On May 21, 1796, attorney and statesman Reverdy
Johnson was born in Annapolis, Maryland. Johnson represented Maryland, a slaveholding state south of the Mason-Dixon line, in the U.S. Senate from 1845-49 and again from 1863-68. Under President Zachary Taylor, he served as attorney general. Although he personally opposed slavery, Johnson represented the slave-owning defendant in the 1857 Dred Scott case in which the U.S. Supreme Court decided that slaves could not be citizens of the United States. The court's decision increased antislavery sentiment in the North and fed the antagonism that sparked the Civil War. In 1865, the ruling was made obsolete with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment prohibiting slavery.
Contemporary condemnation of the Dred Scott decision can be found in the the minutes and sermon of the Second Presbyterian and Congregational Convention held in Philadelphia in 1858:
. . .it was Resolved, That the recent decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Dred Scott, the evident design of which is, to degrade and rob the free people of color of civil and political rights, to perpetuate Slavery, and dishearten true philanthropy in the United States: is alike a sin against God, and a crime against humanity; and that Judges Curtis and McLean, who dissented from the infamous decision, are worthy of all praise.Motion of Rev. E. P. Rogers
The minutes and sermon of the Second Presbyterian and Congregational Convention, held in the Central Presbyterian Church, Lombard Street, Philadelphia, on October 28, 1858.
African-American Perspectives, 1818-1907During the Civil War, Reverdy Johnson strived to keep Maryland in the Union. The success of his efforts was of great strategic importance as it kept the District of Columbia, the capital of the Union, from being surrounded by Confederate states. Although Maryland remained loyal to the Union, strong Southern sentiments resulted in the imposition of martial law throughout the state. Several major Civil War military campaigns and battles took place within her borders, including the Battle of Antietam on September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day in American history.
Johnson was moderate in his attitude toward post-Civil War reconstruction of the rebellious Southern states. When impeachment proceedings were brought against Andrew Johnson, largely for his lenient treatment of the South, Reverdy Johnson was instrumental in securing the President's acquittal.
To learn more about the historical events in which Reverdy Johnson played a pivotal role:
- See the Special Presentation on the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson included in A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation, 1774-1875.
- Search on Dred Scott in African American Perspectives, 1818-1907 and in Words and Deeds in American History. Read, for example, Minutes and Sermon of the Second Presbyterian and Congregational Convention from October 1858, which includes a condemnation of the recent Dred Scott decision.
- Visit the online exhibition African American Odyssey which explores black America's quest for equality from the early national period through the twentieth century. Also available is The African-American Mosaic, the first Library-wide resource guide to the institution's African-American collections including books, periodicals, prints, photographs, music, film, and recorded sound covering 500 years of history.
- Search on keyword Dred Scott in Slaves and the Courts, 1740-1860 to read more about this famous law case. Read, for example, The Case of Dred Scott in the United States Supreme Court..
- See the presentation titled "The Dred Scott Decision" mounted by the National Park Service in conjunction with The Museum of Westward Expansion. This complex, part of the national park system, includes the Old Courthouse where the first two trials of the Dred Scott case were held.
