ppealed to the lower
classes of the people, and, in 1835, succeeded in gaining an election to
the state legislature. He nursed his political prospects carefully, and
eight years later, was sent to Congress. He was afterwards twice
governor of Tennessee.

It has been said that secession was, in the beginning, a policy of the
ruling class in the South and not of the people. It is not surprising,
then, that Johnson should have arrayed himself against it, and fought it
with all his might. This position made him so prominent, that on March
4, 1862, Lincoln appointed him military-governor of Tennessee--a
position which was exactly to Johnson's taste and which he filled well.
In this position, he seemed the embodiment of the Union element of the
South, and at their national convention in 1864, the Republicans decided
that the President's policy of reconstruction for the South would be
greatly aided by the presence of a southern man on the ticket, and
Johnson was thereupon chosen for the office of Vice-President. On the
same day that Lincoln was inaugurated for the second time, Johnson took
the oath of office in the Senate chamber, and delivered a speech which
created a sensation. He declared, in effect, that Tennessee had never
been out of the Union, that she was electing representatives who would
soon mingle with their brothers from the North at Washington, and that
she was entitled to every privilege which the northern states enjoyed.

Three hours after the death of the President, Andrew Johnson took the
oath of office as his successor, but he was regarded with suspicion at
both North and South--at the North, because he was believed to be at
heart pro-slavery; at the South because of his well-known animosity
toward the aristocratic and ruling class. He was also known to be
stubborn, high-tempered and intemperate, and he and Congress were soon
at sword's point. Johnson was of the opinion that the question of
suffrage for the negroes should be left to the several states; a
majority of Congress were determined to exact this for their own
protection. This was embodied in the so-called Civil Rights Bill,
conferring citizenship upon colored men. It was promptly vetoed by the
President, and was passed over his veto; soon afterwards the fourteenth
amendment was passed, conferring the suffrage upon all citizens of the
United States without regard to color or previous condition of
servitude. It also was vetoed, and passed over the ve