The Presidents #17: Andrew Johnson

[Ardent15]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Johnson

Discuss him and his Presidency.

[Arkana]

1. Sweet zombie Jesus, Andrew Johnson.

Bring up Jackson and Woodrow Wilson if you must, but we have never had a more racist President than Andrew Johnson.

Johnson became VP to Lincoln in 1864 because he was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union, and Lincoln was trying to project a united front to the country. Still, he was a Democrat through and through--and if Republican Party bosses had thought there was even the remotest chance Johnson could become President they never would have put him on the ticket.

Johnson was very open about his views of African-Americans as "savage" and "subhuman". His loyalty to the Union really stemmed from his visceral hatred of Southern planters--the "elites".

Suffice it to say that under Johnson Reconstruction was basically a slap on the wrist for the seceding states and a quick readmission to the Union with no change in state law--meaning that they were still free to do everything BUT enslave blacks (Jim Crow, basically).

He is also, along with Bill Clinton, the only President ever to be impeached--and he escaped conviction by a MUCH slimmer margin.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. The ultimate result of bipartisanship

[WI_DEM]

4. Well, perhaps, but Lincoln wanted a pro-war Dem on the Union Ticket so Johnson best fit the bill.

[PVnRT]

3. We can blame Jim Crow in large part on him

and the Confederate sympathizers in the Democratic party at the time.

[insanity]

5. He gets the blame for the disaster of Reconstruction

Jim Crow could easily be argued as a result of his failure of a Presidency.

[BeyondGeography]

6. Got totally shitfaced for his swearing-in as VP

Early warning sign.

[BlueIris]

7. My personal pick for Worst President Ever.

Totally suckface, from start to finish.

[jsmirman]

10. Wow, someone else who shares this exact opinion - *HATE*

The WORST!

One of my "most hated men in history."

Personally responsible for so many of the tragedies of Redemption.

I cannot begin to fathom how he doesn't clock in at 40 or below on any "rank the presidents" list.

I also say this as a former antebellum scholar at one of our country's leading history departments, who has done plenty of work with both the war and post-war periods, as well.

You know what, I'm just going to say it. I hate that fucking bastard and get angry every time I hear his name.

That period where the hopes of Reconstruction were scattered like loose straw in the wind is one of the great tragedies in our nation's history. And this bastard actually proved the "one man can make a difference" position with his insidious suckitude.

[BlueIris]

14. Precisely.

You wrote it much better than I could have.

[jsmirman]

15. Well

I've been angry about it for a *long* time.

;)


He was just one of those people that you encountered in your course of study of American History that made you think, "wow, what an inadequate man."

Btw, that would have been an excellent inscription for his headstone.

[Alexander]

8. Escaped removal from office by 1 vote - Edmund G. Ross of Kansas.

Had he been removed, Benjamin Wade would have become the new president. It's believed some Senators voted against removal precisely because they didn't want Wade to succeed him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Wade

[Hippo_Tron]

9. Removing Johnson from office would've set a precedent that impeachment isn't just for crimes

And that a supermajority in Congress can remove a President for disagreeing with them. The tenure of office act was bullshit and blatantly unconstitutional. Just as impeaching Clinton for a blowjob was bullshit.

That said, Andrew Johnson was a terrible President.

[jsmirman]

11. I think you are both right and COMPLETELY WRONG

Although, actually, maybe nothing you said is wrong...

But that dude should have been impeached.

This was the deal:

You are correct that the Tenure of Office Act was total BS.

But this is what was crazy: In Johnson, you had a president, who was completely and utterly willfully disobedient as to his Executive duties! He encouraged violations of the laws set down by Congress and pursued actual policies that ran directly contrary to United States statutes. So much of what he did was actually illegal under the Constitution.

Now, the impeachment doctrine is, and has always been, amorphous in a form guaranteed to lead to trouble. But I actually believe that there is a serious case to be made that Johnson's actions in undermining Reconstruction rose to the level of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors."

We held a mock Senate trial of Andrew Johnson in my 11th Grade AP History class. I pushed hard for, and was rewarded with, the role of Ben Butler (a man who was so pernicious when taken in whole sum that an active campaign based on a desire to emulate such a man... indicated a certain lack of perspective).

I prepared my entire case around the concept of willful disobedience in the Executive Office.

I was horrified, when the trial began, to discover that I had failed to note that such a charge appeared nowhere in our list of charges. My entire case shot to pieces (as I knew the Tenure of Office Act stuff was a hopeless cause), the event descended into an extended and thorough humiliation.

Very funny to look back on as a current law student.

But that motherfucker could have been impeached, in my opinion. There actually WERE grounds, and for the life of me, I have never understood why they didn't pursue these charges and restricted themselves to the legal cockamamery that led to not only a narrow defeat, but what would have been, at best, an illegitimate victory.

[Hippo_Tron]

12. I will agree with that

I don't know the specifics of the legal history but if he was repeatedly using his executive authority to blatantly do the opposite of what the law says then yes he should've been impeached and convicted.

[jsmirman]

13. Yep. That's exactly it and that's really what he did.

It's been a long time since I've had the specifics at my command, but back then I had chapter and verse of instance after instance where your description is an exact fit.

Thanks for not being ticked off at "completely wrong!" - I was just being silly and saying YOU'RE COMPLETELY WRONG (little text) but actually everything you stated is completely right... hee


:D

[Zomby Woof]

16. One more reason I think Lincoln is overrated

Picking Johnson as his VP, no matter the rationale, proved to be an unmitigated disaster.

[ShadowLiberal]

17. Ironically historians used to rank him as one of our greatest presidents

What's really about Andrew Johnson, viewed widely as an utter failure today, is that he was once ranked as one of the best presidents ever by historians, listed right next to people like George Washington at the top of the list.

Racism is the primary reason for why Johnson was once viewed so highly. Johnson was viewed as a hero for fighting against a congress filled with radical republicans (then 'radical liberals') who wanted to do stuff like give former slaves the right to vote and give former slaves equal rights as white people (then a very radical idea), the reconstruction was also viewed as a time of wide corruption in the past. The whole impeachment thing by the radical republican congress also helped make Johnson a more sympathetic figure.

It wasn't until around WW2, I think maybe a bit after it, that racism had died enough for some historians to start to say "hey wait a second, whatever you think of Johnson he was a flat failure politically at building the base of support he needed to pass his agenda", then everyone else soon went "hey you're right" and Johnson sunk to the bottom of the greatest president list.

[Drunken Irishman]

18. Worst. President. Ever.

[Honeycombe8]

19. I think he was generally thought to be mentally imbalanced. nt

[jsmirman]

20. I think he may have legitimately been an out of control drunk

but the antebellum scholar in me really bought the concept that reconstruction fell in great part to this man's pathetic, tiny sense of self and his need - as someone who was never a member of the Southern Elite to feel big and important by receiving and pardoning former Confederate aristocrats who knew just how easy it was to play Old Andy. That always had the ring of truth.

[Zomby Woof]

21. The most impoverished background of all the presidents

Much was made of Lincoln's humble beginnings, but his father actually owned a decent-sized parcel of land in Kentucky, and after leaving that behind, was able to purchase land again in Indiana and later in Illinois. Lincoln was by no means well-off, but for their time and place on the frontier, he was middle class by those standards.

Johnson, on the other hand, was the embodiment of dirt poor. By any standard, he came from the worst poverty experienced by any president. He was illiterate until adulthood, when his wife taught him to read. He had made his living as a tailor before entering politics.