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Andrew Johnson Born: December 29, 1808 Death: July 31, 1875 Term: April 15, 1865 - March 3, 1869 Vice President: None

1. After president Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, Andrew Johnson stepped on to the stage with gigantic shoes to fill. Unfourtuneately, Johnson failed to fill those those shoes the way Lincoln wanted him to and when Johnson did do something that Lincoln wanted to do, it was for the worst. But, he did have his moments so president Andrew Johnson recieves a grade of a C+. 2. One of the largest and most commonly known goals of Johnson was the piggy backing of Lincoln's idea of Reconstruciton of the union. Johnson wanted to accomplish this goal by readdmitting the rebel states as fast as possible just like Lincoln envisioned it. He carried this out by electing a local provisional governer to go to each state and draft a new state constitution for each state that would repudiate slavery, seccesion etc. Then, southerners had to take an oath of allegiance and they would be given full citizenship. Even though this was the most efficient way of getting the states back into the Union, it was not the most affective because most of the southerners carried their southern ideals back to the union instead of getting rid of them all together. Another goal of Johnson's was to get the south to recognize the rights that newly emancipated blacks deserved. This did not happen because the south responded by created the black codes which in a lot of ways was like a new form of slavery for blacks. In addition, even though Johnson wanted Reconstruction, he did oppose reconstruction as it was viewed by the Radical Republicans which resulted in Johnson to take in the goal of opposing every Radical bill passed by congress. This goal was obtained with great results because Johnson vetoed 29 bills passed by congress. 3. The relationship between congress and Andrew Johnson wasn't a very good relationship. As stated earlier, Johnson vetoed 29 bills passed by congress which is a good indication that Johnson and Congress were not on the same page. This mass amount of vetoes was due largely in part to the difference in ideals when it came to reconstruction especially with the difference in Johnson's 10% plan and congress' 50% plan on the idea of reuniting the North and the South. Another cause of this was the fact that congress was mostly radical republican while Johnson was not which ties back to the previously stated differnce in reconstruction plans. 4. Probably one of the most known aspects of Johnson's presidency and the most important one was Johnson's 10% reconstruction plan. This was his most important because the country needed to be sewn back together after the civil war and it needed to be done in a speedy manner. Johnson's plan covered this for most of the Southern States were back with the Union within the year the plan was approved. (by himself) Unfortunately, this was also his worst action as president for a few reasons. Although it did reunite the states together, they might as well have stayed apart because most of the southerners still kept their ideals with them which included slavery. Also, since only ten percent of the state gave the oath of allegiance, that left a whole nintey percent of southerners that were still loyal to the confederacy. To finish, it was a good idea but used in a bad way. 5. Andrew Johnson did not affect any future presidents for a few reasons. First, he didn't do anything very extraordinary when in office; if anything he was just an ordinary vice president trying to fill in shoes that were way woo big for him. Also, he was very stubborn in that he vetoed a lot of bills and was even impeached for his stubborness. In addition, Johnson wasn't a man of the people os that meant that he couldn't do anything new in order to progress the presidency. 6. In conclusion, Andrew Johnson had a big load on his shoulders when he became president but he did carry that load very well. Johnson recieves a grade of a C+ because he had a couple of shining monents but for the most part his actions were either ok or for the worst. So, in a lot of ways the country was worse off with Andrew Johnson as president but the country was still in good shape after what it had been through.

Degregorio, William A. //The Complete Book of United States Presidents.// New Jersey: Barricade Books Inc. 2005