Herschel Vespasian Johnson

Background

Herschel Vespasian Johnson was born on September 18, 1812, in Burke County to which place his father, Moses Johnson had removed from Edgefield County, South Carolina. His mother was Nancy Palmer Johnson.

Education

Herschel Vespasian Johnson attended private schools and Monaghan Academy near Warrenton. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1834. He studied law under Judge Gould in Augusta, Ga.

Career

After a few years of successful legal practice in Augusta, in Jefferson County, and in Milledgeville, Herschel Vespasian Johnson served one year of an unexpired term in the United States Senate (February 14, 1848 - March 3, 1849). He was soon thereafter elected by the legislature to the judgeship of Ocmulgee Circuit but continued to take an interest in the controversy resulting from the acquisition of territory in the Mexican War.

He was elected by the Democrats to the governorship of Georgia and served two terms, 1853-1857. While he deplored the resort to force in the territory of Kansas by both the advocates and opponents of slavery, he supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Johnson sincerely deplored the division within the Democratic party which occurred in the National Democratic Convention at Charleston in 1860, maintaining that the disruption of the Democratic party, the only truly national party, threatened the continuance of the Union, for the Republican party was a sectional party, committed to a policy which would antagonize the South to the point of secession. He pleaded earnestly but unsuccessfully for harmony in the Georgia Democratic convention of June 1860. In that month, in Baltimore, the national wing of the Democratic party nominated him for the vice-presidency on the ticket with Stephen A. Douglas.

His acceptance of the nomination brought severe criticism upon him in Georgia, but he fearlessly argued that the best interests of the South depended upon the success of the National Democrats. For the first year and a half of the war, he remained at his home, but in the fall of 1862, Herschel Vespasian Johnson was elected to the Confederate Senate, in which he served to the end. His state-rights views remained constant; he opposed conscription as a violation of state rights, he introduced an amendment to the Confederate constitution permitting the peaceful secession of a state, he opposed the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and the establishment of a supreme court. Throughout the war, he was loyal to President Jefferson Davis. In October 1865, he was president of the Georgia constitutional convention, and in the following year was elected to the United States Senate but was denied his seat. Throughout the period of Reconstruction, he exhibited self-control and sound judgment. In 1873 Herschel Vespasian Johnson was appointed a judge of the Middle Circuit and held this position until his death, which occurred on August 16, 1880.

Achievements

• Perhaps most famous as Stephen Douglas's 1860 vice-presidential candidate, Herschel Johnson played an anomalous but central role in the heated sectional politics of the 1850s and 1860s. Taken as a whole, his contradictions encapsulate the intense uncertainty Georgians felt toward disunion, especially in the years before the Civil War. Johnson County, in east-central Georgia, is named in his honor.

Works

More photos

• book

  • An Address Delivered Before the Volunteer Encampment 1857
  • The Probable Destiny of Our Country; The Requisites to Fulfil That Destiny; And the Duty of Georgia in the Premises: An Address Before the Phi Delta ... Delivered on the 14th of July, A. D. 1847 1847
  • Speech of Hon. H. V. Johnson 1849
  • The War with Mexico. Speech of Hon. H. V. Johnson, of Georgia, in the Senate of the United States, March 16, 1848, on the Bill Reported from the ... a Limited Time, an Additional Military Force 1848
  • Oration on the life and character of Andrew Jackson, delivered at the request of the citizens of Bal 1845

Politics

Between the election of Lincoln and his inauguration, Herschel Vespasian Johnson maintained that the wisest and best policy of the South would be to postpone secession until Lincoln should have the opportunity of at least attempting to settle the sectional controversy. He strenuously opposed secession in the Georgia convention, January 1861, and offered resolutions calling for a convention of the slaveholding states at Atlanta which he hoped might result in the adoption of some line of action which would be acceded to by the non-slaveholding States. By a vote of 166 to 130, however, the convention decided to take Georgia out of the Union. Although he acquiesced in secession once it had been voted, Johnson never expected the Confederacy to succeed.

Views

Herschel Vespasian Johnson maintained that the North and the South should share equally in the benefits to be derived from the territories and that the people of each territory should decide for themselves the question of slavery. The compromise measures of 1850 did not meet with his approval but he was willing to accept them rather than to encourage the spirit of secession, although at this time he insisted that the rights of the South in the Union should be recognized.

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "His ability is well known. As an orator, he is logical and brilliant. As a jurist, he stands high in the estimation of the legal profession. He was in the senate of the United States a short time, where he acquired a considerable reputation amongst the distinguished men of that body in 1848. As an orator, a constitutional lawyer and jurist, Mr. Johnson has few superiors in the U. S." - Alexander H. Stephens

Connections

Herschel Vespasian Johnson married, December 19, 1833, Mrs. Ann Polk Walker, daughter of Judge William Polk of Maryland. Their children were Tallulah Johnson Horne and Tomlinson Fort Johnson.

Father:

Moses Johnson

Mother:

Nancy Palmer Johnson

Wife:

Ann Polk Walker

Daughter:

Tallulah Johnson Horne

Son:

Tomlinson Fort Johnson

opponent:

George Washington Bonaparte Towns

Herschel Vespasian Johnson ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1847 and lost the Democratic nomination to George W. Towns.

References

• Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-2005
• The Georgia historical quarterly