- March 6, 1809, 217 years ago — Death of Thomas Heyward Jr..
- March 6, 1724, 302 years ago — Birth of Henry Laurens, President of the Continental Congress.
- March 7, 1707, 319 years ago — Birth of Stephen Hopkins, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
- March 7, 1699, 327 years ago — Birth of Susanna Boylston Adams, mother of John Adams.
Jonathan Dayton
DAYTON, Jonathan, statesman, born in Elizabethtown, N.J., 16 Oct., 1760; died there, 9 Oct., 1824.
He was graduated at Princeton in 1776, and served in the Revolutionary army, becoming aide-de-camp to Gen. John Sullivan. He was taken prisoner in 1780, and after his release resumed the study of law.
He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1787, and was the youngest member of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution, which he signed. He served several terms in Congress, and was speaker of the House of Representatives from 1795 till 1799.
In 1799 he was elected U.S. senator from New Jersey, and served until 1805. He was implicated in the schemes of Aaron Burr, but was never brought to trial. He afterward lived in retirement in Elizabethtown.
Dayton was a man of ability and influence, and his public career was marked by energy and patriotism.
Source:
Wilson, James Grant, and John Fiske, eds. Appleton’s Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1887. Patriot Echoes Archive
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