1858

Events from the year 1858 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: James Buchanan (D-PA)
* Vice President: John C. Breckinridge (D-KY)
* Chief Justice: Roger B. Taney (MD)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: James Lawrence Orr (D-SC)
* Congress: 35th
==Events==
* March 4 – A speech by James Henry Hammond in the United States Senate promotes the idea of "King Cotton" and the "mudsill theory" in support of slave labor.
* April 19 – The United States and the Yankton Sioux Tribe sign a treaty.
* May 11 – Minnesota admitted becomes the 32nd U.S. state.
* May 19 – The Marais des Cygnes massacre is perpetrated by pro-slavery forces in Bleeding Kansas.
* June 16 – Abraham Lincoln makes his "House Divided" Speech at the State Capitol in Springfield, Illinois, on accepting the Republican Party nomination for a seat in the U.S. Senate.
* July 1 – Forty-Niners stream into the Rocky Mountains of the western United States during the Pike's Peak Gold Rush.
* July 8 – The Paulist Fathers, a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life for men, is founded in New York City by Isaac Hecker.
* July 29 – Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Japan) ("Harris Treaty") signed on the deck of USS Powhatan in Edo (modern-day Tokyo) Bay.
* August 16 – U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new trans-Atlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria. However, a weak signal forces a shutdown of the service in a few weeks.
* August 21 – The first of the seven Lincoln–Douglas debates is held.
* September 1 – 'Staten Island Quarantine War' begins.
* September 2 – 'Staten Island Quarantine War' ends.
* September 14 – Fordyce Beals patents his six shooter revolver which will be produced by E. Remington & Sons of Ilion, New York as the Remington Model 1858.
* November 17 – Denver is founded.
* December 8 – Rensselaer, Indiana is incorporated.
==Memoriam==
* January 10 – Hezekiah Augur, sculptor and inventor (aged 66; New Haven, CT, USA)
* March 4 – Matthew C. Perry, naval officer (aged 63; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 10 – Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. Senator from Missouri from 1821 to 1851 (aged 76; Washington, DC, USA)
* July 17 – John A. Quitman, lawyer, politician, and soldier (aged 59; Natchez, MS, USA)
* August 23 – Calvin Willey, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1825 to 1831 (aged 81; Stafford, CT, USA)
* September 17 – Dred Scott, slave (aged 59; St. Louis, MO, USA)
* September 21 – Arthur P. Bagby, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1837 to 1841 (aged 64; Mobile, AL, USA)
* November 16 – Robert Hanna, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1831 to 1832 (aged 72; Indianapolis, IN, USA)
* December 14 – Michael Woolston Ash, U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania from 1835 to 1837 (aged 69; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* December 18 – Thomas Holley Chivers, poet and physician (aged 49; Decatur, GA, USA)
* December 26 – James Gadsden, diplomat, soldier and businessman (aged 70; Charleston, SC, USA)
==External links==
* 1858 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 8