Andrew Johnson

At the start of my last article, I explained that of all the people who have lived and worked in the White House ever since the original implementation of the Constitution in 1789, three, in the eyes of historians, stick out as the most corrosive: James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Franklin Pierce. As I discussed yesterday, Pierce is generally exonerated as the least incompetent or least disgustingly inept of these 3. But I disagree. I think Pierce was the most incompetent and the most inept of all the presidents. However, historians and I do agree on the placement of Andrew Johnson: The second-worst, just between Pierce and Buchanan. While Buchanan and Pierce either failed to address the sectional crisis over slavery (as is the case with Buchanan) or actively intensified that crisis (as is the case with Pierce), Johnson was tasked with guiding the country through the immediate aftermath of the war caused by Pierce and Buchanan. His success - or lack thereof - is highlighted by his placement on this list and the lists composed by many other historians.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln secured the presidency on a ticket containing Hannibal Hamlin, who was meant to serve as vice president. However, Lincoln, who sought the abolition of slavery by containing its spread to other territories, and his victory in 1860 proved to be too much for the south. Beginning with South Carolina on December 20, 1860, southern states began to secede from the Union en masse. By the time of Lincoln's formal inauguration on March 4, 1861, South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas had all dissolved their connections with the Union and established the Confederate States of America. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, a Union military base located in South Carolina, sparking the American Civil War.

By 1864, with Union victories at Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, and Savannah, it was apparent that the Confederacy was about to surrender and dissipate into nothing but an odd relic of the past. Hoping to dissuade the fears of southerners and show his concern for all Americans regardless of regional background, Lincoln decided to drop Hamlin as his 1864 reelection mate. Instead, he made Johnson, notable as the one Senator from a seceding state to remain loyal to the Union, his running mate in 1864. Lincoln and Johnson won the election in a landslide and were inaugurated - Lincoln for his second term, Johnson for his first - on March 4, 1865. Just over a month later, on April 9, 1865, Confederate forces surrendered after the Battle of Appomattox Court House, ending the civil war.

With the civil war complete, the Lincoln Administration could focus all of its energy on Reconstruction rather than the war effort. On April 11, 1865, in one of his first speeches regarding Reconstruction, Lincoln encouraged voting rights to be extended to black men. John Wilkes Booth, a Maryland-based actor who had always sympathized with the Confederacy, was furious. Just three days later, on April 14, 1865, he shot Lincoln during a play at Ford's Theater. The following morning, on April 15, 1865, Lincoln died. Johnson was now president.

At first, Johnson's presidency seemed promising. Like Lincoln, he supported the 13th Amendment that banned slavery. While Lincoln endorsed the proposal for primarily-moral reasons, Johnson simply disliked the way slavery was dividing the American people and so eventually sought out its abolition. Still, his support was a genuinely positive facet of his presidency. There was even an incident where, in the closing months of the war, a Union general named William Tecumseh Sherman made an agreement with Confederate North Carolina in which they would get to keep slavery - a violation of Lincoln's war goals - in exchange for ending its participation in the southern war effort. Johnson sent General and future-President Ulysses S. Grant to North Carolina to void the deal.

However, there were also bad omens, signs of things to come. Later in 1865, Mary Surratt, a woman accused of aiding Booth in the murder of Lincoln, was put on trial and convicted. There was very, very little real evidence against her and practically everyone knew it. Despite this and despite numerous petitions and pleas to pardon Surratt, Johnson refused. He allowed Surratt to be hanged, ending an innocent life for no reason other than rank suspicion and unsubstantiated paranoia. However, this only ended one life. Johnson's main flaw would ruin millions.

Reconstruction carried with it two main goals: Rebuilding the south from the carnage and chaos of the civil war and helping newly-freed slaves acclimate to American social, economic, and political life. Many, mainly Congressional Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens and Benjamin Wade, argued that the second goal should imply granting full legal rights to black Americans, making them, at least from the perspective of the law, equal to white Americans. Johnson flatly refused. He cited his states' rights philosophy. Apparently to Johnson, the rights and freedoms of local legislators and governors trumped those of the people they are governing.

Soon after the civil war ended, Thaddeus Stevens, the leader of a block of racial egalitarians in Congress known as the Radical Republicans, demanded that no ex-Confederate state enjoy representation in either Congress or the Electoral College until they promised to respect the rights of newly-freed slaves. In other words, they would need to pledge that they would protect black Americans from discrimination and preserve black rights before they could be states again. When Congress adjourned in mid-1865, Johnson used this as an excuse to begin readmitting southern states into the Union without first demanding anything. No rights of no person would need to be respected. That was the status quo Johnson was determined to maintain.

When Congress reconvened at the end of 1865, Republicans began drafting bills that would expand and enforce the rights of the newly-freed slaves. Again clinging to his cherished states' rights - cherished more than human rights - Johnson vetoed every single one of these bills. The result of this serial vetoing was that the newly-freed slaves were forced in southern states to obey "Black Codes", i.e. laws that segregated black and white southerners. Black people also fell victim to unhinged, deranged bouts of rioting and violence, constantly putting their lives, comfort, and safety at risk. Johnson did nothing about either of these crises.

Johnson, especially in the north, became extremely unpopular due to his obstructionist behavior. Sensing blood in the water, he went on a tour around the eastern seaboard known as the Swing Around the Circle - named by Johnson himself after the fact that, when connected on a map, all the cities he visited formed a circle - in order to promote his fellow Democrats in the 1866 Congressional elections. However, on the tour, Johnson greatly embarrassed himself. He routinely compared himself to Jesus Christ, called for Thaddeus Stevens to be hanged, was drowned out by the shouts of northern crowds, and even caused a few people to die by trying to cover up an enormous ditch with a thin wooden board, causing a group of people to fall to their deaths. Hosted from August 27 to September 14, 1866, the tour condemned the Democrats to a gargantuan loss in November, with almost every seat becoming Republican property.

Now with a supermajority on their side, the Republicans passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867 over Johnson's veto. Drafted by Stevens, this bill split the south into 5 military zones, all of which were to be filled with federal troops tasked with enforcing civil rights bills. From here, a wave of new civil rights bills were passed and, now being enforced by federal military forces, were able to genuinely and dramatically improve the lives of black southerners. Still, Johnson vetoed every single one of these bills, even knowing that he was crippling his relations with Congress and that all of his vetos would be overridden.

In March of 1867, desperate to prevent Johnson from firing the remaining Republicans in his administration (all of whom were hired by Lincoln), Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act. This statute required the president to receive Senatorial consent before firing a member of the executive branch. On February 24, 1868, in total defiance of the law, Johnson fired Republican Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. In retaliation, Thaddeus Stevens drafted articles of impeachment against Johnson. Approved by the House of Representatives almost immediately, Johnson became the first president to be impeached.

Many people question the legality or Constitutionality of this impeachment. I, however, think the impeachment proceedings were legally- and Constitutionally-sound. The Tenure of Office Act, contrary to popular belief, was Constitutional. As per Article I, Congress has the power to create rules for the operation of the government, which is what the Tenure of Office Act was. Besides, the Constitution already requires the Senate's approval before a president can hire most federal officials, so it makes sense to create the same rule regarding what the president can fire federal officials. I believe that Johnson was genuinely violating a Constitutional law and thus should have been impeached. On May 26, 1868, Johnson was acquitted by one vote, having promised Senators patronage jobs in exchange for their opposition to his removal. He was using corrupt means to avoid punishment for criminal activity.

Regarding foreign policy, Johnson wasn't as flawed here as he was in terms of domestic policy. He convinced France to withdraw a puppet government it had established in Mexico and improved relations between the US and Britain after refusing to support a group of Irish-Americans known as the Fenians in their raid of British Canada. Despite this, I also view his foreign policy as quite flawed. He purchased Alaska and attempted to purchase Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Hawaii, Greenland, and Iceland. Many would consider this a positive; I do not. The actual people living in these territories had no say in the transfer, so I view these acquisitions as extremely immoral.

Johnson could have been one of the greatest presidents in American history. On numerous occasions, he was given by Congress bills that, had he signed, would have made life infinitely better for black Americans. In 1861, 4,000,000 black Americans were slaves. Had Johnson done what was right, they very well could have been the legal equals of whites just ten years later. But Johnson rejected this unique opportunity. Prioritizing the rights of states over those who lived in the states, Johnson attempted to stymie every single one of these admirable efforts, thus confining his name to one of the most hated in all of US history.