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The Yankee Confederate
By Paul Bacon
"You can't get rid of the negro except by holding him to slavery," said Andrew Johnson, hardly a declaration one would expect from Abraham Lincoln's vice president. Alas, upon the president's assassination, this self-proclaimed white supremacist actually took over post-Civil War America and worked to keep free blacks in the lowest of all possible social stations.
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As to why he even supported Lincoln's Union cause, Johnson provided ample explanation. "Damn the negroes," he said, "I am fighting those traitorous aristocrats, their masters." Johnson's humble beginnings set the stage for a lifetime dedicated to tearing down the establishment -- whoever that happened to be. He was chosen as Lincoln's running mate mostly because the fervent patriot snubbed the secessionist majority in his home state of North Carolina. Later, as president, he lashed out at the entire Congress, whom he derided as "a common gang of cormorants and bloodsuckers."
Johnson's firing of a high-ranking political enemy and other acts prompted Congress to impeach him. He narrowly won his right to maintain office, and later proclaimed, "I intend to devote the remainder of my life to the vindication of my own character." He fulfilled this pledge to a certain measure, becoming the first former president to be elected to the Senate.
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