General Washington Johnston (November 10, 1776 – October 26, 1833) was born in

Culpeper County, Virginia Culpeper County is a county located along the borderlands of the northern and central region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 52,552. Its county seat and only incorporated community is Culp ...

. General was his given name.Curtis G. Shake, General Washington Johnston; an Early Opponent of Slavery, ''The Builders Magazine'' (July 1929). At the age of 17, he was among the first people to permanently settle in the wildness area of the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...

(1787–1803), in what is now

Vincennes, Indiana Vincennes is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Indiana, Knox County, Indiana, United States. It is located on the lower Wabash River in the Southwestern Indiana, southwestern part of the state, nearly halfway between Evansville, Indi ...

. He

read law Reading law was the method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship under the ...

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

. In February 1799, he became the first man in the territory admitted to the

bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

. Among Johnston's firsts in Vincennes and the

Indiana Territory The Indiana Territory, officially the Territory of Indiana, was created by a United States Congress, congressional act that President of the United States, President John Adams signed into law on May 7, 1800, to form an Historic regions of the U ...

, he is generally considered the founder of Vincennes

Masonic Freemasonry or Masonry refers to Fraternity, fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of Stonemasonry, stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their inte ...

Lodge #1, F.&A.M. in 1809 (originally Vincennes Lodge #15 under the jurisdiction of the

Grand Lodge A Grand Lodge (or Grand Orient or other similar title) is the overarching governing body of a fraternal or other similarly organized group in a given area, usually a city, state, or country. In Freemasonry A Grand Lodge or Grand Orient is the us ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

). Johnston served several terms as

Worshipful Master In Craft Freemasonry, sometimes known as Blue Lodge Freemasonry, every Masonic lodge elects or appoints Masonic lodge officers to execute the necessary functions of the lodge's life and work. The precise list of such offices may vary between the j ...

of Vincennes Lodge and many terms in different Grand Lodge offices. Johnston served in the Territorial Legislature during the 1807 and 1808 sessions, and he fought at the

Battle of Tippecanoe The Battle of Tippecanoe ( ) was fought on November 7, 1811, in Battle Ground, Indiana, between American forces led by then Governor William Henry Harrison of the Indiana Territory and Native American forces associated with Shawnee leader Tecums ...

in 1811.Goodspeed, 208. Mary, a woman of color v

He was the defendant in the landmark

Indiana Supreme Court The Indiana Supreme Court, established by Article 7 of the Indiana Constitution, is the highest judicial authority in the state of Indiana. Located in Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis, the Court's chambers are in the north wing of the Indiana ...

case of '' Mary Clark v. General W. Johnston''. Johnston had purchased

Mary Bateman Clark Mary Bateman Clark (1795–1840) was an American woman, born into slavery, who was taken to Indiana Territory. She was forced to become an indentured servant, even though the Northwest Ordinance prohibited slavery. She was sold in 1816, the same ...

's indenture from Benjamin Harrison on October 24, 1816, the same year of the passage of the

Constitution of Indiana The Constitution of Indiana is the highest body of state law in the U.S. state of Indiana. It establishes the structure and function of the state and is based on the principles of federalism and Jacksonian democracy. Indiana's constitution is su ...

, which prohibited slavery and

indentured servitude Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repayment, ...

. She was purchased for $350 and was to serve Johnston for 20 years. Johnston claimed that she voluntarily entered into the indenture arrangement. Clark sued for her freedom, and after losing in the Knox County Circuit Court, she appealed to the state Supreme Court, in ''Mary Clark v. G.W. Johnston.'' She was freed upon the justices's ruling that the constitution clearly stated that indentured servitude was prohibited in the state. He served in the

Indiana General Assembly The Indiana General Assembly is the state legislature, or legislative branch, of the state of Indiana. It is a bicameral legislature that consists of a lower house, the Indiana House of Representatives, and an upper house, the Indiana Senate. ...

in the years 1821, 1822, 1826, and 1829. During the 1822 session, he served as Speaker of the House. His most notable contribution might have occurred in 1808 when the Indiana Territory was considering allowing

enslaved people Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

to be brought into the state. The Legislature was evenly divided on the subject. Johnston, seeming to be pro-slavery, delivered a "forceful indictment against human slavery" that swayed the body and won the day. He died at his home in 1833. A monument was established in the Greenlawn Cemetery in Vincennes by the Masons in 1923. It is a memorial to his service in Indiana.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Johnston, General Washington 1776 births 1833 deaths Indiana lawyers Members of the Indiana Territorial Legislature 19th-century American politicians Members of the Indiana House of Representatives Speakers of the Indiana House of Representatives Indiana Territory officials People of the Northwest Territory Legal history of Indiana