President Andrew Johnson Courtesy Wikimedia Commons
With an unusual election coming up, many of us are turning to past presidents and their campaigns for guidance.
Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s vice-president and the first president to be impeached, assumed the presidency when Lincoln was assassinated. Johnson opposed the Republican party when they passed the fourteenth amendment that gave citizenship to former slaves. He also tried to destroy other Republicans who opposed him.
As a Tennessee legislator before he was elected President, Johnson opposed the extension of railroads into his state because he believed it would put inns and wagon haulers out of business.
The April 26th Delancey Place.com blog gives even more evidence of Johnson’s obtuseness. It is filled with excerpt from Annette Gordon-Reed’s book, Andrew Johnson, the Seventeenth President 1865-1969.
He wasn’t much of a one for progress then? I don’t know USA history in any great depth so I enjoyed and learned from your post. I’m certainly watching the current presidential campaign with interest.
Many of us are watching it with horror.