Andrew Johnson gives truth to the aphorism that anyone in America can become president. Born in a small house in the North Carolina woods to virtually uneducated parents, Johnson was illiterate until the age of seventeen.1 The only other person to become president with such insufficient formal education was Abraham Lincoln.2 While Lincoln is revered as one of the greatest presidents of the United States, his replacement, Johnson, is ranked among the most mediocre. At the start of the Civil War, Johnson was in his first term as a senator from Tennessee. Although he aligned himself with the pro-slavery and states' rights faction of the Democratic Party, he ardently contested calls by other southerners to secede from the Union over the issue of slavery .3 After Tennessee seceded from the Union, Johnson withdrew from his home state, making him the only Southern senator to retain his Senate seat.4 Southerners considered Johnson a traitor and, by Consequently, seized his property and forced his family to leave the state. Northerners, on the other hand, appreciated Johnson's position, making him a sudden idol. Lincoln knew he needed Johnson – a man who supported emancipation as a war measure – to secure his re-election in 1864, which was ultimately a successful strategy.5 Unfortunately, President Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth shortly after. after the end of the civil war. in 1865. If Booth's plan had gone as he predicted, Johnson would have been assassinated as well; alternatively, he succeeds Lincoln as president6. Although any change in leadership in the White House influences the country, the transfer from Lincoln to Johnson had the most significant impact. President Andrew Johnson was an adversary...... middle of paper......, July 6, 1867, sec. Editorial. http://www.impeach-andrewjohnson.com/08OvertObstructionOfCongress/v-5.htm (accessed May 18, 2014). Cimbala, Paul (editor); Miller, Randall M. (editor). The great task before us: reconstruction in the context of the American Civil War continues. Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, 2010. ebrary collections. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/Doc?id=10397785&ppg=202 (accessed May 18, 2014). Slap, Andrew. Doom of Reconstruction: Liberal Republicans in the Civil War Era. Bronx, NY: Fordham University Press, 2006. ebrary collections. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/Doc?id=10388620&ppg=99 (accessed May 18, 2014). Zoellner, Robert H. "Black Colonization: The Climate of Opinion Surrounding Lincoln, 1860-1865," Mid-America, XLII (July 1960), pp. 131-50. Ebrary Collections. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/apus/Doc?id=10397785&ppg=202 (accessed May 18, 2014).