Male

July 24, 1796

November 9, 1856

Dagsborough, DE

Dover, DE
New Castle, DE

Sally Fisher Clayton (September 12, 1822)

John Middleton Clayton was the descendant of Joshua Clayton, a Quaker who had come with William Penn to Pennsylvania. His father's parents were James and Sarah (Middleton) Clayton. While Clayton was a boy his family moved to Milford, Kent County, DE. He attended academies in Berlin, MD and Lewes and Milford, DE. Clayton graduated from Yale with highest honors and during his junior year there had delivered an oration on "Military Glory." After attending the law school and passing the bar, Clayton began a law practice in Dover, DE as well as a long and prominent career in the Delaware government. Clayton was elected the Clerk of the State House of Representatives of DE. At first, due to "family" influence, he was a member of the Federalist Party but he later became a Whig. During this time he ...married but his wife died in childbirth in 1825 and both of his sons would die unmarried. On December 21, 1826, he was appointed the Secretary of State of Delaware by Governor Paynter. Governor Polk reappointed him in that position until he resigned in 1828 to enter national politics. He supported John Quincy Adams in the Presidential Campaign of 1828 and on March 4, 1829 he was elected to his first term in the U.S. Senate. When he was elected, he was the youngest member of the U.S. Senate. This was the beginning of Clayton's prominent federal political career. In 1830, he gave a powerful speech on Foot's resolution and was instrumental in leading the reform and reorganization of the Post Office. During his first term as a Senator, he also supported President Jackson in his campaign against nullification but did not support his bank policies. In February 1833, Clayton avidly promoted Clay's Compromise Tariff. He was an ardent protectionist and aided Henry Clay in the passing of the Tariff Bill of 1833. Clayton also acted as the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1833 and wanted to resign from the Senate in 1835 but was reelected. However, Clayton resigned from the Senate in the fall of 1836 to become Chief Justice of Delaware and also received an honorary law degree from Yale that same year. Clayton had remained actively involved in his home state of Delaware and in November of 1831 he served as a member of the Delaware Constitutional Convention and helped to revise the state constitution. Clayton resigned as Chief Justice in 1839 to campaign for President Harrison. Nevertheless, his loyalty to Henry Clay led him to refuse to become Harrison's running mate in 1840. He moved from Dover to New Castle in 1842 where he shortly set up practice as a lawyer. Clayton soon reentered the national political arena with his election to a second term in the U.S. Senate in 1845. During this time, he supported General Taylor for President in 1848 leading to a permanent rift with Henry Clay. Taylor then appointed Clayton Secretary of State in 1849. Clayton opened trade with the Orient and established the treaty that Commodore Perry used on his expedition to Japan. However, his most recognized achievement as Secretary of State was his negotiation of the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty with the British Government. This treaty helped the United States avoid war with England, provided for a neutral international canal across Central America, and forced Great Britain to withdraw from territories it had occupied in Central America. President Taylor died before the Treaty went into effect and Clayton resigned his post. Clayton was then reelected to a third and final term in the U.S. Senate. He went on to defend the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty against those who were attacking it. He died during a Congressional recess in Dover, DE.
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1817

Graduated from Yale College in 1815.

Lawyer; Political Office

Delaware in 1819

He read the law in the office of his cousin Thomas Clayton. He also studied with Judge Noah Benedict in Woodbury CT, and with Nathaniel B. Smith and Truman Smith.

Opposition; Anti-Jacksonian; Whig

U.S. Senator (DE) 1829-1836, 1845-1849, 1853-1856
Secretary of State 1849-1850

Chariman of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1833-1834 and in 1836.

Clerk of the State House of Representatives (DE) 1816-1817, 1819
Clerk of the State Senate (DE) 1830-1832
Auditor of Accounts (DE) 1821
State Representative (DE) 1822-1824
Secretary of State (DE) 1826-1828
Chief Justice of Supreme Court (DE) 1836-1839

Houghton, Josiah. "LLS Law Notebook 1817-1818." Litchfield Law School Collection, Series 1, Subseries 1, Litchfield Historical Society. Available online at https://archive.org/stream/35102011793091#page/n11/mode/2up.

"Papers of John Middleton Clayton." Library of Congress

Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of College History, Vol. 6. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912. ; Hepburn, Henry F. The Clayton Family. Read Books, 2008.; Lewis, William Draper, ed. Great American Lawyers, Vol 3. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Company, 1908.; Comegys, Joseph P. Memoir of John M. Clayton, Wilmington, DE: Historical Society of Delaware, 1882.