Andrew Johnson Biograghy
Andrew Johnson was the seventeenth president of the United States. He came to power after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Prior to the assassination, he was the Vice President under Lincoln. |
Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808 in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was born to Jacob Johnson and Mary McDonough. When Andrew was three years old, his father died, and as a result the Johnson family was extremely poor. This prompted Mary to take up spinning and weaving as a means to support the family. She put Johnson as an apprentice at a tailor's shop when he was around 10 years old.
When Johnson was 16 years old, he left the apprenticeship at the tailor, and along with his brother, he left for Greeneville, Tennessee. Here he worked as a tailor.
Johnson had no formal education and he taught himself how to read and write. In 1827, when he was 18, Andrew married Eliza McCardle. They had 5 children, two girls and three boys. It is believed that Eliza was instrumental for teaching Andrew arithmetic, and tutoring him to improve his reading and writing skills.
While Andrew was living in Greeneville, he became interested in politics. However, he first gained attention in debates locally. This then led to him organizing a worker's party. He was made the alderman of the party in 1829. In 1833, he was elected as mayor of Greeneville; and finally in 1835, he won the elections to join the Tennessee House of Representatives. However, after a single term in office, he was defeated.
Johnson was attracted to the Democratic Party in Tennessee. He immediately became the spokesperson for vast number of yeomen farmers and mountaineers who were unhappy with the wealthy and rich planter families. These families had total control of politics not just in the state but also nationally.
In 1839, Johnson was re-elected to the House of Representatives, and then in 1841, he was elected to the state Senate. In 1943, he was the first Democrat to even win an election as the US representative from the state's First Congressional District. During his term in office, he was responsible for promoting the Free Farm for the Poor Bill, which wanted to give farms to poor landless farmers. He stayed the US representative until 1853, at which point he was elected as the governor of the state.
As the governor of Tennessee, he worked relentlessly to get the Homestead Act passed, which he had started advocating while he was a senator. It was only after the start of the Civil War, in 1762, that the act was passed.
Lincoln was impressed by Johnson and appointed him as the military governor of occupied Tennessee in March 1862. He worked in this position for 3 years to remove the pro-Confederate influences in the state. It was this commitment to the Union that was a decisive factor for Lincoln to choose Johnson as his Vice President.
On March 4, 1865, Johnson was elected the Vice President to Abraham Lincoln's presidency. However, on April 14, 1865 Lincoln was shot at by John Wilkes Booth. The wound was fatal. After Lincoln's death, the next day, Johnson was sworn in as the new President of the United States of America.
He was the first US president to be impeached by was acquitted by a single vote. The second US president to be impeached was Bill Clinton.
More Articles :
|
