Library of Congress
JOHNSON, Richard Mentor, (brother
of James Johnson [1774-1826] and John Telemachus Johnson, and uncle of Robert
Ward Johnson), a Representative and a Senator from Kentucky and a Vice President
of the United States; born at ‘Beargrass,’ Jefferson County, Ky., near the
present site of Louisville, October 17, 1780; attended the common schools and
Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky.; studied law; was admitted to the bar in
1802 and commenced practice in Great Crossings, Ky.; member, State house of
representatives 1804-1806 and again in 1819; elected as a Republican to the
Tenth and to the five succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1807-March 3, 1819);
chairman, Committee on Claims (Eleventh Congress), Committee on Expenditures in
the Department of War (Fifteenth Congress); commissioned colonel of Kentucky
Volunteers and commanded a regiment in engagements against the British in lower
Canada in 1813; elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused
by the resignation of John J. Crittenden; reelected and served from December 10,
1819, to March 3, 1829; unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1829; chairman,
Committee on Post Office and Post Roads (Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses);
elected to the Twenty-first and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4,
1829-March 3, 1837); chairman, Committee on Post Office and Post Roads
(Twenty-first and Twenty-second Congresses), Committee on Military Affairs
(Twenty-second through Twenty-fourth Congresses); was chosen Vice President of
the United States by the Senate on February 8, 1837, no candidate having
received a majority of the electoral vote, and served under President Martin Van
Buren from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1841; member, State house of
representatives 1850; died in Frankfort, Ky., November 19, 1850; interment in
the Frankfort Cemetery. - - Biographical
Data courtesy of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
