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JOHNSON, Richard Mentor

JOHNSON, Richard Mentor
Library of Congress
JOHNSON, Richard Mentor
1780–1850

Office

Representative, Senator, Vice President

State/Territory

Kentucky

Party

Democrat, Democratic Republican, Jackson Republican, Jacksonian

Congress(es)

10th (1807–1809), 11th (1809–1811), 12th (1811–1813), 13th (1813–1815), 14th (1815–1817), 15th (1817–1819), 16th (1819–1821), 17th (1821–1823), 18th (1823–1825), 19th (1825–1827), 20th (1827–1829), 21st (1829–1831), 22nd (1831–1833), 23rd (1833–1835), 24th (1835–1837)

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Concise Biography

JOHNSON, Richard Mentor, (brother of James Johnson, brother of John Telemachus Johnson, uncle of Robert Ward Johnson), A Representative and a Senator from Kentucky and a Vice President of the United States; born at "Beargrass," Jefferson County, Ky., near the present site of Louisville, October 17, 1780; attended the common schools and Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky.; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1802 and commenced practice in Great Crossings, Ky.; member, State house of representatives 1804-1806 and again in 1819; elected as a Democratic Republican to the Tenth and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1807-March 3, 1819); chairman, Committee on Claims (Eleventh Congress), Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War (Fifteenth Congress); commissioned colonel of Kentucky Volunteers and commanded a regiment in engagements against the British in lower Canada in 1813; elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John J. Crittenden; reelected as a Jackson Republican (and later Jacksonian) and served from December 10, 1819, to March 3, 1829; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1829; chairman, Committee on Post Office and Post Roads (Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses); elected as a Jacksonian candidate to the Twenty-first and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1829-March 3, 1837); chairman, Committee on Post Office and Post Roads (Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congresses), Committee on Military Affairs (Twenty-second through Twenty-fourth Congresses); was chosen Vice President of the United States by the Senate on February 8, 1837, no candidate having received a majority of the electoral vote, and served under President Martin Van Buren from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1841; member, State house of representatives 1850; died in Frankfort, Ky., November 19, 1850; interment in the Frankfort Cemetery.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

Boston Public Library

Boston, MA
Papers: 4 letters.

Brooklyn Historical Society

Brooklyn, NY
Papers: June 4, 1834; August 27, 1842. 2 letters.

Cornell University
Rare Books and Manuscript Collections

Ithaca, NY
Papers: April 22, 1837. 1 letter. From William Christy concerning boat trip to Louisville.

Filson Club Historical Society

Louisville, KY
Papers: Ca. 200 letters in the Richard M. Johnson miscellaneous papers; Thomas Henderson papers; Johnson family papers; and other collections.

Georgetown College Library

Georgetown, KY
Papers: Transcript of interview by Leland W. Meyer with John Y. Kelly conducted for Meyer's biography of Johnson.

Indiana Historical Society

Indianapolis, IN
Papers: 12 letters in various collections.

Johns Hopkins University
Milton S. Eisenhower Library

Baltimore, MD
Papers: In Edward M. Greenway collection, 1737-1876.

Kentucky Historical Society

Frankfort, KY
Papers: 1816, 1849. 3 items. Letters concerning politics.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC
Papers: 1808-1847. 1 container; 160 items. Chiefly correspondence concerning financial and banking matters with some items relating to politics and discussions of various measures before the U.S. Congress.
Additional Papers: Material in United States War Department records, 1790-1840; Jeremy Robinson papers, 1806-1832; John Payne papers, 1780-1905; and John McLean papers, 1817-1861, available on microfilm.

Maryland Historical Society

Baltimore, MD
Papers: Correspondence in Francis Gallagher papers, 1848.

New-York Historical Society

New York, NY
Papers: 2 letters (June 8 and 17, 1833) in the Samuel L. Gouverneur papers. Finding aid.

Pierpont Morgan Library

New York, NY
Papers: 1824-1848. 11 items.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Archives Division

Madison, WI
Papers: In Thomas Henderson correspondence, 1805-1841. 2 boxes. Includes photocopies of letters regarding the Choctaw Academy.

University of Kentucky Libraries
Special Collections and Archives

Lexington, KY
Papers: 1819-1848. 25 items.

University of Oklahoma
Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives

Norman, OK
Papers: In Cyrus Kingsbury correspondence, 1819-1869; and Peter Perkins Pitchlynn papers, 1815-1888.

University of Virginia
Alderman Library

Charlottesville, VA
Papers: In Robert Whitehead papers, 1830-1978 (bulk 1830-1839).

Virginia State Library and Archives

Richmond, VA
Papers: In George Rust papers, 1788-1858 (bulk 1815-1858); and Tazewell family papers, 1756-1931.

Xavier University
McDonald Memorial Library

Cincinnati, OH
Papers: 2 letters (1833, 1838), one written from the U.S. Senate chamber, in the Moses Dawson correspondence, 1811-1845. Available on microfilm. Finding aid.

Yale University Libraries
Manuscripts and Archives

New Haven, CT
Papers: In John McLean papers, 1817-1861, on 18 microfilm reels of originals in Library of Congress.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Bolt, Robert. "Vice President Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky: Hero of the ThamesOr the Great Amalgamator?" Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 75 (July 1977): 191-203.

Brown, Thomas. "The Miscegenation of Richard Mentor Johnson as an Issue in the National Election Campaign of 1835-1836." Civil War History 39 (March 1993): 5-30.

Drake, Ella Wells. "Choctaw Academy: Richard M. Johnson and the Business of Indian Education." The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 91 (Summer 1993): 260-297.

Jones, Jonathan Milnor. "The Making of a Vice President: The National Political Career of Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Memphis, 1998.

Meyer, Leland. The Life and Times of Colonel Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky. 1932. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1967.

Padgett, James A., ed. "The Letters of Colonel Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky." Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 38 (1940): 186-201, 323-39; 39 (1941): 22-46, 172-88, 260-74, 358-67; 40 (1942): 69-91.

Rouse, Shelley D. "Colonel Dick Johnson's Choctaw Academy: A Forgotten Educational Experiment." Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly 25 (January 1916): 88-117.

Sprague, Stuart S. "The Death of Tecumseh and the Rise of Rumpsey Dumpsey: The Making of a Vice President." The Filson Club History Quarterly 59 (October 1985): 455-461.

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