1799

Events from the year **1799 in the United States**.

* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Jonathan Dayton (F-NJ) (until March 4), Theodore Sedgwick (F-MA) (starting December 2)
* Congress: 5th (until March 4), 6th (starting March 4)

Governors
* Governor of Connecticut: Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (Federalist)
* Governor of Delaware: Daniel Rogers (Federalist) (until January 9), Richard Bassett (Federalist) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Georgia: James Jackson (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: James Garrard (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Benjamin Ogle (Federalist)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Increase Sumner (Federalist) (until June 7), Moses Gill (no political party) (starting June 7)
* Governor of New Hampshire: John Taylor Gilman (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: Richard Howell (Federalist)
* Governor of New York: John Jay (Federalist)
* Governor of North Carolina: William Richardson Davie (Federalist) (until November 23), Benjamin Williams (Federalist) (starting November 23)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Thomas Mifflin (no political party) (until December 17), Thomas McKean (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 17)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Arthur Fenner (Country)
* Governor of South Carolina: Edward Rutledge (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: John Sevier (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of Vermont: Isaac Tichenor (Federalist)
* Governor of Virginia:
	+ until December 1: James Wood (Democratic-Republican)
	+ December 1 – December 7: vacant
	+ December 7 – December 11: Hardin Burnley (no political party)
	+ December 11 – December 19: John Pendleton Jr. (no political party)
	+ starting December 19: James Monroe (Democratic-Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: John Treadwell (Federalist)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Moses Gill (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Stephen Van Rensselaer (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Samuel J. Potter (Democratic-Republican) (until February), George Brown (political party unknown) (starting February)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: John Drayton (Democratic-Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Paul Brigham (Democratic-Republican)

## Events

* January 30 – Congress passes the Logan Act, forbidding unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments, in response to George Logan's unofficial attempt to negotiate peace between the U.S. and France.
* February 1 – Fries's Rebellion, an armed tax revolt among Pennsylvania Dutch farmers, begins as John Fries organizes meetings to discuss a collective response to the taxes imposed to raise funds for the Quasi-War.
* February 7 – Marc Isambard Brunel leaves the United States.
* February 9 – Quasi-War: In the action of 9 February 1799, the USS *Constellation* captures the French frigate *Insurgente*.
* March 1 – Federalist James Ross becomes President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate.
* March 29 – New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.
* April 10 – Ellicott's Stone is placed by a U.S.-Spanish survey party headed by Andrew Ellicott.
* July 8 – The Russian-American Company is founded.
* December 3 – The Kentucky state legislature passes the second of its resolutions as part of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Although the first of Kentucky's resolutions (in 1798) were authored by Thomas Jefferson, the author of the 1799 Resolutions is not known with certainty.
* December 14 – Former President George Washington dies at his home in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

## Memoriam

* June 6 – Patrick Henry, 1st & 6th Governor of Virginia from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786 (aged 63; Brookneal, VA, USA)
* June 7 – Increase Sumner, lawyer, justice and 5th Governor of Massachusetts from 1797 (aged 52; Roxbury, MA, USA)
* October 13 – William Paca, judge and 3rd Governor of Maryland from 1782 to 1785, signatory to the Declaration of Independence (aged 58; Queen Anne's County, MD, USA)
* October 20 – James Iredell, 1st Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (aged 48; Edenton, NC, USA)
* December 1 – William Cliffton, poet (aged 27; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* December 14 – George Washington, 1st President of the United States from 1789 to 1797 (aged 67; Mount Vernon, VA, USA)