JOHNSON. 259 JOHNSON. Indians and Tories, resulting in the massacres in the Wyoming and Cherry valleys, form one of the most unpleasant chapters of the American Revolution. When in the summer of 1779 Wash- ington determined to put a stop to these outrages, he sent General Sullivan at the head of 5000 troops into the region. This force met Sir John .Johnson and the Butlers at Ne^vtown (now Elmira) on August 29, 1779, and decisively de- feated them. This defeat and the devastation of the Iroquois to«Tis that followed put a stop to the Tory regime in the district, and Sir John retired to ilontreal. At the close of the war his large estates were confiscated. He lived the rest of his life in Canada, where for many years ho was superintendent-general of Indian affairs in British Xorth America. Consult Stone, Life of Brant (Sew York, 1838; Albany, 1865). JOHNSON, ToHX Butler (1850-1902). An Amerioaii civil engineer and educator. He fcas born at Marlboro, Ohio, and gradiiated at the University of Michigan in 1878. He was a mem- ber of the United States Lake and ilississippi River Surveys until 1883, and professor of civil engineering at Washington University, ^Missouri, from that date until 1898. In 1884 he assumed charge of the index department of the Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies, and in 1891 was put in charge of the timber-testing laboratory at Saint Louis by the United States Forestrv Bureau. Afterwards he was made dean of the Department of ilechanics and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin. His publications include Theory and Practice of Surveying (1886), Engineering Contracts and Specifications (1895), and he was joint author of Modern Framed Struc- tures (Xew York, 1893). JOHNSON, M.4.xrEL .Johx (1805-59). An English astronomer, born in ilaeao, China, and educated at Addiscombe Military College. He took service in the Saint Helena artillery; and, in an observatorj- built by the East India Com- pany, he made a Catalogue of 600 Principal Fixed Stars in the Southern Hemisphere (1835), which won the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. He entered Magdalen Hall. Oxford, in 1835. and on graduation suc- ceeded Rigaud as director of the Radcliffe obser- vatory, which under his care became not merely a technical centre, but a gathering place for the leaders of the Oxford High Church Party. He published eighteen volumes of Radcliffe Observa- linns, and wrote a catalogue of circumpolar stars, edited by JIain in 1860. Johnson was president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1857. JOHNSON, Olh-eb (1809-89). An American abolitionist and editor, bom at Peacham, Vt. He entered the ofBce of the Vermont Watchman at Montpelier as an apprentice, and as early as July 4, 1828, showed his sj-mpathy with the abolition movement by delivering a speech against slavery. In January. 1831. he began to publish the Christian Soldier, and soon afterwards be- came intimate with William Lloyd Garrison. He was one of the founders of the Xew England Anti-Slavery Society and edited the Liberator during Garrison's absence in Europe in 1833. -Among the other papers of which he was an editor were the Xntional Anti-Slarerji Standard, the Anti-Slareri/ Bugle, and the Pennsijlranin Freedman. He was an associate editor of tho Independent when Garrison became a contributor in 1868. Later he occupied editorial poeltions on the Weekly Tribune and the Christian Union, and after 1881 was connected with the Xetc Torh Evening Post. He published William Lloyd Gar- rison and His Times, or Sketches of the Anti- Slavery Movement in America (1880). JOHNSON, Pebcival Xorton (c.1793-1S66). An English metallurgist. He was much em- ployed in consultation at important English mines; was the first to establish rules for ac- curately determining the composition of bullion; and introduced into England the alloy known as German silver. He improved the mechanism in use in some of the Cornish mines, and made several important inventions in mining and metallurgy. JOHNSON, Revebdt (1796-1876). An Ameri- can jurist, bom at Annapolis. Md., May 21, 1796. He was a son of .John .Johnson, himself an emi- nent lawyer, who became chancellor of Maryland. Reverdy was educated at Saint .John's College at Annapolis, studied law in his father's office, and in 1815 was admitted to the Marj-land bar. la 1817 he removed to Baltimore, and was succes- sively Deputy Attorney-General of ilaryland and for four years a State Senator (1821-25). Ha gained a high reputation as a profound lawyer, and was frequently employed in arguing impor- tant cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. He represented his native State in the United States Senate from 1845 to 1849, when he resigned his seat to enter President Tay- lors Cabinet as Attomey-Cieneral. After the death of General Taylor in 18.50 Mr. Johnson continued to practice law in Baltimore. With Mr. Thomas Harris, he edited the reports of the Maryland Court of Appeals from 1820 to 1826. In 1863 he was again elected to the United States Senate, but before the expiration of his term was appointed Minister to England in 1868. His nego- tiations toward a settlement of the disputed Ala- bama claims having proved unsatisfactory to the American Government, and his convention with Great Britain being rejected by the Senate of the T'nited States. Mr. Johnson was recalled in 1869. During the trial of the assassins and conspirators concerned in the murder of Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Johnson prepared an argument in behalf of ilrs. Surratt (afterwards executed for com- plicity in the assassination) which the military court that tried the case refused to hear. Though not a master of statecraft nor a great politician, Reverdy Johnson was a man of great courage and independence of judgment, as well as a con- summate lamer, and earned a place of great dis- tinction in the roll of the American bar. He died at Annapolis. February 10, 1876. JOHNSON, RiCHABD Men-tor (1780-1850). An American legislator and politician, Vice-Presi- dent of the United States in 1837-41. He was bom at Bryant's Station, Ky. ; was educated at Transylvania University, studied law and began practice at Grand Crossings in that State. Hi* political career began in 1805 with his election to the lower House of the Kentucky Legislature. In 1806 he was elected to the Tenth Congress, and was reelected to the Eleventh and Twelfth, serv- ing from 1807 until 1813. .t the oiitbreak of the War of 1812 he returned to Kentucky, where he recruited a regiment of moimted ritleiuen. serving during the recesses of Congress and occupying his seat during the sessions. In 1813 he raised
