by James Harvey

Created on: February 10, 2008   Last Updated: August 29, 2011

"This is a country for white men, and by God as long as I am President, it will be a government for white men." It is very hard to imagine a president of the United States making a statement like this today, but in 1866 when this statement was written in a letter by Andrew Johnson-17th President of the United States-this was considered the social norm. It was just nearly a year following the end of the Civil War, and African Americans were now emancipated, or freed, but their full rights as citizens of the United States were not granted them because they were still viewed as second-class citizens. Andrew Johnson, who during the War was supposedly a Pro-Union Southerner who claimed to uphold the rights of Blacks began to show his true colors.

Andrew Johnson was born on December 29,1808, in Raleigh, North Carolina, to Jacob and Mary McDonough. Johnson grew up in abject poverty. His father died when the boy was only three and by the time he was ten was apprenticed to a tailor to help support his family. When Andrew was 16, he and his brother ran away to Greenville,Tennessee where he found work as a tailor.  When He was only 19 in 1828, Andrew married Eliza McCardle, who taught him how to read and write. As a child, Andrew never attended any type of school.

Andrew entered the world of politics when he was barely out of his teens when he became an Alderman in Greenfield from 1828-30 and Mayor from 1830-33. As a Democrat he was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1833, where he served for 20 years. In 1853, Johnson was elected Governor of Tennessee, which position he held until 1857, when he became a member of the U.S. Senate from 1857-62. In 1862, Andrew Johnson was appointed military Governor by President Abraham Lincoln. He fought vigorously against the Confederate rebellion and reportedly set free his personal slaves the following year.

He spoke out for Black suffrage, arguing "The better class of them will go to work and sustain themselves" and that  "a loyal Negro is more worthy than a disloyal white man."  As a Pro-Union Southerner and a leading War Democrat, Johnson became an ideal candidate for the Republicans in 1864. He was elected Vice-President of the United States on March 4,1865.    At his inaugural he appeared drunk (he claimed that before the inaugural he had a drink to offset the effects of Typhoid Fever and that he had had a little too much to drink), he gave a slurred, rambling speech and appeared intoxicated

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