Tristram Dalton

Tristram Dalton

Tristram Dalton (born May 28, 1738 in Newburyport , Province of Massachusetts Bay , †  May 30, 1817 in Boston , Massachusetts ) was an American politician and one of the first two senators for the state of Massachusetts.

Career

Dalton first attended Dummer Academy , a private school in Byfield , and then graduated from Harvard College in 1755 . He then studied law and was also admitted to the bar, but did not practice as a lawyer. Instead, he embarked on a commercial career.

When the provincial committees of the later New England states met in Providence on December 25, 1776 , Dalton attended that conference as a delegate from Massachusetts. In 1780 he was one of the first members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Between 1782 and 1785 he was a member of the House of Representatives from Massachusetts ; in 1784 he succeeded Nathaniel Gorham in the post of speaker . He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1783 and 1784 , but he did not attend the meetings of this body. At the state level, he sat in the Massachusetts Senate between 1785 and 1788 .

Eventually, he was appointed US Senator in the first United States Congress . There Dalton, like the second representative from Massachusetts, Caleb Strong , belonged to the pro- government pro-administration faction that later became the Federalist Party . He was a member of the Senate from March 4, 1789 to March 3, 1791; when trying to be re-elected he failed because of George Cabot . From November 1814 until his death in May 1817, Dalton was still employed as a customs inspector in the port of Boston.

Web links

• Tristram Dalton in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Tristram Dalton in the database of Find a Grave (English)