[Jung Ji-Hoon]

Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson was never elected President; he entered office on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Regarded as self-important and abrasive by many, the political battles he faced were made no easier by his personality.

It is no small matter that Andrew Johnson was the first president to be impeached, but his crime in this case was removing somebody from government office without permission of Congress, due to the Tenure of Office Act (which was only in effect for about two decades total). He had battled the Republican-controlled Senate many, many times by this point, so his impeachment was as much an outgrowth of that as it was the result of high crimes.

Johnson's focus on Reconstruction left him inattentive or reliant on the status quo in most other matters. In many ways, his efforts also undermined Reconstruction (including the black right to vote). The Civil War and subsequent Reconstruction were a task ill-suited to those who had just fought it, but they were the only ones available.