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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—DelawareJohn Middleton CLAYTON
(1796-1856)
Senate Years of Service:
1829-1836; 1845-1849; 1853-1856Party: Anti-Jacksonian; Whig;
OppositionCLAYTON, John Middleton,
(nephew of Joshua Clayton, cousin of Thomas Clayton, and
great-granduncle of C. Douglass Buck), a Senator from Delaware;
born in Dagsboro, Sussex County, Del., July 24, 1796; pursued
preparatory studies at academies in Berlin, Md., and Milford, Del.,
and graduated from Yale College in 1815; studied law at the
Litchfield Law School; admitted to the bar in 1819 and commenced
practice in Dover; member, State house of representatives 1824;
secretary of State of Delaware 1826-1828; elected as an
Anti-Jacksonian to the United States Senate in 1829; reelected in
1835 and served from March 4, 1829, until December 29, 1836, when
he resigned; chairman, Committee on the Judiciary (Twenty-third and
Twenty-fourth Congresses); chief justice of Delaware 1837-1839;
elected as a Whig to the United States Senate and served from March
4, 1845, until February 23, 1849, when he resigned to accept a
Cabinet position; Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President
Zachary Taylor 1849-1850; while Secretary of State negotiated the
Clayton-Bulwer treaty with Great Britain; again elected as a Whig
(later Opposition Party) to the United States Senate and served
from March 4, 1853, until his death in Dover, Del., November 9,
1856; interment in Presbyterian Cemetery.
Bibliography
American National Biography; Dictionary of American
Biography; Comegys, Joseph. Memoir of John M. Clayton.
Wilmington: Historical Society of Delaware, 1882; Wire, Richard.
“John M. Clayton and the Search for Order: A Study in Whig
Politics and Diplomacy.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Maryland, 1971.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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