Congress’s Presidential Conquest

Congress’s Presidential Conquest

Jessica J. Scholtz

US to 1877

Mr. Mark Hanson

28 April 2005

“I am sworn to uphold the Constitution as Andy Johnson understands it and interprets it.” This is a simple quote from a simple man. 17th President of the United States, Andrew Johnson, and Congress had a sharp conflict about the way the South should be “re-constructed” in the wake of the just finished Civil War. The interpretation of this period of US history has been that Johnson was railroaded by radical Republicans and did not deserve to be impeached. Johnson wanted reconciliation with the former rebel states of the South, and that radical Republicans were out to humiliate the South and force a radical reconstruction program on them. The impeachment of President Andrew Johnson was unjust and primarily driven by radical members of the Congress who held different views on Reconstruction and how it should be accomplished.

Andrew Johnson was born to a poor family in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was never formally educated but until the age of 16, he was apprenticed to a tailor. At 16, he ran away to Greeneville, Tennessee where he opened his own tailor shop. He would eventually marry Eliza McCardle who helped to improve on his reading, writing, and math. Because his tailor business was doing so well, he was able to save up and buy a few slaves of his own. The two would have five children together.

In 1829 Johnson was elected councilman and mayor of Greenville. During this, Johnson discovered a chic for public speaking. He made a rapid rise within the ladder of political offices. In 1835 he was sent to the state general assembly. Running as a Democrat, he was elected to the state senate and then two years later the House of Representatives which he served in until 1853. While in Congress, Johnson was notorious for his advocacy of cheap western land for the homesteaders and support for the Mexican War. He was elected twice as governor of Tennessee in 1853 and 1855. In 1857, he was in the U.S. Senate and he again tried to struggle for the homestead bill. Unfortunately the measure was vetoed by President James Buchanan. One of the biggest jumps in his political career came in 1862 when Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee. He took up his post at the state capital.

In effort to win votes from the Democrats and to balance Lincoln’s Union ticket with Southern Democrat,