Henry Johnson (Louisiana politician)

Governor of Louisiana (1783–1864)

Henry S. Johnson (September 14, 1783 – September 4, 1864) was an American attorney and politician who served as the fifth Governor of Louisiana (1824–1828). He also served as a United States representative and as a United States senator. He participated in the slave trade in the United States.

Johnson was born in Virginia. His family is said to have resided in southern Virginia, where Johnson completed academic study and became a member of Virginia bar. He was Episcopalian.

In 1812, Johnson lost a bid to the U. S. Congress. After his defeat, he practiced law in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, located on the south bank of the Mississippi River in the south central part of the state. He became a district judge of the Ascension Parish Court in 1811; and was selected as a delegate to the first State constitutional convention in 1812. Johnson renegotiated the terms of payment in 1844, needing more time to pay off his debt. That same year, Johnson sold a share of Chatham and would eventually sell the remainder of his land and enslaved people to John R. Thompson in 1851. Henry Johnson unsuccessfully ran for governor in 1842 as the Whig nominee. He was defeated by Democratic nominee U. S. Senator Alexandre Mouton.

In 1844, Johnson was elected to fill the vacant U. S. Senate position of Alexander Porter, who never took the seat due to ill health and died in January 1844. Johnson served the remainder of the term until 1849. He served as Chairman of the Committee on Pensions. As senator he supported bills favoring the annexation of Texas, which had become an independent Republic after separating from Mexico. He also voted to repeal the tariff of 1846. In 1848 Johnson lost a bid to remain in the Senate to Pierre Soulé, a Jacksonian Democrat of French Creole descent. In 1850, he suffered a final political defeat, losing a race for U. S. Representative against Henry Adams Bullard (Whig). Henry Johnson moved to New Roads in Pointe Coupée Parish and continued the practice of law.

After passing the bar, Johnson married Elizabeth Rousby Key, a daughter of Philip Barton Key by Ann Plater, a daughter of George Plater; Elizabeth's father was an uncle of Francis Scott Key and Anne Arnold Phoebe Charlton Key, who married Roger B. Taney. The couple had a family together. Several years after the United States made the Louisiana Purchase, the Johnsons moved to the Territory of Orleans, in 1809. He was appointed as clerk of the Second Superior Court of the Territory. In 1811, he was appointed clerk of the newly formed St. Mary Parish in the southwestern part of the state.

During the Civil War, Gov. Johnson remained in Pointe Coupee Parish. The state was controlled by the Union after the fall of New Orleans. He died in September 1864, near the close of the war, and was buried on his plantation, which lies at the confluence of Bayou Grosse Tête and Bayou Maringouin. Sidney A. Marchand in his Story of Ascension Parish said that Johnson had bequeathed the land in Donaldsonville on which was built the present day Ascension Episcopal Church (at the corner of Attakapas/Nicholls and St. Patrick streets).