Editing Andrew Johnson (section)

==== Homestead Bill advocate ====
[[File:Andrew Johnson by Vannerson, 1859.jpg|thumb|Senator Johnson, 1859]]

The victors in the 1857 state legislative campaign would, once they convened in October, elect a United States Senator. Former Whig governor [[William B. Campbell]] wrote to his uncle, "The great anxiety of the Whigs is to elect a majority in the legislature so as to defeat Andrew Johnson for senator. Should the Democrats have the majority, he will certainly be their choice, and there is no man living to whom the Americans{{Efn|The Know Nothings, who were then formally known as the American Party.}} and Whigs have as much antipathy as Johnson."{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=105–106}} The governor spoke widely in the campaign, and his party won the gubernatorial race and control of the legislature.{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=106}} Johnson's final address as governor gave him the chance to influence his electors, and he made proposals popular among Democrats. Two days later the legislature elected him to the Senate. The opposition was appalled, with the Richmond ''Whig'' newspaper referring to him as "the vilest radical and most unscrupulous demagogue in the Union".{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=105–107}}

Johnson gained high office due to his proven record as a man popular among the small farmers and self-employed tradesmen who made up much of Tennessee's electorate. He called them the "[[plebeians]]"; he was less popular among the planters and lawyers who led the state Democratic Party, but none could match him as a vote-getter. After his death, one Tennessee voter wrote of him, "Johnson was always the same to everyone&nbsp;... the honors heaped upon him did not make him forget to be kind to the humblest citizen."{{Sfn|Castel|1979|p=4}} Always seen in impeccably tailored clothing, he cut an impressive figure,{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=111}} and had the stamina to endure lengthy campaigns with daily travel over bad roads leading to another speech or debate. Mostly denied the party's machinery, he relied on a network of friends, advisers, and contacts.{{Sfn|Castel|1979|p=5}} One friend, Hugh Douglas, stated in a letter to him, "you have been in the way of our would be great men for a long time. At heart many of us never wanted you to be Governor only none of the rest of us Could<!-- Capitalization as in original --> have been elected at the time and we only wanted to use you. Then we did not want you to go to the Senate but ''the people would send you''."{{Sfn|Gordon-Reed|pp=54–55}}

The new senator took his seat when Congress convened in December 1857 (the term of his predecessor, [[James C. Jones]], had expired in March). He came to Washington as usual without his wife and family; Eliza would visit Washington only once during Johnson's first time as senator, in 1860. Johnson immediately set about introducing the [[Homestead Bill]] in the Senate, but as most senators who supported it were Northern (many associated with the newly founded [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]), the matter became caught up in suspicions over the slavery issue. Southern senators felt that those who took advantage of the provisions of the Homestead Bill were more likely to be Northern non-slaveholders. The issue of slavery had been complicated by the Supreme Court's ruling earlier in the year in ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]'' that slavery could not be prohibited in the territories. Johnson, a slaveholding senator from a Southern state, made a major speech in the Senate the following May in an attempt to convince his colleagues that the Homestead Bill and slavery were not incompatible. Nevertheless, Southern opposition was key to defeating the legislation, 30–22.{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=110–112}}{{Sfn|Gordon-Reed|pp=58–59}} In 1859, it failed on a procedural vote when Vice President Breckinridge broke a tie against the bill, and in 1860, a watered-down version passed both houses, only to be vetoed by Buchanan at the urging of Southerners.{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=116, 121}} Johnson continued his opposition to spending, chairing a committee to control it.

He argued against funding to build infrastructure in Washington, D.C., stating that it was unfair to expect state citizens to pay for the city's streets, even if it was the seat of government. He opposed spending money for troops to put down [[Utah War|the revolt]] by the Mormons in [[Utah Territory]], arguing for temporary volunteers as the United States should not have a standing army.{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=114}}