title: Kalthoff repeater

text: The Klett system was another system used for repeating firearms, and was an improvement on the Kalthoff system. The oldest date found on guns using the system is 1652. Klett repeaters also use a horizontally rotating trigger guard to operate the weapon. The Klett system features two rotating screw breeches, which function like the breech of the Ferguson Rifle. When the trigger guard is turned, the breeches descend and the rear cylinder collects powder from a magazine in the butt, and the front cylinder collects a ball from a magazine in the fore stock. A Klett carbine is described as firing "30 or 40 shots" in the memoirs of Prince Raimund Montecuccoli.


title: Kalthoff repeater

text: A flintlock repeater, signed Michal Dorttlo 1683, uses many elements of the Kalthoff system. The breech is a vertically rotating cylinder, and the trigger guard can be rotated laterally to reload the weapon. However, it lacks the powder carrier found on Kalthoff guns, and instead houses both powder and ball in the butt. The gun uses a separate magazine for priming, but it is opened and closed manually.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: Magic in the Moonlight is a 2014 romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. It is Allen's 44th film. The film stars Emma Stone, Colin Firth, Hamish Linklater, Marcia Gay Harden, Jacki Weaver, Eileen Atkins, and Simon McBurney. Set in the 1920s on the French Riviera, the film was released on July 25, 2014, by Sony Pictures Classics. "Magic in the Moonlight" received a mixed reception. Critics praised the performances of Firth and Stone, but found its writing formulaic.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: In 1928, an illusionist, Wei Ling Soo, performs in front of a crowd in Berlin with his world-class magic act. Soo is actually a British man named Stanley, who wears a disguise in his act. In his dressing room, he is greeted by old friend and fellow illusionist Howard Burkan. Howard enlists Stanley to go with him to the Côte d'Azur, where a rich American family, the Catledges, has apparently been taken in by a clairvoyant, Sophie; the son of the family, Brice, is smitten with her. Howard said he has been unable to uncover the secrets behind Sophie's tricks, and is tempted to believe she really has supernatural powers. He asks Stanley, who has debunked many charlatan mystics, to help him prove she is a fraud.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: Howard and Stanley travel to the French Riviera, but Stanley is soon astonished by Sophie's ability to go into a fugue state and apparently pull out highly personal details about him and his family. Stanley witnesses a seance in which Sophie communicates with the deceased patriarch of the American family. A candle floats up from the table and Howard grabs it to try to discern what trickery is at play, but is astounded to find no apparent subterfuge.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: When Stanley and Sophie visit his Aunt Vanessa, Sophie is seemingly able, after holding Aunt Vanessa's pearls, to somehow relate secret details of Vanessa's great love affair. This finally convinces Stanley of Sophie's authenticity. He has an epiphany, realizing that his lifelong rationalism and cynicism have been misguided. When caught in a rain storm, Stanley and Sophie end up at an observatory the former had visited as a child. After the rain subsides, they open the roof up and view the stars.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: At a Gatsby-esque party, Stanley and Sophie dance. As they walk together later that night, Sophie asks him if he has felt any feelings for her "as a woman". Stanley is taken aback and admits he has not thought of her in that way. She leaves upset. The next day Stanley holds a press conference to tell the world that he, who spent his life debunking charlatan mystics, has finally come to find one who is the real deal. The conference is interrupted when he receives news that Aunt Vanessa has been in a car accident.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: Stanley rushes to the hospital, and considers turning to prayer for solace; he begins to pray for a miracle to save his aunt, but is unable to go through with it as the rationality that has been his whole life comes back. He rejects prayer, the supernatural and by extension, Sophie and her powers. He decides once more to prove she is a fraud.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: Using a trick seen earlier in his stage act, Stanley appears to leave the room but stays to overhear Sophie and Howard discuss their collusion in what has been an elaborate ruse. He discovers Sophie was able to know so much about him and his aunt because she and Howard collaborated to fool Stanley. Sophie is indeed a charlatan, and Howard had found out. Rather than unmask her to stop the ruse, he enlisted Sophie to help him one-up Stanley.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: Stanley is initially angry at Howard and Sophie, but decides to forgive them. In a conversation with Aunt Vanessa, who has recovered from her car accident, Stanley admits that he is in love with Sophie. He finds her and asks her to marry him instead of Brice. Sophie is taken aback and rejects his haughty, awkward proposal. Returning dejected to Aunt Vanessa's, Stanley admits that he fell in love with Sophie at first sight. He is then surprised when Sophie, who had arrived before him, knocks a spirit knock. He proposes, she accepts with a spirit knock, and they kiss.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: In April 2013, Colin Firth and Emma Stone joined the cast of the film. In July, they were joined by Jacki Weaver, Marcia Gay Harden, and Hamish Linklater, and Allen began shooting in Nice, France. Allen revealed the film's title to be "Magic in the Moonlight" on October 15, 2013.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: The film was set to be released on July 25, 2014. On October 17, 2013, it was announced that FilmNation Entertainment would handle the international sales for the film and Sony Pictures Classics had acquired North American distribution rights to it. On July 25, 2014, the film opened in seventeen US theaters. and expanded nationwide in the US on August 15, 2014.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: "Magic in the Moonlight" received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 51%, based on 189 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The site's consensus states: "While far from a failure, "Magic in the Moonlight" is too slight to stand with Woody Allen's finest work." Review aggregator Metacritic assigns the film a score of 54 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: Rex Reed, writing for "The New York Observer", gave the film a largely positive review, calling it "a masterstroke of enchantment" and praising Colin Firth's performance. Jordan Hoffman, writing for MTV.com, also enjoyed the film, stating, "This picture isn’t as showy or obvious as one of his (many) masterpieces, but it is quite good and deserves your time and respect." In "The New Yorker", David Denby agreed that Colin Firth "carries [the film] through." In "The Wall Street Journal", Joe Morgenstern complimented Emma Stone and concluded, "Think of it as a 97-minute séance that draws you in, spins you around, subverts your suppositions, levitates your spirits and leaves you giddy with delight".


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: However, in "Vanity Fair", Richard Lawson criticized Emma Stone's acting, arguing, "her line delivery is too modern to really work convincingly in the period, and like many other nonetheless talented actors, she has trouble with Allen’s stilted, formal cadence." He added that the age gap between Stone and Firth (28 years) was "a little gross" and "icky". Alan Scherstuhl of the "Village Voice" disliked the film, criticizing its familiarity from Allen's previous work and believing the writing was uninspired. Chris Nashawaty of "Entertainment Weekly" gave the movie a "B−" grade (from A+ to F), remarking that it was funny and "pleasant", but also forgettable. "Salon"s Andrew O'Hehir felt that the characters were not drawn out enough because of poor writing. "The New York Times"' A. O. Scott wrote: "Mr. Allen has had his ups and downs over the years. Rarely, though, has he put a story on screen that manifests so little energy, so little curiosity about its own ideas and situations."


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: In 2016 film critics Robbie Collin and Tim Robey ranked it as one of the worst movies by Woody Allen.


title: Magic in the Moonlight

text: The film opened in limited release in North America on July 25, 2014. In 17 theaters, it grossed $412,095 ($24,241 per screen) in its opening weekend. It expanded to 964 theaters on August 15, grossing $1,786,150 ($1,853 per screen) in three days. By the end of its North American run, it grossed $10,539,326.


title: Danica Dillon

text: Danica Dillon is an American retired pornographic actress who debuted in 2009 and then went on to appear in mainstream (non-adult) roles in cable television movies. Dillon is also a featured dancer at men's clubs and is a featured guest on radio and podcast shows.


title: Danica Dillon

text: In 2009, Dillon was working at a strip club in San Diego, California, when established adult actress Jenna Haze appeared at the club as a featured dancer and told her that she should give doing porn movies a try. Within two weeks of meeting Haze, Dillon had shot her first scene. Since then, Dillon has worked for companies such as Hustler, Naughty America, Twistys, New Sensations, Evil Angel and Immoral Productions. Since her 2009 debut, Dillon has appeared in several large-scale porn productions, such as "This Ain't Avatar XXX 3D" (Hustler Video), "The Human Sexipede" (Tom Byron Pictures), and "Not The Three Stooges XXX".


title: Danica Dillon

text: Dillon started feature dancing at men's clubs in July 2013. Her first appearance was at Gold Club Centerfolds in Rancho Cordova, California.


title: Danica Dillon

text: Dillon was featured in the May/June issue of the Girls of Penthouse in a photo set with porn actor Tommy Gunn titled "Danica Dillon’s Cheating Ways."


title: Danica Dillon

text: Dillon made her mainstream debut in the TV series "Femme Fatales" in the Season 1 episodes "Girls Gone Dead" and "Angel & Demons". Her next mainstream project was the Showtime movie "Scared Topless". The supernatural-themed thriller features a group of undergraduate students taking a class in "the supernatural and the afterlife." Her role is the daughter of a famous magician who died when she was a young girl.


title: Danica Dillon

text: On November 18, 2015, it was made public that Danica was suing Josh Duggar for US$500,000. The lawsuit claims that Duggar physically assaulted her on two occasions after paying her for sex. In February 2016, Dillon chose to drop the lawsuit after evidence showed that Duggar was not in Philadelphia at the time of the alleged assault.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: The series follows Aki Shiina who, wanting to reaffirm his identity as man after being teased for his feminine looks, moves to the Sunohara-sou lodging house in Tokyo. He develops a crush on Sunohara-sou's proprietor Ayaka, who along with the other girls living there often tease him and make him dress like a woman. The series was well received by critics, who liked the characters and found the writing funny.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: The series follows the shy Aki Shiina, whose feminine looks often cause him to be teased and mistaken for a girl. Wanting to reaffirm his identity as a man, he moves to the lodging house Sunohara-sou in Tokyo, and forms a crush on its motherly caretaker Ayaka Sunohara; his plan does not go smoothly, as Ayaka and the other residents – Yuzu Yukimoto, Sumire Yamanashi and Yuri Kazami of the Tanamachi student council – often tease him and make him wear women's clothes, while he keeps getting read as a girl.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: "Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou" is written and illustrated by Nekoume, and serialized as a four-panel manga by Ichijinsha in their "seinen" manga magazine "Manga 4-Koma Palette" since 2014; serialization ended in February 22, 2020, but was renewed on October 22 the same year. After the magazine ended in February 2022, "Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou" was moved to Ichijinsha's "Monthly Comic Rex". The manga has been collected in seven "tankōbon" volumes in Japan, the second of which included an audio drama.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: An anime television series adaptation of the series was produced by Silver Link, and was directed by Mirai Minato, with Shin Oonuma as chief director, Fumihiko Shimo in charge of series composition, and Kazuya Hirata designing the characters. The music was composed by Ruka Kawada at FlyingDog.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: The voice cast from the audio drama reprised their roles for the anime, on request from Nekoume. Owing to the limited number of characters, only a small number of people were present during recording sessions, most of whom were women, leading to what Sato described as a cozy and friendly atmosphere. Sato aimed to make her portrayal of Ayaka come across as easy-going and gentle, while Kitamura aimed to portray Aki as innocent and pure, describing him as at times similar to "a small animal"; she thought that this was helped by how she is a woman, and that a male actor would have resulted in the character leaving a different impression.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: The series aired from July 5 to September 20, 2018 on AT-X, Tokyo MX, and BS11, running for 12 episodes. The opening theme song is "Bitter Sweet Harmony" by Megumi Nakajima, and the ending theme song is by Shino Shimoji.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: The anime was announced in a promotional video for the third manga volume in November 2017, and an event was held to promote it in June 2018, prior to the series' premiere, where the show received blessings at the Kanda Shrine in Tokyo; a theme café was also held from June to July. A life-size figure of Ayaka was additionally created to promote the show; the design was chosen through a Twitter poll for fans of the series, between two drawings by Nekoume, and the figure was shown off for the first time at the Kanda Shrine event. The figure was later put up for sale for 1.99 million yen.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: The series was released across four DVD and Blu-ray volumes in Japan from September 28 to December 21, 2018, with three episodes per volume; limited editions were also be released, which included acrylic figures of characters from the series. The ending theme was released on a single on August 1, 2018.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: Funimation licensed the series, and released it with an English dub weekly through their website starting from July 25, 2019, followed by a North American Blu-ray release on November 10, 2020. Following Sony's acquisition of Crunchyroll, the series was moved to Crunchyroll. Animelab released the series digitally in Australia in January 2020, and released it on Blu-ray in the region on January 13, 2021.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: The first two volumes of the series were both among the best selling comics in Japan during their respective debut weeks, and by May 2018, over 350,000 copies of the manga had been sold. The anime did not have a big long-term effect on the manga sales.


title: Miss Caretaker of Sunohara-sou

text: "Manga.Tokyo", "Animate Times" and "Honey's Anime" found the characters in the series cute, and thought it was cute to see Aki dressing like a girl. "Honey's Anime" considered the series cute, funny, and sexy, with the concept of being emasculated by pretty women "the ideal life", and called it funny to see Aki's misunderstandings and his attempts to impress Ayaka while pretending he is not doing so. They thought the series was not particularly original, but still thought that it succeeded in portraying its character archetypes. They liked the dynamic between Aki and Ayaka, but were at the same time grateful that their relationship did not turn romantic considering how much older Ayaka is than Aki. They considered several of the characters a bit overbearing for being clingy and harassing, though, including Maiko and Mea, Nana, Matsuri, Sumire, and Ayaka, but still found them entertaining.


title: Chicken Shack

text: Chicken Shack are a British blues band, founded in the mid-1960s by Stan Webb (guitar and vocals), Andy Silvester (bass guitar), and Alan Morley (drums), who were later joined by Christine Perfect (later McVie) (vocals and keyboards) in 1967. Chicken Shack has performed with various line-ups, Stan Webb being the only constant member.


title: Chicken Shack

text: David "Rowdy" Yeats and Andy Silvester had formed Sounds of Blue in 1964 as a Stourbridge-based rhythm and blues band. They invited Stan Webb, who was leaving local band The Shades 5, to join them. The band also included Christine Perfect and Chris Wood (later to join Traffic) amongst others in their line up. With a new line-up Chicken Shack was formed as a trio in 1965, naming themselves after Jimmy Smith's "Back at the Chicken Shack" album. Chicken shacks (open-air roadside chicken stands) had also been frequently mentioned in blues and R&B songs, as in Amos Milburn's hit, "Chicken Shack Boogie". Over the next few years the band had a residency at the Star-Club, Hamburg with Morley, then Al Sykes, Hughie Flint (who was John Mayall's drummer when Eric Clapton was in the band) and later Dave Bidwell on drums.


title: Chicken Shack

text: They made their first UK appearance at the 1967 National Jazz and Blues Festival, Windsor and signed to Mike Vernon's Blue Horizon record label in the same year; releasing "Forty Blue Fingers, Freshly Packed and Ready to Serve" in early 1968. A mainstay of the white blues boom, Chicken Shack enjoyed some commercial success and their two albums were TOP 20 in UK album chart. They had two minor hits with "I'd Rather Go Blind" (c/w "Night Life"), and "Tears in the Wind" (c/w "The Things You Put Me Through"), after which Perfect left the band in 1969 when she married John McVie of Fleetwood Mac. She was replaced by Paul Raymond from Plastic Penny.


title: Chicken Shack

text: After being dropped by Blue Horizon, pianist Paul Raymond, bassist Andy Silvester, and drummer Dave Bidwell all left in 1971 to join Savoy Brown. At this point Webb reformed the band as a trio with John Glascock on bass and Paul Hancox on drums, and they recorded "Imagination Lady". The line-up did not last; Glascock left to join Carmen, while Webb was recruited for Savoy Brown in 1974 and recorded the album "Boogie Brothers" with them.


title: Chicken Shack

text: Since 1977 Webb has revived the Chicken Shack name on a number of occasions, with a rotating membership of British blues musicians including, at various times, Paul Butler (ex-Jellybread, Keef Hartley Band)(guitar), Keef Hartley, ex-Ten Years After drummer Ric Lee and Miller Anderson, some of whom came and went several times. The band has remained popular as a live attraction in Europe throughout.


title: James Boswell

text: James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck (; 29 October 1740 (N.S.) – 19 May 1795), was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of his friend and older contemporary the English writer Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language. A great mass of Boswell's diaries, letters and private papers were recovered from the 1920s to the 1950s, and their ongoing publication by Yale University has transformed his reputation.


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell was born in Blair's Land on the east side of Parliament Close behind St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh on 29 October 1740 (N.S.). He was the eldest son of a judge, Alexander Boswell, Lord Auchinleck, and his wife Euphemia Erskine. As the eldest son, he was heir to his family's estate of Auchinleck in Ayrshire. Boswell's mother was a strict Calvinist, and he felt that his father was cold to him. As a child, he was delicate. Kay Jamison, Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, in her book "Touched with Fire", believes that Boswell may have suffered from bipolar disorder, and this condition would afflict him sporadically all through his life. At the age of five, he was sent to James Mundell's academy, an advanced institution by the standards of the time, where he was instructed in English, Latin, writing and arithmetic.


title: James Boswell

text: The eight-year-old Boswell was unhappy there, and suffered from nightmares and extreme shyness. Consequently, he was removed from the academy and educated by a string of private tutors. The most notable and supportive of these, John Dunn, exposed Boswell to modern literature, such as "The Spectator" essays, and religion. Dunn was also present during Boswell's serious affliction of 1752, when he was confined to the town of Moffat in northern Dumfriesshire. This afforded Boswell his first experience of genuine society. His recovery was rapid and complete, and Boswell may have decided that travel and entertainment exerted a calming therapeutic effect on him.


title: James Boswell

text: At thirteen, Boswell was enrolled into the arts course at the University of Edinburgh, studying there from 1753 to 1758. Midway through his studies, he suffered an episode of serious depression but recovered fully. Boswell had swarthy skin, black hair and dark eyes; he was of average height, and he tended to plumpness. His appearance was said to be alert and masculine.


title: James Boswell

text: Upon turning nineteen, he was sent to continue his studies at the University of Glasgow, where he attended the lectures of Adam Smith. While at Glasgow, Boswell decided to convert to Catholicism and become a monk. Upon learning of this, his father ordered him home. Instead of obeying, though, Boswell ran away to London, where he spent three months, living the life of a libertine, before he was taken back to Scotland by his father. Upon returning, he was re-enrolled at Edinburgh University and forced by his father to sign away most of his inheritance in return for an allowance of £100 a year.


title: James Boswell

text: On 30 July 1762, Boswell passed his oral law exam, after which his father decided to raise his allowance to £200 a year and permitted him to return to London. In this period, Boswell wrote his "London Journal" and, on 16 May 1763, met Johnson for the first time. The pair became friends almost immediately, though Johnson became more of a parental figure in Boswell's eyes. Johnson eventually nicknamed him "Bozzy".


title: James Boswell

text: It was around three months after this first encounter with Johnson that Boswell departed for Europe with the initial goal of continuing his law studies at Utrecht University. He spent a year there and although desperately unhappy the first few months, eventually quite enjoyed his time in Utrecht. He befriended and fell in love with Isabelle de Charrière, also known as Belle van Zuylen, a vivacious young Dutchwoman of unorthodox opinions, his social and intellectual superior. Boswell admired the young widow Geelvinck who refused to marry him. After this, Boswell spent most of the next two years travelling around the continent, his Grand Tour. During this time he met Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire with a recommendation letter of Constant d'Hermenches, and made a pilgrimage to Rome, where his portrait was painted by George Willison. Boswell also travelled to Corsica to meet one of his heroes, the independence leader Pasquale Paoli. His well-observed diaries and correspondence of this time have been compiled into two books, "Boswell in Holland" and "Boswell on the Grand Tour".


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell returned to London in February 1766 accompanied by Rousseau's mistress, with whom he had a brief affair on the journey home. After spending a few weeks in the capital, he returned to Scotland, buying (or perhaps renting) the former house of David Hume on James Court on the Lawnmarket. He studied for his final law exam at Edinburgh University. He passed the exam and became an advocate. He practised for over a decade, during which time he spent no more than a month every year with Johnson. Nevertheless, he returned to London annually to mingle with Johnson and the rest of the London literary crowd, and to escape his mundane existence in Scotland. He found enjoyment in playing the intellectual rhyming game crambo with his peers.


title: James Boswell

text: Some of his journal entries and letters from this period describe his amatory exploits. Thus, in 1767, in a letter to William Johnson Temple, he wrote, "I got myself quite intoxicated, went to a Bawdy-house and past a whole night in the arms of a Whore. She indeed was a fine strong spirited Girl, a Whore worthy of Boswell if Boswell must have a whore." A few years earlier, he wrote that during a night with an actress named Louisa, "five times was I fairly lost in supreme rapture. Louisa was madly fond of me; she declared I was a prodigy and asked me if this was not extraordinary for human nature." Though he sometimes used a condom for protection, he contracted venereal disease at least seventeen times.


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell was a major supporter of the Corsican Republic. Following the island's invasion by France in 1768, Boswell attempted to raise public awareness and rally support for the Corsicans. He sent arms and money to the Corsican fighters, who were ultimately defeated at the Battle of Ponte Novu in 1769. Boswell attended the masquerade held at the Shakespeare Jubilee in Stratford-upon-Avon in September 1769 dressed as a Corsican Chief. He was also, much to the chagrin of his friend Johnson, a strong defender of the American Revolution.


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell married his cousin, Margaret Montgomerie, on 25 November 1769. She remained faithful to Boswell, despite his frequent liaisons with prostitutes, until her death from tuberculosis in 1789. After his infidelities, he would deliver tearful apologies to her and beg her forgiveness, before again promising her, and himself, that he would reform. James and Margaret had four sons and three daughters. Two sons died in infancy; the other two were Alexander (1775–1822) and James (1778–1822). Their daughters were Veronica (1773–1795), Euphemia (1774 – c. 1834) and Elizabeth, known as 'Betsy', (1780–1814). Boswell also had at least two extramarital children, Charles (1762–1764) and Sally (1767 – c. 1768).


title: James Boswell

text: Despite his relative literary success with accounts of his European travels, Boswell was only a moderately successful advocate, with the exception of the copyright infringement case of "Donaldson v Beckett", where Boswell represented the Scottish bookseller Alexander Donaldson. By the late 1770s, Boswell descended further and further into alcoholism and gambling addiction. Throughout his life, from childhood until death, he was beset by severe swings of mood. His depressions frequently encouraged and were exacerbated by his various vices. His happier periods usually saw him relatively vice-free. His character mixed a superficial Enlightenment sensibility for reason and taste with a genuine and somewhat romantic love of the sublime and a propensity for occasionally puerile whimsy. The latter, along with his tendency for drink and other vices, caused many contemporaries and later observers to regard him as being too lightweight to be an equal in the literary crowd that he wanted to be a part of. However, his humour and innocent good nature won him many lifelong friends.


title: James Boswell

text: In 1773 Boswell bought the house of David Hume (who moved to a new house on South St David Street/St Andrew Square) on the south east corner of James Court. He lived there until 1786. Boswell's residency at James Court has been well established, but not the exact location. For example, a later edition of "Traditions of Edinburgh" by Robert Chambers suggests that Boswell's residence at James Court was actually in the Western wing. His James Court flat was notable for having two levels, and although a modern renovation in the Eastern section reveals such a possibility, it is likely that Boswell's residence was a similarly equipped one in the Western section that no longer exists, having burned down in the mid 1800s.


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell became quite friendly with the 6th Earl of Dumfries, as well as seeing him in Scotland he also visited him in Rosemount, London in 1787 and 1788.


title: James Boswell

text: In Boswell's of November 2, 1778 journal he writes, "“[The Earl of Dumfries] was exceedingly attentive to me [...] I was upon my guard, as I well knew that he and his Countess flattered themselves that they would get from me that road through our estate which my father had refused, and which in truth I was still more positive for refusing [etc.]”" - He saw the Earl as "“very attentive”".


title: James Boswell

text: Having hosted the Earl, Boswell and his wife also decide to visit Dumfries House "“[o]ur visit was a little awkward, as there had been no communication between the families for several of the last years of my father’s life [...] I, however, wished to live on civil terms with such near neighbours [etc.]”."


title: James Boswell

text: On October 27, 1782, Boswell writes "“we looked at Lord Dumfries’s gate and the famous road. [...] I showed him that granting it would make the Auchinleck improvements appear part of the Earl of Dumfries’s domains. [...] If Lord Eglinton - if my Earl - were Earl of Dumfries and living at Dumfries House, he should have the road, but not to him and his heirs. [etc.]”."


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell was a frequent guest of Lord Monboddo at Monboddo House, a setting where he gathered significant observations for his writings by association with Samuel Johnson, Lord Kames and other notable attendees.


title: James Boswell

text: After Johnson's death in 1784, Boswell moved to London to try his luck at the English Bar, which proved even less successful than his career in Scotland. In 1792 Boswell lobbied the Home Secretary to help gain royal pardons for four Botany Bay escapees, including Mary Bryant. He also offered to stand for Parliament but failed to get the necessary support, and he spent the final years of his life writing his "Life of Samuel Johnson".


title: James Boswell

text: During this time his health began to fail due to venereal disease and his years of drinking. Boswell died in London in 1795. Close to the end of his life he became strongly convinced that the "Shakespeare papers", including two previously unknown plays "Vortigern and Rowena" and "Henry II", allegedly discovered by William Henry Ireland, were genuine. After Boswell's death they proved to be forgeries created by Ireland himself. Boswell's remains were interred in the crypt of the Boswell family mausoleum in what is now the old Auchinleck Kirkyard in Ayrshire. The mausoleum is attached to the old Auchinleck Kirk.


title: James Boswell

text: When the "Life of Samuel Johnson" was published in 1791. Its style was unique in that, unlike other biographies of that era, it directly incorporated conversations that Boswell had noted down at the time for his journals. He also included more personal and human details than those to which contemporary readers were accustomed. Instead of writing a strictly fact-based record of Johnson's public life in the style of the time, he painted a more personal and intimate portrait of the man than was normal in biographies of the day.


title: James Boswell

text: Macaulay and Carlyle, among others, have attempted to explain how a man such as Boswell could have produced a work as detailed as the "Life of Johnson". The former argued that Boswell's uninhibited folly and candour were his greatest qualifications; the latter replied that beneath such traits was a mind to discern excellence and a heart to appreciate it, aided by the power of accurate observation and considerable dramatic ability.


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell was present at the meeting of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in May 1787 set up to persuade William Wilberforce to lead the abolition movement in Parliament. However, the abolitionist Thomas Clarkson records that by 1788 Boswell "after having supported the cause ... became inimical to it".


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell's most prominent display of support for slavery was his 1791 poem "No Abolition of Slavery; or the Universal Empire of Love", which lampooned Clarkson, Wilberforce and Pitt. The poem also supports the common suggestion of the pro-slavery movement, that the slaves actually enjoyed their lot: "The cheerful gang! – the negroes see / Perform the task of industry."


title: James Boswell

text: In the 1920s a great part of Boswell's private papers, including intimate journals for much of his life, were discovered at Malahide Castle, north of Dublin. These provide a hugely revealing insight into the life and thoughts of the man. They were sold to the American collector Ralph H. Isham and have since passed to Yale University, which has published popular and scholarly editions of his journals and correspondence. A second cache was discovered soon after and also purchased by Isham. A substantially longer edition of "The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides" was published in 1936 based on his original manuscript, edited by L. F. Powell. His "London Journal 1762–63", the first of the Yale journal publications, appeared in 1950. The last popular edition, "The Great Biographer, 1789–1795", was published in 1989. Publication of the research edition of Boswell's journals and letters, each including never before published material, was ceased by Yale University in June 2021, prior to the completion of the project.


title: James Boswell

text: These detailed and frank journals include voluminous notes on the Grand Tour of Europe that he took as a young man and, subsequently, of his tour of Scotland with Johnson. His journals also record meetings and conversations with eminent individuals belonging to The Club, including Lord Monboddo, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, Joshua Reynolds and Oliver Goldsmith.


title: James Boswell

text: It is since the discovery of these journals that Boswell has become recognized as a major literary artist. In his openness to every nuance of feeling, his delicacy in capturing fugitive sentiments and revealing gestures, his comic self-regard and (at times) self-contempt, Boswell was willing to express what other authors of the time repressed.


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell was initiated into Freemasonry in Lodge Canongate Kilwinning on 14 August 1759. He subsequently became Master of that Lodge in 1773 and in that year was Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Scotland. From 1776 to 1777 he was the Depute Grand Master of that Grand Lodge.


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell's surname has passed into the English language as a term ("Boswell", "Boswellian", "Boswellism") for a constant companion and observer, especially one who records those observations in print. In "A Scandal in Bohemia", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes affectionately says of Dr. Watson, who narrates the tales, "I am lost without my Boswell."


title: James Boswell

text: The comedy "Young Auchinleck" (1962) by Scottish playwright Robert McLellan depicts Boswell's various courtships and troubled relations with his father in the period after his return to Scotland in 1766, culminating in his eventual marriage to his cousin Margaret Montgomery (Peggy) in 1769 on the same day as his father's second marriage in a different part of the country. The play was first produced at the Edinburgh International Festival in 1962 and adapted for BBC Television in 1965.


title: James Boswell

text: In 1981 the cartoonist R. Crumb published the piece "Boswell's London Journal" in the anthology magazine "Weirdo". Presented as a "Klassic Komic," the piece featured meticulous cross-hatched illustrations and excerpts from Boswell's writing to tell a satirical story of the young Boswell attempting to establish himself in London society, dallying with prostitutes and suffering from venereal disease.


title: James Boswell

text: Boswell was played by John Sessions in "Boswell & Johnson's Tour of the Western Isles", a 1993 BBC 2 play.


title: James Boswell

text: In February and March 2015, BBC Radio 4 broadcast three episodes of "Boswell's Lives", writer Jon Canter's comedic take on Boswell meeting later historical figures (Sigmund Freud, Maria Callas and Harold Pinter, respectively) for the purposes of biographing them. Boswell was played by Miles Jupp.


title: James Boswell

text: American novelist Philip Baruth wrote a fictional account of James Boswell's early life in "The Brothers Boswell" (Soho Press 2009). The novel, which includes scenes that feature Samuel Johnson, is a thriller that focuses on the tense relationship between James and his younger brother John. Boswell also features as a character in James Robertson's novel, "Joseph Knight" (2003).


title: James Boswell

text: On 14 November 2020, "New York Times" columnist Maureen Dowd called reporter Maggie Haberman "Trump's Boswell", referring to Ms. Haberman's tenacious and in-depth reporting of Donald Trump's presidential years.


title: James Boswell

text: After Boswell's private papers were recovered, and brought together by Ralph Isham, they were acquired by Yale University, where a dedicated office was established to edit and publish his journals and correspondence. The journals have been published in 13 volumes, as follows.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: Seongjong of Joseon (19 August 1457 – 20 January 1495), personal name Yi Hyeol (Korean: ; Hanja: ), was the ninth ruler of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. Before succeeding his uncle, King Yejong, he was known as Grand Prince Jalsan (Korean: 잘산대군; Hanja: 乽山大君).


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: Yi Hyeol was born as the second son of Crown Prince Yi Jang and Crown Princess Su of the Cheongju Han clan. His father however died few months after his birth. In 1461, he was named Prince Jasan (자산군) which was changed to Prince Jalsan (잘산군) in 1468.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: In 1467, he married Han Song-yi, the youngest daughter of Han Myeong-hoe. One of Lady Han's older sisters was the late Crown Princess Jangsun, first wife of King Yejong.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: Despite having an older brother and his uncle leaving behind a biological son, Jalsan was chosen as successor and was made the adopted son of King Yejong and his second wife, Queen Han (posthumously known as Queen Ansun).


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: After he ascended to the throne, his biological father was honored with the temple name "Deokjong" (덕종, 德宗), while his mother became queen and was given the honorary name "Insu" (인수, 仁粹).


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: Since Seongjong was only 12 when he was crowned, his grandmother Grand Royal Queen Dowager Jaseong, ruled the nation along with his biological mother Queen Insu, and his aunt (and adoptive mother) Queen Dowager Inhye. In 1476, at the age of 19, he began to govern the country in his own name.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: After the death of his first wife in 1474, Seongjong decided to promote one of his concubines, Lady Yun, to the status of primary wife and queen.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: His reign was marked by the prosperity and growth of the economy, based on the laws laid down by Taejong, Sejong, and Sejo. He himself was a gifted ruler. In 1474, the Grand Code for State Administration, started by his grandfather, was completed and put into effect. Seongjong also ordered revisions and improvements to the code.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: He greatly expanded the Office of Special Advisors ("Hongmungwan"; 홍문관, 弘文館), an advisory council to the king, which also served as royal library and research institute; he strengthened the Three Offices ("Samsa"; 삼사, 三司) – Office of the Inspector General ("Saheonbu"), Office of Censors ("Saganwon") and Office of Special Advisors ("Hongmungwan")– as a check and balance on the royal court. For the first time since Sejong the Great, Confucian scholars whose political views clashed with those of the conservative officials (members of the nobility who had helped Taejong and Sejo in their rise to power), were brought to court. By appointing able administrators regardless of their political views, Seongjong made his rule more effective and his policies resulted in many positive innovations, increasing his number of supporters.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: The king himself was an artist and intellectual, and liked to argue about the finer points of politics with the more liberal scholars. He encouraged the publication of numerous books about geography and social etiquette, as well as areas of knowledge that benefited the common people.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: It was under Seongjong's reign that the "Widow Remarriage Ban" (1477) was enacted, which strengthened pre-existing social stigma against women who remarried by barring their sons from public office. In 1489, Yi Gu-ji, a woman from the royal clan, committed suicide at his order and was erased from family records, when it was discovered that she had cohabited with her slave after being widowed.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: In 1491, Seongjong started a military campaign against the Jurchens on the northern border, like many of his predecessors. Led by General Heo Jong (허종, 許琮), the campaign was successful, and the defeated Jurchens commanded by Udige (兀狄哈) retreated to the north of Amrok River.


title: Seongjong of Joseon

text: He died in January 1495 and is buried in the south of Seoul. The tomb is known as "Seonneung" (선릉) and 35 years later, his third wife, Queen Jeonghyeon, was also interred here. Seongjong was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Yi Yung.


title: Largest living flying birds by wingspan

text: The table contains list of largest birds living on this planet by wingspan, at maximum, assumed to be reliable by experts or by verified records.


title: Vitebsk

text: Vitebsk or Viciebsk (, ; , ; , "Vitebsk", , ), is a city in Belarus. The capital of the Vitebsk Region, it has 366,299 inhabitants, making it the country's fourth-largest city. It is served by Vitebsk Vostochny Airport and Vitebsk Air Base.


title: Vitebsk

text: Vitebsk developed from a river harbor where the Vićba River (Віцьба, from which it derives its name) flows into the larger Western Dvina, which is spanned in the city by the Kirov Bridge.


title: Vitebsk

text: Archaeological research indicates that Baltic tribes had settlements at the mouth of Vitba. In the 9th century, Slavic settlements of the tribal union of the Krivichs replaced them. According to the "Chronicle of Michael Brigandine" (1760), Princess Olga of Kiev founded Vitebsk (also recorded as Dbesk, Vidbesk, Videbsk, Vitepesk, or Vicibesk) in 974. Other versions give 947 or 914. Academician Boris Rybakov and historian Leonid Alekseyev have come to the conclusion, based on the chronicles, that Princess Olga of Kiev could have established Vitebsk in 947. Leonid Alekseyev suggested that the chroniclers, when transferring the date from the account of the Byzantine era (since the creation of the world) to a new era, obtained the year 947, later mistakenly written in copying manuscripts as 974. An important place on trade route from the Varangians to the Greeks, Vitebsk became by the end of the 12th century a center of trade and commerce, and the center of an independent principality, following Polotsk, and at times, Smolensk and Kiev princes.


title: Vitebsk

text: The official year of the founding of Vitebsk is 974, based on an anachronistic legend of founding by Olga of Kiev, but the first mention in historical records dates from 1021, when Yaroslav the Wise of Kiev gave it to Bryachislav Izyaslavich, Prince of Polotsk.


title: Vitebsk

text: In the 12th and 13th centuries Vitebsk functioned as the capital of the Principality of Vitebsk, an appanage principality which thrived at the crossroads of the river routes between the Baltic and Black seas. In 1320 the city was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as dowry of the Princess Maria, the first wife of Grand Duke of Lithuania Algirdas. By 1351 the city had erected a stone Upper and Lower Castle, the prince's palace. In 1410 Vitebsk participated in the Battle of Grunwald. In 1569 it became a part of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1597 the townsfolk of Vitebsk were privileged with Magdeburg rights. However, the rights were taken away in 1623 after the citizens revolted against the imposed Union of Brest and killed Archbishop Josaphat Kuntsevych of Polotsk. The city was almost completely destroyed in 1708, during the Great Northern War. In the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the Russian Empire annexed Vitebsk.


title: Vitebsk

text: The Battle of Vitebsk was fought west of the city on 26–27 July 1812 as Napoleon attempted to engage decisively with the Russian army. While the French were to occupy the town for over three months (the emperor celebrating his 43rd birthday there) the Russian army was able to slip away with minimal losses towards Smolensk.


title: Vitebsk

text: Before World War II, Vitebsk had a significant Jewish population: according to Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 65,900, Jews constituted 34,400 (around 52%).


title: Vitebsk

text: In 1919 Vitebsk was proclaimed to be part of the Socialist Soviet Republic of Byelorussia (January to February 1919), but was soon transferred to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and later to the short-lived Lithuanian–Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (February to July 1919). In 1924 it was returned to the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic.


title: Vitebsk

text: During World War II the city came under Nazi German occupation (11 July 1941 – 26 June 1944). During Operation Barbarossa, 22,000 Jews, or 58% of Vitebsk's Jewish population, managed to successfully evacuate to the interior of the Soviet Union, thus saving themselves from the impending Holocaust. Much of the old city was destroyed in the ensuing battles between the Germans and Red Army soldiers. Most of the remaining local Jews perished in the Vitebsk Ghetto massacre of October 1941. The Soviets recaptured the city during the 1944 Vitebsk–Orsha Offensive.


title: Vitebsk

text: In the first postwar five-year period the city was rebuilt. Its industrial complex covered machinery, light industry, and machine tools.


title: Vitebsk

text: In January 1991, Vitebsk celebrated the first Marc Chagall Festival. In June 1992, a monument to Chagall was erected on his native Pokrovskaja Street and a memorial inscription was placed on the wall of his house.


title: Vitebsk

text: Since 1992 Vitebsk has been hosting the annual Slavianski Bazaar, an international music festival. The main participants are artists from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, with guests from many other countries, both Slavic and non-Slavic. There has been a remarkable improvement and expansion of the city. The central stadium was reconstructed, and the Summer Amphitheatre, the railway station and other historical sites and facilities were restored, and the Ice Sports Palace along with a number of new churches and other public facilities were built, together with the construction of new residential areas.


title: Vitebsk

text: The city has one of the oldest buildings in the country: the Annunciation Church. The building dates back to the period of Kievan Rus. The city at the time was pagan and did not belong to the Ukrainian or Russian Orthodox Church or the Kievan Rus state. It was constructed in the 1140s as a pagan church, rebuilt in the 14th and 17th centuries as a Roman Catholic Church, restored in 1883 and destroyed by the Soviet administration in 1961. The church was in ruins until 1992, when it was restored to its presumed original appearance.


title: Vitebsk

text: Churches from the Polish-Lithuanian period were likewise destroyed, although the Resurrection Church (1772–77) has been rebuilt. The Orthodox cathedral, dedicated to the Intercession of the Theotokos, was erected in 1760. There are also the town hall (1775); the Russian governor's palace, where Napoleon celebrated his 43rd birthday in 1812; the Neo-Romanesque Roman Catholic cathedral (1884–85); and an obelisk commemorating the centenary of the Russian victory over Napoleon.


title: Vitebsk

text: Vitebsk is also home to a lattice steel TV tower carrying a horizontal cross on which the antenna mast is guyed. This tower, which is nearly identical to that at Grodno, but a few metres shorter (245 metres in Vitebsk versus 254 metres at Grodno) was completed in 1983. The city is also home to the Marc Chagall Museum and the Vitebsk regional museum.


title: Vitebsk

text: Vitebsk has warm summer humid continental climate, Köppen: "Dfb". Summers are generally warm, while winters are relatively cold but still warmer than in Moscow due to a stronger influence of maritime air from the Baltic Sea. Approximately of precipitation falls here per annum.


title: Vitebsk

text: The main universities of Vitebsk are Vitebsk State Technological University, Vitebsk State Medical University and Vitebsk State University named in honor of Pyotr Masherov.


title: Vitebsk

text: In 1928, the American composer Aaron Copland composed the piano trio "Vitebsk: Study on a Jewish Theme", and the work was premiered in 1929. Based on a Jewish folk song from S. Ansky's play "The Dybbuk", Copland's piece is named for Vitebsk Governorate, where Ansky was born, and where he first heard the tune.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: Couroupita guianensis, known by a variety of common names including cannonball tree, is a deciduous tree in the flowering plant family Lecythidaceae. It is native to the tropical forests of Central and South America, and it is cultivated in many other tropical areas throughout the world because of its beautiful, fragrant flowers and large, interesting fruits. Fruits are brownish grey. There are potential medicinal uses for many parts of "Couroupita guianensis", and the tree has cultural and religious significance in India. In Sri Lanka, the cannonball tree has been widely misidentified as Sal, after its introduction to the island by the British in 1881, and has been included as a common item in Buddhist temples as a result.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: "Couroupita guianensis" is a tree that reaches heights of up to . The leaves, which occur in clusters at the ends of branches, are usually 8 to 31 centimeters (3 to 12 inches) long, but can reach lengths of up to .


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: The flowers are borne in racemes up to long. Some trees flower profusely until the entire trunk is covered with racemes. One tree can hold as many as 1000 flowers per day. The flowers are strongly scented, and are especially fragrant at night and in the early morning. They are up to in diameter, with six petals, and are typically brightly colored, with the petals ranging from shades of pink and red near the bases to yellowish toward the tips. There are two areas of stamens: a ring of stamens at the center, and an arrangement of stamens that have been modified into a hood.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: The fruits are spherical with a woody shell and reach diameters of up to , giving the species the common name "cannonball tree". Smaller fruits may contain about 65 seeds, while large ones can hold as many as 550. One tree can bear 150 fruits. The fruits take up to a year to mature in most areas, sometimes as long as 18 months. The fruit flesh is white and turns blue upon oxidation, a reaction with air.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: The tree was named "Couroupita guianensis" by the French botanist Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet in 1775.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: The Latin specific epithet "guianensis" means "of the Guianas" (an area of north eastern South America).


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: Although the flowers lack nectar, they are very attractive to bees, which come for the pollen. The flowers produce two types of pollen: fertile pollen from the ring stamens, and sterile pollen from the hood structure. The pollinators must work their way between the two areas of stamens as they gather the pollen. The carpenter bee "Xylocopa brasilianorum" is a common pollinator of cultivated trees in Rio de Janeiro, just outside the tree's native range. Other carpenter bees such as "Xylocopa frontalis", as well as wasps, flower flies, and bumblebees, are also known to visit the flowers.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: The seeds are dispersed by animals that feed on the fruits. When the fruits fall to the ground, the hard, woody shell usually cracks open, exposing the pulp and seeds. Fruits that remain whole may be broken open by animals such as peccaries. Many animals feed on the pulp and seeds, including peccaries, the paca, and domestic chickens and pigs. The seeds are covered with trichomes which may protect them as they pass through the animals' digestive systems.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: "Couroupita guianensis" is planted as an ornamental for its showy, scented flowers, and as a botanical specimen for its interesting fruit.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: The fruit is edible, but is not usually eaten by people because, in contrast to its intensely fragrant flowers, it can have an unpleasant smell. It is fed to livestock such as pigs and domestic fowl.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: Parts of the plant have been used in traditional medicine. It has been used to treat hypertension, tumors, pain, and inflammation, the common cold, stomachache, skin conditions and wounds, malaria, and toothache, although data on its efficacy are lacking.


title: Couroupita guianensis

text: In India, the tree is sacred to Hindus, who believe its hooded flowers look like the nāga, and it is grown at Shiva temples. The cannonball tree has since then been planted at Buddhist and Hindu religious sites in Asia in the belief that it is the tree of sacred scriptures. In Sri Lanka, Thailand and other Theravada Buddhist countries it has been planted at Buddhist monasteries and other religious sites.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Richard Mentor Johnson (October 17, 1780 – November 19, 1850) was an American lawyer, military officer and politician who served as the ninth vice president of the United States, serving from 1837 to 1841 under President Martin Van Buren. He is the only vice president elected by the United States Senate under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment. Johnson also represented Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. He began and ended his political career in the Kentucky House of Representatives.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson was elected to the House of Representatives in 1806 in the early Federal period. He became allied with fellow Kentuckian Henry Clay as a member of the War Hawks faction that favored war with Britain in 1812. At the outset of the War of 1812, Johnson was commissioned a colonel in the Kentucky Militia and commanded a regiment of mounted volunteers from 1812 to 1813. He and his brother James served under William Henry Harrison in Upper Canada. Johnson led troops in the Battle of the Thames. Many reported that he personally killed the Shawnee chief Tecumseh, a claim that he later used to his political advantage.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: After the war, Johnson returned to the House of Representatives. The state legislature appointed him to the Senate in 1819 to fill the seat vacated by John J. Crittenden. With his increasing prominence, Johnson was criticized for his interracial relationship with Julia Chinn, a mixed-race slave who was classified as octoroon (or seven-eighths white). Unlike other upper-class planters and leaders who had African-American mistresses or concubines, but never acknowledged them, Johnson treated Chinn as his common law wife. He acknowledged their two daughters as his children, giving them his surname, much to the consternation of some of his constituents. It is believed that because of this, the state legislature picked another candidate for the Senate in 1828, forcing Johnson to leave in 1829, but his Congressional district voted for him and returned him to the House in the next election.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: In 1836, Johnson was the Democratic nominee for vice-president on a ticket with Martin Van Buren. Campaigning with the slogan "Rumpsey Dumpsey, Rumpsey Dumpsey, Colonel Johnson killed Tecumseh", Johnson fell one short of the electoral votes needed to secure his election. Virginia's delegation to the Electoral College refused to endorse Johnson, voting instead for William Smith of South Carolina. The Senate elected him to the vice-presidential office. Johnson proved such a liability for the Democrats in the 1836 election that they refused to renominate him for vice president in 1840. Van Buren campaigned for reelection without a running mate. He lost to William Henry Harrison, a Whig. Johnson tried to return to public office but was defeated. He finally was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1850, but died on November 19, 1850, just two weeks into his term.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Richard Mentor Johnson was born in the settlement of Beargrass on the Kentucky frontier (present-day Louisville) on October 17, 1780, the fifth of Robert and Jemima (Suggett) Johnson's 11 children, and the second of eight sons. His brothers John and Henry Johnson survived him. His parents married in 1770. Robert Johnson purchased land in what is now Kentucky, but was then part of Virginia, from Patrick Henry and from James Madison. He had worked as a surveyor and was able to pick out good land. His wife Jemima Suggett "came from a wealthy and politically connected family."


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: About the time of Richard's birth, the family moved to Bryan's Station, near present-day Lexington in the Bluegrass Region. This was a fortified outpost, as there was much Native American resistance to white settlement. The Shawnee and Cherokee hunted in this area. Jemima Johnson was remembered as among the community's heroic women because of what was told of her actions during Simon Girty's raid on Bryan's Station in August 1782. According to later reports, with Indian warriors hidden in the nearby woods and the community short on water, she led the women to a nearby spring, and the attackers allowed them to return to the fort with the water. Having the water helped the settlers beat off an attack made with flaming arrows. At the time, Robert Johnson was serving in the legislature in Richmond, Virginia, as he had been elected to represent Fayette County. (Kentucky was part of Virginia until 1792.)


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Beginning in 1783, Kentucky was considered safe enough that settlers began to leave the fortified stations to establish farms. The Johnsons settled on the land Robert had purchased at Great Crossing. As a surveyor, he became successful through well-chosen land purchases and being in the region when he could take advantage of huge land grants.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: According to Miles Smith's doctoral thesis, "Richard developed a cheery disposition and seems to have been a generally happy and content child". Richard lived on the family plantation until he was 16. In 1796, he was sent briefly to a local grammar school, and then attended Transylvania University, the first college west of the Appalachian Mountains. While at the Lexington college, where his father was a trustee, he read law as a legal apprentice with George Nicholas and James Brown, later a US Senator.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1802, and opened his law office at Great Crossing. Later, he owned a retail store as a merchant and pursued a number of business ventures with his brothers. Johnson often worked "pro bono" for poor people, prosecuting their cases when they had merit. He also opened his home to disabled veterans, widows, and orphans.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Family tradition holds that Johnson broke off an early marital engagement when he was about sixteen because of his mother's disapproval. Purportedly Johnson vowed revenge for his mother's interference. His former fiancée later gave birth to his daughter, named Celia, who was raised by the Johnson family. Celia Johnson later married Wesley Fancher, one of the men who served in Johnson's regiment at the Battle of the Thames.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: After his father died, Richard Johnson inherited Julia Chinn, an octoroon mixed-race woman (seven-eighths European and one-eighth African in ancestry), who was born into slavery around 1790. She had grown up in the Johnson household, where her mother served. Julia Chinn was the daughter of Benjamin Chinn, who was living in Malden, Upper Canada, or London, Canada, and a sister of Daniel Chinn. An 1845 letter from Newton Craig, Keeper of the Penitentiary in Frankfort, Kentucky, to Daniel Chinn, mentions another brother of Julia Chinn named Marcellus, who accompanied Col. Johnson on his first electioneering tour for vice-presidency. Marcellus left Col. Johnson in New York, whereupon Col. Johnson tried to find Marcellus' whereabouts from Arthur Tappan, Esq.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Though Chinn was legally Johnson's concubine, he began a long-term relationship with her, and treated her as his common-law wife, which was legal in Kentucky at the time. They had two daughters together and she later became manager of his plantation. Both Johnson and Chinn championed the "notion of a diverse society" by their multi-racial, predominately white family. They were prohibited from marrying because she was a slave. When Johnson was away from his Kentucky plantation, he authorized Chinn to manage his business affairs. She died in the widespread cholera epidemic that occurred in the summer of 1833. Johnson deeply grieved her loss.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: The relationship between Johnson and Chinn shows the contradictions within slavery at the time. There were certainly numerous examples that "kin could also be property". Johnson was unusual for being open about his relationship and treating Chinn as his common-law wife. He was heard to call her "my bride" on at least one occasion, and they acted like a married couple. According to oral tradition, other slaves at Great Crossings were said to work on their wedding.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Chinn gradually gained more responsibilities. As she spent much of her time in the "plantation's big house", a two-story brick home, she managed Johnson's estate for at least half of each year, with her purview later expanding to all of his property, even acting as "Richard's representative" and allowing her to handle money. This gave, as historical scholar Christina Snyder argues, some independence, since Johnson told his white employees that Chinn's authority must be respected, and her role allowing her children's lives to be different from "others of African descent at Great Crossings", giving them levels of privileged access within the plantation. This was further complicated by the fact that Chinn was still enslaved but supervised the work of slaves, which the Chinn family never sold or mortgaged off, but she did not have the power to "challenge the institution of slavery or overturn the government that supported it", she only had the power to gain some personal autonomy, with Johnson never legally emancipating her. This may have been because, as Snyder says, liberating her from human bondage would erode "ties that bound her to him" and keeping her enslaved supported his idea of being a "benevolent patriarch".


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson and Chinn had two daughters, Adaline (or Adeline) Chinn Johnson and Imogene Chinn Johnson, whom he acknowledged and gave his surname to, with Johnson and Chinn preparing them "for a future as free women". Johnson taught them morality and basic literacy, with Julia undoubtedly teaching her own skills, with both later pushing for both of them to "receive regular academic lessons" which he later educated at home to prevent the scorn of neighbors and constituents. Later Johnson would provide for Adaline and Imogene's education. Both daughters married white men. Johnson gave them large farms as dowries from his own holdings. There is confusion about whether Adeline Chinn Scott had children; a 2007 account by the Scott County History Museum said she had at least one son, Robert Johnson Scott (with husband Thomas W. Scott) who became a doctor in Missouri. Meyers said that she was childless. There is also disagreement about the year of her death. Bevins writes that Adeline died in the 1833 cholera epidemic. Meyers wrote she died in 1836. The Library of Congress notes that she died in February 1836.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Although Johnson treated these two daughters as his own, according to Meyers, the surviving Imogene was prevented from inheriting his estate at the time of his death. The court noted she was illegitimate, and so without rights in the case. Upon Johnson's death, the Fayette County Court found that "he left no widow, children, father, or mother living." It divided his estate between his living brothers, John and Henry.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Bevins's account, written for the Georgetown & Scott County Museum, says that Adeline's son Robert Johnson Scott, her first cousin, Richard M. Johnson, Jr., and Imogene's family (husband Daniel Pence, first daughter Malvina and son-in-law Robert Lee, and second daughter and son-in-law Josiah Pence) "acquired" Johnson's remaining land after his death.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: After Chinn's death, Johnson began an intimate relationship with another family slave. When she left him for another man, Johnson had her picked up and sold at auction. Afterward he began a similar relationship with her sister, also a slave.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: After passing the bar, Richard Johnson returned to Great Crossing, where his father gave him a plantation and slaves to work it. The many lawsuits over ownership of land provided him with much legal work, and, combined with his agricultural interests, he quickly became prosperous.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1803, but finished third, behind the winner, Thomas Sandford, and William Henry. At that time, following the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson in 1801, many young, democratically minded aspiring politicians were seeking office. While Jefferson and Johnson agreed on the need for greater democracy, Jefferson felt that the people should be led by the elite, such as himself, while Johnson took a more populist view.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: In 1804, Johnson ran for the Kentucky House of Representatives for Scott County (where Great Crossing is) and this time was elected, the first native Kentuckian to serve in the state's legislature. Although the Kentucky Constitution imposed an age requirement of twenty-four for members of the House of Representatives, Johnson was so popular that no one raised questions about his age, and he was allowed to take his seat. Seeking to protect his constituents, most of whom were small farmers, he introduced a proposed U.S. constitutional amendment limiting the power of the federal courts to matters involving the U.S. Constitution. Throughout his political career, Johnson sought to limit the jurisdiction of federal courts, which he deemed undemocratic.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: In 1806, Johnson was elected as a Democratic-Republican to the United States House of Representatives, serving as the first native Kentuckian to be elected to Congress. In the three-way election, he defeated Congressman Sandford and James Moore. At the time of his election in August 1806, he did not meet the U.S. Constitution's for service in the House (25), but by the time the congressional term began the following March, he had turned 25. He was re-elected and served six consecutive terms. During the first three terms from 1807 to 1813, he represented Kentucky's Fourth District.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson took his seat in the House on October 26, 1807; Congress had been called into special session by President Jefferson to consider how to react to the "Chesapeake"–"Leopard" affair, the forcible boarding of an American naval ship by a British vessel, with four sailors seized as deserters and one hanged. Jefferson had tried to maintain neutrality with the main combatants in the Napoleonic Wars, Britain and France, and at his urging, Congress passed the Embargo Act of 1807, with Johnson voting in support, finding economic warfare preferable to the use of guns: "we fear no nation, but let the time for shedding human blood be protracted, when consistent with our safety".


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Over the following year, Congress attempted to tighten the Embargo, which was widely evaded, especially in the Northeast, with Johnson voting in favor each time. Johnson generally supported Jefferson's proposals, and those of his successor James Madison: all three were Democratic-Republicans, and Johnson saw the party's proposals as superior to any suggested by the Federalists, whom he saw as not acting in the best interests of the country. In 1809, Johnson supported Jefferson in adopting the administration's proposal to replace the Embargo Act with the Non-Intercourse Act, as the Embargo had proven ineffective except in causing a serious recession in the United States.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Although Johnson is considered one of the War Hawks, the young Southern and Western Democratic-Republicans who sought expansion and development of the nation, he was cautious in the runup to the War of 1812. Johnson saw Britain as the major obstacle to United States control of North America, but worried about what a war might bring. By the time Congress met in late 1811, he had come around to war, and joined the War Hawks in electing one of their own, Henry Clay of Kentucky, as Speaker. Like the other War Hawks, though, he was initially unwilling to support increased taxes and borrowing to finance the construction of naval vessels. When Madison asked Congress for a declaration of war against Britain in June 1812, Johnson voted in favor as the House passed the resolution, 79–49. Madison signed the declaration on June 18, 1812.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: For his fourth consecutive term from 1813 to 1815, he had secured one of Kentucky's at-large seats in the House. For his fifth and sixth consecutive terms, 1815 to 1819, he represented Kentucky's Third District. Johnson continued to represent the interests of the poor as a member of the House. He first came to national attention with his opposition to rechartering the First Bank of the United States.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson served as chairman of the Committee on Claims during the Eleventh Congress (1809–1811). The committee was charged with adjudicating financial claims made by veterans of the Revolutionary War. He sought to influence the committee to grant the claim of Alexander Hamilton's widow to wages which Hamilton had declined when serving under George Washington. Although Hamilton was a champion of the rival Federalist Party, Johnson had compassion for Hamilton's widow; before the end of his term, he secured payment of the wages.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Within a week of the declaration of war, Johnson urged the House of Representatives to recommend the raising of troops in the western states, lest disaster befall settlers on the frontier. After the adjournment, Johnson returned to Kentucky to recruit volunteers. So many men responded that he chose only those with horses, and raised a body of mounted rifles. The War of 1812 was extraordinarily popular in Kentucky; Kentuckians depended on sea trade through the port of New Orleans and feared that the British would stir up another Indian war. The land war fought in the Northern United States pitted American troops against British forces and their Indian allies. Johnson recruited 300 men, divided into three companies, who elected him major. They merged with another battalion, forming a regiment of 500 men, with Johnson as colonel, with the merged volunteer forces becoming a brigade commanded by General Edward W. Tupper of Ohio. The Kentucky militia was under the command of General William Henry Harrison, the Governor of the Indiana Territory.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson's force was originally intended to join General William Hull at Detroit, but Hull surrendered Detroit on August 16 and his army was captured. Harrison by then was in command of the entire Northwest frontier and ordered Johnson to relieve Fort Wayne in the northeast of the Territory, which was already being attacked by the Indians. On September 18, 1812, Johnson's men reached Fort Wayne in time to save it, and turned back an Indian ambush. They returned to Kentucky and disbanded, going out of their way to burn Potawatomi villages along the Elkhart River en route.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson returned to his seat in Congress in the late fall of 1812. Based on his experience, he proposed a plan to defeat the mobile, guerrilla warfare of the Indians. American troops moved slowly, dependent on a supply line. Indians would evade battle and raid supplies until the American forces withdrew or were overrun. Mounted riflemen could move quickly, carry their own supplies, and live off the woods. If they attacked Indian villages in winter, the Indians would be compelled to stand and fight for the supplies they used to wage war and could be decisively defeated. Johnson submitted this plan to President James Madison and Secretary of War John Armstrong, who approved it in principle. They referred the plan to Harrison, who found winter operations impracticable. Johnson was permitted to try the tactics in the summer of 1813; later, the US conducted Indian wars in winter with his strategy.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson left Washington, D.C. just before Congress adjourned. He raised one thousand men, nominally part of the Kentucky militia under Governor Isaac Shelby, but largely operating independently. He disciplined his men, required that every man have arms in prime condition and ready to hand, and hired gunsmiths, blacksmiths, and doctors at his own expense. He devised a new tactical system: when any group of men encountered the enemy, they were to dismount, take cover, and hold the enemy in place. All groups not in contact were to ride to the sound of firing, and dismount, surrounding the enemy when they got there. Between May and September, Johnson raided throughout the Northwest, burning the war supply centers of Indian villages, surrounding their fighting units and scattering them, killing some warriors each time.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: In September, Oliver Hazard Perry destroyed most of the British fleet at the Battle of Lake Erie, taking control of the lake. This made the British army, then at Fort Malden (now Amherstburg, Ontario) vulnerable to having its supply lines cut. The British, under General Henry Procter, withdrew to the northeast, pursued by Harrison, who had advanced through Michigan while Johnson kept the Indians engaged. The Indian chief Tecumseh and his allies covered the British retreat, but were countered by Johnson, who had been called back from a raid on Kaskaskia that had taken the post where the British had distributed arms and money to the Indians. Johnson's cavalry defeated Tecumseh's main force on September 29, took British supply trains on October 3, and was one of the factors inducing Procter to stand and fight at the Battle of the Thames on October 5, as Tecumseh had been demanding he do. One of Johnson's slaves, Daniel Chinn, accompanied Johnson to the battle.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: At the battle itself, Johnson's forces were the first to attack. One battalion of five hundred men, under Johnson's elder brother, James Johnson, engaged the British force of eight hundred regulars; simultaneously, Richard Johnson, with the other, now somewhat smaller battalion, attacked the fifteen hundred Indians led by Tecumseh. There was too much tree cover for the British volleys to be effective against James Johnson; three-quarters of the regulars were killed or captured.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: The Indians were a harder fight; they were out of the main field of battle, skirmishing on the edge of an adjacent swamp. Richard Johnson ordered a suicide squad of twenty men to charge with him and draw the Indians' fire, with the rest to attack as the Indians reloaded. But he was unable to push his troops through the enemy position due to the swampy ground. Johnson had to order his men to dismount and hold until Shelby's infantry came up. By then, under the pressure of Johnson's attack, the Native American force broke and fled into the swamp, during which time Tecumseh was slain.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: The question of who shot and killed Tecumseh was highly controversial in Johnson's lifetime, as he was most often named as the shooter. Johnson himself did not publicly say that he had killed Tecumseh, stating that he had killed "a tall, good-looking Indian", but initial published accounts named him, and it was not until 1816 that another claimant, a man named David King, appeared. John Sugden, in his book on the Battle of the Thames, found that Johnson's "claim is surely the stronger". Jones suggested that the issue did not truly catch the public's attention until Johnson became a potential candidate for national office in the 1830s, and was promoted through such means as a campaign biography, stage play and song. In any event, he found, "Colonel Johnson truly was a war hero at the Battle of the Thames. By ... leading the suicide mission on horseback, more lives were saved than lost. Johnson was lucky to have been only wounded, since fifteen men died instantly during the charge."


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: There are reports from Indians that support Johnson's account, but most were made decades after the battle, by which time the question of whether Johnson shot Tecumseh had become politically charged. Tecumseh was said to have been shot from a firearm pointed at a downward angle, as if from a horse, with a ball and three buckshot, which Johnson's pistol was said to be loaded with. Evidence that it was so loaded is lacking, and the angle of the wound did not exclude the possibility that he had been stooping when shot. Some accounts have muskets loaded with cartridges containing a ball and three buckshot being commonly carried by American soldiers, and whether the Americans identified the proper body as Tecumseh (whose death was attested to by British officers who had been at the battle) is another source of contention.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: On April 4, 1818, an act of Congress requested that the President of the United States present to Johnson a sword in honor of his "daring and distinguished valor" at the Battle of the Thames. The sword was presented to Johnson by President James Monroe in April 1820. Johnson was one of only 14 military officers to be presented a sword by an act of Congress prior to the American Civil War.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: With the American success at the Battle of the Thames, the war in the northwest was effectively over. Although there was no organized resistance to his presence in Canada, Harrison withdrew to Detroit because of supply problems. Johnson remained, wounded, at Detroit as his men began their return to Kentucky. Once he had recovered enough to bear the journey, he was conveyed home in a bed in a carriage, arriving there in early November 1813. It took him five months to recover, though he was still left with a damaged left arm and hand, and was later described as walking with a limp. He returned to Congress in February 1814, but due to his wounds was unable to participate in debates until the following session of Congress. He received a hero's welcome, still suffering from war wounds that would plague him for the rest of his life.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: In August 1814, British forces attacked Washington, D.C. and burned the White House and Capitol, and when Congress reconvened on September 19, with Johnson present, it was in temporary quarters. On September 22, Johnson moved for the appointment of a committee to look into why the British had been allowed to burn the city, and he was appointed as chairman. Johnson's committee compiled a voluminous report, but it was objected to by Representative Daniel Webster, who felt the report, including much correspondence, needed to be printed so that all congressmen could study it. This postponed any debate to 1815, by which time the Treaty of Ghent had been ratified, and the United States was again at peace. With Congress having little interest in debating the matter, it was dropped. Had the war continued, Johnson was ready to return to Kentucky to raise another military unit.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: With the end of the war, Johnson, who was made chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs, turned his legislative attention to issues such as securing pensions for widows and orphans and funding internal improvements in the West. There were widespread reports of Americans, including women and children, captured by Indians during the war, and Johnson used his congressional office to investigate these matters, and to try to secure the release of captives. Western Democratic-Republicans like Johnson strongly supported the military and urged aid for the veterans; in December 1815, Johnson introduced legislation for the "relief of the infirm, disabled, and superannuated officers and soldiers". Fearing that the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York produced dandies, not soldiers, Johnson expanded on a proposal by President Madison to establish three additional military academies, urging the placement of one of them in Kentucky. Despite the support of such influential members of the House as Clay and John C. Calhoun, the proposal did not pass, but Johnson worked to have federal facilities built in the West throughout his time in Congress.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson believed that Congressional business was too slow and tedious and that the "per diem" system of compensation encouraged delays on the part of members. To remedy this, he sponsored legislation to pay annual salaries of $1,500 to congressmen rather than a $6 "per diem" for the days the body was in session. At the time, this had the effect of increasing the total compensation from about $900 to $1500. Johnson noted that congressmen had not had a pay increase in 27 years, during which time the cost of living had greatly increased, and that $1,500 was less than the salaries of 28 of the clerks employed by the government. The popular Johnson's sponsorship of the measure provided political cover for proponents; Maryland's Robert Wright wondered how his colleagues would feel if, "the highly honorable mover of this bill, who slew Tecumseh with his own hands ... he who came up here covered with wounds and glory, with his favorite war-horse and his more favorite servant—his attendant in the army, his nurse and necessary assistant" was "obliged to sell his war-horse or his servant"; salaries would prevent such things from coming to pass. The bill passed the House and Senate quickly and was made law on March 19, 1816. But, the measure proved extremely unpopular with voters, in part because it gave Congress an immediate pay raise, rather than waiting until after the next election. Many members who supported the bill lost their seats as a result, including Johnson's colleague Solomon P. Sharp from Kentucky. Johnson's overall popularity helped him retain his seat against a challenge, one of only 15 of 81 who voted to pass the bill to keep their seats in the House. The old Congress met for a lame-duck session in December, repealed the new law effective when the new Congress was sworn in, but at Johnson's suggestion, did not revive the old "per diem", thus forcing the new legislators to act on the matter if they wanted to get paid. Compensation for members of Congress remained on a "per diem" basis until an annual salary of $3,000 was prescribed in 1855. According to Edward J. McManus, who wrote Johnson's entry in the "American National Biography", "Johnson, instead of defending the merits of the reform, avoided the backlash by pledging to work for the repeal of his own measure. He justified his reversal by arguing that representatives should reflect the popular will, but lack of political stamina may have been closer to the truth."


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson disliked the idea of a national bank, and had voted in 1811 not to renew the charter of the First Bank of the United States. Calhoun's bill for a Second Bank of the United States passed Congress in early 1816. Johnson was opposed, but was absent for the vote, busy with other matters. A bonus was to be paid to the government by the Second Bank, and a bill was introduced early in 1817 to spend that money on internal improvements. Although Johnson was opposed to the national bank, he supported the bill, believing that the improvements to transportation would benefit his constituents, and the bill passed the House by two votes. Madison, then in his final days in office, vetoed the bill. Johnson joined the effort to override the veto, but it failed. The break from the administration was unusual for Johnson, but he believed the war had shown the need for better roads and canals.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: When he took office in 1817, President James Monroe's first choice for Secretary of War was Henry Clay, who declined the position. The post ultimately went to Calhoun. The result was that Johnson became chair of the Committee on Expenditures where he wielded considerable influence over defense policy in the Department of War during the Fifteenth Congress. In 1817, Congress investigated General Andrew Jackson's execution of two British subjects during the First Seminole War. Johnson chaired the inquiry committee. The majority of the committee favored a negative report and a censure for Jackson. Johnson, a Jackson supporter, drafted a minority report that was more favorable to Jackson and opposed the censure. The ensuing debate pitted Johnson against fellow Kentuckian Clay. Johnson's report prevailed, and Jackson was spared censure. This disagreement between Johnson and Clay, however, marked the beginning of a political separation between the two that lasted for the duration of their careers.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: In 1818, Calhoun approved an expedition to build a military outpost near the present site of Bismarck, North Dakota on the Yellowstone River; Johnson awarded the contract to his brother James. Although the Yellowstone Expedition was an ultimate failure and expensive to the U.S. Treasury, the Johnsons escaped political ill will in their home district because the venture was seen as a peacekeeping endeavor on the frontier. However, the Panic of 1819 caused Congress to investigate the Yellowstone matter, and in 1820, a report found that James Johnson had overcharged the government by $76,000. Richard and James Johnson, as well as other family members, remained in debt until 1824, when arrangements were made with the largest creditor, the Second Bank of the United States, to settle the liabilities.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson announced his intent to retire from the House of Representatives in early 1818. Sources differ on why he did; David Petriello, in his biography of Johnson, stated that the Kentucky congressman had determined to move on to the Senate; an earlier biographer, Leland Winfield Meyer stated that Johnson's departure from the House was because he believed in rotation in office and felt he had served there long enough. Jones stated that Johnson planned to return to private life to deal with family business interests.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Under the original federal Constitution, state legislators, not the voters, elected U.S. senators, and the Kentucky General Assembly was to choose a replacement for outgoing senator Isham Talbot in December 1818. Johnson was considered a strong contender if he entered the race, and in October he let it be known through the press that he would accept the Senate seat if the General Assembly elected him. On December 18, 1818, legislators chose William Logan over Johnson, 67–55. Newspapers noted that the former congressman had never officially declared his candidacy, and that Johnson's political friends intended to nominate him for governor in the 1820 election.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson's term in the House expired March 3, 1819, but by August, he had been elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives, where he worked to secure passage of a law that abolished imprisonment for debtors in the state, though it did not pass until 1821. But when Senator John J. Crittenden resigned in November 1819, the legislature was called upon to fill the seat. The following month, the General Assembly elected Johnson to the Senate in a 68–53 vote over John Adair, who would be Kentucky's next governor.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson was sworn in on January 3, 1820. The Senate was at that time grappling with the admission of the Missouri Territory and the Maine District (then part of Massachusetts) as states. When a bill was introduced which would bar slavery in the territories north and west of Missouri, Johnson was assigned to a select committee of five senators to consider it. The Maine and Missouri questions had been combined into one bill; Johnson voted against an amendment to separate them, which was defeated.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: On February 17, the Senate voted to bar slavery outside Missouri in the part of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30′ north latitude line, with Johnson voting in favor. The bill passed, and was signed by President Monroe in March. Missouri's admission was delayed due to controversial clauses in its draft constitution, such as one forbidding the entry to the state of free African-Americans. Johnson served on the committee of House and Senate members which brokered a resolution, enabling Missouri's admission in August 1821.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson was re-elected to a full term in 1822, so that in total, his Senate tenure ran from December 10, 1819, to March 4, 1829. In 1821, he introduced legislation chartering Columbian College (later The George Washington University) in Washington, D.C. During this time period, his views on Western expansion were clear. He believed that the US "empire of liberty" should extend across the continent, arguing in debates leading up to the Missouri Compromise that western expansion and emancipation should go hand in hand, acknowledging issues with white racism but advocating for gradual emancipation. Furthermore, he went against the ideas put forward by sympathizers of the Colonization movement, arguing in "favor of meaningfully incorporating people of color into a multiracial empire".


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: In December 1822, Johnson introduced legislation to abolish imprisonment for debt at the federal level. He first spoke to the issue in the Senate on December 14, 1822, pointing to the positive effects its cessation had effected in his home state. The bill failed, but Johnson persisted in re-introducing it every year. In 1824, it passed the Senate but was too late to be acted upon by the House. It passed the Senate a second time in 1828, but again, the House failed to act on it, and the measure died for some years, owing to Johnson's exit from the Senate the next year. Passage would only have made a modest impact since few were imprisoned for debt at the federal level, but Johnson hoped to advance the cause of abolishing it in the states. The reform was opposed by the business community, but Jackson's support after he became president in 1829 eventually gave the movement fresh life, and a limited bill was passed in 1832. Within ten years after that, imprisonment for debt had been abolished in most states.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson also sought help for debtors not in prison, such as some form of bankruptcy legislation, which would help his own problems and those of his neighbors. Johnson knew this politically pressing issue, which he worked on into the 1830s, quite well because it affected him personally. He was in debt himself from his business losses and support for Western expansion. He also continued to advocate for the positions he had held while a member of the House. As the chair of the Committee on Military Affairs, Johnson pushed for higher veterans pensions, and a liberal policy to enable settlers to buy land in the West more easily.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: The congressional nominating caucus system for choosing presidential and vice presidential candidates was unpopular by 1824, though a caucus did choose William H. Crawford of Georgia. State legislatures chose the other presidential candidates: Clay, Jackson and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Johnson supported Clay, his fellow Kentuckian, and Clay gained the state's electoral votes. Jackson led in both the popular and electoral vote for president, but did not have a majority, so the election for president was thrown into the House of Representatives, though Calhoun gained a majority of the electoral vote for vice president. Clay had finished fourth in electoral vote, and as the Constitution limits the House's choice to the top three finishers, he was eliminated. Johnson supported Jackson, and there were rumors Johnson would be Secretary of War in a Jackson administration. Clay threw his support to Adams, who was elected, and many believed Clay (who became Secretary of State) and Adams had made a Corrupt Bargain. Johnson was the one who informed Jackson of this. Many of Jackson's supporters were enraged by the outcome, including Johnson, who promised to oppose the Adams administration: "for by the Eternal, if they act as pure as the angels that stand at the right hand of the throne of God, we'll put them down". Johnson opposed Adams's policies, and became a member of the faction, later the Democratic Party, that New York Senator Martin Van Buren was forming to promote Jackson's candidacy in 1828.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Already known for securing government contracts for himself, as well as his brothers and friends, he offered land to establish the Choctaw Academy, a school devoted to the European-American education of Indians from the Southeast tribes. Johnson had tried to establish an Indian school at Great Crossings in 1818, partnering with the Kentucky Baptist Society, but the school folded in 1821 after it failed to gain the support of the federal government or private donors. The new academy would come into being a few years later. The academy, sitting on his farm in Scott County in 1825, was overseen by Johnson; and not only was part of treaty negotiations with the Choctaw Nation but appealed to his colleagues as a form "peaceful conquest" or "expansion with honor" as Henry Knox put it. Although he never ran afoul of the conflict of interest standards of his day, some of his colleagues considered his actions ethically questionable. Johnson was paid well for the school by the federal government, which gave him a portion of the annuities for the Choctaw. It was promoted by the Baptist Missionary Society as well. Some European-American students also attended the academy, including his nephew Robert Ward Johnson from Arkansas.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Another pet project Johnson supported was prompted by his friendship with John Cleves Symmes, Jr., who proposed that the Earth was hollow. In 1823, Johnson proposed in the Senate that the government fund an expedition to the center of the Earth. The proposal was soundly defeated, receiving only twenty-five votes in the House and Senate combined.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: Johnson served as chairman of the Committee on Post Office and Post Roads during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Congresses. Near the end of his term in the Senate, petitioners asked Congress to prevent the handling and delivery of mail on Sunday because it violated biblical principles about not working on the Sabbath. These petitions were referred to Johnson's committee. In response, Johnson, a practicing Baptist, drafted a report now commonly referred to as "The Sunday Mail Report". In the report, presented to Congress on January 19, 1829, Johnson argued that government was "a civil, and not a religious institution", and as such could not legislate the tenets of any particular denomination. The report was applauded as an elegant defense of the doctrine of separation of church and state. But Johnson was criticized for conflicts of interest in his defense, as he had friends who were contracted to haul mail, and who would have suffered financially from such a ban.


title: Richard Mentor Johnson

text: In 1828, Johnson was an unsuccessful candidate for re-election, owing in part to his relationship with the biracial slave Julia Chinn, with whom he lived in a common-law marriage. Although residents of his own district seemed little bothered by the arrangement, slaveholders elsewhere in the state were not so forgiving. The Democratic Party in Kentucky was split, with enough dissidents to be able to join with the opposition to block Johnson's re-election. Johnson's managers withdrew his name and proposed George M. Bibb, who was elected. In his own defense, Johnson said, "Unlike Jefferson, Clay, Poindexter and others I married my wife under the eyes of God, and apparently He has found no objections." (The named men were suspected or known to have similar relationships with slave women.) According to Henry Robert Burke, what people objected to was Johnson trying to introduce his daughters to "polite society". People were used to planters and overseers having relationships with slave women, but they were expected to deny them.