'''Andrew Johnson''' (1808-1875) became the 17th president of the [[United States of America]] (1865–69) with the assassination of [[Abraham Lincoln]] in April 1865. He fiercely opposed the [[Radical Republican]] policy of a harsh [[Reconstruction]] policy toward the defeated ex-Confederate states. After the Radicals swept the 1866 elections, Johnson barely escaped removal form office, but was largely powerless. Supporters of the white South, and advocates of a strong presidency, made Johnson a hero in the 1930s and 1940s. By the 1960s, historians depicted him as a poor politician and a failure. | '''Andrew Johnson''' (1808-1875) became the 17th president of the [[United States of America]] (1865–69) with the assassination of [[Abraham Lincoln]] in April 1865. He fiercely opposed the [[Radical Republican]] policy of a harsh [[Reconstruction]] policy toward the defeated ex-Confederate states. After the Radicals swept the 1866 elections, Johnson barely escaped removal form office, but was largely powerless. Supporters of the white South, and advocates of a strong presidency, made Johnson a hero in the 1930s and 1940s. By the 1960s, historians depicted him as a poor politician and a failure. |