1785 in the United States

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See also:	History of the United States (1776–1789) ; Timeline of the American Revolution ; List of years in the United States ;

Last updated November 27, 2023

Events from the year 1785 in the United States.

Incumbents

Sixth Confederation Congress (January 11, 1785 – November 4, 1785, New York, New York), Seventh Confederation Congress (November 7, 1785 – November 3, 1786, New York)
President of the Confederation Congress: Richard Henry Lee (until November 4, 1785), John Hancock (starting November 23, 1785)

Events

January 7 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air.
January 11 – The Confederation Congress reconvenes in New York City having previously convened in Trenton, New Jersey.
January 21 – The Treaty of Fort McIntosh is signed between the U.S. government and representatives of the Wyandotte, Delaware, Chippewa and Ottawa nations of Native Americans.
January 27 – The University of Georgia is granted a charter (written by Abraham Baldwin) by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801.
March 28 – Delegates from Virginia and Maryland meet at the Mount Vernon Conference to deal with issues regarding use of the Pocomoke and Potomac Rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. A suggestion to expand the interstate negotiations eventually leads to the Annapolis Convention (1786).
May 20 – The Land Ordinance of 1785 is adopted by the United States Congress to raise money by selling land acquired from the Treaty of Paris and the Public Land Survey System is established to map it.
June 1 – John Adams, the first American ambassador to Great Britain, has his first meeting with King George III at the Court of St James's.^[1]
July 6 – The United States dollar is unanimously chosen as the country's money unit, the first time a nation has adopted a decimal currency.
September 10 – The Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the Kingdom of Prussia and the U.S. is signed, promoting free trade and demanding unconditionally humane custody for prisoners of war, a novelty at this time.
November 28 – The Treaty of Hopewell is signed between the U.S. and the Cherokee Nation.
December 29 – The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Lincolnton, North Carolina (named for American General Benjamin Lincoln) as the new county seat for Lincoln County.^[2]

Ongoing

Articles of Confederation in effect (1781–1789)
Northwest Indian War (1785–1795)

Births

January 1 – Gabriel Moore, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1831 to 1837 (died 1845)
January 13 – Samuel Woodworth, author, literary journalist, playwright, librettist and poet (died 1842)
March 11 – John McLean, politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1861)
April 6 – John Pierpont, poet, teacher, lawyer, merchant and Congregational minister (died 1866)
April 26 – John James Audubon, ornithologist, naturalist and painter, born in Saint-Domingue (died 1851)
June 24 – Alexander Porter, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1833 to 1837, born in County Donegal, Ireland (died 1844)
August 23 – Oliver Hazard Perry, naval officer (died 1819)
September 1 – Philip Allen, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1853 to 1859 (died 1865)
September 11 – Presley Spruance, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1847 to 1853 (died 1863)
September 26 – Charles Bird King, portrait artist, painter of Native American delegates visiting Washington, D.C. (died 1862)
September 27 – David Walker, African American abolitionist (died 1830)
November 21 – William Beaumont, physician and surgeon (died 1853)
December 23
- Alfred Cuthbert, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1835 to 1843 (died 1856)
- Christian Gobrecht, engraver, designer of the United States Seated Liberty coinage (died 1844)

Deaths

January 6 – Haym Salomon, Jewish financier of the American Revolution (born 1740 in Poland)
July 13 – Stephen Hopkins, signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence (born 1707)
August 17 – Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of the Colony and the state of Connecticut (born 1710)
November 28 – William Whipple, signatory of the United States Declaration of Independence, representative of New Hampshire (born 1730)

Related Research Articles

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was an agreement among the 13 states of the United States, formerly the Thirteen Colonies, that served as the nation's first frame of government. It was debated by the Second Continental Congress at Independence Hall in Philadelphia between July 1776 and November 1777, and finalized by the Congress on November 15, 1777. It came into force on March 1, 1781, after being ratified by all 13 colonial states. A guiding principle of the Articles was the establishment and preservation of the independence and sovereignty of the states. The Articles consciously established a weak central government, affording it only those powers the former colonies had recognized as belonging to king and parliament. The document provided clearly written rules for how the states' league of friendship, known as the Perpetual Union, would be organized.

Richard Henry Lee was an American statesman and Founding Father from Virginia, best known for the June 1776 Lee Resolution, the motion in the Second Continental Congress calling for the colonies' independence from Great Britain leading to the United States Declaration of Independence, which he signed. Lee also served a one-year term as the president of the Continental Congress, was a signatory to the Continental Association and the Articles of Confederation, and was a United States Senator from Virginia from 1789 to 1792, serving part of that time as the second president pro tempore of the upper house.

George Walton, a Founding Father of the United States, signed the United States Declaration of Independence while representing Georgia in the Continental Congress. Walton also served briefly as the second chief executive of Georgia in 1779 and was again named governor in 1789–1790. In 1795, he was appointed to the U.S. Senate, to complete the unexpired term of a senator who had resigned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Bassett (Delaware politician)</span> American Founding Father and politician (1745–1815)

Richard Bassett was an American politician, attorney, slave owner and later abolitionist, veteran of the American Revolution, signer of the United States Constitution, and one of the Founding Fathers of America. He also served as United States Senator from Delaware, chief justice of the Delaware Court of Common Pleas, governor of Delaware and a United States circuit judge of the United States Circuit Court for the Third Circuit.

John Middleton "Jack" Vining was an American lawyer and politician from Dover, in Kent County, Delaware. He was a Continental Congressman from Delaware, and a member of the Federalist Party, who served in the Delaware General Assembly and as United States Representative and United States Senator from Delaware.

The Northwestern Confederacy, or Northwestern Indian Confederacy, was a loose confederacy of Native Americans in the Great Lakes region of the United States created after the American Revolutionary War. Formally, the confederacy referred to itself as the United Indian Nations, at their Confederate Council. It was known infrequently as the Miami Confederacy since many contemporaneous federal officials overestimated the influence and numerical strength of the Miami tribes based on the size of their principal city, Kekionga.

Nathaniel Pendleton was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Georgia.

Events from the year 1777 in the United States.

Events from the year 1781 in the United States. This year marked the beginning of government under the Articles of Confederation as well as the surrender of British armed forces in the American Revolution.

Events from the year 1783 in the United States. The American Revolution officially ended with the Treaty of Paris.

Events from the year 1784 in the United States.

Events from the year 1786 in the United States.

Events from the year 1787 in the United States. The United States Constitution was written and the ratification process began.

Events from the year 1788 in the United States.

Events from the year 1789 in the United States. The Articles of Confederation, the agreement under which the nation's government had been operating since 1781, was superseded by the Constitution in March of this year.

Events from the year 1796 in the United States.

Events from the year 1799 in the United States.

Events from the year 1858 in the United States.

Events from the year 1869 in the United States.

References

↑ John Adams - Audience with King George III, 1785.
↑ "A brief history of Lincoln County". Lincolnton: Lincoln County Historical Association. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2020.

External links

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[1] John Adams - Audience with King George III, 1785.

[2] "A brief history of Lincoln County". Lincolnton: Lincoln County Historical Association. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2020.

[1]

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v t e 1785 in Europe
Sovereign states	Andorra Austria Denmark–Norway Denmark Norway France Great Britain Holy Roman Empire Hungary Ireland Malta Monaco Netherlands Ottoman Empire Papal States Portugal Prussia Russia San Marino Spain Sweden Switzerland
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v t e 1785 in North America
Sovereign states	United States
Dependencies, colonies and other territories	Bermuda British Virgin Islands Guadeloupe New Spain Newfoundland Puerto Rico Spanish West Indies