Andrew Johnson: Schroeder-Lein And Zuczek

Andrew Johnson Andrew Johnson was a man of many uniques with being the only president of the United States to be impeached, never attended school, grew up in poverty, and accomplished his way back into the Senate six years after leaving the White House, as stated in Trefousse’s book
(p.13). Schroeder- Lein and Zuczek talk about, with even having his many accomplishments and numbered failures, Andrew Johnson is to be known to this day as one of the most unpopular and unsuccessful presidents of his time. Even having his failures, Johnson still had a successful political career ranging five crucial decades (p. xv). Andrew Johnson gives truth to the belief that in America, anyone can grow up to become president or governor. Born December
29,1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrew Johnson was the third child of Jacob and Mary Johnson. According to the first chapter of “Andrew Johnson: A Biography”, Andrew was born in the back of an inn, that his parents worked, during the wedding of Hannah and John Stewart (p 18). It also states in the same chapter that Hannah is said to be known as the one who gave him the name Andrew in honor of President Andrew Jackson, but none of this has ever been proven by biographers (p.18). At the young age of three, Andrew Johnson’s father passed away, “leaving his family in poverty” and causing Johnson’s mother to pick up work as a spinner and weaver (“Andrew Johnson” 1). After Andrew 's father died, his mother and her new husband apprenticed fourteen-year-old Andrew and his older brother William to a local tailor. After working a number of years in this trade, the boys ran away for several years, dodging rewards for their capture placed by their former employer. Andrew later returned to his mother, and the entire family moved west to Greeneville, Tennessee, where young Andrew set up a job in a shop as a tailor and met his wife, “Eliza McCardle, the daughter of a shoe maker” (“Andrew Johnson” 1). Eliza educated Andrew and helped him make wise investments in town real estate and farmlands. Since Andrew Johnson never had the chance of truly being educated and “ his homespun quality were distinct assets in building a political base of poor people seeking a fuller voice in government” (“Andrew Johnson” 1).
By 1834, the young tailor had served as town alderman and mayor of Greeneville and was fast making a name for himself as an aspiring politician. During the time when Andrew Johnson was trying to make a name for himself in the political world he opened his own tailoring shop, which “became a gathering place for those eager to voice their opinions or hear Johnson’s” (Schroeder-Lein, Zuczek p. xvi). Johnson considered himself a “Jacksonian Democrat”, as stated by Means, and he gained the support of local mechanics, artisans, and rural folk with his common-man tell-it-like-it-is style (p. 9). He quickly moved up to serve in his state 's legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives, and as governor of
Tennessee. Andrew Johnson found a home in the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson and over time became a spokesman for mountaineers and small farmers against the interests of the landed classes during his eight years in the state legislature, as mention in the web biography
“Andrew Johnson” (1). During the as serving as state legislature, Johnson was sent to Washington D.C. for ten years to be a U.S. representative in 1843 (“Andrew Johnson” 1). When the Civil War broke out, Johnson was a first-term U.S. senator aligned with the states ' rights and proslavery wing of the Democratic Party. However closely he identified with his fellow Southerners ' views on slavery, Johnson disagreed strongly with their calls to break up the Union over the issue. When Tennessee left the Union after the election of Abraham Lincoln, Johnson broke with his home state, becoming the only Southern senator to retain his seat in the U.S. Senate. According to the White House’s web page, in the South, Johnson was deemed a traitor; his property was confiscated and his wife and children were driven from the state. In the North, however, Johnson 's stand made him an overnight hero (“Andrew Johnson”). In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln named Andrew Johnson as Military Governor of Tennessee.
Johnson used the state as an example for reconstruction. After Lincoln made him the military governor of Tennessee, Johnson convinced the President to exempt Tennessee from the Emancipation Proclamation. By the summer of 1863, however, he began to favor emancipation as a war measure. Concerned about his chances for reelection, Lincoln felt that he needed a man like Johnson as his vice president to help balance the ticket in 1864. Lincoln 's enemies could not easily depict him as a tool of the abolitionists with Johnson as his running mate. Together, the two won a sweeping victory against Democratic candidate General George B. McClellan and his running mate, George Pendleton. In 1864 the Republicans, asserted that their National Union Party was for all loyal men, nominated Johnson, a Southerner and a Democrat, for Vice President (“Andrew
Johnson”). “Andrew Johnson’s first appearance on the national stage was a fiasco. On Inauguration Day he imbibed more whiskey than he should have to counter the effects of a recent illness, and as he swayed on his feet and stumbled over his words, he embarrassed his colleagues in the administration and dismayed onlookers” (“Andrew Johnson” 2). Northern newspapers were shocked by his actions. After this public humiliation, Johnson was known by many as drunk or alcoholic. “Less than five weeks later he was president” (“Andrew Jonhson” 2). With a stun to the nation, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated days after the Civil War ended in 1865 and only weeks after his Inauguration. Had the assassin 's plot gone as planned, Andrew Johnson would have been killed along with Lincoln; instead, Johnson became President. In a strange twist of fate, the racist Southerner Johnson was charged with the reconstruction of the defeated South, including the extension of civil rights and suffrage to black Southerners. It quickly clear that Johnson would block efforts to force Southern states to guarantee full equality for blacks, and the Republicans, who viewed black voting rights as crucial to their power base in the South, became upset with this. “By the time Congress met in December 1865, most southern states were reconstructed, slavery was being abolished, but "black codes" to regulate the freedmen were beginning to appear”, stated by the White House’s web page (“Andrew Johnson”). In 1866, Congress passed the Freedmen 's Bureau Bill, providing shelter and provision for former slaves and protection of their rights in court, as well as the Civil Rights Act, defining all persons born in the U.S. as citizens (“Andrew Johnson” 2). Biography.com talks about congress also passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, authorizing the federal government to protect the rights of all citizens. Each of these, except the Amendment, was passed over President Johnson 's veto (“Andrew Johnson” 2-3). In a final humiliating gesture, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which stripped the President of the power to remove federal officials without the Senate 's approval, and in 1867, established a military Reconstruction program to enforce political and social rights for Southern blacks (“Andrew Johnson” 3). Angry with everything that had happened, Andrew Johnson decided to go straight to the people in an attempt to regain his stature and authority as President. During the congressional elections of 1866, he set out on a speaking tour to campaign for congressmen who would support his policies (“Andrew Johnson”). The plan was a complete disaster. In speech after speech, Johnson personally attacked his Republican opponents in vile and abusive language. At many of the speeches, it appeared that the President had had too much to drink. Congress then voted to impeach Johnson by a vote of 126 to 47 in February 1868, citing his violation of the Tenure of Office Act and charging that he had brought disgrace and ridicule on Congress (Schroeder- Lein, Zuczek p. xxi). By a margin of one vote, the Senate voted not to convict Johnson, and he served the duration of the term won by Lincoln (“Andrew Johnson”). Andrew Johnson is viewed to be the worst possible president at the end of the Civil War. “Johnson’s tragic flaw was his inability to understand that change did not eliminated, but improved; they has evolved, not disappeared, and become stronger and more meaningful in the process” ( Schroeder-Lein, Zuczek p. xxii). After leaving office, Andrew Johnson, a man born into poverty with no true education, passed away on July 31, 1875. He might have been a man of few accomplishments in the political world but “his failures are with us still” (Means p.237).

Works Cited
"Andrew Johnson." Biography.com. A+E Television Networks, LLC. 1996-20011. Web. 4 October 2011.
“Andrew Johnson.” Whitehouse.gov. White House. Web. 4 October 2011.
Means, Howard. The Avenger Takes His Place: Andrew Johnson and the 45 Days That Changed the Nation. Orlando: Harcourt, Inc., 2006. Print.
Schroeder-Lein, Glenna R., and Richard Zuczel. Andrew Johnson: A Biographical Campanion. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2001. Print.
Trefousse, Hans L. Andrew Johnson: A Biography. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc., 1989. Print.