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Friday, July 31, 2020

"1ST POTUS NOT A MILITARY HERO OR STUDENT OF LAW"

PRESIDENT ANDREW JOHNSON DIES


Elizabethton, Tennessee (JFK+50) On July 31, 1875, Andrew Johnson, the 17th POTUS and the first president to be impeached, died here in Elizabethton* while visiting his daughter.  The only surviving past president at the time, Mr. Johnson suffered multiple strokes and passed at the age of 66.


Andrew Johnson, born in NC,  moved to Greeneville, TN where he was elected mayor in 1834.  The following year he became a state legislator and in 1843 became a United States senator. 

In 1864, President Abraham Lincoln chose him as his running mate to unify the Republican party and the nation.  On April 15, 1865, Andrew Johnson became president upon Lincoln's death.

According to the NPS, Andrew Johnson was "the first president who had not been a military hero nor studied law."  In fact, he was completely self-taught (with a little help from his wife Eliza), having never attended one day of school.


While Johnson's presidency was troubled, he escaped conviction on impeachment charges by a single vote and was able to complete his term.
Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch once said...

"No public man in the United States has been so imperfectly understood (and) none has been so difficult to understand."

*Elizabethton, TN is the county seat of Carter County & the site of the Watauga Association (1772) the first independent American government west of the original 13 colonies.  President Herbert Hoover made his only Southern campaign speech here on Oct 6, 1928, addressing 50,000 people.

SOURCE

"Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, Tennessee," www.nps.gov/  



Andrew Johnson Grave
Greeneville, Tennessee 
National Park Service Photo