Political Career
In 1829 Johnson helped organize a mechanics' party ticket; he was elected as a town alderman, and re-elected until he was elected Mayor in 1834. In 1831 he became a member of the 90th Regiment of the Tennessee militia. Neither the Democratic or the newly formed Whig party was then well organized in that part of Tennessee. Following the 1831 Nat Turner slave rebellion, a state convention was called to pass a new constitution, including provisions to disfranchise free people of color. The convention also wanted to reform real estate tax rates. The constitution was submitted for a public vote and Johnson campaigned for its adoption; his support of the new work provided him with additional positive statewide exposure.
Read more about this topic: Andrew Johnson
Famous quotes containing the words political and/or career:
“Not wishing to be disturbed over moral issues of the political economy, Americans cling to the notion that the government is a sort of automatic machine, regulated by the balancing of competing interests.”
—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
—Lewis H. Lapham (b. 1935)