Editing Richard Mentor Johnson (section)

===Return to the House===
[[File:Richard Mentor Johnson Portrait by Newsam Crop.jpg|thumb|right|[[Lithograph]] by [[Albert Newsam]], 1832]]
After his failed Senatorial re-election bid, Johnson returned to the House, representing Kentucky's [[Kentucky's 5th congressional district|Fifth District]] from 1829 to 1833, and [[Kentucky's 13th congressional district|Thirteenth District]] from 1833 to 1837. During the [[21st United States Congress|Twenty-first]] and [[22nd United States Congress|Twenty-second]] Congresses, he again served as chairman of the [[United States House Committee on Post Office and Post Roads|Committee on Post Office and Post Roads]].<ref name=bioguide /> In this capacity, he was again asked to address the question of Sunday mail delivery. He drew up a second report, largely similar in content to the first, arguing against legislation preventing mail delivery on Sunday.<ref name=langworthy40>Langworthy, p. 40</ref> The report, commonly called "Col. Johnson's second Sunday mail report", was delivered to Congress in March 1830.<ref name=langworthy40 />

Some contemporaries doubted Johnson's authorship of this second report.<ref name=hatfield /> Many claimed it was instead written by [[Amos Kendall]].<ref name=meyer262>Meyer, p. 262</ref> Kendall claimed he had seen the report only after it had been drafted and said he had only altered "one or two words".<ref name=meyer262 /> Kendall speculated that the author could be Reverend O.B. Brown, but historian Leland Meyer concludes that there is no reason to doubt that Johnson authored the report himself.<ref name=meyer262 />

Johnson chaired the [[United States House Committee on Military Affairs|Committee on Military Affairs]] during the Twenty-second, [[23rd United States Congress|Twenty-third]], and [[24th United States Congress|Twenty-fourth]] Congresses.<ref name=bioguide /> Beginning in 1830, there arose a groundswell of public support for Johnson's "pet project" of ending debt imprisonment.<ref>Meyer, pp. 287–288</ref> The subject began to appear more frequently in President Jackson's addresses to the legislature.<ref name=meyer288>Meyer, p. 288</ref> Johnson chaired a House committee to report on the subject, and delivered the committee's report on January 17, 1832.<ref>Meyer, pp. 288–289</ref> Later that year, a bill abolishing the practice of debt imprisonment passed both houses of Congress, and was signed into law on July 14.<ref name=meyer289>Meyer, p. 289</ref>

Johnson's stands won him widespread popularity and endorsement by [[George Henry Evans|George H. Evans]], [[Robert Dale Owen]], and [[Theophilus Fisk]] for the presidency in 1832, but Johnson abandoned his campaign when Andrew Jackson announced he would seek a second term. He then began campaigning to become Jackson's running mate, but Jackson favored Martin Van Buren instead. At the [[Democratic National Convention]], Johnson finished a distant third in the vice-presidential balloting, receiving only the votes of the Kentucky, [[Indiana]], and [[Illinois]] delegations; [[William Berkeley Lewis|William B. Lewis]] had to persuade him to withdraw<ref>Hatfield; Schlesinger, p. 142.</ref>