1875
Former President Andrew Johnson Dies
On this day in 1875, former President Andrew
Johnson, the man who had become president upon the tragic assassination of
Abraham Lincoln in 1865, dies of a stroke while visiting his daughter in
Tennessee.
Johnson’s career took him from mayor of
Greeneville (1834) to the Tennessee legislature (1835) and then to the U.S.
House of Representatives (1843). He went home to serve as Tennessee’s governor
from 1853 to 1857, but then returned to Washington as a U.S. senator in late
1857. In 1864, he accepted Abraham Lincoln’s offer to run with him as vice
president for Lincoln’s second term. Lincoln was shot on the night of April 14,
1865, and died the next day, making Johnson the 17th president of the United
States.
In addition to inheriting the presidency in a
dramatic way, Johnson’s presidency itself was marked by spectacle. In February
1868, the House of Representatives charged him with 11 articles of impeachment
for vaguely described “high crimes and misdemeanors.” (For comparison, in 1998,
President Bill Clinton was charged with two articles of impeachment for
obstruction of justice during an investigation into his inappropriate sexual
behavior in the White House Oval Office. In 1974, Nixon faced three charges for
his alleged involvement in the Watergate scandal.) The main issue in Johnson’s
trial was his staunch resistance to implementing Congress’ Civil War
Reconstruction policies. The War Department was the federal agency responsible
for carrying out Reconstruction programs in the war-ravaged and socially disrupted
southern states and when Johnson fired the agency’s head, Edwin Stanton,
Congress retaliated with calls for impeachment.
Of the 11 counts, several went to the core of
the conflict between Johnson and Congress. The House charged Johnson with
illegally removing the secretary of war from office and for violating several
Reconstruction Acts. The House also accused the president of hurling libelous
“inflammatory and scandalous harangues” against Congressional members. On
February 24, the House passed all 11 articles of impeachment and the process
moved into a Senate trial. The Senate trial lasted until May 26, 1868. Johnson
did not attend any of the proceedings and was not required to do so. After all
the arguments had been presented for and against him, Johnson waited for his
fate, which hung on one swing vote. By a vote of 35-19, Johnson was acquitted
and finished out his term.
When Johnson’s presidency ended, he and his
wife Eliza moved back to their home state of Tennessee. In 1869, they suffered
tragedy: their son succumbed to alcoholism and committed suicide. In early
1875, he launched a political comeback and was re-elected to the Senate in June
of that year, but was never able to assume office. He suffered a stroke and
passed away on July 31, 1875.