JOHNSON, Andrew, 17th President of the United States: b. Raleigh, N. C., 29 Dec. 1808; d. Carter's Station, Tenn., 31 July 1875. Johnson's father died when the boy was 5 years old, and at 10 he was apprenticed to a tailor in his native town. While at work, Johnson gained the first rudiments of an education from a gentlemen who often visited the tailor's shop and read aloud to the journeymen and the ap prentices from a volume of speeches of eminent British orators. Johnson became interested.and received the book as a gift from the owner and learned to read and spell at the same time. In 1824, having completed his apprenticeship, be left Raleigh and went to Laurens.Court House. In 1826 he returned to Raleigh, but in Septem ber of the same year he left with his mother, whom he always showed the greatest solicitude and respect, for Greenville, Tenn. The follow ing year he married. Encouraged and aided by his wife he learned to write and figure. Be coming interested in the problems of his fel low-workers he was elected alderman (1828), to which office he was twice re-elected. In 1830 'he was elected mayor, and hetd ;he posi.
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tion for three terms. He was also chosen by the County Court as trustee of Rhea Academy, which he held until he entered the State legis lature. In 1839 he took an active part in the adoption of a new State constitution which greatly enlarged •the freedom of the masses and guaranteed freed..m of speech and of the press. The next year he was elected to the State legis lature from the counties of Washington and Green where he was especially pronounced in his opposition to the wild schemes of internal improvements then in vogue. Defeated in 1837 for re-election, he was returned in 1839 when the State realized the justice of his posi tion in view of the crisis of 1837. Johnson can vassed eastern Tennessee for the Democratic candidate in 1840, and served as presidential elector-at-large. In the following year he en tered the State senate, signalizing his advent by the introduction of ajudicious measure for internal improvements. In 1843 he was nomi nated from the first district for Congress, and in December took his seat in the national House of Representatives, which he continued to hold for 10 years. While in the lower house he sup ported a bill for refunding the fine imposed on General Jackson, the annexation of Texas, the war measures of Polk's administration, and a homestead measure, and opposed all schemes of internal improvement when local in scope and the tariff of 1842. On 2 Aug. 1848, he
'made a speech setting forth his ideas with re gard to the President's veto power. °A veto as exercised by the executive,* he declared. °is conservative and enables the people through their tribunician officer, the President, to ar rest or suspend for the time being unconstitu tional, hasty and improvident legislation until the people, the sovereigns in this country, have time and opportunity to consider its propriety.° This utterance was made the theme of an in teresting article in the Democratic Review in its January issue. Returning to his own State he was chosen for governor in 1853. His inaugural excited much criticism for its ultra radical statements. Two years later he was elected to the United States Senate. As sena tor he gained special distinction in advocat ing a homestead measure, only to see his efforts thwarted by President Buchanan.
By this time the slavery problem was the real issue of the nation. Johnson, a Southern Democrat, himself the owner of slaves °acquired by the toil of his hands,° mildly upheld slavery, but he did not believe in compromises nor in agitating the slavery controversy, deeming all such discussions as futile. For this reason he disbelieved in the right of petition but sup ported the Compromise of 1850 because he thought each resolution embodied his views. Nevertheless he did not sanction the Southern attitude of •threatening the national government. In the National Democratic Convention at Charleston in 1860, Johnson was a candidate, but in the election he supported the Brecken ridge ticket. When he saw the determination of the South to secede, he alone of the South ern members refused °to go with his State° when it withdrew. In 1861 he returned to Tennessee and often at the risk of his life worked in behalf of the Union. In 1862 he be came military governor of that part of Tennes see under the control of the Northern forces and began organizing a Union government. Two years later Johnson was placed on the ticket with Lincoln in order to secure the votes of the border States and the Democrats.