Reverdy JOHNSON, Congress, MD (1796-1876)

JOHNSON, Reverdy, (brother-in-law of Thomas Fielder Bowie), a Senator from Maryland; born in Annapolis, Md., May 21, 1796; graduated, St. John’s College, Annapolis, Md., 1811; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1815 and commenced practice in Upper Marlboro; deputy attorney general of Maryland 1816-1817; moved to Baltimore in 1817; appointed chief commissioner of insolvent debtors of Maryland in 1817; member, State senate 1821-1829; resumed the practice of law in Baltimore; elected to the United States Senate as a Whig and served from March 4, 1845, to March 7, 1849, when he resigned to become Attorney General; appointed by President Zachary Taylor Attorney General of the United States 1849-1850; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; member, State house of representatives 1860-1861; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1863, to July 10, 1868, when he resigned; United States Minister to England in 1868 and 1869; returned to Baltimore, Md., where he resumed the practice of his profession; compiler of the reports of decisions of the Maryland Court of Appeals; died in Annapolis, Md., February 10, 1876; interment in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, Md.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law; Steiner, Bernard. Life of Reverdy Johnson. 1914. Reprint. New York: Russell & Russell, 1970.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present