The Vice-President Is A Drunk

By W. F. Twyman, Jr.

Onlookers were embarrassed. The Vice-President slurred words and honestly needed a good sober up. The moment was sullied. What should have been words of utmost moment were bungled, a word salad of disrespect. Some described the fiasco as “inane,” “incoherent,” “repetitive,” “self-aggrandizing,” “sloppy.” I’m just saying what a sad, sad appearance. I have read the Vice-President was drunk for at least the prior week. The night before the most public of addresses, the Vice-President stayed up late into the night drinking. The morning of the public address, the Vice-President washed down three glasses of whisky (or was it one glass of French brandy?).

The year was 1865. The date was March 4. The hosed Vice-President…Andrew Johnson.

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Born poor and white, a native of North Carolina, Andrew Johnson was destined for poverty. He was illiterate until his wife taught him how to read. He worked as a tailor, a modest profession. One might think Johnson and I would have nothing in common. Alas, I recognize a part of me in this tailor from his adult home, Tennessee. Johnson had a streak of stubbornness. When something annoyed Johnson, he could not let it go. Dogma is my irritant. For Johnson, his irritant was the aristocracy. I totally get it, being ruled over by those who had attended school, the readers, the writers.

Some will say Johnson did not like the black man. This is true. The real villainy in Johnson’s life story, however, was the southern aristocracy. And like I pen essays on occasion out of annoyance, Johnson’s annoyance led him to run for public office time and time again. By the Civil War, this poor southern man southwest of Richmond found himself a U.S. Senator from Tennessee.

He stayed with the Union even as his state voted to secede because he was stubborn, refused to go along to get along. A lone Unionist in the U.S. Senate, Johnson came to the grateful attention of President Abraham Lincoln who appointed Johnson military Governor of Tennessee in 1862.

This poor man now Governor had a weakness. He loved a good bottle of whiskey. I wish I could write a single glass of whiskey. I really do. Sadly, Johnson never knew when to stop. He became well-acquainted with benders. It was said he freed the slaves in Tennessee by fiat while on an epic bender in 1863.

Keep this man from the levers of power, right?

Politics is a strange wheel of fortune. During the 1864 Presidential race, the Republicans wanted to win over the Democratic vote and show that the Republican party ticket was balanced for national appeal. Who better to run as vice-president than a token southerner who believed in the Union? Johnson fit the bill and was tapped by Lincoln for Vice President. The Lincoln-Johnson ticket won the 1864 election. Did the Republicans appreciate what they had done?

The week before his inauguration as Vice-President, Johnson went on a week long bender. Who does that? Even in the age before social media and television, who drinks to the point of almost passing out for a week? I hereby declare the Vice-President an alcoholic in my humble opinion.

The very night before his inauguration, what was the newly-elected Vice-President up to? Why drinking, of course. History records “he drank heavily the night before the inauguration.”

Minutes before he was to be sworn in, Johnson demanded whiskey. A gangster move. And I quote from the recollection of Major General Charles Hamlin who was nearly knocked down by the Vice-President elect:

Johnson: Mr. Hamlin, I am not well (really?), and need a stimulant. Have you any whiskey?

Major General Hamlin: No…but if you desire, I will send across the street for some whiskey.

Johnson affirmed his desire for whiskey. A messenger brought to Johnson a bottle of whiskey. Johnson filled a glass to the brim and downed it. Johnson poured another glass to the brim and downed it.

It was time to be sworn in, Mr. Vice-President elect! Where are you? Johnson started to leave the room but he was seized with love of whiskey. He turned around, ran back, nearly knocking down General Hamlin in the process. Johnson ran up to the table and poured himself a third glass of whiskey. He then hurried back to his seat on the dais and prepared to be sworn in.

It is incredible to behold and believe. There is an additional account Johnson needed more liquor courage…

Johnson: Mr. Hamlin, I have been feeling very ill. Can you give me some good brandy?

Someone secured a bottle of French brandy. Johnson poured himself a full glass and gulped it down. Showtime!

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The Speech of a Lifetime

Johnson was stone cold drunk as he took the oath of office as Vice-President. He stumbled over the oath several times before Senators and important guests assembled in the U.S. Senate Chambers. He “shook with the tremor of debauch.”

These are the words of our new Vice-President on March 4, 1865. I am left speechless:

Conclusion: I wish I could say we dodged a bullet with Vice-President Andrew Johnson. Sadly, John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. Lincoln was assassinated 42 days later after the drunken oath of Vice-President Johnson. We would have an alcoholic President in the White House for the next four years. Providence works in mysterious ways.

Did Vice-President Andrew Johnson start a trend? Consider this woman who ran the NYC Marathon drunk. https://www.npr.org/2024/11/15/g-s1-34394/woman-ran-new-york-city-marathon-drunk-tiktok The Drunk Marathoner

President Andrew Johnson & His Demon of Drink