#17: Johnson, Andrew

Andrew Johnson
(Dec. 29, 1808, Raleigh, NC - July 31, 1875, Carter Station, Tennessee)

• Mr. Johnson was the first president to be impeached; he was the first and only president who had never gone to school (he was a tailor by training); he was the first president to grant a reporter a formal interview; and he was the first and only former president to serve as a Senator (he ran and won in 1874, six years after his term as president ended).
  
• Even though Johnson was a completely self-taught man (well almost completely--his wife taught him arithmetic and how to write), he diligently worked his way up the political ladder: from town alderman in Greenville, Tennessee, to the Tennessee House of Representatives, to Governor of Tennessee, to U.S. Senator, to Military Governor of Tennessee during the Civil War and finally to Vice President in Lincoln's second term (though notably Johnson owned 8 slaves, often advocated a "middle ground" on the slavery issue--sort of like being "kind of pregnant" or "very unique"--, and he was a Democrat on the Republican ticket). The World Book account of Johnson's inauguration bears quoting directly:
  

He had recently recovered from an attack of typhoid fever, and was still weak. On his way to the ceremony in the Senate, Johnson stopped to rest. He drank some whisky, thinking it would strengthen him. In the heat of the Senate chamber, and because of his weakened condition, Johnson became tipsy. His jumbled speech embarrassed even his friends. For many years, Johnson's opponents accused him of drunkenness, but the accusation was unjustified. Lincoln remarked: 'I have known Andy for many years; he made a bad slip the other day, but you need not be scared. Andy ain't a drunkard.'

• The morning after Lincoln's assassination, Johnson took the oath of office in his hotel room. In the four-year term that followed, he fought Radical Republicans intent on punishing the South. This resistance led to his tremendous unpopularity and eventual impeachment (though the Senate acquitted him in the impeachment trial). One of his lawyers at his impeachment trial wrote: "He is a man of few ideas, but they are right and true, and he could suffer death sooner than yield up or violate one of them." How's that for a backhanded compliment! During the trial, Radical Republican voters threatened Senators who did not vote in favor of impeachment. One voter, for example, warned, "Any Republican Senator who votes against impeachment need never expect to get home alive." My, my. Politics can get quite ugly.
  
• During Johnson's presidency, the U.S. acquired Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million in 1867. The deal was negotiated by Secretary of State William Seward--many American called Alaska "Seward's folly" for years thereafter. Recently, Discovery confirmed that it had finalized a deal with Sarah Palin to do an eight-part travelogue show about her home state. Although the series is not yet in production, the cost is estimated at about $1 million per episode. So that would be about $8 million. I can do math.
  
  

And that, my friends, is all I have to say about Andrew Johnson.

#7: Jackson, Andrew

Andrew Jackson
March 15, 1767 - June 8, 1845

Andrew Jackson was tall and
lean, with bright blue eyes.

I fell a little behind this month--too much travel, Christmas shopping, etc. Nevertheless, here we are.

• Andrew Jackson had a big personality. He's either a badass or a monster--more likely both. He reshaped the American presidency. He was a strong president, the first to appeal to the people directly, over the heads of Congress. He was the first president to be born in a log cabin, the first frontier president (born in the Carolinas, raised in Tennessee.... hmmm Dolly....), and the last president to have fought in the Revolutionary War. He famously opened the White House to the masses upon his inauguration, so that the celebration was truly a people's party.

Andrew Jackson, all I'm askin':
Show us the wheel and give us the wine*

• Jackson had a hair-trigger temper. He was a fighter from an early age: at the age of 11, Andrew was sent to boarding school where, according to World Book, "sports and cockfighting occupied more time than studying. He wrote a 'Memorandum' on 'How to feed a cock before you fight.'" Jackson joined the mounted militia of South Carolina in the Revolutionary War when he was 13 years old. He and his brother were captured by British troops in 1781. When young Andrew refused to shine the boots of a British officer, the Brit "lashed out at Andrew with his sword, and the youth threw up his left hand to protect himself. The blade slashed Andrew's hand to the bone and cut him badly on the head. He carried scars from the wounds the rest of his life." By age 14, Andrew was orphaned--his mother died of small pox during the war and his father had died when Andrew was only 3.
• Jackson studied law in the office of Spruce Macay, a wealthy Carolinian. He established a reputation as "the most roaring, rollicking, game-cocking, horse-racing, card-playing, mischievous fellow that ever lived in Salisbury. . . . Professional standards for lawyers were not high in those days, and Jackson was admitted to the bar in 1787 at the age of 20." He built his practice as a frontier lawyer, prosecuting settlers delinquent in paying their bills.
  
• Jackson married Mrs. Rachel Donelson when she was separated from her husband. This act of bigamy bit Jackson in the ass in the bitter presidential election of 1828: his opponents called Jackson a "paramour husband," and his wife a "convicted adulteress." These political attacks on his wife made Jackson depressed. When Mrs. Jackson died of a heart attack shortly thereafter, Jackson said: "May God Almighty forgive her murderers as I know she forgave them. . . I never can."
  
• Andrew Jackson's nickname was "Old Hickory," because he was so tough. According to the Jersey Shore Nickname Generator, Jackson's Shore nickname would have been "Juice Springsteen."
• The defining issue of Jackson's first term was his opposition to the Bank of the United States, which he believed was unconstitutional and had failed to establish a "uniform and sound" currency. He vetoed the bill re-chartering the bank, and Congress upheld the veto. In his second term, Jackson ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to remove the government's deposits from the Bank and place them in state banks.
• Jackson is the only president to have paid off the national debt.
• Jackson presided over the forced migration of Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw and Chicksaw Indians westward, in which many died. Another ugly chapter in this nation's history.
• The election of 1832 was the first election in which presidential candidates were selected by national political conventions. Jackson's opponents referred to him as a "jackass," which Jackson later co-opted as the symbol of the Democratic party.
  
• Jackson kept his collection of race horses in the White House stables.
• After seeing his buddy Martin Van Buren sworn in as President in 1840, Jackson moved back to his plantation, the Hermitage, about 12 miles from Nashville. "On June 8, 1845, Jackson fell unconscious. He died that evening."
  

And with that, Happy Christmas!

post script
For Christmas today I received a beautiful piece of ledger art, that my mom acquired from a North Dakotan artist at a pow-wow. It is an extraordinary reminder, given the horrible treatment of American Indians by most U.S. presidents (in particular Jackson), that pieces of Indian culture and heritage survive and thrive in some parts of the country today.