Herschel Vespasian Johnson

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Herschel Vespasian Johnson

Herschel Vespasian Johnson (born September 18, 1812 in Burke County , Georgia , † August 16, 1880 in Louisville , Georgia) was an American politician and governor of Georgia.

Early years

The young Johnson studied law at the University of Georgia and graduated there in 1834. He then opened law firms in Augusta , Louisville and in Milledgeville, the capital of Georgia . As a member of the Democratic Party , he was one of James K. Polk's electors in the 1844 presidential election. In 1847 he applied unsuccessfully to nominate his party for the upcoming gubernatorial election. In 1848 he was appointed to the US Senate to end the term of Senator Walter T. Colquitt , who had given up his mandate in favor of a judge's office in Georgia. His term of office was only 13 months, from February 1848 to March 1849. Until 1853 he was a judge at the court of Ocmulgee, but he was also politically active. In 1852 he was again elector for the Democrats in the presidential election of Franklin Pierce .

Political rise

In December 1850, the incumbent Governor George Towns had called a meeting that should resolve Georgia’s exit from the Union. The background was the compromise of 1850 and the associated restriction of slavery in the newly acquired US territories. Johnson supported Towns in this matter and advocated the secession of Georgia. However, this proposal did not find a majority. Towns and Johnson had to admit defeat. The 1850s were significant for Johnson's future career. In 1853 he was elected governor of Georgia to succeed Howell Cobb and was confirmed in that office two years later. When voices rose again in the middle of the decade calling for Georgia to secede from the Union, Johnson changed his previous stance and rejected all separatists. He retained this moderate position in the following years, even after the end of his tenure in 1857. This led to a rapprochement with the north wing of the Democratic Party, which nominated him for the presidential election of 1860 as its candidate for the vice presidency, while Stephen A. Douglas was nominated for the presidency. The elections, however, ended with the victory of Republican Abraham Lincoln .

Johnson and the Secession

As in most southern states, a congress took place in Georgia after the election of 1860, which was supposed to deliberate on the withdrawal of the state from the Union. Johnson spoke out vehemently for the state to remain with the Union. His change of heart, which he had undergone since the first Congress in 1850, must by no means be understood as a turn to the views of the North or even the Republican Party . He was still an advocate of slavery and saw only a better chance of defending this questionable institution inside the Union than outside. He couldn't get his way at Congress and Georgia decided to join the Confederation. Johnson accepted the new conditions and was a Senator in the Confederate States Senate from 1862 to 1865 .

End of life and death

After the war he was elected to the US Senate in 1866 according to President Andrew Johnson's reconstruction plan. Due to the political squabbles in Washington between the president and the radical wing of the Republicans, President Johnson's plan could not be carried out and Herschel Johnson and the other elected MPs and senators from the beaten south were denied membership in Congress. He then retired to Louisville and returned to practice as a lawyer. From 1873 he resumed the post of judge. He died in Louisville in 1880.

According to him, Johnson County named in Georgia.

literature

  • Anthony Gene Carey: Parties, Slavery, and the Union in Antebellum Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997).
  • Percy Scott Flippin: Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia, State Rights Unionist (Richmond, Va .: Deitz Printing Co., 1931).
  • William W. Freehling, Craig M. Simpson (Eds.): Secession Debated: Georgia's Showdown in 1860 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992).
  • Elizabeth Dix Greeman: Stephen A. Douglas and Herschel V. Johnson: Examples of National Men in the Sectional Crisis of 1860 (Ph.D. diss., Duke University, 1974).

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personal data
SURNAME Johnson, Herschel Vespasian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician and governor of Georgia
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1812
PLACE OF BIRTH Burke County , Georgia
DATE OF DEATH August 16, 1880
Place of death Louisville , Georgia