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IMPEACHED FORMER PRESIDENT IS
HOPEFUL OF BECOMING SENATOR
146
●
JOHNSON, ANDREW. Autograph Letter Signed, to his son Andrew Johnson, Jr.,
(“My dear son”), in pencil, asking about the health of his mother, expressing hope that she
would soon recover, wondering why the
[Greenville] Intelligencer
lacked editorials, anticipat-
ing success [in the Senatorial election], and giving his travel plans. 1
1
/
4
pages, 4to, written
on recto and verso of a single sheet; moderate scattered foxing, folds. (TFC)
Nashville, 24 December 1874
[1,500/2,500]
“
I have been expecting a letter from you giving me the news from home . . . and especially as to the
health of your mother. I received a letter from your sister on yester day informing me that your mother
was very feeble and had been confined to her bed for more than a week. . . .
“
I received the last Intelligencer, but did not see any Editorial. . . . I presume there is a reason for this
and take it for granted that it is alright. From all that I can learn in the two division[s] of the State
west of the Mountain my prospects are pretty for success—but it will require much effort and vigilance
on the part of friends to make a sure thing of it. I will leave at 12 oclock N for Memphis . . . .
“
I do not expect to be at home until the Senatorial election is over unless your mother gets worse. . .
.”
Published in the
Papers of Andrew Johnson
, ed. Bergeron,Vol. 16, 2000.
Johnson, who had become in 1868 the first U.S. President to be impeached, sought the respectability
of office in the U.S. Senate, which he achieved in 1875. Mere months after becoming the first former
President to be elected to the Senate, he suffered a fatal stroke. His wife, Eliza McCardle Johnson,
who endured poor health throughout Johnson’s presidency, died the following year.