Editing Andrew Johnson (section)

=== United States Senator ===

==== 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}}

==== Secession crisis ====
[[File:Andrew Johnson, seated, facing left 1860.jpg|thumb|Johnson in 1860]]

In October 1859, abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] and sympathizers [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|raided the federal arsenal]] at [[Harpers Ferry, West Virginia|Harpers Ferry]], Virginia (today West Virginia). Tensions in Washington between pro- and anti-slavery forces increased greatly. Johnson gave a major speech in the Senate in December, decrying Northerners who would endanger the Union by seeking to outlaw slavery. The Tennessee senator stated that "all men are created equal" from the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] did not apply to African Americans, since the [[Constitution of Illinois]] contained that phrase—and that document barred voting by African Americans.{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=119}}{{Sfn|Gordon-Reed|p=59}} Johnson, by this time, was a wealthy man who owned 14 slaves.{{Sfn|Castel|2002|p=226}}<ref>1860 U.S. Federal Census, Slave Schedule for Nashville's 7th ward, Davidson County, Tennessee</ref>

Johnson hoped that he would be a compromise candidate for the presidential nomination as the Democratic Party tore itself apart over the slavery question. Busy with the Homestead Bill during the [[1860 Democratic National Convention]] in [[Charleston, South Carolina]], he sent two of his sons and his chief political adviser to represent his interests in the backroom deal-making. The convention deadlocked, with no candidate able to gain the required two-thirds vote, but the sides were too far apart to consider Johnson as a compromise. The party split, with Northerners backing Illinois Senator [[Stephen Douglas]] while Southerners, including Johnson, supported Vice President Breckinridge for president. With former Tennessee senator [[John Bell (Tennessee politician)|John Bell]] running a fourth-party candidacy and further dividing the vote, the Republican Party elected its first president, former Illinois representative [[Abraham Lincoln]]. [[1860 United States presidential election|The election of Lincoln]], known to be against the spread of slavery, was unacceptable to many in the South. Although secession from the Union had not been an issue in the campaign, talk of it began in the Southern states.{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=123–127}}{{Sfn|Gordon-Reed|pp=60–63}}

Johnson took to the Senate floor after the election, giving a speech well received in the North, "I will not give up this government&nbsp;... No;<!-- punct as in original --> I intend to stand by it&nbsp;... and I invite every man who is a patriot to&nbsp;... rally around the altar of our common country&nbsp;... and swear by our God, and all that is sacred and holy, that the Constitution shall be saved, and the Union preserved."{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=131}}{{Sfn|Johnson|pp=172–173}} As Southern senators announced they would resign if their states seceded, he reminded Mississippi Senator [[Jefferson Davis]] that if Southerners would only hold to their seats, the Democrats would control the Senate, and could defend the South's interests against any infringement by Lincoln.{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=134}} Gordon-Reed points out that while Johnson's belief in an indissoluble Union was sincere, he had alienated Southern leaders, including Davis, who would soon be [[President of the Confederate States of America|the president]] of the [[Confederate States of America]], formed by the seceding states. If the Tennessean had backed the Confederacy, he would have had small influence in its government.{{Sfn|Gordon-Reed|p=64}}

Johnson returned home when his state took up the issue of secession. His successor as governor, [[Isham G. Harris]], and the legislature organized a referendum on whether to have a constitutional convention to authorize secession; when that failed, they put the question of leaving the Union to a popular vote. Despite threats on Johnson's life, and actual assaults, he campaigned against both questions, sometimes speaking with a gun on the lectern before him. Although Johnson's [[East Tennessee|eastern region of Tennessee]] was largely against secession, the second referendum passed, and in June 1861, Tennessee joined the Confederacy. Believing he would be killed if he stayed, Johnson fled through the [[Cumberland Gap]], where his party was in fact shot at. He left his wife and family in Greeneville.{{Sfn|Castel|1979|p=8}}{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=138–143}}

As the only member from a seceded state to remain in the Senate and the most prominent [[Southern Unionist]], Johnson had Lincoln's ear in the early months of the war.{{Sfn|Trefousse|p=143}} With most of Tennessee in Confederate hands, Johnson spent congressional recesses in Kentucky and Ohio, trying in vain to convince any Union commander who would listen to conduct an operation into East Tennessee.{{Sfn|Trefousse|pp=140–148}}