1807 in the United States
Encyclopedia
Incumbents
- PresidentPresident of the United StatesThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
: Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
(Democratic-Republican) - Vice PresidentVice President of the United StatesThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
: George ClintonGeorge Clinton (vice president)George Clinton was an American soldier and politician, considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was the first Governor of New York, and then the fourth Vice President of the United States , serving under Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He and John C...
(Democratic-Republican) - Chief JusticeChief Justice of the United StatesThe Chief Justice of the United States is the head of the United States federal court system and the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States. The Chief Justice is one of nine Supreme Court justices; the other eight are the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States...
: John MarshallJohn MarshallJohn Marshall was the Chief Justice of the United States whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches... - Speaker of the House of RepresentativesSpeaker of the United States House of RepresentativesThe Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, or Speaker of the House, is the presiding officer of the United States House of Representatives...
: Nathaniel MaconNathaniel MaconNathaniel Macon was a spokesman for the Old Republican faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that wanted to strictly limit the United States federal government. Macon was born near Warrenton, North Carolina, and attended the College of New Jersey and served briefly in the American...
(Dem.-Rep.-North Carolina) (until March 4), Joseph Bradley VarnumJoseph Bradley VarnumJoseph Bradley Varnum was a U.S. politician of the Democratic-Republican Party from Massachusetts.-Biography:...
(Dem.-Rep.-Massachusetts) (starting October 26) - CongressUnited States CongressThe United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
: 9th9th United States Congress- Senate :* President: George Clinton * President pro tempore: Samuel Smith - House of Representatives :* Speaker: Nathaniel Macon -Members:This list is arranged by chamber, then by state...
(until March 4), 10th10th United States Congress- House of Representatives :- Senate :*President: George Clinton *President pro tempore: Samuel Smith , elected April 16, 1808** Stephen R. Bradley , elected December 28, 1808** John Milledge , elected January 30, 1809...
(starting March 4)
Events
- February 10 – The United States Coast Survey is established; work begins on August 3, 1816.
- February 19 – Burr conspiracyBurr conspiracyThe Burr conspiracy in the beginning of the 19th century was a suspected treasonous cabal of planters, politicians, and army officers led by former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr. According to the accusations against him, Burr’s goal was to create an independent nation in the center of North...
: Former Vice President of the United StatesVice President of the United StatesThe Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Aaron BurrAaron BurrAaron Burr, Jr. was an important political figure in the early history of the United States of America. After serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician...
is arrested on charges of treasonTreasonIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
. He is accused of plotting to annex parts of LouisianaLouisianaLouisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
to become part of an independent republic. - March 2 – The U.S. Congress passes an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States....from any foreign kingdom, place, or country" (to take effect January 1, 1808).
- May 22 – A grand juryGrand juryA grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
indicts Aaron BurrAaron BurrAaron Burr, Jr. was an important political figure in the early history of the United States of America. After serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician...
for treasonTreasonIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
. - June – Chesapeake-Leopard Affair: The British warship captures and boards the .
- August 17 – The Clermont, Robert FultonRobert FultonRobert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the first commercially successful steamboat...
's first American steamboatSteamboatA steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
, leaves New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
for Albany, New YorkAlbany, New YorkAlbany is the capital city of the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Albany County, and the central city of New York's Capital District. Roughly north of New York City, Albany sits on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River...
on the Hudson RiverHudson RiverThe Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, inaugurating the first commercial steamboatSteamboatA steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
service in the world. - September 1 – Aaron BurrAaron BurrAaron Burr, Jr. was an important political figure in the early history of the United States of America. After serving as a Continental Army officer in the Revolutionary War, Burr became a successful lawyer and politician...
is acquitted of treasonTreasonIn law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...
. - December 22 – The U.S. Congress passes the Embargo Act.
Further reading
- S. Godon. Mineralogical Observations, Made in the Environs of Boston, in the Years 1807 and 1808. Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1809), pp. 127–154
- Benjamin Silliman, James L. Kingsley. Memoir on the Origin and Composition of the Meteoric Stones Which Fell from the Atmosphere, in the County of Fairfield, and State of Connecticut, on the 14th of December 1807; In a Letter, Dated February 18, 1808, from Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry in Yale College, Connecticut, and Mr. James L. Kingsley, to Mr John Vaughan, Librarian of the American Philosophical Society. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 6, (1809), pp. 323–345
- Herbert E. Bolton. Papers of Zebulon M. Pike, 1806-1807. The American Historical Review, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Jul., 1908), pp. 798–827
- Thorp Lanier Wolford. Democratic-Republican Reaction in Massachusetts to the Embargo of 1807. The New England Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Mar., 1942), pp. 35–61
- Anthony Steel. Impressment in the Monroe-Pinkney Negotiation, 1806-1807. The American Historical Review, Vol. 57, No. 2 (Jan., 1952), pp. 352–369
- Vincent Freimarck. Rhetoric at Yale in 1807. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 110, No. 4 (Aug. 23, 1966), pp. 235–255
- Henry A. Boorse. Barralet's "The Dunlap House, 1807," and Its Associations. Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 99, No. 2 (Apr., 1975), pp. 131–155
- William G. McLoughlin. Thomas Jefferson and the Beginning of Cherokee Nationalism, 1806 to 1809. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1975), pp. 548–580
- Richard R. Beeman. Trade and Travel in Post-Revolutionary Virginia: A Diary of an Itinerant Peddler, 1807-1808. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 84, No. 2 (Apr., 1976), pp. 174–188
- Jeffrey A. Frankel. The 1807-1809 Embargo Against Great Britain. The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 42, No. 2 (Jun., 1982), pp. 291–308
- John M. Bryan. Robert Mills, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Thomas Jefferson, and the South Carolina Penitentiary Project, 1806-1808. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 85, No. 1 (Jan., 1984), pp. 1–21
- George Ehrlich. The 1807 Plan for an Illustrated Edition of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 109, No. 1 (Jan., 1985), pp. 43–57
- John Taylor, Wilson Cary Nicholas, David N. Mayer. Of Principles and Men: The Correspondence of John Taylor of Caroline with Wilson Cary Nicholas 1806-1808. The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 96, No. 3, "The Example of Virginia Is a Powerful Thing": The Old Dominion and the Constitution, 1788-1988 (Jul., 1988), pp. 345–388
- H. R. DeSelm. Vegetation Results from an 1807 Land Survey of Southern Middle Tennessee. Castanea, Vol. 59, No. 1 (Mar., 1994), pp. 51–68
- Matthew E. Mason. Slavery Overshadowed: Congress Debates Prohibiting the Atlantic Slave Trade to the United States, 1806-1807. Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 59–81