Johnston, Samuel

Johnston, Samuel, 1733–1816, political leader in the American Revolution, b. Dundee, Scotland. He emigrated as a child to North Carolina, where his uncle, Gabriel Johnston, was royal governor. After being admitted to the bar, he was a member of the colonial assembly (1759–75) and of its standing Committee of Correspondence after 1773. He was elected to the four provincial congresses (1774–76), presiding at the third and at the fourth, which passed the Halifax Resolves declaring for independence of the colonies; served in the new state senate; and represented North Carolina in the Continental Congress (1780–82). Johnston was governor of North Carolina (1787–89) and presided over the convention that rejected the U.S. Constitution (1788) and over the one (1789) at which North Carolina finally ratified it. He was one of the state's first U.S. Senators (1789–93), a judge of the superior court (1800–1803), and one of the first trustees of the Univ. of North Carolina.