was elected mayor of Greeneville. From there, he climbed up steadily up the political ladder; the state legislature in 1835, the US Congress in 1843, Governor in 1853, and the Senate in 1857. He was still functioning as U.S. Senator for Tennessee in 1861 when the Civil War broke out.
Although Johnson was a Democrat and a slaveowner himself, when Tennessee left the Union to sign up with the break-away Confederacy and defend legalized slavery, Johnson denounced his state’s secession on the flooring of the Senate.
” I will not quit this Government,” he roared in December 1860. “No; I intend to stand by it, and I entreat every guy throughout the nation who is a patriot … to come forward, that the Constitution will be conserved, and the Union maintained.”
After Union military forces inhabited large parts of Tennessee in 1862, Lincoln tagged Johnson as the state’s provisional military governor. It was a shrewd carry on the president’s part: it demonstrated to Southerners and Democrats that they were invited as complete partners with Lincoln’s Republican party in bring back the Union.
Johnson himself signed up with hands with Lincoln’s policies by releasing his own servants in 1863.
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Abraham Lincoln had actually been assassinated. To take the reins of power at this turbulent minute needed a man of discipline, compassion, and discernment. Was Lincoln’s vice president, Andrew Johnson, that male? An exhausted, bloodied nation breathed a deep sigh of relief …
Then, suddenly, all of a sudden, President Abraham Lincoln was dead, felled by an assassin’s bullet while watching a seeing.
Born into abject poverty on December 29, 1808, Johnson was apprenticed– “offered” would be more precise– to a tailor at the age of 10.
