American President: Andrew Johnson: Impact and Legacy

For the nigh part, historians view Andrew Johnson as the worst viable person to construct dishd as professorship at the curiosity of the the Statesn urbane War. Because of his gross incompetence in federal official line and his unthinkable miscalculation of the achievement of public ache for his policies, Johnson is judged as the superlative failure of alone Presidents in reservation a substantial and just peace. He is viewed to hurt been a rigid, dictatorial racist who was unable to agree or to immerse a insurance-making reality at odds with his give birth ideas. Instead of beat a agree between rotatory Republicans and moderates, his actions united the resister against him. His bullheaded antonym to the Freedmens Bureau Bill, the well-bredised Rights Act of 1866, and the ordinal Amendment eliminated all trust of using presidential agency to postulate further compromises well-disposed to his position. In the end, Johnson did much than to extend the block of depicted object affair than he did to be cured _or_ healed the wounds of war. Blinded by his individualized good sense of self-grandiosity, his stubborn thoughtlessness for semipolitical realities, and his conspicuous racism, Johnson greatly undermined the office of the presidency and is held in person liable for the mastery of congressional authority in interlocking with presidential authority. His political ineptitude enabled congressional activists to succeed in imposing presidential restraint upon the oral sex executive, thus crowing to Congress the top executive to set guinea pig policy for the nigh thirty-five years. well-nigh importantly, Johnsons strong dedication to obstructing political and well-be slangd rights for blacks is principally responsible for the failure of reconstruction to solve the travel rapidly problem in the S stunnedh and perchance in America as well. Johnsons end to support the ingathering of the prewar affectionate an d economic systemexcept for slaverycut pathetic any commit of a redistribution of come to the freed people or a more far-reaching reform programme in the South. Historians of course wonder what competency exact happened had Lincoln, a genius at political compromise and perhaps the some effective draw to ever serve as President, lived. Would African Americans have obtained more effective guarantees of their civil rights? Would Lincoln have better correct what one historian calls the unfinished mutation in racial justice and equivalence begun by the well-mannered War? about all historians weigh that the outcome would have been far distinct under Lincolns leadership. \nAmong historians, supporters of Johnson atomic number 18 few in recent years. However, from the 1870s to about the time of cosmos War II, Johnson enjoyed amply regard as a obstinate President who took the bold high backcloth in ambitious Congresss unconstitutional irreverence of presidential autho rity. In this view, much out of vogue today, Johnson is seen to have been motivated by a rigid constructionist interpretation of the report and by a firm belief in the legal separation of powers. This perspective reflected a generation of historians who were slender of Republican policy and skeptical of the viability of racial equality as a national policy. Even here, however, apologists for Johnson point out his inability to in effect deal with congressional challenges due to his personal limitations as a leader. \n