A deep dive into the political history of the United States, hosted by President Shrimpo. In the West Wing with President Shrimpo is a deep dive into the political history of the United States. Each episode looks at the people and driving factors that created the country we live in today with special focus on the stories and voices least heard.
President Shrimpo 0:01
Hello, my name is President Shrimpo and you're listening to in the west wing political history podcast brought to you by WKNC 88.1. And in this week's episode, we'll be taking a look at the failed presidents who have Abraham Lincoln's successor, Andrew Johnson, in the events that led to America's first presidential impeachment.
Andrew Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina 1808 to his parents, Jacob and Mary Johnson, in a two room shack. And he grew up in deep poverty. Neither of Andrews parents were literate. And Andrew never received a formal education, only learning to read with the help of a family friend. And interest father died when he was only three years old, which really kind of put him in a in a bad place early in life, which I think sort of explains some of the the sort of complexes that developed with him in his personality. Andrew worked as a tailor's apprentice, but he really didn't do well dealing with authority. And, in fact, Andrew would be in and out of trouble with a law, you know, clashing with with the contract that he had with with the tailor that he that he was an apprentice for. And eventually, Andrew would decide to move out West, and we traveled to eastern Tennessee on foot as a teenager, which is a quite ridiculous undertaking. i It's hard enough, you know, uprooting your life and moving to a new place, you know, in the modern age of transportation, but to do so, by walking all the way there. Without modern infrastructure. That's a it's an impressive undertaking, no matter how you look at it. Now, Andrew Johnson growing up as a young man in the Upper South, born in North Carolina, living in Tennessee, in the early 19th century, of course, was aware of politics. And because of the environment that Johnson grew up in, he really revered Andrew Jackson as a populist fighting for the interests of the white working class in the south. And in the 1830s, tennis Tennessee State Government would convene to pass a new constitution. This new constitution was designed to disenfranchise free black voters, reform the tax system in the state and improve funding for infrastructure. I think you can probably guess, why this new constitution was popular. And it wasn't necessarily for the latter two provisions. Now, Andrew Johnson would make a name for himself in Tennessee state politics by actively campaigning for this new constitution, and for its adoption. And this would then eventually lead Johnson down a path where he would be elected mayor of the town that he was living in, he would eventually rise to be a congressman would be eventually elected Governor of Tennessee, and then, very importantly, would be elected senator of the state of Tennessee. This was very important for his career when the civil war broke out. Very notably, Andrew Johnson was the only senator from a state that had voted to secede from the Union that remained loyal to the federal government. As the nation's most prominent southern Unionist, Johnson would deliver a speech on the Senate floor announcing, quote,
Andrew Johnson 4:06
I will not give up this government. No, I intend to stand by it. And I invite every man who is a patriot to rally around the altar of our common country and swear by our God, and all that is sacred and holy that the Constitution shall be saved and the union preserved.
President Shrimpo 4:22
So you may ask why, why was Andrew Johnson, a unionist? I think this largely has to do with his background coming from an impoverished family. He would make his political career in eastern Tennessee, which was the most mountainous and pro union part of the state. He had a very populist political ideology rooted in his upbringing and where he made a name for himself in politics. And because of that, he was really uninterested in the demands of the slaveholding southern aristocracy Now now Johnson owned slaves personally, however, this was by no means on the sort of plantation scale that the previous presidents had owned, like like John Tyler, or many of the founding fathers like like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. So, I think this should have informed a lot of Johnson's thinking surrounding the Civil War and why he was not as as predisposed to join the Confederate cause. Show, as as a very prominent southern Unionist, Johnson would be appointed the military governor of Tennessee in 1862. by President Lincoln and Johnson as military governor would aggressively fight to root out rebel influence in the remainder of the state that was not fully under Union control. Come 1864 Andrew Johnson would be selected to replace the incumbent vice president Hannibal Hamlin on the newly formed national unity ticket. The reasoning behind this was it was meant to sort of be a symbolic, unified unification of the the Republican incumbent administration with a prominent southern Democrat, but that that was, you know, committed to the Union war effort, it was sort of meant as sort of a symbolic change. And at this point in history, the vice presidency was a very minor role that didn't really have much sway or influence over the the presidential cabinet. And so there was sort of a calculated risk where there was an assumption that it doesn't really matter, that this southern Democrat is going to be the vice president, it's not really going to change the course of the Lincoln administration. As we touched on on the previous episode, the Lincoln Johnson ticket would solidly win a landslide victory in the election of 1864. And come Inauguration Day, in early March. Vice President Elect Andrew Johnson would arrive, hung over already, and would ask for another drink from the outgoing vice president, and it will Hamlin and on the Senate floor would deliver a long winded, very nearly incoherent speech that would embarrass the reelected administration. And, and this whole affair led to Johnson sort of hiding, running away with his with his tail between his legs. And he would kind of avoid the public eye for about a month after Inauguration Day. On April 14, Johnson and Lincoln would meet for the first time since Inauguration Day, about a month later. And the point of the meeting was to primarily discuss what post war reconstruction would look like, because the Civil War at this point is coming to a close. General Lee has has surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse, that it's all kind of winding down, the Confederate government is fleeing. Jeff Jefferson Davis is on the run. Forces, Confederate forces are surrendering, the war is not fully over. But for intents and purposes, the writing is on the wall, it's very clearly coming to a close. And so the point of this this meeting is to sort of just come to an agreement as to what reconstruction post Civil War would look like. And actually Johnson would come asking for Lincoln to really pursue an aggressive course in handling with the former rebels, which I think is sort of a bit of an irony considering how the history plays out from there. But on the night of April 14, the same day that the Johnson and Lincoln meet, Lincoln would attend a performance at Ford's Theatre, and would be assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. very famously, however, the Lincoln assassination was part of a coordinated effort to assassinate several prominent members of the administration, including Johnson, as well as Secretary of State William Seward.
Now, Seward's assassination attempt of the unsuccessful ones would be the one closest to being successful, because the assassin would be able to stab steward several times while he was in his bed. However, Seward would it be able to fight him off and survive the attempt, whereas Johnson's assassin actually got drunk beforehand and ended up leaving without even attempting to assassinate Vice President Johnson. Andrew Johnson would then rush to Lincoln's deathbed. And shortly after seeing Lincoln in a sort of incapacitated state, as he was dying, Johnson would bitterly promise, quote,
Andrew Johnson 10:15
They shall suffer for this, they shall suffer for this.
President Shrimpo 10:20
And the following day, Johnson would be sworn in as the 17th, President of the United States. Now, Andrew Johnson was generally perceived as somebody who would kind of be tough on the former rebels. And this was based on his tenure as the military governor of Tennessee. But also it's because of some of his early actions in office. For example, Johnson would move to overturn an armistice agreement made by General Sherman, with Confederate forces in North Carolina, which would have allowed North Carolina's Confederate government to essentially stay in place. So Johnson with the approval of of formerly Lincoln's cabinet, would move to overturn that Armistice Agreement. Additionally, Johnson would place an $100,000 bounty for the capture of former Confederate President Jefferson Davis, which Davis would eventually be caught and imprisoned in May of 1865. Also, Johnson would aggressively move to hunt down the the conspirators who hid assassinated President Lincoln. And very controversially, Johnson would authorize the execution of Mary Surat for her involvement in the conspiracy. The reason this was controversial is that she was a woman. And at the time executing women was sort of, I don't know, sort of seen as taboo. And so doing so was sort of seen as a very extreme measure. And so with this sort of context, congressional Republicans generally actually trusted President Johnson to set policy for rebuilding the south on his own terms, which is sort of interesting, you wouldn't think that, you know, northern Republicans, many of whom were sort of radical in their disposition towards reconstruction would trust a southern Democrat. But they truly believed that based on the evidence, Johnson had the record to back up that he would be a strong on Reconstruction. So some additional context on Reconstruction policy, is that actually, reconstruction policy started well, before Lincoln's assassination, and before the end of the Civil War. Lincoln and Congress had really kind of clashed over what reconstruction would look like, before the war even ended. President Lincoln favor what is sometimes called the 10% plan, the 10% plan would only require 10% of the state's electorate to sign a loyalty oath to the Union. And that, in turn, if they additionally ended slavery, they could be readmitted to the union with the caveat that any formerly enslaved people who were freed had to continue working on the land that they had worked on previously, for a year. But they would be paid a wage as opposed to fully unpaid involuntary servitude, which wasn't great. But it was sort of a compromise position on what reconstruction would look like. And under this model, Lincoln would move to readmit the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennessee. However, Congress would refuse to recognize any of these newly admitted state governments, or the votes that they had cast in 1864. And in response to this, congressional Republicans would produce a piece of legislation, which sort of shaped their vision of reconstruction, which would require states to have a majority of their electorate sign loyalty oaths to the union. However, President Lincoln would pocket veto each of these, which a pocket veto is essentially just a veto by just refusing to sign a bill or piece of legislation, as opposed to sort of doing the full on act of of a veto. They just sort of ignore it. In March of 1865, Congress would create the Freedmen's Bureau, which was a government agency that was meant to provide age to the recently freed African Americans in the South, end to sort of help in the restructuring of southern society post slavery. Congress authorized this Freedmen's Bureau to lease confiscated land in the south Show. So essentially, as a result of the Civil War, large portions of of white southern land holdings were seized by the federal government for sort of being, you know, these parts of these massive plantation systems the and so there was sort of The sentiment in, in North and among the union leadership that, you know, there, there should be consequences for the rebellion and show stemming in from this sort of seizure there is then this idea called 40 acres and a mule, which is this idea that there needs to sort of be mass land redistribution, to sort of, you know, alleviate the consequences of slavery. And so the Freedmen's Bureau had the authority to not only lease the land that was confiscated, but to also sell the property in portions of up to 40 acres. Now, as opposed to being, you know, a redistribution of the land solely to newly freed African Americans, people, regardless of race could purchase the land in these plots of 40 acres. But it was sort of an attempt at manifesting 40 acres and a mule in a way that at least made some sense to American values in that particular moment. And so with this backdrop of Lincoln's clashes with Radical Republicans in Congress, as well as the creation of the Freedmen's Bureau, President Johnson would set forth with his version of presidential reconstruction before Congress would reconvene later in 1865. So while Johnson, prior to entering office, had publicly called for the hangings of Confederates in office, Johnson really sort of softened his position. And actually, Johnson would move to pardon many former Confederates, as well as their leaders. And no Confederates or former Confederates, were tried for treason as had initially been expected, the harshest punishment that would be faced by anybody under Johnson's administration, would be former Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, remaining imprisoned for I believe, three years. But that was about it. There wasn't much more than that, and that there had been, there had been calls to hang Jeff Davis in general leave, but none of that really came to fruition. And in fact, Johnson would move very quickly to reintegrate the former Confederate states back into the Union, because he never, he believed that they never really truly left the union in the first place. And Johnson would quickly set out to appoint new governors, and recognized reorganized the state governments with no real regard as to what their new policies would be. And really, the only thing that he asked for in return for the readmit readmission was their ratification of the 13th amendment, and for a public repudiation of their former secession. This was really a very soft position for reconstruction. But there is some argument to be made that Johnson may have thought that they truly believed this is what Lincoln's vision for reconstruction was, there's not really a lot to go off of. So that's sort of just a guess, honestly. But people were very unhappy with this arrangement. And in fact, Johnson would dismiss general Nathaniel P. Banks, from his command in Louisiana, after General banks, lodged complaints to the Johnson administration, because the new state government in Louisiana was appointing former Confederates into the state government. Johnson thought that that was not the federal government's business end up and fired to the commander that was in charge of overseeing the state, which I think is is very telling as to where he stood on the issue. And in fact, the the new state governments of the former Confederate states recognized how soft Johnson was being towards them. With one of Johnson's appointees. The appointed governor of Alabama, Louis E. Parsons, announced to the state that, quote,
Lewis E. Parsons 19:26
every political right, which the state possessed, under the federal constitution is hers today, with the single exception relating to slavery.
President Shrimpo 19:37
As a result of this fairly soft reconstruction policy, many southern states would begin implementing what were what were dubbed black codes. And essentially what these were, were laws drafted meant to maintain the second class position of African Americans in southern society. Africa, newly freed African Americans did not have voting rights. They were not granted citizenship. They weren't allowed to own firearms to serve on a jury in a lawsuit that involved white people, or to move from county to county without employment. These are very basic violations of, of American conceptions of freedom, particularly, I think, very egregious ly, restricting the right to movement. That really, it's all the combination of all of these things, very extreme. And Northern opinion was very strongly against this. And the Freedmen's Bureau really actively tried to counteract these policies, sort of acting as the sort of intermediary of congressional Republicans. But Johnson didn't intervene against black codes. In fact, he believed that the issue of enfranchisement was a state's issue. So he basically didn't believe that it was the federal government's responsibility to dictate who was or was not allowed to vote in state elections. And this is partly because of Johnson's political ideology and his vision for the reconstructed South society. Johnson believed that it was sort of his duty as as a populist representing the the sort of southern white working class, that was his responsibility to try to uplift the working class white population in the south, but to sort of maintain the social subjugation of African Americans and maintain their position at the bottom rung of southern society. And in turn, Johnson would move to grant amnesty to former Confederates, who were in the planter class, and actually moved to return their property to them. You know, they're large portions of southern planter class property had been seized, and was actually being redistributed under the Freedmen's Bureau. But for some reason, Johnson pivoted and decided, You know what, no, they should have their massive plantations returned to them. And so all of this combined, created a social order in the South that was very similar to that of antebellum conditions. And this very much put Johnson at odds with the goals of Congress. Now, Congress would reconvene in December of 1865, and would pretty much immediately start pushing back against Johnson's vision of reconstruction, by refusing to seat congressmen that were elected in the states that Johnson had re admitted, essentially, refusing to recognize that these states had been reconstructed as as Johnson had claimed, had been done. And additionally, Republicans in Congress would draft legislation to sort of reverse some of these, these positions taken by Johnson, including an extension of the Freedmen's Bureau past its expiration that was set in 1867, as well as the drafting of a Civil Rights Act, that would sort of enshrine the rights of African Americans that were recently freed in the South. Now, Johnson very publicly opposed these pieces of legislation, as the most Democrats and sort of the vast bulk of southern society. But moderate Republicans really, truly believed that they could work with Andrew Johnson on this, with in particular Senator Lyman Trumbull, working to try to kind of come to some agreement with Johnson and he really truly believed that that he had sort of talked some sense into the president and sort of explaining his position on why he supported the Civil Rights Act. Trumbull explained that ending slavery would have essentially been empty, if, quote,
Lyman Trumbull 24:15
laws are to be enacted and enforced, depriving persons of African descent of privileges which are essential the Freeman, a law that does not allow a colored person to go from one county to another, and one that does not allow him to hold property to teach to preach, are certainly laws and violation of the rights of a Freeman. The purpose of this bill is to destroy all of these discriminations.
President Shrimpo 24:43
With these various sort of lofty goals and ambitions. moderate Republicans really thought we can work with Johnson, and we're very hopeful that he was signed these pieces of legislation which had solidly passed both houses of Congress. Johnson would veto both his veto of the Civil Rights Act was overturned. But his initial veto of the extension of the Freedmen's Bureau was not actually overturned. But a slightly watered down version would be passed. Johnson would veto that as well. But that veto would be overturned. And so this sort of stuff was the first big spat, between Johnson and Republicans in Congress. Andrew Johnson would then deliver a speech to his political supporters, which had marched to the White House on George Washington's birthday, February 22 1866. This was sort of meant to be a very light event, it was supposed to just sort of be a reaffirmation of, of the unity of the country, and sort of to sort of just be, really, it was supposed to sort of be a softball to sort of allow Johnson to sort of pitch himself as the president, that's a uniter and kind of keeping the country together. But instead of talking about George Washington, you'd spend pretty much the entire speech talking about himself. In fact, he referred to himself 200 times, and wood. And he really bitterly spoke out against men that he said, still opposed the union, unlike southerners, I think you heard that correct. He said that people who were opposed to the Union were different than the good southerners that he had been working with. And eventually, eventually, that the crowd would ask for him to name who he was talking about. And he would finally say that he actually was talking about Republicans like Thaddeus Stevens in the house, and Charles Sumner in the Senate, and sort of out of nowhere, accused these these congressional Republicans of plotting his assassination. This really kind of burned any bridges that were left between him and congressional Republicans. And as a result, Congress should have gave up on trusting Johnson to do really anything good anymore. And they would take the reins of reconstruction from that point forward. Now, I need to note that in reaction to reconstruction was was a very concerted, violent effort to oppose any serious changes in the southern social order. And in December of 1865, in Tennessee, a group of former Confederate officers would come together and form an organization known as the Ku Klux Klan. They sort of were wrapped in, in sort of weird, occult sort of imagery, and sort of function, a secret society. But their their purpose was to violently terrorize the recently freed black population of the South, and any sort of reformers that had come down to the south to sort of help in rebuilding southern society. Not only was reconstruction frustrated by by Johnson's refusal to cause any meaningful change, but there was violent vigilante action, judicial murder, that was meant to sort of terrorize the recently freed southern population and maintain these oppressive social structures that had been created under slavery. Now, in reaction to to Johnson's refusal to cooperate with Congress, Republicans would draft what would be called the 14th Amendment, which intended to codify portions of the Civil Rights Act into the Constitution. And this proposed amendment would establish a concept called birthright citizenship, which basically meant that anybody born within the United States would be granted full citizenship and would be guaranteed to have those rights that citizenship entails. I will say this was designed to exclude Native Americans because that's simply the nature of politics at this point in time. But alongside birthright citizenship, the proposed amendment would theoretically prohibit discrimination of recently freed African Americans, and we prohibit insurrectionists from ever holding federal office. And this amendment would pass through Congress in the summer of 1866. Despite President Johnson's opposition, I will be passed on to the states for their ratification in order for the amendment to be adopted. Now entering the midterms of 1866, President Johnson hoped to really sort of strengthen his position and really tried to pitch himself as as the true successor to Lincoln's National Union Party. And in order to sort of kick up support for his his sort of political efforts, he went on a very ill fated public speaking tour, where he went across the nation and delivered speeches to people that he hoped would be his supporters. And this public speaking tour was called swing around the circle, and it would prove disastrous for his reputation. During the tour, Johnson would repeatedly compare himself to Jesus Christ, and compared Republicans to Judas. This really was not a good look for Johnson. And when questioned by reporters outside in event in Cleveland, about whether or not he was maintaining his dignity, Johnson spat back at them,
Andrew Johnson 31:07
I don't care about my dignity!
President Shrimpo 31:10
The newspapers had a field day with this, and Johnson, and Johnson's reputation, sank even deeper into the mud. And it all really kind of proved to be for nothing, because Republicans would sweep in the midterms of 1866, with Radical Republicans gaining seats, and their position was really sort of left significantly stronger than it had been previously. I will say, not all of Johnson's presidency was was drama, and one of the few true successes of Johnson's administration would be the Purchase of Alaska. Now, the Russian Empire was in a bad spot economically after the Crimean War, which had been fought in the 1850s. And they really kind of didn't view their their colony in Alaska is particularly economically viable, it was a fur trapping territory. And as the global economy modernized, the value of this didn't seem to be as worth it, as it once had. And on top of that, they the Russians kind of generally believed that, you know, Alaska border in Canada, would be particularly vulnerable to British invasion. should Russia go to war with Britain once again. And so, Secretary of State William Seward, would negotiate the Purchase of Alaska from the Russian Empire for roughly $7.2 million, which is about $151 million, if you account for inflation today. And the treaty would be signed on March of 1867. And would be ratified by Congress nearly unanimously, it was it was really very wide margin, that the annexation of Alaska would be would be ratified by. And really, this was one of the few instances of agreement between President Johnson and the Radical Republican Congress. Now, at the time, some people did dump this as quote Seward's Folly, sort of claiming that it was a pointless purchase that was way too expensive and wasn't worth much value. But that that's sort of overblown. And the the degree to which people were opposed to the Alaska annexation, is sort of overestimated today, actually, generally was a very popular decision. Now, moving back to the sort of more turbulent relationship between Johnson and Congress, Johnson really constantly tried to undermined Congressional Reconstruction policy, and would direct southern state governments to resist the 14th amendment, and any efforts to force states to adopt a new constitution. And this would set in motion a clash that would prove to be politically fatal for Johnson. Now, President Johnson largely retained Lincoln's cabinet. However, he increasingly became at odds with them and sort of made public comments that suggested that he was going to start firing them and replacing them with men that were more in line with his views. And so Congress set out to sort of restrict Johnson's ability to replace his cabinet.
And Congress would pass something called the Tenure of Office Act, which forced Johnson to get Senate approval before he could remove any of his Cabinet officials. However, the constitutionality of this law has come into question it was questioned at the time that's Not a power that that really seems to be in the hands of Congress. But that's what they decided to do. And so, really, it was sort of a setup for Johnson. Because Johnson came to clash with his Secretary of War, William Stanton. In particular, they had disagreed on what authority the military had in states under reconstruction, and Johnson demanded stands resignation over the issue, which Stanton would refuse. Johnson would then suspend Stanton and replace Stanton with General Ulysses Grant. The Senate when it eventually reconvened in 1868, reinstated Stanton's position, which then led to Johnson firing Stanton, and triggered Articles of Impeachment to be filed against President Johnson on February 24 1868, in a lopsided vote of 128 to 47. In the House of Representatives with 11 Articles of Impeachment filed, a Senate trial would quickly be convened with Congressman Benjamin Butler, as the Republican head prosecutor. Most senators generally intended to vote along partisan lines, Democrats, the few of them that were in the Senate were going to loyally vote for Johnson. And Republicans generally wanted to remove Johnson from office. However, Johnson maneuvered to negotiate with moderate Republicans, and basically made a number of concessions and promises to these moderate Republicans, promising that he would stop fighting against Congressional Reconstruction. And that, really, he would sort of be a lame duck. And with with this agreement reached, only three articles of impeachment would be voted on. On an end on each vote 10, moderate Republicans would vote not guilty each time seeing the writing on the wall, the trial would adjourn, as it was very clear that the Senate would not reach the necessary threshold to remove Johnson from office. And so Johnson would be left in office. But he'd really lost any and all political capital that he had left over, and would really sort of be left as a lame duck for the remainder of his tenure, and really sort of faded into a non entity in public life. Johnson had sort of hoped in the presidential election of 1868, to be the Democratic candidate and to sort of continue his tenure as president. But Democrats didn't really buy what he was selling and after a damaging impeachment trial, Johnson just didn't have the momentum necessary to win the Democratic nomination as he would be passed over. And instead, Democrats would nominate New York Governor, Horatio Seymour to be their presidential nominee after the impeachment trial. In the following seven months, Congress would move to readmit seven southern states, which they had previously refused to to readmit up on the condition that they adopted new state constitutions, and they ratified the 14th Amendment. The 14th amendment, in turn, would be adopted on July 9 1868. Now in the presidential election, Democrats were still kind of clinging on to this pre Civil War, white supremacist social order. And they would pitch themselves as the party of the white man and would really run a horribly racist campaign full of slurs, cooperation with the kkk endorsing political violence against freed black voters. But all of the screaming and kicking would all be for naught. As Republican nominee, Ulysses Grant, would be elected on a platform reaffirming the 14th amendment and supporting the newly proposed 15th amendment, which was designed to prohibit the government from denying the vote to anybody on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. And the voting public would affirm the Republican stance on Reconstruction. And grant would win in a landslide and Johnson's view of reconstruction would be repudiated. On the next episode of In the West Wing, we will be taking a look at the continuation of reconstruction, the turbulent tenure of Ulysses Grant and the bloated political system that kind of crops up, post Civil War. As always, I've been your host, President Shimpo and you've been listening to in the West Wing. As always, special thanks to those who helped give history a voice in this week's episode of In The West Wing with Claire Conklin as Andrew Johnson, Spencer Grattan as Lewis E. Parsons, and Jackson Terwelp as Lyman Trumbull. The intro music used is star spangled banner by the United States marine band, and our outro song is Libertad by iriarte and pesoa.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai