Alexander Johnston: An Appreciation

Abstract

AC E N T U R Y ago few American historians enjoyed a larger reputation than Alexander Johnston of the Rutgers College class of 1870. As the Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Economy at the College of New Jersey (Princeton University) and as the author of several highly praised books and innumerable articles, he had, within the span of a decade, achieved more than most scholars could expect to accomplish over a full lifetime. In 1889, at the age of forty, he was dead. Although his writings continued to go through successive reprintings long after his untimely death, he is now an all but forgotten figure. But his brief career was so remarkable that it merits recounting here. Little information is available on Johnston's early years.1 He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 29, 1849, the son of Samuel G. Johnson and his wife, Matilda McAlan. His father served in the army during the Civil War and later moved to Illinois, leaving young Alexander and his mother in the care of an uncle, John McAloney, in Brooklyn. Johnston attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, where he was an outstanding student, and entered Rutgers College in 1866.2 He arrived as the College was embarking on a period marked