Adult Identity and Presidential Style: The Rhetorical Emphasis

Author(s): James D. Barber

Source: Daedalus, Vol. 97, No. 3, Philosophers and Kings: Studies in Leadership (Summer, 1968),
pp. 938-968
Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20023846 .
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JAMES

D.

BARBER

Adult Identity
The Rhetorical

Style:

Emphasis

in fact, if not in
of a great state is required
a national audience,
to receive advice and
to
speeches
to
to bargain,
to the world,
to represent
his nation
information,
his
to
the
of
business
exercise
and
manage
ordinary
authority,
room for choice, which
leave much
office. These
requirements
behavior
leader's
the
makes
national
intriguing, psycho
politically
Choices
and fateful for the world's welfare.
logically interpretable,
a
can
to
amount
distinctive
polit
among these available
emphases
to illustrate, by means
of a single
ical style. In this essay, I want
even to antici
we
able to explain?perhaps
example, how
might be
a distinctive
of
such
and
force
style long before the
pate?the
shape
man is a leader.
have so often been wrong
that some
Our American
predictions
seems necessary.1 One thinks of Woodrow
new system of prescience
the scholar in the White House who would bring reason to
Wilson,
or
the Great Engineer
who would
of Herbert
Hoover,
politics;
D.
into
Franklin
that
of
chaos
Roosevelt,
progress;
ganize
champion
S. Truman, whom
the office would
of a balanced
budget; of Harry
a militant
D. Eisenhower,
of Dwight
crusader;
surely overwhelm;
in
results
who would
of
of John F. Kennedy,
produce
place
conservative.
B.
the
southern
of
and
moralisms;
Johnson,
Lyndon
if we considered
the Presi
We
should do better at prediction
dent as a person who tries to cope with an environment
by using
For all the complexities
of
he has found effective.
techniques
are
habitual
of
there
ways
always regularities,
handling
personality,
and opportunities
of the
similar situations,
just as the demands
Every

chief

and Presidential

executive

law, to make

are
the President-as
but patterned.
Thus,
complex,
Presidency
set of recurrent problems
and oppor
the
with
interacts
person
938

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

tunities presented
the pattern of this interaction
by the Presidency;
is his political
He
copes,
style.
adapts, leads, and responds not as
a flood of novelties,
some
in
but as a man with
shapeless organism
a memory
in a system with a history.
The main outlines of presidential
style are not hard to discern.
One major dimension
is activity vs. passivity,
the standard way of
our chief executives.
A
second
does
which
dimension,
classifying
not always coincide with the first, is the emotional flavor or flair he
or
he generally
appears happy
displays?whether
by
depressed
two main clues2 can help our
what he is called upon to do. These
leader
of many other aspects of the style of political
understanding
once we know that Calvin
husbanded
ship. For example,
Coolidge
as President, we
his energies and was usually bored or depressed
are not
a
to
on
his emphasis
discover
rhetoric of high
surprised
and his avoidance of "political" relations with Congress.3
principles
Once the main features of a style are grasped, one must find out
what holds the pattern together. The best way to discover
that is to
see how the pattern was put
at a
in
the first place?how
together
critical juncture the person brought together the motives,
resources,
life handed him and molded
them into a dis
and opportunities
tinctive
then presaged
the
shape, and how the style he adopted
main ways inwhich he would shape his energies as President.
I will illustrate with one case (
to others )
alluding occasionally
how a President may select rhetoric as a major outlet for his energy.
is Andrew
I shall try to show how his
The President
Johnson.
conse
which
had
rhetorical
style,
peculiar
important
political
can
to
be
that
in
traced
life
critical
his
quences,
directly
period
a
in
he made
factor
when
his
adult
The
major
politics
identity.
facts can be presented
only briefly, and the theory only tentatively.
is not to characterize
the President
of a
My purpose
Johnson
a
on
to
that
but
focus
the
formation
of
adult
suggest
century ago,
an
important clue to presidential
identity provides
style.

The Man Close Up: Johnson in theWhite House

was
in his
first President
restrained
Johnson
habitually
with
relations
who
those
worked
with
him.
closely
day-to-day
"The Grim Presence/'
Andrew
Nicknamed
Johnson impressed his
secretary by his "chilling manner" and "sullen fixedness of purpose."
"Never once in more than two years did I see him unbend
from his
The

grim rigidity,

to the flexibility

of form and feature which

belongs

to
939

DALUS

Johnson "cracked no jokes and told no stories";

ordinary humanity."
on the nether
his rarely seen smile was a "grim cast-iron wrinkle
His
half of Ids face at public
line of poetry
favorite
receptions."
was
caves
from Gray's Elegy?"The
unfathomed
of ocean
dark,
recited
and
relished
its
he
bare"?a
for
frequently
phrase
grandeur
in
"with extreme
and solemnity.
dressed
fastidiousness
Always
sober black," he impressed
"ever those who dislike him" with "the
great dignity with which he bore himself and the remarkable neat
of his apparel." The contrast with Lincoln's
appearance
appearance
these perceptions.
have highlighted
Even in crisis situations,
Johnson typically retained his reserve.
At the news of Lincoln's
he was "grief stricken like
assassination,
the rest" and "oppressed by the suddenness
of the call upon him to
"
but
and self-possessed
become
"nevertheless
calm
President,"
With his back to the wall in the impeachment
crisis, he bore himself
with "dignity and forebearance";
his "mood fluctuated,
from bitter
ness in the early days of the trial to
amuse
and
grim
philosophic
ment as it entered its closing phases."
a few exceptions
to his re
mention
The Johnson biographers
in
formal
behavior
close
strained, humorless,
relations, but their
stern
his
habitual
children
With
self-control.
rarity only emphasizes
he was sometimes relaxed and easy; he did have one
long, rambling
in two years; he may have been
conversation
with his secretary
wives
"melted by a woman's
Con
tears" when
of imprisoned
in
he
"a
his
soft
his
federates
have
had
may
spot
pardon;
sought
he
heart for animals"; and in his last days in the White
House,
a
was
did hold several gay parties. When
he
Johnson
Congressman,
a
in kind of a bust?not
and a few companions
"got
big drunk,"
as he wrote
to a friend in Tennessee,
to Baltimore
to
and went
so
see "The Danseuses
who
Viennoises,"
performed
enticingly
"that Job in the midst of his afflictions would
have rejoiced at the
scenes before him."
to Johnson
in the White
No such relief was available
House.
"Devoid of outside
the
interests, an indefatigible worker," following
same
from day to day, Johnson plodded
schedule
grinding
through
his tasks and endured stoically the attacks of his enemies.
Johnson
worked
standing up; "never free from physical
pain," he some
a
times endured
from
torture"
ailment
and
"excruciating
kidney
severe pains in his arm that made writing
difficult. His wife Eliza
a constant
invalid in a room across the hall from his library,
"lay
where
doors
her
ajar, her cough, her sobs and sometimes
through
may

940

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

of anguish summoned him to her bedside." His recourse was
work?"work,
work, work, with a sullen fixedness of purpose as the
means
time out for
sole
tolerable his existence." With
of rendering
a
tea
often
he
and
"worked incessantly,
lunch (a cup of
cracker),
a
in
sometimes
weeks
for
for
and
of himself
prisoner
making
days
the White House."
had no close friends to whom
he
Johnson in the White House
to
his
the
He
full
confidence
himself.
could unburden
only
"gave
members
of his family, notably to his invalid wife and to the official
moans

White
Welles,

hostess, his daughter Martha

Secretary of the Navy, observed:

House

Patterson."

As Gideon

There is a reticence on the part of the President?an

apparent want of
is unfortunate, and prevents him from
confidence in his friends?which
warm personal friends who would relieve him in a
having intimate and
measure.

...

President,

to

It
keep

an
is a mistake,
his own
counsel.4

infirmity,

a habit

fixed

before

he

was

this aspect of Johnson's orientation

Eric L. McKitrick
captures
"Andrew Johnson, Outsider/'
And Jefferson
in his chapter titled,
most
in
calls a "not
what
Davis,
Johnson's
sympathetic
biographer
unkind and inmany ways acute analysis," gave this interpretation:
it was the pride of having no pride?his
associates long
This pride?for
to
but without success. They respected Mr. John
overcome,
struggled
son's abilities, integrity, and greatly original force of character; but
or seem to wish to feel, at home in their
nothing could make him be,
society. Some casual word dropped in debate, though uttered without a
seem to wound him to the quick, and
thought of his existence, would
into
the self-imposed isolation of his earlier
shrink
back
would
he
again
and humbler life, as if to gain strength from touching his mother earth.5
was
in his close
rarely aggressive
Johnson
personal
was
a
soft-deed
he
If
relations.
"hard-word,
man," his hard words
To the importunings
of the Radi
seldom came out in conversation.
after
the
cals Johnson responded,
shortly
assuming
Presidency,
by
at
and staying as far
to everybody,
nodding
everything
"listening
issues." Later when Thaddeus
from controversial
away as possible
to criticize
his policies
and to
called on the President
Stevens
Andrew

"Johnson
Republicans,
by the Congressional
for harmony." Beset
of yielding but pleaded
by
in his office, he remained "mild
southerners
mobs of pardon-seeking
a mob
and subdued, and his manner kindly"?even
though in 1861
a train and beaten
him
had
from
in Lynchburg,
dragged
Virginia,
mob had thrown his in
him severely, and in 1862 a Confederate
desertion
threaten
no
indication
gave

941

DALUS

and family out of his Tennessee

into the street.
home
his
noncommital
and
somewhat
responses
Repeatedly
enigmatic
conciliated
Radical Senator Charles Sumner. Johnson tolerated Sec
at his Cabinet meetings
Stanton's presence
for more
retary of War
than two years, although
he knew Stanton was plotting
against
him. "Johnson's failure to do anything
about it was a topic of avid
Stanton was finally asked to resign and replied
speculation." When
nor upset";
with
insolent refusal, Johnson "was neither
surprised
in for a confrontation.
of
he did not call Stanton
wrote
Welles
men have stronger feel
with
Stanton:
"Few
Johnson's performance
themselves when evi
ing; still fewer have the power of restraining
was
in face-to-face
He
talks
excited."
dently
similarly conciliatory
with Grant and others who let him down.
the impeachment
remained
trial, Johnson
impas
Throughout
sive in personal conversation, with one significant exception. He ex
considerable
pressed
impatience with his team of attorneys, who
for the President
had decided
it would be strategically
inadvisable
to "march into the Senate and do a little plain
to do as he wanted:
"6
speaking.'
For almost all of his time in the White House,
in almost all of
his personal
those with whom
relations with
he had to deal as
Andrew
neither
affection nor antag
President,
Johnson expressed
These
but
consideration.
observations
of others are
onism,
patient
consistent with Johnson's own self-image. He saw himself
as
"gen
in
all
and
that
and
clem
erally temperate
things"
judged
"mercy
...
in my composition.
I
ency have been pretty large ingredients
have been charged with going too far, being too lenient." He dis
such as Benjamin
liked "demagogues,"
Butler
he was
(although
to Butler in person),
courteous
like
Coif
ax, and
braggarts
Schuyler
those who were "all heart and no head," like Horace Greeley.
"The
elements of my nature," Johnson said, "the pursuits of my life have
or in my practice
not made me either in my
feelings
aggressive.
on the contrary,
is rather defensive." He felt he
My nature,
might
"It would
have been a good chemist:
have satisfied my desire to
valid wife

analyze

things."

The Speaker: Johnson Before Crowds

s restrained, mild, hesi
Andrew
The contrast between
Johnson
tant style in conversation,
and his performance
in certain wider
rhetorical situations can hardly be overstated. His image as just the
942

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

he denigrated was fixed in the pub
kind of aggressive
demagogue
on March
as Vice President
at his inauguration
lic mind
4, 1865,
President.7
he
became
before
Shortly before
just forty-one
days
toward none, with charity for
Lincoln's brief speech
("With malice
to the
a defiant and muddled
diatribe
all . . ?"), Johnson delivered
his oath of
of
administration
the
crowded
Interrupting
assembly.
office, he launched forth in ibis fashion:
Tm a-goin'
that I'm a
people of
for to tell

for to tell you here today; yea, I'm a-godn' for to teD you all,
am a plebeian! The
the
people?yes,
plebeian! I glory in it; I
the United States have made me what I am; and I am a-goin'
you here today?yes,
today, in this place that the people are

everything.8
loud and
notes, "on and on he went, his voice
Speaking without
one
over
another
and
themselves
his
words
unclear,
tumbling
losing
in their own echoes." The Supreme Court,
the senators, and in
"are but the
particular Mr. Seward and Mr. Stanton, he shouted,
... I,
a
am
creatures of the American
people.
boy,
though
plebeian
of
the
the
under
I
live
which
authorized
government
by
principles
are
that I am a man, and grave
to feel proudly conscious
dignitaries
that they
but men."9 Each lot of "grave dignitaries" was reminded
to the people
were
subordinate
Johnson personified?including,
one account,
of the Diplomatic
to
"you, gentlemen
according
fine
and
feathers
with
all
your
gewgaws." Part way through,
Corps,
name of the
the
the Vice President
forgot
Secretary of the Navy
so that he could
to ask someone
close
and stopped
by
sitting
in the list of those to be put in their
include Gideon Welles
place.
immediate
from reports of the audience's
reaction,
Judging
s manner was even more
than were his words.
shocking
Johnson
and diplomats with dif
struck with consternation,
"Senators were
their laughter." Shortly after the speech began,
ficulty restrained
Senator Sumner "put his hands over his face and bent his head to
his desk." Lincoln came in during Johnson's speech and, perceiving
an expression
of "unutter
the situation, sat quietly
through it with
in the deepest humiliation."
As he
able sorrow," his "head drooping
to
deliver
his
out to the Capitol
told
Lincoln
walked
address,
steps
"Do not let Johnson speak outside."
the marshall:
A reporter summed up the event in a private letter:
The second official of the Nation?drunk?drunk?when
about to take
his oath of office, bellowing and ranting and shaking his fists at Judges,
and making a fool of himself to such a degree
Cabinet and Diplomats,
that indignation is almost compelled to pity.10
943

DAEDALUS
In the next few
days, "Andy the Sot" was derided
throughout
in song at Grover's Theater on E Street.
and celebrated
Washington
A few
caucus
considered
the
later, a senatorial
days
"seriously
of asking him to resign as their
the
officer";
propriety
presiding
Senate voted to exclude liquor from the Senate
the
of
wing
Capitol;
and two Senators were
from all standing
committees,
dropped
"because of their habitual
for business."
inebriety and incapacity
Lincoln
"I
quickly passed over Johnson's
inaugural performance:
a bad
have known Andy for many years; he made
the
other
slip
ain't a drunkard." The
day, but you need not be scared. Andy
the affair at length the following week
discussed
Cabinet, however,
in an
concern. Gideon Welles
of grave
that
noted
atmosphere
Secretary of State Seward's "tone and opinion were much changed
seems to have
since Saturday. He
given
Johnson up now." The
to denounce
Democratic
press reviled Johnson editorially,
pleased
the
the New York World
called
supposedly Radical Vice President;
in comparison with whom
him "an insolent drunken brute,
Cali
was
And the Radical press hit him from
gula's horse
respectable."
the other side: "It is the plain duty of Mr. Johnson either to apol
or to
to
resign his office." Johnson retreated
ogize for his conduct,
to
in
March
the Blair family estate
Silver Springs
9,
recuperate. On
"an accurate
to the Senate
1865, he wrote
reporter,
requesting
copy of what I said on that occasion."
and reworked
the expla
have worked
Johnson's biographies
nations for this remarkable
speech that brought him national dis
office. A combination
of illness, fa
grace as he assumed national
too much
that
and
he
took
affected
him
morning,
tigue, and anxiety
was not (as were both his sons) an alcoholic.
he
brandy. Clearly
Nor do we need to rely on the immediate details to explain his be
a pattern, not an exception.
havior; he was displaying
Johnsons
sub
certain
under
continually
special conditions,
style,
speaking
verted his reputation as a steady, stern, and reliable leader.
a less
the campaign
of 1865, Johnson had made
During
widely
a
to
crowd
but
of Ne
revealing
speech
large
equally
publicized,
mass
he
the
of
October
faced
in
On
"a
Nashville?
of
24,
groes
night
so
that they seemed to
human beings,
closely compacted
together
could move without mov
compose one vast body, no part of which
. . . cast a
over
and
which
"torches
the
whole,"
transparencies
ing
ruddy glow."
Johnson began
by reviewing
into effect the year
mation,
put
944

Lincoln's
Emancipation
before. He pointed
out

Procla
that for

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

to
benefits
"were not applied
"certain reasons" the Proclamation's
on his
He then proceeded,
of Tennessee."11
the Negroes
entirely
free
own, to announce:
"I, Andrew
Johnson, do hereby proclaim
man
in
and
to
broad
Tennessee."
unconditional,
dom, full,
every
statement
stimulated great applause. Thus urged on,
This amazing
into an attack on the local aristocrats
and con
Johnson launched
cluded:
Colored men of Tennessee! This,
ters shall no longer be dragged
brutal lust of slaveholders and
God's holy law of marriage shall
state of Tennessee
great
tion and your
shame!12

shall

too, shall cease! Your wives and daugh

...
to satisfy the
into a concubinage
overseers! Henceforth
the sanctity of
be respected in your persons, and the

no more

give

her

sanction

to your

degrada

"
'Thank God,' 'Thank GorT came from the
crowd was ecstatic:
re
was carried away
a thousand women."
of
Johnson
by their
lips
was
vast
he
of
he
"this
colored
Before
said,
sponse.
throng
people,"
"almost induced to wish that, as in the days of old, a Moses might
land of free
arise who should lead them safely to their promised
someone
At which
"You are
dom and happiness."
shouted,
point
our Moses!"?a
the
echoed
and
crowd.
cry
again by
again
On
oath of office on April 15, 1865, the
taking the presidential
was
a brief, calm ad
shot, Johnson delivered
day after Lincoln
next
But
the
with
the
dress,
continuity.
stressing
day, meeting
on the Conduct
Committee
re
of
the
he
War,
Congressional
to Senator Ben Wade's
we
faith
have
comment?"Johnson,
sponded
in you. By the gods, there will be no trouble now in running the
a sentiment he had earlier
in various
expressed
government"?with
one which would
as to
mislead
the
Radicals
completely
speeches,
a
"I
intentions:
is
hold
that
crime,
Johnson's
rape is a
robbery
is a crime; treason is a crime and must be punished.
crime; murder
and traitors must be impover
Treason must be made
infamous,
ished." He repeated these phrases on April 18 and 21, in nearly the
same words,
to delegations
from Illinois and Indiana?on
both oc
to
casions as an "impromptu
of
expressions
response"
support. John
as he was at other times, because he made
son was misunderstood,
to opposing
ringing general statements subject
interpretations.
his
December
with
relations
the Radicals
had de
2,
1865,
By
teriorated, and his patience with Senator Sumner had given out in
an interview marked by
Johnson's "caustic" questions.
On December
5, Johnson's son Robert read to the new Congress
the President's
and writer
message,
composed
by the historian

The

945

DAEDALUS
Johnson had sent Bancroft
George Bancroft.
only two suggestions:
from Thomas
and
from a speech by
Jefferson's
passages
inaugural
Charles
James Fox. The result was a "lofty" "cogent," and "re
strained" message,
received. On December
18, he
generally well
a reconstruction
sent another
less
report, calmly advising
policy
than that of Thaddeus
Stevens. He discussed
stringent
dispassion
his veto of the Freedman's
Bill in
ately with the Cabinet
February
created a national
sensation
and clearly di
1866, an event which
vided Johnson's supporters from the Radicals.
a crowd of well
Three days later, on Washington's
Birthday,
a
wishers who had been celebrating
Johnson's veto at Washington
came
to the White
theater
and called for the President
House
to
greet them. Earlier in the day, friends had urged him not to speak,
a
and Johnson had
replied: "I have not thought of making
speech,
one.
come
see
to
and I shan't make
If my friends
me, I shall thank
them, and that's all." But he gave in at last to the crowd's importun
a low wall, and, as the
a
ing, climbed onto
day darkened, delivered
a
in
diatribe by the light of
he referred
candle. When
guttering
a voice called out?
to the Union,
to
leaders
opposed
definitely
"Give us the names." Johnson responded:
A

calls

gentleman

for

their

names.

Well,

suppose

I should

give

them.

. . .

/ say Thaddeus Stevens of Pennsylvania

(tremendous applause)?I
say
Charles Sumner (great applause)?I
say Wendell
Phillips and others of
the

same

stripe

are

among

them.

. . . Some

gentleman

in the

crowd

says,

"Give it to Forney." I have only just to say: That ? do not waste my

ammunition upon dead ducks (Laughter and applause) .13
on and on,
for an hour and ten minutes
Johnson went
reiterating
Ufe history,
the old themes of his personal
the false accusations
to
and
his
Christ.
against him,
Johnson asked:
similarity
those who want to destroy our institutions not satisfied with one
... If my blood is to be shed because I vindicate the Union . . .
martyr?
let an altar of the Union be erected, and then if necessary lay me upon
it, and the blood that now animates my frame shall be poured out in a
last libation as a tribute to the Union; and let the opponents of this
it is poured out the blood of the
remember that when
government
martyr will be the seed of the church.14
Are

later Thaddeus
Stevens entertained
the Senate
by
this speech had ever been made. The affair
that
denying
and dismay"
to a wave of wonder
the coun
throughout

Several weeks
mockingly
"gave rise
try.

The
946

The suspicions that the President was a drunkard were

Stevens and the other Radicals
hands of Thaddeus

revived.
in Con

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

Senator
tried vali
gress were
John Sherman, who
strengthened.
antly to patch up relations between
Johnson and the Congress,
the Washington's
deeply regretted
Birthday
speech: "I think there
to
is no true friend of Andrew
not be willing
Johnson who would
that speech from the pages of history." On April 18, 1866,
wipe
at a soldiers' and sailors' sere
this performance
Johnson repeated
a
in
the other in all particulars, with
nade,
speech that "resembled
the possible
time
that this
the personal note, the sense of
exception
even less controlled
was
than before."
persecution,
its culmination
President
rhetoric reached
Johnson's disastrous
in his famous
Around
in
the
Circle"
and Septem
August
"Swing
that he could win
the people
if only he
ber, 1866. Convinced
could address enough of them in person, Johnson was repeatedly
to extreme
drawn by a crowd's
reaction
flights of vituperation.
unmindful
that his speeches were being reported by the
Apparently
the nation,
the President
the same
followed
press
throughout
a
course
time and again, first denying
he would make
speech,
a
then delivering
full of blood and religion, and ending
harangue
and the Union of these States in your
by leaving "the Constitution
hands." At St. Louis on September
that he
8, 1866, he complained
had been called a Judas.
a Judas once, one of the twelve
Judas Iscariot! Judas! There was
apostles.
Oh yes; the twelve apostles had a Christ. . . .The twelve apostles had a
a
never
have had
Christ, and he could
Judas unless he had had twelve
apostles. If I have played the Judas, who has been my Christ that I
have played Judas with? Was it Thad Stevens? Was itWendell
Phillips?
Was it Charles Sumner?15
In a nineteen-day
and
sand miles

he traveled some two thou

tour, during which
eleven major
delivered
and twenty-two
minor
was
harassed
hecklers
and
Johnson
speeches,
repeatedly
by
wildly
enthusiastic
his angry rhetoric. As an
supporters, both stimulating
"Whenever
cheers on the route would
observer recalled:
be pro
case
would
he
and
for
the
between
him
stop
argue
Congress,
posed
... It is
a man
see
to
self and Congress.
the
mortifying
occupying
of
the
of
President
United
States
descend
that
from
lofty position
are
their garments
position and join issue with those who
dragging
in the muddy gutters of vituperation."
him against extem
Again and again, Johnson's friends warned
Senator
of
Doolittle
wrote
Wisconsin
to say:
poraneous
speaking.
I hope you will not allow the excitement of the moment
to draw from
you any extemporaneous
speeches. You are followed by the reporters of
947

DAEDALUS
a hundred presses who do nothing but misrepresent.
I would say nothing
which had not been most carefully prepared, beyond a simple acknowl
edgment
never
been
But

what

their

for

able
you

have

cordial
to

get
said

reception.
any

advantage

extemporaneously

Our

have
enemies,
enemies,
your
ever
from
wrote.
you
anything
in answer
to some
questions

has given them a handle to use against us.16

advised
him similarly,
"President
Gideon Welles
Johnson
but
heard
brief
my
quietly,
suggestions
always
manifestly
thought
as a
he tried
I did not know his power
speaker." Repeatedly,
to resist giving speeches, but then gave in and delivered
another
As Johnson himself put it in a speech on
diatribe.
emotional
highly
that though the power of
the "Swing": "I tell you, my countrymen,
. . . combined,
there is no power that can
hell, death, and Stevens
control me save you . . . and the God that spoke me into exist
ence. ... I have been drawn into this long speech, while I intended
for the cordial welcome."
simply to make acknowledgments
s
no
can
that
doubt
be
There
speaking
style had im
Johnson
was
one
on
it
his presidential
power, although
only
portant effects
sums
in
that
As
McKitrick
elements
of many
up the
equation.
Circle":
effect of the "Swing Around the

When

It is probably fair to say that few truly confirmed Johnson partisans

were likely to have changed their minds as a result of it, dignity or no
was not simply that of keeping what
dignity. Yet the problem for Johnson
following he had, but also of persuading large numbers of not yet fully
hardened Unionists to make the decision of deserting to him. Not only
did the tour fail in this function for the doubtfuls; but for great numbers
of those that remained, it seemed to have provided the perfect excuse to
throw away all lingering reservations and to do what they were already
to the Republican
fold for good. It was
on the point of doing?return
then that they could insist, while having no more use for Thad Stevens
than ever, that they could not support a man who had so debased the
as had Andrew Johnson.17
dignity of the presidency
in early 1868, the first nine articles referred
impeachment
of Office Act
of the Tenure
violations
(which
supposed
to control his cab
the power of the President
restricted
severely
"scandalous harangues.*
inet) and the tenth accused him of making
the President's
undermined
author
had
man's
the
reputation
Clearly
to
on the stump had contributed
his
and
heavily
performances
ity,
to return to Tennessee
for
left the Presidency
that decline. He
of his life to a
"the remainder
another
tour, to devote
speaking
and that of his State." Despite
the
of his character
vindication
he intended
to "in
effects of his impromptu
disastrous
speeches,
At his

to his

948

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

a few
no set
simple conversations
speeches, but [to] have
dulge in
with the people here and there." He toured Tennessee
delivering
to large crowds. He was defeated
unrehearsed
for the
speeches
there in 1875. Johnson died on July
Senate in 1869, but returned
in Greeneville,
31 of that year. He is buried
his body
Tennessee,
an American
on his copy of
in
and
his
head
resting
flag
wrapped
the Constitution.

The Rhetorical Emphasis

can
can subvert action. John
Words
trap thought, and speech
son's words?indeed,
his way of saying words?came
close to doing
structure
what the Civil War did not do: altering the fundamental
His rhetoric was clearly
and
of the American Presidency.
patterned,
of style which can be discerned
in
he exhibited a strong consistency
inconsistencies
the midst of the many
of policy. The examples
refer
to Johnson and rhetoric, but the applicable
have
analytic distinctions
to Presidents
more
their
and
significance
styles.
general
From the full repertoire of presidential
roles, Johnson selected
as channels
office work
and detailed
for his immense
speaking
force. We cannot imagine him operating as his namesake
emotional
in
later does, devoting
endless hours to negotiation
of a century
in
himself
and
work
words.
search of consensus.
spent
Johnson
in
he could give a calm address; most of his speeches
Sometimes
more
a
reasoned
for example, were
the Senate,
like
arguments,
a
as
But
on
than
brief
his
stump harangue.
lawyer's
performance
the Circle made
the Swing Around
clear, he repeatedly?almost
he faced a crowd
forth in fiery rhetoric whenever
uniformly?burst
to his inaugural
of partisans. Had he learned from the reactions
his
disaster to rely only on written
speeches,
reputation
probably
But he never
learned
that lesson.
could have been
salvaged.
the same performance,
Again and again, he repeated
illustrating
can
a
a
become
feature of
how
strategy
permanent
particular
style. His friends implored him to restrain himself; his
presidential
enemies gave him unmistakable
evidence
that he could only harm
the problem
himself by continuing.
and re
Johnson recognized
to
The
resolved
change.
impulsive character of his blurted
peatedly
testifies to the compulsive
in his rhetoric.
element
pronouncements
an
faith in the efficacy of his rhetoric.
Johnson had
exaggerated
"knew" or saw the destructive
he
effects of his speeches,
Although
that he had extraordinary
he believed
power as a speaker. He felt
949

DALUS

that he would
succeed if only he could speak his heart to those on
in
his power depended.
In a sense, he was right:
Success
whom
success in the immediate environ
terms of audience
responsiveness,
im
and (perhaps equally
ment, was often his. He won applause
or
not
to
from
the
He
crowds.
would
him)
portant
challenge
assessment of his impact as a
could not, however, make a balanced
as he was
in part because
of his
speaker. Even
being impeached,
wild speeches, he had to be restrained
the Senate.
from addressing
At the extreme, he shows how a political
leader may come to be
a
lieve that he has a magic
of
way
strategy,
acting that is not sub
one that is bound
rules
to
the
of
evaluation,
ject
ordinary
political
to work if
rightly performed.
in the office; he,
Johnson was wild on the stump, but subdued
like Moses,
called for action, but was beset by the vice of pro
he was generous and patient with Stanton and Sumner
crastination;
in person, but damned
them in his speeches. These
contradictions
demand
obvious
of
in the
elation
Johnson's
explanation.
feelings
exercise of rhetoric, his reiteration
of personal history and status,
and the highly
symbolic
language he used?all
point to the ex
in
he
found
importance
pressive, tension-releasing
speaking.
to explain Andrew
If one proposed
rhe
Johnson's particular
torical style, many other significant elements could be noted even at
this descriptive
level. The major
themes of his speeches,
his rhe
to contemporary
torical reactions
and
the
rela
conflicts,
political
tions between
the symbols and values he expressed
and those of
the particular historical-cultural
environment
of the 1860's could be
am
But
I
not
concerned
here
with
the flesh and blood
analyzed.
of individual
but
rather
with
the extent
to
political
psychology,
a rhetorical
like Johnson may
which
share a skeletal
specialist
structure with other Presidents who emphasize
their own
strategies.
For example, Woodrow
Wilson
trusted that he could
personally
to
the American
people
persuade
adopt his version of the League
a
of Nations; Herbert Hoover
demonstrated
be
strange disparity
tween private works and public words;
and Calvin
com
Coolidge
bined dinner-party
banter with
acerbity,
good-natured
reporters,
over the radio.
and the preaching of moralistic
platitudes

The Springs of Political Energy: Motives and the Self

Intense political
activity may
low self-esteem,
usually resulting
950

for
represent either compensation
from severe
in
deprivations
early

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

but seldom does
extension of high self-esteem,
life, or a specialized
to one's culture.18 In
it represent an ordinary or normal adaptation
in
of a distinctive
the development
style that emerges
analyzing
are
is
of
interest
less
the
than
the adult identity crisis,
style's genesis
at a particular
critical period.
its structural and dynamic properties
which
the dis
to
the
In order
understand
against
background
to
to
the
estimate
which
the
tinctive style emerged and
style
degree
one must first trace the
or extensive,
was compensatory
however,
of personality.
dimensions
deeper and older
to do in Johnson's case. He reached
late
This is not difficult
and assaults on the
adolescence with a long heritage of deprivations
self, and no clear success other than success in survival. His father,
man
a
at a Raleigh,
North Carolina,
tavern, died
genial handy
was
General
after
when Andrew
(named
Johnson
Jackson)
Jackson
on
and
the
three, leaving the family destitute
dependent
completely
in washing
and sewing. The
mother's
Johnsons were
drudgery
in constant
contact with
the
landless
"mudsills,"
poor whites,
an
at
tavern.
His
the
ineffectual woman
mother,
guests
privileged
"Aunt Polly," later took up with a ne'er-do-well
nicknamed
drifter;
his late teens.
had to care for both of them throughout
Andrew
At the age of fourteen,
just at the time when noise and movement
are natural, he was bound as an
a
certain graceful clumsiness
and
to
sit
made
tailor,
quietly and be still, and thrown pre
apprentice
concentration.
into
At sixteen,
and
enforced
adulthood
maturely
ran away
and
harum-scarum
restless"
this "exceedingly
"wild,
boy"
a
to
for
for
about
and
work
home
from
year
escape prosecution
some local girls. The tailor offered a reward
house
of
the
stoning
to South Carolina,
he fell
for his arrest and return. Wandering
but his suit was rejected. On his return
in love with a Sarah Word,
home, the tailor refused to take him back, and Johnson began, at
sixteen, a two-year trek, wandering
through western North Carolina
and
for
and eastern Tennessee
work, with his mother
looking
was
in
tow.
Andrew
When
eighteen,
"stepfather"
impecunious
Tennessee.
the family finally settled in Greeneville,

Childhood had left him hurt and nearly helpless, but he had
sustain him while he found him
a skill?tailoring?which
would
of aristocrats,
his
self. Undoubtedly
lifelong detestation
Johnson's
and
his extreme independence,
Homestead
of
the
Bill,
championing
can be traced to these
many other themes in his adult personality
can be
scant
evidence
But
available
the
interpreted
early years.
in a simpler and more general way. The pat
with fair confidence
951

DAEDALUS

of severe deprivation,
which
roused in Johnson strong
it is difficult to
self-esteem. While
for enhancing
explain pre
force was channeled
into a
cisely why and how this energizing
was
rhetorical
the
force
to be
there
style,
distinctively
clearly
channeled.
tern is one

needs

The School of Life: What

Johnson Learned

Johnson had no formal schooling, but from an early age

(perhaps ten) he hung around the local tailor shop and listened to
what went on there. To palliate
the tedium, the tailors hired some
one to read aloud to them.
in silence,
to
They worked
listening
a
the spoken word. Later Andy was apprenticed:
hours
"Many
day,
shut out from fresh air, crouched down over a needle
and thread,
Andrew

of the joys of childhood,

the lad bent to his tasks; the
deprived
inside of a schoolhouse he never saw."
His mother
could not read nor write. The foreman in the tailor
the boy how to read, but most
later
recalled
shop
teaching
prob
if
devoted
little,
any, time to reading in his early teens,
ably Andy
in comparison with
the long hours spent
to
particularly
listening
came late and in the
the tailor's reader. Thus, for Johnson, words
some novels and poems,
spoken form. The newspapers,
possibly
were
but particularly
read. A special favorite
political
speeches
of Andy's was a volume of the orations by British statesmen.19
In
somewhat overdrawn
terms, L. P. Stryker recounts the effect of the
:
reading of these speeches
To Johnson it was
high

resolve.

. . .

like a torch to tinder. It lighted

Painfully

and

slowly

from

these

in his soul the fire of

classics

of

the

forensic

art he learned to spell and to read. A new and undiscovered

country
he plied with his fingers his busy tailors
lay before him. Cross-legged,
a
new
was
while
his
with
hot
white
far
needle,
mind,
away within
hope,
the English Parliament. And at night he found and pursued the
company
of books and stayed with them until, worn down from the
long days
toil, he fell asleep.20
Or as his contemporary
John Savage put it: "This vol
biographer
ume [of orations] molded
into form and inspired into suitable ac
tion the elements
of his mental
and thus laid the foun
character,
dation of his fame and fortune"; in
"his own
hearing the speeches,
thoughts
struggling
through took form and color from their influ
ence." Johnson told Savage that his favorite speeches were those of
Pitt and Fox, both vehement
orators and champions
of democracy,
952

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

in
with wit and studied insult, and aggressive
to wilt the opposition.
Johnson's running away and subsequent wandering
interrupted
his rhetorical education,
though he kept the book of speeches until
in the Civil War. In Greeneville,
his library was destroyed
his young
in 1827 when he was nineteen,
wife Eliza, whom he married
taught
him to write and read to him in the tailor shop, again a learning
in a context of high emotional
involvement.
Johnson
experience
collections
and began to
borrowed books from the few Greeneville
a
attend the Polemic
Col
group, at Greeneville
Society,
debating
a
of
from
the
also
have
books
He
read
number
may
college
lege.
a collection
of three thousand volumes which
"came chiefly
library,
and
libraries of the Mathers,
from the private
Jonathan Edwards
was
and
of
other New England
the
day"
theologians
composed
sermons and
"mainly [of] volumes of
theological discussions."
four miles each way to the
Every week he walked
college. Mem
ories of his participation,
later, vary from
mostly
gathered much
to his "natural talent for oratory" to his
references
being "a very
in 1829, he was
timid speaker, afraid of his own voice." Sometime
a
part of
society of Greeneville
separately
organized
debating

whose words?thick
meant
tone?were

youth.
Students
from the local colleges
at his
habitually
gathered
as one of them remem
this period, because,
tailor shop during
"One lived here whom we know outside
bered:
of school, and
one who would
amuse us
made us welcome;
by his social good
nature, one who took more than ordinary interest in catering to our
He and Eliza
lived in the back room?the
pleasure*
only other
the students and other casual visitors sat around in the
one?and
In 1831 he moved
he worked.
front room while
the family, now
a sepa
Eliza and their two boys, into a new house and purchased
to read, "not the novels of
rate tailor shop. He hired a schoolboy
and Maria Edgeworth,
but Eliot's debates,
Jane Austen
Jefferson's
over and over
and
the
Constitution
of the United
messages,
again
States*
make much
ven
of his earliest political
Johnson's biographers
little more
than extensions
of his
tures, but these were probably
of a convenient
role as owner and operator
gathering
place for
in politics. It is not clear that he
townsmen and students interested
the Greeneville
group, except by providing
debating
"organized"
a
it to meet, or that he was the
for
place
leading light in forming a
"Worker's Party" in town. He was first elected
in 1829.
alderman
953

Dl?EDAIAJS
The ticket of nominees was put together on the Saturday night be
fore the election on Monday.
Johnson's name appeared first on the
the lowest vote
this
favored
but
ballot,
position he received
despite
as
to
of the seven elected?eighteen
for
votes,
thirty-one
compared
was
next
the front-runner.
the
alderman
elected
year
Johnson
again
and was mayor for the following
three years. In 1832 the county ap
pointed him a trustee of the Rhea Academy.
a marked
These
did not represent
experiences
early political
from Johnson's regular round of life. The duties of alder
deviation
man and
in a town of about
mayor could not have been onerous
seven hundred
was unable to muster more
whose
electorate
people
votes for the leading aldermanie
than thirty-one
The
candidate.
a hard
for
idea that he conducted
alderman
campaign
against the
in
town aristocrats
is hardly believable?surely
most of them were
his
church on the intervening
first
election.
The
before
fla
Sunday
vor of Johnson's
is probably
best caught by one of
participation
later recalled
the young men of Greeneville,
that despite
who
the
boisterousness
of his visitors in the tailor shop:
Andy neither lost his temper nor suspended his twofold employment of
reading and sewing. The moment the needle passed through the cloth,
his eye would return to the book, and anon to the needle again; and so,
enter

when

you

would,

it was

ever

the

same

determined

read

and

sew,

and sew and read. His sober industry and intelligence won the favor of
the grave and sedate, and his genial tolerance of the jovial groups which
frequented his shop secured him unbounded popularity with the young

men

of the

place.21

let them use his

In other words,
Johnson
shop, did not interfere
and affection
with them, and out of gratitude
they put him up for
office and elected him. Like his father, Andrew was tolerant; un
like his stepfather, he applied himself with
extraordinary
diligence
to his work. His friends were men of his own class who
gathered
for reasons other than his
around him mainly
is
friendship. There
no clear evidence
that Johnson was an active leader of the tailor
a localist, a
at this point was
caucus.
Johnson
shop
figure well
a businessman
oc
known to the Greeneville
whose
class,
working
him
into
circle
the
of
the
town's
cupation naturally brought
politi
cal actors and talkers. In 1834, probably because he was mayor and
a trustee of Rhea Academy,
he joined in the call for a new Ten
nessee constitution,
his participation
but whether
went
a
beyond
is uncertain.
In the following
horizons
year, Johnson's
signature
a radical expansion.
underwent
954

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

The

Rehearsal:

Gathering

Resources

left him with a need to cure the pain of

childhood
a way of sustaining himself until he found the
with
and
deprivation
have
In many
cases, men who become Presidents
right medicine.
"a span of
calls a moratorium,
gone through what Erik Erikson
time after they have ceased being children, but before their deeds
such a
and works count toward a future identity." In retrospect,
an
use
a
as
seen
for the full
of
impor
preparation
period may be
in the sense of not
tant political
strategy, a free rehearsal?free
at the time in the calculus of success. The rehearsal
being counted
is latent, even playful,
a
is
learning time, but much of the learning
not
later. Learning
until
its
be
evident
much
and
significance may
it is
in such a rehearsal period may be passive or active; usually
the
of
with
both. The typical pattern may begin
passive collection
or impressions,
at the
and
of
often
attention,
images
periphery
a series of
unrelated
experi
progress
apparently
slowly through
in Johnson's
in action. Some of the features of this process
ments
life have wider applications.
In many cases, the timing or phasing of learning in relation to
a normal set of life stages is important. For example,
each of the
was slow to
mentioned
Presidents
previously
peculiar
rhetorically
could not read well until he
catch on to the written word. Wilson
set of entrance examinations
was eleven;
his
first
failed
Coolidge
at Amherst; Hoover was unable to pass his English courses at Stan
ford. Such retardation may be only one aspect of a more general
the special importance of out-of-phase
learning for the
phenomenon:
comes
distinctive
of
strategies. Perhaps
learning that
development
as
comes "too late," acquires
a
that
"too early," as well
learning
it offers a way of
because
conflicts
resolving
significance
particular
severe or after their severity has accumu
before they have become
In any case, learning appropri
lated to a disproportionate
degree.
ate to the grammar-school
im
age may take on immense personal
until
when
all
if
the
emotional
adolescence,
postponed
portance
one
conflicts of the earliest years come back again. Most generally,
a
to know whether
of
intensive
rele
would want
period
learning
in what period of life it
vant to strategy distinctiveness
occurred,
conflicts accompanied
and what major
this
took place,
learning.
on his
first heard great oratory while passively
immobilized
Johnson
tailor's table; he first began to read with one of the few kind adults
he knew as tutor; he first learned to write from his new bride; and
Johnson's

955

DALUS

he first began to speak in the need-supplying

society of younger
friends. At each stage, the learning took place in an atmosphere
of
on some
emotional
Johnson was working
intensity, during which
own.
fundamental
problems of his
strat
the
of
sequence
Similarly,
learning may shape distinctive
in
terms
of
the
form
of
earliest
exposure. Johnson
egies, particularly
the spoken word. He heard much
oratory before he
began with
came to him in an oral medium
could read; messages
first and then
in writings
about speeches. Early lessons in the strategies of action
set a context
into which
lessons must
fit. Sequence
subsequent
is also important in understanding
how the learner shapes a cumu
lative development
lessons.22 For John
from a stream of individual
son, the talent for oratory grew step by step, in large part because
of a series of lucky connections.
a double
to oratory: He heard
introduction
Johnson received
was
it
The
character
and
about
the material
of
learned
it,
speeches.
the
influences
of
skills
relevant
to
development
obviously
strategy,
there is rarely a simple correspondence
is
between what
although
is
and
what
and
retained.
The
of
character
purveyed
perceived
is a variable in learning many different kinds of skills?
the material
it has a special
to dominating?but
from bargaining
in
significance
the word form allows so many different
of
rhetoric, because
types
For Johnson, the curriculum was first the
representations.
aggressive
and then the fiery Biblicism
of New
oratory of the parliamentarians
case did the material
neither
In
divines.
itself
have
much
England
in the mid-nineteenth
to do with Tennessee
but
century,
Johnson
a
that he could draw on it for many
In
later found
speech.
one wants
a rhetorical
an
roots
to
the
out
of
eye
style,
keep
tracing
for the man more interested in speeches than in facts, more imitative
of styles than insightful of content.
as a scholar
as President has
been described
frequently
Johnson
rather than a doer, a theorist rather than a political
operator. The
of learned material?in
the sense of its direct
degree of abstraction
in the immediate
be an important
environment?may
applicability
of Johnson's intellective proc
factor here. The historical movement
was from
is concerned,
ess, insofar as his rhetorical development
to near at hand
and God)
far away (England
(Jackson and Ten
a context of
in
re
Abstract
nessee).
passive
thought, particularly
no responsibility
for consequences,
is freely available
and
ception
and for all varieties of vicarious experi
for need-fulfilling
purposes
can
in such
in fantasy. Strong emotional
mentation
linkages
develop
956

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

a context
is removed
the matter
because
from the re
precisely
in
straints of compromise
and calculation
inherent
af
practical
one:
fairs. Johnson's school was in this sense a totally permissive
a
or an honors
No one would
failing mark
give him
grade for what
a
he thought of Pitt and Fox and Jonathan Edwards.
Surely
special
clue to watch
for in tracing the rehearsal for a particular
type of
is the interplay between
the abstract and the
strategy
political
in
the
voluntary
learning process.
To the way in which words came to Johnson must be added the
way he found to turn them back on the world. In his early teens, his
was intense, but not in
activity
speaking. Slowly the distant and the
had
to
with
the close and the personal
be
linked
in
impersonal
learned to acquire relevance
for ac
order for what was passively
the complexity
of those
tion. No simple formula can encompass
are
common
cases.
at
two
to
features
this
least
and
but
other
steps,
Johnson's active learning of oratory began only after he located
in Greeneville,
when a particular combination
successes
of personal
and community
made
emer
his
opportunities
possible
political
in
was
a
Greeneville
for
conversation,
gence. Johnson's shop
place
talk about the issues of the day. There he heard and
for clubhouse
in words
situa
closely related to the local political
began to join
to
the
and
of
tion,
action,
possibilities
probabilities
organization,
and achievement
by those present. Politics took on a new dimension
added Andrew
for him; to Pitt and Fox were
Jackson and his
national enemies
the
local
aristocrats
and
(still relatively distant),
the
but
and
in
conversationalists
absent),
(close
speakers
leading
the room (at hand). He began to see, one supposes, how a person
a part, how
like him might
the gap between
himself-as
play
auditor and himself-as-orator
be
His
might
bridged.
early trials
in the debating
with
societies,
gave him a
pursued
diligence,
chance to experiment with his voice without
his future
committing
or risking his present. And the nominations,
and
elections
campaigns,
as small steps
a
secure
in Greeneville,
station,
beyond
taught him
that some form of political
life was not impossible
for him, that
as the others he knew. The
he could perform as acceptably
linkage
here is through persons. The lesson was I can learn, am
learning,
know how, as well as or better than others do. The mechanisms
with a group in which
the strategy
is practiced,
without
and
minor
in
commitment.
risk,
experimentation
gambles
as persons
Issues as well
provide
linkage. Johnson could "re
member" when he listened to the tailor-shop conversations
about the
are identification

957

DALUS

aristocrats
and the other themes of the "Greeneville
Democracy"
he had heard before
orators of a
from the young English
or
at
He
could
connection
least
the
see,
feel,
previous
generation.
between
the injustice to his namesake Andrew
in
the 1824
Jackson
election
and the thunderings
An
of the New
divines.
England
own
sorts?one
that
his
of
fitted
the
he
had
ideology
history,
myths
in which
to
he found himself?began
imbibed, and the situation
came to encompass
a set of ideas in
form in his mind. Learning
to the set of techniques
he had started to master.
addition
His
on
to
and
his
take
experience
anticipations
began
expressible
a
made
he conjured
meanings,
explicit at last in
speech in which
and degradation,
effort, to a
up a path from obscurity
through
of
achievement:
the
Godliness
and
In
government.
joining
grand
terms of rhetorical
had
he
to
In
terms
found
what
say.
strategy,
in general, he exemplified
of distinctive
the significance
strategies
ra
in which
available
of rationalization
for action and the ways
can
or
cumulative
tionalizations
individual
delay
speed
develop
what

ment.23

The Man Becomes a Politician

On
was
Johnson

another

twenty-six,
was

Saturday night,
he nominated
there

when

in the spring of 1835 when Johnson

himself
for the state legislature.

conversation

958

news

at

Jones's

store

was

inter

a "muster" a few miles

rupted by
bearing
at
Matthew
and Major James Brit
which
away
Major
Stephenson
in the race for the Tennessee
ton had been entered
lower house.
was
a
from
Washington
County,
neighboring
Stephenson,
Whig
at
the
who had performed
constitutional
convention
the
effectively
was
East
He
at
Tennessee
standards
also,
least,
year.
by
previous
an aristocrat,
citizen of character
"a wealthy
and social position."
to the discussion
of this news, Johnson
for a while
After listening
seat to say: % too, am in the
fight.'" Like any
"sprang from his
to
had
follow
this statement
other uninvited
volunteer,
Johnson
only
to get on the ballot. Several of
with a formal public announcement
with
his friends coached him for his first meeting
to
Stephenson,
in the latter's territory at Boon's Creek
in
be held
Washington
"was thought to await an easy victory." John
County.
Stephenson
son's friends researched his political
record and otherwise prepared
various
doctrines.
began by expounding
carefully. Stephenson
Whig
then
"audacious
"hacked
the
and
youngster,"
Johnson,
arraigned"
someone

from

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

in Ten
his claims for Whiggism
the aristocratic major, challenging
nessee. He dealt with
several issues and gave a preview
of a life
was neither a
a
long theme: "He assured the boys that he
lawyer,
man
a colonel, but a
or
with
his
for
his
hands,
major
plain
laboring
and would
carry out
they wanted
daily bread, that he knew what
their wishes." Johnson was elected by a small margin.
in response
himself
to the news
Johnson had thus nominated
that an aristocrat was in the race, had set out to attack his enemy
and had found the weapon?spoken
succeed.
words?to
personally,
a
new
The rehearsal was over; Andrew
had
entered
and
Johnson
arena of action
a strategy for suc
much broader
with
equipped
cess: in close
relations
the politicos
of the
(as with
interpersonal
a
at
enemies
tailor shop),
with
distance
with
the
restraint;
(as
not
attack.
He
had
"aristocratic" Major
found
Stephenson),
only
serve his needs for vindication:
the place in which
speech could
serve him the
oratory; but also the themes which would
political
rest of his life: self-justification
and righteous
indignation
against
the privileged.
And he had discovered
the language with which
to
of principles
and abstractions
and per
express these themes?that
its work. One can hear in
school had done
sonal allusion. His
all
his
the
words
the
New England
of
divines and
speeches
nearly
Old England
to bear on his cause
transformed
parliamentarians,
and reflect his high purposes, particularly
in those
peculiar diatribes
which marred his Presidency.
One other feature of his strategy for success seems to have been
with Andrew
Jackson. Part of the develop
imitation of models,
done with or without
link the person to something
beyond him
to the future. The
from the past, they point the way
self. Arising
abstract ideal is translated to human form, to an embodi
passionless
ment not so impossible to achieve.
him an
Jackson Johnson?gave
Johnson's very name?Andrew
a defiant
with
connection
who
became
President
fighter
original
felt he had been cheated of the Presidency
in
Jackson's followers
the
was
he
vote,
when,
1824,
despite
receiving
largest popular
after the election was thrown into the House
of Repre
defeated
in
sentatives. His followers were organizing
the years
vigorously
a
must
to
and
been
have
1828,
Jackson
leading up
frequent
topic
in Johnson's
tailor shop just as he was
of conversation
taking
his first political
steps. In his maiden
speech against Stephenson,
his first speech in
a
invoked "Old Hickory";
Congress was
Johnson

critical: his identification

ment of identity is the
awareness.
Such models

959

DAEDALUS
of Andrew
institute an annual Jackson
Jackson. He helped
ran
on a ballot headed with
in
Greeneville,
Jefferson celebration
and
heard again and again almost from the time
Jackson's picture,
he began in politics:
"You are a second Andrew
Jackson"; "You are
a man, every inch of you,
in the shoes of 'Old
";
standing
Hickory'
or you are
to ape Andrew
the
Jackson but cannot make
"trying
was Andrew
'Old Hickory'
grade." At least "from 1840 onward,
model
of
his
conduct and the idol of
Johnson's political
pilot, the
his heart." The roots of the connection with Jackson were personal
and local: the name and the particular
significance
Jackson had for
as
was
in East Tennessee
to the state
just
politics
Johnson
emerging
arena. The idol who was there at one's birth and reappears as one
an
an immense
over
is
identity has
forging
advantage
competing
symbols.
was
in many ways
Andrew
different
from Andrew
Jackson
one
account
As
of course,
says: "Externally,
Johnson.
sympathetic
a
no two men were more unlike, Jackson
fellow,
being
rollicking
and more fond of sports than
fond of horseracing
and cockfighting,
for sports, too serious-minded,
and
books; Johnson, caring nothing
some
at
of
But
these
away
problem
always plugging
government."
were not the features Johnson's
and supporters
early companions
stressed when
the
reiterated
sim
Jackson-Johnson
they constantly
ilarities. Friends would point out: "They came from the same stock;
their fortunes
from the rough rock of ad
they had both hewed
were
and
knew
their hopes and fears;
the
both
of
versity;
people
as well
as intellectual
both were men of physical
courage; both
hated sham and both were passionate
lovers of the Union." The
as President,
identification
Johnson refused to allow Jack
persisted;
its
inconvenient
son's desk to be moved,
location. "I love
despite
was Old
"Whatever
he
said.
the memory
of General
Jackson,"
I
revere."
Hickory's
defense

The

Break-out:

Confluence

of Motives,

Resources,

and

Opportunities
Andrew
seems
campaign
against Major
Johnson's
Stephenson
to mark a turning point in his life. At that time, he
brought together
the motives
from his childhood,
the skills from his
re
period of
in
and
the
the
close
environment
to
hearsal,
opportunities
political
serve him for the
form a distinctive
strategy that would
political
rest of his life. His emergence
does not have the same
clarity and
960

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

concentration
that we find in some other cases.24
of development
in 1835, had
But if one had been able to observe Johnson closely
to
in
his
with
relation
careful
his
situation
life
history
analyzed
at
to the elements
of presidential
attention
least
style,
leadership
the following generalizable
elements would have emerged.
is
the most
feature of the break-out
Perhaps
important
phase
so
the marked
infusion of confidence.
may
Deprivation
damage
self-esteem
that success is incapable of rescuing
it, or strategies of
to meet extreme emergencies
of deprivation
adaptation
developed
too
to
much
be
be
affected
later
fixed
may
experience.
early
by
as in many others, the break-out
In Johnson's case, however,
period
was one in which
the
of success coincided with
the achievement
of the development
of skill and the community's
readi
culmination
a
as to fix a
ness to
respond in such way
political style.
As is evident from the account of Johnson's success in Greene
ville, his fortunes changed rapidly for the better, contrasting mark
a few years before. This
is
edly with his situation of only
picture
on Harold
in
clarified
the
table
D.
based
efficiently
following
formulation of values,25 noting the degree and
LasswelTs well-known
of Johnson's
attainment
in each of his pre-Greeneville
character
at
the
time
his
and
for the state legislature.
of
years
candidacy
The rapid pace of these changes,
their simultaneous
develop
the contrast with his previous
fortunes made
ment, and particularly
this period a special time of growth and increasing self-esteem
such
as
never known. Aside
some
had
from
Johnson
primitive
learning

(on which he could build) and his skill at his trade (which he

a skill),
could perfect and which
taught him that he could develop
a few years, he
to early adulthood
he brought
very little. Within
success and
a
had attained
two are closely
adopted
style. The
the critical period of commitment
to a set of
related: To discover
one must watch
distinctive
increases in sup
for massive
strategies,
plies of confidence.
Johnson's breakthrough
period shows two other features of par
a
for distinctive
ticular significance
political
special kind
strategies:
a
to
a
close
and
of relatedness
sudden, radical expansion of
group
"field of power."26 Johnson,
the politician's
like others with pro
emotional
nounced
conflicts, probably
experienced
strong tenden
to escape
cies to withdraw
from society,
into a kinder
internal
Such a person may find communication
world.
difficult and com
a common
munion
because he has meanings
impossible,
language
can
and
cannot express
less
formulate, much
feelings he
hardly
961

DAEDALUS
Changes in Value Attainments
in Johnson's Critical Period
time of candidacy
for
state legislature (1835)

At
Value
Power

Pre-Greeneville
None

except

Wealth

Extreme

Enlightenment

No

Skill
Respect

(1808-26)
in family

Public

Very
silT

on single

low; a homeless

skill:
"mud

ineffective
Fatherless;
much
discomfort
mother;
and insecurity

Affection

No male or female friends

among peers; rejected by

Rectitude

Much
learning; Academy
official
Expert in his trade; devel
oping speaking skill
Host

to

students;

nomina

tions and elections

Weil-Being

home-town

means

Moderate

poverty

formal schooling; heard

oratory and learned reading
late

Dependent
tailoring

official

Stable family; own home;

relative ease and happiness
Wife,
children; surrounded
by friendly group

adults

lawbreaker;
Runaway
religious life

no

Decent

achievement;

de

veloping ideology; attached

to religious colleges

or other
share. But thrown, by
into con
occupational
necessity,
a person cannot avoid talk and
tinual company,
may slowly learn,
as
Johnson did, to be of once one with and slightly apart from a
can meet
band of brothers. This closeness
important needs. People
in part
learn to rate themselves
the
ways others react to them,
by
and one such reaction
is simply acceptance
as a member
of the
come
like
old
at
times
not
group. Young people,
people,
together
to accomplish
in
or
even
to
but
talk,
particular
anything
simply by
their physical
to "say" to one another
"we are not
togetherness
alone." When much talk?talk
about politics, in particular?is
added
to this simple juxtaposition,
the context
is
for
arranged
powerful
in expression,
combinations
of affection,
and
experiments
linkage
to broader
social arenas. Johnson was surrounded with
friends
the local working
and out-of-office
class, intelligentsia,
representing
was conversation
entertainment
whole
politicians?whose

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

There was in Johnson's case, again as in many others, a relatively
radical expansion
of his "field of power" at the time he adopted a
shifted from a narrow to
distinctive
strategy. His focus of attention
a
a broad arena of action. The home-town
considering
politician
comes to see his present
in
thus
candidacy
place
relatively big-time
a new
for the state legislature
perspective.
Johnson's candidacy
to him a significant
the arena of power
leap beyond
represented
resources
accumulated
he had mastered.
Yesterday's
inadvertently
a new and
context
in
larger
suddenly appeared

The Explanation of Presidential Styles

no amount of success could
incomplete;
left
from
his traumatic childhood.
the
needs
for
fully compensate
For the rest of his life, he would
struggle to make up for what he
had suffered. His habit of restraint at work and at close quarters
a way
to serve as a maintenance
with others continued
technique,
of surviving a chaotic future. But oratory offered him much more:
a
even from
power to control a Crowd and, at last,
country; respect,
as
in
the
the aristocrats;
vindication;
rectitude,
affection,
applause;
in that calm of the
in the effective use of skill; well-being,
pleasure
his mind
and heart. And in a more
follows
soul which
speaking
and
indirect
Johnson a way of
way, oratory gave Andrew
complex
in
at
of
the
others
the
their place and
world
odds,
putting
setting
thus confirming his own place of defeat and failure.
Johnson's distinctive
style, formed in late adolescence
political
his
Much
and early adulthood,
style in the Presidency.
presaged
this early coalescing
of disparate
elements
between
intervened
into a structured
identity and the exercise of his presidential
style.
and fillings of his career on the way to the nation's
The backings
in contrast
to the clear
office present a confused picture,
highest
life
these two widely
between
connections
stages. Any
separated
in 1865, that
could have predicted,
attentive
person
moderately
be an outsider, that he would not be socially lionized
Johnson would
the
elite, that he would have difficulty coping with
Washington
by
forces in that age of hate and sentimentality.
the violent political
But how would he react to these challenges? How might his ways
and dealing with them have been foreseen?
of approaching
one analytic
I have suggested
system for tracing the roots of
are many uncertainties
in it; one would
There
style.
presidential
to more Presidents,
want
to see it applied
ineluding
especially
Johnson's

success was

963

DAEDALUS
some not yet elected. But in most
the period
accounts,
biographical
an adult
was
can be
which
during
identity
forged
readily isolated,
one
to
is
when
sensitive
marked
of confidence,
infusions
particularly
a
in
contrast
to
and
fast,
coming
simultaneously,
deprived past; to
a
a
to
kind
of
and
close
special
supportive group life;
relationship
and to a relatively
sudden expansion
of the "field of power." Once
in the light of a short list of
located, this period can be surveyed
a
for
role.
Those
requirements
presidential
emphasized
particularly
can be traced back into the
as a rehearsal
learning process, viewed
a
for the emergence
of the distinctive
general
style. Together with
assessment
accounts
of
from
of self-evaluation
early life,
gathered
these explorations may reveal, in clearer form than they would
in
a
later adulthood,
the fundamental
of
President's
shape
potential
strategies for adapting to the challenges he will confront.
a man
is chosen to lead a great nation, he stands in a
When
one not much
and
like the steps he has
uniquely high
lonely place,
in
is
But
his
been
another time when
memory
recently
climbing.
he came out of relative smallness
into relative greatness. Then he
had tried a style, and it worked. What
would
be more natural
than for him to feel that it
work
might
again?27

References
is any better
con
in other political
is not to imply
that the record
in the United
to do better
the assumption
texts; but we ought
States, where
via a well-defined
time and for a definite
is at a definite
of power
period

1. This

than
system,
creates?the
2.

I have

tried

Recruitment
3.

See

my

Presidents,"

in

situations

to show

a way

these

of using

East

for

in The

this

Styles:

point.

Lawmakers:

(New Haven,

Life

Two

Johnson, A Study in Courage

1965).
*Weak'

(New York,

essays showing how Johnson fared

see Willard
of historians,
Tennessee
Historical
Society

waves

successive

anew?even

defines

Rustow

distinctions

to Legislative

5. Ibid., pp. 333-34. For bibliographic

Reputation."

himself

Presidential
Predicting
Issues
(forthcoming).

and
of Social

4. TJoyd Paul Stryker, Andrew

1930), pp. 313-14.
with

leader

to Dankwart

indebted

and Adaptation

"Classifying
Journal

the

where

am

office.

Hays,

"Andrew

Publications,

Johnson's
Nos.
31-32

(1959); Carmen Anthony Nataro, "History of the Biographic Treatment

of

Andrew

Quarterly,

Johnson
Vol.
24, No.

Historiographies
964

in

the
2

Twentieth

(1965);

Albert

Century,"
Castel,

Rise and Fall," Mid-America,

Tennessee
"Andrew

Historical
Johnson:

His

Vol. 45, No. 3 (1963).

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

a

For

6.

sense

years,
Andrew

see

It was

at

on Johnson's
documentation
of basic
early
poverty
The
Graf
Haskins
and Ralph W.
(eds.),
of
Papers
Vol.
Tenn.,
1967).
1, 1822-1851
(Knoxville,

of

the

Leroy

P.

Johnson,
this

that

point

reporters,
defending
See Milton
Lomask,

Johnson

himself

interviews
to
giving
friendly
the impeachment
against
charges.
on Trial
President
(New
York,

began

vigorously
Johnson:

Andrew

1960), pp. 307-10.

7. For

detailed

accounts

of

this

see Lomask,

event,

Andrew

Presi

Johnson:

dent on Trial, pp. 28 fiF;Stryker, Andrew Johnson, A Study in Courage,

pp. 166 fiF; Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew Johnson and Reconstruction
(Chicago, 1960), pp. 135-36; George F. Milton, The Age of Hate,
Andrew Johnson and the Radicals (New York, 1930), Ch. 8; Robert
Andrew
and Patriot
Plebeian
York,
(New
Johnson,
1928),
pp.
A
Commoner:
Brazilla
Carroll
The Courageous
264-66;
Reece,
Biography
C. Truman,
Johnson
1962),
(Charleston,
of Andrew
pp. 51-52;
Benjamin
"Anecdotes
The Century
Vol.
of Andrew
85, p. 435.
Magazine,
Johnson,"

Winston,

8. Quoted
9. The

in McKitrick,
day

my
the

personally
Military
Johnson
10.
11.

Ibid.,

144

written
also

been

(Milton,

The

136.

Stanton
thank

"to express
for
you
sincerely
to extend
to me

pleased
as
Brigadier

service"

my

p.

Age

of

General
Hate,

and

Andrew

).

'It was

avers:

to exempt
the state's

line

have

you

Reconstruction,

147.

Lomask

(Andrew

and

personally,

during
officially
Governor
of Tennessee
p.

had

Johnson

which

the Radicals,

and

Johnson

and

and
p.

inauguration,
to you

regard
kindness

Lincoln
in

12.

before

highest
uniform

Andrew

Johnson:

assumed
that Johnson
himself
had
asked
generally
as a means
from the proclamation
Tennessee
of holding
were
of whom
slaveowners"
many
Whigs,
pro-Union
on Trial, pp. 24-25).
President

Ibid.

and
Andrew
13. McKitrick,
from
Johnson
Reconstruction,
p. 294,
quoting
New
York Herald.
words
the strongly
carried
the
Johnson's
pro-Johnson
even when
was
his manner
of speaking
drama
of these
calm.
speeches,
of his guards, William
of one
H. Crook,
the recollections
See
Through
Five
Administrations
the other
he
York,
(New
1907),
hand,
p. 106. On
his
of delivery.
See Howard
could
K.
through
style
ignite
platitudes
Year
assesses
The Critical
Beale
(New
1930),
York,
Beale,
pp. 362-63.
as "disastrous,"
but
1866
attributes
his
to
speeches
Johnson's
tendency
to "an
of himself"
overmuch
"talk
rather
than
to
inferiority
complex"
11.
Ibid., pp. 367,
"egotism."

14. Johnson frequently

spoke of himself

as being,

like Christ, Moses,

imitation
"In
of Him
of old who
died
for the preservation
of
martyr:
I believed
which
that mercy
I exercised
to be my
men,
(Lomask,
duty"
on Trial,
President
Andrew
"Caesar
had
his Brutus,
Johnson:
p. 196).

Jesus Christ his Judas, and I've had my Ed Cooper. Get thee behind me,

965

DAEDALUS
Satan"

and would
to

Johnson,
"If
I would

tonight,

Study

I were

frequent:

in Courage,
to play

disposed
one
imitate

of

the

p. 784).
the orator
ancient

And
and

tragedies

takeWilliam H. Seward and bring him before you and point

hacks

the

garments
15. McKitrick,
16.

are

in declamation

deal

you

Andrew

(Stryker,
of blood

themes

scars

and

saturated

with

Andrew

Johnson

gore

I would
his person.
exhibit
the bloody
upon
from his gushing
wounds"
(ibid.,
p. 356).

and Reconstruction,

in Courage,
an account
p. 361. For
the effects
in
of his
ineptitude,"
speeches
as
who wrote,
(such
Lowell,
alienating
James Russell
an
we
lecturer
in Johnson!"),
"What
have
and his failure
anti-Johnson
to learn "that
the President
of the United
cannot
States
to be a
afford
see David
Andrew
Donald,
quarreler,"
"Why They
Impeached
Johnson,"
American
a more
Vol.
1 (December,
For
8, No.
1956).
Heritage,
sym
account
the content
of and the reactions
to Johnson's
pathetic
stressing
see
series of articles
Phifer's
in the Tennessee
Historical
speeches,
Gregg
Vol.
1-4 (1952).
11, Nos.
Quarterly,
Andrew

Stryker,

stressing

p. 432.

Johnson,

Johnson's
northern

Study

"political
moderates

17. McKitrick,
Andrew
than
factors
other
interpretations,
1965);

Rouge,

udice,

1865-1866
and

Johnson
gural
18.

Barber,

and Reconstruction,
Of
Johnson
course,
pp. 437-38.
were
at work.
For broader
Johnson's
speeches
political
see David
The Politics
Donald,
(Baton
of Reconstruction
LaWanda
and John H. Cox,
and Prej
Politics,
Principle,

lecture
The

19. Variously

Lawmakers

Ch.

...,
with

the

Speaker,
as to

disagreement
Plebeian
Johnson,

Andrew

1963);

Kenneth M.

Stampp, Andrew

Dream
of the Agrarian
1962),
(Oxford,
on
the University
of Oxford
before
May

delivered

reported
Columbia

Speaker,
without

(New York,

the Failure

an

inau

18,

1962.

6.
titles

American

United
States
Speaker,
Standard
but
Speaker,
Speaker,
its primarily
British
content.
See Winston,
and Patriot,
Andrew
p. 10; Stryker,
Johnson,
Enfield's

A Study in Courage, p. 3; John Savage, The Life and Public Services

of Andrew Johnson (New York, 1865), p. 14. The fifth edition, published
in 1818 (Philadelphia: Abraham Small) is titled The American Speaker;
A

Selection
and Forensic
Particu
of Popular,
Parliamentary
Eloquence;
in the United
States. The
name
of the
for the Seminaries
larly Calculated
is not given.
in part:
some
The
"Without
reads,
compiler
preface
pro
seems
in Oratory,
to be an insurmountable
there
barrier
to the
ficiency

of genius?with
is obvious.
it, the road to distinction
patriotic
aspirations
in our Federal
The many
bodies
form
of government,
and
Legislative
a suitable
of our Courts,
character
the diversified
field
for every
present
effort
from
the unfledged
of the callow
to the mature,
young,
grade,

eagle-eyed flight in the face of the God of Day.

"It has
minds

of

been
our

our

aim,

young

men,

examples of Genius:

in making
by

placing

selection,
in their view

to endeavor
some

of

to fire
the

part of our
be suspected

selection
of

the

brightest

to enable them 'With lips of fire to plead

. . .
a great
cause!'
country's
Although
we would
not
and glowing
character,

966

this

their

is of an ardent

denying

the

superi

Adult Identity and Presidential Style

of

ority

cool

deliberate

and

argument

how

reasoning?but

have

often

these failed of their effect, by a neglect of appropriate declamation?

How often has truth herself been indebted to a happy appeal to the
. . .We
are
she has made?
fully convinced
impression
the
is this that captivates
to impress, we must
feel?it
never
the
is
of
felt?with
the
heart?without
Speech
electricity
feeling,
even
is overlooked?
which
impression
ungracefulness
feeling
produces,
iii-v.
and the man
lost in the Orator."
Ibid., pages
20.

for

the

all

feelings,
of one

truth?that

Stryker,

Andrew

Johnson,

in Courage,

Study

p. 3.

21. Milton, The Age of Hate, Andrew Johnson and the Radic?is, p. 74.
22. Fred Greenstein's Children and Politics
the

significance

23. An early biographical

shows

how
to

respect
gence,
should
one

the

or

a hint

be

cared

he

will,

drops
a want

people,
that

there

for, Mr.

by

equivalent
or a bold
avowal

in Congress:
experience
into dis
that may
be twisted
or intelli
in their
integrity

in his

presaged
an

expression
of confidence

are

interests

J. fires

up;

in

other

society

than

his

which

ten to
feet,
from
the speaker
something
from his
has
just fallen
lips,
to weaken
materially
tending

and,
extract

springing

questions,
retraction
of what

well-put
to a

either

1965) makes clear

learning.

political

were

themes

these

(New Haven,

sketch for The New York Times, May 21, 1849,

a member

"Whenever

in

of sequence

and opinions
of principles
. . . Mr.
constituents.
J. will

to his

never
an
suffer
interruption.
in the House,
six years
I have
I do not
him
known
ever
seen him consent
to give way
to have
recollect
for an interruption.
or conclusions
is short enough.
If my
He
hour
facts
sir; my
says?'No,
. . .
are not
to the
them/
obtain
the floor
and disprove
sound,
Owing
want
I have
written
Mr.
of which
of early
above,
advantages,
J. at
him
In

with

his

course

the

times

slashes

or

recent

of

the

his

mother-tongue?pronouncing
with
derivation,
or less of
More

little

foreign
or Webster.

Walker
sneer
save

of

at Mr.
by

his

false
J/s many
anglicisms;
one
the
under
smarting

some

words
of many
syllables,
to rules
laid down
regard
by
titter
fellow-members
will
and
yet

point

I have
of

his

rarely
oratorial

seen

it done,
bowie-knife.

are
in uncouth
his views
under
Though
phraseology,
expressed
easily
in
for he
talks
and carefully
facts
culled
stood;
strong
thoughts
quick
as with
a
succession.
He
thrusts
his opponents
and
through
through,
a
hole
and
and
weapon,
rusty
tearing
jagged
big
leaving
something
to fester
Woe
be unto
and be
remembered.
behind
the luckless
wight
a slur upon
a
him
in debate;
who
offers
him,
indignity?cast
personal
two years
to wait
for the opportunity,
it does
when
for if he has
come,
Mr.
the best use of it. He
his tongue;
upon
puts no bridle
J. makes
yet
he

is never

to

the

of

guilty

opposite
as
efforts
being
to mince-meat
he may
ciples
at times, which

party

a
as

personal
a whole.

I can

hear

no

to a

or
fellow-member,
characterize
fairly

I may
Perhaps
and slashingly

slashing
to
grinds
powder
He
against.
contending

crushingly
and then
be

disrespect

other

man

for he
crushing;
measures
the men,
and

takes

and

advocate

maintains
without

even
his
chops
prin

positions,
him
writing

967

DALUS
down

sure

that

words

upon

his

no

Yet

demagogue.
the man

is

one

speaking

own

can

listen

without

the

as

prospects

to him
least

without

regard
man."

public

feeling
morally
to the effect
of his

Graf

and

Haskins,

The Papers of Andrew Johnson, pp. 677-78.

24.

One

thinks,

junior
25.

For

year

the

for example,
at Amherst.

list of values

and

of

an

the

events

critical

illustration

of

concentrated

their

use,

in

Coolidge's

see Lasswell's

Power

and Personality (New York, 1948), p. 17. Many of Lasswell's insights on

political agitation apply to Johnson. See his Psychopathology and Politics
(New York, 1960), Chs. 6-7.
26.

The

is Alexander
phrase
Issues.
Journal
of Social

George's.

See

his

forthcoming

article

in

the

27. See also Erik Erikson, Young Man Luther: A Study in Psychoanalysis
and History (New York, 1962); Alexander L. and Juliette L. George,
Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House (New York, 1956); James Jones,
Life of Andrew Johnson (Greeneville, Tenn., 1901); Helen Merell Lynd,
On Shame and the Search for Identity (New York, 1961 ).

968