Library of Congress

Andrew Johnson

Similar in background to Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson also rose from humble beginnings to national stature. Having lost his father to a drowning accident and his family left destitute, young Andrew was apprenticed to a tailor at the age of 9. He never attended school, yet his love of words and the recognition of their power helped him to become a successful career politician and landowner. Abraham Lincoln recognized Andrew Johnson's potential to help him with reuniting the country when he invited him to replace Hannibal Hamlin as his running mate in the 1864 presidential election. "This Andy Johnson, I think," said Abraham Lincoln "is a good man." It was this former slave owner and Democrat from Tennessee who succeeded Abraham Lincoln as president on April 15, 1865 following Lincoln's death from assassination.

Andrew Johnson's term as president was not without controversy. Before his death, Abraham Lincoln had constructed a plan for the rebelling states to rejoin the Union. Andrew Johnson was intent on carrying out this plan when he followed Lincoln as President. Radical Republicans in Congress desired more stringent terms for readmission and a clash of wills ensued. When Johnson tried to remove Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, from office these same Radicals backed a move to have Johnson impeached. The House of Representatives voted impeachment and the Senate tried the case. In May of 1868, the Senate voted to acquit the President falling one vote short of the required two-thirds vote needed to convict.

After his term as president Andrew Johnson returned to Tennessee to become the only U.S. President to return to the Senate. Andrew Johnson died in 1875, six months after his election. He is buried in Greeneville, Tennessee with his copy of the Constitution resting under his head and his body wrapped in the American flag.