December 29, 2012 - Happy Birthday, Andrew Johnson

Henwasn’t elected president—he became president when Abraham Lincolnnwas tragically assassinated.

nHenhad no vice president—nobody had ever thought through what wouldnhappen if a VP had to step up to the top job, and then something hadnhappened to him! (The Constitution has since been amended, sonnow there is a succession for vice presidents as well as presidents.)

nAndrewnJohnson was a Democrat—even though he ran for election withnPresident Abraham Lincoln, a Republican! Lincoln was famous fornconsulting people with all sorts of opinions, especially those withnideas that opposed his own, but that wasn’t the reason he selected anperson from an opposing party as his running mate. Instead, Lincolnnwas looking forward to the end of the war and reunification, and henchose a running mate that would show the South that he was dedicatednto welcoming Confederate states back into the nation rather than tonpunishing them for leaving.

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nAndrewnJohnson was not only a Democrat, he was a Southerner—he was fromnthe state of Tennessee, which had broken off from the Union andnjoined the Confederacy! At the time that Tennessee seceded (brokenaway), Johnson was a Senator from Tennessee—but he refused to quitnhis post in the Senate and join the Confederacy. He was convincednthat, if the United States really did break up, there would be notnjust two countries, but many small countries, each with its own formnof government. I guess he thought that scenario didn’t lend itself tona peaceful future! So Johnson spoke up loudly against the Confederacynand for Lincoln.

nJohnsonnwas (like Lincoln) a self-educated man with a poor family and fewnformal schooling opportunities. n

nAnd I’m telling you all of this because today is his birthday—AndrewnJohnson was born on this date in 1808.

nCoincidencenpresented as mystery

nHavenyou ever heard about that list of mystical connections between JohnnF. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln? Both of these presidents werenassassinated, and both were succeeded by Southern Democrats with thenlast name of Johnson. There are a lot of other similarities, as welln– according to lists of 16 to 40 similarities that circulate on theninternet and elsewhere.

nManynpeople look at one of these lists and marvel at the eeriness of sonmany coincidences. “It can’t be JUST coincidence!” they think.n“There has to be some sort of weird cosmic connection between thesentwo assassinations!”

nActually,nthese lists of Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences are examples ofn“cherry-picking” and fudging data. ANY two presidents (or anyonenelse, for that matter) would have as many similarities—but therenare also millions of differences. For example, the fact that thennames Lincoln and Kennedy have seven letters each isntrivial but true; on the other hand, the two presidents’ first namesnhave different numbers of letters (Abraham has seven and Johnnhas four), their nicknames have different numbers of letters (Abenhas three and Jack has four), and their middle names are ancompletely different situation, since Kennedy’s middle name,nFitzgerald, has ten letters and Lincoln didn’t even have anmiddle name! Furthermore, Kennedy is frequently referred to as JFK,nand Lincoln is never referred to with initial letters. So the listnjust cherry picked the one similarity, name-wise, and didn’t mentionnall the differences. n

nAnnexample of fudging data (also known as lying) is the so-calledncoincidence that Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln and Lincolnnhad a secretary named Kennedy. President Kennedy did, in fact, have ansecretary named Evelyn Lincoln, but President Lincoln did not have ansecretary named Kennedy. Several items on the list are eithernmistakes, lies, or worded so oddly (such as referring to a tobacconshed as a warehouse) that they may as well be lies.

nIfnyou want to see a thorough description of why lists ofnLincoln-Kennedy similarities are flawed and misleading, check out this Snopes article.

nAlsonon this date: