Veeps: Richard Mentor Johnson
Rumsey-dumsey, rumsey-dumsey
Dickie Johnson killed Tecumseh!
-Richard Mentor Johnson's 1836 campaign slogan
Richard Mentor Johnson was the ninth Vice President of the United States. He served in the administration of Martin Van Buren and has the distinction of being the only vice president ever elected by the US Senate under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.
Johnson was born on October 17, 1780 the fifth of eleven children born to Robert and Jemima Johnson. He was born in the newly founded settlement of "Beargrass", near present-day Louisville, Kentucky. (Kentucky was part of Virginia until it became a state in 1792.) In 1799, he was studying law with George Nicholas and James Brown, two professors of Law at the University who were also in private practice. Johnson was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1802, and opened an office at Great Crossing.
After his father died, Richard Johnson inherited Julia Chinn, an octoroon slave (seven-eighths European in ancestry). Johnson began a relationship with her and she became his common-law wife. Because she was a slave they were prohibited by law from marrying and Johnson was not open about the relationship. When Johnson was away from his Kentucky plantation, he authorized Chinn to manage his business affairs. Julia died in an epidemic of cholera in the summer of 1833. Johnson and Chinn had two daughters, Adaline Chinn Johnson and Imogene Chinn Johnson. He acknowledged them as his children and he provided for their education. Following his wife's death, Johnson began a relationship with another family slave. When she left him for another man, Johnson had her captured and sold at auction. He then began a relationship with her sister.
Johnson's political career began in 1804, when, at the age of 23, he was elected to represent Scott County in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Although the Kentucky Constitution imposed an age requirement of twenty-four for members of the House of Representatives, Johnson was so popular that no one raised questions about his age. In 1806, Johnson was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Once again he did not meet the U.S. Constitution's age requirement for service in the House (25), but by the time the congressional session began the following March, he met the required age. He was re-elected and served six consecutive terms.
The War of 1812 found considerable support in Kentucky, as a state which depended on sea trade through the port of New Orleans. Kentuckians feared that the British would stir up another war with the neighboring Indian tribes. When Congress declared war in June 1812, Johnson returned to Kentucky to recruit volunteers. Johnson recruited 300 men, who elected him major. They merged with another battalion, forming a regiment of 500 men, with Johnson as colonel. Johnson's force had planned on joining General William Hull at Detroit, but Hull surrendered Detroit on August 16. Johnson reported to William Henry Harrison, who was in command of the entire Northwest frontier. On September 18, 1812, Johnson's men reached Fort Wayne in time to save it from an attack by hostile Indians.
Johnson returned briefly to Congress left Washington, D.C. just before Congress adjourned. He raised one thousand men. Johnson raided throughout the Northwest, burning Indian villages, and disrupting the guerrilla activities of hostile Indian tribes. In September, Oliver Hazard Perry destroyed most of the British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie, taking control of the lake. The British withdrew to the northeast, pursued by William Henry Harrison, who had advanced through Michigan while Johnson kept the Indians engaged. The famous Shawnee Chief Tecumseh covered the British retreat, and in the course of things, he met Johnson's cavalry. Johnson's force defeated Tecumseh's main force on September 29. They captured British supply trains on October 3. The forces met at the Battle of the Thames on October 5. One battalion of five hundred men, under Johnson's elder brother, James Johnson, engaged the British force of eight hundred regulars, while Richard Johnson, with the other battalion, attacked the fifteen hundred Indians led by Tecumseh. Johnson ordered a suicide squad of twenty men to ride forward and draw the Indians' fire, planning to charge with the rest as they reloaded. In the course of the fight Tecumseh was killed.
Richard Johnson was credited with killing Tecumseh personally. Tecumseh was killed by a man on horseback, and Johnson was one of the few mounted men at that part of the battle. Johnson was shot in the shoulder by an Indian chief who was advancing to tomahawk Johnson. Johnson shot back and killed his attacker instantly with a single pistol shot. Tecumseh's body was found near Johnson's hat. Johnson fell unconscious after this duel and was dragged from the battlefield. Johnson eventually recovered, but he was still suffering from his wounds when he returned to the House in February 1814.
Following the end of the war, Johnson turned his legislative attention to issues such as securing pensions for widows and orphans and funding internal improvements in the West. He turned down an offer to serve as Secretary of War under President James Monroe. In 1817, Congress investigated General Andrew Jackson's execution of two British subjects during the First Seminole War. Johnson chaired the inquiry committee. Johnson, a Jackson supporter, drafted a report favorable to Jackson and opposed the censure. Despite opposition from fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay, Johnson's report prevailed, and Jackson was spared censure.
Johnson announced his intent to retire from the House in early 1818. His term in the House expired March 3, 1819, and he returned to the state legislature. In December 1819, he resigned his post in the state legislature to fill the Senate seat vacated by the resignation of John J. Crittenden. He was re-elected to a full term in 1822 and he remained in the senate until March 4, 1829. Johnson, like many other Kentuckians, was caught in the financial Panic of 1819. He worked for debt relief, and some form of bankruptcy legislation to help his own problems and those of his neighbors. Part of Johnson's campaign for relief was the abolition of the practice of debt imprisonment nationwide. It would take him nearly ten years to see this goal accomplished. He first spoke to the issue in the Senate on December 14, 1822. The bill failed, but Johnson persisted in re-introducing it every year. He also established the Choctaw Academy, a school devoted to the education of the Indians, on his farm in Scott County in 1825.
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 proposed in the Senate that the government fund an expedition to the center of the Earth. The proposal was soundly defeated, receiving only twenty-five votes in the House and Senate combined.
Johnson was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election to the senate in 1828, owing to his relationship with Julia Chinn. Voters in his own district didn't seem bothered by the arrangement, but slaveholders elsewhere in Kentucky were not so forgiving. 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. In 1832 a bill abolishing the practice of debt imprisonment passed both houses of Congress, and was signed into law on July 14.
Johnson considered running for the presidency in 1832, but he abandoned his campaign 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. William Emmons, the Boston printer, published a biography of Johnson in New York dated July 1833. There was also a play entitled "Tecumseh of the Battle of the Thames" and a poem in honor of Johnson. Many of Johnson's friends and supporters, men like Davy Crockett and John Bell, encouraged him to run for president. Jackson, however, supported Vice-President Van Buren for the office. Johnson accepted this choice, and instead sought his party's nomination for vice-president.
Emmons' poem provided the line that became Johnson's campaign slogan: "Rumpsey Dumpsey, Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh." Jackson supported Johnson for vice-president, thinking that the war hero would balance the ticket with Van Buren, who had not served in the War of 1812. There was still some dissension due to Johnson's relationship with a slave. Johnson was able to win the nomination for Vice-President at the 1835 Democratic National Convention, in Baltimore.
Jackson's faith in Johnson to balance the ticket appeared to be 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 and he failed to deliver his home state of Kentucky for the Democrats. When the electoral vote was counted in Congress on February 8, 1837, it was revealed that while Van Buren received 170 votes for president, Johnson had received only 147 for vice-president. Although Virginia had elected electors pledged to both Van Buren and Johnson, the state's 23 "faithless electors" refused to vote for Johnson, leaving him one electoral vote short of a majority. For the only time in history, the Senate was charged with electing the Vice President under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment. The vote divided strictly along party lines, with Johnson becoming vice-president by a vote of 36 to 16 for Whig Francis Granger, with three senators absent.
Johnson's term as Vice President was largely forgettable. He had little influence with President Van Buren. 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. But unlike many of his predecessors, Johnson never addressed the Senate on the occasion of a tie-breaking vote. 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 on his farm to offset his financial problems.
By 1840, it had become clear that Johnson was a liability to the Democratic ticket. Andrew Jackson referred to Johnson as "dead weight" on the ticke. President Van Buren stood for re-election, and the Whigs once again countered with William Henry Harrison. 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. A unique situation resulted with the Democratic National Convention refusing to nominate Johnson, or any other candidate, for vice-president. 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. Johnson campaigned to retain his office. His behavior on the campaign trail raised concern among voters. He made 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. He started a riot in Cleveland over accusations he made against William Henry Harrison that were unappreciated by the crowd. In the end, Johnson received only forty-eight electoral votes. Once again Johnson lost his home state of Kentucky and added to the embarrassment by losing his home district as well.
Following his term as vice-president, Johnson returned to Kentucky to tend to his farm and run his tavern. Once again he represented Scott County in the Kentucky House from 1841 to 1843. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate against John J. Crittenden in 1842 and briefly sought his party's nomination for president in 1844. He also ran as an independent candidate for Governor of Kentucky in 1848, but decided to drop out. Johnson finally returned to elected office in 1850, when he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives. By this time, however, his health was failing. On November 9, the Louisville Daily Journal reported the following:
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.
Johnson died of a stroke on November 19, 1850. He was interred in the Frankfort Cemetery, in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Dickie Johnson killed Tecumseh!
-Richard Mentor Johnson's 1836 campaign slogan
Richard Mentor Johnson was the ninth Vice President of the United States. He served in the administration of Martin Van Buren and has the distinction of being the only vice president ever elected by the US Senate under the 12th Amendment to the Constitution.
Johnson was born on October 17, 1780 the fifth of eleven children born to Robert and Jemima Johnson. He was born in the newly founded settlement of "Beargrass", near present-day Louisville, Kentucky. (Kentucky was part of Virginia until it became a state in 1792.) In 1799, he was studying law with George Nicholas and James Brown, two professors of Law at the University who were also in private practice. Johnson was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1802, and opened an office at Great Crossing.
After his father died, Richard Johnson inherited Julia Chinn, an octoroon slave (seven-eighths European in ancestry). Johnson began a relationship with her and she became his common-law wife. Because she was a slave they were prohibited by law from marrying and Johnson was not open about the relationship. When Johnson was away from his Kentucky plantation, he authorized Chinn to manage his business affairs. Julia died in an epidemic of cholera in the summer of 1833. Johnson and Chinn had two daughters, Adaline Chinn Johnson and Imogene Chinn Johnson. He acknowledged them as his children and he provided for their education. Following his wife's death, Johnson began a relationship with another family slave. When she left him for another man, Johnson had her captured and sold at auction. He then began a relationship with her sister.
Johnson's political career began in 1804, when, at the age of 23, he was elected to represent Scott County in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Although the Kentucky Constitution imposed an age requirement of twenty-four for members of the House of Representatives, Johnson was so popular that no one raised questions about his age. In 1806, Johnson was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Once again he did not meet the U.S. Constitution's age requirement for service in the House (25), but by the time the congressional session began the following March, he met the required age. He was re-elected and served six consecutive terms.
The War of 1812 found considerable support in Kentucky, as a state which depended on sea trade through the port of New Orleans. Kentuckians feared that the British would stir up another war with the neighboring Indian tribes. When Congress declared war in June 1812, Johnson returned to Kentucky to recruit volunteers. Johnson recruited 300 men, who elected him major. They merged with another battalion, forming a regiment of 500 men, with Johnson as colonel. Johnson's force had planned on joining General William Hull at Detroit, but Hull surrendered Detroit on August 16. Johnson reported to William Henry Harrison, who was in command of the entire Northwest frontier. On September 18, 1812, Johnson's men reached Fort Wayne in time to save it from an attack by hostile Indians.
Johnson returned briefly to Congress left Washington, D.C. just before Congress adjourned. He raised one thousand men. Johnson raided throughout the Northwest, burning Indian villages, and disrupting the guerrilla activities of hostile Indian tribes. In September, Oliver Hazard Perry destroyed most of the British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie, taking control of the lake. The British withdrew to the northeast, pursued by William Henry Harrison, who had advanced through Michigan while Johnson kept the Indians engaged. The famous Shawnee Chief Tecumseh covered the British retreat, and in the course of things, he met Johnson's cavalry. Johnson's force defeated Tecumseh's main force on September 29. They captured British supply trains on October 3. The forces met at the Battle of the Thames on October 5. One battalion of five hundred men, under Johnson's elder brother, James Johnson, engaged the British force of eight hundred regulars, while Richard Johnson, with the other battalion, attacked the fifteen hundred Indians led by Tecumseh. Johnson ordered a suicide squad of twenty men to ride forward and draw the Indians' fire, planning to charge with the rest as they reloaded. In the course of the fight Tecumseh was killed.
Richard Johnson was credited with killing Tecumseh personally. Tecumseh was killed by a man on horseback, and Johnson was one of the few mounted men at that part of the battle. Johnson was shot in the shoulder by an Indian chief who was advancing to tomahawk Johnson. Johnson shot back and killed his attacker instantly with a single pistol shot. Tecumseh's body was found near Johnson's hat. Johnson fell unconscious after this duel and was dragged from the battlefield. Johnson eventually recovered, but he was still suffering from his wounds when he returned to the House in February 1814.
Following the end of the war, Johnson turned his legislative attention to issues such as securing pensions for widows and orphans and funding internal improvements in the West. He turned down an offer to serve as Secretary of War under President James Monroe. In 1817, Congress investigated General Andrew Jackson's execution of two British subjects during the First Seminole War. Johnson chaired the inquiry committee. Johnson, a Jackson supporter, drafted a report favorable to Jackson and opposed the censure. Despite opposition from fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay, Johnson's report prevailed, and Jackson was spared censure.
Johnson announced his intent to retire from the House in early 1818. His term in the House expired March 3, 1819, and he returned to the state legislature. In December 1819, he resigned his post in the state legislature to fill the Senate seat vacated by the resignation of John J. Crittenden. He was re-elected to a full term in 1822 and he remained in the senate until March 4, 1829. Johnson, like many other Kentuckians, was caught in the financial Panic of 1819. He worked for debt relief, and some form of bankruptcy legislation to help his own problems and those of his neighbors. Part of Johnson's campaign for relief was the abolition of the practice of debt imprisonment nationwide. It would take him nearly ten years to see this goal accomplished. He first spoke to the issue in the Senate on December 14, 1822. The bill failed, but Johnson persisted in re-introducing it every year. He also established the Choctaw Academy, a school devoted to the education of the Indians, on his farm in Scott County in 1825.
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 proposed in the Senate that the government fund an expedition to the center of the Earth. The proposal was soundly defeated, receiving only twenty-five votes in the House and Senate combined.
Johnson was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election to the senate in 1828, owing to his relationship with Julia Chinn. Voters in his own district didn't seem bothered by the arrangement, but slaveholders elsewhere in Kentucky were not so forgiving. 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. In 1832 a bill abolishing the practice of debt imprisonment passed both houses of Congress, and was signed into law on July 14.
Johnson considered running for the presidency in 1832, but he abandoned his campaign 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. William Emmons, the Boston printer, published a biography of Johnson in New York dated July 1833. There was also a play entitled "Tecumseh of the Battle of the Thames" and a poem in honor of Johnson. Many of Johnson's friends and supporters, men like Davy Crockett and John Bell, encouraged him to run for president. Jackson, however, supported Vice-President Van Buren for the office. Johnson accepted this choice, and instead sought his party's nomination for vice-president.
Emmons' poem provided the line that became Johnson's campaign slogan: "Rumpsey Dumpsey, Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh." Jackson supported Johnson for vice-president, thinking that the war hero would balance the ticket with Van Buren, who had not served in the War of 1812. There was still some dissension due to Johnson's relationship with a slave. Johnson was able to win the nomination for Vice-President at the 1835 Democratic National Convention, in Baltimore.
Jackson's faith in Johnson to balance the ticket appeared to be 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 and he failed to deliver his home state of Kentucky for the Democrats. When the electoral vote was counted in Congress on February 8, 1837, it was revealed that while Van Buren received 170 votes for president, Johnson had received only 147 for vice-president. Although Virginia had elected electors pledged to both Van Buren and Johnson, the state's 23 "faithless electors" refused to vote for Johnson, leaving him one electoral vote short of a majority. For the only time in history, the Senate was charged with electing the Vice President under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment. The vote divided strictly along party lines, with Johnson becoming vice-president by a vote of 36 to 16 for Whig Francis Granger, with three senators absent.
Johnson's term as Vice President was largely forgettable. He had little influence with President Van Buren. 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. But unlike many of his predecessors, Johnson never addressed the Senate on the occasion of a tie-breaking vote. 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 on his farm to offset his financial problems.
By 1840, it had become clear that Johnson was a liability to the Democratic ticket. Andrew Jackson referred to Johnson as "dead weight" on the ticke. President Van Buren stood for re-election, and the Whigs once again countered with William Henry Harrison. 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. A unique situation resulted with the Democratic National Convention refusing to nominate Johnson, or any other candidate, for vice-president. 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. Johnson campaigned to retain his office. His behavior on the campaign trail raised concern among voters. He made 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. He started a riot in Cleveland over accusations he made against William Henry Harrison that were unappreciated by the crowd. In the end, Johnson received only forty-eight electoral votes. Once again Johnson lost his home state of Kentucky and added to the embarrassment by losing his home district as well.
Following his term as vice-president, Johnson returned to Kentucky to tend to his farm and run his tavern. Once again he represented Scott County in the Kentucky House from 1841 to 1843. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate against John J. Crittenden in 1842 and briefly sought his party's nomination for president in 1844. He also ran as an independent candidate for Governor of Kentucky in 1848, but decided to drop out. Johnson finally returned to elected office in 1850, when he was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives. By this time, however, his health was failing. On November 9, the Louisville Daily Journal reported the following:
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.
Johnson died of a stroke on November 19, 1850. He was interred in the Frankfort Cemetery, in Frankfort, Kentucky.