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JOHNSON, REVERDY (1796–1876)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 463 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHNSON, REVERDY (1796–1876) , See also:American See also:political See also:leader and jurist, was See also:born at See also:Annapolis, See also:Maryland, on the 21st of May 1796. His See also:father, See also:John Johnson (177o–1824), was a distinguished lawyer, who served in both houses of the Maryland See also:General See also:Assembly, as See also:attorney-general of the See also:state (18o6–1811), as a See also:judge of the See also:court of appeals (1811–1821), and as a See also:chancellor of his state (1821–1824). Reverdy graduated from St John's See also:college in 1812. He then studied See also:law in his father's See also:office, was admitted to the See also:bar in 1815 and began to practise in Upper See also:Marlborough, See also:Prince See also:George's See also:county. In 1817 he removed to See also:Baltimore, See also:oracle on points of learning. Between him and the See also:clergy, indeed, there was a strong religious and political sympathy. He was a zealous churchman, and, though he had qualified himself for municipal office by taking the oaths to the sovereigns in See also:possession, was to the last a Jacobite in See also:heart. The social position of See also:Samuel's paternal grandfather, See also:William Johnson, remains obscure; his See also:mother was the daughter of See also:Cornelius See also:Ford, " a little See also:Warwickshire Gent." At a See also:house (now the Johnson Museum) in the See also:Market Square, See also:Lichfield, Samuel Johnson was born on the 18th of See also:September 1709 and baptized on the same See also:day at St See also:Mary's, Lichfield. In the See also:child the See also:physical, intellectual and moral peculiarities which. afterwards distinguished the See also:man were plainly discernible: See also:great See also:muscular strength accompanied by much awkwardness and many infirmities; great quickness of parts, with a morbid See also:pro I pensity to See also:sloth and procrastination; a See also:kind and generous heart, with a gloomy and irritable See also:temper. He had inherited from his ancestors a scrofulous taint, and his parents were weak enough to believe that the royal See also:touch would cure him. In his third See also:year he was taken up to See also:London, inspected by the court surgeon, prayed over by the court chaplains and stroked and presented with a piece of See also:gold by See also:Queen See also:Anne. Her See also:hand was applied in vain.

The boy's features, which were originally See also:

noble and not irregular, were distorted by his malady. His cheeks were deeply scarred. He lost for a See also:time the sight of one See also:eye; and he saw but very imperfectly with the other. But the force of his mind overcame every impediment. Indolent as he was, he acquired knowledge with such ease and rapidity that at every school (such as those at Lichfield and See also:Stourbridge) to which he was sent he was soon the best See also:scholar. From sixteen to eighteen he resided at See also:home, and was See also:left to his own devices. He learned much at this time, though his studies were without guidance and without See also:plan. He ransacked his father's shelves, dipped into a multitude of books, read what was interesting, and passed over what was dull An See also:ordinary lad would have acquired little or no useful knowledge in such a way; but much that was dull to ordinary lads was interesting to Samuel. He read little See also:Greek; for his proficiency in that See also:language was not such that he could take much See also:pleasure in the masters of See also:Attic See also:poetry and eloquence. But he had left school a See also:good Latinist, and he soon acquired an extensive knowledge of Latin literature. He was peculiarlyF attracted by the See also:works of the great restorers of learning. Once, while searching for some apples, he found a huge See also:folio See also:volume of See also:Petrarch's works.

The name excited his curiosity, and he eagerly devoured hundreds of pages. Indeed, the diction and versification of his own Latin compositions show that he had paid at least as much See also:

attention to See also:modern copies from the See also:antique as to the See also:original See also:models. While he was thus irregularly educating himself, his See also:family was sinking into hopeless poverty. Old See also:Michael Johnson was much better qualified to See also:pore over books, and to talk about them, than to See also:trade in them. His business declined; his debts increased; it was with difficulty that the daily expenses of his See also:household were defrayed. It was out of his See also:power to support his son at either university; but a wealthy See also:neighbour offered assistance; and, in reliance on promises which proved to be of very little value, Samuel was entered at See also:Pembroke College, See also:Oxford. When the See also:young scholar presented himself to the rulers of that society, they were amazed not more by his ungainly figure and See also:eccentric See also:manners than by the quantity of extensive and curious See also:information which he had picked up during many months of desultory but not unprofitable study. On the first day of his See also:residence he surprised his teachers by quoting See also:Macrobius; and one of the most learned among them declared that he had never known a fresh-man of equal attainments. At Oxford Johnson resided barely over two years, possibly less. He was poor, even to raggedness; and his See also:appearance excited a mirth and a pity which were equally intolerable to his haughty spirit. He was driven from the quadrangle of See also:Christ See also:Church by the sneering looks which the members of that aristocratical society See also:cast at the holes in his shoes. Some charitable See also:person placed a new pair at his See also:door; but he spurned them away where he became the professional See also:associate of See also:Luther See also:Martin, William See also:Pinkney and See also:Roger B.

See also:

Taney; with See also:Thomas See also:Harris he reported the decisions of the court of appeals in Harris and Johnson's Reports (18to–1827); and in 1818 he was appointed See also:chief See also:commissioner of insolvent debtors. From 1821 to 1825 he was a state senator; from 1825 to 1845 he devoted himself to his practice; from 1845 to 1849, as a Whig, he was a member of the See also:United States See also:Senate; and from See also:March 1849 to See also:July 185o he was attorney-general of the United States. In 1856 he became identified with the conservative wing of the Democratic party, and four years later supported See also:Stephen A. See also:Douglas for the See also:presidency. In 1861 he was a delegate from Maryland to the See also:peace See also:convention at See also:Washington; in 1861–1862 he was a member of the Maryland House of Delegates. After the See also:capture of New See also:Orleans he was commissioned by See also:Lincoln to revise the decisions of the military commandant, General B. F. See also:Butler, in regard to See also:foreign governments, and reversed all those decisions to the entire See also:satisfaction of the See also:administration. In 1863 he again took his seat in the United States Senate. In 1868 he was appointed See also:minister to Great See also:Britain and soon after his arrival in See also:England negotiated the Johnson-See also:Clarendon treaty for the See also:settlement of disputes arising out of the See also:Civil See also:War; this, however, the Senate refused to ratify, and he returned home on the See also:accession of General U. S. See also:Grant to the presidency.

Again resuming his practice he was engaged by the See also:

government in the See also:prosecution of Ku-Klux cases. He died on the loth of See also:February 1876 at Annapolis. He repudiated the See also:doctrine of See also:secession, and pleaded for See also:compromise and conciliation. Opposed to the Reconstruction See also:measures, he voted for them on the ground that it was better to accept than reject them, since they were probably the best that could be obtained. As a lawyer he was engaged during his later years in most of the especially important cases in the Supreme Court of the United States and in the courts of Maryland.

End of Article: JOHNSON, REVERDY (1796–1876)

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