Andrew Johnson as VP

[RJNorton]

(06-30-2019 12:58 AM)wpbinzel Wrote:  the VP did not attend Cabinet meetings or confer on a regular basis with the President or any other members of the Executive Branch. From the time that they were sworn in, there is only one recorded meeting between Lincoln and Johnson.

Good point, Bill. On the afternoon of the assassination there was a Cabinet meeting at the White House that lasted until about 2 P.M. As usual, Johnson was not invited to the meeting. Later in that same afternoon Johnson went to the White House and waited to see the President as any ordinary citizen would.

An assistant secretary to Lincoln, Edward Duffield Neill, wrote in his Reminiscences:

"That afternoon there had been a cabinet meeting and an interview with Gen. Grant, and I went to see the president and found that he had retired to the private part of the house for a lunch. While I was looking over the papers on his table to see if I could find the desired commission, he came back, eating an apple. I told him for what I was looking, and as I talked he placed his hand on the bell-pull, when I said: "For whom are you going to ring?" Placing his hand upon my coat, he spoke but two words: "Andrew Johnson." Then I said, "I will come in again." As I was leaving the room, the vice president had been ushered, and the president advanced and took him by the hand."