Mahlon Dickerson was an American politician, who served as governor of New Jersey, senator and secretary of the navy.
Background
Mahlon Dickerson was born on April 17, 1770 at Hanover Neck, New Jersey, United States. He was descended from Philemon Dickerson who emigrated from England on the Mary Anne of Yarmouth in 1637, became a freeholder of Salem, Massachusetts, United States in 1638, and later purchased a tract of land at Southold, Long Island, United States, where he died. Philemon’s grandson, Peter Dickerson, removed in 1741 to Morris County, New Jersey, United States, becoming an extensive landowner. His son Jonathan married Mary, daughter of Thomas Coe of Queens, Long Island, United States, and their son Mahlon was born at Hanover Neck (Morris Plains), New Jersey, United States.
Education
Graduating at Princeton in 1789, Dickerson engaged in the study of law and was licensed as an attorney in 1793.
Career
Following a brief military experience in the expedition which suppressed the “Whiskey Rebellion, ” settled with two of his brothers in Philadelphia.
His active political career began in 1802 with his election to the Philadelphia Common Council. In 1805 Gov. McKean appointed him adjutantgeneral of Pennsylvania, which office he resigned in 1808 to become recorder of the city.
His father died two years later, leaving an extensive estate to be settled and a large iron business to be carried on. Mahlon, having purchased the claims of the other heirs, transferred his residence to Succasunna, New Jersey, and took over the management of the famous iron works of that name. This change from a professional to a business life colored his subsequent political career.
In 1811 and 1812 he was elected a member of the Assembly from Morris County. While serving in the Assembly from Morris County was chosen a justice of the state supreme court, which position he held until elected governor (and chancellor by virtue of that office) in 1815.
Reelected the following year, he resigned when elected to the United States Senate, serving in that body from 1817 to 1833.
His career in the Senate was noteworthy for his able support of two policies, one of which originated with him. Fearing that the treasury surplus expended under the “general welfare” clause would result in a centralization of governmental power, he advocated the division of the surplus each year to the states, prorating it according to the ratio of direct taxation; and President Jackson paid him the compliment of adopting this proposal in a message to Congress. The other policy which received his able support was that of a protective tariff.
In 1832 he was a prominent candidate for the vice-presidential nomination after Calhoun’s retirement from the Democratic party, but gave way to his friend, Van Buren.
In May 1834 he declined the post of minister to Russia, remaining at home to promote Van Buren’s aspiration for the presidency. He was soon after appointed secretary of the navy, taking office June 30, and serving until ill health forced his resignation in 1838.
Retiring to private life he soon regained his health, rescuing as well his business, threatened by the depression following the panic of 1837.
In 1844 he was a prominent and useful member of the constitutional convention which revised the fundamental law of New Jersey.
Meeting in 1844 in Baltimore, the Democratic Convention nominated Polk. This was so bitter a disappointment to Dickerson who had supported Gen. Cass, that he took no part in the campaign. He could never excuse the nomination of Polk by that “horrible Democratic Convention” and worked vigorously during the ensuing four years to prevent his renomination and to secure that prize for Cass.
In this he was successful, but the disappointment of Gen. Taylor’s election was overwhelming to him and marked the end of his active participation in politics.
He was then seventy-eight years of age and retired permanently to his estate, “Ferrommonte, ” where he died five years later.
Politics
Though a Democrat, being a manufacturer Dickerson became, for the remainder of his public career, an uncompromising advocate of a protective tariff; his reputation among his contemporaries was summed up by President Van Buren who referred to him as “that ultra-protectionist”.
Views
As chairman of the Committee of Manufacturers in the Senate, he was in a strategic position to war against free trade which he denounced as “a system as visionary and impracticable as the everlasting and universal pacification of the world. ”