Roast Chicken with Sweet Potato Hash Browns with Apples
With the assassination of President Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became our 17th President. He was an old-fashioned southern Jacksonian Democrat.
He was born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1808 and grew up in poverty. As a boy he served as a Taylor’s apprentice. He ran away and opened his own Taylor shop in Greenville, Tennessee. He needed to make more money because he was helping support his widowed mother and younger brother. Eliza McCardle was almost 16 and Andrew was 17 when she first saw him. He was driving a blind pony hitched to a small cart and she said to a friend, “There goes my beau!” They were married within a year.
Eliza fortunately received a good education and was delighted to teach Andrew writing and arithmetic. They had very limited means but Eliza did her best to keep house and bring up five children which helped give Andrew confidence, a feeling of belonging and love that he never had growing up.
He entered politics and became an adept stump speaker, elevating ordinary people and lowering the importance of the plantation aristocrasy. (a stump speech is a standard speech that can be used over and over and is designed to keep candidates focused on their political platform) He served in the House and Senate in the 1840’s and 50’s, He advocated a homestead bill to provide a free farm for poor families. Like him, when the Civil War came, people of east Tennessee remained loyal to the Union. During the secession crisis, he remained in the Senate even when Tennessee seceded which made him a traitor in the eyes of most Southerners. Lincoln sent him to Nashville as Military Governor in 1862. Rebel forces caught Eliza at home with part of her family. Only after months of uncertainty did they rejoin Andrew in Nashville. By 1865, a soldier son and son-in-law had died and Eliza was an invalid for life, due to continuing attacks of tuberculosis and the trama of being held by the rebels.
In 1864 Andrew had been nominated for Vice President. He had been nominated by the Repuplican Party even though he was a Southern Democrat. They were advocating a platform that their National Union Party was for all loyal men.
Then, the unthinkable happened. Lincoln was killed and Johnson became President.
Eliza found little pleasure in her husband’s position. She settled into a second-floor room that became the center of activities for a large family; her two sons, her widowed daughter Mary Stover and her children; her older daughter Martha with her husband, Senator David T. Patterson and their children. Martha became the White House hostess.
By the time Congress met in December 1865, most southern states were reconstructed, slavery was being abolished, but the “black codes” to regulate the freed man were beginning to appear.
The Radical Republicans moved to change Johnsons’s program. They gained support of northerners who were shocked to see southerners keeping many prewar leaders and imposing prewar restrictions upon African-Americans. The Radicals refused to seat any Senator from the old Confederacy. They passed measures dealing with former slaves. Johnson vetoed the legislation. Next, the Radicals obtained enough votes to pass legislation over his veto-the first time that Congress had overridden a President on an important bill. They passed the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which established African-Americans as citizens and was aimed at stopping discrimination against them. A few months later Congress submitted the Fourteenth Amendment, which specified that no state should “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Johnson was the worst bigot and according to many polls and historians, our worst president due to his bigotry.Quoting him, “This is a country for white men and as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.” Fortunately the Senate overrode his veto.
It is terribly unfortunate that there was so much hatred in this man toward the African-American people. It is so contradictory considering his thirty plus years defending our borders, his heroism and loyalty to his country and his love of people and his great love of family and children.
All the former Confederate States except Tennessee refused to ratify the amendment. The Radical Republicans won an overwhelming victory in Congressional elections that fall.
In March of 1867, they designed their own plan of Reconstruction, again placing southern states under military rule. They also passed laws placing restrictions upon the President.
When Johnson allegedly violated one of these, the Tenure of Office Act, by dismissing the Secretary of War, the House voted eleven articles of impeachment against him. He was tried by the Senate in the spring of 1868 and acquitted by one vote. “I knew he’d be acquitted; I knew it,” declared Eliza. Her faith in him never wavered during those difficult days. To show her courage and faith, all White House social events continued as usual. Martha was a competent and gracious hostess even during the impeachment crisis.
We will now go back to talking about food and the social side of President Johnson.
The first year in the White House would be the only happy year Johnson would have until after the impeachment trial, when he had just a few months remaining in his presidency to relax and entertain his friends.
His daughter Martha Patterson was still acting as official hostess for her mother who was too ill for large affairs. She established a dairy to keep the White House supplied with fresh milk and butter which the Johnson family loved. She purchased two Jersey cows and the White House grounds became their home to the delight of the Washington inhabitants, especially their children.
Martha was a born housekeeper and soon gave the White House a new look. While Mary Lincoln, grief-stricken and depressed remained in her room, the public rooms downstairs were being vandalized. Tobacco juice stained the rugs, upholstery and drapes. The curtains had been cut to pieces. Many beautiful items of worth had been stolen and everything was filthy. Frugal Martha had new wallpaper put up in the Red, Green and Blue parlors. Linen slipcovers hid the stained furniture. When there were large receptions, Martha wisely covered the new velvet carpets with muslin to protect them. Martha had to be frugal because Congress wouldn’t appropriate adequate funds to clean and replace the furniture.
During the pleasant times in the White House, the family had popcorn parties, roasted apples and chestnuts and enjoyed their large extended family of twelve including five grandchildren. The grandchildren with their activities transformed the White House into a happy place. President Johnson loved children. There were many children’s parties held that first summer. A friend of Andrew, Junior once was invited to a luncheon with the President. The conversation at the table turned to pirates, which made President Johnson smile. It was such a large smile that it was remembered by the staff for years to come. Apparently, it didn’t happen too often during the course of his busy and pressure-filled days, but always when children were around. The children used to coax the President away from his work to take long walks in Rock Creek Park and drives into the country. One afternoon on the way back to the White House, the President saw a woman carrying a baby in the pouring rain. He stopped and picked them up and took them home.
President Johnson preferred the country cooking of his childhood in Tennessee such as Pine Bark Stew. He also knew the versitility of the sweet potato and loved Sweet Potato Pudding, Pie and Pone.
In spite of the political problems, Johnson won praise for his social skills, his ease and comfort in entertaining. He was genuinely interested in people and he loved his family.
He declared a Thanksgiving holiday for December 7, 1865. Later, as we know, the date was changed. He was the first president to give government employees the day off making Thanksgiving a legal holiday.
On December 29th, the President’s sixtieth birthday, there was a great children’s party held. Engraved invitations were sent to all the children in the city. President Johnson stood at the entrance to the Blue Room and greeted all of them. Even his wife came downstairs for this event. The White House was beautifully lighted and decorated to look like fairy land. One little guest exclaimed there were “gorgeous refreshments of ice cream and cakes and glace fruits.”
On New Year’s Day, another huge reception was held and also on Washington’s Birthday where he shook hands with thousands of people. On March 3rd, the house was again filled with thousands of people who had come to say good-bye.
When the Johnsons went home to Greenville, Tennessee, his friends and neighbors “demonstrated their confidence in him by returning him to Congress as their Senator in 1874.” He was only able to serve a little less than a year before he died. Eliza died six months after Andrew but had lived to see her husband vindicated by their state.
Johnson was one of the few Presidents to leave the White House with remaining funds instead of leaving with the White House being close to bankruptcy as other Presidents would do in the future.
Sweet Potato Hash with Apples or Sweet Potato Pone
(This is my spin on an authentic recipe that is much less work)
Bake 3-4 large yams for about 40 minutes. They will not be done. Peel and cube. Peel, core and slice 2 large apples.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a frying pan and saute apples until they are lightly brown. Sprinkle with a little cinnamon and nutmeg. Transfer them to a small bowl. Turn up heat to medium high, add one stick butter and hash brown the sweet potatoes. They have to be watched because there is a lot of sugar in yams and they will burn if not watched, but they are suppose to be dark brown for maximum flavor. Add back the apples and combine. Serve with pork roast or chops or a roast chicken.
The second idea is closer to Sweet Potato Pone. Mix the sweet potatoes and apples with 1 1/2-2 sticks butter, melted, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/2-1 cup cream, grated rind of one orange, 1/4 cup orange juice, 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated. Mix everything together and spread in a buttered casserole dish. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes.
Please Be Seated! 