Why in the world did Lincoln choose Johnson as his running mate?

almost as bad as slick willy

Doubtful whether anyone came to the presidency under more difficult circumstances.

While he clearly does not have the stature of a Washington, Jefferson or Lincoln, Johnson is far from incompetent, and manages a few accomplishments while beset with opponents on virtually every side.

He's a long way above the bottom feeders on this list.

He muddled through. He had a trying situation and had extremely strong opposition.   He really didn't have any tools.  He had no education and it is said his wife taught him how to read!

Andrew Johnson was the wrong man at the wrong time, a pig-headed, unrepentant disaster who gave us 100 years of ill feelings after the Civil War; oh, if Lincoln had only lived! Southern Democrats, former slave owners and the Ku Klux Klan never had a stauncher ally than Andrew Johnson, who also suffered the indignity of impeachment and was saved from ousting by one vote in the U.S. Senate.

Who is this?

Never attended school. His future wife, Eliza McCardle, taught him to write at the age of 17. Only wore suits that he custom-tailored himself.

Though Johnson deserves some credit for following many of Lincoln's Reconstruction policies, he didn't do nearly enough to protect the freedman against Southern aggression.

History placed him in an interesting and ironic situation. Obviously Lincoln was the person best-suited to pursue Reconstruction with the South. Sumner and Stevens overshadowed and overpowered Johnson.

17th president of he USA? No, 2nd president of the CSA.

He made many mistakes, but he tried his best to give the South a voice, what would you have done? You wouldn't have had a clue.

Him after Lincoln is like a kid playing a kazoo after a great band performance.

quite possibly the most racist president we have ever had

I can't imagine being in his position. Essentially a Democrat endorsed by Republicans, he was a Southerner that became President of the Unites States just as the war between the Union and the Southern States was drawing to a close. This is all on top of being a Southerner that becomes president after another Southerner kills President Lincoln. There are a dozen things like this you can point to that could have made him a moderator of sorts, helping to unify a divided country. For some, those same dozen reasons, by no fault of his, could have been seen as a reason to keep things divided. All things considered, he did what he could during a difficult time in history and somehow managed to keep things from becoming to chaotic. In calmer times, he might have been considered a better president.

John McCain, I'm afraid political history is definitely NOT one of your strong suits. Johnson was impeached, but not convicted, as another user has pointed out. Now I don't think he was a bad president, but I do believe that he probably wasn't strong enough to reunite the two halves of America, still torn by emotions and resentment after the Civil war.

His problem was he followed the wrong guy into the white house. But he was better than the other Johnson.

He was from North Carolina, a state that in most areas is STILL part of the confederate states of america that in itself should have screamed BAD PRESIDENT!!!!!

He gets a 2. John McCain, he WAS impeached. He was not convicted. He was a stupid, stupid man and had no people skills. Otherwise, he'd be a 4.

O.K. He was horrible, I admit it. Probably the third-worst President ever. BUT he was better than W.

Drank his way into obscurity

Should have been impeached. Set civil rights back a hundred years.

This guy was a real stiff. He didn't deserve to be impeached, but he still was one of the worst presidents in history, due to his failure to be fair to Blacks during Reconstruction.

Much better then dubya.

Less than a week after the Confederacy surrendered, Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in Washington D.C. Andrew Johnson took office with Republicans confident that he would continue Lincoln's policies. Lincoln had not adopted a plan for Reconstruction, but he seriously had considered a "moderate" Reconstruction Plan which included the states simply swearing loyalty and abolishing slavery. Johnson himself adopted a similar program, but a firm believer in states' rights and a southernor himself, he did not please his own Republican party. (1)Crisis Leadership: 1 out of 5 Stars- By December 1865, Johnson had his own Reconstruction Plan created, which was based almost entirely on Lincoln's. It consisted of requiring the Confederate states to pledge an oath of loyalty and abolish slavery. He agreed to pardon most southernors in return for their oath of loyalty. Johnson, refused, however to pardon high ranking officers of the Confederacy such as political and military leaders. However, Johnson almost in a routine fashion handed out thousands of pardons which resulted in most members of the old planter class and many Confederate leaders to reemerge in power on the state level. The Congress resented Johnson's weak plan, and rejected it, and thus began a battle between the President and the Congress. He vetoed the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, which established the bureau to ensure that would provide shelter for displaced African Americans and put individuals accused of depriving African Americans of their Civil Rights on trial. The Congress passed the bill over his veto, however. Johnson also vetoed the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1866 which established that all persons born in the United States were citizens and had to be treated as such. He believed that this was a states' rights issue. This too was passed over his veto. It was clear- Andrew Johnson was a southernor who basically sided with the South, adopting the same policies of the Administrations of the 1850s. The Congress also passed the 14th Amendment which was basically an echo of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. With Congress and Johnson at a political war, impeachment proceedings began, and Johnson was acquited by a narrow marigin. Almost all Republicans believed at that time that he was totally unfit for office. His southern sympathies and states' rights beliefs allowed the old South to rise again and led to another 100 years of depriving African Americans of their rights. (2)Diplomatic Relations: 3 out of 5 Stars- Johnson was fortunate to have a competent Secretary of State, a carryover from the Lincoln Administration, William H. Seward. Seward negotiated the purchase of the land that is now Alaska from Russia. Seward also boldly enforced the Monroe Doctrine by forcing the French to leave Mexico, which they had been occupying since 1861. The final French troop left in 1867. (3)Economic Management: 1 out of 5 Stars- Due to his distractions with the impeachment proceedings and Reconstruction, Johnson made no effort to begin paying off Civil War debts or to address the faltering economy. He also approved $10 Million to purchase Alaska (4)Vision for the Country: 1 out of 5 Stars- Being thrust into the office of the Presidency unexpectadly, it was obvious that Johnson would continue the policies of his predacessor. However, he vetoed bill after bill which guarenteed the rights of African Americans. It was clear that he had no real desire for the country to recover from the war and no real desire to even grant African Americans Civil Rights. (5)Morality/Popularity: 1 out of 5 Stars- A southernor himself, its not surprising that he opposed Civil Rights laws and wanted to simply "let the south slide", personally endorsing the Black Laws in southern states designed to deprive Africans of their rights. He was very unpopular, both with the North who wanted to see the South under stricter rule, and with his own party, who expected him to support Civil Rights. [Final Score: 1.4- 1 out of 5 Stars] Historians often rank Andrew Johnson as the worst possible person to have served after the Civil War. His obvious racism and commitment to obstructing political and civil rights for African Americans is directly responsible for the failure of Reconstruction to solve the race problem in the south, and perhaps in America as well.

It took courage to stay with the union even when his home state seceded from the Union.

too bad HE wasn't scalped.

I'm glad he wasn't impeached but the Republicans should never have let him have the Vice-Presidency.

Andrew Johnson did a decent job of getting our country back on the road to recovery after the Civil War through Reconstruction. Lincoln could have never done it because he was an extremely divisive person, especially in the South. Johnson was a Tennessean whom the South could at least respect. He brought the nation together and that is enough to give him a good rating.

THE DAVID DUKE OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

"Andrew Johnson" does sound a lot like "Andrew Jackson". However, it was Andrew Jackson who was so influential in establishing US policy toward Native Americans. He was known as an "Indian fighter" before he was president, and as president he was very much behind the Indian Removal Act. The principle responsibility for the Trail of Tears, on which so many suffered and died as they were forced to walk endless miles to be relocated away from their homes, falls on him -- not Johnson.

If I recall correctly, he was a big proponent of (if not the originator of) the US policy of genicide against American Indians.