1798

Events from the year **1798 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Connecticut: Jonathan Trumbull, Jr. (Federalist)
* Governor of Delaware: Daniel Rogers (Federalist)
* Governor of Georgia: Jared Irwin (Democratic-Republican) (until January 12), James Jackson (Democratic-Republican) (starting January 12)
* Governor of Kentucky: James Garrard (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: John Henry (Democratic-Republican) (until November 14), Benjamin Ogle (Federalist) (starting November 14)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Increase Sumner (Federalist)
* 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: Samuel Ashe (Anti-Federalist) (until December 7), William Richardson Davie (Federalist) (starting December 7)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Thomas Mifflin (no political party)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Arthur Fenner (Country)
* Governor of South Carolina: Charles Pinckney (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: John Sevier (Democratic-Republican)
* Governor of Vermont: Isaac Tichenor (Federalist)
* Governor of Virginia: James Wood (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)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Robert Anderson (Democratic-Republican) (until December 18), John Drayton (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 18)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Paul Brigham (Democratic-Republican)

## Events

* January 1 – Eli Whitney contracts with the U.S. federal government for 10,000 rifles, which he will produce with interchangeable parts.
* January 8 – 11th Amendment ratified after two states are ratified.
* February 17 – Federalist Congressman Roger Griswold of Connecticut attacks Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon with a walking stick in the chambers of the United States House of Representatives.
* March 1 – The XYZ Affair begins, souring relations between the United States and France.
* April 1 – U.S. House of Representatives elections begin in New York and continue into 1799.
* April 7 – The Mississippi Territory is organized from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina and is later twice expanded to include disputed territory claimed by both the U.S. and Spain.
* July 7
	+ Quasi-War: The United States Congress rescinds treaties with France, sparking the war.
	+ In the action of USS *Delaware* vs *La Croyable*, the newly formed United States Navy makes its first capture.
* July 9 – Quasi-War: The Act Further to Protect the Commerce of the United States is approved by Congress, authorizing the President to use military force against France.
* July 11 – The United States Marine Corps is established by Congress (the Marine Corps had existed prior, see history of the United States Marine Corps).
* July 14 – The Alien and Sedition Acts become United States law, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.
* July 16 – The Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen Act is signed into law, creating the Marine Hospital Service, the forerunner to the current United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
* September 1 – Charles Brockden Brown publishes the first significant American novel, the Gothic fiction *Wieland: or, The Transformation; an American Tale*.
* October 2 – The Treaty of Tellico is signed between the United States and the Cherokee Nation.
* November 16 – The Kentucky state legislature passes the first of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, authored by Thomas Jefferson.
* December 24 – The Virginia state legislature passes the second of the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, authored by James Madison.

## Memoriam

* March 22 – Justin Morgan, horse breeder and composer (aged 51; Randolph, VT, USA)
* June 20 – Jeremy Belknap, historian of New Hampshire (aged 54; Boston, MA, USA)
* August 18 – John Lewis Gervais, Revolutionary, member of Provincial Congress 1775, State's Committee of Safety from 1775 to 1781, South Carolina's Senate in 1781 and 1782, Continental Congress 1782 and 1783 (aged 57; Charleston, SC, USA)
* August 21 – James Wilson, politician (aged 55; Edenton, NC, USA)
* September 10 – Benjamin Franklin Bache, journalist (aged 29; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* September 21 – George Read, lawyer and signatory of the Declaration of Independence (aged 65; New Castle, DE, USA)
* December 16 – John Henry, 8th Governor of Maryland (aged 48; Dorchester County, MD, USA)