File:Col. Richard M. Johnson of Kentucky.jpg

English: Portrait of Representative from Kentucky Richard M. Johnson, standing in a rhetorical pose and holding documents "Sunday Mail Reports" in his right hand. These refer to his important 1829 and 1830 reports, as Senate postal committee chairman, rejecting widespread petitions to abolish Sunday mail delivery. The proposal was perceived by many as threatening encroachment of church upon the powers of the state. Johnson points with his left hand to documents on a table, which represent his other legislative accomplishments. These include his "Report in Defence of Andrew Jackson on the Seminole War" (Johnson's House committee on Military Affairs minority report of 1819), "Abolishing Imprisonment for Debt" (Johnson tirelessly advocated in Congress a bill to do so for ten years, a bill which finally became law in in 1832), and "Liberty of Speech and Freedom of the Press." Behind the table is a chair on which rests a fur-collared cloak. Johnson stands in the House of Representatives chamber in the Capitol. In the background three pillars of a colonnade and curtains are visible, and on the left an American flag on a staff surmounted by an eagle with a streamer reading "The Union Must Be Preserved."