On the day after the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, Andrew Johnson became President of the United States. He was a native of Raleigh, North Carolina--born in 1808. With no advantages of education, he passed his boyhood in poverty. In 1828 he removed to Greenville, Tennessee, where he soon rose to distinction, and was elected to Congress. As a member of the United States Senate in 1860-61, he opposed secession with all his powers. In 1862 he was appointed military governor of Tennessee. This office he held until he was nominated for the vice-presidency. [Illustration: Andrew Johnson.] 2. On the 1st of February, 1865, Congress adopted an amendment to the Constitution by which slavery was abolished throughout the Union. By the 18th of the following December, the amendment had been ratified by the legislatures of twenty-seven States, and was duly proclaimed as a part of the Constitution. The emancipation proclamation had been issued _as a military necessity_; and the results of the instrument were now incorporated in the fundamental law of the land. [Sidenote: =Amnesty Proclamation.=] 3. On the 29th of May, the AMNESTY PROCLAMATION was issued by the President. By its provisions a pardon was extended to all persons--except those specified in certain classes--who had taken part in upholding the Confederacy. During the summer of 1865, the great armies were disbanded, and the victors and vanquished returned to their homes to resume the works of peace. 4. The finances of the nation were in an alarming condition. The war-debt went on increasing until the beginning of 1866. The yearly interest grew to a hundred and thirty-three million dollars in gold. The expenses of the government had reached two hundred millions of dollars annually. But the revenues of the nation proved sufficient to meet these enormous outlays, and at last the debt began to diminish. [Sidenote: =The French in Mexico.=] 5. During the civil war, the emperor Napoleon III. succeeded in setting up a French empire in Mexico. In 1864 the Mexican crown was conferred on Maximilian of Austria, who sustained his authority with French and Austrian soldiers. But the Mexican president Juarez headed a revolution; the government of the United States rebuked France for her conduct; Napoleon withdrew his army; Maximilian was overthrown; and eventually, on the 13th of June, 1867, was tried and condemned to be shot. Six days afterwards the sentence was carried into execution. [Sidenote: =The Atlantic Cable.=]