Andrew Johnson: Defender Of The Constitution

As you take the main road into Greeneville, Tenn., in search of the Andrew Johnson historic site, the first thing you’re likely to notice is the statue of the man himself in the heart of downtown.

   

Margaret Johnson Patterson Bartlett, the great-grandaughter of America’s 17th president, donated the memorial and tribute. It includes a plaque that promotes Johnson’s historic legacy as “the preserver of the union of the United States and defender of the Constitution.” The status makes no mention of the one event for which most people remember him (if they remember him at all): his legacy as the first president to be impeached by the House and later acquitted by one vote in the Senate.

The memorial is on one corner at an intersection that includes three other features of the Johnson historic site: a replica of Johnson’s North Carolina birthplace home, his early home in Greenville, and the visitors’ center for the site. The visitors’ center encompasses Johnson’s tailor shop.