#17 POTUS Andrew Johnson was born on this day in 1808.

Ten Notes On Andrew Johnson.

1. Andrew Johnson was born on this date in 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was 5’10 168 pounds. He had blue eyes and brown hair. When Andrew was three his father died shortly after saving the lives of three men whose boat had capsized. Andrew grew up poor, he didn’t receive an education. He is the only unschooled man to ever become POTUS. He apprenticed to be a tailor.

2. Andrew Johnson was the only southern congressman who did not leave the Union at the start of the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of Tennessee [his home state] in 1862. Although he was a democrat and Lincoln was a republican-Lincoln put him on the ticket as his Vice-President in 1864. Lincoln’s thinking was that Johnson could help win over the ‘War Democrats” Lincoln/Johnson won the election rather easily in 1864.

3. Johnson became Vice-President on March 4th,1865. At the inaugural Johnson was reportedly drunk and was a big embarrassment. He gave a long rambling speech. There would be rumours that Johnson was an alcoholic. Lincoln and Johnson were not close. It would be just six weeks into the second Lincoln administration that Lincoln would be assassinated and Andrew Johnson replaced him as POTUS. Lincoln was assassinated on April 15th,1865. There was a plot where Johnson was supposed to be assassinated that night too but George Atzerodt drank a few too many soda pops at the bar that evening and thought better of it and didn’t even attempt to kill the Vice President. Johnson would keep Lincoln’s cabinet when he took over as POTUS.

4. Before becoming the 17th POTUS- Andrew Johnson was a tailor, an alderman in Greenville, Tennessee from 1828-34, the mayor of Greenville in 1834[he became the first person who had been a mayor to become POTUS} a member of the Tennessee legislature 1835-36 and 1839-40} a member of the Tennessee state senate from 1841-43, a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1843-53, the Governor of Tennessee from 1853-57, a member of the United States Senate 1857-61, military governor of Tennessee 1862-65.

5. In 1827 18 year old Andrew Johnson married 16 year-old Eliza McCardle. They would be married for 50 years and have 5ive children. Mrs. Johnson taught her husband arithmetic up to basic algebra and helped him improve his literacy,reading and writing skills. While he was POTUS, Mrs. Johnson was something of a recluse, she was not seen that often and the Johnson’s daughter Martha served as the official hostess at the White House.

6. Being POTUS after the assassination of Lincoln was a tough chore. Johnson was not up to it. He would attempt to follow Lincoln’s plans for reconstruction with the south but Johnson had none of Lincoln’s abilities. Johnson and Congress never got along. Johnson’s plan was to be lenient towards the former Confederates but the Radical Republicans in Congress would not go along with him.  The Radical Republican’s wanted to punish instead of forgive. In 1866 Johnson’s veto of a Civil Rights Act giving citizenship to all born in the United States was overturned. Congress made acceptance of the 14th Amendment a pre-condition for readmission into the union. In the 1866 elections the Republicans won 2/3rds majority in both the House and Senate. Bad news for Johnson.

7.  In 1868 Johnson would become the first POTUS to be impeached. He removed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from office without Congressional approval. There were 11 articles of impeachment and the trial lasted three months. The trial in the United States Senate fell one vote short of removing Johnson from office. To be removed you have to have 2/3rd majority in favor of conviction. The vote was 35 to 19.  POTUS Johnson would finish out his term with little power and he failed to get the Democratic nomination in 1868 and he went home to Tennessee. Johnson is generally ranked near or at the bottom when the experts rank the POTUS.

8. Johnson became the only former POTUS to return to Washington as a United States Senator in 1875. But his return to Washington was short lived. He died of a stroke on July 31st, 1875 only months after joining the Senate. He was 66 years old. Eliza Johnson died just 5ive months later.

9. The greatest thing to happen during the Johnson was when his Secretary of State William Seward purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867 for $7,200,000. At the time there was a lot of criticism of the deal but I think it turned out pretty well.

10. Andrew Johnson and Eliza Johnson were married by Mordecai Lincoln who was a first cousin to Thomas Lincoln, the father of Abraham Lincoln.