1802 in the United States explained

Events from the year 1802 in the United States.

Incumbents

• President: Thomas Jefferson (DR-Virginia)
• Vice President: Aaron Burr (DR-New York)
• Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Nathaniel Macon (DR-North Carolina)
• Congress: 7th

Events

• March 16  - Congress authorizes the establishment of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
• April 19  - The Judiciary Act of 1802 is enacted, reorganizing the federal court system.
• April 30  - The Enabling Act of 1802 authorizes the creation of Ohio from the Northwest Territory and sets a precedent for the creation of future states from the western territories.
• June 1  - William Thornton is appointed the first superintendent of the United States Patent Office.^[1]
• July 4  - At West Point, New Yorkk, the United States Military Academy opens.
• October 2  - First Barbary War: Fighting ends between Sweden and Tripoli. The United States also negotiates peace, but war continues over the size of compensation.
• October 12  - Joseph Gardner Swift and Simeon Magruder Levy become the first graduates of the United States Military Academy.

Undated

• U.S. House of Representatives elections: 142 representatives are elected, 36 more than the 7th Congress, following reapportionment from the 1800 United States census.

Ongoing

• First Barbary War (1801–1805)

Births

• January 22  - Richard Upjohn, Gothic architect (died 1878)
• February 4  - Mark Hopkins, educator and president of Williams College (died 1887)
• February 11  - Lydia Maria Child, abolitionist, women's rights activist, novelist and journalist (died 1880)
• February 21  - George D. Ramsay, 6th Chief of Ordnance of the United States Army (died 1882)
• March 16  - George A. McCall, Union Army brigadier general (died 1868)
• April 2  - Archibald Dixon, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1852 to 1855 (died 1876)
• April 4  - Dorothea Dix, mental health reformer (died 1887)^[2]
• May 10  - James Westcott, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1845 to 1849 (died 1880)
• June 10  - James W. Bradbury, U.S. Senator from Maine from 1847 to 1853 (died 1901)
• June 30  - Benjamin Fitzpatrick, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1848 to 1849 and from 1853 to 1861 (died 1869)
• July 1  - Gideon Welles, 24th United States Secretary of the Navy (died 1878)
• July 9  - Thomas Davenport, inventor and blacksmith (died 1851)
• July 21  - David Hunter, Union Army major general (died 1886)
• August 10  - Dixon Hall Lewis, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1844 to 1848 (died 1848)
• September 4  - Marcus Whitman, physician and missionary (died 1847)
• October 1  - Oliver Blake, American-born Canadian businessman and political figure (died 1873)
• November 5  - James F. Trotter, U.S. Senator from Mississippi in 1838 (died 1866)
• November 9  - Elijah Parish Lovejoy, newspaper publisher and abolitionist (died 1837)
• November 19  - Solomon Foot, Vermont politician (died 1866)
• December 2  - Melancthon S. Wade, Union Army general (died 1868)

Deaths

• February 26  - Esek Hopkins, Commander in Chief of the Continental Navy during the Revolution (born 1718)
• May 22 – Martha Washington, the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States (born 1731)^[3]
• July 6  - Daniel Morgan, soldier and United States Representative from Virginia (born 1736)
• December 31  - Francis Lewis, signer of the Declaration of Independence from New York (born 1713)

See also

• Timeline of United States history (1790–1819)

Further reading

• A Register of Marriages and Deaths, 1802. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 24, No. 2 (1900), pp. 207–211
• W. L. McAtee. Journal of Benjamin Smith Barton on a Visit to Virginia, 1802. Castanea, Vol. 3, No. 7/8 (November – December, 1938), pp. 85–117
• 10.2307/2198151. 2198151. The Southern States and the Reporting of Senate Debates, 1789-1802. The Journal of Southern History. 12. 2. 223–246. 1946. McPherson. Elizabeth G..
• 10.2307/987719. 987719. Baltimore Mansion, 1801-03. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. 14. 1. 26–28. 1955. Perlman. Bennard B..
• C. Richard Arena. Philadelphia-Mississippi Valley trade and deposit closure of 1802. Pennsylvania History, Vol. 30, No. 1 (January 1963), pp. 28–45
• 10.2307/1985024. 1985024. Why the United States Military Academy was Established in 1802. Military Affairs. 29. 1. 16–28. 1965. Forman. Sidney.
• 10.2307/844207. 844207. A Jeffersonian's Recommendations for a Lawyer's Education: 1802. The American Journal of Legal History. 13. 2. 139. 1969. Brown. Elizabeth Gaspar. Woodward. Augustus B.. Kearney. J. H..
• 10.2307/844519. 844519. The Jeffersonian Assault on the Federalist Judiciary, 1802-1805; Political Forces and Press Reaction. The American Journal of Legal History. 14. 1. 55–75. 1970. Knudson. Jerry W..
• Howard A. Ohline. Georgetown, South Carolina: Racial Anxieties and Militant Behavior, 1802. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol. 73, No. 3 (July, 1972), pp. 130–140
• 10.2307/3122533. 3122533. Jefferson, Politics, and the Army: An Examination of the Military Peace Establishment Act of 1802. Journal of the Early Republic. 2. 1. 21–38. 1982. Crackel. Theodore J..
• 10.2307/3051658. 3051658. New York City Concert Life, 1801-5. American Music. 2. 2. 53–69. 1984. Wagner. John W..

Notes and References

1. Web site: About the USPTO . 2010-09-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20100701154948/http://www.usptocareers.gov/Pages/WhyWork/About.aspx . 2010-07-01 . dead .
2. Book: Brown, Thomas J.. Dorothea Dix: New England Reformer. Cambridge MA. Harvard University Press. 1998. 978-0-67421-488-0. 1.
3. Web site: Washington, Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), first lady . American National Biography . 2000 . 22 January 2022 . en . 10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0200333. 978-0-19-860669-7 . Crompton . Samuel Willard .