JOHNSON 



3158 



JOHNSON 



other reason, Johnson deserves to be remem- 

 bered for his defense of the independence of 

 the Chief Executive. If Johnson had been con- 

 victed, the President of the United States 

 might thereafter have been more nearly a fig- 

 urehead than a powerful force. 



Personally Johnson had great faults. He 

 was tactless and frequently used extreme lan- 

 guage. Yet his career proved Rim a man of 

 extraordinary ability. Lacking in education, 

 always a "backwoodsman," he rose to high 

 rank, and with the single exception of the 

 Presidency, only through his own talents and 

 iron will. 



Andrew Johnson was born at Raleigh, N. C., 

 on December 28, 1808. His father and mother, 

 like Lincoln's parents, were very poor, and 

 when the father died in 1812 his widow was 

 left practically penniless. Andrew, therefore, 

 was put to work as soon as possible. At the 

 early age of ten he was bound out as a tailor's 

 apprentice, and after serving for six years set 

 up on his own account as a journeyman tailor 

 at Laurens Court House, S. C. In 1826 he 

 removed to Greeneville, in Eastern Tennessee, 

 where he again opened a shop. 



More important was the fact that here he 

 met Eliza McCardle, whom he married on 

 May 27, 1826. Johnson was not yet nineteen 

 years old, and his bride was not sixteen, but 

 they were both exceptionally mature, even 

 for a region which encouraged youthful inde- 

 pendence. Mrs. Johnson, a woman of refine- 

 ment, was socially and intellectually the 

 superior of her husband, but she always re- 

 mained devoted to him. Johnson's marriage 

 was the means of starting him on the upward 

 path. As a boy he had enjoyed no schooling. 

 With much labor he had taught himself to 

 read after some of his fellow tailor-appren- 

 tices had taught him the alphabet. His wife 

 taught him to write and to do simple prob- 

 lems in arithmetic, and while he sewed and 

 stitched during the day she read to him. 



A Leader in Local Politics. At that time 

 Tennessee was ruled, politically and socially, 

 by the great land owners. Greeneville itself 

 was controlled by an "aristocratic coterie of the 

 quality," as it was called. Johnson, when only 

 twenty years old, organized a workingmen's 

 party in opposition, and was elected alderman. 

 He was twice reflected, and then served as 

 mayor for three years. In the meantime, in 

 order better to qualify himself for a public 

 career, he was taking an active part in a local 

 debating society, most of whose members were 



students at Greeneville College. In 1835 he 

 proposed himself as a Democratic candidate 

 for the Tennessee house of representatives, 

 and was elected. His opposition to a bill for 

 internal improvements caused his defeat for 

 reelection in 1837, but the reaction and the 

 hard times which followed the panic of that 

 year justified his action and restored his popu- 

 larity. He was returned to the legislature in 

 1839, made a state-wide reputation as a cam- 

 paign orator for Van Buren in 1840, and in the 

 next year was chosen to the state senate. 

 Here he distinguished himself by proposing 



ANDREW JOHNSON 



Johnson was a Democratic Vice-President unc 

 the Republican Lincoln a choice designed to em- 

 phasize the cooperation of parties which it 

 thought the times demanded. Of Johnson, Wood- 

 row Wilson writes, as follows, in his History oj 

 the American People: "Mr. Johnson was. a mar 

 who, like Mr. Lincoln himself, had risen fror 

 very humble origins to posts of trust and distil 

 tion ; but his coarse fiber had taken no polish, nc 

 refinement in the process. He stopped neitht 

 to understand nor to persuade other men, 

 struck forward with crude, uncompromising for 

 for his object, attempting mastery without wis 

 dom or moderation." 



that the basis of representation in the 

 lature should be the number of white v( 

 alone, regardless of the number of slaves. 



A Wider Political Field. Up to this tii 

 Johnson was practically unknown beyond tl 

 beundaries of Tennessee. He was then thirty- 

 five years old, had been in politics for fifteei 

 years, and had become the recognized politic 

 leader of Eastern Tennessee. In 1843 he en- 

 tered a new field, a ten-years' service in the 

 United States House of Representatives. Ii 

 Congress he was a conspicuous supporter of 

 Polk's administration, particularly on the Ore- 



