Jonathan Dayton
Jonathan Dayton fought in the Revolution, signed the Constitution at age twenty-six in 1787, and rose in the 1790s to the speakership of the House of Representatives.
Born October 16, 1760 / Died October 9, 1824
On October 16, 1760, in Elizabethtown, Province of New Jersey, Jonathan Dayton was born into a prominent family headed by Elias Dayton, a Patriot officer. He studied at the College of New Jersey but left as the Revolutionary War intensified and entered military service instead. That wartime experience gave him national connections before he reached middle age.
Dayton fought at Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, then joined the Constitutional Convention in 1787 as the youngest signer of the Constitution. In the 1790s he served in the House of Representatives and became Speaker, helping organize national legislative politics under the new frame of government. His later entanglement in Aaron Burr's western conspiracy ended the clean upward trajectory of his public career.
Dayton's early rise showed how quickly Revolutionary officers could move into the civilian institutions created by the Constitution. The Burr affair of 1807 also linked his name to the first great crisis over western separatism and treason in the young republic.
Key Contributions
- At 26, he was the youngest person to sign the Constitution of the United States.
- He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1791 and later served from 1795 to 1799 as its third Speaker.
- He left the House in 1799 after being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served one term.
Related Events
Constitutional Convention convenes
From May to September 1787, delegates in Philadelphia abandoned revision of the Articles of Confederation and drafted a new Constitution under George Washington's presidency.
United States Constitution signed
On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution in Philadelphia and sent the proposed frame of government to the states for ratification.
Related People
Abraham Baldwin
After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Abraham Baldwin carried Georgia into the new federal order and helped found...
Alexander Hamilton
From the Constitutional Convention in 1787 through the Treasury program of 1790-1791, Alexander Hamilton shaped the fisc...
Benjamin Franklin
Between 1754 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Benjamin Franklin moved from colonial printer to indispensable diplomat, l...
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
A South Carolina delegate in 1787 and minister to France in 1796-1797, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney linked Revolutionary...
Charles Pinckney
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and in South Carolina politics after ratification, Charles Pinckney advanced a...
Daniel Carroll
Daniel Carroll served in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the First Congress, helping secure Maryland's ratific...