“Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide.” Andrew Johnson
Abraham Lincoln wasn’t supposed to have been the only one assassinated that fateful night at Ford’s Theater.
In fact, Andrew Johnson and his wife were offered tickets to sit in Lincoln’s box with him. They turned them down. But John Wilkes-Booth discovered where Johnson was staying that night and hired a hit man to take him out. That hit man, fortunately, chickened out at the last minute, sparing Johnson’s life.
President Andrew Johnson
Thus, Andrew Johnson became our country’s 17th president and history was forever changed.
To be fair to Johnson, trying to repair our country immediately following the Civil War would have been a huge undertaking for any man. But to follow a man like Abraham Lincoln, well, those were some very large shoes to fill.
Frankly, Johnson was never meant to be president, historians say. Johnson would never have been selected as Lincoln’s vice president had anyone been able to predict the future.
But, as we’ve seen in the past, and will see again in the future, never under-estimate the power of the office of the vice presidency. You never know what will happen. Andrew Johnson (our president of the week), or anyone else, certainly didn’t see the presidency coming.
