From the ranks of the rich and the aristocratic in the South, Johnson had always been excluded.

Even when he was governor of his State or a senator of the United States, he found himself socially inferior to many whom he excelled in intellect and character.

His sentiments were regarded as hostile to slavery, and to be hostile to slavery was to fall inevitably under the ban in any part of the South for the fifty years preceding the war.

His political strength was with the non-slave-holding white population of Tennessee which was vastly larger than the slave-holding population, the proportion indeed being twenty-seven to one.

With these a "good fellow" ranked all the higher for not possessing the graces or, as they would term them, the "airs" of society.
As Mr.Johnson grew in public favor and increased in reputation, as his talents were admitted and his power in debate appreciated, he became eager to compel recognition from those who had successfully proscribed him.