preview

Andrew Johnson Was a Fearless

Decent Essays

Andrew Johnson was a fearless, brave, noble, and inspired person, blind to the subtleties of human relations, deaf to the words of others, and convinced that he and he alone knew the truth. One word to describe him, pigheaded, and certainty not like some of our other contemporary political leaders. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, though more like a silver foot in his mouth. Johnson 's father died when he was four; there was no money left, so he was sent out as an apprentice when he was nine. He never went to school, but taught himself to read when he was seventeen. He became a tailor and ended up in Greeneville, Tennessee when he was twenty-two. In his 20’s he learned that he was good not only as a tailor, but at …show more content…

Surprisingly on April 14, 1856, Lincoln was shot at Ford’s Theater, and died the next morning on April 15th. In addition, Andrew Johnson became the President of the United States all in the same day.
During his swearing in ceremony in March of 1865, Johnson was suffering from typhoid fever and a hangover. Beforehand, to spruce himself up, he downed three glasses of whiskey. When it was his turn to speak in the Senate chamber, he got up in front of hundreds of important leaders in the country and proceeded to dance on the podium with a lampshade on his head. I mean, he rambled, he muttered, he swayed, he repeated himself, and at one point, he referred to the diplomats in front of him as "You with all your fine feathers and gewgaws." Finally, he held his lips to the bible on which he had been sworn in, saying loud enough for everyone to hear, “I kiss this book in the face of my nation of the United States."
During office, he supported a policy of Reconstruction after the Civil War. The Radical Republicans in Congress were furious at his leniency toward ex-confederates and his lack of concern for ex-slaves, demonstrated by his veto of civil rights bills and opposing the Fourteenth Amendment. To protect Radical Republicans in Johnson 's administration and minimize the strength of the president, Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867, which prohibited the president from dismissing office holders without the Senate 's

Get Access