Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction

In a strange twist of fate, the racist Southerner Johnson was

charged with the reconstruction of the defeated South, including
the extension of civil rights and suffrage to black Southerners. It
quickly became clear that Johnson would block efforts to force
Southern states to guarantee full equality for blacks, and the stage
was set for a showdown with congressional Republicans, who
viewed black voting rights as crucial to their power base in the
South.
During the first eight months of his term, Johnson took
advantage of Congress being in recess and rushed through his own policies for Reconstruction.
These included handing out thousands of pardons in routine fashion and allowing the South to
set up "black codes," which essentially maintained slavery under another name. When Congress
came back into session, Republicans moved to stop the President. In 1866, Congress passed the
Freedmen's Bureau Bill, providing shelter and provisions for former slaves and protection of
their rights in court, as well as the Civil Rights Act, defining all persons born in the United States
as citizens. Congress also passed the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, authorizing the
federal government to protect the rights of all citizens. Each of theseexcept the Amendment
Congress passed over President Johnson's veto. In a final humiliating gesture, Congress passed
the Tenure of Office Act, which stripped the President of the power to remove federal officials
without the Senate's approval. In 1867, Congress established a military Reconstruction program
to enforce political and social rights for Southern blacks.
Furious, Johnson decided to go straight to the people in an attempt to regain his stature and
authority as President. During the congressional elections of 1866, he set out on a speaking tour
to campaign for congressmen who would support his policies. The plan was a complete disaster.
In speech after speech, Johnson personally attacked his Republican opponents in vile and abusive
language. On several occasions, it appeared that the President had had too much to drink. One
observer estimated that Johnson lost one million Northern votes in this debacle.
 Having lost both congressional and popular support, Johnson was finished. Blocked at every
turn, he felt he had no choice but to challenge the Tenure of Office Act as a blatant usurpation of
presidential authority. In direct opposition to the act, he fired Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
Congress then 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. By a margin of one vote, the Senate voted not to convict President Johnson, and he
served the duration of his term.
During Johnson's term, the Reconstruction Acts of 1867 extended suffrage to formerly
enslaved male African Americans, completely transforming the American electorate. Hundreds
of black delegates participated in state constitutional conventions, and from 1869 until 1877,
fourteen African American men served in the U.S. House of Representatives, and two were in the
U.S. Senate. All of this occurred against Johnson's efforts, and all would change once the white
Southerners regained their stranglehold on the South. In the meantime, terrorist organizations
such as the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) attacked black citizens and their supporters. In 1868, one-tenth
of the black delegates to the state constitutional conventions had experienced physical abuse.
Andrew Johnson is largely viewed as the worst possible person to have been President at the
end of the Civil War. He utterly failed to make a satisfying and just peace because of his racist
views, his gross incompetence in federal office, and his incredible miscalculation of public
support for his policies. To the end, Johnson remained defiant: he argued that his own policies
might have swiftly reunited the North and South, had not the Republicans squandered the golden
moment of reunion by pushing for radical measures such as black suffrage. In his speeches,
interviews, vetoes, and annual messages, President Johnson tried to preempt and then undermine
Congressional Reconstruction by deeming the Republican experiment in black citizenship a
failure, and by portraying former Confederates as victims of Republican misrule. One can only
sadly speculate about how different America would have been had Lincoln lived to see the
country through the critical period of Reconstruction. In the end, Johnson did more to extend the
period of national strife than to heal the wounds of war.
Name:_______________________________________________________
Andrew Johnson Reading

1) What did President Johnsons reconstructed South look like for white
Southerners?

For black Southerners?

2) How did the Civil Rights Act and the 14th Amendment undo Johnsons
Southern Reconstruction?

3) How was the Tenure of Office Act a humiliating gesture towards

Johnson?

What does the passage of this Act say about Johnsons relationship with Congress?
 4) Based on the information from the article, how do you think the South
was affected by Johnsons presidency?

Do you think it remains affected by his policies today? Why or why not? (give a
detailed answer)