Theodore Dwight
Closeup portion of 1817 portrait by Ezra Ames
Members of the United States House of Representatives from Connecticut's at-large congressional district
In office
December 1, 1806 – March 3, 1807
Preceded byJohn Cotton Smith
Succeeded byLewis B. Sturges
Personal details
Born(1764-12-15)December 15, 1764
Northampton, Province of Massachusetts Bay
DiedJune 12, 1846(1846-06-12) (aged 81)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting placeGreen-Wood Cemetery
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Political partyFederalist Party
Spouse
Abigail Alsop
​
(m. 1792)​
RelativesTimothy Dwight (brother)
Aaron Burr (cousin)
Jonathan Edwards (grandfather)
Occupation
  • Lawyer
  • journalist
Signature

Theodore Dwight (December 15, 1764 – June 12, 1846) was an American lawyer and journalist. He was a distinguished lawyer, a leader of the Federalist Party, a member of Congress from 1806 to 1807, and secretary of the Hartford Convention in 1814 and 1815.

His talent as a writer made him a brilliant editor at the Hartford Mirror, the Albany Daily Advertiser, and the New York City Daily Advertiser, which he founded in 1817. Among his publications are Life and Character of Thomas Jefferson (1839) and History of the Hartford Convention (1833).

Biography

Theodore Dwight was born in Northampton, Massachusetts on December 15, 1764, a son of Timothy Dwight (1726–1777) and Mary (Edwards) Dwight. He was the brother of Timothy Dwight, the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, and a cousin of Aaron Burr.[1]

Dwight was educated at home by his mother and attended a Northampton district school. He studied law under his uncle Pierpont Edwards, attained was admitted to the bar in 1787 and began practice in Haddam, Connecticut. He moved to Hartford in 1791, where he continued the practice of law.[1]

He was a member of the State council from 1809 to 1815; elected as a Federalist to the Ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Cotton Smith, he served from December 1, 1806, to March 3, 1807. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1806. He was secretary of the Hartford Convention in 1814–1815, moved to Albany, New York in 1815, and published the Daily Advertiser from 1815 to 1816.[1]

He moved to New York City in 1817 and established the New York Daily Advertiser, with which he was connected until 1835's Great Fire of New York. In 1839, Dwight published The Character of Thomas Jefferson as Exhibited in His Own Writings, which argued that Jefferson's character was duplicitous and made reference to his affair with slave Sally Hemings.[2]

He returned to Hartford and resided there until about three years before his death, when he returned to New York City, where he died on June 12, 1846, aged 81. He was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[3]

Family

Dwight married Abigail Alsop in 1792.[1] Their children included author Theodore Dwight (1796–1866).

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Johnson, Rossiter; Brown, John Howard, eds. (1906). The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans. Vol. III. Boston: American Biographical Society. Retrieved March 15, 2022 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ↑ Dwight, Theodore (1839). The Character of Thomas Jefferson, as Exhibited in His Own Writings. Boston, MA: Weeks, Jordan & Company. p. 1 – via Google Books.
  3. ↑ "Died". New-York Tribune. June 13, 1846. p. 3. Retrieved March 15, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.

wikisource-logo.svg This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Theodore Dwight". New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Government

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