THE LIBRARY fhe Josiah Sfoddard Johnston Papers

ARKNESS had not yet lifted from the banks of the Red River on the spring morning of May 19, 1833, when a shattering D blast reverberated through the woodlands along the course of the southern stream. Gunpowder had exploded in the hold of the steamship J^ioness and brought death to Josiah Stoddard Johnston. It was a premature death,-for Johnston at forty-eight was widely known as one of Louisiana's most capable and promising political leaders, a vigorous member of the national Senate, a close associate of Henry Clay, and a warm champion of that youthful nationalism* the American System. That there is still a great deal to be learned concerning local political organization in the South of Johnston's day is of course unquestioned. It is no less true that for Louisiana especially the task of reconstructing the past is a difficult one, primarily because of the paucity of political correspondence available to the historian. To Johnston's credit, therefore, let it be said that he was not only vigorous, but also methodical and efficient, and blessed with de- scendants of a like character—his papers, consisting of some five thousand items, have been preserved and have long been among the important collections of The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Actually, Johnston's papers have far more than a simple local interest. They cover the whole range of his political career from the time he was first sent to Congress in 1821, and include exchanges of views with many of the leading figures of the day; Henry Clay, Thomas-Jefferson, James Brown, Rufus King, William Shaler, Chandler Price, Mathew Carey, William T. Barry, George Graham, Edward Livingston, John Randolph, Langdon Cheves, and his own more famous half-brother, the redoubtable Albert Sidney Johnston. Even more full and valuable, however, is his Louisiana correspond- ence, touching on most of the political agitations which swept that 326 1945 THE LIBRARY 327 state from cosmopolitan New Orleans to rough frontier sites like Natchitoches. Among his most faithful correspondents at home were Henry Adams Bullard, Governor Henry Johnson, Alexander Porter, and Walter H.,Overton, all of whom served at one time or another in Congress; Isaac L. Baker, seemingly a self-appointed political booster and informant; and Dr. John Sibley of Natchitoches, Johnston's father-in-law and one of the real pioneers in western Louisiana. No native southerner, Johnston was one of the many "Americans " who made: their way into Louisiana in the early days after the Pur- chase, one of that goodly company which was to include such lights as Edward Livingston and John Slidell. The Johnston family had its roots in Salisbury, Connecticut, but these were transplanted early in Josiah's youth when his father moved his household to Mason County, Kentucky. In 1805 Josiah himself, a newly finished product of Transylvania University, pushed southward, settled in Rapides parish, and began to prosper as a Louisiana lawyer aftd planter. Several of his very numerous brothers owed much to John- ston's willing aid, and Albert Sidney Johnston later went to West Point through his half-brother's energies. Josiah married Eliza Sibley in 1814. A vivacious and attractive woman, she outlived Johnston by many years, becoming after his death the wife of ex-Attorney General H. D. Gilpin of Philadelphia, josiah's only child, William Stoddard, died in young manhood, leaving also one son, who was educated by the Gilpins and made his home in Philadelphia in the latter years of his life. Johnston served his political apprenticeship in the territorial legislature of Louisiana, soon became judge of Rapides parish,* and in 1821 was sent as Congressman to Washington. It was then, ob- viously, that the responsibilities of official position and perhaps the promptings of an historical sense moved him to the preservation of his correspondence. Unfortunately he kept no letter books, and ex- cept for some relatively few copies of his own letters, we must rely for our impressions of him upon those things which others saw fit to apprise him of. The letters themselves are priceless as an insight into the problems

* As is well known, the Louisiana "parish" is the political unit corresponding to the "county" in other states. 3^8 THE LIBRARY \ October df Louisiana. There are numerous detailed accounts of the grievances of settlers with respect to federal survey and disposition of the public lands. The ever present problems of, amalgamation of Creole and American populations and the adaptation of the "ancien" citizenry to the customs of Anglo-Saxon political tradition find ample treat- ment in many letters between Johnston and representative^ of the French group. Local election maneuverings and techniques are frequently among the principal items of discussion, the optimistic Isaac L. Baker reporting a wealth of inside bargaining and intrigue. At one time Johnston was known as the "Peacemaker" in the somewhat tempestuous hustings of his adopted state, but there was little of halcyon calm in his national career. The most vitriolic section of his correspondence centers around the uncordial relationship which prevailed between him and William Brent, a Louisiana Congressman, when Johnston was sitting in the upper house. One finds here a sterling example of that personal pride and passionate honor of the period which made the duel an instrument of recurrent utility in a Louisiana where Americans no less than Creoles felt little hesitation in appealing to the pistol, the shotgun, oj- the sword. In 4this instance only mediation by that habitual conciliator Clay averted bloodshed. In national politics Johnston adhered to the National Republican party. Very close to Clay—he served as the latter's second in the famous duel with Randolph—Josiah gave almost unreserved aid and support to the Kentuckian's policies. Internal improvements and a national bank received full praise from his lips and his pen. On the extremely explosive tariff question Johnston found himself in much the same quandary as his state. Until 1830 Louisiana's political masters sought their main fortune in cotton, and Johnston as well as his colleagues followed the traditional southern line of opposition to the protectionists. This had all changed by 1830, when sugar had become the crop of the "nabobs," and Johnston was now to be found in full accord with Clay, for sugar needed protection as much as did hemp. It was with complete consistency, therefore, that Johnston gave vigorous assistance to the opposition directed against the South Carolina nullification movement, and a good portion of his papers relate to that crisis. That the relationship between Clay and Johnston was more than a personal one finds ample testimony in the letters, for they reveal beyond question that in the presidential campaign of 1824 the 1945 THE LIBRARY 3^9 Louisiana senator was a major force behind Clay's candidacy in the eastern states and acted as a propaganda agent and information clearing house for the Kentuckian. The same enthusiastic support was forthcoming in 1832. But politics by no means stand alone in the Johnston papers. He had an extensive correspondence with his New Orleans factors, Linton and Walker, in which much of the plantation economy of Louisiana, as well as the financial machinery of New Orleans, is illustrated. Letters from his overseers and from his plantatipn partner, Colonel George Graham, reveal a wealth of detail respecting the crpps, Negroes, and problems of a southern planter. There are graphic accounts of plagues, social relaxation, courtships, and deaths, many of which reveal in their tragedy, retold in the simple and unvarnished language of the western parishes^ the everyday hardships of an exacting world. Many of the letters to Johnston serve to emphasize how new was the " aristocracy " being built in many regions of the South, and how close the frontier still lurked. Henry Adams Bullard, who seems to have been quite pompous, continually bemoaned the fact that Johnston's absence in Washington removed from the region one of the extremely few persons who cared to read a book or could discuss Tasso, Moliere, Beaumarchais, or Montesquieu. Bullard read them all in the original. His neighbors, he complained, much preferred to chase a prospective venison steak. Finally, the Johnston papers, including as they do innumerable illustrations of the loyalty of non-natives to their adopted South, offer excellent material for the cultural historian who might wish to seek the secret of that attraction, which even yet does not seem completely to have lost its spell. jQpyola University of the South JOSEPH G. TREGLE, JR.