by Joe Snyder
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Andrew Johnson’s presidency was a failure, but Johnson (1808-75) was in many respects an impressive figure. The only tailor ever to occupy the White House, he was fiercely proud of his craft. I didn’t know much about him until I read the story in my Presidential Anecdotes book.
After serving as Lincoln’s second vice president for only six weeks, he was sworn in as president, April 15, 1865, after Lincoln’s assassination. He was the only southern Senator to oppose secession, but he bore the contempt and hatred of secessionists in Tennessee with courage and defiance. The first president that was tried for impeachment, he behaved with dignity and restraint during the ordeal of trial by the U.S. Senate. He was acquitted by one vote.
Johnson had no schooling but was apprenticed to a tailor at the age of 10. Eventually he had his own business. He married Eliza McCardle, a teacher in Greenville, Tenn. in 1827. Although he taught himself to read, she helped him polish up his reading and writing. His business thrived and his shop became a political meeting place for local craftsmen. Though he rose rapidly in life after entering politics he never forgot his humble origins. "Andy Johnson," said the people of Tennessee, "never went back on his raisin’." He made his own clothes until he went to Washington as a Congressman. When he was governor of Tennessee, he made a suit of clothes for the Governor of Kentucky who had been a blacksmith. He received a homemade shovel and pair of tongs in return. After he became president he hardly ever passed a tailor shop without stopping in for a chat.
Johnson became an alderman in Greenville’s town council in 1828 and then elected mayor. He served two terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives, and one of the state senators before he was elected to Congress. Lincoln appointed him Military Governor of Tennessee in 1862, the office he held for two years. In 1864, he became vice president for Lincoln’s second term just six weeks before the assassination.
After the assassination the government was in charge of unifying the country after four years of war mending the rift between the north and south. Johnson hoped for a mild recovery program but the Radical Republicans had other ideas. This eventually caused the process of impeachment by Congress but it ended in final acquittal of only one vote.
Many things were accomplished during Johnson’s presidency. The 13th amendment of freeing slavery in 1865. The 14th amendment stated that no state shall deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law, was added in 1868. Alaska was purchased on 1867 and Nebraska was admitted as a state in 1868.
Johnson was not nominated for another term as president. When he left the White House in March 1869, he returned to Greenville. Anxious to prove that he had been right all along, he ran for Congress late that year. He lost the election but ran again on 1872 and lost again. He tried once more in 1874 and was elected to his old office in the U. S. Senate. He died July 31, 1875, only a few months after taking office.