RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) –
Leading up to America’s 250th birthday, we are highlighting things you may not know about our presidents.
Tonight, Phil Aldridge features the man who had the unenviable task of following one of our greatest leaders.
He was the first president to be impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate.
Andrew Johnson was born on December 29, 1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina. He grew up poor, had no formal education as a child, and never went to college. Johnson was a tailor by trade before getting into politics.
He was a Democrat who served in the Tennessee legislature, the US Senate and Congress, as Governor of Tennessee, and Vice President under Abraham Lincoln. Six weeks after taking the oath of office as VP, Lincoln was assassinated, making Johnson the 17th President of the United States.
Johnson married Eliza McCardle, and the couple had 5 children. She helped him improve his reading and writing skills, and he would become a skilled speaker.
He had a hostile relationship with Congress over his attempt to grant amnesty to the Confederate states after the Civil War. Congress passed the 14th Amendment, granting citizenship to blacks, something Johnson openly opposed.
Johnson’s downfall came in 1868, when the House of Representatives voted to impeach Johnson. He was accused of violating the Tenure of Office Act by suspending Secretary of War Edwin Stanton without Senate approval. He was the first president to be impeached. But the Senate acquitted Johnson at trial by one vote, and he remained in office. He did not seek reelection.
But his political career didn’t end. He was elected to the Senate in 1875, the first former president to do so.
He would die the same year of a stroke.
Andrew Johnson was 66 years old.
During his presidency, Alaska was purchased from the Russians for $7.2 million in 1867.
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