Plot Against Andrew Johnson

Background

At the time, Andrew Johnson was listed as sitting vice president. The record is categorized as foiled or abandoned plot with a high confidence level.

Event details

The reported method was planned shooting or stabbing. Failed; assigned attacker did not carry out the attack.

Aftermath

Atzerodt had been assigned to kill Vice President Johnson at the Kirkwood House hotel but lost his nerve and spent the night drinking at a nearby bar instead, never attempting the attack. Johnson was awakened early the next morning with news that Lincoln had been shot. Atzerodt was arrested within days after a nationwide manhunt and tried by military tribunal along with the other Booth conspirators. He was convicted and hanged at the Washington Arsenal on July 7, 1865. His failure to act meant Johnson survived to become president, profoundly influencing the direction of post-Civil War Reconstruction.

Historical significance

George Atzerodt's failure to carry out his assigned murder of Vice President Johnson is one of the pivotal what-ifs of American history. Had Johnson been killed, the Radical Republicans who controlled Congress would likely have controlled the succession and may have shaped Reconstruction very differently. Instead, Johnson survived and his presidency became one of the most destructive to the prospects of Black Americans in the post-war South. The coordinated nature of the April 14 conspiracy—three simultaneous attacks on Lincoln, Johnson, and Secretary Seward—remains the most ambitious political assassination operation ever attempted against the United States government, and the trial of the conspirators set lasting precedents about military justice.

Sources

• George Atzerodt — Wikipedia contributors
• Lincoln assassination conspirators — Wikipedia contributors
• List of United States presidential assassination attempts and plots — Wikipedia contributors