Background
Van Dyke was the son of Nicholas Van Dyke and Elizabeth Nixon. He was born on December 20, 1770, in New Castle, Delaware.
Van Dyke was the son of Nicholas Van Dyke and Elizabeth Nixon. He was born on December 20, 1770, in New Castle, Delaware.
Van Dyke attended the College of New Jersey and was graduated in the class of 1788.
Van Dyke read law under the direction of Kensey Johns, a New Castle attorney, and was admitted to the bar in 1792. He established himself in practice in New Castle. Like his father, young Van Dyke's sympathies were from the beginning with the more moderate group in Delaware politics; like him, too, he entered political life, first as a member of the Delaware House of Representatives in 1799 for one term.
From 1801 until 1806, he was attorney-general of Delaware. Elected to Congress in 1807 to fill a vacancy, he remained a member of that body until March 3, 1811. Although recognized as a Federalist, he was moderate in his views, and on questions of legislation was invariably guided by his own judgment. Thus he was quite willing to support Jefferson's embargo measure in 1808 but, convinced of the futility of the administration's policy by the beginning of 1809, he demanded a change: "the Emperor of France applauds our magnanimity in abandoning the ocean, and Great Britain laughs at the imbecility of the measure".
He criticized those who spoke of war with England but attacked the failure of the President to make specific recommendations for improving the military and naval establishments. During 1816, Van Dyke was a member of the state Senate, but in the same year, he was elected to the United States Senate, where he continued in service from March 1817 until his death. As a senator, he frequently gave voice to the traditional state-rights sentiments of his father and other Delaware politicians of the Revolutionary and post-Revolutionary period. During his senatorship, he demonstrated ability as a debater and sat on the committees of claims, pensions, public lands, and military appropriations.
Early in the spring of 1826 Van Dyke's health showed signs of rapid decline and he reached his home with difficulty but a short while before his death. He was buried on his farm at St. George's Hundred but was later reinterred in the Immanuel Churchyard in New Castle.
Van Dyke was a member of the Federalist Party.
Although personally opposed to slavery, Van Dyke refused to vote against the admission of Missouri on the ground that Congress had no authority to impose restrictions on slavery, and that slaves had not been freed by the Declaration of Independence. Wherever emancipation had been effected, he asserted, it was by the authority of state laws, and every state had assumed and invariably exercised at its discretion the right of legislation on this class of people.
When the Delaware Assembly sent up to Congress a resolution urging the passage of legislation which would prohibit the introduction of slavery into the territory of the United States or into any newly organized states, Van Dyke joined with Representative Louis McLane in an open letter expressing his objections to the sentiments of the resolution.
General Lafayette, a personal friend of Senator Van Dyke, attended the wedding, an outstanding social event, and gave the bride away. He was widely known for the remarkable ease and elegance of his manner, and the fluency of his speech; he was fond of literature and his taste for architecture was reflected in the construction of several fine houses in New Castle.
Van Dyke was married to Mary, the daughter of Kensey Johns, his tutor, and his wife, Susannah Galloway. Kensey Johns, 1759-1848, was his brother-in-law. Van Dyke's daughter, Dorcas Montgomery, was married to Charles Irenee, the son of Victor Marie Du Pont, on October 6, 1824.
25 September 1738 - 19 February 1789
1746 - 2 January 1770
29 June 1767 - 7 July 1767
Died in 1831.
1795 - 29 September 1811
1759-1848
