Andrew Johnson: A Biography

by Hans Treffouse

reviewed October 2018

A well written book about the man whom most consider one of the worst U.S. Presidents in history. It’s quite shocking, yet not surprising, that sandwiched between the abominations of Andrew Johnson and 15th president, James Buchannan, was the man who most consider the best president ever - Abraham Lincoln. Not surprising because it clearly illustrates what a calamitous time it was for the United States. After the conclusion of the Civil War, Lincoln begins his second term, and is shortly assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer. Enter Vice-President Andrew Johnson. Sadly, he manages to erase the progress made by his predecessor, and then barely survives a conviction after impeachment amongst other difficulties.

This book is broken into two halves. The first half details everything up to when Johnson becomes President, and the second half after the fact. I found this book to be very engaging, yet mostly devoid of feeling or emotion. It seems to stress only the facts, yet Hans Trefousse knows when enough is enough, and I never felt overwhelmed with useless details. This is not a mud-slinging effort, but the author seems to echo the consensus of most historians in that he doesn’t portray Andrew Johnson in a favorable light. He poses the question, on more than one occasion, how much quicker reforms around reconstruction and equal rights among the races could have happened had it not been for Johnson’s apathetic attitude concerning the recently freed negro race.

That’s not to say things could have ever expected to be perfect. One shouldn’t suffer from the delusion that recently freed slaves in the South could ever expect to be immediately loved and respected by their former masters after two centuries of subjugation, but Johnson certainly never seemed to want to make any progress. As a native Tennessean, he grew up around slavery, and the only thing that made him Lincoln’s running mate in 1864, was that he was a devout Unionist – even throughout the Civil War. One really must speculate exactly why. It’s never quite clear, and one is forced to believe that Johnson did so with the (correct) realization that such a stand would further his political career later in life.

Such attitudes are what led him to be the first president to ever be impeached, although there were other unrelated offenses that compounded the event. On the surface, Johnson really didn’t seem to care, and he was only spared conviction by the senate by one vote. The immediate future seemed to be rather kind to him, as he was elected to the senate a mere four years after his failed bid to be re-nominated for a second term as president.

I really enjoyed this book and found it to be about the perfect length (about 375 pages). I felt as though I never really admired the man while I was reading the book, yet felt the author painted the best possible picture of him. It’s truly sad that Abraham Lincoln’s life had to be taken away from him when the country still desperately needed his leadership. One wonders just how much better things may have turned out a century and a half later, when race relations still have a long way to go in one of the most prosperous nations that the world has ever known.

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