Cave Johnson

Cave Johnson ( born January 11, 1793 Robertson County, Tennessee, † November 23, 1866 in Clarksville, Tennessee ) was an American politician, who was the Cabinet of President James K. Polk as Postmaster General.

After school Johnson attended Cumberland College in Nashville. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1814 and worked as a lawyer in Clarksville. In 1817 he was prosecuting attorney of Montgomery County.

1829 partisans of Andrew Jackson was elected to the state of Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives, which he initially to 1837 four sessions long belonged as a representative of the eighth constituency; During this time he was chairman of the Committee on private ownership of land. After a missed re-election in 1836 and two years later he managed to return to Washington: How was followed by three further terms in Congress, where he chaired several committees.

After James K. Polk had taken up his new position as U.S. President in March 1845, he called Cave Johnson as postmaster general in his cabinet. In his four-year tenure, he changed the delivery system in the U.S. fundamentally. Were letters hitherto paid by cash on delivery, there was in 1847 by the introduction of postage stamps to the possibility of prior payment. Moreover, the introduction of post boxes goes in big cities back to him. In addition, Johnson was involved in the establishment of the first regular postal steamship line between the U.S. and mainland Europe, which was taken in 1847 by the newly founded Ocean Steam Navigation Company between New York and Bremerhaven in operation.

Together with James K. Polk, who did not run after four years, Cave Johnson resigned from the government. He served first from 1850 to 1851 as a judge for the 7th Federal District Court; 1854 to 1860 he was president of the Bank of Tennessee.