Saturday, July 5, 2014

Andrew Johnson




BANG!

So just like that, Andrew Johnson becomes President, replacing the assassinated Abraham Lincoln.  Tough shoes to fill.  (He did not even TRY fitting into the hat.)

He is not considered to have been a good President.  The Civil War had just ended, and without Lincoln around, Andrew Johnson wasn't sure what to do next.  You've got all these seceded and defeated (rhyme) Southern states that you've inherited now.  Where do we go from here?

To make a long story short, he got IMPEACHED.  The very first President that it ever happened to.  There is no documentation of this but he must have been like, "What?  IMPEACHMENT!?!?  I didn't even know that was a rule, I just got here!"

Before his death, Abraham Lincoln had freed all the slaves, and decent people everywhere were so happy.  It would now be up to Andrew Johnson to figure out how to protect and integrate them as full citizens, and he did not do a good job.  So he was impeached, but still somehow slipped by and was able to remain President when the vote to kick him out came up one short.

I bet he was wiping his brow all like "WHEW!  That was CLOSE!"


About two months later, he was finished.  He did not even make it to the next Presidential election itself.  His own party would not give him the nomination.  In fact he got pretty badly crushed.


Did he give up?  NO!

Having been a U.S. Senator prior to being elected Vice President, he made a bold decision to run for the Senate AGAIN.

He lost.

So then after a few MORE years had passed, he figured "Okay then I shall run for the HOUSE of REPRESENTATIVES!"

Again, no dice.

a few years after THAT, Andrew Johnson's never-say-die attitude paid off and he was FINALLY elected to the Senate for a second term.  "Thank God for the vindication," he remarked.

He died of a stroke several months later.

Good-bye Andrew Johnson.  At least LINCOLN liked you.


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