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WHEN NO ONE WON: RICHARD MENTOR JOHNSON, PART II

© John S. Cooper

Richard Mentor Johnson entered the U.S. Senate in 1819 to fill a vacancy, and was elected to a full term in 1822. He was defeated for re-election in 1828, largely because of his personal life. A slave owner from Kentucky, Johnson was extremely popular in his congressional district which overlooked his unusual lifestyle choices. But as a senator, he answered to the state at large, and the powerful plantation aristocracy could not overlook his choice of a slave as a wife.

However, his congressional district returned Johnson to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1829 when his Senate term ended. During the two terms of President Andrew Jackson, Johnson was a loyal Jacksonian and served as chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs (1833-1837).

Johnson was an early candidate for the 1832 democratic presidential nomination, but withdrew after Jackson announced he would seek a second term. Johnson then set his sights on the Vice Presidency, but that went to Martin Van Buren. Shortly after Jackson’s second inauguration, the Political Register reported “the western States are flooded with handbills nominating Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, as a candidate for the Presidency in 1836.” William Emmons, a friend of Johnson’s, published “The Authentic Biography of Colonel Richard M. Johnson” in 1833. Richard Emmons’ play, “Tecumseh, of the Battle of the Thames” became a hit the next year. Richard Emmons also wrote a poem, one line of which read, “Rumpsey, Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh.” This became a Democratic slogan in the elections of 1836 and 1840.

Johnson greatly enjoyed his new-found celebrity, but his popularity also rested on his advocacy of veterans issues, his fight to abolish imprisonment for debt, and his support for continuing Sunday mail delivery. He also supported Jackson’s fiscal policies, especially his opposition to the Bank of the United States. His popularity in the west made him an early choice of some of Jackson’s “Kitchen Cabinet” (his unofficial advisors) for a place on the ticket as a means to neutralize Henry Clay’s popularity in the West.

In 1836, the Democratic convention gave the presidential nomination to Martin Van Buren. There was never any question about this choice, as President Jackson supported it enthusiastically. The choice for the vice presidential nomination was not as clear. Most of the party regulars wanted Senator William Cabell Rives of Virginia, including Van Buren.

Van Buren considered “the gallant Colonel . . . among the bravest of the brave” but also thought that Johnson could not be “relied upon to check the cupidity of his friends.” Jackson, concerned about the independent candidacy of Hugh Lawson White, popular with western voters, thought Johnson a better choice given his western following. Even with Jackson’s considerable influence, Johnson only won the vice presidential nomination after New York Senator Silas Wright grabbed a non-delegate named Edward Rucker from Tennessee to cast the state’s fifteen votes for the absent Tennessee delegation in Johnson’s favor.

Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson (1837-1841)

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