REVERDY JOHNSON. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. REVERDY JOHNSON was born in Annapolis, Md., May 21, 1796, and died in the same city February 10, 1876. His father, John Johnson, was a lawyer of distinction, at one time chancellor of Maryland. Reverdy received his academic training at St. John's College in his native city, and afterward studied law in his father's office. Admitted to the bar in 1815, he practiced first in Prince George County, where he was made deputy attorney-general. In 1817 he removed to Baltimore, and soon attracted favorable attention by the exhibition of the strong qualities that subsequently made him famous. From 1821 to 1825 he was in public life as a member of the state senate. The next twenty years were spent mainly in successful practice of the law, but in 1845 he was sent to Washington as one of the representatives of Maryland in the United States Senate. He did not serve out a full term, however, for a Cabinet portfolio was offered him by President Taylor, and he was Attorney-General until the President's death in 1850. On the accession of Fillmore he resigned, and again took up his law practice in Baltimore. He was returned to the United States Senate in 1863, but, as before, he did not serve out a full term, having been appointed minister to England in 1868 by President Andrew Johnson, to succeed Charles Francis Adams. One of the most important matters demanding his attention there was the press ing of the claims made by the United States government for damages inflicted by the famous Confederate cruiser "Alabama." He negotiated a treaty with Lord Palmerston, in which he secured substantial recognition of every point claimed by this government, but the Senate majority refused to ratify it, and in 1869, when President Grant came to the executive chair, he recalled Mr. Johnson. He was now seventy-three years old, but he resumed his legal work with all the energy of a young man, and so continued till death overtook him suddenly when he had nearly reached his eightieth birthday. He was stricken down with apoplexy in the executive mansion at Annapolis, where he was the governor's guest while awaiting the calling of a case in court for which he had been retained. Mr. Johnson was a lawyer of profound learning and consummate skill, and argued many important cases before the United States Supreme Court, in almost every part of the country from New England to California. In 1854 he was employed by some English claimants to conduct a case before an Anglo-American commission, and during a residence of several months in England he received much attention from judges and lawyers. On his return he left a reputation that insured him a hearty welcome when he became United States minister in 1868. He was a man of great courage and of absolutely independent judgment. Several times in his public career this independence brought him into open opposition to most of his party associates. At the opening of the Mexican War, though he was a Whig, he heartily supported President Polk's war measures, which the Whigs generally opposed with vehemence. Ten years later, his dislike of the KnowNothing party and its aims again alienated him from most of his political friends, and led him finally to join the DemoHe supported Buchanan's administration, and in 1860 was an active advocate of the election of Douglas. Like the latter, he stood with the North in the four years crats. that followed, but at the close of the war he urged the readmission of the Southern States into the Union without delay. He was already past the allotted span of human life when he pronounced the eulogy that follows; but it is doubtful if among all his addresses there is one that shows his high qualities more clearly than this noble tribute to General Robert E. Lee, whose genius he appreciated so justly and whom he loved so warmly, even during those unhappy years when the red tide of war surged between them. TRIBUTE TO ROBERT E. LEE [This speech was delivered October 29, 1870, at a meeting to appoint delegates to represent the State of Maryland at the Richmond Lee Monument Convention. The text of the speech here given is from J. E. Cooke's Life of Robert E. Lee.] MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: I am here in compliance with the request of many gentlemen present, and I not only willingly complied with that request, but I am willing to do all I am able, to show my appreciation of the character, civil and military, of Robert E. Lee. It was my good fortune to know him before the Mexican War, in those better days before the commencement of the sad struggle through which we have recently passed. I saw in him everything that could command the respect and admiration of men, and I watched with peculiar interest his course in the Mexican War. It was also my good fortune to know the late Lieutenant-General Scott. In the commencement of the struggle to which I have alluded, I occupied in Washington the position of quasi military adviser to him, and was, in that capacity, intimately associated with him. I have heard him often declare that the glorious and continued success which crowned our arms in the war with Mexico was owing, in a large measure, to the skill, valor, and undaunted courage of Robert E. Lee. He entertained for him the warmest personal friendship, and it was his purpose to |