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17th President Andrew Johnson

Male 1808 - 1875  (66 years)    Has 6 ancestors and 10 descendants in this family tree.

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  • Name Andrew Johnson 
    Prefix 17th President 
    Birth 29 Dec 1808  Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Prominent People 1865 
    Death 31 Jul 1875  Carter's Sta., Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Burial Greenville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Siblings 2 Siblings 
    Person ID I74306  Geneagraphie
    Last Modified 2 Feb 2001 

    Father Jacob Johnson,   b. 17 Apr 1778   d. 4 Jan 1812, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 33 years) 
    Mother Mary McDonough,   b. 17 Jul 1782   d. 13 Feb 1856, Greene County, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 73 years) 
    Marriage 9 Sep 1801  North Carolina, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F30196  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Eliza McCardle,   b. 4 Oct 1810, Greeneville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 15 Jan 1876, Carter County, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 65 years) 
    Marriage 17 May 1827  Warrensburg, Greene County, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
    +1. Martha Johnson,   b. 25 Oct 1828, Greeneville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 10 Jul 1901, Greeneville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 72 years)
     2. Charles Johnson,   b. 19 Feb 1830, Greeneville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 4 Apr 1863, Nashville, Davidson County, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 33 years)
    +3. Mary Johnson,   b. 8 May 1832, Greeneville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 19 Apr 1883, Bluff City, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 50 years)
     4. Col. Robert Johnson,   b. 22 Feb 1834, Greeneville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 22 Apr 1869, Greenville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 35 years)
     5. Andrew Johnson, Jr.,   b. 5 Aug 1852, Greenville, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 12 Mar 1879, Elizabethton, Tennessee, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 26 years)
    Family ID F30195  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2000 

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  • Notes 
    • - US President No. 17

      Was never elected; became president upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Was in office 1865-1869. Is the only man in american history to attain all 4 kinds of public office - legislative, judicial, military, and executive - and was both Vice-President and President, yet he had no formal schooling. He was a tailor by trade, and his wife taught him to read and write. Only president to be impeached, but acquitted.

      With the Assassination of Lincoln, the Presidency fell upon an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat of pronounced states' rights views. Although an honest and honorable man, Andrew Johnson was one of the most unfortunate of Presidents. Arrayed against him were the Radical Republicans in Congress, brilliantly led and ruthless in their tactics. Johnson was no match for them.
      Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808, Johnson grew up in poverty. He was apprenticed to a tailor as a boy, but ran away. He opened a tailor shop in Greeneville, Tennessee, married Eliza McCardle, and participated in debates at the local academy. Entering politics, he became an adept stump speaker, championing the common man and vilifying the plantation aristocracy. As a Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 1840's and '50's, he advocated a homestead bill to provide a free farm for the poor man.
      During the secession crisis, Johnson remained in the Senate even when Tennessee seceded, which made him a hero in the North and a traitor in the eyes of most Southerners. In 1862 President Lincoln appointed him Military Governor of Tennessee, and Johnson used the state as a laboratory for reconstruction. In 1864 the Republicans, contending that their National Union Party was for all loyal men, nominated Johnson, a Southerner and a Democrat, for Vice President. After Lincoln's death, President Johnson proceeded to reconstruct the former Confederate States while Congress was not in session in 1865. He pardoned all who would take an oath of allegiance, but required leaders and men of wealth to obtain special Presidential pardons. By the time Congress met in December 1865, most southern states were reconstructed, slavery was being abolished, but "black codes" to regulate the freedmen were beginning to appear. Radical Republicans in Congress moved vigorously to change Johnson's program. They gained the support of northerners who were dismayed to see Southerners keeping many prewar leaders and imposing many prewar restrictions upon Negroes. The Radicals' first step was to refuse to seat any Senator or Representative from the old Confederacy. Next they passed measures dealing with the former slaves. Johnson vetoed the legislation. The Radicals mustered enough votes in Congress to pass legislation over his veto--the first time that Congress had overridden a President on an important bill. They passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which established Negroes as American citizens and forbade discrimination against them. A few months later Congress submitted to the states the Fourteenth Amendment, which specified that no state should "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." All the former Confederate States except Tennessee refused to ratify the amendment; further, there were two bloody race riots in the South. Speaking in the Middle West, Johnson faced hostile audiences. The Radical Republicans won an overwhelming victory in Congressional elections that fall.
      In March 1867, the Radicals effected their own plan of Reconstruction, again placing southern states under military rule. They passed laws placing restrictions upon the President. When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote. In 1875, Tennessee returned Johnson to the Senate. He died a few months later.



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