Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He grew up in poverty and was forced to teach himself how to read and be literate. At the age of 18 he had set up his own tailoring business in Raleigh and married 16 year old Eliza McCardle where they had five kids, Martha, Charles, Mary, Robert, and Andrew Jr. Johnson then began having public debates with Blackston McDannel, a costumer of Johnson’s. He became town alderman in 1829 and then Mayor in 1834.
Once Johnson joined the Democratic Party he was elected as the Governor of Tennessee in 1853 and then elected to the US Senate in 1856. Johnson was a strong speaker and debater who advocated the homestead bill to provide for the poor man while in the House of Representatives and the Senate during the 40’s and 50’s. He was big with opposing the anti-slavery legislation. While Tennessee was seceding, Johnson still remained in the Senate so he was looked like a hero in the North but a traitor in the South. He greatly supported Lincoln in the Civil War and was the only Senate in the South who didn’t want to join the Confederacy. In 1862 he became the Military Governor of Tennessee. In 1862 the Republicans nominated him to run for Vice President as a running mate with Lincoln.
When Lincoln died, while the Reconstruction process was beginning to start, Johnson took over and altered Lincoln’s plan. It was known as the 10%+ plan that included plans such as pardoning all that take an oath of allegiance and having men with higher power to take special Presidential pardons. In 1865 most Southern states were reconstructed and slavery was almost abolished except that “black codes” to regulate freedmen started to appear, which would leave to sharecroppers. The Radical Republicans tried changing Johnson’s plan but getting involved with Congress to get it vetoed.
During his presidency, The Civil Rights Act of 1866 established Negroes as American citizens and the Fourteenth Amendment was created that stated no state should “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Many bloody riots broke out in the South due to the amendment and the Radical Republicans won in Congress elections that fall.
In 1868 Johnson continued to veto the Freeman’s Bureau which took away the chance for him to be renominated. Also, due to the Radicals being in Congress, they passed laws that restricted the President and when Johnson broke these laws, The Tenure of Office Act, Johnson became very close to getting impeached. He was acquitted by one vote by the Senate in 1868.
Johnson retired from office in 1869 and was denied a seat in the Senate and the House of Representatives in 1872. However, he was elected as the Senator of Tennessee shortly before he died on July 31, 1875.
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