President Andrew Johnson

[zirconium]

When I was a child, I had a coloring book on the presidents of the United States. One of the details that stayed with me was that of Andrew Johnson being buried with a copy of the U.S. Constitution placed beneath his head.

So, thirty-odd years later, I drove to what is now the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery to pay my respects. I parked at Monument Hill, spent some time with the graves there, and then walked around. There was much to ponder among the hundreds of other headstones there.













Earlier that day, I'd walked around the museum buildings on the national historic site. I was especially taken with the depiction of Johnson as a Greeneville tailor (and budding politician), listening to the locals as he worked: