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| Sunday, 8 January 2006 |
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Famous
Trials that shook the world -
Trial of Andrew Johnson by Lionel Wijesiri
No American president ever began his life in greater poverty than Andrew Johnson. He was born on December 29, 1808, in North Carolina USA, the younger of two surviving children of Jacob and Mary McDonough Johnson. Jacob Johnson was employed as a porter and handyman. One winter day in 1811, he rescued two men from drowning in an icy river, but he himself died soon afterwards from exhaustion and cold. Andrew was thus left fatherless at the age of 3. The penniless widow supported herself and her two young sons, by weaving cloth, but on more than one night, the family went to bed hungry. At the age of 14, Andrew was apprenticed to a tailor. The boy learned quickly, and before long, he ran away to work for himself. In 1826, when he was 18, the Johnson family moved to Greeneville, Tennessee, where Andrew started his own tailor shop. Johnson never went to school, but he had learned a little reading at the tailor's house. In Greeneville he married Eliza McCardle, who taught him to write. Five children were born to them, three boys and two girls. His tailoring business did well and he bought property in the town. He became a leader of the young men of the neighbourhood, who would often meet at the Tailor Shop to discuss politics and hold debates on public affairs. Johnson was elected to his first political office, town Alderman, in 1829. Thereafter, his rise in politics was rapid. He served as Mayor of Greeneville and in both houses of the State legislature. In 1843, he was elected to the first of five terms in the US House of Representatives. He was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1853 and a US Senator in 1857. Popular Speaker Johnson thought of himself as a man of the common people, and he was a popular speaker among the simple folk of Tennessee. Johnson often spoke of his own humble beginnings. He pointed to himself as an example of how a poor boy might rise to wealth and prominence through ambition and hard work. The secession crisis of 1860-61 between Northern and Southern States opened a new chapter in Johnson's life. When Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the Southern States, including Johnson's own State of Tennessee, prepared to secede from the Union. During 1861, Johnson travelled all over his home State, trying to persuade the people not to take Tennessee out of the Union. He repeatedly risked his life as he faced crowds of people who had once been his friends but were now his enemies, telling them that secession was treason. Johnson did not give up until the last hope of saving his State was gone. Tennessee seceded in June 1861. Although Johnson was now a man without a State, he stayed on in Washington, D. C., as the loyal Senator from a disloyal State. Previously a lifelong Democrat, as a Unionist he now allied himself with the Republicans, the party of Lincoln. After the Union Army recaptured Tennessee in early 1862, Lincoln, deeply impressed with Johnson's courage, asked him to return as the State's military governor. Johnson instantly agreed.He remained at his post until nearly the end of the war. His loyalty had its reward. When Lincoln ran successfully for re-election in 1864, he chose Johnson as his vice president. Becoming the President Six weeks later, Lincoln was dead and Andrew Johnson became president. When the war finally ended in 1865, a majority of Northerners wanted to ensure that the South's loyalty to the Union would never again be in danger. In addition to the preservation of the Union, the victory had resulted in the destruction of slavery. The North now felt that the South should give the newly freed blacks the same protection and the same rights as other citizens. Most Republicans in Congress, however, felt that the Southern States would not take such steps without a certain amount of pressure. They believed that laws would have to be passed to "reconstruct" the South. Johnson's inability to understand Northern feelings on this question of reconstruction led to the failure of his entire presidency. Johnson believed that he, and not Congress, should decide when the Southern States were ready for re-admission to the Union. In his opinion they should be re-admitted immediately. The Congress was unwilling to re-admit the Southern representatives until a full study could be made of conditions in the South. These differences of opinion led to the bitterest quarrel that has ever occurred between a US President and Congress. The dispute came to a head in 1868. Earlier, in 1867, Congress had enacted the Tenure of Office Act, which forbade the president from removing certain officeholders without the approval of the Senate. Johnson had wanted to get rid of the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, because he thought Stanton was too friendly with leaders in Congress. Early in 1868 he dismissed Stanton. The Senate and House entered into a hot debate. Three days after Stanton's removal, the House passed a resolution to impeach Johnson for "high crimes and misdemeanours", specifically, for intentionally violating the Tenure-of-Office Act and thus violating the law of the land, which he had sworn in an oath to enforce. Trial On March 5, 1868 a Court of impeachment was organised in the Senate to hear charges against the President. Eleven articles were set out in the resolution and the trial before the Senate lasted three months. Johnson's defence was based on a clause in the Tenure-of-Office Act stating that the then-current Secretaries would hold their posts throughout the term of the President who appointed them. Since Lincoln had appointed Stanton, it was claimed, the applicability of the Act had already run its course. Thirty-five senators voted to convict Johnson and 19 voted to acquit, one vote short of the two-thirds. Johnson and Congress continued to battle with each other to his last day in office. Johnson left Washington in 1869 as an embittered man. But the voters of Tennessee elected him to the US Senate again in 1874. He died in that office in July 1875. Johnson was the first President to be impeached, and the only one until Bill Clinton on December 19, 1998. Both presidents were acquitted. To memorialize President Andrew Johnson a national historic site was designated in 1963 in Tennessee. It includes two homes furnished with original articles and the tailor shop Johnson owned. |
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