Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson was elected as Abraham Lincoln's Vice President and became president after Lincoln was assassinated in 1865. A Republican, Johnson was known for his strong statements about severely punishing southerners who led the rebellion against the Union in the Civil War. His apparent hardline stance attracted the support of the Radical Republicans, a wing of his party that favored the extension of civil rights to blacks and strict conditions for allowing former Confederates back into the Union. In practice, however, Reconstruction under Johnson's administration was fairly lenient on southern landholders and he appointed generals to run the newly-formed Freedmen's Bureau who would not be too aggressive in their defense of black rights.

Johnson was seen by the Radical Republicans as betraying their cause, and he was impeached by the Senate after firing Edwin Stanton as Secretary of War and replacing him with U.S. Grant. Johnson narrowly...