As the conflict grew between the branches of government, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act restricting Johnson's ability to fire Cabinet officials. In 1866, he went on an unprecedented national tour promoting his executive policies, seeking to break Republican opposition. Johnson opposed the Fourteenth Amendment which gave citizenship to former slaves. Johnson vetoed their bills, and Congressional Republicans overrode him, setting a pattern for the remainder of his presidency. Southern states returned many of their old leaders and passed Black Codes to deprive the freedmen of many civil liberties, but Congressional Republicans refused to seat legislators from those states and advanced legislation to overrule the Southern actions. Johnson implemented his own form of Presidential Reconstruction, a series of proclamations directing the seceded states to hold conventions and elections to reform their civil governments. In 1864, Johnson was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his re-election campaign and became vice president after a victorious election in 1864. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as Military Governor of Tennessee after most of it had been retaken. He was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not resign his seat upon learning of his state's secession. Southern slave states seceded to form the Confederate States of America, including Tennessee, but Johnson remained firmly with the Union. During his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862.
He became governor of Tennessee for four years, and was elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857. After briefly serving in the Tennessee Senate, Johnson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1843, where he served five two-year terms. He served as alderman and mayor there before being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1835. He was apprenticed as a tailor and worked in several frontier towns before settling in Greeneville, Tennessee. Johnson was born into poverty and never attended school. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
This led to conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the newly freed people who were formerly enslaved. Johnson was a Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, coming to office as the Civil War concluded. He assumed the presidency following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as he was vice president at that time. House of RepresentativesĪndrew Johnson (December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875) was an American politician and tailor who served as the 17th president of the United States, from 1865 to 1869.
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