Jonathan Dayton's Informative Speech

On September 1786, at the Annapolis Convention, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia on May 14, 1787. One of the delegates there to represent their state was twenty six year old Jonathan Dayton. He was the delegate for New Jersey and was also the youngest out of all fifty-five men to participate.
Jonathan Dayton was born October 16, 1760 Elizabethtown, NJ. He went to the College of New Jersey, which is now known as Princeton in 1776. Dayton and his father had a strong bond with one another. Dayton's father was a storekeeper who was also active in local and state politics. His

dad also served as a military officer in the French and Indian War. Jonathan entered the Continental Army serving as a captain at the age of nineteen. Dayon served under his father General Elias Dayton and Marquis de Lafayette the French Military Officer during the Revolutionary War. He was a prisoner of the British for some time and participated in the Battle of Yorktown, VA. After the war, Dayton returned home, studied law, and established a practice. During the 1780s he divided his time between land speculation, legal practice, and politics. As he began to get into politics, Jonathan Dayton met his wife; Susan Williamson. Although their marriage didn't have an exact date, they stayed together for the remainder of their lives and had two kids together.
In the latter year, Dayton was chosen as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention after the leaders of his political faction, his father and his patron, Abraham Clark, declined to attend.

This made him the youngest man at the convention standing at the age of twenty six years old. Jonathan Dayton served as the delegate for New Jersey. After the Continental Congress in 1788, Dayton became a Federalist Legislator in the new government. Although he was elected to be a representative, he did not serve in the First Congress in 1789, instead he became a member of the New Jersey council and speaker of the state assembly. Dayton purchased Boxwood Hall in 1795 as his home in Elizabethtown and resided there until he died in 1824. He was promoted to the U.S. Senate for the state of New Jersey in 1799-1805. Dayton supported the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and opposed the repeal of the Judiciary Act of 1801. Jonathan Dayton came down with an illness in 1806 which prevented him from accompanying Aaron Burr's expedition to the Southwest. This is where they intended to conquer Spanish lands and create an empire. While overcoming his sickness, he still remained popular in New Jersey. He was able to hold local offices and sittings in the assembly during 1814-1815. He was laid to rest at St. John's Episcopal Church in his hometown. Dayton owned 250,000 acres of Ohio land between the Big and Little Miami Rivers, the city of Dayton, was named after him which is now the

sixth-largest city in the state of Ohio and is the county seat of Montgomery County.
Jonathan Dayton had a minor significance in the Constitutional Convention.

Despite being the youngest man their, he didn’t do anything spectacular. He fought in the Revolutionary War and came out alive which is something that most men were not able to do. Otherwise than that, he only had a small part during the convention. Dayton did have a lot of roles while in politics as he got older and more experienced, but him being a New Jersey delegate wasn’t something that he was mainly known

for.
Dayton has accomplished many wonderful things in his life. He served as a military captain during the Revolutionary War and was the youngest to represent his state during the Constitutional convention. He was able to help shape the U.S into what it is now. Due to his bravery in the office and on the field, we as americans are able to say, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”