There's been a recurring theme on this show of the 11 presidents we've covered so far, three of them were not actually elected into office. They were vice presidents who stepped in when the original president died. It's not surprising that these guys tend to be controversial. I mean, it's a tough job inheriting all the nation's problems at the drop of a hat, but no one felt this more severely than Andrew Johnson. He had to fill Abe Lincoln's shoes in the final weeks of the Civil War, no less.

He had to glue the broken country back together, craft a vision of a more equal society, restore faith and trust in the federal government. Johnson took a long look at all of these life or death expectations and said, Now I'm going to do the opposite of that.

Welcome to very presidential, a podcast original, I'm your host, Ashleigh Flowers, you can find all episodes of very presidential and all other podcast originals for free on Spotify.

And if you like what you're hearing, reach out on Facebook and Instagram at Precast and Twitter at Sparkasse network. Andrew Johnson was known by many names, none of them kind the grim presence served up the presidential demigod, the best hater I ever knew.

He was the first president to ever be impeached. And as of this recording, the only president to rack up 13 fatalities at a single speaking event.

We have all of that and more coming up. Stay with us. Choosing a running mate has always been a kind of symbolic gesture, you want someone who can pull in votes, fill the gap, stand there and look pretty sure if you win the presidency, that person is going to be your VP for four years. But some would say it's not a real job, just a figurehead. So that's why when Abe Lincoln was running for re-election, he chose Andrew Johnson.

The Civil War was just winding down and Lincoln knew he had to heal the divides of the country.

So he dumped his current VP, a northern Republican like himself, and replaced him with Johnson, a southern Democrat. That's right. They weren't just on different sides of the aisle. They were on different sides of the civil war battlefield. Talk about a compromise. But even though Johnson was a slave owner from Tennessee, he was the only senator from the south who didn't join the Confederacy. In fact, he traveled around Tennessee speaking out against secession. It didn't work, obviously, but Johnson stayed loyal to the union even when the rest of his state didn't.

Now, don't go getting it wrong. Johnson was an anti slavery, but he hated the wealthy land owning class. Johnson grew up in a log cabin. His father died when he was three, and by age 14, his mother sold him off as an indentured servant to help support the family. He never went to school. His wife taught him how to spell and write. But when he was just 20 years old, he made his entry into local politics, running under a working man's party that he helped organize.

From that moment on, he was a voice for the poor and an enemy of the rich plantation owners. So the way Johnson saw it, seceding from the union meant ripping up the Constitution and handing all the power to those wealthy elites he hated. And he would rather give up his own slaves, which he did then give up democracy. So when Lincoln is looking for a new running mate in 1864, Johnson is a natural choice. They run on a ticket called the National Union Party.

It's a message to everyone who doesn't support the Confederacy, North or South, Republican or Democrat. If you're still loyal to the U.S. of A.. You need to stand together. The tactic worked as far as winning re-election, but the problems started to appear well on Inauguration Day. The morning of the ceremony, Johnson was feeling a little under the weather. He was just getting over typhoid fever and also he was hung over from a big party the night before.

So when he gets to the capital, he goes straight to the office of the outgoing vice president, the guy whose job he's taking and says, hey, I need a little hair of the dog if I'm going to get through this. Johnson downed a glass of whiskey and then another and then another. And then he stumbled into the Senate chamber to become the vice president. He takes the stage red in the face, barely able to stand up straight, and he just starts rambling incoherently.

Here's a direct quote I'm going to afford to tell you here today. Yes, I'm going to four to tell you all that I'm a plebe in the people. Yes, the people of the United States have made me what I am. I am going to tell you today. Yes. Today in this place that the people are everything. Lincoln's entire cabinet is sitting in the front row and they're just gaping and absolute whore whispering to each other like something is wrong.

Like this guy is either drunk or crazy. Ben Johnson looks down at the cabinet members and points them all out by name. Like you, Secretary Seward, don't forget that your power comes from the people, Secretary Stanton. Your power comes from the people. And then he gets to the secretary of the Navy and he just like pauses and he leans over to the senator and loudly whispers. What's the name of the secretary of the Navy? The outgoing vice president is sitting behind him and he actually pulls on Johnson's coattails and tells him to shut up.

But Johnson ignores him. Then halfway through the speech, Lincoln walks in, his face falls, he has no idea what's going on, but whatever's happening here, he knows it's bad. He takes his seat at the front of the chamber and just sits there in agony, waiting for it to be over. After ranting for a total of 17 minutes, Johnson finally takes his oath of office and then he grabs the Bible out from under his hands, kisses it and yells, I kiss this book in the face of my nation, the United States.

After that, Johnson is escorted out. Lincoln tells the event, Marshal, do not let Johnson speak outside. But it was already too late to undo the damage for the next few days. Johnson's speech was all anyone could talk about. Some Congress members were so embarrassed they actually drafted a resolution calling on Johnson to resign. Lincoln tried to reassure everyone that his new VP was not an unhinged alcoholic. He said it has been a severe lesson for Andy, but I do not think he will do it again.

Sounds a little more like a threat than a vote of confidence. Really, the best thing Johnson could do is just sit in the corner and pretend not to exist. And for the next six weeks, that's what he does. But on April 14, Lincoln decides to go see a play at Ford's Theater. He doesn't live to see the ending. We all know what happened to Lincoln. He was shot by a disgruntled actor who supported the Confederacy. But this wasn't just a plot to kill Lincoln and have the Southern Democrat Johnson take his place.

That would be too simple. The plan was to take out the entire line of succession. At the same moment when John Wilkes Booth was shooting Lincoln, one of his accomplices was trying to kill the secretary of state. William H. Seward should have been an easy job because Seward was laying up in bed recovering from a carriage accident. But the assassin completely bungles the hit. He barges into Stewart's house, stabs six people, killing zero of them, and then flees in panic.

Meanwhile, another accomplice, George Azerrad, is supposed to stake out the Kirkwood House, the hotel where Johnson was staying. Johnson is in his room all night without any security, but George can't work up the nerve to do it. He spends the whole evening at the hotel bar hoping some liquid courage will help the good old Andy Johnson strategy. It doesn't work, though. Eventually, George just gives up and leaves. He spends the rest of the night wandering around D.C. in a drunken haze.

Not long after he leaves, though, someone else comes rushing to Johnson's room, bearing the news that Lincoln had been shot. So now Andrew Johnson is the president of the United States.

Coming up, I'll look at the disastrous first year of Johnson's presidency, things got so bad he only saw one way to fix it by going on a cross-country bender with the beloved war hero, Ulysses S. Grant.

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Now back to the story. So remember how Andrew Johnson was chosen as VP specifically because he was the opposite of Lincoln in every possible way, that was all well and good during the campaign. But now Lincoln was dead, Johnson was in charge, and the nation was in the worst possible hands. Bear with me here, because we're going to need a little background before we get to the juicy stuff. But I'll make it quick. By the time Johnson settles into the White House, the civil war is just about over.

But the Confederates don't just roll over and say, OK, you win, slavery's over. We're back in the union. Now, there are huge questions about reconstruction, what to do with the Confederate leaders, how to reorganize their state governments and so on. The Republicans, Lincoln's party control Congress and they're split over what to do and how harsh to be. But they all at least agree something has to be figured out before they let the south back into the union.

And then there's Andrew Johnson with a real out of left field. Take his opinion is, quote, There is no such thing as reconstruction. He argued that the Southern states had never actually seceded from the union because it's not legal for a state to secede right there for the Confederacy was really still part of the USA this whole time. And the federal government has no power to punish them for a fake crime like imaginary treason. This is a pretty dramatic change of heart for a guy who just spent four years railing against secession.

And it's pretty easy to guess what happened. Johnson's big enemy during the war was the wealthy planter class. Well, they had already been destroyed beyond recognition. Basically, Johnson had beaten that. Now he was more worried about his other big enemy, African Americans. It probably goes without saying that Johnson was racist. He was a former slave owner and an avowed white supremacist. You know, the kind of guy who wouldn't disavow a white supremacist. Just tell them to stand down and stand by.

He openly declared that this is a country for white men.

So his main goal with reconstruction was to undo any progress that had been made toward racial equality. And here's what's fun. The last session of Congress had ended in March. The new term wasn't supposed to start until that December. So Johnson had eight months to do whatever he wanted and no one had the power to stop him. He let all of the southern states back into the union, pardon former Confederates and let them run their own state governments. Surprising No one.

The first thing they did was create black codes, laws that limited the rights of African-Americans. It was basically slavery in all but name. Obviously, when Congress comes back in December, they are shocked to find ex Confederate leaders waiting for them at the Capitol. Yet their states are back in the Union and they're here to take their seats in the Senate. The rest of the congressmen say, nope, they refuse to recognize the Southerners like they literally refuse to call their names during roll call, which technically means they aren't present even if they're sitting right there.

Forget what Johnson said. The South isn't allowed to rejoin the union until the rest of the federal government says so. This is the opening shot of a full out war between Congress and the president. What comes next is going to sound like political chess, but really it's more like checkers, like playing checkers with a belligerent five year old while the fate of millions of people hangs in the balance. So in response to the black codes, Congress passes the Civil Rights Act, which guarantees equal protection to all citizens, regardless of race.

Naturally, Johnson vetoes it. Congress overrides his veto. And then just to drive the point home, they pass a full constitutional amendment that promises the same protections as the Civil Rights Act. The president can't veto an amendment. So instead, Johnson just tells the southern states not to ratify it. In response, Congress says, OK, then we're placing the South under martial law. The U.S. military takes over the entire region and they won't leave until the states ratify the 14th Amendment.

If this sounds bad, that's because it is bad instead of healing the country's wounds. Johnson is pouring salt into them. The racial tensions gave birth to violent hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan. There were riots all over the South in Johnson's home state of Tennessee. There was a three day massacre in Memphis that left 46 African-Americans dead. Johnson was wildly blamed for the violence. He wasn't directly involved in it, but he was the one who put ex confederates back in power in the first place.

And really, this is the strangest thing about Johnson's attitude. He's not even benefiting from this personally. It's politically disastrous. There's no game plan here beyond wanting to screw over African-Americans. And let's look at where it's gotten him. One year into his term, he's completely alienated the Republicans who control Congress and all of the northern state government and his own cabinet, his attorney general, secretary of the interior and postmaster general all resigned. Most of the public hates him to a newspaper in Iowa called Johnson the most deliberately bad man out of prison in the republic.

Sure, he has support from the former Confederates, but they aren't allowed in Congress and they won't be allowed back into Congress until they ratify that new amendment which gives voting rights to black men. You see where this is going. That's a whole new block of voters who will not be supporting Johnson or his fellow Southern Democrats. So Johnson has shot himself in the foot several times, all for the sake of being racist. About a year into his term in the summer of 1866, the midterm elections are coming up and he has this last ditch hope that maybe, just maybe, he can convince some of the northern states to boot out the Republican congressman and replace them with Democrats.

It's a long shot, obviously, but Andy Johnson is no quitter. He rose from nothing to become president, and he did it by rallying the common people when he's not drunk. He's a really powerful speaker. He's got passion and intensity. He thinks maybe he can use those skills to drum up support for the Democrats and convince voters that his reconstruction policies aren't actually so bad. And to do that, he embarks on a three week speaking tour called the Swing Around the Circle, and it doesn't go as planned.

For some reason, Johnson decides that Ulysses S. Grant has to go on the tour with him. Grant is the general in the army and a national hero since he just won the Civil War for the union. So he'll definitely help turn out crowds. But Grant doesn't really get along with Johnson. He has no desire to be part of this tour and also he has a serious drinking problem. Now, Johnson has learned from his mistakes, no whiskey before speaking, but if Grant has to tag along for this, he's going to have to numb the pain, especially because each stop on the tour was more chaotic than the last.

The first problems appear a few days into the trip in Auburn, New York. Grant's carriage runs over a little boy and his leg has to be amputated.

Apparently for Grant, this is an omen. He never should have agreed to this in the first place. Then a couple of days later, when they're getting on the train to leave, Buffalo Grant is blackout drunk, like too drunk to stand up. The surgeon general tries to prop him up and he actually has to check his pulse to make sure he's still alive. One of Grant's aides is like, oh, no, not this again. And he and a reporter rush over to grab the general and carry him to the baggage car.

They lay him down on a pile of bags and they guard the door like nothing to see here. Grant's just taking it up, move along. But by the time they reach the next stop in Cleveland, Grant has become, quote, stupidly communicative. Whatever he's rambling about, the public does not need to hear it. So they sneak grant away and take him directly to the next city on the tour stop to dry out. Meanwhile, Johnson greets the crowd and he's met with booing and jeering.

They want to see Grant. He's their guy. And of course, that's not possible. And Johnson is so mad about being heckled, he goes way off script. Someone in the crowd shouts, Hang Jeff Davis. And Jeff Davis is the Confederate president. And Johnson shoots back. Why don't you hang Congressman Thad Stevens calling for an angry mob to hang your political opponents. Not a great look. One of the colleagues traveling with him was. Hey, Mr.

President, let's keep it dignified, and Johnson replies, I don't care about my dignity. Then he turns back to the crowd and threatens the heckler like, come on out here where I can see you. I bet you look like a coward.

You don't scare me. And that is where things really started to go downhill and they were only halfway through the tour in Bloomington, Illinois.

Johnson steps off the train to a deafening crowd cheering for Grant. Luckily, Grant is back by this point and apparently sober enough to walk out onto the rear platform and shake people's hands. There's so much excitement, a few people in the crowd are injured in a stampede. Once Grant steps back inside, Johnson tries to give his own speech, but he can't be heard over everyone.

Cheering Huzzah for Grant. Eventually, he just gives up and the train pulls out of the station without another word from the president. On their way out, the train passes effigy of Johnson hanging from a telegraph pole.

Next stop, St. Louis, where Johnson brags about pardoning Confederate soldiers. A heckler calls him a traitor. And Johnson basically says, I'm not Judas. I'm Jesus Christ, forgiving the sinners. Next is Indianapolis. Johnson tries to speak, but he can't get a single word in. He's drowned out by people shouting, Traitor, shut up.

We don't want to hear from you. After a few minutes, Johnson gives up and heads back to his hotel.

Then as soon as he leaves the stage, the crowd gets completely out of control. A gunfight breaks out, one person is shot to death and a bullet gets lodged into the wall of Johnson's hotel room. That was just a warm up for what happens in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Johnson hasn't even gotten out of the train yet when the platform the crowd is standing on collapses. Hundreds of spectators fall through and are dropped 30 feet into the canal below. A reported 13 people are killed and at least 90 are severely injured.

The worst part is the train conductor says they can't stop to help or it'll hold up traffic. So Johnson's train just rattles away, leaving all this death and destruction in their wake. Thankfully, that was one of the last stops on the tour. To call it a disaster would be an understatement. Not only did it leave a number of people dead, it ruined whatever was left of Johnson's reputation and eventually it led to his impeachment. Coming up, I'll look at the unceremonious end of Johnson's presidency.

Now back to the story. Even before the speaker round the Circle tour, most of Washington was trying to find a way to impeach Andrew Johnson from day one, he'd been obstructing Congress, giving favors to the Confederates, basically encouraging racial violence. And now he's traveling around the country openly calling for the murder of a Congress member. It's now clear to everyone in the entire country that Johnson has no idea what he's doing. His respect for the Constitution during the war was all an act.

He's unhinged and dangerous to the union, but none of that technically counts as an impeachable offense, or at least no one's sure if it does. Honestly, nobody has any idea what it takes to impeach a president at this point. It's never been done before. And all the Constitution says is high crimes and misdemeanors, pretty vague wording. So to clear things up, Congress decides to set a little trap for President Johnson. It's called the Tenure of Office Act.

I mentioned earlier three of Johnson's cabinet members resigned within his first year in office. But one person who refused to leave is Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. He's stubborn, temperamental and loves making enemies. Serving in the cabinet is the chance of a lifetime for him. He gets to make Johnson's life hell. He thwarts the president's policies at every turn, manipulates him, double crosses him. Whenever Johnson gives a military order that Stanton disagrees with, he just turns around and tells the Army to do the exact opposite.

Now, Johnson knows this is going on, but weirdly, it actually makes him respect Stanton or maybe fear him. He would not dismiss Stanton from the cabinet no matter how many times his advisors told him to. But the Republicans in Congress aren't going to take their chances. Stanton is kind of their Trojan horse. He's one of the few people who can actually stop Johnson from doing anything to insane.

If he's gone, it'll be chaos so bad, Stevens, remember the Congressman Johnson said he wanted to hang. He proposes the Tenure of Office Act, which says the president can't fire certain officials without the Senate's approval. And Section six of the bill says any violations of the act would be considered high misdemeanors. As expected, Johnson vetoes the bill, Congress overrides the veto, and it becomes a law. And Johnson, being who he is, has to fight back, which he does by firing Edwin Stanton in clear violation of the Tenure of Office Act, basically just to see what Congress will do about it.

And what do you know, the House votes to impeach him. There are 11 articles of impeachment. The first nine are about firing Stanton and the other laws Johnson broke. Number 10 is about the swing around the Circle tour. It accuses him of making inflammatory statements and threats against Congress, which of course, he did. And article number 11 gets at the heart of the problem, abuse of power by repeatedly violating the law. Johnson was disregarding the Constitution and challenging the authority of Congress.

That's what this was really about. Johnson, who was not actually elected president, was doing everything he could to undermine Congress and impose his own vision for the future. And that future was bleak. It was, in his words, a country for white men. If he had his way, he would undo the entire civil war. Those were the stakes when the impeachment trial opened in March of 1868. The crowds were so huge that police had to line the doors to hold them back.

You needed a ticket to get into the Senate chamber and it was the hottest ticket of the year, maybe of the century. And despite the fact that Johnson is so hugely unpopular, the verdict is going to be close. You need a two thirds majority to remove a president. 12 senators are definitely in Johnson's corner. So he just needs to flip seven more to vote for acquittal. And he's safe. And Johnson's people decide to get those votes the old fashioned way, passing out bribes.

There was a slush fund for Johnson's acquittal that was worth over two point seven million dollars. In today's money, it's hard to track exactly where that money went, but it was definitely floating around the Capitol and most of the cabinet had their fingerprints on it. As for Johnson himself, he's finally taking the advice he'd been given since day one. Stay quiet and stay out of the way. He lets his cabinet handle the dealmaking. If anyone asks him about the trial, he plays it cool.

He's not paying too much attention. He's sure it will all work out. It's hard to say whether that's denial or if he's just so confident in his cabinet's bribery abilities. But either way, it's clear he's cracking. While the trial is unfolding in the Senate, he suddenly becomes preoccupied with some new White House guests. A family of little white mice living in his bedroom. Johnson sets out water for them and even a little basket of flour in case they get hungry.

He spends unknown hours just sitting there watching them, making friends with the little fellows. He proudly tells his secretary that he's won their confidence. And Johnson's daughter at this point is like, Are you OK? Like, can we get rid of these rodents? And so she lays out traps and rat poison and even brings in cats to chase them away, but her dad keeps protecting them. This would be funny if it wasn't so sad, or I guess it might be sad if Johnson had actually been removed from office like he was so afraid of.

But in the end, he was acquitted by one vote, a vote that was probably bought and paid for by his supporters. Right after the impeachment trial ended, the House launched their own investigation into whether the senators were bribed. They couldn't prove any of them were bribed with cash. But Johnson did trade federal appointments for at least one senator's vote. But what are you going to do, impeach him again? By this point, Johnson only had 10 months left in office.

He spent those last 10 months doing what he did best, criticizing Congress, railing against reconstruction, pardoning the few high ranking ex confederates he hadn't already pardoned all the way up to Jefferson Davis. Johnson threw his name in for reelection, but he lost the Democratic primary. Even his own party knew he would never see another term. Instead, the election was won by Ulysses S. Grant. Thankfully, Grant tried to steer reconstruction back on track, but the damage from Johnson's term was already done, and we're still living with it today.

When Johnson took office, there was real hope that there'd be justice and equality for African-Americans.

By the time he left, that hope was crushed. Racism was literally the law throughout the south, the KKK was an unstoppable force. The tone had been set for centuries of inequality and racial violence. It's astounding that so much damage could be done by one man who wasn't even elected. At least we all learned from Lincoln's mistake. When you're choosing a veep, you might be choosing the next president. Thanks for listening, if you want to hear more episodes of very presidential, you can find them all for free on Spotify.

Very presidential stars Ashley Flowers and is a Spotify original from podcast, it was created by Max Cutler and Ashley Flowers and is executive produced by Max Cutler, Sound Design by Carrie Murphy with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Carly Madden and Erin Larson.

This episode of Very Presidential was written by Kate Gallagher. To hear more stories hosted by me, check out Crime Junkie and all audio Chuck Originals.

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