American Historical Ephemera & Photography Online

2 1/4 pages, 7 7/8 x 9 7/8 in., on bifolium. Creased at folds, with toning, minor separations, and adhesive/paper residue to folded edge. Docketed verso. 

In this letter to Reah Frazier Esq., Johnson explains that he is unable to oblige his friends by granting them positions such as clerkships. He writes, "...I would most cheerfully oblige your friends had I the power but there is no vacancy & not likely to be any whilst I am here. I have only made in 4 years some twelve or thirteen clerks & have endeavored to distribute them among the states & Pa has had two of them, which we now have no other state except Ten. has had that many and that state only two." He then explains how Congressmen in each district can claim or demand clerk appointments, and there are just not enough positions to satisfy them all. He writes that he hopes Frazier does not complain or think that the President is unfair, as "...no doubt he exercises his judgment fairly without any bias to particular branches of the Democratic party in the different states."

Before being appointed the 12th postmaster general of the United States under James K. Polk, Johnson represented 3 different districts of Tennessee in the United States House of Representatives. Though Johnson took no active part in the Civil War, he sided with the Confederacy.