Andrew Johnson Biography Quotes 13 Report mistakes

Early Life and Self-Made Beginnings
Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on December 29, 1808, into poverty that shaped his outlook for life. His father died when he was young, and Johnson was apprenticed as a tailor, a trade that would sustain him as he rose from obscurity. Seeking broader opportunity, he moved west to Greeneville, Tennessee, where he opened a small tailor shop. In 1827 he married Eliza McCardle, whose steady guidance and learning habits helped refine his education. He was largely self-taught, and Eliza encouraged him to read widely and practice public speaking. Their family would include several children, and in Washington years later his daughter Martha Johnson Patterson helped serve as White House hostess when Eliza's health kept her from public life.

From his shop, Johnson spoke with customers about civic matters and gained a reputation as an advocate for working people who lacked political influence. He entered local politics, serving as alderman and then mayor of Greeneville. The experience taught him practical governance and honed his talent for speaking directly to voters in plain language. He favored limited government spending and taxes, and he celebrated the ideals of the self-made citizen, reflecting the Jacksonian spirit that animated his early political identity.

Rise in Tennessee and National Politics
Johnson advanced to the Tennessee state legislature and then to the United States House of Representatives in the 1840s. He aligned with the Democratic Party's populist wing, presenting himself as a champion of small farmers and mechanics. He later served as governor of Tennessee, emphasizing fiscal restraint and educational improvements, and in 1857 entered the U.S. Senate. Though a Southern slaveholder by background, he cast himself as a staunch Unionist. In this period his political world brought him into contact with influential figures such as William H. Seward, a leading Republican senator, and later Ulysses S. Grant, an officer whose wartime success would profoundly shape national politics.

Civil War and Loyalty to the Union
When secession tore apart the nation, Johnson, unlike many Southern politicians, refused to abandon the Union. He remained in the Senate even after Tennessee seceded, the only senator from a seceding state to do so. Recognizing his usefulness in holding loyal elements in the border South, President Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee in 1862. Johnson worked to restore federal authority and support the war effort, aligning with Union generals operating in the Western Theater. He argued for punishing leading secessionists while courting ordinary citizens back to loyalty. The position raised his national profile and placed him among Unionist Southerners like Tennessee editor and politician William G. "Parson" Brownlow, with whom he cooperated in restoring state governance.

Vice Presidency and Succession
In 1864, Lincoln sought a symbol of national unity on the ticket. Johnson, a Southern Union Democrat, was selected as vice president on a National Union slate. He took office in March 1865. Barely weeks later, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, and Johnson became the seventeenth President of the United States on April 15, 1865. The sudden transition thrust him into leadership at a moment of victory over the Confederacy and intense uncertainty about how to reconstruct the nation.

Johnson initially retained Lincoln's cabinet, including William H. Seward at State, Gideon Welles at Navy, and Edwin M. Stanton at War. Though Seward would remain an important ally, Stanton's insistence on rigorous federal oversight in the South soon brought him into conflict with the new president. Johnson also inherited Lincoln's working relationships with military leaders such as Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general, whose national standing would grow as the political battles of Reconstruction unfolded.

Reconstruction Policies and Conflicts
Johnson's approach to Reconstruction emphasized rapid restoration of the former Confederate states with relatively lenient terms. He issued broad amnesty proclamations and appointed provisional governors to lead Southern states back into the Union, requiring formal abolition of slavery but moving quickly to reestablish local authority. This leniency allowed Southern legislatures to adopt so-called Black Codes that restricted the rights of newly freed people. Congressional Republicans, especially Radical leaders like Thaddeus Stevens in the House and Charles Sumner in the Senate, saw these developments as a betrayal of the war's results and pressed for civil rights protections.

Johnson vetoed key Reconstruction measures, including extensions of the Freedmen's Bureau and the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Congress overrode his veto of the Civil Rights Act, the first major override of a presidential veto on such a fundamental policy. He opposed the Fourteenth Amendment, which promised citizenship and equal protection, and he took his case to the public in an ill-fated "swing around the circle" in 1866. The tour, marked by combative speeches, further divided him from Republican majorities. His interactions with Frederick Douglass, who urged federal protection for Black suffrage and civil equality, highlighted the chasm between Johnson's views and those of prominent abolitionists and civil rights advocates.

Foreign affairs provided one of the few bright spots of his administration. Working closely with William H. Seward, the United States concluded the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, expanding American territory in the Pacific and Arctic. The administration also took steps to secure Midway Atoll, signaling broader Pacific ambitions. Yet these achievements could not offset the fierce domestic struggle over Reconstruction, where policy and principle collided daily.

Impeachment Crisis
The conflict reached its peak over control of the War Department and the enforcement of Reconstruction Acts. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act to limit the president's power to remove certain officials without Senate approval. Johnson tested the law by attempting to dismiss Edwin M. Stanton, who supported the congressional program. The House of Representatives, led by Radical Republicans including Thaddeus Stevens, impeached the president in 1868. The Senate trial, presided over by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, riveted the nation. In the end, Johnson avoided removal from office by a single vote short of the constitutionally required two-thirds majority. Although acquitted, his political authority was effectively broken. The episode cemented his bitter rivalry with congressional leaders and underscored the difficulties of rebuilding the Union amid deep disagreements about citizenship and power.

Relationship with Grant and the Election of 1868
As Johnson's conflict with Congress escalated, Ulysses S. Grant's public stature grew. Johnson and Grant differed sharply on Reconstruction policy and civilian control over military districts in the South. The rift foreshadowed the transfer of power in 1869, when Grant won the presidency. Johnson, who had sought to influence the postwar settlement on his terms, left office isolated, while Republicans claimed a mandate to continue enforcing civil rights and Reconstruction through federal authority.

Family Life and Personal Traits
Throughout his career, Johnson relied on his family's quiet support. Eliza McCardle Johnson, often in poor health, stayed largely out of the public eye but remained a crucial counselor. Their daughter Martha helped manage White House social functions during an era of political acrimony. Johnson's son Robert worked as his secretary for a time, reflecting how familial ties intersected with public duty in an age before modern executive staffing. Johnson's plainspoken style, pride in his humble origins, and fierce independence endeared him to some constituents even as those same traits alienated many national leaders who expected greater flexibility.

Return to Tennessee and Final Years
After leaving the presidency in 1869, Johnson returned to Tennessee, where he remained a contentious and polarizing figure. He sought various offices and, in 1875, achieved a unique distinction by being elected to the United States Senate, becoming the only former president to return to that chamber. His reappearance on the national stage signaled the persistence of his Unionist identity and his conviction that he had acted in the nation's best interest, despite the turbulence of his term. Later that year, on July 31, 1875, he died in Tennessee, closing a political life that touched nearly every chapter of mid-nineteenth-century American upheaval.

Legacy
Andrew Johnson's legacy is one of stark contrasts. He rose from poverty through determination, cultivated a reputation as a defender of the common man, remained loyal to the Union when his region fell away, and became Lincoln's unexpected successor at the most precarious juncture in American history. Yet as president he opposed sweeping federal protections for formerly enslaved people and clashed repeatedly with congressional leaders like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, who insisted on civil rights and equal protection. His combative approach contributed to one of the nation's great constitutional crises, placing him on trial before the Senate under the watch of Salmon P. Chase and in the political shadow of Ulysses S. Grant.

Supporters have praised Johnson's devotion to the Union and strict reading of executive powers, while critics have faulted him for blocking or diluting measures that might have secured equality and political participation for freedpeople in the South. His exchanges with reformers such as Frederick Douglass vividly illustrated the moral stakes of Reconstruction and the limits of presidential leadership in the face of profound social change. The Alaska purchase, shepherded by William H. Seward, stands as a durable achievement of his administration, but it is overshadowed by enduring debates over Reconstruction and citizenship.

In the judgment of history, Andrew Johnson remains a pivotal, controversial figure: a Southern Unionist who inherited Lincoln's office, fought Congress to a standstill, and left a mixed record that continues to shape assessments of presidential power, civil rights, and the nation's long, unfinished struggle to define freedom after the Civil War.

Our collection contains 13 quotes who is written by Andrew, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Justice - Leadership - Military & Soldier - Equality.

Other people realated to Andrew: Carl Schurz (Revolutionary), Ignatius Donnelly (Politician), Lyman Trumbull (Politician), Gideon Welles (Soldier), John Albion Andrew (Politician), Robert Toombs (Politician), Benjamin F. Wade (Politician), Joseph E. Brown (Politician)