Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects.

Shy and retiring by nature Eliza Johnson usually remained in Greeneville during Johnson's political rise. The new president favored quick restoration of the seceded states to the Union.

A Democrat who ran with Lincoln on the National Union ticket Johnson came to office as the Civil War concluded. He became Governor of Tennessee for four years and was elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857.