Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson became president after Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in April 1865. A Tennessee Democrat who had remained loyal to the Union, he had served as military governor of his state before joining Lincoln’s 1864 ticket. His presidency was dominated by the question of how the defeated Confederate states would return to political participation and what rights formerly enslaved people would exercise. ¹

Secretary of State William H. Seward continued to direct foreign affairs. In 1867 he negotiated the purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, extending American territory into the North Pacific and Arctic. The administration also acquired Midway Island, although several other proposed territorial acquisitions failed to gain congressional support. Commercial access and strategic position remained central to Seward’s ambitions. ²

The end of the Civil War allowed Washington to increase pressure on France to withdraw its forces from Mexico, where Napoleon III had installed Maximilian as emperor. American diplomacy and the presence of troops near the border reinforced Mexican republican resistance. Johnson’s administration also enforced neutrality laws against Fenian raids from the United States into Canada, preventing private attacks from becoming an American war with Britain. ²

Johnson offered lenient restoration to southern white governments and resisted federal guarantees of Black civil and political rights. He vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and clashed with Congress over Reconstruction; Congress overrode major vetoes and imposed its own program. His attempt to remove Secretary of War Edwin Stanton led to impeachment in 1868. The Senate acquitted him by one vote, and he completed his term with little authority over Reconstruction policy. ³