Andrew Johnson: The Seventeen President of the United States
Andrew Johnson was the seventeenth President of the United States of America who took presidency in 1865 and held the presidency up to 1869. However, Johnson a Southern democrat who became the President of America after the murder of Abraham Lincoln is quite among the most detested individuals in American history. He was known to have politics and druaged conflict s haw and was impeached during his time being president, thus his governance was stormy during the post-Civil War era.
Biio
Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina; he was poorly endowed,educationally and financially for his humble background. Nevertheless, he learned to be a tailor and moved into politics at a later time. He was the mayor of Greeneville, Tennessee and later, a member of Tennessee state Legislature before being elects to Congress. Johnson was a friend of common people and a foe of the plantation elite in the South.
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Johnson became military governor of Tennessee in 1862, when that state seceded from the Union during the Civil War, and Lincoln appointed him. Johnson was a Unionist and continued to support the federal government which made him to be trusted by Lincoln. In 1864 , Lincoln chose Johnson as his vice president’s candidate with an aim of compromising between the northern and the southern part of the Union during the war.
Presidency & Reconstruction
Johnson succeeded to the presidency on April 15, 1865 in after the Lincoln’s unseemly death. He came into a presidency following a Civil War and was faced with the painstaking responsibility of restoration and reconstruction of the South. Johnson however, was somewhat more lenient in his handling of what is referred to as **Reconstruction**- the process by which the Southern states were readmitted back into the Union. He stumped for an early reunion of the seceded states with the least tampering with the ante-bellum South by endorsing states’ rights and the return to political power of ex-Confederates.
His polices were somewhat different from most of the Republicans in Congress who sought seeking to impose more punitive terms to the South, including enfranchising the freed slaves. Johnson’s vetoes of important Reconstruction legislations like the Civil Rights bill of 1866 as well as the Freedmen Bureau paved way to conflict with Congress especially with RadicaḱRepublicanParty that claimed to uphold rights of Blacks.
