Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson became president following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, less than a week after the Confederate military surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse on April 9, 1865, bringing the American Civil War to a close. With the south in ruin and Reconstruction having just commenced, Johnson, who gained the national prominence that led to his position as Lincoln's running mate in 1864 from being one of very few southern Democrats to support the Union during the civil war, had to guide the country through a very difficult period in its history. Unfortunately, he was unable to summon the skills necessary. And as a result, he earns the ignoble title of the second-worst president in American history.

Part of Reconstruction was deciding the role of former slaves - and black people in general - in southern society. Johnson, who owned slaves prior to the civil war, viewed black people as inferior. While he certainly wasn't alone in this view - many abolitionists were also racist - he still was urged by much of Congress to help the former slaves establish an equal footing with white people. Despite this, Johnson was unable to set his personal prejudice aside and took an extremely racist approach to Reconstruction.

Throughout 1865 and 1866, Johnson repeatedly vetoed civil rights bills drafted by Congress as part of Reconstruction. In fact, his efforts to ensure the persecution and subjugation of southern blacks led to the failure of the Freedmen's Bureau, a government agency meant to provide former slaves with important resources to help them in the post-civil war south. His constant vetoes also allowed the southern states themselves to decide the fate of their black residents, leading to an early form of segregation known as "Black Codes".

Fortunately, in 1866, a relatively anti-racist political group known as the Radical Republicans won a large majority in Congress. Using their newfound power, they passed, over Johnson's veto, the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which divided the south into 5 districts to be occupied by federal troops. These troops were tasked with enforcing other laws passed as part of Reconstruction. From there, they overrode dozens of vetos by Johnson in order to help black southerners institute equality with their white neighbors. While this progress was undoubtedly made, it was continually passed over Johnson's vetoes. In other words, Johnson never relented in his efforts to keep black people down, making him one of the country's worst presidents.

In fact, Johnson's opposition to black equality led to an intense rivalry between him and Congress, a rivalry which led to him outright violating the law. Congress, in order to make sure Johnson didn't remove Republican officials leftover from the Lincoln Administration, passed, over one of Johnson's many vetoes, the Tenure of Office Act. This law required the president to receive approval from the Senate in order to fire members of the cabinet.

Personally, I agree with the Tenure of Office Act, even outside of the context of Johnson's presidency. The law's provisions made sure that the president couldn't fire a popular and/or competent official on the basis of minor disagreements, that official standing up to corrupt and irresponsible behavior on the part of the president, or other similarly irrational reasons. In fact, Grover Cleveland's repeal of the law is one of the many reasons I consider him a bottom 5 president.

On February 24, 1868, Johnson fired Edwin Stanton, a Republican and Lincoln's secretary of war. He did this without the approval of the Senate, leading to the first impeachment of an American president. Johnson was ultimately acquitted by one vote.

Many people consider Johnson's impeachment a purely partisan and political endeavor. The Tenure of Office Act was initially passed to maintain the Republican presence in Johnson's administration, so I don't entirely disagree with this assessment. However, I consider the Tenure of Office Act a reasonable and good law, so I still consider Johnson's violation of it one of the reasons he was such a bad president.

Lastly, Johnson, like Franklin Pierce before him, was an imperialist. In 1867, Johnson's administration purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire. While purchasing this territory is better than taking it through military force, I still think of this as an act of imperialism. Keep in mind that Alaska contained and still contains an indigenous population that had no say in this deal. Johnson also loses points for his attempts at purchasing Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Greenland, and Iceland, which I oppose for reasons similar to his successful acquisition of Alaska.

Unlike Pierce, who I consider the worst president, Johnson did have some major redeeming characteristics, however. And that's what prevents him from being the very worst. When Johnson was president, Mexico was embroiled in a civil war concerning a puppet state in the country created by the French government. Johnson and his administration threatened to intervene in the war on the side of those opposed to the puppet if Paris didn't withdraw from the country. This threat worked and the puppet ruler was dismissed, both reducing the presence of imperialism in Mexico and ending a civil war.

Johnson also successfully improved relations with Britain by refusing to support an effort by a group of Irish-Americans known as the Fenians to invade and capture Canada which, at the time, was still a British colony. Domestically, Johnson also signed the Metric Act of 1866, which made the metric system the official unit of measurement in the US and made it illegal to sue corporations for using the metric system in products.

Despite these redeeming traits, however, Johnson was still an abysmal president. He was a racist whose policies resulted in the death of the Freedmen's Bureau and the segregation of black and white southerners, albeit only for a brief period. Johnson was also a staunch imperialist who violated the Tenure of Office Act, which nearly led to his expulsion from office.