Andrew Johnson Quotes
I, ______ do solemnly swear, (or affirm) in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that I will, in like manner, abide by and faithfully support all laws and proclamations which have been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God.
This oath was required of Southern Rebels who wanted obtain amnesty from treason which they had committed by engaging in the Civil War. See {623307} for the Presidential Proclamation.
Andrew Johnson, 1808-1875, 17th President of the United States (War Democrat), May 29, 1865
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
For the required Oath, see {623308} . There were several to the amnesty. These included graduates of West Point and the Naval Academy who had joined the rebellion, senior officers and officials of the Confederacy, those who were accused of war crimes and abusing Union prisoners of war, persons who went abroad to help the Confederacy, and Northerners who had gone South to aid the rebellion. Many scholars think that although Lincoln had expressed his desire to provide an amnesty after the war was over, he probably would have been more lenient than Johnson who exempted many on the Southern side—especially the leaders. Ironically, Johnson was a Southerner but was personally, morally outraged at taking up arms against the United States and in that sense was much more of a hawk than Lincoln and many of the radical Republicans even. However, he was an inveterate racist and resisted most of the attempts to implement equality during the Reconstruction. Many argue that but for Johnson, Reconstruction might have been much more successful. It was easy for Southerners to resist equal rights for Blacks when they knew that the President was also opposed to measures to produce equality.
The South had attacked Fort Sumter
While Douglas and Lincoln were political opponents with little love lost between them, both were patriots. And Douglas was committed to seeing that Lincoln was inaugurated and the Union preserved, if Lincoln won the election. When Lincoln did so, Douglas traveled throughout the South trying to persuade Southerners to stay in the Union. See {584870}.
Lee although born in England was one of the most ardent of the patriots fighiting the British. This oath was even considered extreme at the time. He was considered a super hawk by Washington and others. He became the Senior Major General and if anything had happened to Washington he would have command. He was an extremist who thought himself far more militarily qualified than Washington. See {59589} and {55885} for two of his slights against Washington.
See Noah Webster and Timothy Pickering for similar positions. The War of 1812 was very unpopular with the New England states. They had the most developed trade with England and were economically injured by the curtailment of that trade. The citizens of Essex wanted to give the State Legislature the most possible moral and political power to negotiate an end to the war.
In his Senate confirmation hearings Frankfurter was repeatedly asked about his association with the ACLU and his views on Communism by conservative Senator Pat McCarran:
Garrison and some of the other radical abolitionists actually argued for dissolution of the Union as a means to end slavery. These abolitionists were convinced that if the United States split in two, slavery would end. See {613764} & {613626} for a description of the logic.
The Union troops had just been routed at Bull Run. Many in the North thought that the war would be a short one with little disruption of loss of life. Here Norton, like so many others, provided a a more realistic assessment. Also note the reference to “barbarism” in the South, When the Union was formed, the Southern states were not as well developed as the North from an industrial, educational or cultural perspective. There were vestiges of aristocracy, crude law enforcement, and much more poverty (Virginia excepted) than in the North. Most Northerners thought that the South would reform—modernize and become more like the North, but instead the gulf became greater as the North itself developed and changed rapidly while the South was mired in its traditions with their aristocracy gaining more political, economic and cultural control. This attitude of Northern superiority, objectively valid though it may have been, was sorely resented by the South and this resentment has persisted into relatively modern times.
Note that Lincoln did not justify the emancipation proclamation on moral or humanitarian grounds, but on the grounds of military necessity.
- Born: December 29, 1808
- Died: July 31, 1875
- Nationality: American
- Profession: President
Andrew Johnson was the 17th president of the United States, serving from 1865 to 1869. He assumed the presidency as he was vice president at the time of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Johnson was a Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket, coming to office as the Civil War concluded. He favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union without protection for the former slaves. This led to conflict with the Republican-dominated Congress, culminating in his impeachment by the House of Representatives in 1868. He was acquitted in the Senate by one vote.
