President Andrew Johnson

Although Andrew Johnson was from the Democratic Party, in 1864, Lincoln chose Johnson as his running mate under the National Union Party banner. When Lincoln died April 15, 1865, Johnson became president. He did not have a Vice President. Johnson now had the job of trying to heal the country after the Civil War left the country in ruins. President Andrew Johnson lifted himself out of extreme poverty to become President of the United States. He was a man with little education who climbed the political ladder and held many different high offices. As a strict constitutionalist, Johnson believed in limiting the powers of the federal government. President Johnson was one of the most bellicose Presidents who “fought” Congress, critics, and many others. President Andrew Johnson faced numerous problems post-Civil War Era including reconstructing the Southern states to combine peacefully with the Union, his battles with Congress, and his career ending impeachment. Following Lincoln’s tragic assassination, President Andrew Johnson took on the accountability of making Reconstruction a reality. Andrew Johnson wanted to use Lincoln’s ideas of reconstruction but in a modified form. Since Congress would be in recess for eight more months Johnson decided to go ahead with his plan. Johnson was initially left to devise a Reconstruction policy without legislative intervention, as Congress was not due to meet again until December 1865. Radical Republicans told the President that the Southern states were economically in a state of chaos and urged him to use his leverage to insist on rights for freedmen as a condition of restoration to the Union. But Johnson, with the support of other officials including Seward, insisted that the franchise was a state, not a federal matter. The Cabinet was divided on the issue.
Johnson's first Reconstruction actions were two proclamations, with the unanimous backing of his Cabinet, on May 29. One recognized the Virginia government led by provisional Governor Francis Pierpont. The second provided amnesty for all ex-rebels except those holding property valued at $20,000 or more; it also appointed a temporary governor for North Carolina and authorized elections. Neither of these proclamations included provisions regarding black suffrage or freedmen's rights. The President ordered constitutional conventions in other former rebel states.
As Southern states began the process of forming governments, Johnson's policies received considerable public support in the North, which he took as unconditional backing for quick reinstatement of the South. While he received such support from the white South, he underestimated the determination of Northerners to ensure that the war had not been fought for nothing. It was important, in Northern public opinion, that the South acknowledge its defeat, that slavery be ended, and that the lot of African-Americans be improved. Voting rights were less important—after all, only a handful of Northern states gave African-American men the right to vote on the same basis as whites, and in late 1865, Connecticut, Wisconsin, and Minnesota voted down African-American suffrage proposals by large margins. Northern public opinion tolerated Johnson's leniency as an experiment, to be allowed if it brought Southern acceptance of defeat. Instead, white Southerners were emboldened. A number of Southern states passed Black Codes, binding African-American laborers to farms on annual contracts they could not quit, and allowing law enforcement at whim to arrest them for vagrancy and rent out their labor. Most Southerners elected to Congress were former Confederates, with the most prominent being Georgia Senator-designate and former Confederate vice president Alexander Stephens. Congress assembled in early December 1865; Johnson's conciliatory annual message to them was well received. Nevertheless, Congress refused to seat the Southern legislators and established a committee to recommend appropriate Reconstruction legislation.
Northerners were outraged at the idea of unrepentant Confederate leaders, such as Stephens, rejoining the federal government at a time when emotional wounds from the war remained raw. They saw the Black Codes placing African-Americans in a position barely above slavery. Republicans also feared that restoration of the Southern states would return the Democrats to power. Once the states swore to a loyalty oath to abide by the conditions they would be allowed to return to the Union, and the Confederate States would be allowed to govern themselves. With this power the states implemented the creation of a system of black codes that restricted the actions of freed slaves in much the same way, if not exactly the same way, that slaves were restricted under the old law. The end result of his plan was a hopeless conflict with the Radical Republicans who dominated Congress, passed measures over Johnson's vetoes, and attempted to limit the power of the executive concerning appointments and removals. As soon as Johnson was made president he began to disagree with Congress, particularly those Congressional members of his opposing party. Later, he even broke ties with his own party citing the fact that he wouldn’t endorse a new amendment to the Constitution granting blacks the rights of citizenship. Congress did not approve of President Johnson’s plans for Reconstruction. The Wade Davis Plan returned power to the same people who had tried to break the Union by granting them amnesty. The Congress mainly opposed this plan because it contained no provision to protect the free slaves. The Freedman’s Bureau Act was intended to help former slaves to shift from slavery to emancipation and assured them equality before law. This act was passed over the President’s veto. The Congress also proposed a plan known as the Radical Reconstruction. President Johnson was a prime critic of this plan. He attempted to dismiss the secretary of war, Stanton to prevent him from enacting Congress’s plan. From this point forward Johnson's relations with the congressional majority deteriorated. Johnson’s conflict with Congress culminated into his impeachment. Andrew Johnson was impeached due to his selfish and self-centered personality; also Andrew Johnson’s decisions were made to benefit him as a person and not the country. “President Andrew Johnson was called upon for positive leadership, and he did not meet the challenge. Many people believe Andrew Johnson’s greatest weakness was his insensitivity to public opinion. President Lincoln, believed in taking the course of action that was held with agreement with public opinion and Andrew Johnson thought quite differently. Johnson seemed not to realize the weakness of his position. He was the representative of no major interest and had no genuine political following.
Andrew Johnson’s relationship with Congress was yet another one of the many reasons that Andrew Johnson was impeached. Andrew Johnson was a southern democrat who had no intentions of working with the northern republicans of congress, and one of the main issues was that Andrew Johnson was not going to continue working on the reconstruction that was started by Abraham Lincoln. It is said that Andrew Johnson relationship with the radical republicans can be stated by “His radical foes denounced him as a trickster, a culprit, a man touched with insanity, corrupted with lust, stimulated with drink”. With that being said, there was always a lot of tension between the congress and Andrew Johnson. Again the major issue was the reconstruction and the two different sides had opposing and opposite ideas of reconstruction. With the president using all of his power to the fullest he shut down the idea of ever working on the reconstruction and that made Andrew Johnson’s relationship with the south very different and basically divided it. Then to make things worse Andrew Johnson came from the white working class. He hated rich southern landowners, and made them beg to be readmitted. Johnson did however favor with the south but it was only some of the south because of his ideas on reconstruction again. Because he was against congress “disapproving bills” and Johnson literally became the force stopping the ability for the reconstruction aimed for by Lincoln.
If Lincoln were still alive then Reconstruction would have differed because of Lincoln as a person and how he thought of things. He would have based his decisions and decided the best course of actions that were best for the country as a whole and that would help reconstruction because he believed “public opinion in this country is everything.” However while Johnson was president he had his own ideas, which were more self-concerning rather than president like, causing him to be impeached.
He was impeached by the House of Representatives and tried before the Senate. There were a total of 11 prepared articles of impeachment including an incident when Johnson tried to gain control of the Army in February 1868, by removing the secretary of war in apparent violation of the Tenure of Office Act, his involvement in Lincoln’s assassination (which was later withdrawn), and the general allegation that Johnson had attempted to intentionally undermine Congress. The defense stressed that since Edwin McMasters Stanton (U.S. secretary of war) was appointed by Lincoln, the Tenure of Office Act did not pertain to Stanton. The president did not attend his trial but the excellence of his lawyers, the ambiguity of the law, the termination of his interference in the South, the establishment of new governments there and the admission of their representatives to Congress, and divisions among Republicans all led to a verdict of "not guilty." The trial lasted from March to May 1868 with Chief Justice Chase presiding. Even though Johnson was acquitted, his political career was effectively over. President Andrew Johnson’s presidency is considered an abject failure, except congressionally. His only success was ability to circumvent being kicked out of office under impeachment. Although, during his administration many rights such as the rights to vote were given to blacks to “compensate” them for their servitude and military help. All these rights were overshadowed by the system of black codes. Congress felt the same way and sought to rectify what was done to blacks. President Andrew Johnson’s administration was filled with both failures and success.