Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson took office after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865. A Democrat from Tennessee, Johnson was the Vice President nominee in 1864 because the Republicans wanted to show that their party was for all loyal men, even southerners. When he became president, the Civil War had just ended and Johnson faced the challenge of mending a broken nation. Johnson favored leniency for the South. He handed out many pardons to member of the Confederacy, pushed …

…the presidency and the Republican party. The constitution requires for a vote of two thirds for impeachment so Johnson survived by one vote. Besides being the only president to be impeached, Andrew Johnson was also the only ex-president to be elected to the U.S. Senate. In 1875, six years after his return to Tennessee, voters sent him back to Washington. He did not serve his term because he finally died from a series of strokes.