Reverdy Johnson was an American politician, statesman, and jurist from Annapolis, Maryland.
18 Facts About Reverdy Johnson
2.
Reverdy Johnson gained fame as a defense attorney, defending notables such as Sandford of the Dred Scott case, Maj.
3.
Reverdy Johnson was the son of a distinguished Maryland lawyer and politician, John Johnson, who served as Attorney General of Maryland from 1806 to 1811 and later Chancellor of Maryland, and Deborah Johnson.
4.
Reverdy Johnson graduated from St John's College in 1812 and then studied law.
5.
In 1817, Johnson moved to Baltimore, where he became a legal colleague of Luther Martin, William Pinkney and Roger B Taney, the Attorney General and later Chief Justice of the United States from 1835 until 1864.
6.
Reverdy Johnson was appointed chief commissioner of insolvent debtors of Maryland in 1817.
7.
In 1842, while helping North Carolina Congressman Edward Stanly to ready himself for a duel with Virginia Congressman Henry Wise, Reverdy Johnson fired a pistol at a tree, from which the ball rebounded and hit Reverdy Johnson's left eye, blinding that eye and triggering the gradual onset of a sympathetic deterioration of the other eye that worsened over the rest of his life, eventually leaving him almost completely blind.
8.
From 1845 to 1849, Reverdy Johnson represented Maryland in the United States Senate as a Whig.
9.
From his confirmation by the Senate in March 1849 until July 1850, Reverdy Johnson was Attorney General of the United States under President Zachary Taylor.
10.
Reverdy Johnson resigned that position soon after Millard Fillmore took office.
11.
Reverdy Johnson represented the slave-owning defendant in the controversial 1857 case Dred Scott v Sandford.
12.
However, Reverdy Johnson was personally opposed to slavery and became a key figure in the effort to keep Maryland from seceding from the Union during the American Civil War.
13.
Reverdy Johnson served as a Maryland delegate to the Peace Convention of 1861 and from 1861 to 1862 served in the Maryland House of Delegates.
14.
In 1867, Reverdy Johnson voted for the Reconstruction Act of 1867, the only Democrat to vote for a Reconstruction measure in 1866 or 1867.
15.
In early 1876, Johnson was in Annapolis arguing the case of Baker v Frick in the Court of Appeals and was a guest at the Maryland Governor's Mansion.
16.
Reverdy Johnson was the last surviving member of Taylor's cabinet.
17.
On November 16,1819, Reverdy Johnson married Mary Mackall Bowie, the sister of Rep.
18.
Reverdy Johnson had been the last surviving member of the Taylor Cabinet.