Johnson, Andrew (1808-1875)

17th president of the USA 1865-69, a Democrat. He was a congressman from Tennessee 1843-53, governor of Tennessee 1853-57, senator 1857-62, and vice-president in 1865. He succeeded to the presidency on Abraham Lincoln's assassination (15 April 1865). His conciliatory policy to the defeated South after the Civil War involved him in a feud with the Radical Republicans, culminating in his impeachment in 1868 before the Senate, which failed to convict him by one vote.

Among Johnson's achievements was the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867. When he tried to dismiss Edwin Stanton, a cabinet secretary, his political opponents seized on the opportunity to charge him with ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’ and attempted to remove him from office; it was this battle that ended in his impeachment. Johnson's tenure as president was characterized by frustration and political stalemate. He presided over the re-entry of the Southern states into the Union. He returned to the Senate in 1875, but died shortly afterwards.

Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was apprenticed to a tailor, and in 1826 moved with his family to Tennessee, where he set up his own shop. He was mayor of Greeneville, Tennessee (1830-34), and for four years between 1835 and 1841 he sat in the House of Representatives. On the declaration of civil war, Lincoln made him military governor of Tennessee.