Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson and the Journey to the Center of the Earth

    With all of the attention on vice-presidential politics recently I thought it'd be nice to take a look back at one of the craziest vice presidents in US history. Meet Richard Mentor Johnson, he was Vice President from 1837 to 1841. Johnson was Martin Van Buren's first and only vice presidential running mate... nothing weird about that, except that Van Buren ran for two terms. Van Buren's second run was VP-less, which will make sense after you get to know Richard Johnson. You see, Johnson wasn't the most popular guy in politics mostly because his wife was his former slave. Interracial marriages aren't a big deal today but in 1836 it was a different story. And this wasn't some Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemmings shit either, it was all out in the open. But that's the not the most interesting part about Johnson... not even close...

   Here are a few interesting bullet points about Richard Johnson:

• He invaded Canada... seriously
• He was born in Beargrass, Kentucky... seriously
• One of his brothers was named Telemachus... seriously
• He graduated from Transylvania University... seriously

    Okay so there are a few amusing anecdotes about our ninth vice president, but none of those are too terribly interesting on their own. Johnson is probably best known for one thing... well, you'd probably be hard pressed to find anyone who has actually heard of this guy in passing, but if you did this is what they would know him for... Johnson once sponsored a proposal in the US Senate that would have lead to an American expedition to the center of the Earth.

John Cleves Symmes and the Hollow Earth Theory

    Richard Johnson was friend and follower of John Cleves Symmes who proposed that the Earth had a hollow and possibly inhabitable interior. Sounds crazy today but this was all taking place about fifty years after the American Revolution. Symmes' theory about the interior of the Earth was that the crust of the planet was open at the poles and these openings would allow passage to subterranean levels. In all, Symmes theorized that there were four concentric crusts inside the Earth, sort of like Russian nesting dolls. Richard Johnson, who was a Senator at the time, proposed a government expedition to the north pole where he hoped to find the "open pole." Two other similar proposals where sponsored by Johnson and drafted by Symmes' supporters Jeremiah Reynolds and James McBride. While all attempts were rejected by President Andrew Jackson, Johnson's north pole expedition did garner 25 affirmative votes. It may not sound like much but there were only 60 Senators back then.

    These proposals were made during the 1830s, well before Jules Verne wrote Journey to the Center of the Earth. In Verne's book the adventurers descend into the earth via a volcano in Iceland. It's been a hundred and seventy plus years since we had a vice president who proposed making a journey to the center of the Earth and while I really doubt anyone running for office today (Mike Gravel excluded) would be willing do to anything quite as ballsy or laughable as Richard Johnson, it'd be funny to see them try.