WILLIAM FREAME JOHNSTON, GOVERNOR UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1838. WILLIAM July 9, 1848, to January 20, 1852. ILLIAM FREAME JOHNSTON, the third Governor under the Constitution of 1838, was born at Greensburg, Westmoreland County, on the 29th of November, 1808. His paternal ancestors were originally from Annandale, Scotland, where they at one time possessed the estates of Brackenside; but the head of the house, Alexander Johnston, being killed at the battle of Fontanoy, on the 30th of April, 1745, where he was serving as a captain of Welsh Fusiliers in the British service, the estate fell into dispute, and finally through political strife was lost, and the family settled in Ireland. There, in the County of Fermaugh, in July, 1772, the father of the Governor, Alexander Johnston, was born, and from thence emigrated to America in 1796. He at first served as a surveyor in the western part of the State, and finally settled in Westmoreland County. He was sheriff of the county in 1808, receiving his commission from Governor McKean, and afterwards served as Magistrate, Treasurer, and Register and Recorder under Governor Wolf. He was, during the greater part of his active life, largely engaged in mercantile pursuits, which the business of iron manufacture, then just commenced, rendered active. The mother of the Governor, Elizabeth Freame, was born in Franklin County, in November, 1781. Her father, William Freame, a private in the British Army in 1760, came to this country with General Wolf, and at the peace of 1763 between Great Britain and France, accepted, with many of his comrades, the proposition of the English Government, to remain in the Colonies. He settled first in Lancaster County, and afterwards removed to Franklin County, where he mar ried Elizabeth Johnston, who had emigrated to this country from Ireland with her father in 1782. This branch of the Johnston family settled in Kentucky and North Carolina. The issue of the marriage of Alexander Johnston with Elizabeth Freame was eight sons and two daughters. The two eldest sons were educated at West Point, and served in the regular army. The youngest, Richard, was a volunteer in the Mexican War. Before its close he was appointed a Lieutenant in the regular army, and was killed at the head of his company, while storming the enemy's works at the battle of Chepultepec. Hon. Edward Johnston resides in Iowa. The remaining sons are residents of this State. Colonel John W. Johnston served through the Mexican War, and in the late war was Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel of the Fourteenth Regiment of the three months' service, and Colonel of the Ninety-third Regiment of the three years' service. The physical stature of the sons was remarkable, varying in height from six feet to six feet six inches, and in weight from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds. The father lived far beyond the period allotted to man, dying on the 15th of July, 1872, in the one hundredth year of his age. At the period of his death he was the oldest Freemason in the United States, having been initiated seventy-seven years before in Ireland. The subject of this sketch was in early boyhood taught, by a kind and good mother, that the cardinal duties were to obey God's commands, to honor parents, and to love native country. His common-school and academic education was limited; but he had from youth an ardent taste for reading, and being blessed with vigorous powers of mind and body, he was enabled, by great diligence, to acquire a vast fund of information, which served him instead of elaborate training. He studied law under Major J. B. Alexander, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1829, in his twenty-first year. Shortly afterwards he removed to Armstrong County, where he engaged in the practice of law, soon rising to a position of commanding influence. He was appointed by AttorneyGeneral Samuel Douglass, and subsequently by Attorney-General Lewis, District Attorney for Armstrong County, which office he held until the expiration of Governor Wolf's first term. For several years he represented the county in the lower House of the Legislature, and in 1847 was elected a member of the Senate from the district composed of the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria, and Clearfield. As a legislator Mr. Johnston was bold and original, not beholden to precedents, and was an acknowledged leader. During the period in which he was in the Legislature a great financial crisis occurred. So great was the distress that Mr. Van Buren, then President, was obliged to call an extra session of Congress, to devise means for the relief of the country. The Legislature of Pennsylvania, by the advice of Governor Porter, authorized the sale of all the bank and bridge stocks belonging to the Commonwealth, and revived the State tax. But every device failed to meet the emergency, and the interest on the State debts, then over forty millions, rested unpaid. The credit of the State was in a deplorable condition. English bondholders were loud in their denunciation of the bad faith of the Government, Sidney Smith, in particular, writing in the most bitter strain. At this crisis Mr. Johnston came forward with a proposition to issue relief notes, for the payment or funding of which the State pledged its faith. This he advocated with his usual energy and logical acuteness, and though a majority of the Legislature was politically opposed to him, it was adopted, and gave instant relief. It was designed as a temporary expedient, and as such was remarkably successful. As the originator of this measure, and its special advocate, he acquired a reputation for financial skill and ability throughout the commonwealth, its fortunate result serving only the more widely to circulate his fame. In 1847, Mr. Johnston was elected President of the Senate. By a provision of the Constitution, if any vacancy occur by death, or otherwise, in the office of Governor, the Speaker |