Post-presidency and Critiques
Popular for his oratory, the ex-President traveled extensively throughout Tennessee and the country on the public lecture circuit. He campaigned for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 1869, losing by a narrow margin. In 1872 he ran for election to fill Tennessee's new at–large seat in the House of Representatives. In 1873 Johnson contracted cholera during an epidemic but recovered; that year he lost about half his assets, when the First National Bank went under. In 1874, the Tennessee legislature elected him over five other candidates to the U.S. Senate. In his first and last speech in the Senate, Johnson spoke eloquently in opposition to Grant's military intervention between rival governments in Louisiana, when the gubernatorial election was disputed and Democratic supporters ousted the winning Republican side with armed force in New Orleans. Johnson based his opposition on the Constitution. He is the only former president to serve in the Senate after serving as president.
During a Congressional recess, Johnson died from a stroke near Elizabethton, Tennessee, on July 31, 1875. He was buried just outside Greeneville – with his body wrapped in an American flag and a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed under his head, according to his wishes. The burial ground was dedicated as the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery in 1906, now part of the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site.
Views of Johnson's policies have changed over time, depending on historians' perception of Reconstruction. After the compromise of 1877, the widespread denunciation of Reconstruction resulted in Johnson being favorably portrayed. By the 1930s, a series of favorable biographies enhanced his prestige. A Beardian School (named after Charles A. Beard and typified by Howard K. Beale) argued that the Republican Party in the 1860s was a tool of corrupt business interests, and that Johnson stood for the people. Historians in opinion polls once rated Johnson "near great", but have since reevaluated and now consider Johnson "a flat failure".
New work by historians and the civil rights movement of the 1960s brought a new perspective on Reconstruction. It was increasingly seen as a noble effort to integrate the freed slaves into society. Beginning with W.E.B. Du Bois' Black Reconstruction, first published in 1935, historians have noted African American contributions during Reconstruction to founding what were often the first systems of public education and welfare institutions in the South, gave muted praise for Republican efforts to extend suffrage and provide other social institutions, and excoriated Johnson for opposing the extension of basic rights to freedmen. Eric Foner denounced Johnson as a "fervent white supremacist" who foiled Reconstruction; Sean Wilentz wrote that Johnson "actively sided with former Confederates" in his attempts to derail Reconstruction. In the early 21st century, Johnson is among those commonly mentioned as the worst presidents in U.S. history. The most positive accomplishment during his Administration was the purchase of Alaska from Russia, though this was probably due more to the efforts of William H. Seward than President Johnson.
According to Glenn W. LaFantasie, Professor of Civil War History at Western Kentucky University,
"Johnson is a particular favorite for the bottom of the pile because of his impeachment, despite his acquittal, and also due to his mishandling of Reconstruction policy, his inept dealings with his Cabinet and Congress, his bristling personality and his sense of self-importance. He once suggested that God saw fit to have Lincoln assassinated so that he could become president. A Northern senator averred that 'Andrew Johnson was the queerest character that ever occupied the White House.' "
His biographer Trefousse concludes that, while his courageous stand for the Union paid handsome political dividends, Johnson did not succeed in the White House because of his failure to outgrow his Jeffersonian-Jacksonian background; put in other words, "Johnson was a child of his time, but he failed to grow with it."
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