Who Was President After Lincoln Was Assassinated

The Night Lincoln Died and the Man Who Took Over

On the evening of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth walked into Ford's Theatre in Washington, D., and fired a single shot into the back of Abraham Lincoln's head. C.Who was president after Lincoln was assassinated? And in that moment, the question of who would lead the nation shifted from a political matter to something far more urgent and personal. The country was still reeling from the end of the Civil War just days earlier. The answer was Andrew Johnson — a man whose own presidency would become one of the most turbulent and controversial chapters in American history.

Here's the thing most people don't realize: Johnson's presidency wasn't just a footnote between Lincoln and Grant. It was a defining struggle over what the reunited nation would even look like. And the fights that erupted in those four years still echo in American politics today.

What Happened the Night Lincoln Was Shot

Lincoln was assassinated just five days after Confederate General Robert E. In practice, lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House. The war was effectively over. The mood in Washington was one of cautious celebration, not despair. Lincoln attended a play — Our American Cousin* — at Ford's Theatre that evening with his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, and a couple of guests.

Booth, a well-known actor and Confederate sympathizer, slipped into the presidential box and shot Lincoln at around 10:15 p.And the president was carried across the street to the Petersen House, where he remained in a coma for nine hours. m. Also, he died the next morning, April 15, 1865, at 7:22 a. m.

Vice President Andrew Johnson was not at the theatre that night. He had spent the evening at a hotel, somewhat removed from the festivities. Also, when news of the shooting reached him, he was quickly brought to the Kirkwood House, where he took the oath of office as the 17th President of the United States. There was no grand ceremony, no crowd gathered. It was a grim, hurried affair that reflected the shock and grief gripping the nation.

Who Was Andrew Johnson

Andrew Johnson was not a name most Americans would recognize today, but in the 1860s he was one of the most polarizing figures in the country. To understand his presidency, you have to understand where he came from — and how unlikely his path to the White House truly was.

Johnson's Early Life and Rise

Johnson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808. He grew up in poverty, with almost no formal education. In practice, as a young man, he apprenticed as a tailor and taught himself to read by working alongside a local printer. He eventually moved to Greeneville, Tennessee, where he opened his own tailor shop and began his climb into politics.

His rise was remarkable for the era. Consider this: johnson served as a state legislator, governor, and senator from Tennessee. He was a Democrat through and through — a Southern Democrat, no less — which made his loyalty to the Union during the Civil War all the more striking. When Southern states began seceding in 1861, Johnson was the only senator from a Confederate state who remained in Washington and stayed loyal to the federal government.

That act of defiance earned him Lincoln's attention. Practically speaking, lincoln, looking for a unity ticket in the 1864 election, chose Johnson as his running mate under the National Union banner. It was a strategic pick — a Southern Democrat who could signal that the war was about preserving the Union, not just a Republican crusade.

The 1864 Election and the National Union Ticket

Lincoln's re-election in November 1864 came at a time when the war was still grinding on. Practically speaking, the public was exhausted, and there were genuine fears that Lincoln might lose. Choosing Johnson as a vice-presidential candidate was meant to broaden the coalition. It said: this is not just a Northern Republican war — it's an American war.

The ticket won, but Johnson's inauguration was a mess. He had been drinking heavily during the campaign and delivered a slurred, incoherent speech at the ceremony. Rumors swirled about whether he had been drinking or was simply in poor health. Regardless, the moment set the tone for a vice presidency that would be defined by tension and distrust from the start.

Johnson's Presidency and Reconstruction

When Lincoln died, Johnson inherited a nation in ruins. The Civil War was over, but the question of what to do with the defeated Southern states and the millions of formerly enslaved people was entirely unresolved. This period — known as Reconstruction — would define Johnson's presidency and ultimately destroy his political career.

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The Clash with Congress

Johnson's approach to Reconstruction was radically different from what the Republican-controlled Congress wanted. He favored a lenient policy toward the former Confederate states, allowing them to rejoin the Union quickly with minimal conditions. He pardoned thousands of former Confederate officials and landowners, restoring their property and political rights.

The problem was that Southern states, now back in the Union under Johnson's plan, immediately began passing Black Codes — laws that restricted the freedoms of formerly enslaved people in ways that closely mirrored the old system of slavery. Southern legislatures elected former Confederate leaders to Congress. Johnson did little to stop it.

Congress pushed back hard. The Radical Republicans, led by figures like Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner, demanded stronger protections for freedpeople and harsher terms for readmission of Southern states. Plus, they passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 over Johnson's veto — the first major piece of legislation in American history to override a presidential veto on civil rights grounds. They followed it with the 14th Amendment, which guaranteed equal protection under the law and was designed to enshrine the rights freedpeople had gained during the war.

Johnson campaigned against the 14th Amendment with a fiery, often reckless energy. Because of that, he traveled across the country in a speaking tour that was as much a political stunt as it was a policy argument. It didn't help his cause.

The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson

The breaking point came in early 1868. Congress had passed the Tenure of Office Act, which required the president to get Senate approval before removing officials who had been appointed with Senate consent. Johnson, furious with his Secretary of

…Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, whom he attempted to dismiss in direct violation of the Tenure of Office Act. Stanton’s refusal to step down set off a constitutional showdown that Congress had been waiting for. On February 24, 1868, the House of Representatives voted 126‑47 to impeach Johnson, charging him with “high crimes and misdemeanors” for violating the Tenure of Office Act and for bringing “disgrace, ridicule, hatred, contempt, and reproach” upon the presidency through his intemperate conduct.

The Senate convened as a court of impeachment on March 5, presided over by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase. So the defense, headed by former Attorney General Henry Stanbery and later by William M. In real terms, over the next eleven weeks, prosecutors — led by Senator Benjamin F. Butler and Congressman Thaddeus Stevens — presented evidence that Johnson had repeatedly sought to undermine Reconstruction policies, obstructed the enforcement of civil‑rights legislation, and displayed a pattern of defiance toward congressional authority. Evarts, argued that the Tenure of Office Act was unconstitutional and that Johnson’s actions, while politically unwise, did not rise to the level of impeachable offenses.

When the vote came on May 16, the Senate fell one short of the two‑thirds majority required for conviction. So a second vote on May 26 on a second article of impeachment produced the same result. The final tally was 35 guilty to 19 not guilty — exactly one vote shy of the needed 36. Johnson remained in office, but his political authority was irreparably damaged.

In the aftermath, Johnson’s influence waned dramatically. Because of that, he completed his term largely as a figure‑hand, vetoing several Reconstruction measures that Congress promptly overrode. The Radical Republicans pressed forward, enacting the Reconstruction Acts of 1867, which placed the South under military supervision and mandated new state constitutions guaranteeing black male suffrage. By the time Johnson left office in March 1869, the framework of Congressional Reconstruction was firmly entrenched, and the nation was on a path — however tumultuous — toward extending civil rights to the formerly enslaved.

Johnson’s legacy is a study in how personal temperament and political miscalculation can derail even the most consequential presidencies. In real terms, his lenient vision for Reconstruction clashed irrevocably with the congressional drive for substantive equality, and his stubborn defiance of legislative authority culminated in the first presidential impeachment in American history. Although he avoided removal, the episode underscored the Constitution’s capacity to check executive overreach and highlighted the enduring tension between presidential prerogative and congressional power — a tension that continues to shape American governance today.