SAMUEL JOHNSON 663 sequently studied law and practised with suc- cess. He commenced his public career as a member of the Kentucky legislature, to which he was elected at the age of 23, and in 1807 was returned to congress, and remained a member of the house till 1819. He was a firm supporter of the administration of President Madison, and upon the commencement of the war of 1812 raised a body of Kentucky mount- ed riflemen, whom he commanded with the rank of colonel on the Canadian frontier. He resumed his legislative duties in the autumn of that year, but upon the adjournment of congress in the spring of 1813 he immediately raised another mounted regiment, with which he was employed for several months on the Indian frontier. In September he joined Gen. Harrison, then in pursuit of Proctor, and by the decisive charge of his mounted volunteers mainly contributed to the brilliant victory gained over the British and Indians at the battle of the Thames, Oct. 5. Col. Johnson fought with distinguished valor in this engage- ment, and it was by his hand that the Indian leader Tecumssh is commonly supposed to have fallen, lie was carried from the field desperately wounded, his person, clothing, and horse having been pierced by more than 25 bullets ; but in the following February he re- sumed his seat in congress. In 1819 he was elected to fill a vacancy in the United States senate, of which he continued a member till 1829, when he was again returned to the house of representatives, and held his seat there till March, 1837. Having been a candi- date for vice president on the Van Buren ticket in 1836, and received a large plurality of votes, though not a majority as required by the constitution, ho was elected to the office by the senate, and discharged the duties of presiding officer of that body for four years. In the presidential election of 1840 he was again candidate of the democratic party for vice pres- ident, and was defeated. He returned to his farm in Scott co., Ky., after upward of 34 years' continuous public service, and thence- forth lived chiefly in retirement. He was, however, serving a term in the state legislature at the time of his death. In congress his chief efforts were against the discontinuance of the Sunday mails, and in behalf of soldiers of the revolution or of the war of 1812 who applied for pensions. He was the author of the law abolishing'imprisonment for debt in Kentucky. JOHNSON, Samuel, an American clergyman, first president of King's (now Columbia) col- lege, New York, born in Guilford, Conn., Oct. 14, 1696, died in Stratford, Conn., June 6, 1772. He graduated at Yale college in 1714, and two years later was appointed tutor there. In 1720 he was ordained as a Congregational minister, and settled at West Haven. He relinquished his pastoral charge in 1722, and soon after, in company with Mr. Cutler, rector of the college, and another gentle- man, sailed for England, whore they received episcopal ordination in 1723, and in May he received the degree of A. M. from the univer- sity of Oxford. He soon returned to America, bearing a commission as missionary of the so- ciety for the propagation of the gospel in for- eign parts, and settled in Stratford, Conn., as rector of an Episcopal church there. In 1743 he received the degree of D. D. from the uni- versity of Oxford. In 1746 he published " A System of Morality," and about the same time composed a compend of logic and metaphysics, and another of ethics, originally prepared for the use of his sons. The two latter were printed by Franklin (Philadelphia, 1752), as text books for the university of Pennsylvania. In 1753 he was invited to become president of the newly founded college in New York ; and having declined the presidency of the university of Pennsylvania, he entered upon his duties in New York in 1754. In addition to teaching the classes he assisted in planning the college edifices, and made earnest appeals to his friends in England for assistance in its endowment. During the nine years of his presidency he lost his wife, younger son, and stepson, and became so much depressed as to be unwilling to remain longer in charge of the college. He accordingly wrote to England for a suc- cessor, and in 1763 resigned and returned to Stratford. During his presidency he published one or two small works, and after his return to Stratford, where he resumed his parochial duties, revised his previous works, and pub- lished an English and a Hebrew grammar. See "Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson," by E. E. Beardsley (New York, 1874). JOHNSON, Samnel, an English author, born in Lichfiehl, Sept. 18, 1709, died in London, Dec. 13, 1784. His father, Michael Johnson, was a bookseller and stationer, and for some time a magistrate of Lichfield ; but dying in middle age, he left his family in poverty. From his birth the younger Johnson was afflicted with a malignant scrofula which permanently dis- figured his face, and injured both his sight and hearing. At 10 years of age he commenced the study of Latin at the Lichfield free school, and remained there five years, and another year at a private academy in Stourbridge. On account of poverty his entrance at Oxford was delayed for two years, during which time ho amused himself chiefly in reading the books in his father's shop. At length lie went to Oxford with a schoolmate, the son of a neigh- boring gentleman, as assistant and fellow stu- dent, and was admitted to Pembroke college in 1728. His college life was disorderly, but not vicious. He especially distinguished him- self in a Latin translation of Pope's " Messiah," for which he received the applause of his col- lege, while Pope himself declared that it would be a question for posterity which was the original and which the translation. While at Oxford he showed signs of the morbid state of his brain and nervous system which affected him in all his after life ; but by skilful treat-
