Constitution , believed it guaranteed individuals the right to own slaves. Johnson left Congress in to become governor of Tennessee. He vacated the governorship in to take a seat in the U. However, as some Southern leaders began calling for secession, he advocated for the preservation of the Union.
In November , Abraham Lincoln , a former U. On December 20 of that same year, slaveholding South Carolina seceded from the Union. Six more Southern states soon followed, and in February , they formed the Confederate States of America which would eventually include a total of 11 Southern states.
Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, , and just over a month later, on April 12, the U. That June, Tennessee voters approved a referendum to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy. Johnson, who had traveled across Tennessee speaking out against secession, was the only senator from the South to remain loyal to the Union after his state seceded.
In this role, Johnson tried, with mixed success, to re-establish federal authority in Tennessee. When Lincoln sought re-election in , he chose Johnson as his running mate over Vice President Hannibal Hamlin , a former U. Lincoln defeated his opponent General George McClellan by an electoral margin of , and garnered 55 percent of the popular vote. The president and new vice president were sworn into office on March 4, Johnson, who was recovering from typhoid fever, drank some whiskey before the ceremony, believing it would make him feel better.
Instead, he gave a slurred, semi-incoherent inaugural address, leading to persistent rumors that he was an alcoholic, although he was not. Lee surrendered his Confederate army to General Ulysses S. Grant , effectively ending the Civil War. By the next morning, Lincoln was dead at age That same day, Johnson was sworn in as president at his Washington hotel by the chief justice of the U.
Supreme Court , Salmon Chase Secretary of State William Seward Once in office, Johnson focused on quickly restoring the Southern states to the Union. He granted amnesty to most former Confederates and allowed the rebel states to elect new governments. These governments, which often included ex-Confederate officials, soon enacted black codes, measures designed to control and repress the recently freed slave population.
When the U. That same year, when Congress passed the 14th Amendment granting citizenship to blacks, the president urged Southern states not to ratify it the amendment nevertheless was ratified in July The tour proved to be a failure, and the Republicans won majorities in both houses of Congress and set about enacting their own Reconstruction measures.
Hostilities between the president and Congress continued to mount, and in February , the House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson.
That May, the Senate acquitted Johnson of the charges by one vote. Johnson did not run for reelection in Kennedy Lyndon B. Bush Bill Clinton George W.
Help inform the discussion Support the Miller Center. University of Virginia Miller Center. Andrew Johnson: Impact and Legacy. Breadcrumb U. Elizabeth R. Varon Professor of History University of Virginia. Andrew Johnson Essays Life in Brief. Life Before the Presidency. Campaigns and Elections. Domestic Affairs. Foreign Affairs. As senator, Johnson introduced the Homestead Act, a bill he had promoted while a congressman.
The bill met with stiff opposition by many Southern Democrats, who feared the land would be settled by poor whites and immigrants who couldn't afford, or didn't want, slavery in the area. A heavily amended bill was passed, but was vetoed by President Buchanan. For the remainder of his Senate term, Johnson kept an independent course, opposing abolition while making clear his devotion to the Union.
After Abraham Lincoln 's election in , Tennessee seceded from the Union. Johnson broke with his home state and became the only Southern senator to retain his seat in the U. He was vilified in the South. His property was confiscated, and his wife and two daughters were driven out of Tennessee. However, his pro-Union passion did not go unnoticed by the Lincoln Administration. Once Union troops occupied Tennessee in , Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor. He walked a difficult line, offering an olive branch to his fellow Tennesseans while exercising the full force of the federal government to rebels.
He was never able to gain complete control of the state as insurgents, led by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest , raided cities and towns at will. Johnson originally opposed the Emancipation Proclamation, but after gaining an exemption for Tennessee and realizing that it was an important tool for ending the war, he accepted it.
Southern papers caught his flip-flopping and accused him of seeking a higher office. This notion played out when Lincoln, concerned about his chances for reelection, tapped Johnson as his vice president to help balance the ticket in After several high-profile Union victories in the summer and fall of , Lincoln was re-elected in a sweeping victory. Johnson was also a target on that fateful night, but his would-be assassin failed to show up.
Three hours after Lincoln died, Johnson was sworn in as the 17th president of the United States. In a strange irony often found in American history, the racist Southerner Johnson was charged with the reconstruction of the South and the extension of civil rights and suffrage to former Black slaves.
It quickly became apparent that Johnson would not force Southern states to grant full equality to Black people, thus setting up a confrontation with congressional Republicans who sought Black suffrage as essential to furthering their political influence in the South.
Congress was in recess the first eight months of Johnson's term, and he took full advantage of the legislators' absence by pushing through his own Reconstruction policies. He quickly issued pardons and amnesty to any rebels who would take an oath of allegiance. This resulted in many former Confederates being elected to office in Southern states and instituting "Black codes," which essentially maintained slavery.
Later, he expanded his pardons to include Confederate officials of the highest rank, including Alexander Stephens, who had served as vice president under Jefferson Davis.
When Congress reconvened, members expressed outrage at the president's clemency orders and his lack of protecting Black civil rights. In , Congress passed the Freedmen's Bureau bill, providing essentials for former slaves and protection of their rights in court. They then passed the Civil Rights Act, defining "all persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed," as citizens.
Johnson vetoed these two measures because he felt that Southern states were not represented in Congress and believed that setting suffrage policy was the responsibility of the states, not the federal government. Both vetoes were overridden by Congress. That June, Congress approved the 14th Amendment and issued it to the states for ratification, and it was accepted less than one month later. In a novel interpretation of the "advise and consent" clause of the Constitution, Congress also passed the Tenure of Office Act, which denied the president the power to remove federal officials without the Senate's approval.
In , Congress established military Reconstruction in the former Confederate states to enforce political and social rights for Southern Black people. President Johnson retaliated by appealing directly to the people in a series of speeches during the congressional elections. On more than one occasion, it appeared that Johnson had had too much to drink, and antagonized more than convinced his audiences.
The campaign was a complete disaster, and Johnson faced a further loss of support from the public.
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