1817 in the United States

::James Monroe (DR-Virginia) (starting March 4) - Vice President: ::*vacant* (until March 4) ::Daniel D. Tompkins (DR-New York) (starting March 4) - Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia) - Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky) - Congress: [14th](14th-united-states-congress) (until March 4), [15th](15th-united-states-congress) (starting March 4) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Events ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/James_Monroe_White_House_portrait_1819.jpg" caption="March 4: [[James Monroe]] becomes the fifth U.S. president"] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Daniel_D_Tompins_by_John_Wesley_Jarvis.jpg" caption="[[Daniel D. Tompkins]] becomes the sixth U.S. vice president"] :: ### January–March - February 7 – Baltimore becomes the first U.S. city with public street gas lighting. - March 3 - President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill. - U.S. Congress passes law to split the Mississippi Territory, after Mississippi drafts a constitution, creating the Alabama Territory effective in August. - March 4 – James Monroe is sworn in as the fifth president of the United States, and Daniel D. Tompkins is sworn in as the sixth vice president. - March 6 – William W. Bibb is appointed by James Monroe as the only governor of the Alabama Territory. ### April–June - April 15 – The first American school for the deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut. - April 29 – The Rush–Bagot Treaty, between the U.S. and the United Kingdom, is signed. - May – The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founds the General Theological Seminary while meeting in New York City. - June 18 – Henry Perry, a former member of the Republican Army of the North, is defeated near Coleto Creek after leading a force to capture Presidio La Bahía. ### July–September ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/1817_Gloucester_sea_serpent.jpg" caption="The [[Gloucester sea serpent]], a &quot;large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, seen near [[Cape Ann]], Massachusetts, in August 1817&quot;<ref>Report of a committee of the [[Linnaean Society of New England]], relative to a large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August 1817. Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1817</ref>"] :: - July 4 – At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins. - July 12 – Benjamin Russell, in his *Columbian Centinel* newspaper, coins the phrase "Era of Good Feelings", which is later used to describe American politics from 1817 to 1825. - August 15 – By act of the U.S. Congress (March 3), the Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, on the day the Mississippi constitution is drafted, four months before Mississippi becomes a U.S. state. - September 25 – William W. Bibb is sworn in as the only governor of the Alabama Territory. ### October–December - November 20 – The first Seminole War begins in Florida. - December 10 – Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, formerly the Mississippi Territory. (*see* History of Mississippi). Then Alabama Territory is effective. - December 30 – Hawaii plants coffee for the first time. ### Undated - John Neal published *Keep Cool, A Novel*, the first American work of fiction to use natural diction. - Hoffman's *Course of Legal Study* is published in Baltimore. ### Ongoing - First Seminole War (1817–1818) - Era of Good Feelings (1817–1825) ## Births - February 7 – LeRoy Pope Walker, 1st Confederate States Secretary of War (died [1884](1884-in-the-united-states)) - February 8 – Richard S. Ewell, Confederate general (died [1872](1872-in-the-united-states)) - March 22 – Braxton Bragg, Confederate general (died [1876](1876-in-the-united-states)) - March 26 – Herman Haupt, railroad civil engineer (died [1905](1905-in-the-united-states)) - July 1 – Hugh J. Jewett, railroad president and politician (died [1898](1898-in-the-united-states)) - July 12 – Henry David Thoreau, author, poet, philosopher, naturalist, environmentalist, surveyor, historian, abolitionist, tax resister and transcendentalist (died [1862](1862-in-the-united-states)) - August 4 – Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29th United States Secretary of State (died [1885](1885-in-the-united-states)) - August 14 – Alexander H. Bailey, politician (died [1874](1874-in-the-united-states)) - September 13 – John M. Palmer, U.S. Senator for Illinois from 1891 to 1897 (died [1900](1900-in-the-united-states)) - October 2 – Webster Wagner, inventor, manufacturer and politician (died [1883](1883-in-the-united-states)) - October 28 – Cornelius Mathews, writer (died [1889](1889-in-the-united-states)) - November 3 – Leonard Jerome, entrepreneur (grandfather of Winston Churchill) (died [1891](1891-in-the-united-states)) - November 17 – Benjamin Champney, landscape painter (died [1907](1907-in-the-united-states)) - November 19 – James A. McDougall, U.S. Senator from California from 1861 to 1867 (died [1867](1867-in-the-united-states)) - December 23 – Warren Felt Evans, writer (died [1889](1889-in-the-united-states)) - December 29 – Eli Saulsbury, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1871 to 1889 (died [1893](1893-in-the-united-states)) - December 31 – James T. Fields, publisher (died [1881](1881-in-the-united-states)) - Date unknown – George R. Riddle, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1864 to 1867, civil engineer and lawyer (died 1867) ## Deaths - January 16 – Alexander J. Dallas, statesman and financier (born [1759](1759)) - May 12 – William Goforth, physician and paleontologist (born [1766](1766)) - June 24 – Thomas McKean, lawyer, President of the Continental Congress, and signatory of the Declaration of Independence (born [1734](1734)) - August 7 – Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours, French-born industrialist (born [1739](1739)) - September 18 – William Charles Wells, physician (born [1757](1757)) - September 23 – Solomon Metcalf Allen, professor of languages, killed in fall from college roof (born [1789](1789-in-the-united-states)) - Date unknown – Caleb Bingham, textbook author (born 1757) ## References ## References 1. Report of a committee of the [[Linnaean Society of New England]], relative to a large marine animal, supposed to be a serpent, seen near Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in August 1817. Boston: Cummings and Hilliard, 1817 2. George Dangerfield. ''The Awakening of American Nationalism: 1815–1828'' (1965). 3. "An 1820 Claim to Congress: Alabama Territory : 1817", ''The Intruders'', TNGenNet Inc., 2001, quick webpage: [https://www.tngenweb.org/tnland/intruders/claim-537.html TN-537]. 4. Pattee, Fred Lewis. (1937b). ["American Writers: A Series of Papers Contributed to Blackwood's Magazine (1824-1825)"](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001026497). *Duke University Press*. ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1817_in_the_United_States) and is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the [article history page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1817_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::