Andrew Johnson: Seventeenth President of the United States

I still have not really made up my mind about Andrew Johnson. Although I continue to think he has to be on everyone's list of five worst presidents and his culpability in his impeachment stems mainly from the man's stubbornness, there was some notion of principle in Johnson's character that was of value. In this juvenile biography of Andrew Johnson for the Encyclopedia of Presidents author Zachary Kent begins with the key example of Johnson's principles, when he became the only Southern member of the United States Senate not to resign when the South seceded, declaring, "I am a Union Man."Kent looks at how Johnson rose from poverty as an illiterate tailor to become a U.S. Senator and war Governor of Tennessee before Abraham Lincoln picked him as his running mate in the 1864 election. Lincoln was a Republican and Johnson a Democrat, and so they ran on the Union ticket. However, when Lincoln was assassinated Johnson became President. Kent details how Johnson used executive powers in an effort to restore peace, only to be confronted by the radical Republican's anti-southern agenda when Congress reconvened. An entire chapter is devoted to Johnson's impeachment and his brief return to the U.S. Senate shortly before he died. Certainly this volume gets well beyond what little would be found in standard American history textbooks regarding the antagonism between Johnson and the radical Republicans. Students assigned to do a report on Andrew Johnson would find this to be an informative volume. It is illustrated with historic photographs and etchings, and several wickedly caustic editorial cartoons, most of which attack Johnson and his administration. However, when the Alaska Purchase is described as "Johnson's polar bear garden" as well as "Seward's Folly," you do get an indication for how much Andrew Johnson has been erased from American history.