President Abraham Lincoln had won the 1860 presidential election as a member of the Republican Party , but , in hopes of winning the support of War Democrats , he ran under the banner of the National Union Party in the 1864 presidential election . At the party 's convention in Baltimore in June , Lincoln was easily nominated , but the party dropped Vice President Hannibal Hamlin from the ticket in favor of Andrew Johnson , a War Democrat who served as the military governor of Tennessee . After the National Union ticket won the 1864 presidential election , Johnson was sworn in as vice president on March 4 , 1865 . On April 14 , 1865 , in the closing days of the Civil War , President Lincoln was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth , a Confederate sympathizer . The shooting of the president was part of a conspiracy to assassinate Lincoln , Vice President Andrew Johnson , and Secretary of State William Seward on the same night . Seward barely survived his wounds , while Johnson escaped attack as his would-be assassin , George Atzerodt , got drunk instead of killing the vice president . Leonard J. Farwell , a fellow boarder at the Kirkwood House , awoke Johnson with news of Lincoln 's shooting at Ford 's Theatre . Johnson rushed to the president 's deathbed , where he remained a short time , on his return promising , " They shall suffer for this . They shall suffer for this . " Lincoln died at 7:22 am the next morning ; Johnson 's swearing in occurred between 10 and 11 am with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding in the presence of most of the Cabinet . Johnson 's demeanor was described by the newspapers as " solemn and dignified " . Johnson presided over Lincoln 's funeral ceremonies in Washington , before his predecessor 's body was sent home to Springfield , Illinois , for burial
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Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Presidency of Andrew Johnson