Johnson, Thomas

Johnson, Thomas (b. Calvert County, Md., 4 Nov. 1732; d. Frederick, Md., 26 Oct. 1819; interred Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick), associate justice, 1791–1793. The son of Thomas and Dorcas (Sedgwick) Johnson, the young Thomas Johnson received basic education at home, worked as a clerk of the Provincial Court, and read law with attorney Stephen Bordley. Johnson was admitted to the Frederick County and Baltimore bars in 1760; six years later, he married Ann Jennings. At age twenty‐nine, he was elected to the provincial assembly. Johnson attended the Maryland convention of 1774 as well as the First and Second Continental Congresses; in June 1775 he nominated George Washington for the post of supreme commander of American military forces. Upon return to Annapolis in August, he helped draft the Association of the Freemen of Maryland, a declaration of rights.

Johnson was valued less for charisma than for prudence and impressive learning. He missed the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, but he supported the Declaration of the Delegates of Maryland on 6 July 1776 and aided in the framing of the state constitution. In early 1777, shortly after Johnson was called to the state militia as first brigadier‐general, he was elected governor of Maryland. He was inaugurated on 21 March 1777. After three one‐year terms, he returned to the assembly; there, he supported adoption of the Articles of Confederation. After the Paris Peace, Johnson and Washington formed the Potomack Company to expand the river trade. Johnson sat again in the state legislature from 1786 to 1788; during the ratification convention of 1788, he urged Marylanders to join the new federation.

Johnson then tried to withdraw from public life to pursue business ventures, but privacy eluded him. Between April 1790 and October 1791, while serving as chief judge of the General Court of Maryland, he chaired the Board of Commissioners of the Federal City—a group authorized to buy land and erect government buildings for what became the District of Columbia. On 5 August 1791 Washington temporarily commissioned Johnson an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court to replace John Rutledge; despite serious misgivings about circuit riding, he accepted. The Senate confirmed Washington's recess appointment on 7 November 1791; Johnson took the oath of office on 6 August 1792.

On circuit, Johnson sat on the initial trial of Ware v. Hylton (1796), a suit involving debtors' responsibility for repayment of revolutionary war debts. At virtually the same moment, he wrote the Court's first opinion in Georgia v. Brailsford (1792), a suit in equity testing the state's right to sequester Loyalist property (see State Sovereignty and States' Rights). A majority granted Georgia's motion for a permanent injunction against Brailsford's claim; in dissent, Johnson and Justice William Cushing argued that the bill did not support a motion for an injunction in federal court because legal remedies had not been exhausted.

Failing health prompted Johnson's resignation from the Court on 16 January 1793. In retirement, Johnson participated actively in Frederick County politics and church affairs; when Washington died in December 1799, his old friend delivered a poignant funeral oration in Frederick. Although Johnson fought a losing battle with physical infirmity, his mind remained sharp. He died in his sleep at Rose Hill mansion; days before his death, he told a relative that his fondest wish was to “meet Washington beyond the grave.”

Bibliography

Edward S. Delaplaine , Life of Thomas Jefferson (1927).
Maeva Marcus and James R. Perry, eds., Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789–1800, vol. 1 (1985).

Sandra F. Van Burkleo