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Andrew Johnson - December 29, 1808 – July 31, 1875 Party - leaned towards Democrat Term in Office (1) - April 15, 1865 – March 4, 1869 No VP

Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States. He started out as the Vice-President of Abraham Lincoln and was thrust into the oval office in the White House shortly after Lincoln’s assassination. Johnson’s term as president was very rough and did not make him look good. Johnson is considered by some as one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States. He did not accomplish much during his presidency mainly because of his lack of support in congress. The overall grade that Andrew Johnson deserves is a D- because he didn’t do anything. He did not get along with congress and therefore had an unsuccessful term.

Johnson’s Main goal while in office was virtually the same as Lincoln’s. It was to quickly reconstruct the nation and admit all of the southern states back into the union. This goal was very far from met solely because of his relationship with congress. He was swayed more towards the Democratic side while most of congress was Republican. This caused a situation where everything that congress sent him was vetoed and everything that he sent congress was rejected. This is the core reason why nothing got done during his presidency.

The President did not get along well with congress. Congress was mainly Republicans from the north because the Civil War had just ended and the south had not yet been accepted back into the Union. The problem with this was that Johnson was a borderline Democrat. The president and congress were not on the same page. An example of this was the Civil rights bill. Congress proposed it but Johnson vetoed it. Then congress overruled his decision with a 2/3 vote. Congress also tried twice to impeach him but were unsuccessful by only one vote. This shows how much congress despised the new president.

The most positive thing that Johnson did during his term in office was to grant Amnesty to all confederates. This meant that everyone who had seceded from the Union were pardoned of their offenses and the incident should never be held against them. They were pretty much saying that they would pretend that none of this ever happened. The reason why this was good was because it was big step in reconstruction. The south would no longer be treated like traitors and it should in a sense make it easier to get the states back into the Union.

The worst thing that Johnson did as president was to go against the Tenure of Office Act and remove Edwin Stanton as Secretary of war. This was directly violating a constitutional law and very nearly got him impeached. He was saved from impeachment by only one vote. This was the first time that Congress hated a president so much that they tried to impeach him. It clearly showed why he didn’t get along with many other people in the government.

The greatest gift to future presidents by Johnson was not a materialistic one but one on being friends with everyone. Johnson failed in this category by having different ideas with Congress. He rejected everything that they said and it did not fair well for him in the end. He got nothing done and is now considered one of the worst presidents in history. Presidents now know that they need to please a wide variety of people if they are to be liked and this is all thanks to Andrew Johnson.

In conclusion, Andrew Johnson didn’t do much for the country and that is why he deserves a D-. He wasn’t fit for Presidency because he was just thrown into office and it showed in his performance. His main problem was with congress and in the end, that is what got him his title of one of the worst presidents ever.

Bibliography:


 * "Andrew Johnson |." //The White House//. Web. 01 Apr. 2010. .
 * "Impeachment: Andrew Johnson." //The History Place//. Web. 31 Mar. 2010. .
 * "JOHNSON, Andrew - Biographical Information." Web. 01 Apr. 2010. .
 * "Presidents of the United States (POTUS)." //Ipl2: Information You Can Trust//. Web. 01 Apr. 2010. .