ndrew Johnson, Vice-President, took
the oath of office as President on the day that Abraham Lincoln died. He
was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, December 29, 1808, and his parents
were so poor that they did not send him to school at all. When only ten
years old, he was apprenticed to a tailor, and anyone who at that time
had prophesied that he would some day become President of the United
States would have been set down as an idiot or a lunatic.

[Illustration: ANDREW JOHNSON.

(1808-1875.) One partial term, 1865-1869.]

Among the visitors to the tailor shop was a kind-hearted old gentleman
who was in the habit of reading to the boys and men. Andrew became
interested in what he heard, and, seeing how much better it would be for
him to be able to read for himself, set to work and learned. He removed
to Greenville, Tennessee, in 1826, and there married a noble woman, who
encouraged his ambition and helped him in his studies. Nature had given
him marked ability, and he became interested in local politics. The
citizens had confidence in him, for he was twice elected alderman, twice
mayor, was sent three times to the State Legislature, and in 1843 was
elected to Congress. He remained there for ten years, when he was chosen
governor of Tennessee, and, in 1857, became United States senator.

Johnson had always been a Democrat, and, when the political upheaval
came in 1860, he supported Breckinridge. While he favored slavery, he
was a Unionist in every fibre of his being, and declared that every man
who raised his hand against the flag should be hanged as a traitor.
Tennessee was torn by the savage quarrel, and for a time the
secessionists were rampant. When Johnson returned to his home in May,
1861, his train was stopped by a mob who were determined to lynch him,
but he met the angered men at the door with a loaded revolver and cowed
them.

It was such men as Johnson that President Lincoln appreciated and
determined to keep bound to him. He appointed him military governor of
Tennessee in 1862, and it need hardly be said that Johnson made things
lively for the secessionists, and did not forget to give attention to
those who had persecuted him. His personal courage and honesty won the
admiration of the North, and, as we have shown, led to his being placed
on the ticket with President Lincoln, when he was renominated in 1864.

The reader will not forget that the surrender of Johnson and the
capture, imprisonment, and relea