Cave Johnson (11 January 1793-23 November 1866) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-TN 8) from 4 March 1829 to 3 March 1833 (succeeding John Hartwell Marable and preceding David W. Dickinson), from TN-11 from 4 March 1833 to 3 March 1837 (preceding Richard Cheatham) and from 4 March 1839 to 3 March 1843 (succeeding Cheatham and preceding Milton Brown), and from TN-9 from 4 March 1843 to 3 March 1845 (succeeding Harvey Watterson and preceding Lucien Chase). He also served as United States Postmaster General from 4 March 1845 to 3 March 1849, succeeding Charles A. Wickliffe and preceding Jacob Collamer. Born in Springfield, Tennessee, he served in the Creek War, on the Clarksville board of aldermen, in Congress as a campaign manager for James K. Polk, as Postmaster General (replacing the collect-on-delivery system with a prepaid postage stamp system in 1847), as a state circuit court judge, and as a Unionist leader during the American Civil War. He was elected to the state senate in 1866, but allies of Republican governor William G. Brownlow refused to seat him, as he had briefly sided with the Confederacy between secession and the Battle of Fort Donelson.