Portal:United States/Selected article/2006, week 36

John Warfield Johnston

John Warfield Johnston (September 9, 1818–February 27, 1889) was an American lawyer and politician from Abingdon, Virginia. He served in the Virginia State Senate, and represented Virginia in the United States Senate when the state was readmitted after the Civil War. Johnston was initially ineligible to serve in Congress due to the Fourteenth Amendment, which removed the ability of anyone to hold public office who had sworn allegiance to the United States and subsequently sided with the Confederacy during the Civil War. However his restrictions were removed at the suggestion of the Freedman's Bureau. Thus, he was the first person who had sided with the Confederacy to serve in the U.S. Senate. (read more)