October 10, 2023: Vice President Studying: Andrew Johnson’s Nomination

[50 yearsago this week, VicePresident Spiro Agnew resigned. That striking political moment was not onlypart of the deepeningWatergate scandal, but one of the few times when an American Vice Presidenthas made major news. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy Agnew and other noteworthyVeeps, leading up a weekend post on our current VP!]

On one very goodand one very bad thing about the crucial wartime election.

I’ve bloggedbefore about the moment in which I’d argue (hyperbolically to be sure, butnot, I believe, without cause) that the Civil War and thus the fate of theAmerican future most clearly hung in the balance: the second day of the Battleof Gettysburg, and specifically Joshua Chamberlain and the20th Maine’s stand on Little Round Top. Even if I’m being tooextreme about that particular moment, it’s certainly fair to say that after Gettysburg theConfederacy stood very little chance of winning the war militarily. But onthe other hand, much remained uncertain and undetermined about the war’s finalstages, outcome, and aftermath, and no single moment more decisively impactedthose futures than the presidentialelection of 1864.

For a number ofreasons, President Lincoln’s ultimately decisive victory over Democraticchallenger (and former terrible Union general) GeorgeMcClellan was a very positive result. For one thing, despite the eventualsize of that victory (212 to 21 electoral votes, and a popular vote margin ofmore than 400,000), it was hardly a foregone conclusion: for much of 1864 thewar was going poorly enough that Lincoln’s chances, particularly when coupledwith JohnC. Frémont’s initial presence in the race as a third-partycandidate, seemed gloomy at best. And for another, related thing, hadMcClellan triumphed he almost certainly would have negotiateda peace with the Confederacy (that was his stated platform and plan) thatwould have made such outcomes as the1865 passage of the 13th-15th Amendments far moredifficult, if not indeed impossible.

So it’s a verygood thing that Lincoln won reelection. But in order to strengthen his chancesof doing so, Lincoln and the Republican Party did a very bad thing: nominating Andrew Johnson,Tennessee’s Military Governor and a lifelong Southern Democrat, as Lincoln’ssecond Vice President (replacing his first, former Maine Governor and longtimeRepublican HannibalHamlin). Perhaps Johnson helped assure that victory, although by electionday, with Frémont and his third party out of the race and the war going muchbetter, it’s doubtful that his contribution was required. Far more certain isthat, after Lincoln’s tragic assassination, the presidency of Andrew Johnsonwas one of the worst and most destructive in our nation’s history, culminatingboth in hisnear-impeachment (the first in American history) and, much worse, in a verydifferent vision of Reconstruction than whatLincoln had begun. It can be easy to overlook VP nominations, but Johnson’sproves just how significant that element of an election can become.

NextVeepStudying tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Vice Presidents you’d highlight?