Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed
It’s tempting, if not particularly comforting, to think that we’re currently living through the worst presidential tenure in American history. After all, Donald Trump is openly racist, xenophobic, toxically partisan, narcissistic to his core, hopelessly out of his depth, and has done more to divide America than any president since…well…
I’m just going to say it, Andrew Johnson was a worse president than Donald Trump. I will qualify that statement though by saying that I think Donald Trump, had he been occupying the White House during the same period as Johnson, would have been every bit as bad as America’s 17th president. But to me, Johnson gets the nod for simply being more consequential. The ramifications of his actions during his time in the White House are still felt today in ways that I don’t believe Trump’s will be in 100 year’s time.
So why does Johnson sit at or near the bottom in most presidential rankings?
Johnson of course was elevated to the presidency upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a plot that also targeted Johnson himself, though his attacker thankfully decided it would be a better idea to get drunk at a local saloon. He had replaced Hannibal Hamlin on the National Union Party ticket primarily because Lincoln wanted to attract Democratic votes, figuring he had the Republican vote locked up. And Johnson, as a loyal War Democrat, fit the bill nicely. He was the only senator from a state that had seceded who remained in the United States Senate upon the outbreak of the Civil War, and this loyalty endeared him to the President.
Johnson’s life began in circumstances as humble as Lincoln’s as he was born into poverty in North Carolina, and later raised in Tennessee. A tailor’s apprentice, Johnson wouldn’t even learn to read or write until adulthood. After fleeing his apprenticeship, he utilized his skill for public speaking to begin a life in politics that would see him amass an enviable resumé for any holder of public office.
A courageous man, he had overcome obstacles that would have stymied a lesser individual, and he had climbed the ladder to the highest office in the land rung by rung: alderman, mayor, state representative, state senator, governor, United States representative, United States senator, vice president, president. Each step gave him the opportunity to gain valuable experience in the science of government and the art of politics.
But Johnson’s lifelong insecurity, stubbornness and overt racism would ultimately be his undoing.
Gordon-Reed pulls no punches throughout this brief, but relentlessly engaging biography. She clearly holds Johnson in low regard, with good reason, but still finds the time to offer up positive judgements when warranted. In fact, she concludes her survey of his life and career thusly:
Johnson’s story has a miraculous quality to it: the poor boy who systematically rose to the heights, fell from grace, and then fought his way back to a position of honor in the country. For good or ill, “only in America,” as they say, could Johnson’s story unfold in the way that it did.
So what made Johnson such an unpopular president? First, let’s set the stage. The Civil War had just ended, with Lee surrendering to Grant at Appomattox and though Lincoln had previously issued the Emancipation Proclamation by executive order, Congress had yet to approve the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery for good. When Lincoln was killed in April of 1865, Johnson took over as leader of a nation grieving over half a million war dead and divided along sectional lines.
How would Southern states be allowed back into the Union? What would be done with those that lead the insurrection? What about the newly freed slaves? How would peace be enforced? These were just some of the many challenges that awaited him.
Johnson’s hatred of Black people, his life-long preoccupation with the southern planter class, and his own belief in white supremacy would color all of his subsequent actions.
In regard to the former Confederate states, in contrast to earlier statements advocating for harsh punishment, he asked nothing of them as a condition of being returned to the Union save that they recognize the end of slavery by ratifying the Thirteenth Amendment. One white southerner even wrote him to say, “In our estimation [you have] been just, independent, statesmanlike and highly satisfactory to us, we hope and pray that God may permit you to remain at the head of our government.”
As for what to do with the freedmen, Johnson stated, “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.” True to his word, he stunned even moderate Republicans by vetoing the Freedmen’s Bureau Bill that would have given former slaves land and opportunity. In spite of being a longtime supporter of the Homestead Act for whites, he followed that up by vetoing every subsequent Reconstruction Bill as well, each of which Congress eventually overrode and passed without his signature.
In addition, Johnson worked to actively undermine the execution of federal law.
Instead of saying, “I disagree with this law, but it is the law of the land and I will faithfully execute it,” or seeking to challenge the constitutionality of the law in the courts, the president decides to use his power of appointment (discretion) to put in place people he knows will not abide by the law and will come nowhere near faithfully executing it. That was the tack Andrew Johnson took for most of his presidency.
Johnson’s war with Congress would finally come to a head when he violated the, admittedly unpopular, Tenure of Office Act by firing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The act required that Congress assent before the president could remove from office any official who had been appointed by a previous president with congressional approval. That was all Congress needed and they immediately worked to unseat Johnson via impeachment, eventually losing by a single vote.
According to Gordon-Reed:
The weakness of the charges against him was not the only point in his favor. The man who would take Johnson’s place, should he be removed from office, frightened important segments of society and was cited as a main cause for the reluctance to remove Johnson. That man was Senator Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio, a noted radical Republican. On issues of public policy he was the polar opposite of Andrew Johnson. He believed in such things as women’s suffrage, which subjected him to total derision. But it has been suggested that Wade’s “soft money” position, his belief in high tariffs, and his association with the nascent labor union movement made him a pariah among many of his colleagues in the Senate. The thought of such a man in the White House was simply too much for them.
But Johnson was on his way out anyway, as his term was nearing its end date. He would fail to win his party’s nomination in ‘69 and Grant would succeed him as President of the United States. Johnson, for his part, returned to the Senate in 1875, with the St. Louis Republican calling it "the most magnificent personal triumph which the history of American politics can show". Unfortunately, that triumph was short-lived and Johnson died from a stroke soon after.
Gordon-Reed’s contribution to the American Presidents Series was perhaps my favorite of all that I have read thus far. Though short, in keeping with the series style, it’s a great read that never gets bogged down and Gordon-Reed keeps it lively with a modern style and a coherent point of view that, though highly critical, seems imminently sober and fair.