History question?

Question

Why did the Radical Republicans depise president Johnson so much, and what did they try to do in an attempt to negate the presidents influence?

Andrew Johnson

Answer 1

For one thing, Johnson was a Democrat. He and Lincoln formed a Nationaly Unity ticket along with the GOP.

Johnson felt obliged to implement Lincoln's lenient Reconstruction Plan which would have healed the wounds of war in short order.

The Radical Republicans, lead by Charles Sumner and Thadeus Stevens, wanted to inflict a draconian Reconstruction that would have ground the South into extinction they very nearly succeeded.

They voted down every proposal Johnson sent them regarding Reconstruction, and when Secretary of War Stanton disregarded Johnson's instructions, and treated Johnson with the same, or even greater contempt than he had shown Lincoln, Johnson demanded Stanton's resignation, and was fired when the resignation was not forthcoming. To protect Stanton, who was a leading Radical, Congress passed an act that forbade a non-elected President from firing the appointees of his predecessor. That was the cause of the impeachment procedings.

Johnson vetoed much of the Radical plans, but they over-rode most of them and ground the South so far into the dirt that we didn't really start to climb out until the 1970's.

Doc

Answer 2

Andrew or Lyndon????????????????