Background & Building Toward the
Showdown
Looking to
rebuild support from the contentious factions in
what was left of the nation in 1864, Abraham
Lincoln used a strategy still familiar
today. He chose a moderate conservative
from the South as his running mate in order to
balance his presidential ticket. Andrew
Johnson was of humble background, self-educated
and with populist credentials like his famous
running-mate. His populist sensibilities
were influenced by a more famous Andrew -
President Andrew Jackson. Andrew
Johnson, who started his political career as a
"Jacksonian Democrat," was given the
vice presidential nod for his "War
Democrat," credentials (meaning he was
against secession). Johnson was a supporter
of slavery as the beginning of his career, but
later believed the entire system needed to be
abolished. However, Johnson always held the
belief that Africans were inferior to the
European race, which was reflected in his
opposition to the civil rights legislation of the
"Radical Republicans," who would come
to dominate Congress after the Civil War.
President Johnson,
repeatedly aggravated the Radical Republicans as
he pushed for quick inclusion of the former
Confederate States, but vetoed civil rights
legislation. Lacking the charisma and
political astuteness of his predecessor,
President Johnson's harsh public rebukes of
Congress would lead to "Contempt of
Congress" charges which would help lead to
his eventual impeachment.
But in the summer of 1864, the
"Jacksonian" and "War"
Democrat joining with the Republican incumbent
president forming the optimistically named Union
Party ticket, inspired hope and enthusiasm as
evidenced in the Harper's
Weekly June 25, 1864 editorial:
THE UNION NOMINATIONS
The
Baltimore Convention met and organized on the 7th
of June, and on the 8th, in one session, laid
down its platform,
nominated Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson with
enthusiastic unanimity, and adjourned. . .
. . .There was never a Convention
which more truly represented the people, and,
upon the first opportunity offered, it showed its
purpose in the most unmistakable manner. No one
who watched its deliberations, or who has read
its proceedings, but must feel that it expressed
the strongest popular determination for the
unflinching prosecution of the war by every
efficient method. . .
. . . the"Border State
policy," having served its purpose, and a
purpose with which we are not disposed to
quarrel, is no longer the policy which the people
of the country approve. This decision is
emphasized by the nomination of Andrew Johnson, a
life-long Democrat, who has been educated by fire
and sword straight up to the necessities of the
crisis. . .
. . . Washington has inspired a
deeper popular confidence we have no doubt
whatever that the result of the election will
establish. Of Andrew Johnson it is enough to say
that there is no man in the country, unless it be
Mr. Lincoln himself, whom the rebels more
cordially hate. He fought them in the Senate,
when they counted upon his aid, and he has fought
them steadily ever since and with untiring
energy. It is pleasant to record, of our personal
knowledge, that one, of the wisest and truest
patriots in the country, who has sacrificed not
less than Johnson himself, says of the
contingency of Johnson’s succession to the
chief magistracy, that the country and the cause
of American Liberty could then not be in safer
hands.
Ironically, it was not the
"cordial hate" of fellow Southerners
which would propel President Johnson toward
impeachment, but the uncordial animosity between
- the Vice President later thrusted into
presidency by an assassin's bullet - and - the
Radical Republicans upset by a president too
lenient toward those same Southerners HarpWeek
alluded to earlier.
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