That's not what happened. Johnson became president when Lincoln was assassinated and at that time the president and VP didn't run on a single ticket and instead the VP slot went to the presidential runner-up, who, of course, was from the opposition. So we didn't really elect Johnson; we elected Lincoln, but John Wilkes Booth happened and he fucked us for generations.
Hmm, for some reason I thought it happened much later. Apologies!
Well the guy we elected after Johnson was Grant, and while he was an outstanding General, he was nowhere near as capable in the presidency where his authority, while great, was very different in kind from that of a military commander.
There's an argument to the effect that Grant was largely an absentee president who preferred to spend his days drinking as opposed to actually being the chief executive.
I'm not a historian and don't know enough about his presidency to have a strong opinion on it, but there's no question that the policies that Johnson put in place, that allowed reconstruction to go so badly off the rails, weren't competently addressed by the Grant administration, so in that respect your original point is not entirely incorrect.
He also badly botched, mostly through a lack of attention, Indian affairs with regard to the powerful plains tribes. It was probably inevitable that said tribes would eventually be subjugated, but it certainly could and should have been handled more humanely.
That's not what happened. Johnson became president when Lincoln was assassinated and at that time the president and VP didn't run on a single ticket and instead the VP slot went to the presidential runner-up, who, of course, was from the opposition. So we didn't really elect Johnson; we elected Lincoln, but John Wilkes Booth happened and he fucked us for generations.
Hmm, for some reason I thought it happened much later. Apologies!
Well the guy we elected after Johnson was Grant, and while he was an outstanding General, he was nowhere near as capable in the presidency where his authority, while great, was very different in kind from that of a military commander.
There's an argument to the effect that Grant was largely an absentee president who preferred to spend his days drinking as opposed to actually being the chief executive.
I'm not a historian and don't know enough about his presidency to have a strong opinion on it, but there's no question that the policies that Johnson put in place, that allowed reconstruction to go so badly off the rails, weren't competently addressed by the Grant administration, so in that respect your original point is not entirely incorrect.
He also badly botched, mostly through a lack of attention, Indian affairs with regard to the powerful plains tribes. It was probably inevitable that said tribes would eventually be subjugated, but it certainly could and should have been handled more humanely.