By Tom Morrow

In Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 reelection bid, southern U.S. Sen. Andrew Johnson was chosen by to be vice president in an effort to heal the country after a long Civil War. Johnson was from Tennessee had stayed loyal to the Union – the only southern legislator to do so.
Johnson, who was born Dec. 29, 1808, in poverty in Raleigh, N.C., served in more city, state and federal offices than any other U.S. politician. At a young age, his father apprenticed him to a tailor, but he ran away, heading west. He worked in a number of frontier towns before settling in Greeneville, Tenn. Johnson was basically illiterate before learning how to read from his wife.
He got his first taste of politics as Greeneville alderman and then mayor before being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835. Johnson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year terms. Then in 1857, he was elected governor of Tennessee by the state legislature, and then served as governor before being elected U.S. senator.
 
Johnson was elected vice president as Lincoln’s running mate, and after Lincoln’s assassination, he became the 17th President of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869.
President Johnson favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union. However, his plans did not give protection to the former slaves, and that put him into conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives. The first American president to be impeached, he was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
In his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill, which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862. As Southern slave states, including Tennessee, seceded to form the Confederate States of America, Johnson remained firmly with the Union.
Johnson was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not resign his seat upon learning of his state’s secession. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as military governor of Tennessee after most of it had been retaken. In 1864, Johnson, as a War Democrat and Southern Unionist, was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his re-election campaign; their ticket easily won. When Johnson was sworn in as vice president in March 1865, he gave a rambling speech, after which he secluded himself to avoid public ridicule. Six weeks later, the assassination of Lincoln made him president.
Johnson implemented his own form of Presidential Reconstruction … a series of proclamations directing the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to re-form their civil governments. When Southern states returned many of their old leaders, and passed Black Codes to deprive the freedmen of many civil liberties, Congressional Republicans refused to seat legislators from those states and advanced legislation to overrule the Southern actions. Johnson vetoed their bills, and Congressional Republicans overrode him, setting a pattern for the remainder of his presidency.
Johnson opposed the 14th Amendment, which gave citizenship to former slaves. In 1866, Johnson went on an unprecedented national tour promoting his executive policies, seeking to destroy his Republican opponents. As the conflict between the branches of government grew, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, restricting Johnson’s ability to fire Cabinet officials. When he persisted in trying to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, he was impeached by the House of Representatives, and narrowly avoided conviction in the Senate and removal from office. After failing to win the 1868 Democratic presidential nomination, Johnson left office in 1869.
Returning to Tennessee after his presidency, Johnson sought political vindication, and gained it in his eyes when he was elected to the U.S. Senate again in 1875, making Johnson the only former president to serve in the Senate. He died just months into his term. While some admire Johnson’s strict constitutionalism, his strong opposition to federally guaranteed rights for African Americans is widely criticized. He is regarded by many historians as one of the worst presidents in American history.
In 1942, Hollywood filmed a biography of Johnson, “Tennessee Johnson,” starring Van Heflin and Ruth Hussey.