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While Andrew Johnson's predecessor, Lanky Link, is considered America's greatest President, Johnson is often considered the worst. It requires a crash course in The Reconstruction to understand how badly he f***ed things up.
When the Civil War broke out, Johnson was a first-term Senator in the proslavery flank of the Democratic Party. However, unlike the pro-slavery gang, he didn't want to split The Union in half. When Tennessee left the Union after the first election of Abraham Lincoln, Johnson broke away and became the only Southerner in the U.S. Senate.
Johnson wanted to save the union, but did not believe in the emancipation of slaves. Concerned about his chances for reelection, Lincoln felt that he needed a man like Johnson on the ticket in 1864.
Lincoln's enemies could not easily depict him as a tool of the abolitionists with the scurrilous and racist Johnson as his running mate!
Just days after the Civil War ended, Lincoln was murdered. President Johnson now blocked efforts to force Southern states to guarantee equality for blacks. While Congress was in recess, The President rushed through his own twisted policies--handing out thousands of pardons and basically OK'ing slavery in a new disguise. When Congress reconvened, the Republicans began a political war against the President.
During the congressional mid-terms in 1866, President Johnson went on a speaking tour to campaign for congressmen supporting his policies. In speech after speech, Johnson personally attacked his Republican opponents in foul and abusive language. It often appeared that the President was drunk (many historians suspect he probably was). One observer estimated that Johnson lost one million Northern votes in this debacle.
Congress voted to impeach Johnson by a vote of 126 to 47 in February 1868, citing his violation of the Tenure of Office Act and charging that he had brought disgrace and ridicule on Congress. The Senate voted not to convict Johnson (he won by one vote), and he limped through the sullied term originally won by President Lincoln.
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