In 1862 President Lincoln appointed him Military Governor of Tennessee, and Johnson used the state as a laboratory for reconstruction. As a Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 1840’s and ’50’s, he advocated a homestead bill to provide a free farm for the poor man.ĭuring the secession crisis, Johnson remained in the Senate even when Tennessee seceded, which made him a hero in the North and a traitor in the eyes of most Southerners. He opened a tailor shop in Greeneville, Tennessee, married Eliza McCardle, and participated in debates at the local academy.Įntering politics, he became an adept stump speaker, championing the common man and vilifying the plantation aristocracy. He was apprenticed to a tailor as a boy, but ran away. Johnson was no match for them.īorn in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808, Johnson grew up in poverty. Arrayed against him were the Radical Republicans in Congress, brilliantly led and ruthless in their tactics. Although an honest and honorable man, Andrew Johnson was one of the most unfortunate of Presidents. With the Assassination of Lincoln, the Presidency fell upon an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states’ rights views. ![]() With the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became the 17th President of the United States (1865-1869), an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states’ rights views.
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