***History Tournament RND 1:"Worse American President, J.Buchanan vs. A.Johnson"

As Con, I shall be arguing that Andrew Johnson is the worst American President ever. He was highly unpopular due to his scandelous ways and was only President for 4 years (1865-1869). His greatest downfall was that Congress had to strip the President of Consitutional Granted powers and his mistreatment of the newly freed blacks.Contention 1: ReconstructionAndrew Johnson first Executive order in office was to pardon all Ex-rebles and Confederates except those holding property valued over $20,000 and then ordered Constitutional Conventions for all of the Confederate States. This was extremely unpopular due to Lincoln thinking of the 10% plan and the Radical Republicans wanted an Iron Clade Oath of Loyalty for their returns. Johnson also did not back the 14th Amendment which made African-Americans now citizens of the US. He also allowed Southern States to establish black codes which tied down the African-Americans basically to slavery again, except now they were worse off. The Blacks would also be arrested on the streets for not having $20 on them, which back then was a lot of money. They could then be shipped off to the same person they were freed from slavery and then were forced to work for free. (Stewart, “Black Codes and Broken Windows” (1998), pp. 2259–2260.) He also allowed several southern leaders roam free, most notably was Confederate VP Alexander Stephens who was the Georgian Senator. He also didn't recognize their right to vote which lead several people in the north to believe that things would return back to the way they were before the Civil War and instead of slavery they would have Black Codes. (Stewart, David O. (2009). Impeached: the Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy. New York: Simon and Schuster Page 29) He also veto the freedmen's breaual and the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which banned things like segrigation. The Freedmen's Breaual was vetoed several times until both the House and the Senate could overide him.Things had gotten so bad that Congress had labled the 13th-15th Constitutional Amendments that Congress has the Power to enforce and not the President and that was because of the vetoing nature of Johnson and at this point no one could really trust him. Contention 2: Johnson's "Swing around the Circle"In the midterm elections, Johnson single handedly costed the Democrats everything for years to come as he would travel to several large northern cities like Chicago and Boston and gave speaches in support for the Democrats. In these speach's he compared himself to Christ. It broke down in Cleveland where the crowd shouted, "Hang Davis." Johnson replied, "Why don't you hang Thad Stevens or Wendell Phillips?" (Foner, p.265) Now both of these men are highly respectable people and highly famous Republicans. Stevens himself would later run for President, but would fail. His failures during the "Swing around the Circle," costed the Democrats 2/3's of their seating in Congress giving the Republicans the greatest lead (excluding the Civil War US) ever in American history. Contention 3: ImpeachmentI will povide a list of Andrew Johnson's Cabinet: Cabinet: Secretary of State William H. Seward (1865-69) Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch (1865-69) Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton (1865-68) John M. Schofield (1868-69) Attorney General James Speed (1865-66) Henry Stanbery (1866-68) William M. Evarts (1868-69) Postmaster General William Dennison (1865-66) Alexander W. Randall (1866-69) Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles (1865-69) Secretary of the Interior John P. Usher (1865) James Harlan (1865-66) Orville Browning (1866-69) (http://www.potus.com...)Johnson was tried for violating the Tenure of office Act and Johnson came 1 vote away from Impeachment. It was here that they created the process for impeachment and Johnson was the man who did it. Though the House Impeached him before they even had a charge on why they should impeach him. Johnson fired Stanton and then replaced him with intern General Grant, but Congressed denied it and reinstated Stanton. Johnson then fired Staton again and Congress charged him with violation of the Tenure of Office act and the Impeachment began. (Trefousse, Hans L. (1989). Andrew Johnson: A Biography. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.)