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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—ArkansasRobert Ward JOHNSON
(1814-1879)
Senate Years of Service:
1853-1861Party: DemocratJOHNSON, Robert Ward,
(nephew of James Johnson [1774-1826], John Telemachus Johnson and
Richard Mentor Johnson, and brother-in-law of Ambrose Sevier), a
Representative and a Senator from Arkansas; born in Scott County,
Ky., July 22, 1814; moved with his father to Arkansas in 1821;
attended the Choctaw Academy and St. Joseph’s College,
Bardstown, Ky.; studied law and commenced practice in Little Rock,
Ark., in 1835; prosecuting attorney for the Little Rock circuit
1840-1842 and State attorney general ex officio; elected as a
Democrat to the Thirtieth, Thirty-first, and Thirty-second
Congresses (March 4, 1847-March 3, 1853); chairman, Committee on
Indian Affairs (Thirty-first and Thirty-second Congresses);
declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1852; appointed and
subsequently elected to the United States Senate to fill the
vacancy caused by the resignation of Solon Borland; reelected in
1855 and served from July 6, 1853, to March 3, 1861; was not a
candidate for reelection in 1860; chairman, Committee on Printing
(Thirty-fourth and Thirty-fifth Congresses), Committee on Public
Lands (Thirty-sixth Congress), Committee on Military Affairs and
Militia (Thirty-sixth Congress); delegate to the Provisional
Government of the Confederate States in 1862; member of the
Confederate Senate 1862-1865; engaged in the practice of law in
Washington, D.C.; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United
States Senate from Arkansas in 1878; died in Little Rock, Ark.,
July 26, 1879; interment in Mount Holly Cemetery.
Bibliography
Dictionary of American Biography; Lewis, Elsie M.
“Robert Ward Johnson: Militant Spokesman of the
Old-South-West.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 13
(Spring 1954): 16-30.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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