Andrew Johnson and the Failure of Moderate Reconstruction

This paper represents an attempt to determine why Andrew Johnson\u27s moderate policy for the reconstruction of the South failed. Because the paper is a study of Andrew Johnson, the politician, it dwells primarily only upon the political climate of 1865--although the importance of the social and economic changes occurring during reconstruction is recognized, they are herein treated only incidentally. In essence, the paper demonstrates the defeat of a politician. It is, furthermore, the contention of the paper that moderate reconstruction failed because of the ineffectiveness of its administrator--Andrew Johnson--not because of cabalistic intrigues hatched by those whom F.B. Simkins scoffingly calls Carlyle\u27s wild-eyed conspirators. Johnson was no helpless victim of the unconquerable radical forces about him, but became hopelessly ensnared in a defeat woven by his own inflexible, egotistical temperament which resulted in both political misjudgments and incompetent political maneuvers