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Clayton, John Middleton

lawyer, United States senator, was born July 24, 1796, in Sussex county, Del. He was elected to the state legislature, and subsequently secretary of the state of Delaware. In 1829 he was chosen a senator in congress and re-elected in 1835. He was appointed chief justice of Delaware, and was again elected to the federal senate in 1845, and was a senator until 1849, when he became secretary of state under President Taylor. During this period he negotiated the famous Clayton-Bulwer treaty, and was for the third time elected to the senate, taking his seat in March, 1851.

He died Nov. 9, 1856, in Dover, Del.