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Andrew Johnson: Politics and Government\Vice-President of US
Andrew Johnson: Politics and Government\Governor\Tennessee
Andrew Johnson: Politics and Government\US Senator\Tennessee
Andrew Johnson: Politics and Government\President of US
Andrew Johnson: Politics and Government\State Senator\Tennessee
Andrew Johnson: Politics and Government\Public official\Mayor
Andrew Johnson: Politics and Government\US Congressman\Tennessee
Andrew Johnson: Politics and Government\State Legislator\Tennessee
Andrew Johnson: Crafts and Trades\Textile worker\Tailor
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.82.45
Exhibition Label
In April 1865, Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) was thrust into a critical position of power; after a tumultuous four years of war in which Abraham Lincoln had historically expanded the powers of the presidency, Johnson, as president, became the victim of a Congress inclined to curtail his executive authority. A staunch believer in states’ rights, Johnson quickly antagonized Radical Republicans in Congress who felt his policies favored the civil rights of former Confederates at the expense of freed slaves. His vetoes of Reconstruction legislation that supported the rights of southern blacks, as caricatured in this print, and his violation of the Tenure of Office Act (later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court) in removing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from office, led to his impeachment in 1868. He was acquitted by a single vote.