President Johnson Pardons the Confederate Soldiers - Christmas 1868 - Pardon for the Rebels

Andrew Johnson’s road to the presidency.

He was born in Raleigh N. Carolina on December 29, 1808.

He father died when he was 3.

His mother was a seamstress and the family was very poor.

Andrew never had the privilege of attending school.

He was an apprentice to a tailor who treated him poorly, and as a teenager, he ran away to Tennessee.

At the age of 18, he opened his own tailoring shop in Greenville and a year later got married.

His wife, Eliza, taught Andrew how to read, write, and do math.

Eliza’s tutoring helped to propel Andrew’s career.

He became a skilled orator.

His business thrived so that he was able to buy property.

With the property, Andrew Johnson also purchased several slaves.

Together they had 5 children.

Johnson was elected as a city councilman in 1829.

In 1834, he was elected mayor of Greenville.

As a politician, Andrew Johnson found inspiration in the platform of Andrew Jackson.

He saw himself as a champion of the common man.

He had a disdain for rich plantation owners.

He favored state’s rights and populist policies.

Johnson served as a congressman from 1843 to 1853 when he left congress to become the governor of Tennessee.

Johnson served one term as the governor.

In 1857, he was elected to the US Senate.

Johnson was in the senate as America inched closer and closer to Civil War.

Johnson was an outspoken supporter of slavery.

He was also a strong opponent of secession.

When Abraham Lincoln, of the newly-formed, anti-slavery Republican party was elected president, dominos began to fall that would greatly impact Johnson’s life.

Lincoln was inaugurated in March of 1861.

The Civil War began in April of 1861.

Tennessee voted to secede from the union in June of 1861.

Johnson had been traveling throughout the state arguing against secession,

He remained in the Senate despite his state’s decision.

He would be the only southern senator to remain loyal to the Union during the war.

A year later, Johnson would resign from the senate to accept an appointment from the president to serve as the military governor of Tennessee.

In this role, Johnson would attempt to reestablish federal authority in the state of Tennessee.

He had limited success in this role.

But, he did make a positive impression on the president.

When Lincoln sought re-election, he chose to replace his first-term VP with Johnson.

Lincoln knew that the war was winding down.

He hoped that Johnson’s status as a southerner and a democrat would help with the impending reconstruction efforts.

Lincoln won in an electoral landslide, 212-21.

On March 4th, 1865, inauguration day, Johnson had his first of many public embarrassments.

He was recovering from typhoid fever, but he didn’t want to miss the inauguration.

He was encouraged to drink some whiskey so that he would feel well enough to attend.

Johnson didn’t drink, however, and the whiskey had a profound effect on him.

As he got up to give his speech, he struggled to get the words out.

His speech was described as slurred, and semi-coherent.

Johnson would never escape the rumors that he was a closeted alcoholic.

One month later, Lee and Grant would meet at Appomattox Courthouse to facilitate the surrender of the Confederate forces.

5 days later, on April 14th, John Wilkes Booth shot and killed the president.

The plan was to also kill the secretary of state and the the vice president.

The SOS survived his attack.

Andrew Johnson’s attacker lost his nerve and didn’t go through with it.

April 15, 1865 Vice President Andrew Johnson was sworn in as the new president of the United States.

The war was over, but the impossible task of reunification had just begun.

Lincoln and Johnson could not have been more different.

Different parties that stood for different principals.

God only knows what could have been, had Lincoln not been shot.

Andrew Johnson’s presidency.

It’s a miracle that the nation was not immediately dropped into a fresh conflict.

Johnson, as a democrat was in constant conflict with the US congress where there was a super-majority of Republicans.

Johnson was generally lenient towards the southern states while the republican congress desired harsher treatment of the rebels before allowing them to re-integrate with the rest of the country.

Congress would pass laws and Johnson would veto them.

This shouldn’t be to hard for us to picture.

A republican president is elected in a landslide.

He has a democrat VP as a peace offering to the other side.

5 days later he is assassinated and now you have a democrat president with a republican government.

Things continued to deteriorate until in 1867 Johnson fired Lincoln’s secretary of war who had opposed his reconstruction efforts.

This was the last straw for republicans in congress.

The House impeached Johnson in February of 68.

The senate acquitted him by a single vote.

After this, Johnson knew there was no recovering politically.

He did not actively run for reelection in 1868.

He had hoped the democrats would have nominated him anyways, but they didn’t.

In the general election, Ulysses S. Grant, a republican easily defeated the democratic nominee.

Johnson became a lame-duck president.

On Christmas day 1868, though, Johnson made a dramatic proclamation.

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson President of the United States, by virtue of the power and authority in me vested by the Constitution and in the name of the sovereign people of the United States, do hereby proclaim and declare unconditionally and without reservation, to all and to every person who, directly or indirectly, participated in the late insurrection or rebellion a full pardon and amnesty for the offense of treason against the United States or of adhering to their enemies during the late civil war, with restoration of all rights, privileges, and immunities under the Constitution and the laws which have been made in pursuance thereof.

Now you can well imagine that this led to drastically different reactions throughout the country.

Some heralded it as a Christmas gift.

Others labeled Johnson perverse for doing what he did.

Even some democrats took issue with the proclamation because of how long it took to make.

My intention this morning is not really to argue or even to commend or condemn Johnson’s action.

I simply present to you that this is what happened.

There was one who had the power to pardon.

There were many who had rebelled and stood in peril of judgment.

The one who had the power to pardon offered it freely.

I was a rebel against God.

There will always be pharisees who say that the rebels must recompense before pardon can be offered.

You must do so many good works.

You must prove you’re serious about living differently before we will accept you.

Christ offers us a free pardon based on His position as the Savior.

He died and rose again.

He holds the keys to hell and the grave.

It is in his power to forgive the rebel and restore his relationship with God.

All we have to do is receive this forgiveness.

We don’t deserve it.

We deserve punishment for our rebellion.

God offers us a pardon anyways.

He offers us room in His country.