Events from the year 1802 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government 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

State governments Governors and lieutenant governors Governors Governor of Connecticut: Jonathan Trumbull Jr. (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Delaware: James Sykes (Democratic-Republican) (until January 19), David Hall (Democratic-Republican) (starting January 19) Governor of Georgia: Josiah Tattnall (Democratic-Republican) (until November 4), John Milledge (Democratic-Republican) (starting November 4) Governor of Kentucky: James Garrard (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Maryland: John Francis Mercer (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Massachusetts: Caleb Strong (Federalist) Governor of New Hampshire: John Taylor Gilman (Federalist) Governor of New Jersey: Joseph Bloomfield (Democratic-Republican) (until October 28), John Lambert (Democratic-Republican) (starting October 28) Governor of New York: George Clinton (Democratic-Republican) Governor of North Carolina: Benjamin Williams (Federalist) (until December 6), James Turner (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 6) Governor of Pennsylvania: Thomas McKean (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Rhode Island: Arthur Fenner (Country) Governor of South Carolina: John Drayton (Democratic-Republican) (until December 8), James Burchill Richardson (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 8) Governor of Tennessee: Archibald Roane (Democratic-Republican) Governor of Vermont: Isaac Tichenor (Federalist) Governor of Virginia: James Monroe (Democratic-Republican) (until December 1), John Page (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 1)

Lieutenant governors Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: John Treadwell (Federalist) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: Alexander Scott Bullitt (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Samuel Phillips Jr. (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Edward Robbins (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Jeremiah Van Rensselaer (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Samuel J. Potter (Democratic-Republican) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Richard Winn (Democratic-Republican) (until December 8), Ezekiel Pickens (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 8) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Paul Brigham (Democratic-Republican)

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. July 4 – At West Point, New York, 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) 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) 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) n.d. – Salem Poor, formerly enslaved veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill (born )

See also Timeline of United States history (1790–1819)

References

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

C. Richard Arena. Philadelphia-Mississippi Valley trade and deposit closure of 1802. Pennsylvania History, Vol. 30, No. 1 (January 1963), pp. 28–45

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

External links