Welcome to Blogging the Presidents: A Voting While Intoxicated™ Almost Original Series. We will be taking a serious look at the 42 men who have led our country and hopefully finding a few laughable details.
PART XVII
Fresh off winning the war, having taken over for Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson managed to do everything he could to avoid claiming victory, and in doing so, showed why one should not make a Vice President selection out of political calculation, not being a particularly sound Republican. He stood idly by, in essence condoning the type of laws that would prevent civil rights from being more fully achieved for another century. In many ways, this is far worse than those reviled presidents of the pre-war period who did not act boldly enough to prevent it.
Of brighter note, “Seward’s Folly”, the purchasing of Alaska, and with it its massive collection of natural resources and safe haven for crazy people, occurred on Johnson’s watch. That probably was good come the Cold War when it might have been a bit scarier for the Soviets to have a bit of North America in their possession. Additionally, through Johnson’s laziness in stopping it, some Americans launched attacks into parts of Canada, partly prompting the various regions of Canada into federation, the birth of Canada as a somewhat singular nation (and Quebec).
People make much ado about Johnson’s impeachment, as if that itself is proof of how bad he is. Yet, in this case, he was impeached for violating a law that would be found unconstitutional, so it seems improper to hold this measure against him (his offense was insisting that he, as President, had the ability to remove an appointed executive official without Senate approval). This is a Presidential power we take for granted now, but time has led us to assume Johnson did something horrible. Of course there is good reason to not hold too much against later impeached President Clinton for his offense either. Impeachment is a toothless measure as it is, and it seems when they do muster up what it takes, it isn’t even legitimate.
