Andrew Johnson, in a Letter Dripping in Sarcasm, Says He Is Delighted to Have Fired His Correspondent and Would Be Glad to Do the Same Thing Again

“It at all times affords me much pleasure to serve my countrymen in that manner which will be promote their interest, pecuniarily or otherwise…We are told there is nothing impossible and in the course of human events it may come to pass that and I may be so situated that it will again be in my power to bestow a similar ‘blessing’ upon you.”

In 1862 President Lincoln approved U.S. Internal Revenue appointments for the state of New York, and attorney Henry W. Eastman was named Tax Assessor for New York’s 1st District. Eastman was still holding that position when Lincoln’s assassination thrust Andrew Johnson into the presidency. On November 26, 1866, President Johnson removed him from that post, and replaced him with Edwin O. Perrin, a well known Democrat and friend of some U.S. Senators, who had spoken up for him to Johnson. Johnson had been told that Eastman had said some very unflattering things about the incoming President, claims that Eastman denied.  The move was not popular with the other assessors and clerks in the district, and on December 7, 25 of them, perhaps the entire office, signed a letter calling Eastman “the honest and efficient Assessor of this District”, and taking into account their “own self respect” and the “best interests of the government”, tendered their resignations en masse. Eastman protested his firing to the Secretary of the Treasury, Hugh McCullough, and included the letter of resignation by the 25 men, but the Commissioner of Internal Revenue responded by offering him no solace but refusing to accept the staff’s resignations. Years went by and Eastman was still stung by a sense of injustice in his removal. Finally he wrote to former President Andrew Johnson, supposedly to get his autograph but actually to reopen the old wound.

Autograph letter signed, Greeneville, TN, March 30, 1874, to Eastman, marked “private”, the most sarcastic letter by an American president we have ever seen. He essentially laughed at Eastman’s contention, and says he would be glad to do the same thing to Eastman again. “Dear Sir, Your letter of the 9th instant has been received and read. The ostensible of object in writing your letter is to obtain my autograph; but at the same time take the occasion to inform me that when I came to the position as ‘President of the U.S.’ that you were assessor of Internal Revenue and that I under the influence of Mr. Perrin ‘intentionally ejected you from office.’ You also state that you ‘do not now write by way of complaint of the treatment’ for in diverse ways it proved to be a blessing in disguise. It at all times affords me much pleasure to serve my countrymen in that manner which will be promote their interest, pecuniarily or otherwise. You will therefore very readily imagine the gratification even at this late period on being informed that your ejection from office provided to be a blessing in disguise. We are told there is nothing impossible and in the course of human events it may come to pass that and I may be so situated that it will again be in my power to bestow a similar ‘blessing’ upon you. It is wise to be hopeful in looking to the future. As requested you will find the autograph inclosed.”

This is a remarkable glimpse at Johnson’s actual personality, one that we don’t recall seeing before.