He was roughly dragged off the train as it came to a halt in Lynchburg, Virginia. The mob kicked him, spit on him, and was ready to hang the man until someone shouted "His neighbors at Greeneville have made arrangements to hang their Senator on his arrival. Virginians have no right to deprive them of that privilege!" The mob then decided to let him go, and Andrew Johnson proceeded to Tennessee. Johnson was used to adversity, especially after declaring himself a Union man during the Civil War while his home state of Tennessee sided with the Confederacy. However, the most difficult fight Johnson had to face was the one to keep his job as President of the United States.
Born to a poor family in Raleigh, North Carolina, Andrew Johnson became a tailor's apprentice but soon left his cruel master and came to live in Greeneville, Tennessee. Entirely self-educated, Johnson opened his own tailor's shop in Greeneville and eventually became mayor of the small town. Taking a liking to politics, Johnson went on not only to become a state representative, senator, and governor, but also a representative and senator in Congress. In fact Johnson had defied the Confederacy in 1861 by remaining in Washington as the only Southern senator. Johnson, a life-long Democrat until 1861, remained loyal to the Union and as a result Lincoln, during his first term, appointed him military governor of Tennessee. Then as a show of unity, Johnson was chosen to run as Lincoln's Vice-President in 1864. He has been described as a brilliant speaker but was known for his vile temper and his fondness for liquor. During his vice-presidential inauguration, it seems Johnson was very ill at the time and had taken some brandy to get him through the ceremony. Under the influence of a high fever coupled with the alcohol he became incoherent and insisted on making a long, rambling speech. His enemies, it seemed, would never let him forget the embarrassment, calling him the "drunken tailor."
When Johnson became President after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, the Radical Republicans had high hopes. Especially when Johnson began his term with a violent denunciation of all rebels as "traitors" who "ought to be hanged." He had long resented the so-called slaveocracy of the South who had embraced secession and had identified himself as a champion of the common people. Nevertheless, Johnson favored a more moderate form of reconstruction and this immediately set him at odds with the Radicals in Congress who wanted the South punished. Even Johnson's home state of Tennessee, which had fallen under control of the Radicals, turned on him. Governor Dewitt Clinton Senter referred to the President as the "dead dog of the White House."(See June article "When Republicans were Radical" for a complete explanation.)
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