Johnson, Thomas

3 autograph letters signed and 2 letters signed ("Th Johnson"), each 1 page plus integral address leaf (7 1/2 x 5 7/8 in.; 190 x 150 mm), Annapolis, Maryland, 9 September - 16 November 1778, to Thomas Sollars, naval officer in charge of the Port of Baltimore; formerly folded, one seal tear without loss, soiled at folds. [With:] A contemporary copy of an Act of the General Assembly of Maryland, 1 April 1777, possibly in the hand of Gabriel Duvall, clerk of the Maryland House of Delegates, 1 page (12 x 7 1/4 in.; 305 x 185 mm), [and with:] an extract from the minutes of Congress, 2 September 1778 by Charles Thomson, secretary, 1 page (5 3/4 x 7 1/2 in.; 145 x 190 mm). In a blue half-morocco clamshell box.

Maryland at war, the First Governor of the State of Maryland.

Johnson (1732-1819) was a delegate to the Continental Congress (1774-5) and an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court (1791-3) who authored its first opinion Georgia vs. Brailsford (1792).

In 1777 the state legislature elected him Governor, and it is in that capacity that he wrote the present letters to a naval officer in charge of the port of Baltimore, enforcing the embargo on trade with Great Britain as passed by the state legislature. It is clear from the correpondence that Mr. Sollars was not exerting sufficient supervision of the loading of flour and other commodities, as various ruses were discovered to increase the cargo (claiming that it was intended for use aboard ship). Governor Johnson makes sure Sollars has a copy of the acts of the Maryland legislature and of the Confederation Congress, to help him enforce the embargo.