Historians generally regard Andrew Johnson as the worst possible person to have served as President at the end of the American Civil War. Johnson is regarded as a great failure in achieving a satisfying and just peace due to his gross incompetence in federal office and his incredible miscalculation of the extent of public support for his policies. He is regarded as a rigid, dictatorial racist who was unable to compromise or accept a political reality that contradicted his own ideas. Rather than forging a compromise between Radical Republicans and moderates, his actions unified the opposition against him. His obstinate opposition to the Freedmen's Bureau Bill, the Civil Rights Act, and other civil rights legislation.
