Page "Andrew Johnson" Paragraph 30

Despite his initial reluctance, Johnson agreed to run for re-election for governor in 1855, and became the nominee at the party convention.

His prospects dwindled when Meredith P. Gentry received the Whig nomination.

A series of more than a dozen of debates ensued, where the exchanges grew increasingly vitriolic.

Johnson was surprisingly victorious, albeit with a narrower margin.

Not long thereafter Johnson gave a speech in Nashville, denouncing the Know Nothing Party, and rebuked a prominent Whig lawyer, Thomas T. Smiley, who took issue with him.

Smiley later wrote to Johnson, saying he was ready to fight ; a potential duel was prevented by the intervention of Washington Burrow and Benjamin F. Cheatham.

In his second term, the Whigs remained in control of the legislature, again limiting Johnson's ability to influence the agenda.

When the presidential election of 1856 approached, Johnson and supporters harbored a vague hope for the presidency, and he gave a speech to the Tennessee Democratic delegates reiterating his views ; some county conventions designated him a favorite son and the Nashville Union and American proposed his nomination.

Johnson's position that the best interests of the Union were served by slavery in some areas made him a practical compromise candidate for president.

However, he was not nominated in 1856 in part due to a split within his home state's delegation.

Though he was not impressed by either, he campaigned for the Democratic ticket of Buchanan and Breckenridge.