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Richard Mentor Johnson

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Richard Mentor Johnson
9th Vice President of the United States
In office
March 4, 1837 – March 4, 1841
PresidentMartin Van Buren
Preceded byMartin Van Buren
Succeeded byJohn Tyler
United States Senator
from Kentucky
In office
December 10, 1819 – March 3, 1829
Preceded byJohn J. Crittenden
Succeeded byGeorge M. Bibb
Personal details
Born(1780-10-17)October 17, 1780
Beargrass, Kentucky
DiedNovember 19, 1850(1850-11-19) (aged 70)
Frankfort, Kentucky
Political partyDemocratic-Republican, Democratic
RelationsBrother of James Johnson
Brother of John Telemachus Johnson
Uncle of Robert Ward Johnson
Alma materTransylvania University

Richard Mentor Johnson (October 17, 1780 – November 19, 1850) was the ninth Vice President of the United States, serving in the administration of Martin Van Buren. He was the only vice-president ever elected by the United States Senate under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment. Johnson also represented Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate and began and ended his political career in the Kentucky House of Representatives.

Johnson was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1806. He became allied with fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay as a member of the War Hawks faction that favored war with Britain in 1812. At the outset of the War of 1812, Johnson was commissioned a colonel in the army. He and his brother James served under William Henry Harrison in Upper Canada. Johnson participated in the Battle of the Thames where some maintain that he personally killed the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, a fact he later used to his political advantage.

Following the war, Johnson returned to the House of Representatives, and was elevated to the Senate in 1819 to fill the seat vacated by the resignation of John J. Crittenden. As his constituency grew, the issue of his interracial relationship with a mulatto slave named Julia Chinn became a detriment to his political ambition. Unlike other leaders who had relationships with their slaves, Johnson was open about his relationship with Chinn, and regarded her as his common law wife. He freely claimed Chinn's two daughters as his own, much to the consternation of some in his constituency. The relationship contributed to his unsuccessful defense of his Senate seat in 1829, but his district immediately returned him to the House.

In 1836, Johnson was the Democratic nominee for vice-president on a ticket with Martin Van Buren. Campaigning with the slogan "Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh," Johnson fell just short of the needed electoral votes to secure his election when Virginia's delegation to the electoral college bucked the vote of their state and refused to cast their votes for Johnson. He was elected to the office by the Senate along sharp party lines.

Johnson proved such a liability for the Democrats in the 1836 election that the party refused to renominate him for vice-president in 1840. Instead, Van Buren campaigned with no running mate, and lost the election to William Henry Harrison. Johnson made several failed attempts to return to elected office, finally succeeding in returning to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1850. He died on November 19, 1850, just two weeks into his term.

Early life

Richard Mentor Johnson was born on October 17, 1780, the fifth of eleven children born to Robert and Jemima (Suggett) Johnson on the then Virginia Frontier at "Beargrass," near present-day Louisville, Kentucky.[1][2] That same year, the family removed to Bryan's Station, Kentucky in Fayette County.[3] Johnson's mother was considered a heroine for her actions during Simon Girty's raid on Bryan's Station in August 1782.[3][4] By 1784, the family had moved again, this time to Great Crossing in Scott County, on land purchased by Johnson's father from Patrick Henry and James Madison.[1]

Johnson's formal education did not begin until age fifteen; nevertheless, in 1800 he entered Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky.[3][5] He studied law under Colonel George Nicholas and James Brown, was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1802, and opened his practice at Great Crossing.[3] Later, he owned a retail store, and pursued a number of business ventures with his brothers.[2] Though from an aristocratic background, Johnson often worked pro bono for poor people, prosecuting their cases against the rich.[6] He also opened his home to disabled veterans, widows, and orphans.[2]

Relationship with Julia Chinn

Family tradition holds that Johnson broke off an early engagement because of his mother's contention that his bride-to-be was not worthy of the family.[2] Johnson vowed revenge for his mother's interference, and when his father died, he began a long-term relationship with Julia Chinn, a family slave left to him by his father.[7] Chinn was a light-skinned octoroon; nevertheless, the law considered her a Negro and prevented Johnson from marrying her.[8] Throughout his career, Johnson treated Chinn as his common law wife.[8] When Johnson was away from his Kentucky estate, Chinn was given free rein over his business affairs.[2]

Johnson and Chinn had two daughters, Adaline Chinn Johnson and Imogene Chinn Johnson.[8] Johnson saw to it that both girls were provided an education.[1] Both daughters married white men, whereupon Johnson gave them large tracts of land from his own holdings.[6] The daughters apparently integrated into white society, as they were allowed to inherit Johnson's estate upon his death.[1]

Julia Chinn died in an outbreak of cholera in the summer of 1833.[1] Following his wife's death, Johnson engaged in a relationship with another family slave.[9] When she ran off with another man, Johnson had her captured and sold her at auction. He then began a relationship with her sister.[9]

Political career

File:RMJ.jpg
Portrait of Richard Mentor Johnson

Johnson's political service began in 1804 when he was elected to represent Scott County in the Kentucky House of Representatives.[2] He was only twenty-three at the time of his election, and though the Kentucky Constitution imposed an age requirement of twenty-four for members of the House of Representatives, Johnson was so popular that he was allowed to serve without questions being raised about his age.[10] During his tenure, he supported legislation to protect settlers from land speculators.[2]

Johnson held his seat until 1806 when he was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the United States House of Representatives.[10] At the time of his election in August 1806, he did not meet the U.S. Constitution's age requirement for service in the House (25), but by the time the congressional session commenced the following March, he was of the required age.[10] He would serve six consecutive terms, representing Kentucky's Fourth District from 1807 to 1813, securing one of Kentucky's at-large seats in the House from 1813 to 1815, and representing Kentucky's Third District from 1815 to 1819.[11] He continued to represent the interests of the poor as a national legislator, and his first position of note was opposition to rechartering the First Bank of the United States.[2]

Johnson served as chairman of the Committee on Claims during the Eleventh Congress.[12] The committee was charged with adjudicating financial claims made by veterans of the Revolutionary War. In his capacity as chair, he sought to influence the committee to grant the claim of Alexander Hamilton's widow to wages Hamilton had declined when serving under George Washington.[13] Though Hamilton was a champion of the rival Federalist Party, Johnson had compassion on Hamilton's widow and, before the end of his term, secured payment of the wages.[13]

Many times, the cases brought before Johnson's committee involved claims for which the statute of limitations had expired due to the misplacing of paperwork during the war or the minor status of the claimant during the statute of limitations. In Johnson's view, forfeiture of the claim under these circumstances was a grave injustice. Nevertheless, the committee generally ruled against these claimants. So unpalatable was this practice to Johnson that he requested to be excused from the committee. This request prompted some of his colleagues to brand him a liberal; nevertheless, he was reassigned to the Ways and Means Committee.[14]

War of 1812

During his tenure in Congress, Johnson became affiliated with the War Hawks, a group of legislators who clamored for action against the British for the impressment of American sailors.[6] Congress approved war with the British in June 1812, and immediately following the adjournment of the session, Johnson returned to Kentucky where he raised a force of three hundred volunteers.[15] The volunteers divided themselves into three companies and chose Johnson as their leader, granting him the rank of major.[16] When Johnson's men consolidated with another battalion, Johnson was chosen to lead the entire group and was given the rank of colonel.[16] The combined force began a march to Upper Canada, but on learning of the surrender of General William Hull at the Battle of Detroit, the battalion turned and patrolled Indian lines, preventing their advance into American frontier settlements.[17]

Johnson returned to his seat in Congress in the fall of 1812, whereupon he was consulted by President James Madison and Secretary of War John Armstrong regarding a plan for defeating the British. Johnson devised a plan, and Madison and Armstrong accepted it in its entirety, except for its timing; Johnson proposed a winter campaign, but Madison and Armstrong preferred to wait until summer.[18]

Johnson left Washington, D.C. just before Congress adjourned, armed with orders to raise a regiment of one thousand men. Volunteers turned out in droves, and Johnson quickly met his quota of men. The men organized into two battalions, choosing Johnson as their colonel and his older brother James as their lieutenant colonel. After a brief detour to assure the safety of Fort Meigs, Johnson's men joined the main force of William Henry Harrison, who was pursuing General Henry Proctor's mixed army of Indians and British forces in Upper Canada.[19]

File:Johnson kills Tecumseh.jpg
Artist's rendering of Johnson killing Chief Tecumseh

Sent to the front of the pursuit by General Harrison, the Johnson brothers devised a strategy for engaging the enemy at the Battle of the Thames.[3] The elder brother would take a battalion of five hundred men and engage the British force of eight hundred regulars.[20] Simultaneously, the younger brother would take the other battalion and attack the fifteen hundred Indians commanded by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh.[20] It was during the battle that Richard Johnson was credited by some with personally killing Tecumseh.[3] This claim was based on reports that Tecumseh was killed by a man on horseback, and Johnson, whose regiment was infantry, was the only mounted soldier in the fray.[21] Further, Johnson was seen engaged in combat with an Indian chief, and it was considered likely that Tecumseh would personally attack the leader of his enemies.[21] Despite the fact that the claim would later be called into question, Johnson would later use it to good effect in his political career.

Shortly following the killing of Tecumseh, Johnson fell unconscious.[22] Removed by his men from his horse – which died minutes later – it was discovered that twenty-five musket balls had entered Johnson's clothes or his horse.[22] Five had entered his body, and it was doubted whether he could recover from his injuries.[22] Though he did eventually recover, save for a crippled hand, he was still suffering the effects of his wounds when he returned to his seat in the House in February 1814.[7]

In August 1814, British forces attacked Washington, D.C. and burned the White House. The Federalists, who had opposed the war, now proposed moving the capital to Columbia, Kentucky, a measure which Johnson opposed. The measure was defeated, and Congress instead formed a committee to investigate the circumstances that had allowed Washington to be captured. Johnson chaired this committee, and delivered its final report.[23] Following the sacking of Washington, the tide of battle turned against the British, and the Treaty of Ghent ended the war even as Johnson prepared to return to Kentucky to raise another military unit.[24] With the end of the war, he turned his legislative attention to issues such as securing pensions for widows and orphans and funding internal improvements in the West.[7]

Post-war career in the House

Johnson sponsored the unpopular Compensation Act of 1816, which paid annual salaries to Congressmen rather than paying them only for the days the body was in session.[2] The measure proved extremely unpopular with voters, and was repealed the following year.[2] Johnson himself recanted his support for it after seeing some of the bill's other supporters lose their Congressional seats.[2]

In 1817, congressional inquiry was made into the behavior of General Andrew Jackson during the war. Specifically, Jackson executed two British soldiers. Johnson chaired the committee which conducted the inquiry. The majority of the committee favored a negative report and a censure for Jackson. Johnson, a Jackson supporter, drafted a counter report that was more favorable to Jackson and opposed the censure. The ensuing debate pitted Johnson against fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay. Johnson's report prevailed, and Jackson was spared censure.[25]

President James Monroe seriously considered Johnson for the position of Secretary of War after Henry Clay declined his nomination, but the post ultimately went to John C. Calhoun.[2] Nevertheless, Johnson wielded considerable influence over defense policy as chair of the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of War during the Fifteenth Congress.[12] In 1818, he approved an expedition to build a military outpost near the present site of Bismarck, North Dakota on the Yellowstone River; he awarded the contract to his brother James.[2] Though the Yellowstone Expedition was an ultimate failure and cost the U.S. Treasury a good deal of money, the Johnsons escaped political ill will in their home district because the venture was seen as a peacekeeping endeavor on the frontier.[2]

Service in the Senate

Johnson retired from the House in 1819, and during a brief return to the Kentucky General Assembly later that year, helped secure passage of a law that abolished imprisonment as a penalty for debtors in Kentucky.[3] In December 1819, he resigned his post in the state legislature to fill the Senate seat vacated by the resignation of John J. Crittenden.[3] He was reelected to a full term in 1823.[12] In total, his Senate tenure ran from December 10, 1819 to March 4, 1829.[12] In 1821, he introduced legislation chartering Columbian College (later The George Washington University) in Washington, D.C..[3]

Like many of his fellow Kentuckians, Johnson found himself in financial difficulty following the Panic of 1819.[6] Already known for securing government contracts for himself, as well as his brothers and friends, he established the Choctaw Academy, a school devoted to the education of the Indians, on his farm in Scott County in 1825.[26] Though he never ran afoul of the conflict of interest standards of his day, some of his colleagues considered his actions ethically questionable.[6]

Another pet project Johnson supported was prompted by his friendship with John Cleves Symmes, Jr., who proposed that the Earth was hollow. In 1823, Johnson requested that his colleagues in the Senate fund an expedition to the center of the Earth. The proposal was soundly defeated, receiving only twenty-five votes.[9]

Johnson served as chairman of the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses. Near the end of his term in the Senate, numerous petitions were submitted to Congress asking for legislation to prevent handling and delivery of mail on Sunday on grounds that it violated biblical principles related to observation of the Sabbath.[6] These petitions were referred to Johnson's committee, and in response, Johnson, a practicing Baptist, drafted a report now commonly referred to as "The Sunday Mail Report."[6][27] In the report, presented to Congress on January 19, 1829 Johnson argued that government was "a civil, and not a religious institution," and as such could not legislate the tenets of any particular denomination.[2] The report was applauded as an elegant defense of the doctrine of separation of church and state, but again Johnson could not escape charges of conflict of interest because he had friends who were contracted to haul mail, and cessation of Sunday delivery would have had a negative financial impact on them.[6]

Johnson was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1829, owing in part to his relationship with Julia Chinn.[2] Although members of his own district seemed little bothered by the arrangement, slaveholders elsewhere in the state were not so forgiving.[2] In his own defense, Johnson contended "Unlike Jefferson, Clay, Poindexter and others, I married my wife under the eyes of God, and apparently He has found no objections."[4]

Return to the House

Following his failed Senatorial re-election bid, Johnson returned to the House, representing Kentucky's Fifth District from 1829 to 1833, and Thirteenth District from 1833 to 1837. During the Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congresses, he again served as chairman of the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads.[12] In this capacity, he was again asked to address the question of Sunday mail delivery. He drew up a second report, largely similar in content to the first, arguing against legislation preventing mail delivery on Sunday.[28] The report, commonly called "Col. Johnson's second Sunday mail report," was delivered to Congress in March 1830.[28] Some contemporaries doubted Johnson's authorship of this second report.[2]

Johnson chaired the Committee on Military Affairs during the Twenty-second, Twenty-third, and Twenty-fourth Congresses.[12] In 1832, he secured passage of a federal measure to end the practice of debt imprisonment.[7] Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton credited Johnson's bill as providing the impetus for cessation of the practice of debt imprisonment in nearly all of the United States.[2]

Johnson desired to run for president as early as 1832, but abandoned this aspiration when Andrew Jackson announced he would seek a second term. He then began campaigning to become Jackson's running mate, but Jackson favored Martin Van Buren instead. At the Democratic National Convention, Johnson finished a distant third in the vice-presidential balloting, receiving only the votes of the Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois delegations.[2]

Election of 1836

As campaigning began for the presidential election of 1836, Johnson's popularity was high. Author William Emmons published a biography of Johnson in 1833.[2] Richard Emmons followed this up with a play entitled Tecumseh, of the Battle of the Thames and a poem in honor of Johnson. Many of Johnson's friends and supporters – Davy Crockett and John Bell among them – encouraged him to run for president. Jackson, however, supported Vice-President Van Buren for the office. Johnson accepted this choice, and once again turned his sights on a nomination for vice-president.[2]

Emmons' poem provided the line that became Johnson's campaign slogan: "Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh."[2] Jackson supported Johnson, thinking that the war hero would balance the ticket with Van Buren, who had not served in the War of 1812.[7] Johnson's loyalty and Jackson's anger at Johnson's primary rival, William Cabell Rives also played into his decision.[2]

Despite Jackson's support, the party was far from united behind Johnson. Van Buren himself preferred Rives as a running mate.[2] In a letter to Jackson, Tennessee Supreme Court justice John Catron doubted that "a lucky random shot, even if it did hit Tecumseh, qualifies a man for the vice presidency."[6] Though he was now a "widower," there was still some dissension due to Johnson's relationship with a slave.[4] Johnson narrowly overcame these obstacles, securing the nomination when Silas Wright persuaded Edward Rucker, a non-delegate, to cast Tennessee's fifteen votes for Johnson on behalf of the state's absent delegation.[2]

Jackson's faith in Johnson to balance the ticket proved misplaced. In the general election, Johnson cost the Democrats votes in the South, where his relationship with Chinn was particularly unpopular. He also failed to garner much support from the West, where he was supposed to be strong due to his reputation as an Indian fighter and war hero.[6] He even failed to deliver his home state of Kentucky for the Democrats.[6] Regardless, the Democrats still won the canvass. When the electoral college convened on February 8, 1837 to cast the electoral votes and elect the president, it was revealed that while Van Buren received 170 votes for president, Johnson had received only 147 for vice-president.[6] Although Virginia had gone for the Democrats, the state's 23 electors refused to vote for Johnson, leaving him one electoral vote short of a majority.[2] For the first time before or since, the Senate was charged with electing the Vice President under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment.[6] The tally was divided strictly along party lines, and Johnson was elected by a 33 to 16 vote.[2] Three senators were absent.[2]

Vice Presidency

Johnson served as Vice President from March 4, 1837, to March 4, 1841. His term was largely unremarkable, and he enjoyed little influence with President Van Buren.[7] His penchant for wielding his power for his own personal interests did not abate. He lobbied the Senate to promote Samuel Milroy, whom he owed a favor, to the position of Indian agent.[2] When Lewis Tappan requested presentation of an abolitionist petition to the Senate, Johnson, who was still a slaveholder, declined the request.[2]

As presiding officer of the Senate, Johnson was called on to cast a tie-breaking vote fourteen times, more than all of his predecessors save John Adams and John Calhoun. Despite the precedent set by some of his predecessors, Johnson never addressed the Senate on the occasion of a tie-breaking vote, though he once explained his vote in an article in the Kentucky Gazette.[2]

Following the financial Panic of 1837, Johnson took a nine-month leave of absence, during which he returned home to Kentucky and opened a tavern and spa on his farm to offset his continued financial problems.[29][2] Upon visiting the establishment, Amos Kendall wrote to President Van Buren that he found Johnson "happy in the inglorious pursuit of tavern keeping – even giving his personal superintendence to the chicken and egg purchasing and water-melon selling department."[2]

Election of 1840

By 1840, it had become clear that Johnson was a liability to the Democratic ticket. Even former president Jackson conceded that Johnson was "dead weight," and threw his support to James K. Polk.[30][6] President Van Buren stood for re-election, and the Whigs once again countered with William Henry Harrison.[6] Ironically, it was now Van Buren who was reluctant to drop Johnson from the ticket, fearing that dropping the Democrats' own war hero would split the party and cost him votes to Harrison.[6] A unique compromise ensued, with the Democratic National Convention refusing to nominate Johnson, or any other candidate, for vice-president.[2] The idea was to allow the states to choose their own candidate, or perhaps return the question to the Senate should Van Buren be elected with no clear winner in the vice-presidential race.[6]

Undaunted by this lack of confidence from his peers, Johnson continued to campaign to retain his office. Though his campaign was more vigorous even than that of Van Buren, his behavior on the campaign trail raised concern among voters. He became prone to make rambling, incoherent speeches. During one speech in Ohio, he raised his shirt in order to display to the crowd the wounds he received during the Battle of the Thames. Charges he leveled against Harrison in Cleveland were so poorly received that they touched off a riot in the city.[2]

In the end, Johnson received only forty-eight electoral votes.[31] One elector from Virginia and all eleven from South Carolina voted for Van Buren for president but selected someone other than Johnson for vice-president.[2] Johnson again lost his home state of Kentucky, but added to the embarrassment by losing his home district as well.[2]

Later life and legacy

Following his term as vice-president, Johnson returned to Kentucky to tend to his farm and oversee his tavern.[7] He again represented Scott County the Kentucky House from 1841 to 1843.[3] In 1845, he served as a pallbearer when Daniel Boone was re-interred in Frankfort Cemetery.[6]

Johnson never gave up on a return to public service. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate against John J. Crittenden in 1842.[6] He briefly and futilely sought his party's nomination for president in 1844.[6] He also ran as an independent candidate for Governor of Kentucky in 1848, but after talking with the Democratic candidate, Lazarus W. Powell, who had replaced Linn Boyd on the ticket, Johnson decided to drop out and back Powell.[32] Some speculated that the real object of this campaign was to secure another nomination to the vice-presidency, but this hope was denied.[2]

Johnson finally returned to elected office in 1850, when he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives. By this time, however, his physical and mental health was already failing. On November 9, the Louisville Daily Journal reported that "Col. R. M. Johnson is laboring under an attack of dementia, which renders him totally unfit for business. It is painful to see him on the floor attempting to discharge the duties of a member. He is incapable of properly exercising his physical or mental powers."[31] He died of a stroke on November 19, just two weeks into his term.[6] He was interred in the Frankfort Cemetery, in Frankfort, Kentucky.[12]

There are five counties named for Johnson: Johnson County, Illinois, Johnson County, Iowa, Johnson County, Kentucky, Johnson County, Missouri, and Johnson County, Nebraska. His brothers James Johnson and John Telemachus Johnson and his nephew Robert Ward Johnson were all members of the House of Representatives, and Robert was a Senator as well.[12]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Bevins, Richard M Johnson narrative Personal and Family Life
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am Hatfield, Vice Presidents (1789–1993)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Kleber, p. 475
  4. ^ a b c Burke, Window to the Past
  5. ^ Sobel, p. 204
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Stillman, Eccentricity at the Top
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Richard M. Johnson (1837 – 1841)
  8. ^ a b c Mills, The Vice-President and the Mulatto
  9. ^ a b c McQueen, p. 19
  10. ^ a b c Langworthy, p. 9
  11. ^ The Political Graveyard
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h Congressional Bio
  13. ^ a b Langworthy, p. 10
  14. ^ Langworthy, pp. 10–11
  15. ^ Langworthy, pp. 13–14
  16. ^ a b Langworthy, p. 14
  17. ^ Langworthy, pp. 14–15
  18. ^ Langworthy, p. 15
  19. ^ Langworthy, p. 16
  20. ^ a b Langworthy, p. 20
  21. ^ a b By His Hand the Chief Tecumseh Fell
  22. ^ a b c Langworthy, p. 25
  23. ^ Langworthy, pp. 30–31
  24. ^ Langworthy, p. 31
  25. ^ Langworthy, pp. 35–36
  26. ^ Foreman, The Choctaw Academy
  27. ^ Langworthy, p. 39
  28. ^ a b Langworthy, p. 40
  29. ^ McQueen, pp. 19–20
  30. ^ McQueen, p. 20
  31. ^ a b McQueen, p. 21
  32. ^ Starling in Kentucky: History of Henderson County

References

  • Bevins, Ann. "Richard M Johnson narrative Personal and Family Life". Georgetown and Scott County Museum. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  • Burke, Henry Robert. "Window to the Past". Lest We Forget Communications. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  • "By His Hand the Chief Tecumseh Fell" (PDF). The New York Times. 1895-08-13. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  • Foreman, Carolyn Thomas (1928). "The Choctaw Academy". The Chronicles of Oklahoma. 6 (4). Oklahoma Historical Society. Retrieved 2008-01-03. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  • Hatfield, Mark O. (1997). "Richard Mentor Johnson, 9th Vice President (1837-1841)". Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789–1993 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 121–131. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  • "Index to Politicians: Johnson, O to R". The Political Graveyard. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  • Kleber, John E. (1992). "Johnson, Richard Mentor". In Kleber, John E. (ed.). The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Associate editors: Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter. Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0813117720.
  • Langworthy, Asahel (1843). A Biographical Sketch of Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky. New York City, New York: Saxton & Miles. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  • McQueen, Keven (2001). "Richard Mentor Johnson: Vice President". Offbeat Kentuckians: Legends to Lunatics. Ill. by Kyle McQueen. Kuttawa, Kentucky: McClanahan Publishing House. ISBN 0913383805.
  • Mills, David (2007-04-26). "The Vice-President and the Mulatto". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  • United States Congress. "Richard Mentor Johnson (id: J000170)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
  • "Richard Mentor Johnson (1837 – 1841)". University of Virginia. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  • Sobel, Robert (1990). "Johnson, Richard Mentor". Biographical Directory of the United States Executive Branch, 1774-1989. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313265933. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  • Starling, Edmund L. (1887). Kentucky: History of Henderson County.
  • Stillman, Michael. "Eccentricity at the Top: Richard Mentor Johnson". Americana Exchange. Retrieved 2008-01-03.

Further reading

Template:USRep succession boxTemplate:USRep succession boxTemplate:USRep succession boxTemplate:USRep succession boxTemplate:USRep succession boxTemplate:Succession box one to two
Preceded by U.S. senator (Class 2) from Kentucky
1819–1829
Served alongside: William Logan, Isham Talbot, John Rowan 		Succeeded by
Notes and references
1. The Democratic Party vice-presidential nominee split this year between Johnson and William Smith.
2. The Democratic Party vice-presidential nominee split this year between Johnson and Littleton W. Tazewell and James K. Polk.
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