Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, N.C., December 29, 1808. His parents
were very poor. When he was 4 years old his father died of injuries
received in rescuing a person from drowning. At the age of 10 years
Andrew was apprenticed to a tailor. His early education was almost
entirely neglected, and, notwithstanding his natural craving to learn,
he never spent a day in school. Was taught the alphabet by a
fellow-workman, borrowed a book, and learned to read. In 1824 removed to
Laurens Court-House, S.C., where he worked as a journeyman tailor. In
May, 1826, returned to Raleigh, and in September, with his mother and
stepfather, set out for Greeneville, Tenn., in a two-wheeled cart drawn
by a blind pony. Here he married Eliza McCardle, a woman of refinement,
who taught him to write, and read to him while he was at work during the
day. It was not until he had been in Congress that he learned to write
with ease. From Greeneville went to the West, but returned after the
lapse of a year. In 1828 was elected alderman; was reelected in 1829 and
1830, and in 1830 was advanced to the mayoralty, which office he held
for three years. In 1831 was appointed by the county court a trustee
of Rhea Academy, and about this time participated in the debates of a
society at Greeneville College. In 1834 advocated the adoption of a new
State constitution, by which the influence of the large landholders was
abridged. In 1835 represented Greene and Washington counties in the
legislature. Was defeated for the legislature in 1837, but in 1839 was
reelected. In 1836 supported Hugh L. White for the Presidency, and in
the political altercations between John Bell and James K. Polk, which
distracted Tennessee at the time, supported the former. Mr. Johnson was
the only ardent follower of Bell that failed to go over to the Whig
party. Was an elector for the State at large on the Van Buren ticket in
1840, and made a State reputation by the force of his oratory. In 1841
was elected to the State senate from Greene and Hawkins counties, and
while in that body was one of the "immortal thirteen" Democrats who,
having it in their power to prevent the election of a Whig Senator, did
so by refusing to meet the house in joint convention; also proposed that
the basis of representation should rest upon white votes, without regard
to the ownership of slaves. Was elected to Congress in 1843 over John A.
Asken, a United States Bank Democrat, who was supported by the Whigs.
His first speech was in support of the resolution to restore to General
Jackson the fine imposed upon him at New Orleans; also supported the
annexation of Texas. In 1845 was reelected, and supported Polk's
Administration. Was regularly reelected to Congress until 1853. During
this period opposed all expenditures for internal improvements that were
not general; resisted and defeated the proposed contingent tax of 10 per
cent on tea and coffee; made his celebrated defense of the veto power;
urged the adoption of the homestead law, which was obnoxious to the
extreme Southern element of his party; supported the compromise measures
of 1850 as a matter of expediency, but opposed compromises in general
as a sacrifice of principle. Was elected governor of Tennessee in 1853
over Gustavus A. Henry, the "Eagle Orator" of the State. In his message
to the legislature he dwelt upon the homestead law and other measures
for the benefit of the working classes, and earned the title of
the "Mechanic Governor." Opposed the Know-nothing movement with
characteristic vehemence. Was reelected governor in 1855, defeating
Meredith P. Gentry, the Whig-American candidate, after a most remarkable
canvass. The Kansas-Nebraska bill received his earnest support. In 1857
was elected to the United States Senate, where he urged the passage of
the homestead bill, and on May 20, 1858, made his greatest speech on
this subject. Opposed the grant of aid for the construction of a Pacific
railroad. Was prominent in debate, and frequently clashed with Southern
supporters of the Administration. His pronounced Unionism estranged him
from the extremists on the Southern side, while his acceptance of
slavery as an institution guaranteed by the Constitution caused him
to hold aloof from the Republicans on the other. At the Democratic
convention at Charleston, S.C., in 1860 was a candidate for the
Presidential nomination, but received only the vote of Tennessee, and
when the convention reassembled in Baltimore withdrew his name. In the
canvass that followed supported John C. Breckinridge. At the session
of Congress beginning in December, 1860, took decided and unequivocal
grounds in opposition to secession, and on December 13 introduced a
joint resolution proposing to amend the Constitution so as to elect the
President and Vice-President by district votes, Senators by a direct
popular vote, and to limit the terms of Federal judges to twelve
years, the judges to be equally divided between slaveholding and
non-slaveholding States. In his speech on this resolution, December 18
and 19, declared his unyielding opposition to secession and announced
his intention to stand by and act under the Constitution. Retained
his seat in the Senate until appointed by President Lincoln military
governor of Tennessee, March 4, 1862. March 12 reached Nashville, and
organized a provisional government for the State; March 18 issued a
proclamation in which he appealed to the people to return to their
allegiance, to uphold the law, and to accept "a full and complete
amnesty for all past acts and declarations;" April 5 removed the mayor
and other officials of Nashville for refusing to take the oath of
allegiance to the United States, and appointed others; urged the holding
of Union meetings throughout the State, and frequently attended them in
person; completed the railroad from Nashville to the Tennessee River;
raised twenty-five regiments for service in the State; December 8, 1862,
issued a proclamation ordering Congressional elections, and on the 15th
levied an assessment upon the richer Southern sympathizers "in behalf of
the many helpless widows, wives, and children in the city of Nashville
who have been reduced to poverty and wretchedness in consequence of
their husbands, sons, and fathers having been forced into the armies of
this unholy and nefarious rebellion." Was nominated for Vice-President
of the United States at the national Republican convention at Baltimore
June 8, 1864, and was elected on November 8. In his letter of acceptance
of the nomination Mr. Johnson virtually disclaimed any departure from
his principles as a Democrat, but placed his acceptance upon the ground
of "the higher duty of first preserving the Government." On the night of
the 14th of April, 1865, President Lincoln was shot by an assassin and
died the next morning. At 11 o'clock a.m. April 15 Mr. Johnson was sworn
in as President, at his rooms in the Kirkwood House, Washington, by
Chief Justice Chase, in the presence of nearly all the Cabinet officers
and others. April 29, 1865, issued a proclamation for the removal of
trade restrictions in most of the insurrectionary States, which, being
in contravention of an act of Congress, was subsequently modified.
May 9 issued an Executive order restoring Virginia to the Union. May 22
proclaimed all ports, except four in Texas, opened to foreign commerce
on July 1, 1865. May 29 issued a general amnesty proclamation, after
which the fundamental and irreconcilable differences between President
Johnson and the party that had elevated him to power became more
apparent. He exercised the veto power to a very great extent, but it was
generally nullified by the two-thirds votes of both Houses. From May 29
to July 13, 1865, proclaimed provisional governors for North Carolina,
Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, and Florida, whose
duties were to reorganize the State governments. The State governments
were reorganized, but the Republicans claimed that the laws passed were
so stringent in reference to the negroes that it was a worse form of
slavery than the old. The thirteenth amendment to the Constitution
became a law December 18, 1865, with Mr. Johnson's concurrence. The first
breach between the President and the party in power was the veto of the
Freedmen's Bureau bill, in February, 1866, which was designed to protect
the negroes. March 27 vetoed the civil-rights bill, but it was passed
over his veto. In a message of June 22, 1866, opposed the joint
resolution proposing the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution. In
June, 1866, the Republicans in Congress brought forward their plan of
reconstruction, called the "Congressional plan," in contradistinction
to that of the President. The chief features of the Congressional plan
were to give the negroes the right to vote, to protect them in this
right, and to prevent Confederate leaders from voting. January 5, 1867,
vetoed the act giving negroes the right of suffrage in the District
of Columbia, but it was passed over his veto. An attempt was made to
impeach the President, but it failed. In January, 1867, a bill was
passed to deprive the President of the power to proclaim general
amnesty, which he disregarded. Measures were adopted looking to the
meeting of the Fortieth and all subsequent Congresses immediately after
the adjournment of the preceding. The President was deprived of the
command of the Army by a rider to the army appropriation bill, which
provided that his orders should only be given through the General, who
was not to be removed without the previous consent of the Senate. The
bill admitting Nebraska, providing that no law should ever be passed in
that State denying the right of suffrage to any person because of his
color or race, was vetoed by the President, but passed over his veto.
March 2, 1867, vetoed the act to provide for the more efficient
government of the rebel States, but it was passed over his veto.
It embodied the Congressional plan of reconstruction, and divided the
Southern States into five military districts, each under an officer of
the Army not under the rank of brigadier-general, who was to exercise
all the functions of government until the citizens had "formed a
constitution of government in conformity with the Constitution
of the United States in all respects." On the same day vetoed the
tenure-of-office act, which was also passed over his veto. It provided
that civil officers should remain in office until the confirmation of
their successors; that the members of the Cabinet should be removed
only with the consent of the Senate, and that when Congress was not in
session the President could suspend but not remove any official, and in
case the Senate at the next session should not ratify the suspension the
suspended official should be reinducted into his office. August 5, 1867,
requested Edwin M. Stanton to resign his office as Secretary of War.
Mr. Stanton refused, was suspended, and General Grant was appointed
Secretary of War _ad interim_. When Congress met, the Senate
refused to ratify the suspension. General Grant then resigned, and Mr.
Stanton resumed the duties of his office. The President removed him and
appointed Lorenzo Thomas, Adjutant-General of the Army, Secretary of War
_ad interim_. The Senate declared this act illegal, and Mr. Stanton
refused to comply, and notified the Speaker of the House. On February
24, 1868, the House of Representatives resolved to impeach the
President, and on March 2 and 3 articles of impeachment were agreed upon
by the House of Representatives, and on the 4th were presented to the
Senate. The trial began on March 30. May 16 the test vote was had;
thirty-five Senators voted for conviction and nineteen for acquittal. A
change of one vote would have carried conviction. A verdict of acquittal
was entered, and the Senate sitting as a court of impeachment adjourned
_sine die_. After the expiration of his term the ex-President
returned to Tennessee. Was a candidate for the United States Senate, but
was defeated. In 1872 was an unsuccessful candidate for Congressman from
the State at large. In January, 1875, was elected to the United States
Senate, and took his seat at the extra session of that year. Shortly
after the session began made a speech which was a skillful but bitter
attack upon President Grant. While visiting his daughter near
Elizabethton, in Carter County, Tenn., was stricken with paralysis July
30, 1875, and died the following day. He was buried at Greeneville, Tenn.