Andrew Johnson Gets Drunk and Admits Tennessee

Andrew Johnson gave one of the few memorable vice-presidential inaugural speeches. What made it memorable?

First, he was drunk. Words were slurred and repeated in a way that the official version cleaned up. At one point, he asked: "Who is the Secretary of the Navy?" The actual Secretary of the Navy wrote afterwards about Johnson's "rambling and strange harangue" that “was listened to with pain and mortification by all his friends." the outgoing Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin, had to tell Johnson that he needed to wrap up because it was past Noon and Lincoln needed to be sworn in.

Second, Johnson declared that his home state of Tennessee should be immediately readmitted to Congress. "It is the doctrine of the Federal Constitution that no State can go out of this Union; and moreover, Congress cannot eject a State from the Union. Thank God.” Thus, her “Senators and Representatives will soon mingle with those of her sister States; and who shall gainsay it, for the Constitution requires that to every State shall be guaranteed a republican form of government?” This, of course, teed up one of sharpest issues during Reconstruction; namely, could the ex-Confederate States be excluded and, if so, for how long?

Maybe the tradition of vice-presidential inaugurals wasn't so great. But next time I'll talk about how the custom was revived in 1973.