“Madisonians” at a Glance
A rundown of temporal attributes and historical peers shared by many Steam Balloons
As part of my ongoing “Jigsaw Gens” series, I profile the various American generations (and “microgenerations”) identified by historians.
In This Installment…
Featured Generation: “Madisonians” (aka Steam Balloons, Bronze Hammers, Compromisers, Bi-Coasters, Quasi-Hawks)
Who they are: The pre-Revolutionary generation that would come to dominate the first ten sessions of U.S. Congress based on reverence for Madisonian principles of the generation preceding theirs
When they were born: Approximately between 1764–1775
Key Members
Lawmakers & Policy-Shapers: Andrew Jackson, Pushmataha, John Quincy Adams, Tecumseh, William Henry Harrison, John Rutledge Jr., White Plume, Major Ridge, Daniel D. Tompkins, William Weatherford, Charles R. Hicks, John Gaillard, Thomas Todd, John Pope, William Johnson Jr., DeWitt Clinton, John Randolph of Roanoke, William “White Warrior” McIntosh, Smith Thompson, Leopold Pokagon, Shadrach Bond, William H. Crawford, Richard Stockton Jr., Ray Greene, James Barbour, William H. Wells, James A. Bayard, Harrison Gray Otis, James Cochran of Oswego, Hezekiah L. Hosmer, William Pinkney, John Stanly, Willis Alston, Richard Cutts, John Wayles Eppes, Josiah Quincy III, William CC. Claiborne, Gurdon S. Mumford, John Rowan, Daniel Clark of Louisiana, Jabez Upham, Christopher H. Clark, Thomas Morris of New York, James I. Van Alen, Samuel McKee
Literary Writers: Susanna Rowson, George Tucker, William Dunlap, Ann Hatton, Daniel Belknap, Judith Lomax, Moses Waddel, Elihu Hubbard Smith, Margaretta Faugères, William Cliffton, Rebecca Hammond Lard, Micah Hawkins, Joshua Gilpin, Robert Treat Paine Jr., William Cobbett, St. John Honeywood
Journalists & Historians: Francis Childs, Robert Bailey Thomas, Joseph Dennie, Tobias Lear, Samuel Harrison Smith, Louisa Catherine Adams, Thomas Green Fessenden, Anne Royall, Benjamin Franklin Bache, Solomon Southwick, John Binns, Patrick Gass, Morris Birkbeck, Timothy Pitkin, William Coleman, Thomas Addis Emmet, Manaoh Bodman, Theodore Dwight, James Elliot, David Rogerson Williams, Joshua Atherton, Thaddeus Mason Harris, James Coigly, Alden Bradford, John Sylvester Redford Webster, John Gardiner, William James MacNeven, Samuel Neilson, William Sampson of New York City
Scientists & Researchers: Eli Whitney, Samuel Morey, William Maclure, Augustus B. Woodward, Robert Fulton, Thomas Horsfield, William Goforth Jr., Ephraim McDowell, Horace H. Hayden, William Dandridge Peck, Edmund March Blunt, Lewis Condict, Edward Tiffin, David Hosack, Alexander Wilson, Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, William Coxe Jr., Theodore Burr, Jacob Perkins, Asa Fitch, Nathaniel Bowditch, William Kirkpatrick, Obadiah German, Josiah Bartlett Jr., Obed Hall, James Brown Mason, Luther Jewett, Samuel L. Mitchill, Dennis Smelt, Nathaniel Appleton Haven, John “Fighting Quaker” Conard, Simeon North, Eli Terry, John Taliaferro, Elisha Cheney, James Geddes, Frederick Traugott Pursh, Benjamin Smith Barton, Nathaniel Massie, Alexander Anderson, John Monteith, Daniel Sheffey, Isaac Parker, Reverend Jonathan Grout Jr.
Athletes: John Peter Van Ness, George Calvert, John Tayloe III
Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders: Henry Sands Brooks, Samuel Slater, James DeWolf, Manuel Lisa, Andrew Henry, Francis Cabot Lowell, Rosette Rochon, Thomas Spalding, Nathaniel Silsbee, John Mason of Lower Manhattan, Ninian Edwards, James Lloyd of Boston, William McMillan, John Mason of Mattawoman, Balthazar P. Melick, Zephaniah Kingsley, Return J. Meigs Jr., Jeremiah Nelson, Roswell King, Lawrence Lewis, Pierre Lafitte, Judah Touro, Robert Waln, Thomas Willing Francis, Isaac Hicks, Beverly Chew, John Mackay, David Hadden, Patrick Hayes, Robert Halliday, Solomon Etting, Jane Aitken, Thomas Poynton Ives, Bazil Gordon, Samuel Appleton, Littleton Waller Tazewell, Maria Reynolds, James Turner, Andrew Marschalk, Richard Flower, Joseph Clay, Henry Woods, Elisha Mathewson, Abijah Hunt, Joseph Anthony
Activists & Organizers: Dolley Madison, Elizabeth Ann Seton, Denmark Vesey, George Hay, William Wirt, Lyman Beecher, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, York (Clark’s slave), Sally Hemings, Edmond-Charles Genêt, Ona “Oney” Judge Staines, Hillis “Josiah Francis” Hadjo, Eliza Custis Law, Robert Finley, Lawrence Lewis, Christopher Sheels, Paddy Walsh, James Varicick, Black Hawk, Thomas Mann Randolph Jr., George Read Jr. of Delaware, Margaret Prior, Israel Baer Kursheedt, Philander Chase, Tenskwatawa, William Bainbridge, Thomas S. Kenan, George William Smith, Philip Doddridge, George Clinton Jr., Samuel Ringgold, James M. Garnett, Caesar Augustus Rodney, Joseph Hemphill, Christopher G. Champlin, Lydia Mayhew, David Stone, Thomas W. Thompson, Deidamia Davis Tilton, Christopher Ellery, Joseph Hopper Nicholson, William Stedman, Marmaduke Williams, John Boyle
Entertainers: William Dunlap, John Hodgkinson, Frances Brett Hodgkinson, Ann Brunton Merry, John Durang, William Warren, John Bill Ricketts, Ann West Bignall, James West, Charles Matthews
Musicians: Samuel Adams Holyoke, Benjamin Carr, John Cole, Oliver Holden, James Hewitt, Andrew Adgate, Johann Christian Gottlieb Graupner, Stephen Jenks, Nahum Mitchell, Jeremiah Ingalls, Samuel Nightlinger, Jonathan Huntington, Thomas Harrington, John B. Earle
Visual Artists: Benjamin Henry Latrobe, Charles Bulfinch, Ruth Henshaw Bascom, John Brewster Jr., Raphaelle Peale, James Akin, Elkanah Tisdale, Nicholas Roosevelt, John Durang, William Jennys, Charles Peale Polk, Barthelemy Lafon, Ezra Ames, Cephas Thompson, John Brewster Jr., William Hamlin, Joshua Johnson of Baltimore
Cusp Cohorts
Preceding Microgeneration: “The Cradled Explorers” (1759–1763)
Prominent “Cradled Explorers”: John Breckinridge, Benjamin Russell, John Jacob Astor, Peggy Shippen, Anna Gardie, William Thornton, Deborah Sampson, James McGready, Bushrod Washington, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton, James Kent, Nathan Read, Mason Fitch Cogswell, Paul Cuffe, Sybil Ludington, Ishmail Spicer, Jonathan Dayton, Sarah Ewing Hall, Mason Locke Weems, John Skey Eustace, Albert Gallatin, John Francis Mercer, Bishop Richard Allen, Timothy Olmstead, Yonaguska, John Penn of Stoke, William Bayard Jr., Jacob Kimball, Oliver Wolcott Jr., Joseph Plumb Martin, Mather Brown, James “Rich Joe” Vann, Nehemiah Shumway, James Earl, William Jackson of Philadelphia, Edward Savage, William Smith of South Carolina, Isaac Van Wart, Humphrey Marshall, Patty Cannon, Michael Leib, Thomas Campbell of Brush Run, Alexander J. Dallas, Robert Hemings, Paul Hamilton, William Vans Murray, Richard Bland Lee, William Branch Giles, James Ross of Pittsburgh, Zephaniah Swift, Richard Caton, Johannes “Jacob” Beam, Margaret Lowther Page, James Freeman, Henry C. Pratt, John McLean, Daniel Burnap, Wilson Cary Nicholas, Barnabas Bidwell, Joseph Doan Jr., Abraham Doan, Roger Griswold, Killian K. Van Rensselaer, Martin Chittenden, John Chandler, Samuel Dexter, John Dawson of Virginia Colony, Pierre Van Cortlandt Jr., Montfort Stokes, Elizur Goodrich, Daniel C. Verplanck, John Greenwood of Falmouth, Samuel Powel Griffitts, William Loughton Smith, John Vining, George Tibbits, Isaac Wilbour
Subsequent Microgeneration: “The Liberty Babes” (1776–1780)
Prominent “Liberty Babes”: Henry Clay Sr., Francis Scott Key, Margaret Bayard Smith, Thomas Ritchie, Amos Eaton, William Henry Ashley, Stephen Decatur, Juliana Westray, Charlotte Wrighten Placide, Mary Young Pickersgill, Roger Taney, Clement Clarke Moore, Zebulon Pike, Stephen Whitney, Obadiah Bruen Brown, Charlotte Baldwin, Joseph Funk, Rembrandt Peale, John McKinley, Nathan Appleton, Washington Allston, Joseph Warren Revere, Stephen Pleasonton, William B. Wood, Philip Trajetta, Edward Hicks, Richard Mentor Johnson, Thomas Lincoln, Mordecai Myers, Oliver Shaw, Jacob Eichholtz, Peter McQueen, Elisha Riggs, Jean Lafitte, Keokuk, John Blair Linn, William Costin, John Hartwell Cocke, Eufrosina Hinard, Jonathan Thorn, George Armistead, Micah Hawkins, James Kirke Paulding, Henry Baldwin, David Campbell, William Ellery Channing, Jean Ferdinand Rozier, Gabriel Prosser, Charles Stewart Ashworth, Josiah Butler, Chief Richard Brown of the Cherokee, John Vanderlyn, Andrew Pickens Jr., Robert Clark of Galway, John G. Jackson, Edward Lucas, James N. Ford, Richard McCarty, Joseph Story, Anson Dickinson, George Schetky, Robert Trimble, Andrew Dexter Jr., William M. Crane, William B. Bulloch, Samuel Thatcher, James M. Broom, Cowles Mead, George Wolf, “Old” Oliver Ames Sr., Benjamin Hazard, Samuel D. Purviance, William Lattimore, Daniel Hiester
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