Johnson, Andrew
Johnson, Andrew (1808–1875), vice president, seventeenth president of the United States.As a Tennessee congressman in 1843–53 and senator in 1857–62, Johnson provided mixed signals on military issues. In 1850, he remarked that he might like to have one of his sons in the navy, and he worked to get Tennessee boys into West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy. Yet Johnson was at heart a small government Democrat, with special concerns about money and class privilege. Thus in a speech on appropriations in August 1852 he derided the “imbecile” congressional sons who got preference; proposed to close both academies; attacked the wasteful War and Navy Department bureaucracies; and called the army and navy expensive and oppressive in the European style.
Johnson was a strong nationalist, who favored expansion and strongly supported the administration during the Mexican War, even though he and PresidentJames K. Polk openly despised each other. During the secession crisis, Johnson remained firmly loyal to the Union. Abraham Lincoln, needing a strong‐willed figure to begin Reconstruction in Tennessee, appointed Johnson military governor in 1862. This was an anomalous position in American law, and one that the fortunes of war and necessities of politics made frustrating. Johnson's relations with Union generals were often strained.
Upon Lincoln's death (1865), Johnson succeeded to the assassination presidency. In implementing Reconstruction policy the army played a central role in the institutional struggle between Congress and the president in 1866–67. Johnson's efforts to bring Ulysses S. Grant into his political circle led to a public breach with the popular general. Johnson did have friendly relations with William Tecumseh Sherman, who nonetheless refused a political role. Impeachment proceedings in 1868 were on an asserted violation of the Tenure of Office Act, arising out of the removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton—a step Johnson justified both on his general executive authority under the Constitution and his specific function as commander in chief.
[See also Civil War: Postwar Impact; Commander in Chief, President as; Expansionism.]
Johnson was a strong nationalist, who favored expansion and strongly supported the administration during the Mexican War, even though he and PresidentJames K. Polk openly despised each other. During the secession crisis, Johnson remained firmly loyal to the Union. Abraham Lincoln, needing a strong‐willed figure to begin Reconstruction in Tennessee, appointed Johnson military governor in 1862. This was an anomalous position in American law, and one that the fortunes of war and necessities of politics made frustrating. Johnson's relations with Union generals were often strained.
Upon Lincoln's death (1865), Johnson succeeded to the assassination presidency. In implementing Reconstruction policy the army played a central role in the institutional struggle between Congress and the president in 1866–67. Johnson's efforts to bring Ulysses S. Grant into his political circle led to a public breach with the popular general. Johnson did have friendly relations with William Tecumseh Sherman, who nonetheless refused a political role. Impeachment proceedings in 1868 were on an asserted violation of the Tenure of Office Act, arising out of the removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton—a step Johnson justified both on his general executive authority under the Constitution and his specific function as commander in chief.
[See also Civil War: Postwar Impact; Commander in Chief, President as; Expansionism.]
Bibliography
James E. Sefton , Andrew Johnson and the Uses of Constitutional Power, 1980.
Hans L. Trefousse , Andrew Johnson: A Biography, 1989.
James E. Sefton
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Johnson, Andrew