John Litt Johnson (1816-1903) Speech (KC219)

John Johnson was born in England and moved to New York where, in 1845, he met and married the widow Diana Hausbrook Hoagland and became the step-father of her twin sons and daughters. From New York, Johnson moved his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his own children, Mary (1846-1848) and Arthur (1849-1935), were born. They then moved to Kansas City, Missouri, arriving in 1852, where Johnson engaged in the real estate business, and may also have been an architect designing a number of early Kansas City buildings. In 1855, Johnson was elected mayor, but after only 35 days he resigned his office. He moved from Kansas City to Wyandotte County, Kansas, sometime in the late 1850s and settled on a farm near Wallula, Kansas.

The speech, "A Defense of Republicanism," was presented by John Johnson, ex-mayor of Kansas City, before the Kansas City Republican Club on September 15, 1860. In his address he argued the policies of the Republican party, particularly toward slavery, were not radical and destructive, as other parties had asserted, but that Republicanism was an economically, morally, and socially sound position. The speech was printed at the Free State Republican Office, Kansas City, Missouri. 1860

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