Dayton, Jonathan, 1760-1824

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>10/15/1806 NJ At-Large Lost 0.73% (-14.19%)</li>
<li>10/17/1803 President Pro Tempore Lost 6.90% (-75.86%)</li>
<li>12/14/1802 President Pro Tempore Lost 5.88% (-47.06%)</li>
<li>01/02/1799 NJ US Senate Won 54.17% (+8.33%)</li>
<li>05/15/1797 Speaker of the House Won 97.50% (+95.00%)</li>
<li>01/11/1797 NJ At-Large Won 15.76% (+5.33%)</li>
<li>12/07/1795 US Speaker of the House Won 58.23% (+18.99%)</li>
<li>12/30/1794 NJ At-Large Won 13.61% (+2.64%)</li>
<li>10/09/1792 NJ At-Large Won 13.36% (-2.94%)</li>
<li>01/26/1791 NJ At-Large Won 13.75% (+0.00%)</li>
<li>02/11/1789 NJ At-Large Lost 9.86% (-10.08%)</li>
<li>12/31/1787 NJ Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1786 NJ Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

<ul><b>SPECULATIVE, DID NOT RUN</b>
<li>01/11/1795 NJ At-Large - Special Election Won 0.00% (-2.91%)</li>
</ul>

DAYTON, JONATHAN, (son of Elias Dayton), a Delegate, a Representative, and a Senator from New Jersey; born in Elizabethtown (now Elizabeth), N.J., October 16, 1760; graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1776; studied law; admitted to the bar; during the Revolutionary War served in the Third and later the Second New Jersey Regiment of the Continental Army 1776-1783, attaining the rank of captain; taken prisoner at Elizabethtown, N.J., and later exchanged; member, State general assembly 1786-1787, 1790, and served as speaker in 1790; delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and one of the signers of the Constitution; Delegate to the Continental Congress 1787-1788; member, State council 1790; elected to the Second and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1791-March 3, 1799); Speaker of the House of Representatives (Fourth and Fifth Congresses); chairman, Committee on Elections (Third Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1798, having become a candidate for the United States Senate; elected as a Federalist to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1799, to March 3, 1805; was arrested in 1807 on the charge of conspiring with Aaron Burr in treasonable projects; subsequently released and never brought to trial; member, New Jersey assembly 1814-1815; died in Elizabethtown, N.J., October 9, 1824; interment in a vault in St. John's Churchyard; the city of Dayton, Ohio, was named for him.

<p>Jonathan Dayton (October 16, 1760 – October 9, 1824) was an American politician from the U.S. state of New Jersey. He was the youngest person to sign the United States Constitution and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, serving as its third Speaker, and later in the U.S. Senate. Dayton was arrested in 1807 for treason in connection with Aaron Burr's conspiracy. He was never tried, but his national political career never recovered.</p>

<p>Dayton was born in Elizabethtown (now known as Elizabeth), New Jersey. He was the son of Elias Dayton, a merchant who was prominent in local politics and had served as a militia officer in the French and Indian War and his wife the former Hannah Rolfe. He graduated from the local academy, run by Tapping Reeve and Francis Barber, where he was classmates with Alexander Hamilton. He then attended the College of New Jersey (now known as Princeton University). He left college in 1775 to fight in the Revolution, and received an honorary degree in 1776.</p>

<p>Dayton was 15 at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775 and served under his father (Elias) in the 3rd New Jersey Regiment as an ensign. On January 1, 1777, he was commissioned a lieutenant and served as paymaster. He saw service under Washington, fighting in the battles of Brandywine Creek and Germantown. He remained with Washington at Valley Forge and helped push the British from their position in New Jersey into the safety of New York City. In October 1780, Dayton and an uncle were captured by Loyalists, who held them captive for the winter before releasing them in the following year. Dayton again served under his father in the New Jersey Brigade. On March 30, 1780, at age 19, he was promoted to the rank of captain and transferred to the 2nd New Jersey Regiment, where he took part in the Battle of Yorktown. The Revolutionary War pension records indicate that he served as Aide-de-Camp to General Sullivan on his expedition against the Indians from May 1 – November 30, 1779. On July 19, 1799, Dayton was offered a commission as Major General in the Provisional United States Army, but declined.</p>

<p>At the close of the Revolutionary War, Dayton became one of the founding members of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey.</p>

<p>After the war, Dayton studied law and created a practice, dividing his time between land speculation, law, and politics. After serving as a New Jersey delegate to the Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention (of which he was the youngest member, at age 26), he became a prominent Federalist legislator. He was a member of the New Jersey General Assembly in 1786–1787, and again in 1790, and served in the New Jersey Legislative Council (now the New Jersey Senate) in 1789.</p>

<p>Dayton was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1789, but he did not take his seat until he was chosen again in 1791. He served as speaker for the Fourth and Fifth Congresses. Like most Federalists, he supported the fiscal policies of Alexander Hamilton, and he helped organize the suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion. He supported the Louisiana Purchase and opposed the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801.</p>

<p>Wealthy from his heavy investments in Ohio, where the city of Dayton would later be named after him, Dayton lent money to Aaron Burr, becoming involved by association in the alleged conspiracy in which Burr was accused of intending to conquer parts of what is now the Southwestern United States. Dayton was exonerated, but his association with Burr effectively ended his political career.</p>

<p>Dayton married Susan Williamson and had two daughters. Susan's Revolutionary War Pension Application W.6994 states that the marriage occurred on March 28, 1779. A supporting letter, written by Aaron Ogden, a captain in the New Jersey Brigade, states that he "was present at the marriage of the said Jonathan Dayton and Susan his wife; which marriage ceremony was performed by the Reverent Mr. Hoyt, a Presbyterian Clergyman... in the fore part of spring of the year seventeen hundred and seventy nine (1779) while the New Jersey Brigade lay at Elizabethtown in the Borough of Elizabeth and state of new Jersey."</p>

<p>After resuming his political career in New Jersey, Dayton died on October 9, 1824, in his hometown. He was interred in an unmarked grave that is now under the St. John's Episcopal Church in Elizabeth, which replaced an original church in 1860. Shortly before Dayton's death, Lafayette visited him, as reported in an obituary in the Columbian Centinel on October 20, 1824: "In New-Jersey, Hon. JONATHAN DAYTON, formerly Speaker of the House of Representatives of Congress, and a Hero of the Revolution. When the Nation's Guest lately passed New-Jersey, he passed the night with General Dayton, and such were the exertions of this aged and distinguished federalist, to honor the Guest, and gratify the wishes of his fellow citizens to see, that he sunk under them; and expired, without regret, a few days after."</p>