As I've been doing these history lessons, political science lessons, whatever you want to call it, on the presidents of the United States, as the years went by, I was educated in school. I learned more in history here in Fish Lake Valley than I did until I got to high school in my sophomore and junior year. I had another great history teacher there. But they would drop in little hints about things that would make you think. And both of those teachers that I had, Orville Taylor and James Enskeep, would say one thing. The Civil War was not fought over slavery. It was fought over economics. And that's all they'd tell you. They wouldn't say much of anything else. And as I've taught church history, I always brought in the Civil War in America because the Civil War had a lot to do with church history. And as I studied more and more about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, I realized that America had another revolution. We won the first revolution to give us states rights and freedom. And the second revolution, you have to realize that when America was founded, it was founded on a small central government and with massive state rights. That the states would take care of their own infrastructure, etc., etc., their own banking, whatever. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington fought hard for states' rights, John Quincy Adams, John Adams, all of these people, and all of them kept America from dividing by diplomacy. And all of a sudden, something happens. A man by the name of Abraham Lincoln is elected as President of the United States. He had debates all across the United States before when he was running for Senator. And America knew what he stood for. He stood for big government. He stood for high tariff taxes. And he stood for limited states' rights. Now, in every constitution, in every state's constitution, it had a clause in there that said states had rights to cede from the Union if they wanted to. If the Union became uninhabitable for them, that they had a right to cede. Thomas Jefferson believed that. John Adams believed that. Abraham Lincoln did not. George Washington believed in strong states' rights. He believed in freedom and liberty. They fought a war for that with England. finally accepted the American colonies as free, they accepted every colony as their free state. Now I have a lot of, I read a lot when I was growing up and one of my heroes was Abraham Lincoln. But as I grew up and I started really getting into the economics of America and the Constitution of the United States, I began to realize that Abraham Lincoln was not the great hero that the Republican Party had propagated after his death. And another thing you have to realize that the Republican Party came out of the Whig Party originally, and the Republican Party today does not represent the Republican Party of Abraham If the Republican Party is represented by anybody today, it would be the Southern Democrats, which were the conservative America. In Romans, the 13th chapter, let's go back there for a moment. Let every person be in subjection to a governing authority, for there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore, he who resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God, and they have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you not want to have fear of authority? Then do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For the government are a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid. For it does not bear the sword for nothing. For it is a minister of God, an avenger of, or who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil. Government is supposed to protect itself, or supposed to protect its its constituents, its citizens from the evil part of the constituency. The good people and the bad people. Government is supposed to protect the good people from the bad people. Now, and it's also supposed to protect the people from the government itself. The American government, and I told you that we need to honor our heroes. in history. Well, the ones that are heroes, we need to honor. But the ones that we're not, we do not need to honor. We need to call it just like it is. Abraham Lincoln was born the same year that my great, great, great grandfather, Smith Paul, was born. in 1809. I want to read to you a few things, just short notes. Abraham Lincoln instructed a New York senator by the name of William Seward to get a constitutional amendment to the U.S. Senate that would prohibit the federal government from interfering with Southern slavery. Now, when you study the life of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War was not fought over slavery, but finally, when he had devastated the whole nation, then he had to have some moral issue to a scribe to his terrorist, his invasion of the South. In the last message that we have on Abraham Lincoln, we see that he declared war on the South in his inaugural address, when he told them that he would not allow them to cede from the Union and that they would pay their taxes. and that he was going to raise the tariffs from 15% or so all the way up to about 50%. And he said, you will pay it or we will invade you. Now, you will not hear this in the history books, some history books, but the South offered to pay the Union for all the property that military bases, etc., that were on southern soil. Abraham Lincoln refused. We know that after he finally declared war on the South, other than his inaugural address, that the South tried in many ways to sue for peace, and he ignored it. especially toward the end of the Civil War, the last year and a half they had kept trying to bring peace to the Union. Lincoln instructed Senator William Seward to get a constitutional amendment to the U.S. Senate that would prohibit the federal government from interfering with Southern slavery if this was the reason that be created equal and that slavery was a terrible institution, this is not what he did. And I will give this to you in his own words. It was known as the Corwin Amendment, named after a congressional congressman Thomas Corwin, Ohio. The amendment was endorsed by President James Buchanan of Pennsylvania and by Lincoln in his first inaugural address. It passed the House and the Senate and was ratified by Illinois, Ohio, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Kentucky before the war broke out. The text of the amendment reads as follows, no amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give Congress the power to abolish it, interfere with any state, with a domestic institution thereof, including the persons held in labor or service by the laws of that state. Now, later on, in January of 1863, Abraham Lincoln, now the war has been going. People are being devastated. So Abraham Lincoln is going to try to knock all the wind out of the sails of the southern people by the Emancipation Proclamation. It said, a proclamation whereas on the 22nd day of September in the year of our Lord, 1,862, proclamation was issued by the President of the United States containing among other things the following to wit, that on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, 1,863, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of the state, the people therefore shall be in rebellion against the United States only. He tells the states that they have no right to cede from the Union. Now he's going to declare that in the southern states only, in the states what he calls of the rebellion, that he's going to declare that all blacks, slaves, are to be set free. That has no right there, does it? That are in the states in rebelling against the United States shall then and therefore and forever free and the executive governor of the United States, including the military and naval authorities there, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons." Now he goes on down here in a little bit of a paragraph and he says this. He doesn't believe in freeing the slaves, except that this is a war measure. only. This is a war measure only. Now therefore I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of power invested in me by his Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and in time an actual armed rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States, and as far and as a fit necessary war measure. for suppressing said rebellion due on this day of January, in the year of our Lord, 1863, in accordance with my purpose, so to be publicly proclaimed for the full period of 100 days, from the day first of mentioned order, and designate as the states and parts of the states wherein the people, therefore respectfully, are on this day in rebellion against the United States, the following with, now he names all the states, None of the northern states are, no slave is free. I want you to understand this. Many people believe that the Civil War could completely have been avoided without war. Many northern states had already set, had done away with freedom, hadn't they? But the big problem here was taxes and what we call a monopolitical centralized government. Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay wanted to model the United States government after Great Britain and the idea was to have a big government a large government, and to institute what we might call cronyism, because you will take all of the great industry and manufacturers in that government, and you will subsidize them, and this is what we call corporate welfare. And in this great conglomerate government, you're going to have a central bank, which all of these people, all of the presidents before this time basically, had stood against. They call it an evil, they call it a, when you designate a federal government, we ended up with a Federal Reserve System which is not good. Abraham Lincoln believed in Alexander Hamilton and Henry Clay in that they said that they could stabilize the economy if they controlled all the money. And there was no money issued except what they would issue. and no other bank except what they would endorse as a United States bank. This all took place. There was one Southern Democrat that did not cede from the Union. This man was a former slave. His name was Andrew Johnson. Now so many historians rate Abraham Lincoln with a ten. Top of the line. One out of ten and ten is the highest. They recommend him as the greatest statesman. A great statesman and a great politician could have avoided the loss of 650,000 to 750,000 lives plus dismemberment, disabilities. that would last for the rest of these people's lives. Half of the country was completely destroyed. After the Civil War, any man that rode with Captain Contrell was considered an outlaw forever, and a noose was to be around their neck. They were to be killed and executed. Among those that rode with William Contrell were the Jameses, the Youngers, and the Daltons. The James, the Youngers, and Daltons. Why did Jesse James, why did the Daltons, why did the Youngers, after the Civil War, become outlaws? Because they were outlawed. They came out to California and they ran all over trying to have businesses. The James boys, their father established five missionary Baptist churches in the South. Years ago when I was studying this, those five missionary Baptist churches were still in existence today. After the Civil War, they were outlawed. They could never go into society again on threat of death. They became Robin Hoods. I told you the story about Benjamin Marcus Bogart sleeping in bed with Jesse James. One Baptist church over another, they would go from one Baptist church, they would rob banks and rob trains and take the money and give it to the people that were victims of the carpetbaggers and their money, their properties had been stolen and confiscated by banks. That's why they were robbing banks and railroads. Ben Bogart wanted to be a Robin Hood like Jesse James and Frank James. By the way, the James and the Youngers never rode together, outside of being on trails. The movies have them at the Northfield Minnesota Bank and all that and all these three, there were only two groups there, Youngers and the Daltons. The Jameses were nowhere. Frank James was a deacon. They were members of the Baptist Church all of their lives. After Jesse James faked his death, he went on to live a long life. They had to kill her cousin. Because her cousin was robbing banks and trains and saying they were Jesse James. And they weren't going to have that. They wanted to talk to him. He said, no, I'm not going to quit doing it. So they executed him. Jesse James shot him. Then they put him up and had one of the Ford boys say that he shot him. But they shot him with a wrong caliber gun. The one that was supposed to be Jesse James was shot with a .36 caliber Colt Navy. The gun that they were supposed to shot him with was a .44 Smith & Wesson. That doesn't work. And they shot a bullet in the wall and killed a chicken and put blood all over the place and they did away with Jesse James. So he could go on to live a different life, which he did. Back to Andrew Johnson was born in December 29, 1808. He died July 31, 1875. He was the 17th President of the United States and he was born in absolute poverty. People have run him down completely. Now Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. He never attended a school for one day. Did you get that? He never went to school one day. His mother sold him, apprenticed him as a tailor, and he worked in several frontier towns before settling in Greenville, Tennessee. He was schooled only to entertain the tailors which was a very boring deal, boring life. The owners of these businesses would bring in people that would read books to them. Much history and so on and so Andrew Johnson was just intrigued by being able to look at a book and read these stories out of it. And he began to try to teach himself how to read and write. In the meanwhile, he escaped. He escaped from his owner and ran away. There was a $10 bounty put on his head, by the way. A $10 bounty. Now a $10 bounty was a lot of money back in this early 1800s. Now having no education at all. He was a Senator from Tennessee from March 4, 1875 to July 31, 1875. He was a military governor of Tennessee from March 12, 1862 to March 4, 1865. He was the 15th governor of Tennessee from October 17, 1853 to November 3, 1857. He was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Tennessee in the first district in office from 1843 to 1853. He is the mayor of Greenville, Tennessee, an office between 1834 and 1835. He was a Democrat, a Southern Democrat, from 1839 to 1864 and 1868 to 1875. Politically, he was part of the National Union from 1864 to 1868. He was married one time to Eliza McArdle. In 1827 he had five children by her. He owned slaves. He owned slaves, but he treated his slaves well. He was in the service as a rank of brigadier general. in the American Civil War. Going back to his early life, he was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, December 29, 1808, to Jacob Johnson, that lived between 1878 to 1812, and Mary or Polly McDonough from 1783 to 1856. a laundress. She took in laundry, as my grandmother and my great-grandmother did. That's hard work, people. They took in laundry. They were a laundress. He had a brother four years older than him and a sister, Elizabeth, who died in childbirth. In childhood, that is. Johnson was born in a two-room shack. Now being born in a shack and being born in poverty then was a political asset. He came up from nothing to become President of the United States. I mean nothing. Abraham Lincoln had a whole lot better education than this man even though he only had about 12 months education but he had more. This man was discouraged from learning anything. Just be a tailor. Just go to work. His father, Jacob Johnson, was a very poor man, as his father, William Johnson, had been. But he became a constable of Raleigh before marrying and starting a family. Both Jacob and Mary were illiterate and had worked as tavern servants. They were servants. They were inscripted servants. Johnson never attended school and grew up in poverty. Jacob died of a heart attack while ringing the town bell shortly after rescuing three drowning men when his son Andrew was only three years old. Andrew was only three years old when his father died. Polly worked as a washerwoman, and often took her into homes that she was unaccompanied. In other words, she may have been a prostitute also to support herself and her family. She finally remarried a man named Turner Gottfried. who was just as poor as she was. Andrew Johnson's mother apprenticed her son, William, to a tailor. James Selby. Andrew also became an apprentice in Selby's shop at age 10 now. He was age 10. And he was legally sold and bound to this man. He was a bought and paid for servant. He was to serve there from 10 until he was 21 years old, which would have been 11 years as a servant, a bond servant. Johnson lived with his mother part of the time of his slavery, or service, whatever you want to call it. One of Selby's employees taught him rudimentary literacy and skills. Citizens would come to Selby's shop to read to the tailor as they worked. Johnson went there before he was apprenticed just to listen. He was hungry. Reading caused a lifelong love of learning. He became a gifted public speaker. He practiced as he threaded needles and sewed clothing. When he was 15 years old, both he and his brother ran away. And Selby offered a $10 reward for each of one's return. said here, $10 reward. Runaway from subscriber. Two apprentice boys, legally bound, named William and Andrew Johnson. Payment to any person who will deliver said apprentices to me in Raleigh, and I will give the above reward for Andrew Johnson alone, $10. He was good at his job. They went to Carthage, North Carolina, and Andrew worked as a tailor there for several months. He feared that he would be arrested and returned to Raleigh, and Johnson moved to Lawrence, South Carolina, and he found work quickly and met his first love, Mary Wood, and made her a quilt as a gift. Can you imagine that now? This man made a quilt for his love instead of her making it for him. She rejected his proposal, and he returned to Raleigh, North Carolina, hoping to buy out his apprenticeship, but he could not come to terms with Selby. So he could not stay there, and he decided to move west. Johnson left North Carolina for Tennessee, traveling mostly on foot. lived for a brief period in Knoxville and he moved to Mooresville, Alabama. Then he worked as a tailor in Columbia, Tennessee. But he was called back to Raleigh by his mother and stepfather who saw limited opportunities there and wished to migrate on west. And they traveled to the Blue Ridge Mountains to Greensville, Tennessee. And Andrew Johnson fell in love with Greenville, Tennessee at first sight. And he became a prospect. He purchased land where he had first camped and planted a tree in commemoration. In Greenville, Andrew Johnson established a successful tailoring business in the front of his home. In 1827, at the age of 18, he married 16-year-old Eliza McArdle. Now, he's 18 years old now. He would have still been under slavery because he bought and paid for a slave for a period of time. Now, there was another great American leader by the name of Benjamin Franklin that was also a slave, conscripted. And he ran away from service and escaped. Now, Eliza was a daughter of a local shoemaker. They were married by a Justice of Peace, Mordecai Lincoln, the first cousin of Thomas Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's father, whose son would become the President of the United States. The Johnsons were married for 50 years, almost 50 years. And they had five children. Martha, Charles, Mary, Robert, and Andrew Jr. in 1852. His wife suffered for many years from tuberculosis. She supported her husband's endeavors in every way. A woman can either break you or make you. and this woman made her husband. She taught him mathematics skills, tutored him to improve his writing, which he had poor handwriting. And she was shy and liked to be in the background. Eliza Johnson normally remained in Greenville during Johnson's political rise and fame, and she was not seen very often even in her husband's presidency. Their daughter, Martha, usually served as the official White House hostess. Because he was such a great tailor, His business prospered during the early years of their marriage, enabling him to hire and giving him the funds to invest property in real estate. So he invested in real estate. Remember when you're a slave, owning a piece of dirt is very, very wonderful. He said that his talents as a tailor that none of his work ever riffed or gave way. The cloth would wear out before the stitches did. He was a voracious reader. He read books about famous orators and he had some private debates on the issues of the day with customers that held opposing views. In 1843, Johnson purchased his first slave, Dolly, who was 14 years old. His first slave. Her name was Dolly. He purchased Dolly's half-brother, Sam, and Dolly had three children, Liz, Florence, and William. In 1857, Andrew Johnson purchased Henry, who was 13 at the time and would later accompany the Johnson family to the White House. Sam Johnson and his wife Margaret had nine children. Sam became a commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau and was known for being a proud man who negotiated the nature of his work with the Johnson family. He received some monetary compensation for his labors and negotiated with Andrew Johnson to receive a tract of land. Now, this man's a slave. But he's getting paid. And he's going to receive a tract of land from his owner. He deeded to him in 1867. Ultimately, Johnson owned at least ten slaves. He was compassionate. and had wonderful relationships with his slaves because he was a slave, a former slave himself. Andrew Johnson's slaves were freed on August 8, 1863. A year later, all of Tennessee's slaves were freed. As a sign of appreciation, Andrew Johnson was given a watch by the newly emancipated slaves and scribes with, for the untiring energy in the cause of freedom." Slaves. Abraham Lincoln believed that all the slaves should be evacuated and re-colonized some other place in America and in the newly acquired like the Nebraska-Kansas Act, all of the states that were required in the War of 1812, etc., etc. And then in the war with Mexico, that all of the new states that were added to the Union would be free states. And Abraham Lincoln didn't believe that they should be free states because the blacks should be set free, but they should be free states for free white labor. White free men could not compete with slave labor. Andrew Johnson helped to organize a mechanics working man's ticket in 1829. He was always for the working man, I'm going to tell you that right now. He was for the slave and he was for the working man. And he believed that working people ought to have a voice. Now you have to remember that a lot of just average American citizens, if they didn't have property, they couldn't vote. They had no vote. He had a working man's ticket in 1829 in the Greenville Municipal Election. And he was elected the town alderman. along with his friends Blackston McDaniel and Mordecai Lincoln. Mordecai Lincoln. Following the year 1931, Nat Turner, in the Slave Rebellion, a state convention was held to pass a new constitution including provisions to disenfranchise free people of color. They couldn't vote. Free blacks could not vote. In the northern states, by the way, they did not want free blacks there. because it would compete with white labor. This convention also wanted to reform real estate tax rates and provide ways of funding improvements to Tennessee's infrastructure. The Constitution was submitted to public vote and Johnson spoke widely for its adoption. and his successful campaign provided him with statewide exposure. Until Andrew IV, 1834, he was elected mayor of Greenville. In 1835, Johnson made a bid for election to the floater seat of the Green County, shared with neighboring Washington Washington County and Tennessee House of Representatives. He won the debate by a margin of two to one. He was a good speaker. An uneducated slave, a white slave, that worked himself up in society. Johnson joined the Tennessee Militia as a member of the 90th Regiment, and he attained the rank of colonel. While he was enrolled, Johnson was fined for an unknown offense of some sort. Afterwards, he was referred to as Colonel Johnson. In his first term in the legislature, which met in the state capitol of Nashville, Johnson did not consistently vote with either Democrat or the newly formed Whig Party. He voted according to his conscience. He didn't need a party to tell him what to believe. He revered and honored President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat and fellow Tennessean. The major parties in America were still trying to figure out what they believed. They were in state of flux, actually. The Whig Party, which was big government, the Whig Party was big government, centralized government, and a political, mono-political society. One system, one government. The Whig Party was organized in opposition to Jackson. Johnson differed from the basic Whigs as he opposed more than minimal government spending and spoke against aid for railroads. You see, what would later become as a Republican Party would be like the Radical Democrats today. They compensated big business. It's what we call the bottom feeders and top feeders. Corporate welfare. And that's what would build America. Industry was a corporate welfare with a great industry, the railroads and the steel industry and the banking industry. Carnegie, Rockefeller, Chase, all of these big systems in America would get their power from corporate welfare. And they began to run the country. The country was run by big business until Teddy Roosevelt. Now let's go on a little further. Johnson was re-elected and would not lose another race for 30 years. He sought to initially as a Whig, but when another Whig nomination or nomination came, he ran as a Democrat and was elected. From that time, he supported the conservative Democratic Party. The conservative Democratic Party. What might be called a Republican little government. little taxes, tax breaks, and no tariffs. The Democratic Party built a tremendous Democratic machine in Greene County, and Johnson became one of their greatest leaders and advocates, noted for his public speaking. Now back then, public speaking was entertainment. You have to realize that. People went to church whether they believed in God or not just to hear somebody get up and talk. It was entertainment. They went to political rallies. They went to school to hear somebody get up and quote the preamble to the Constitution or Psalm 23 or a book in the New Testament Bible. Back then public public speaking and speeches informed the public and entertained the public. And the public liked to hear Andrew jumped. In 1840, Andrew was elected as presidential elector for Tennessee, giving him a more statewide publicity. Even though the Democratic president, Martin Van Buren, was was defeated by former Ohio Senator William Henry Harrison. Johnson was instrumental in keeping Tennessee and Greene County in the Democratic column. And he was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1841, where he served for two two-year terms. He had achieved great financial success in his tailoring business, but sold it to concentrate on politics. He acquired additional real estate, including a larger home and a farm where his mother and stepfather took residence. And among his assets were eight more, or nine more slaves. Having served in both houses of the state senate, legislature, actually Johnson had a whole lot more political experience than Abraham Lincoln did, didn't he? A lot more. Johnson saw an election to Congress as the next step in his political career. He engaged in a lot of political maneuvers to gain Democratic support, including the displacement of the Whig postmaster in Greenville, and defeated Johnson borough lawyer John A. Aiken by 540 votes. 5,495 votes to 4,892. In Washington, he joined a new Democratic majority in the House of Representatives. He advocated for the interest of the poor. I wonder why. He advocated interest for the poor, maintained an anti-abolitionist state, He was against the abolitionists, okay, because they were radicals. See, the radical Republicans were the hyper-abolitionists, the radical Republicans. He advocated only limited spending by the United States government and opposed protective tariffs. With Eliza remaining in Greenville, Congressman Johnson shunned social functions in favor of study in the Library of Congress. He'd rather go to the Library of Congress and read. He loved to read. That was a fellow Tennessee Democrat, James K. Polk. was elected as president in 1844 and Johnson had campaigned for him. But the two men did not get along very well. Johnson believed and advocated what he believed was constitutional protection of private property including slaves. And thus prevented the federal and state governments from abolishing slavery. He was a defender of the poor and against aristocracy. He was against aristocracy, including big business, that tried to get in heavy into political maneuvering. He supported the Polk administration's decision to go into the Mexican War. Now some of the northerners saw this as an attempt to expand slavery into the new westward territories. Abraham Lincoln did not support the Mexican-American War. He stood against it. And he stood against James K. Polk. There was a provision to ban slavery in any territory that was gained from Mexico, and that was only for one reason. So that free white labor would not have to exist and to compete with slave labor. Free white labor did not want to compete with slave labor. Andrew Johnson believed in the Homestead Bill. Now later on, the Homestead Bill would have a lot of gratuities in it for big corporations. But he wanted the Homestead Bill to grant 160 acres to people willing to settle the land and gain title to it. And there's what we saw how Fish Lake Valley was established here was in the Homestead Act. Andrew Johnson fought for years for the Homestead Act because he had humble origins, humble beginnings. In the presidential election of 1848, the Democrats split over the slavery issue and abolitionists formed the Free Soil Party. with former President Van Buren as their nominee. Johnson supported Lewis Katz. And with the party split, the Whig nominee General Zachary Taylor was unanimously and easily victorious and carried Tennessee. Johnson never did get along very well with Polk. And this is what he said, Polk did. And among the visitors I observed in the crowds today was Honorable Andrew Johnson of the House of Representatives. Though he represents a Democratic district in Tennessee, my own state, This is the first time I have seen him during the present session of Congress professing to be a Democrat. He has been politically independent, and if not personally hostile to me during my whole term. He is very vindictive and perverse in his temper and conduct, and if he had the manliness and independence to declare his opposition only, He knows he could not be elected by his constituents. I'm not aware that I've ever given him any cause for offense to me. Johnson, due to his national interests, in railroad construction in response to the need for better transportation in his own district, also supported government assistance for the Tennessee and Virginia Railway. He wasn't really for that, and he wouldn't be for it later. Johnson campaigned for his first term and concentrated on three major issues, slavery homesteads, and judicial elections. He defeated his opponent in August of 1849 with a greater margin of victory than any of his previous campaigns. He was a great speaker. Not only was he a great speaker, he was an honest man. He fought for the American liberty and independence of free men. Johnson, looking at my notes, Johnson opposed big government. California was being admitted as a state to the Union and the issue of slavery took center stage in that. Kentucky's Henry Clay introduced the Senate a series of resolutions of the Compromise of 1850. To admit California and pass legislation sought by each side, Johnson voted for all the provisions except the abolition of slavery in the nation's capital, that's Washington, D.C. Slavery was still going on in the nation's capital. He pressed for resolutions and constitutional amendments for the institution that all election of senators would be by popular vote, the vote of the man, a common man would They were elected by state legislatures at that time. He believed in limiting the tenure of federal judges to 12 years. All of his institutions and all of his promotions were defeated. Yet they were common sense promotions, weren't they? Common sense amendments. Some of the Democrats nominated Landon Carter Haynes to oppose Johnson as he sought a fifth term. The Whigs were pleased because there'd be government now. And the Whigs would become the Republicans. The Whigs didn't even nominate a candidate at all because they wanted this Haynes to oppose and win over Johnson. Johnson's main issue was the passage of the Homestead Bill. Johnson won the election by more than 1,600 votes. The common man liked him. Johnson campaigned for Franklin Pierce. Pierce was elected but failed to carry Tennessee. In 1852, Johnson managed to get the House to pass his Homestead Bill, but it failed in the Senate again. The Whigs had gained control of Tennessee later. Under the leadership of Gustavus Henry. And they redrew the boundaries of Johnson's first district to make it safe for their party. The National Union termed this Henrymandry like gerrymandering. Johnson said, I have no political future because of this Henrymandry. considered retiring from politics altogether and not to seek a re-election. But he soon changed his mind. His political friends began to maneuver for him to get the nomination for governor and the Democratic Convention unanimously named him. He was never a strong Democrat or a Whig or anything, he believed what he believed to be right for the American people. And when his party stood against that, he just went with his beliefs. He was independent. Actually, when Johnson was elected as Tennessee governor, he didn't have much power. He could propose legislature but he couldn't veto it. But his office was a pulpit for him to preach what he believed, publicize himself and his political view. Johnson urged simplicity and the simplification of the state judicial system. The abolition of the Bank of Tennessee. He wanted to dissolve it. An establishment of an agency to provide uniformity and weights and measures. Common sense legislature. He finally got that passed. He was critical of the Tennessee common school system and passed many reforms with public school. He wanted people to have an education because he didn't have one. And he knew education was an avenue, an open door to success. He advocated regular state fairs. where farmers could show their craftsmanship and where they could find new inventions. Many debates, very powerful debates ensued during his time. The issues were slavery, the prohibition of alcohol, and nativist position of the Know-Nothing Party. The Know-Nothings, as Johnson portrayed, as a secret society. He was still victorious in all of his elections. In the presidential election of 1856, Johnson hoped to be nominated to some Tennessee county conventions as their favorite son. His position that the best interests of the Union were served by slavery in some areas made him a practical compromise candidate for the presidency, Abraham Lincoln. He was a clever and a major contender for any political party. James Buchanan was elected though. Johnson campaigned for Buchanan and his running mate John C. Breckenridge who were elected. Johnson finally decided not to seek a third term as governor with an eye upon the U.S. Senate in 1857. He was on a train returning and his train derailed and it caused serious damage to his right arm. and it was troubling for the rest of his life. He was always trying to do something for the little man, the common man of America. The Whigs were very excited about defeating Andrew Johnson for Senator. Yet the Democrats have the majority, they said, He will certainly be their choice. Many people looked upon him as a horrible advocate. Johnson spoke up. He opened his mind to people and most of the time it was with common sense and they believed He gained high office because he was popular among the small farmers and self-employed tradesmen who made up a majority of Tennessee's electorate. They called them the plebeians, and he was less popular among the planters and lawyers who led the state Democratic Party, but none could match him as a vote-getter. After Johnson died, one Tennessee voter wrote of him, Johnson was always the same to everyone. The honors heaped upon him did not make him forget to be kind to the humblest citizen. Always seen in impeccable tailored clothing, he cut impressive figure among mankind. He had the stamina the stamina to endure a lengthy campaign with daily travel, bad roads, poor food, one speech after another, one debate after another. He denied party machinery. He relied on a network of friends and advisors and contacts. He said, one of his friends, Hugh Douglas said, you have been in the way of our would-be great men for a long time. At heart, many of us never wanted you to be governor, only none of the rest of us could have been elected at the time, and we only wanted to use you. Then we'd not want you to go to the Senate because the people would send you. The people loved it. He took his seat in Congress December of 1857. He came to Washington as usual without his wife and family. His wife would visit him in Washington only once during Johnson's first time as Senator. In 1860, Johnson immediately set about introducing the Homestead Bill in the Senate. But as most Senators who supported it were Northern, many associated with the newly founded Republican Party, the matter became caught up in suspicions over the slavery issue and over how the big business could get their fingers into the Somestead Act. The Southern Senators felt that they would lose that those who took advantage of the provisions of the homestead bill were more likely to be Northern non-slaveholders. The issue of slavery had been complicated by the Supreme Court ruling early in the Dred Scott. And by the way, Abraham Lincoln supported the Dred Scott. He made speeches after speeches. In the following May, he made an attempt to convince his colleagues that the Homestead Bill and slavery were not incompatible. The Southern opposition was key to defeating the Legislation 30-22. It failed on a procedural vote when the Vice President, Breckenridge, broke a tie against the bill and an 1860 watered-down version passed, both houses only to be vetoed by Buchanan. at the urging of the Southerners. Johnson continued his opposition to spending, chairing a committee to control it. He argued against funding to build an infrastructure in Washington, D.C., stating it was unfair to expect state citizens to pay for the city streets even if it was the seat of the government. Ipoh spent money for troops to put down the revolt by the Mormons in Utah Territory. He argued for temporary volunteers in the United States should they have any standing army. He thought that a standing army in the United States was a dangerous thing. In 1859, John Brown raided the Federal Arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, now part of West Virginia. Johnson gave a major speech in the Senate in December decrying Northerners who would endanger the Union by seeking to outlaw slavery. He said, you people are causing the destruction of the Union. The abolitionists were causing the destruction of the Union. He said, all men are created equal from the Declaration of Independence do not apply to African Americans since the Constitution of Illinois contained that phrase and a document barred voting by African Americans. Johnson by this time was a wealthy man who owned 14 slaves. Johnson hoped that he would become a compromise candidate for the presidential nomination as the Democratic Party tore itself apart over slavery. Busy with a homestead build, he sent, in the 1860 Democratic National Election Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, he sent two of his sons, and his chief political advisor to represent his interest in the backroom deal making there and that. The convention deadlocked. They finally decided to consider Johnson as their compromise. The party split and ordered back in Illinois Senator Stephen Douglas Father Southerners included Johnson, supported Vice President Breckenridge for President. John Bell ran for a fourth party candidate and further dividing the vote. The Republican Party elected their first president, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was known to be against the spread of slavery, but not unacceptable to the Thunders because he was not for abolishing slavery. He was not a radical Republican, but a moderate Republican. Johnson made a Senate floor speech. I will not give up this government. No, I intend to stand by it. He was the only Southern Senator that stood with the Union, by the way. And I invite every man who is a patriot to rally around the altar of our common country and swear by our God and all its sacred holy that the Constitution shall be saved and the Union preserved. As Southern Senators announced that they would resign if the states seceded, he reminded Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis that if the Southerners would only hold to their seats, the Democrats would control the Senate. If the Southerners would only stay, that they would control the Senate and could defeat and defend the South's interests against an infringement by Lincoln. Johnson's belief in an indissolvable union was sincere, even though it wasn't in the Constitution. He had alienated Southern leaders, including Jefferson Davis, against himself because he wanted to hold a union together. Jefferson Davis would soon become the President of the Confederate States of America. Johnson returned home when his state took up the issue of secession. And when they put the question of the leaving the Union to a popular vote, despite the threats on Johnson's life now, they threatened to kill him. And actual assaults, his campaign against both questions, sometimes speaking with a gun on his pulpit. Johnson's eastern region of Tennessee was largely against secession. and the second referendum passed in June 1861, Tennessee joined the Confederacy. Believing that he would be killed if he stayed, Johnson fled to the Cumberland Gap where his party was in fact shot at. He left his wife and family in Greenville. He was the only member of all those seated from the state and from the Union that remained with the Union. Abraham Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee. Some argued that the civil government should simply resume once the Confederates were defeated in that area. Lincoln chose to use his power as Commander-in-Chief to appoint military governors over Union-controlled southern regions. The Senate quickly confirmed Johnson's nomination along with the rank of Brigadier General. The Confederates confiscated his property, his land, his homes, and turned his home into a military hospital. but they allowed his family to go through Southern lines. Johnson, as a military governor, sought to eliminate rebel influence in his state He demanded loyalty oaths from public officials and shut down all newspapers owned by Confederate sympathizers along with Abraham Lincoln. In the North, all newspapers were shut down. In the North, all preachers that preached against a war over secession of the states were shut down. Andrew or Abraham Lincoln monetarily supported any newspaper that would take his side, and he shut down all others, confiscated, destroyed the newspapers, and jailed the editors. Any preacher that spoke against him or against his ideas of a war because of the secession of the southern states were put down, all those that would agree with him were monetarily aided and the churches were left open. Much of eastern Tennessee remained in Confederate hands and the ebb and flow of the war during 1862 sometimes brought the Confederate control again close to Nashville, Tennessee. The Confederates allowed his wife and family to pass through their lines to join him. Johnson undertook the defense of Nashville himself. The city was continually harassed by cavalry raids led by General Nathan Bedford Forrest. Relief from the Union regulars did not come until after General William S. Rosecrans defeated the Confederates in Murfreesboro in 1863. Much of eastern Tennessee was recaptured after that date. When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, a war issue, a war statement as he said, in 1863, declaring all the states and confederate areas held, he exempted Tennessee at Johnson's request. Tennessee was exempted. All of the slaves were not emancipated, actually none were. Because all of the slaves that were emancipated were in southern states, in the Confederacy. Had nothing to do with the northern states. The debate rose as what should become of the slaves after the war. What are they going to do with all these freed slaves? Where are they going to go? What are we going to do with them? The unions who supported abolition did not want to stake the slaves there either. They wanted them someplace else because they would compete with free white labor. Johnson finally decided that slavery had to end. He said, he wrote, if the institution of slavery seeks to overthrow the government, then the government has a clear right to destroy it. That's the South. That is the slavery issue. That the government had a right to destroy the slavery issue. He reluctantly supported efforts to enlist former slaves into the Union Army. Nevertheless, he succeeded in recruiting 20,000 black soldiers to serve the Union. He became vice president in 1865 and he emerged as Abraham Lincoln's running mate for his re-election bid in 1864. Lincoln had considered several other people, other Democrats, for the ticket because he wanted a balanced ticket. He wanted something that would appeal to the Democrats. political maneuver. Abraham Lincoln was impressed by Johnson's administration of Tennessee as a military governor, and having Johnson, the Southern War Democrat, on the ticket at the right message at the right time was an advantage to Abraham Lincoln. He never thought that he would become President of the United States. Johnson was hand-picked for political maneuvers. Lincoln ran under the banner of the National Union Party rather than the Republicans. In Baltimore in June, Lincoln was easily nominated, although there was some talk of replacing him with a cabinet officer of one or more successful generals. McClellan was one of them, as you know. In the campaign, Johnson gave a number of speeches in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana. He wanted to boost his chances in Tennessee while reestablishing some civil government by making the loyalty of each oath even more restrictive, that voters would now have to swear that they were opposed to making a settlement with the Confederacy. Now, we know that the Confederacy was trying to settle with the United States government. They kept trying to send emissaries to Lincoln and Lincoln kept derailing them, even with the Ulysses Grant. As Quantrill Raiders went into Kansas and burned down one town, we have Grant and Sherman burning down whole states. Their idea that Quantrill did a terrible thing, when Sherman went to different towns, they burned down the whole Shenandoah, they burned down Kansas, they They burned up everything, Georgia. There's a story out when Georgia Howell, with Sherman going through there, he killed everything. All the horses, burned all the houses down, burned every factory, blew up the whole cities. He killed all of their livestock and even shot their dogs. And the reason why he shot their dogs, he said that they might train them to track Union soldiers. George McKellen tried to outmaneuver Johnson, but it didn't happen. Johnson wanted to reestablish civilian government in Tennessee. He hoped to remain in Nashville to complete his task, but was told by Lincoln's advisors to get on to Washington, D.C. and be sworn in with Lincoln. In these months, Union troops were finishing retaking eastern Tennessee, including Greenville. And the voters of Tennessee ratified a new constitution which abolished slavery on February 22, 1865. One of Johnson's final acts as military governor was to certify the results. Johnson traveled to Washington, D.C. to be sworn into office. In light of what really happened there, he might have been better off if he stayed. He got up, and because he was so nervous, he got drunk. And he got up and made a drunken speech. He said, I need all the strength that I can for this occasion, and he got drunk. And he gave up, and he got up and made an inquiry at times, a meandering speech, nothing like what he normally did. And they hastily swore him in as vice president, and the Abraham Lincoln said, well he has some real good qualities. Abraham Lincoln said about Johnson after he made his drunken speech, he does have some real good qualities. And he's loyal. He said, I have known Andy Johnson for many years and he made a bad slip the other day, but you need to be, not be scared, Andy ain't no drunkard. By the way, when Lincoln was assassinated, they were supposed to assassinate Andrew Johnson also. President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. The same night, Part of the conspiracy was to assassinate Lincoln, Johnson, and Seward at the same time. Seward barely survived his wounds while Johnson escaped attack as his would-be assassin. George Ashley got drunk instead of killing the Vice President. He got drunk and afraid. He got scared and cold feet. Johnson was awoke. With the news of Lincoln's shooting at Ford Theater, Johnson rushed to the President's deathbed, where he remained a short time on his return, promising, they shall suffer for this. They shall suffer for this. Lincoln died at 22 a.m. the next morning and Johnson swearing in occurred between 10 and 11 a.m. and Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase's presiding in the presence of most of the cabinets. Johnson presided with great dignity over Lincoln's funeral ceremonies in Washington before his body left for Springfield, Illinois. The Republican Party really promoted Abraham Lincoln now. Most of the Republican Party were radical Republicans which did not agree with Lincoln. But now they were going to turn him into a deity. They were going to deify him and they were going to really promote their party as the party that ended slavery. William Tecumseh Sherman reported that He had, without consulting Washington, reached an armistice agreement with Confederate General Joseph E. Johnson with the surrender of Confederate forces in North Carolina in exchange for the existing state government remaining in power, with private property rights and slaves to be respected. Now, the South would have done this all along if Lincoln would have agreed to it. It did not grant freedom to those in slavery. This was not acceptable to Johnson or his cabinet. Johnson placed a $100,000 bounty equivalent to $1.69 million in 2020 on Confederate President Davis, then a fugitive, which gave Johnson the reputation of a man who would be tough on the South. How would you like to inherit a nation that had been torn apart by your predecessor that kept telling that he wasn't going to end slavery and all of a sudden he just, after killing all these people, then all of a sudden he stands up for the Emancipation Proclamation and is going to destroy slavery now and destroy the whole what we call counterculture? He permitted the execution of Mary Surratt for her part in Lincoln's assassination, and she was executed with three others, including Asteroth, July 7, 1865. Johnson had to decide what to do with the former president, Confederacy. There was what they called the 10% plan that would allow elections after 10% of the voters in any state took an oath of future loyalty to the Union. Congress considered this too lenient now. Guess what? Congress is led by the radical Democrats, or the radical Republicans, which would be the radical Democrats of today. Now, another thing you have to realize that in the South, many of the Confederates were not allowed to vote. Many of the Confederates, former Confederates, were not allowed to hold office. But they considered three blacks to equal one white vote, whether they voted or not. And they nullified the Johnson had his own plan requiring the majority of voters to take the loyalty oath, passed both houses in 1864, but Lincoln pocket vetoed it before. Johnson had three goals in the reconstruction of the South, and the South needed to be reconstructed. He sought to speedily restore the states, restore them, on the grounds that they had never truly left the Union. Thus should again be recognized once loyal citizens formed a government. To Johnson, the African American suffrage was a delay or a distraction. It had always been a state responsibility to decide what to do with these black people. What are you going to do with them? There's about four million of them. What are you going to do with all these black people? I'll tell you what happened to a whole lot of them, they put them on the Indian rolls as Indians and gave them Indian land and Indian annuities. This would happen later. The political power in the Southern states had passed from the former planter class to the beloved plebeians. Johnson feared that the freedmen, many of whom were still economically bound to their foreman masters, might vote at their discretion, or at their direction, at the master's direction. Johnson's third priority was election in his own right in 1868. No one that had succeeded the deceased president had ever done this. The Republicans had formed a number of factions. Radical Republicans sought voting and other civil rights for African Americans to get and gain power, like illegally aliens are going to be allowed to vote today to gain and keep power. Remember, the radical Republicans are the radical Democrats of today. History repeats itself if you don't remember history. They believed that the freedmen could be induced to vote Republican in gratitude for emancipation. and that black votes would keep the Republicans in power and Southern Democrats, including former rebels, out of influence. They believed that the top Confederates should be punished and executed and all of Quantrill's men should never be allowed but to be executed. The modern Republicans sought to keep the Democrats out of power at a national level and prevent former rebels from resuming power. This is the moderate ones now. They were not as enthusiastic about the idea of African American suffrage as their radical colleagues. Either because of their own political concerns or because they believed that the freedman would likely be cast his vote badly. Northern Democrats favored the unconditional restoration of the southern states. They did not support African American suffrage, which might threaten the democratic control in the South. Johnson tried to establish his own reconstruction policy without legislator intervention like Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln, they said, was a benevolent dictator. a nice dictator. But now we have a man taking his place that has come from very humble, Abraham Lincoln came from humble beginnings, but Andrew Johnson came from slavery beginnings. There's a lot of difference in that. Johnson's first reconstruction had two proclamations. One recognized the Virginia government led by the provisional governor Francis Pierpoint. The second provided amnesty for all ex-rebels except those holding property valued at $20,000 or more. Let me read that to you just one more time. Amnesty for all ex-rebels excepting those holding property valued at more than $20,000. It also appointed a temporary governor in North Carolina and authorized elections. Neither of these proclamations included provisions regarding black suffrage or freedmen's rights. The President ordered constitutional conventions in the other former rebel states. The Southern states began to reconstruct and form a government. Johnson's policies received considerable public support in the North, which he took as unconditional backing for a quick reinstatement of the South. He received some support from the white South. He underestimated the determination of the Northerners to ensure that the war had not been fought for nothing. The war was fought over taxes, remember? Abraham Lincoln declared war on the South. He said, you either pay taxes or I will invade you. The South said, we'll pay you for all the property that you have here, all the bases and everything else, but leave us alone. We have formed a government under freedom. He wouldn't allow that. He wanted the tax money. The South had to acknowledge its defeat and that slavery had ended. And a lot of the African Americans were to be improved, but the voting rights were less important. Only a handful of northern states, mostly in New England, gave the African American men the right to vote. on the same basis as whites. Not very many in the North gave them the right to vote. Another number of the Southern states passed black codes binding African-American laborers to farms on annual contracts that they could not quit. And this is what was going on anyway. Andrew Johnson was under contract. But it was only a one-year contract. Andrew Johnson was under an 11-year contract from the age of 10 to 21. The African Americans had a position above slavery because they were free. They could be bound to the land for one year at a time.