To Thomas Jefferson from William Johnson, 25 May 1805
From William Johnson
Charleston May 25. 1805.
Sir
Mr. Lehrè the Gentleman who will have the honor of delivering this having undertaken a Tour to the Northward and proposing to pay his Respects to you at Montecello I have taken the Liberty to furnish him with this introductory Letter. I have the Pleasure Sir to assure you that this Gentleman has been an active and useful promoter of the Republican Interest in our Country from its earliest Revival; and on this Account as well as his other public services possesses a respectable Rank in the Confidence of his Fellow Citizens.
With the most profound Respect: Sir I remain your very hle Sert.
Wllm. Johnson Jr
RC (DLC); endorsed by TJ as received 24 Sep. and so recorded in SJL, where TJ connected it by a brace and notation “recd. by mr Lehré” with entries for letters received the same day from John Gaillard of 25 May, William Butler of 30 May, Peter Freneau of 2 June, Thomas Moore of 28 June, and an undated letter from Paul Hamilton.
TJ appointed William Johnson (1771-1834) to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1804. Before his elevation to the federal bench, Johnson had been a prominent legislator and jurist in South Carolina. A Republican in politics and often independent in his legal views, Johnson is best remembered for his dissenting opinions from the Marshall court, as well as for the nationalism he espoused in response to the states’ rights and nullification arguments of his native state. He remained on friendly, if not intimate, terms with TJ during both his presidency and his retirement, and the two men infrequently exchanged opinions on agriculture, politics, and Johnson’s various writing endeavors (; Ruth L. Woodward and Wesley Frank Craven, Princetonians, 1784-1790: A Biographical Dictionary [Princeton, 1991], 494-507; Vol. 42:497-8; Vol. 43:71; , 1:555n).