A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 6, part 2: Andrew Johnson

In Short

This volume compiles the official papers, messages, executive orders, and legal defense documents of President Andrew Johnson, spanning his turbulent administration following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Beginning with a biographical outline of Johnson's humble origins as an uneducated apprentice tailor in North Carolina and Tennessee, the collection moves rapidly into the administrative aftermath of the Civil War. It documents the initial suppression of the insurrection, the reopening of foreign trade, and the complex logistical management of military departments in the former Confederacy. The core of the volume captures Johnson’s fierce, escalating battle with the Radical Republican Congress over Reconstruction, culminating in his vetoes of key legislation, his defiance regarding the Tenure of Office Act, his clash with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and General Ulysses S. Grant, and his eventual impeachment trial before the United States Senate. It endures as a vital primary record of the nation's closest encounter with presidential removal.

The Story

The narrative arc opens in the immediate wake of national tragedy and total war. Following a brief biographical summary that details Andrew Johnson’s early poverty, his self-taught literacy aided by his wife Eliza, and his stubborn climb through Tennessee politics as a Defender of the working white citizen, the official records begin in the spring of 1865. Lincoln is dead, the conspirators face trial before a military commission established by executive order, and the newly elevated President Johnson assumes the staggering burden of binding the nation’s wounds while liquidating the military apparatus of the Civil War.

In these opening administrative orders, Johnson acts to restore peace and normalcy. He rescinds wartime prohibitions on the export of hay, livestock, arms, and ammunition, while enforcing strict neutrality along the Mexican border as foreign forces maneuver nearby. He orders executive departments closed in honor of Lincoln’s funeral and sets about assessing the national balance sheet, expressing optimism that the immense national debt of over two billion dollars can be liquidated within thirty years through fiscal retrenchment and expanding agricultural productivity.

Yet, as military operations wind down, the underlying political crisis of Reconstruction rapidly emerges. Johnson proclaims the insurrection suppressed in Tennessee and moves to re-establish civil governance across the South under the premise that the Southern states never legally left the Union. Acting on this conviction, he issues executive orders directing military commanders, such as those in Georgia, to strictly cease interfering in private property disputes, cotton sales, or civil contracts, declaring that military officers have no authority to adjudicate rights between private citizens without explicit orders.

This constitutional philosophy puts Johnson on a direct collision course with Congress. When Congress passes legislation expanding the Freedmen’s Bureau, Johnson vetoes it, arguing that appointing agents in every county creates an unmanageable federal patronage system, drains the Treasury, and unconstitutionally seizes land without due process of law. He consistently opposes the admission of new territories or states like Montana or Arkansas under terms he deems unequal or financially burdensome. Furthermore, he vigorously defends the Southern states' continued legal existence, asserting that because they were taxed as states and required to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery, they cannot now be treated as conquered, unrepresented territories.

The confrontation reaches its boiling point when Congress passes the Reconstruction Acts and the Tenure of Office Act over his vetoes. Johnson responds by issuing stern veto messages, warning that imposing martial law across ten Southern states and suspending the writ of habeas corpus during peacetime threatens the fundamental liberties of all Americans and risks driving the republic into despotism or anarchy. When Congress curtails his authority as Commander in Chief through military appropriation riders, Johnson signs the funding bills under explicit, formal protest.

Believing the Tenure of Office Act to be a direct, unconstitutional infringement on executive power, Johnson tests its validity by suspending Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and replacing him temporarily with General Ulysses S. Grant. Stanton refuses to vacate, claiming a public duty under the law to resist the President's order. A bitter, public feud erupts between Johnson and Grant over the conditions of the surrender of the War Department's records, leading to formal correspondence in which Grant aligns himself with Congress's interpretation of the law. Johnson then formally removes Stanton and attempts to install Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas.

This action triggers the ultimate constitutional crisis. The House of Representatives adopts formal articles of impeachment, charging Johnson with high crimes and misdemeanors for unlawfully conspiring to remove Stanton and bypass the Senate. The volume shifts into the legal battle space of the Senate chamber. Johnson’s legal team, led by prominent attorneys including Henry Stanbery and B.R. Curtis, requests adequate time to prepare a defense, noting that the President is not a lawyer and must balance his legal defense with the continuous duties of the presidency. The legal documents lay out Johnson’s defense: that the executive power of removal is inherently vested in the President by the Constitution, a principle established during George Washington’s presidency and reasserted under Andrew Jackson. The volume closes with the formal record of the impeachment proceedings, culminating in the Chief Justice declaring the Senate court adjourned without day after failing to convict, leaving Johnson to finish his term conducting routine foreign affairs, negotiating treaties, and routine executive business until his departure from office.

How It Unfolds

The rise of a tailor Born into extreme poverty in North Carolina, Andrew Johnson learns his letters from a fellow tailor's apprentice and his wife, Eliza, before carving out a political career in Tennessee as an outspoken advocate for white workingmen and strict constitutional boundaries.

Closing the ledger of war Following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, President Johnson establishes a military commission to try the conspirators, halts wartime trade restrictions on exports, and closes federal departments to honor the fallen president.

Disciplining the military commanders As civil governance restarts in the South, Johnson issues strict orders through the War Department forbidding military officers in Georgia and elsewhere from intervening in private property disputes, cotton contracts, or local civil matters.

The vetoes of Reconstruction Johnson breaks decisively with Congress by vetoing the Freedmen’s Bureau bill and the Reconstruction Acts, arguing that federal patronage is bloated, military rule in peacetime violates the Constitution, and Southern states never lost their legal status as states.

Suspension of the War Secretary Seeking to assert control over his own Cabinet and test the constitutionality of the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson suspends Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and appoints General Ulysses S. Grant as Secretary ad interim.

Friction with the General of the Army A sharp dispute breaks out between Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant over the control of the War Department, conducted through formal exchanges of letters that deteriorate into accusations of bad faith and broken promises.

The order to Lorenzo Thomas Johnson formally removes Edwin Stanton and issues a written order authorizing Adjutant-General Lorenzo Thomas to take charge of the War Department, providing Congress with the immediate pretext for impeachment.

Articles of Impeachment presented The House of Representatives drafts formal articles of impeachment against Johnson, accusing him of high misdemeanors for violating the Tenure of Office Act and attempting to unlawfully control military disbursements.

The President makes his defense Johnson’s legal team submits a detailed answer to the Senate, arguing that the right to remove executive officers is an inherent presidential power backed by historical precedent since the founding of the republic.

Acquittal and administrative close The Senate sitting as a court of impeachment adjourns without convicting the President, allowing Johnson to spend his final months in office managing foreign treaties with Great Britain, Belgium, and Italy.

The People

• Andrew Johnson: The 17th President of the United States. A self-made former tailor from Tennessee who values strict construction of the Constitution above political compromise. He wants to swiftly restore the Southern states to the Union, maintain executive independence, and resist what he views as unconstitutional legislative usurpation. His stubborn refusal to yield to congressional authority leads directly to his trial for high crimes and misdemeanors.
• Edwin M. Stanton: The stubborn, entrenched Secretary of War. He sees it as his high public duty to remain in office despite the President's explicit orders, aligning himself with Radical Republicans to protect Reconstruction policies and resist executive overreach.
• Ulysses S. Grant: General of the Armies and briefly Secretary of War ad interim. Caught directly between the President and Congress, Grant seeks to execute military orders without violating federal law, ultimately clashing with Johnson over the administration of the War Department and military districts in the South.
• James Madison: Cited extensively throughout the text as the foundational constitutional authority. His writings in The Federalist and his arguments during the First Congress are relied upon by Johnson to prove that the executive power of removing cabinet officials belongs solely to the President.
• Henry Stanbery & B.R. Curtis: Chief defense counsel for President Johnson during the impeachment trial. They work under severe time constraints to craft a rigorous, precedent-based legal defense that protects the constitutional integrity of the executive branch.
• Lorenzo Thomas: Brevet Major-General and Adjutant-General of the U.S. Army. Appointed by Johnson as Secretary of War ad interim to replace Stanton, serving as the immediate catalyst for the House's impeachment charges.

In Its Own Voice

When defining the fundamental political rights of former Confederate territories, Johnson asserts that military domination during peacetime destroys the original framework of the nation:

"Whereas standing armies, military occupation, martial law, military tribunals, and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus are in time of peace dangerous to public liberty, incompatible with the individual rights of the citizen, contrary to the genius and spirit of our free institutions, and exhaustive of the national resources, and ought not, therefore, to be sanctioned or allowed except in cases of actual necessity for repelling invasion or suppressing insurrection or rebellion..."

In his defense against the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson relies upon historical arguments regarding the original separation of powers:

"If the Constitution has invested all executive power in the President, I venture to assert that the Legislature has no right to diminish or modify his executive authority."

Addressing the economic state of the country following the war, Johnson outlines his view on the natural boundaries of government regulation:

"The proportion which the currency of any country should bear to the whole value of the annual produce circulated by its means is a question upon which political economists have not agreed. Nor can it be controlled by legislation, but must be left to the irrevocable laws which everywhere regulate commerce and trade."

What It's Really About

At its core, this volume is an intense study in constitutional friction and the boundaries of executive power. It explores the central question that haunted post-Civil War America: when a nation survives a devastating rebellion, does the central government possess extraordinary, indefinite powers to reorder society, or must it immediately return to strict constitutional limits?

Johnson’s documents reveal a rigid commitment to a specific vision of federalism. He argues that because secession was illegal, the Southern states never actually left the Union; therefore, Congress cannot treat them as conquered territory or deny them equal constitutional standing. To Johnson, congressional efforts to institute martial law, oversee private property contracts, and establish expansive patronage agencies like the Freedmen's Bureau represent a dangerous tilt toward legislative tyranny.

Conversely, the text documents the inevitable collision between a President determined to protect the traditional prerogatives of his office and a legislative body determined to restrict him. The debate over the Tenure of Office Act and the control of the Department of War becomes a proxy fight over the principle of separation of powers, testing whether Congress can strip a President of the authority to manage his own executive branch.

Why Read It Today

This collection is essential reading for anyone seeking an unvarnished, primary-source look at one of the most volatile political crises in American history. Rather than relying on secondary interpretations of Reconstruction, the reader sits directly with the legal documents, executive orders, vetoes, and personal correspondence that defined the conflict. It offers a rare, front-row seat to a constitutional system straining at its very seams.

The book feels like a legal thriller hidden inside administrative record-keeping. The tension builds quietly through mundane war department orders, financial estimates, and trade regulations, before erupting into open warfare between the White House, the Capitol, and the War Department. The formal, highly polished prose of nineteenth-century statecraft contrasts sharply with the raw, personal power struggles taking place between Johnson, Stanton, and Grant.

It is not always an easy read. The volume is filled with heavy legal arguments, lengthy constitutional citations, financial accounting, and repetitive administrative notices regarding treaties and departmental expenditures. Period attitudes regarding race and representation are present and unedited, reflecting the stark, exclusionary white-populist worldview that Johnson held throughout his career. Yet, these difficulties are precisely what give the book its historical weight. It forces the reader to confront the actual arguments used to shape post-war America, offering a sobering, detailed portrait of a nation attempting to redefine the rule of law in the wake of civil war.