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Thomas Johnson was a slave owner, [1] [2] which is an important fact and needs to be mentioned. It is true that many of his time and station also owned people, and we should state this about them as well. For example, this fact is prominent on Francis Scott Key's wiki page [1]. Johnson and his brother owned Catoctin Furnace and the slaves that operated the furnace during this time. [3] It might be useful to highlight more about the history of his slaves and his legacy on slavery.
References
Although the CRS report cited at http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL31112.pdf says he was appointed in August 1791, this report is incorrect. First, Oyez, at http://www.oyez.org/justices/thomas_johnson says Commissioned 11/6/91 and sworn in 8/5/92, with length of service listed as 5 months.
Second, Appointment of Johnson, 2 U.S. 402, 1792 WL 385 says "Supreme Court of the United States. Appointment of Johnson. August Term 1792. The court being met, a commission, appointing Thomas Johnson one of the Justices, bearing date the 7th of November, 1791, was read; and he was qualified according to law."
Therefore, the correct date of his service is from August, 1792 onwards.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by SocraticPrince ( talk • contribs) 17:48, 11 April 2010 (UTC)
I changed the start date in office from August 5th to August 6th because the article and PDF both state that he was sworn in on August 6, 1792. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.2.60.187 ( talk) 21:23, 14 February 2016 (UTC)
In this article, it says John Rutledge resigned. In John Rutledge, it sounds like he was rejected over the chief justice nomination but remained as an associate justice (later resigned or retired). What's the whole story? -- Toytoy July 2, 2005 04:06 (UTC)
The Rutledge article could be a bit learer, but here is the expanded version...
I hope that answers, if not e-mail me, and I'll adjust this summary... Lou I 18:24, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
Presumably this old question which was never answered is about Johnson rather than Rutledge: Wasnt this guy a chief justice instead of associate? will this ever be updated? DarkShadow 02:33, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
The Synopsis of this article reads like the introduction paragraph a third grader's History essay. The quote "~was an American jurist with a distinguished political career." is especially lazy and well below the caliber of anything that could be objectively considered encyclopedic content. Sleyece ( talk) 00:19, 17 September 2017 (UTC)
No mention of slave-owning. I feel that this category should be restricted to people whose slave-owning history was notable in itself. Valetude ( talk) 12:45, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
No prominent source can be found to justify labeling Johnson a Founding Father of the United States. His accolades are impressive - on that I agree - but the closest I could find to this was Founding Father of Maryland, and that wasn't offered by a particularly authoritative source. Unless multiple sources can be found to justify this label, it should be removed. Allreet ( talk)
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Thomas Johnson was a slave owner, [1] [2] which is an important fact and needs to be mentioned. It is true that many of his time and station also owned people, and we should state this about them as well. For example, this fact is prominent on Francis Scott Key's wiki page [1]. Johnson and his brother owned Catoctin Furnace and the slaves that operated the furnace during this time. [3] It might be useful to highlight more about the history of his slaves and his legacy on slavery.
References
Although the CRS report cited at http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL31112.pdf says he was appointed in August 1791, this report is incorrect. First, Oyez, at http://www.oyez.org/justices/thomas_johnson says Commissioned 11/6/91 and sworn in 8/5/92, with length of service listed as 5 months.
Second, Appointment of Johnson, 2 U.S. 402, 1792 WL 385 says "Supreme Court of the United States. Appointment of Johnson. August Term 1792. The court being met, a commission, appointing Thomas Johnson one of the Justices, bearing date the 7th of November, 1791, was read; and he was qualified according to law."
Therefore, the correct date of his service is from August, 1792 onwards.
—Preceding unsigned comment added by SocraticPrince ( talk • contribs) 17:48, 11 April 2010 (UTC)
I changed the start date in office from August 5th to August 6th because the article and PDF both state that he was sworn in on August 6, 1792. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.2.60.187 ( talk) 21:23, 14 February 2016 (UTC)
In this article, it says John Rutledge resigned. In John Rutledge, it sounds like he was rejected over the chief justice nomination but remained as an associate justice (later resigned or retired). What's the whole story? -- Toytoy July 2, 2005 04:06 (UTC)
The Rutledge article could be a bit learer, but here is the expanded version...
I hope that answers, if not e-mail me, and I'll adjust this summary... Lou I 18:24, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
Presumably this old question which was never answered is about Johnson rather than Rutledge: Wasnt this guy a chief justice instead of associate? will this ever be updated? DarkShadow 02:33, 1 March 2006 (UTC)
The Synopsis of this article reads like the introduction paragraph a third grader's History essay. The quote "~was an American jurist with a distinguished political career." is especially lazy and well below the caliber of anything that could be objectively considered encyclopedic content. Sleyece ( talk) 00:19, 17 September 2017 (UTC)
No mention of slave-owning. I feel that this category should be restricted to people whose slave-owning history was notable in itself. Valetude ( talk) 12:45, 15 April 2021 (UTC)
No prominent source can be found to justify labeling Johnson a Founding Father of the United States. His accolades are impressive - on that I agree - but the closest I could find to this was Founding Father of Maryland, and that wasn't offered by a particularly authoritative source. Unless multiple sources can be found to justify this label, it should be removed. Allreet ( talk)