DC -- Donald W. Reynolds Center (NPG) -- Exhibit: Faces of Discord -- Andrew Johnson:
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FDJOHN_180908_001.JPG: Faces of Discord
Civil War
FDJOHN_180908_003.JPG: In a gesture of national unity in 1864, Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) chose Andrew Johnson (1808-1875), a Southern Democrat and defender of the Union, as his vice-presidential running mate. Yet when Johnson succeeded to the presidency after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, it soon became evident that his lenient view on readmitting the former rebellious states back into the Union conflicted with that of the Republican majority in Congress. The crux of the dispute centered on Johnson's policy for allowing Southern states to deprive freed slaves of their basic civil rights. The resultant clash led to his impeachment, from which he survived convention by one vote.
This alcove highlights Johnson's presidency as depicted by artists of his day, with special forces given to the renowned political satirist of this era, Thomas Nast (1840-1902).
FDJOHN_180908_006.JPG: Andrew Johnson, President of the United States
Andrew Johnson was a self-educated tailor living in Greeneville, Tennessee, when he launched his political career in 1829. Beginning as a town alderman, he eventually held offices as mayor, governor, and U.S. congressman and senator. In 1861, at the start of the Civil War, Johnson was the only southern senator to remain loyal to the Union. The next year, Lincoln appointed him military governor of Tennessee. Largely for his efforts "to eradicate all pro-Confederate influences in the state," Johnson was tapped to be Lincoln's running mate in the 1864 election.
Three vignettes from Andrew Johnson's (1808-1875) life preceding the presidency surround this lithographic image of him. The self-educated Johnson had been a tailor in Greeneville, Tennessee, where he also began his political career. Johnson climbed the political ladder, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, as governor of Tennessee, and in the U.S. Senate.
John Chester Buttre and William Momberger, after Morse Engraving, 1866
FDJOHN_180908_012.JPG: The Death-Bed of the Martyr President, Abraham Lincoln
This deathbed scene shows Abraham Lincoln inside the house of William Petersen, where he was carried after being shot in Ford's Theatre, just across the street. The bedroom was small and would not have been capable of accommodating all of the visitors shown here. Rather, family members, doctors, and government officials trickled in and out as Lincoln lay unconscious. The president died at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865.
Currier & Ives Lithography Company, 1865
FDJOHN_180908_018.JPG: Andrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the Republican Party's choice to run with President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) in his 1864 reelection bid -- a win deemed crucial for the Union's success in winning the Civil War. In 1861, at the start of the conflict, Johnson was the only Southern senator to remain loyal to the Union. In part for his efforts "to eradicate all pro-Confederate influences" in the state of Tennessee, where he was appointed military governor in 1862, Johnson was tapped to be Lincoln's running mate in 1864. in spite of his credible record of public service, Johnson would soon prove to be an unfortunate choice.
Morse's Gallery on the Cumberland, c 1864
FDJOHN_180908_023.JPG: Andrew Johnson
It was surely not the artist's intention to depict President Andrew Johnson standing symbolically with his back turned toward the Capitol building, where Radical Republicans in Congress were vehemently at odds with the president's agenda in the South. Politically, Johnson was a Jacksonian Democrat, who had opposed secession but nonetheless believed strongly in the doctrine of states' rights. His policy of Reconstruction for the formerly seceded states involved bringing them back into the Union expeditiously and allowing former Confederate leaders to hold public office. As a consequence, former Confederate leaders began restricting the rights of former slaves and blacks in general.
Edward Valois, 1865
FDJOHN_180908_030.JPG: Andrew Johnson, Salmon P. Chase, William Henry Seward, Edwin M. Stanton and Gideon Welles
Two of Abraham Lincoln's most loyal cabinet officers, Secretary of State William Henry Seward and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, would transfer their support to Andrew Johnson and remain steadfast until the end of his term in 1869. Both men were wise and capable; Seward is best remembered for negotiating the purchase of Alaska from Russia for 7.2 million dollars. A third cabinet member, the secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton, was obstinate by nature and disagreed diametrically with Johnson's lenient Reconstruction policies for the Southern states. When Johnson asked Stanton to resign from office, Stanton refused to do so, which ultimately trigger's Johnson's impeachment on trumped-up charges. Supreme Court Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase, presided over Johnson's trial in the Senate.
Peter S. Duval Lithography Company, 1865-67
FDJOHN_180908_046.JPG: The Veto Gallop
In April 1865, Andrew Johnson (1808–1875) was thrust into a critical position of power; after a tumultuous four years of war in which Abraham Lincoln had historically expanded the powers of the presidency, Johnson, as president, became the victim of a Congress inclined to curtail his executive authority. A staunch believer in states' rights, Johnson quickly antagonized Radical Republicans in Congress who felt his policies favored the civil rights of former Confederates at the expense of freed slaves. His vetoes of Reconstruction legislation that supported the rights of southern blacks, as caricatured in this print, and his violation of the Tenure of Office Act (later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court) in removing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from office, led to his impeachment in 1868. He was acquitted by a single vote.
Bennett, Donaldson & Elmes Lithography Company, c 1866
FDJOHN_180908_053.JPG: Andrew Johnson
Thomas Nast was undoubtedly the most effective partisan illustrator of the post-Civil War era. Nast, a northerner, heartily endorsed the Radical Republican call for tight federal control of reconstruction in the South. When President Andrew Johnson, who supported states' rights, opposed this policy, Nast launched a cartoon attack that easily ranked among his most merciless. He hounded his subject with vicious abandon, transforming him by turns into a conniving Iago, a blood spilling Roman emperor, and the scowling "King Andy I."
Nast drew this cartoon in 1873 while allegedly on a lecture circuit. The donkey, with his ears wreathed in an emperor's garland, was probably meant to belittle the Democrat's charge of "Caesarism" inspired by current Republican talk of a third term for President Ulysses S. Grant.
Thomas Nast, 1873
FDJOHN_180908_056.JPG: Thomas Nast
German-born Thomas Nast began his career as a graphic journalist during the Civil War. Over time, his objective artistic renderings became biting caricatures that made him one of the most influential editorialists of the Northern cause. Subsequently, and in addition to lampooning President Andrew Johnson, Nast aimed his satiric pen at the New-York Tribune editor Horace Greeley, the Ku Klux Klan, robber barons of the Gilded Age, and New York City's corrupt political machine, Tammany Hall, run by William "Boss" Tweed.
Nast is also remembered for the creation of the American political icons, the donkey and the elephant, for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively. Moreover, his renderings of Santa Claus, especially his 1881 version, are still viable images today.
Napoleon Sarony, c 1870
FDJOHN_180908_064.JPG: Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction, and How It Works
When Andrew Johnson became president following Abraham Lincoln's assassination, he favored a policy of leniency toward former secessionists at the expense of freed slaves, whose newly won liberties were being infringed upon. The North's popular cartoonist, Thomas Nast, satirizes Johnson in this illustration for the September 1, 1866, issue of Harper's Weekly by portraying him as the evil schemer Iago in Shakespeare's Othello. Johnson professed to be a "best friend" to African Americans in the South, while vetoing such empowering legislation as the Freedman's Bureau Bill, the Civil Rights Bill, and three military Reconstruction acts, all designed to protect and advance their civil rights.
Thomas Nast, reproduction of the 1866 original
FDJOHN_180908_072.JPG: Amphitheatrum Johnsonianum
On March 30, 1867, Harper's Weekly devoted a two-page spread to a cartoon by Thomas Nast that severely ridiculed President Andrew Johnson for a race riot that had occurred in New Orleans eight months before. It involved the Republican Party's efforts to reconvene the Louisiana State Constitutional Convention to adopt a new Constitution that protected the rights of African Americans, especially voting rights for freedmen. Angry Southern Democrats attacked black marchers who supported the Republican convention. The ensuing melee left scores of African Americans dead and many more wounded.
In Nast's cartoon, President Johnson is depicted as a Roman emperor observing with approval what Harper's called the "massacre of the innocents at New Orleans, July 30, 1866." This tragedy was pivotal in convincing Congress to pass stringent Reconstruction laws enforced by federal troops.
Thomas Nast, 1867
FDJOHN_180908_091.JPG: King Andy I
IN the pages of the popular illustrated journal, Harper's Weekly, Thomas Nast, armed with his satirical drawings, engaged in repeated attacks against President Andrew Johnson and his administration. The overriding issue was much the same -- Johnson's heated dispute with Radical Republicans in Congress over Reconstruction policies for the South.
This cartoon, which is infused with many of Nast's characteristic satirical nuances, portrays Johnson as a despotic King who is being served by two stalwart cabinet members, Secretary of State William Henry Seward, in the guise of a prime minster, and Navy Secretary Gideon Welles, dressed as the god Neptune. Lady Liberty, her hands in manacles, is seated in front, while behind in the distance members of Congress wait in line for the execution's block.
Thomas Nast, 1866
FDJOHN_180908_095.JPG: Indian Delegations in Washington -- Presentation to the President
Like his predecessors, President Andrew Johnson periodically welcomed delegations of Native Americans into the White House. These were occasions to exchange gifts and proffers of good will. This page of Harper's Weekly depicts a White House reception for members of the Yankton, Santee Sioux (Dakota), and the Missouri Sioux tribes, who gathered in the East Room on February 23, 1867.
Unidentified artist, copy after Alexander Gardner, 1867
FDJOHN_180908_103.JPG: Edwin McMasters Stanton, 1814-1869
Edwin M. Stanton was President Abraham Lincoln's irreplaceable secretary of war. Although many officials in Washington found Stanton irascible and arrogant, Lincoln relied upon his precision and vigor in administering the war effort. Working relations between Stanton and President Andrew Johnson were challenging, however. In personality and politics, the two men were at odds.
Stanton's contingency plans to keep a Union military presence in the South grated against Johnson's strong view of the role of states' rights during reconstruction. Largely in support of Stanton's cabinet position, the Republican-controlled Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act, which made it unlawful for Johnson to dismiss Stanton without the Senate's approval. Ultimately, when Johnson dismissed Stanton in 1868, the Congress impeached him.
Mathew Brady Studio, c 1865
FDJOHN_180908_117.JPG: Managers of the House of Representatives of the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson
In February 1868, the House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson on eleven articles, eight of which pertained to alleged violations of the Tenure of Office Act. Seven managers of the House, identified in this photograph, were selected to present the articles of impeachment at Johnson's trial in the Senate which began on March 5, 1868, with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding. Johnson chose not to appear at the trial, which ended on May 26. Johnson was acquitted of all articles and served out his term as a lame-duck president. He returned to his home in Tennessee where, in 1875, he won election to the United States Senate. He served only five months until his death on July 31, 1875. Subsequently, the Tenure of Office Act was repeated and ruled unconstitutional.
James Falconer Wilson, 19 Oct 1828 - 22 Apr 1895
George Sewall Boutwell, 28 Jan 1818 - 27 Feb 1905
John Alexander Logan, 9 Feb 1826 - 26 Dec 1886
Benjamin Franklin Butler, 5 Nov 1818 - 11 Jan 1893
Thaddeus Stevens, 4 Apr 1792 - 11 Aug 1868
Thomas Williams, 28 Aug 1806 - 16 Jun 1872
John Armor Bingham, 1815 - 1900
Mathew Brady Studio, 1868
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2018 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000.
Overnight trips this year:
(February) Greenville, NC for a Civil War Trust conference,,
(May/June) Newport News, VA for another CWT conference,
(July) my 13th consecutive trip to San Diego Comic-Con (including sites in Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles),
(August twice, October) three trips to New York City (including New York Comic-Con), and
(September) Chicago, IL for my CWT swansong event..
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