III.

Early Political Career

In 1829 Johnson ran successfully for alderman on a platform that appealed to Greeneville’s working class. In 1834 he was elected mayor of Greeneville. Johnson then served in the Tennessee house of representatives from 1835 to 1837 and from 1839 to 1843, when he was elected to the state senate.

Soon after entering politics, Johnson identified himself with the democratic ideals represented by President Andrew Jackson (1829-1837). Johnson supported Jackson’s political stands, and he even used Jackson’s picture as a campaign symbol. Many people came to think of Johnson as a second Jackson. In addition, Johnson was becoming a skillful campaigner, who was noted for his forceful speeches and sharp debates.

A.

United States Congressman

In 1843, Johnson became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the U.S. Congress, where he served until 1853. In Congress he was a champion of the poor. He fought for a homestead law that would make free grants of public lands to settlers who farmed the land. He succeeded in getting a homestead bill passed by the House, but the bill was not passed by the upper chamber, the U.S. Senate.

Although Johnson supported many measures to extend democracy throughout the country, he went along with the proslavery views held in the Southern states. However, because few people in Johnson’s district owned slaves, this was not a major issue to his constituents.

In 1852 the legislature in Tennessee, which was controlled by the Whig Party, combined election districts in such a way that Johnson, a member of the Democratic Party, would have to run for Congress in a predominantly Whig district. This kind of redistricting for political advantage is called gerrymandering. Instead of running for Congress, Johnson ran for governor of Tennessee and was elected in a close race.

B.

Governor of Tennessee

On the day of Johnson’s inauguration, in 1853, the retiring governor called for him in a carriage to escort him to the swearing-in ceremony. In true Jacksonian style the new governor declined the ride, declaring that he was “going to walk with the people.” The people indicated their approval in 1855 by reelecting him as governor.

Johnson was determined to give the children of Tennessee a better education than he had had. In his first message to the state legislature he asked for “a tax of 25¢ on the polls, and two and a half cents on the hundred dollars, of all the taxable property of the State ... for the common schools.” In 1854 the reluctant legislature enacted a law providing for the support of schools by direct taxation. Other laws set standard requirements for teachers and opened teaching jobs to women on equal terms with men. In addition, during Johnson’s governorship a state library was established.

Another of Johnson’s projects was to aid Tennessee farmers. He served as president of the state’s first agricultural bureau, which was founded in 1854. In 1857 an agricultural fair was held in Tennessee for the first time.

C.

United States Senator

Some aristocratic Southern Democratic leaders considered Johnson a crude, low-class upstart. Nevertheless, his popularity with the ordinary citizen was tremendous. In 1857 the Tennessee legislature acknowledged Johnson’s political strength by electing him to the U.S. Senate. Johnson greeted the news of his election with the words, “I have reached the summit of my ambition,” an opinion he held the rest of his life.

As senator, Johnson continued to work for a homestead law, and he was disappointed when President James Buchanan vetoed the homestead act of 1860. On the slavery issue, Johnson still followed the orthodox Southern line, but with no great enthusiasm. He voted for the resolutions proposed in 1860 by Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi to implement the Dred Scott Decision of 1857, which stated that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories of the United States.

C.1.

Presidential Election of 1860

In January 1860 the Democratic National Convention met in Charleston, South Carolina, to select a presidential candidate. The Tennessee delegation put Johnson’s name up for the office, but he did not win the nomination. The Democrats split into two groups. One faction nominated Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois for president. The Southern faction, which opposed Douglas’s stand on slavery, nominated Buchanan’s vice president, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Johnson, going along with the Southerners, supported Breckinridge. The Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won the election with ease, largely because of the split in the Democratic ranks.

C.2.

War Democrat

In December 1860, the nation was so divided over the slavery issue that Southern states were considering secession, or leaving the Union. On December 18, Johnson delivered a speech in the Senate, denouncing secession and declaring for the federal Union. Two days later, South Carolina seceded. When the Civil War between North and South began the following year, Johnson remained in the Senate, after his Southern colleagues walked out and his own state of Tennessee seceded. He was a chief spokesman for the small group of loyal Democrats known as the War Democrats.

C.3.

Military Governor

By early 1862, parts of Tennessee had been occupied by the Union Army. In March 1862, President Lincoln appointed Johnson military governor of Tennessee, with the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. Johnson’s purpose was, as he explained to his fellow Tennesseeans, “as speedily as may be, to restore the government to the same condition as before the existing rebellion.”

The bitterness, hatred, violence, and lawlessness of the times made Johnson’s task extremely difficult. Except in eastern Tennessee, he was regarded as a traitor. When Nashville’s mayor and city council refused to swear allegiance to the United States, Johnson replaced them with loyal Unionists.

D.

Vice President of the United States

In June 1864 the Republicans met in Baltimore, Maryland, and renominated President Lincoln. The convention was known as the National Union Convention to attract the support of the War Democrats. To reward the Southerners who had remained loyal to the Union, Johnson, a War Democrat, was nominated as Lincoln’s running mate in place of Vice President Hannibal Hamlin. In November the Lincoln-Johnson slate was elected.

On inauguration day, March 4, 1865, Johnson felt weak and sick. He was ill with typhoid fever and had taken some brandy before the ceremony. He made a long, rambling speech, boasting of his rise from humble origins. His friends were embarrassed, and his enemies used the unfortunate incident to label him a ruffian and an alcoholic. However, Lincoln defended Johnson by stating, “I have known Andy Johnson for many years; Andy ain’t a drunkard.”

Only six weeks after Johnson was sworn in as vice president, Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. One of Booth’s accomplices, George A. Atzerodt, was supposed to assassinate Johnson on the same night, April 14, 1865, but he failed to carry out his part of the plan.