	Site Map \| FAQ in Daily Almanac for May 23, 2012
Skip Navigation Home Asian Pacific American Heritage Atlas Encyclopedia Dictionary Thesaurus Features Quizzes Timelines Countries

Fact Monster Kid's reference,
games, quizzes

Editor's Favorites

| Share

History and Government—Congressional Biographies—New Jersey

Mahlon DICKERSON

(1770-1853)

Senate Years of Service:

1817-1829; 1829-1833

Party:

Democratic Republican; Crawford Republican; Jacksonian

DICKERSON, Mahlon, (brother of Philemon Dickerson), a Senator from New Jersey; born in Hanover, N.J., April 17, 1770; educated by private tutors and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1789; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1793; during the Whiskey Rebellion served as a private in the Second Regiment Cavalry, New Jersey Detached Militia; settled in Philadelphia, Pa., and was admitted to practice in the Pennsylvania courts in 1797; State commissioner of bankruptcy in 1802; adjutant general of Pennsylvania 1805-1808; recorder of the city 1808-1810; moved to Morris County, N.J., in 1810; member, State general assembly 1811-1813; law reporter for the State supreme court 1813-1814; justice of the State supreme court 1813-1815; Governor of New Jersey 1815-1817; elected as a Democratic Republican (later Crawford Republican and Jacksonian) to the United States Senate in 1816; reelected in 1823 and served from March 4, 1817, to January 30, 1829, when he resigned; immediately reelected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ephraim Bateman and served from January 30, 1829, to March 3, 1833; chairman, Committee on Library (Fifteenth Congress), Committee on Commerce and Manufactures (Sixteenth through Eighteenth Congresses), Committee on Manufactures (Nineteenth through Twenty-second Congresses); member, State council 1833, and served as its vice president; declined appointment as Minister to Russia in 1834; appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Andrew Jackson; reappointed by President Martin Van Buren and served from June 1834 to June 1838; United States district judge for New Jersey in 1840; delegate to the State constitutional convention of 1844; died in Succasunna, Morris County, N.J., October 5, 1853; interment in the Presbyterian Cemetery.