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Andrew Johnson vs Ulysses S. Grant

Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808, Johnson grew up in poverty. He was apprenticed to a tailor as a boy, but ran away. He opened a tailor shop in Greeneville, Tennessee, married Eliza McCardle, and participated in debates at the local academy. Entering politics, he became an adept stump speaker, championing the common man and vilifying the plantation aristocracy. As a Member of the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 1840's and '50's, he advocated a homestead bill to provide a free farm for the poor man.

During the secession crisis, Johnson remained in the Senate even when Tennessee seceded, which made him a hero in the North and a traitor in the eyes of most Southerners. In 1862 President Lincoln appointed him Military Governor of Tennessee, and Johnson used the state as a laboratory for reconstruction. In 1864 the Republicans, contending that their National Union Party was for all loyal men, nominated Johnson, a Southerner and a Democrat, for Vice President.

Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War he fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers.

Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant engaged in a personal and political feud almost unparalleled in both the briefness of its duration and the violence of its animosity. The trouble began after the Civil War ended. Johnson, who had been elected Vice President in 1864, became President after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, April 15, 1865. Grant was the commanding general of the army, and the hero of the Civil War.

Johnson was determined to carry out Lincoln’s Reconstruction plans, bringing the southern states back into the Union as quickly as possible. Radical Republicans in Congress opposed Johnson’s plans, wanting to keep the southern states under military (and Radical) control. They felt that the southern states had committed political suicide and were no longer states; they were now territories again, and under Congressional control.

There were two attempts to remove President Andrew Johnson from office. The first occurred in the fall of 1867. On November 21st of that year, the House Judiciary committee produced a bill of impeachment that was basically a vast collection of complaints against him. After a furious debate, there was a formal vote in the House of Representatives on December 5th, which failed 108-57.

On February 24, 1868, something extraordinary happened in the U.S. Congress. For the first time in history, the United States House of Representatives impeached a sitting president, Democrat Andrew Johnson. Now, Johnson faced trial before the U. S. Senate. If convicted, he would be removed from office.

He was a Union man, but his roots were in the South. "This is a country for white men," he had reportedly declared, "and as long as I am president, it shall be a government for white men." Johnson had failed to win favor with the Radical Republicans. The radicals, who included men like Thaddeus Stevens and Benjamin Butler, wanted to guarantee the rights of the freedmen. One way they tried to do so was by passing the Reconstruction Acts, laws that provided suffrage to freed slaves and prevented former Southern rebels from regaining control of the state governments.

Believing the Acts to be wrong and unconstitutional, Johnson repeatedly blocked their enforcement. He repeatedly gave pardons to ex-Rebels. He hampered military commanders' efforts to block the rise of Southern leaders to power. In frequent speeches and interviews, Johnson publicly expressed his defiance of the Radical Republicans. They knew that their program for reconstruction of the South could not succeed with Andrew Johnson in office.

After the mid-term elections in 1866, the Radicals found themselves in overwhelming control of both houses of Congress. They sought to use their advantage to control Johnson. The final blow came after the passage of the Tenure of Office Act in 1867. This law declared that any position that required Senate confirmation of the appointment also required Senate confirmation before the official could be dismissed. This meant that Johnson could not control his own cabinet. In a move that infuriated Congressmen, Johnson defied the act.

The president had long wanted to dismiss the Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton. Stanton was the only member of Johnson's cabinet who supported the Radical Republicans' program for reconstruction. On August 12, Johnson suspended Stanton. In his place, Johnson appointed the popular Ulysses S. Grant interim Secretary of War the one man no one dared to oppose. By doing so, Johnson hoped to challenge the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act.

Grant served as interim Secretary of War until Congress reconvened. On January 13, 1868, the Senate passed a resolution declaring that the removal of Stanton was not legal and, although being very careful not to criticize General Grant, ordered Stanton reinstated. Grant relinquished the office and returned to his army duties. This began the feud in earnest.

Johnson wrote an angry letter to Grant accusing Grant of breaking his word. Johnson felt that Grant knew what role he had been meant to play and backed out under pressure from Congress. Johnson implied that Grant deserted him, caring more about the upcoming Republican Presidential nomination than doing what was right for his country.

Grant responded that he considered Congress, and not the President, the final authority in the matter, and that he had never given the President any intimation that he would violate the law to support him. Grant concluded his letter, written on February 3, 1868, saying, “And now, Mr. President, when my honor as a soldier and integrity as a man have been so violently assailed, pardon me for saying that I can but regard this whole matter from beginning to end as an attempt to involve me in a resistance of law for which you hesitated to assume the responsibility, and thus destroy my character before the country.”

The event heightened Grant's popularity and depressed Johnson's - at least as far as Republicans were concerned. Ignoring Congress, Johnson formally dismissed Stanton on February 21, 1868. With the support of the Republicans, Stanton responded by locking himself in his office and refusing to leave, claiming that Johnson was acting illegally under the terms of the Tenure of Office Act.

Angered by Johnson's open defiance, the House of Representatives formally impeached him on February 24 by a vote of 126 to 47. They charged him with violation of the Tenure of Office Act and bringing into "disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach the Congress of the United States." It was then up to the Senate to try Johnson.

Johnson's trial began on March 4th and continued for eleven grueling weeks. During that long period, the president's enemies had time to reconsider the Stanton dismissal. Many of them were impressed with Johnson's good behavior during the trial. Johnson also took action to save himself. He promised to enforce the Reconstruction Acts and to give no more speeches attacking Congress. He also appointed a man well liked by most Republicans, General John M. Schofield, as the new Secretary of War.

On May 16, 1868, President Johnson escaped removal from office by just one vote. For the remainder of his time in office, he continued to veto reconstruction bills, but Congress overrode his vetoes. Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. The Radical Republicans' program for reconstruction continued. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant, won the presidency.

This was not the first clash between the two men. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, President Johnson sought to have Robert E. Lee arrested for treason, contrary to the surrender terms signed at Appomattox. Grant was furious that Johnson would even think about violating the term of the surrender that represented the nation’s solemn word of honor. When Lee appealed to Grant for help, Grant intervened on Lee’s behalf. He threatened to take his case to the people if the President did not drop his attempt to have Lee arrested. Johnson backed down, and Lee was not arrested.

The two had not reconciled by the time Grant was inaugurated President on March 4, 1869. President Johnson refused to ride with Grant, and therefore was not present at Grant’s inauguration. This had not happened since John Quincy Adams left town the night before the inauguration of Andrew Jackson in 1829.

John S. Cooper. Presidential Feuds. Suite101.com: the curious reader's destination for art & science, mind & body, home & abroad: read, respond, relate. November 9, 2001 / November 16, 2001 / November 23, 2001 / November 30, 2001 / December 7, 2001.

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