Mahlon DICKERSON, Congress, NJ (1770-1853)

DICKERSON, Mahlon, (brother of Philemon Dickerson), a Senator from New Jersey; born in Hanover, N.J., April 17, 1770; educated by private tutors and graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1789; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1793; during the Whiskey Rebellion served as a private in the Second Regiment Cavalry, New Jersey Detached Militia; settled in Philadelphia, Pa., and was admitted to practice in the Pennsylvania courts in 1797; State commissioner of bankruptcy in 1802; adjutant general of Pennsylvania 1805-1808; recorder of the city 1808-1810; moved to Morris County, N.J., in 1810; member, State general assembly 1811-1813; law reporter for the State supreme court 1813-1814; justice of the State supreme court 1813-1815; Governor of New Jersey 1815-1817; elected as a Democratic Republican (later Crawford Republican and Jacksonian) to the United States Senate in 1816; reelected in 1823 and served from March 4, 1817, to January 30, 1829, when he resigned; immediately reelected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Ephraim Bateman and served from January 30, 1829, to March 3, 1833; chairman, Committee on Library (Fifteenth Congress), Committee on Commerce and Manufactures (Sixteenth through Eighteenth Congresses), Committee on Manufactures (Nineteenth through Twenty-second Congresses); member, State council 1833, and served as its vice president; declined appointment as Minister to Russia in 1834; appointed Secretary of the Navy by President Andrew Jackson; reappointed by President Martin Van Buren and served from June 1834 to June 1838; United States district judge for New Jersey in 1840; delegate to the State constitutional convention of 1844; died in Succasunna, Morris County, N.J., October 5, 1853; interment in the Presbyterian Cemetery.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Beckwith, Robert R. “Mahlon Dickerson of New Jersey, 1770-1853.” Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1964.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present