William Samuel Johnson was an American politician and clergyman. He served as United States Senator from Connecticut (1789-1791).
Background
William Samuel Johnson was born on October 7, 1727, in Stratford, Connecticut, United States, where he lived during most of his life. His father was Samuel Johnson, the well-known Anglican clergyman, Berkeleian philosopher, and first president of King's College, New York. His mother, Charity, the daughter of Col. Richard Floyd of Long Island and the widow of Benjamin Nicoll, brought to the Johnsons important New York connections.
Education
Under the skillful tuition of his father the younger Johnson was prepared for Yale College, where he was graduated in 1744; three years later, he received a Master of Arts degree from Harvard University.
Career
His father hoped Johnson would enter the ministry and for a time he served as a lay reader; but he finally turned to the law. Without formal training, he made effective use of the legal material then available and before long became a recognized leader at the bar, drawing clients from New York, as well as in his own state. Meantime he was also getting into public service. In 1753 he appears in the records of Connecticut as ensign in a Stratford company, and he was advanced in later years to higher grades in the militia. In 1761 and 1765 he represented Stratford in the House of Representatives, and in 1766 he became an Assistant, or member of the upper house, retaining his membership until the outbreak of the Revolution. Ezra Stiles, later president of Yale, observed that Johnson was "the first Episcopalian ever bro't into the Council, " a circumstance due, in part at least, to his pleasing personality and conciliatory temper. A few years before, he had advised his father to "stand perfectly neuter" in the controversy then raging between the New York Presbyterians and the Anglican promoters of King's College.
To a man of Johnson's inheritance, temperament, and social position, the problems of the Revolutionary era were peculiarly difficult. His marriage strengthened his association with the conservative elements in colonial society. One of his most intimate correspondents was Jared Ingersoll who served as collector under the Stamp Act of 1765. For a time, however, Johnson took an active part in the opposition to parliamentary taxation and went as a Connecticut delegate to the Stamp Act Congress. He was on the committee which drafted the address to the King and seems to have been on confidential terms with James Otis. While his political attitude was popular at home, the honorary doctorate in law which he received from Oxford in 1766 indicated transatlantic connections of some importance, and in the same year he was appointed colonial agent in London. On this mission (1767-1771), he had to defend the Connecticut title to the Mohegan lands, then in litigation before the Privy Council, and in cooperation with English lawyers he prepared the way for a favorable settlement. Another legal issue was that between Pennsylvania and the Susquehanna Company of Connecticut involving the territorial claims of the latter colony under its "sea-to-sea" charter. The company played an important role in Connecticut politics; but Johnson tried to keep the colony out of litigation in England, which might prove embarrassing at this time, and the issue remained unsettled until after the Revolution. Connecticut was also concerned with other colonies in maintaining American claims against Parliamentary encroachments.
Johnson's letters show that he was a moderate Whig, supporting the non-importation agreements in opposition to the Townshend Acts. He observed that Lord Hillsborough, the new colonial secretary, had "loose, mistaken notions"; but he was also skeptical about the opposition leaders. His contacts abroad were not exclusively legal or political. His father's reputation, as well as his own personal qualities, brought him into relations with influential churchmen and other outstanding personages. Among the English celebrities whom he met was Samuel Johnson. On the question of American bishops, ardently advocated by his father and other Anglican friends but strongly opposed by most of his Connecticut constituents, Johnson had a difficult course to steer. Personally sympathetic with the plan, he found little support for it among English politicians. In any case, he assured Governor Trumbull, an American bishop would not interfere with dissenters but would be confined to such purely ecclesiastical functions as ordination and confirmation.
On Johnson's return home, he was publicly thanked by the Assembly, re-elected to the Council and made a judge of the superior court. It was soon evident, however, that he was out of sympathy with the radical Whigs. While abroad, he had criticized the extremists on both sides and maintained that such men as his friend Ingersoll were entitled to official preferment, notwithstanding their unpopularity in America. In 1772 Johnson himself was an aspirant for office under the Crown. His letters show that he dreaded the consequences of political separation for America as well as for the mother country. On the other hand, his prominence in Connecticut politics led to his election (1774) as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He declined to serve, pleading a professional engagement; but there were other reasons also. He believed the Congress would "tend to widen the breach already much too great between the parent state and her colonies"; there would be little room "for moderate men or moderate measures" and "with no others, " would he "be concerned. " He was sharply criticized for allowing a private engagement to interfere with a paramount public interest, and there was talk of dropping him from the Council, but he was continued for another year. After the fighting at Lexington and Concord, the Connecticut Assembly decided to send Johnson, with Erastus Wolcott, to confer with General Gage about a possible suspension of hostilities. They met Gage but were afterward called to account by the Massachusetts Provincial Congress and on their return home found that the dominant radical party was in no mood to continue such negotiations.
Johnson was now dropped from the Council and went into retirement at Stratford. In the summer of 1779, however, he was again brought into unwelcome prominence. Alarmed by British raids along the Connecticut coast, his Stratford neighbors asked him to intercede with the British commanders and though no communication was probably opened with the enemy, enough had been done to excite the suspicions of the American commanders. Johnson was placed under arrest, but he was fortunately permitted to confer with Governor Trumbull at Lebanon, where he presented a formal statement denying any attempt to correspond with the enemy, or any other proceedings, "in prejudice of the rights and liberties of this State"; he claimed, on the contrary, to have encouraged enlistments. After much debate and after he had taken the oath of fidelity to the state, he was released. Evidently Johnson's conservatism did not wholly alienate even his political opponents.
During the year 1779-1780 he was suggested by President Joseph Reed of Pennsylvania as a suitable head for the college at Philadelphia; and though the plan fell through, Johnson discussed it with President Stiles (February 1780). Stiles observed that Johnson seemed to find "no insuperable difficulty" in the renunciation of royal authority. Two years later he was one of the Connecticut counsel before the congressional board of arbitration in the Susquehanna dispute with Pennsylvania. The case was decided unanimously in favor of Pennsylvania, December 1782; Joseph Reed, who had complimented Johnson as a good speaker and "a man of candour, " considered his closing argument ineffective. In 1784 Johnson was elected to the Confederation Congress, taking his seat in January 1785 and continuing his service in 1786 and 1787.
The crowning event in Johnson's career was his work in the Federal Convention, of which he was one of the most generally respected members. Johnson's diary shows that he did not miss a single day of the Convention from his first attendance (June 2) until the adjournment. A letter to his son (June 27) commends his colleagues for their "information and eloquence, " also their "great temperance, candor, and moderation. " Johnson's best-known contributions in the Convention are his part in the compromise on representation, and his service as member and spokesman of the important Committee of Style. His speeches on representation were certainly among the most important in the debate between the large and small states. In general Johnson favored the extension of federal authority. He argued that the judicial power "ought to extend to equity as well as law" and the words "in law and equity" were adopted on his motion. He denied that there could be treason against a particular state even under the existing confederation, "the Sovereignty being in the Union. " He also opposed the prohibition of ex post facto laws as "implying an improper suspicion of the National Legislature. " He was one of the two Connecticut signers of the Constitution and worked effectively for ratification. In the state convention he emphasized the new sanction established in the federal system, which formed "one new nation out of the individual States. The force, which is to be employed, is the energy of Law; and this force is to operate only upon individuals, who fail in their duty to their country. "
Johnson was one of the first two senators from Connecticut but retired in 1791 when the transfer of the capital to Philadelphia made this service hardly compatible with his duties to Columbia College. He took an active part in shaping the Judiciary Act of 1789, though he was not a member of the committee which reported it. Maclay, who distrusted lawyers and New Englanders, noted Johnson's enthusiasm for English jurisprudence, and his defense of the equity jurisdiction of the federal judiciary. Though he supported the chief Hamiltonian measures, he was one of the ten senators who voted against giving the president the power to remove a cabinet officer without senatorial concurrence. As the first president of Columbia College (1787-1800), Johnson gave it the prestige of his distinguished public career, a reputation for scholarship, and a paternal interest in young men. By the close of his administration, the college was on a solid footing, with some new chairs including that in law, first held by James Kent. Though his election to the presidency was a departure from the traditional practice of choosing college presidents from the clergy, he was one of the outstanding laymen of the Anglican communion and a valued counselor in the organization of the church under its new American episcopate. As president, he maintained, though not in a sectarian spirit, the religious tradition of the old college. Retiring from the presidency on account of ill health, he returned to Stratford. Surviving most of his pre-Revolutionary associates, he lived to a ripe old age.
Achievements
Membership
Served as ensign in a Stratford company Connecticut Militia, 1753, advanced to higher grades. Member Connecticut Government"s Council, 1766-1767, 71. Member Continental Congress, 1784-1787.
Member United States Senate from Connecticut, 1789-1791.
Personality
Johnson is best described by the Georgia delegate, William Pierce. "Johnson, " writes Pierce, "possesses the manners of a Gentleman and engages the Hearts of Men by the sweetness of his temper, and that affectionate style of address with which he accosts his acquaintance. " A distinguished lawyer, he was also reputed "one of the first classics in America. " Pierce thought Johnson's oratory had been overrated but agreed that he was "eloquent and clear, - always abounding with information and instruction, " of "a very strong and enlightened understanding." He was, wrote Asher Robbins, "in person, the tout ensemble of a perfect man, in face, form and proportion. "
Connections
On November 5, 1749, Johnson married Anne Beach, a daughter of a prosperous Stratford citizen and niece of an Anglican clergyman who subsequently became an aggressive Loyalist. His first wife having died in 1796, he married, December 11, 1800, Mary (Brewster) Beach, a connection of his first wife.