John Middleton Clayton

John Middleton Clayton

John Middleton Clayton (born July 24, 1796 in Dagsboro , Delaware , †  November 9, 1856 in Dover , Delaware) was an American lawyer and politician . He represented the state of Delaware in the US Senate and served as Secretary of State of the United States under US Presidents Zachary Taylor and Millard Fillmore .

Life

Clayton graduated from Yale University with a law degree in 1815 and began practicing as a lawyer in Dover in 1819. For a while he partnered with his cousin Thomas Clayton , who also became a prominent politician and US senator. As a member of the National Republican Party and later the Whig Party , he was politically active and was a member of the House of Representatives from Delaware in 1824 . From December 1826 to October 1828 he was Secretary of State of Delaware. In 1828 he was elected to the US Senate, where he remained from March 4, 1829 until his resignation on December 29, 1836. From 1837 to 1839 he was then Chief Justice at the Delaware Supreme Court , in March 1845 he returned to Congress as a Senator .

In 1849 he became Secretary of State in the Taylor cabinet . Since he always acted in the interests of the Whig Party, his consistent adherence to the policy of non-intervention towards mainland Europe incurred the displeasure of the Democrats , while his inclination to the southern states brought him a rift with the Whigs of the north . Also by him in 1850 with the English diplomat Henry Bulwer-Lytton completed Nicaragua contract (called Bulwervertrag or Clayton-Bulwer Treaty ) on the neutrality of the proposed canal to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean (see Panama Canal ), which the US military Occupation and rule over this channel were forbidden, aroused dissatisfaction.

After the death of President Taylor on July 9, 1850, Clayton held office under his successor Millard Fillmore for only 13 days before he resigned and was replaced by Daniel Webster . In 1852 he was elected for the third time to the Senate, to which he belonged from March 4, 1853 until his death on November 9, 1856. 1934 was dedicated to him a statue in the National Statuary Hall Collection in the Capitol of Washington .

literature

• Dean Fafoutis: John M. Clayton. In: Edward S. Mihalkanin (Ed.): American Statesmen: Secretaries of State from John Jay to Colin Powell . Greenwood Publishing 2004, ISBN 978-0-313-30828-4 , pp. 135-140.

Web links

Commons : John M. Clayton  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• John Middleton Clayton in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
• John M. Clayton in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)