The expansionist, states rights focused presidencies of Jefferson, Jackson and Polk in the pre-Civil War era were among the most popular during the period. They also brought the horrific conflict that was the Civil War closer to a reality precisely for the same reasons -- expanding claimed US territory and the institution of American slavery with it. As a result, their early presidencies made it essential for southern politicians to adopt the policy preferences of those administrations if they wanted to attain higher offices and political power.

In many ways, Andrew Johnson's actions as President were exactly on brand with what southern Democrats embodied. The difference was that Johnson was the first to find himself in a post-slavery society following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. He sought to quickly re-admit seceded states into the Union, as well as to do little to nothing to enforce civil rights protections for newly freed Black Americans --policies that are not inconceivable for presidents Johnson grew up championing.

With this context in mind, in this episode we discuss whether it's fair that Johnson is most often placed as the worst President in American history by historians. Oddly enough, before Johnson is President, he's most well known for standing up to and opposing secession, and continues to serve in the US government even as his home state of Tennessee joins the Confederacy. Could he have been capable of better handling the era of Reconstruction? Or is he better understood as acting as you would expect a institutionalized southern democrat would in these unprecedented circumstances, simply becoming the scapegoat for the accumulation of his predecessors moral and political failures?

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