Stanton had strongly opposed Johnson's Reconstruction policies and the president hoped to replace him with Ulysses S. ![]() Stanton, a Lincoln appointee and ally of the Radical Republicans in Congress. The precipitant event that resulted in a third and successful impeachment action was the firing of Secretary of War Edwin M. In March of 1867 they also passed, over Johnson's presidential veto, the Tenure of Office Act which was designed to limit the president's ability to shape his cabinet by requiring that not only appointments but also dismissals be approved by the Senate.īy mid-1867, Johnson's enemies in Congress were repeatedly promoting impeachment. They responded with the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, promising political rights to African Americans. When Johnson vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau bill in February of 1866, he broke the final ties with his Republican opponents in Congress. The president looked for every opportunity to block action by the Radical Republicans. Within weeks, Johnson opposed political rights for freedmen and called for a lenient reconstruction policy, including pardoning former Confederate leaders. "By the Gods," proclaimed Senator Ben Wade of Ohio, "there will be no trouble now in running this government." Such good relations quickly soured, however, as Johnson's views on Reconstruction surfaced. Even the so-called Radical Republicans, who would pursue impeachment proceedings three years later, supported the new president. The initial response to a Johnson presidency was optimistic. Forty-two days later, he was president of the United States. Johnson became vice president on March 4, 1865. When Lincoln sought a second presidential term in 1864 and needed the support of "Union Democrats," he chose Johnson as his running mate. In March of 1862, President Lincoln rewarded Johnson's loyalty with appointment as military governor of Tennessee. Tennessee seceded, but Johnson remained in Washington. While the secession convention met in Charleston, South Carolina, Johnson addressed the Senate and proclaimed his allegiance to the Union. This was most evident following the 1860 election of Abraham Lincoln as president of the United States, when Southern states began to secede. Johnson proved to be an independent thinker. By 1857 Johnson had gained enough support in the state legislature to be elected to the U.S. He retaliated by being elected governor-twice. In 1853 his opponents gerrymandered him out of office. Johnson's humble beginnings and populist style endeared him to the working-class poor but put him at odds with the wealthy landowners who controlled state politics. ![]() He returned to state politics in 1839, moved to the state senate in 1841, and was elected to the U.S. ![]() In 1835 he joined the Tennessee state legislature, only to lose reelection two years later. His political career began when he was elected alderman of Greeneville in 1829, and five years later he became the small town's mayor. ![]() Aiding Johnson in his self-education, Eliza helped to improve his social status and political opportunities.Īndrew Johnson may have lacked a formal education, but he possessed an innate talent for debate and oratory. While still in his teens, Johnson moved with his family to Tennessee, settled in Greeneville, and married a shoemaker's daughter named Eliza McCardle. He had no formal schooling, but through the sheer force of will became a self-educated man. When the trial concluded on May 16, however, the president had won acquittal, not because a majority of senators supported his policies but because a sufficient minority wished to protect the office of the president and preserve the constitutional balance of powers.īorn into poverty in North Carolina in 1808, as a young boy Andrew Johnson became apprentice to a tailor. On March 5, the trial began in the Senate, where Republicans held more seats than the two-thirds majority required to remove Johnson from office. This clash culminated in the House of Representatives voting, on February 24, 1868, to impeach the president. Johnson vetoed legislation that Congress passed to protect the rights of those who had been freed from slavery. During the years immediately following the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson clashed repeatedly with the Republican-controlled Congress over reconstruction of the defeated South.
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