ShmoopTube

00:03

We're gonna call this one, "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Andrew Johnson."[Sad and happy photos of Andrew Johnson]

00:09

Well, really, it was mostly agony...for him and everyone else.

00:12

Andrew Johnson was Lincoln's VP, and after Lincoln had that unfortunate little [President Abraham Lincoln alongside Andrew Johnson]

00:17

incident at the theatre, Johnson took over the presidency.

00:20

Well Johnson was a Southerner from Tennessee. [Andrew Johnson stands in front of White house]

00:23

Why did Lincoln have a Southern Vice President?

00:26

Well, to look like he didn't hate the South.

00:28

And Johnson was one of the few Southern Democrats who actually supported Lincoln

00:32

making Johnson seem like a good pick. [Map shows pro-Lincoln and anti-Lincoln states]

00:34

But Johnson ran into a heap of trouble with Lincoln's party, the Republicans,

00:38

not long after he took the reins.

00:41

Republicans already thought Lincoln's Reconstruction policies

00:44

were too soft on the South. [hand kneads the dough]

00:46

But when Johnson started rolling out his ideas, the Republicans seriously blew

00:49

their tops, and nobody wanted to see these guys topless. Seriously. [An annoyed shirtless guy enters library]

00:53

In 1865, Johnson called for general amnesty and restoration of property,

00:58

minus slaves, to Southerners who swore an oath of loyalty. [A sleeping guy suddenly jumps in joy]

01:02

Of course, those who owned more than twenty thousand dollars in property

01:05

had to get a personal pardon from him.

01:07

As in, "Dear Mr. President, I'm very sorry about the whole slavery thing [an official letter]

01:10

and seceding from the Union. Can we be friends again?

01:13

P.S. I'd really like my plantation back, thank you very much.

01:16

But really all they had to do was ask nice, [ Mr. Johnson pops up from a chair and a girl pleads to Johnson]

01:19

and Johnson was granting pardons left and right.

01:21

So many that the White House secretary couldn't keep up in typing them all.

01:25

Autumn came, along with thirteen thousand pardons, and a bunch of [The hands types on typewriter]

01:29

black codes being drafted in the South.

01:31

Johnson's Reconstruction plan didn't even qualify as a slap on the wrist,

01:34

it was more like he gave the South a hand massage.

01:38

Well thanks to Johnson, more than sixty former Confederates arrived to

01:41

take their seats in Congress.

01:43

There were four generals, four colonels, six Confederate cabinet officers [The image of Congress]

01:47

and none other than the Confederacy's former VP, Alexander H. Stephens.

01:52

This was not great PR for Johnson.

01:54

Northerners were like, "um, we thought we won the war..." [guy pops up in Johnson's office]

01:58

In the House of Representatives, republican Thaddeus Stevens

02:01

came up with the tactic called, "waving the bloody shirt." [A bloody shirt waves over members in Congress]

02:05

This meant reminding Northern voters of the bloody sacrifices their people had

02:09

made on the battlefield to build support for aggressive Reconstruction policies.

02:14

We're kinda disappointed that Thaddeus didn't literally wave a bloody shirt.

02:18

Well Johnson tried to combat this with his so-called "Swing Around the Circle." [A circle is marked on the map]

02:22

With Congress demanding that the South ratify the 14th Amendment so they

02:26

could rejoin the U.S. of A, Johnson decided to go road trippin' in the North.

02:30

He was like, "Hey, Yankees, call me A.J., I'm not so bad."

02:34

"Also, how 'bout y'all not vote for the radical Republicans when the mid-term elections roll around?"

02:39

Well, unfortunately for A.J., the "Swing Around the Circle" there was a flop. [The girls swings on the swing]

02:43

Crowds even heckled the President.

02:45

We like to imagine it like the beginning of Shrek, where there's an angry mob [A mob with torches and pitchforks protests in front of Johnson]

02:49

with pitchforks and torches. Johnson responded much like the angry ogre, [Johnson turns into an angry ogre]

02:53

destroying what was left of his popularity.

02:55

He even compared himself to Jesus, saying that he [Johnson talks to Jesus]

02:58

was "bleeding on the cross of radical reconstruction." And oh boy, that was a mistake.

03:03

Like an, "oh God, there's a gas leak in my house and I just lit a match," kind of mistake.

03:07

Well, the mid-term elections came, and the Republicans obtained well over a

03:11

two-thirds majority in both Houses. [Republican logo]

03:13

Translation: they could now push their own Reconstruction Program forward, despite

03:18

Andrew "Shrek" Johnson's cries of, "this is my swamp!"

Full Transcript