William Samuel Johnson

(7 October 1727-14 November 1819)

Born to a wealthy mother (by a previous marriage) and an Anglican preacher father (in Congregationalist Connecticut). Johnson grew up in a genteel home of some intellectual sophistication, attended Yale during the tumultuous Great Awakening, and then decided on a career in law, rather than the military or the church. Unlike most colonial lawyers, who were also farmers or merchants, Johnson made his living entirely from his law practice.

Johnson was active in the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765-66, and helped pen Connecticut’s response to British policy. Thereafter, he was sent to London (as “agent” or what we would today call lobbyist) to assist in presenting Connecticut concerns to the King and Parliament. Despite his religious commitment to the Anglican church, Johnson’s opposition to the extension of Parliamentary authority to the colonies led him to oppose the British plan to establish an Anglican bishop in America. Yet when the Revolution came, he joined his friend William Smith Jr., a New York lawyer, in withdrawing from politics rather than supporting independence. In 1779 he was jailed briefly for his role in trying to bring about a truce in the fighting between patriots and Tories in Connecticut, but freed himself by swearing a loyalty oath.

After the war, supporters of a moderate course and humane policy toward former loyalists held political power in Connecticut, and Johnson’s career benefited. He was elected to the Continental Congress and to the Constitutional Convention. Johnson helped fashion the “Connecticut Compromise” (equal state representation in the upper house and representation proportionate to population in the lower house), and the compromise over slavery and taxation (not allowing Congress to ban the slave trade until 1808).

Johnson was elected to the first United States Senate; he backed Alexander Hamilton’s proposals and became a Federalist. He resigned from the Senate to become president of Columbia University.