John Henry Eaton was the youngest US Senator, appointed at 28 years old to fill a vacant term in 1818. He wrote a biography of Andrew Jackson and later served as Secretary of War, Florida Territorial Governor, and US minister to Spain.
The youngest United States Senator to ever serve the country was John Henry Eaton, who was nominated to finish a vacant term as a Tennessee state senator in 1818. At the time of his appointment, Eaton was 28 years old, two years younger than the requirement for elected officials under the terms of the United States Constitution. Eaton finished his term and then was elected to full membership and served as a United States Senator until 1829.
More facts about John Henry Eaton:
Record keeping has not always been reliable, so it is possible that no one was aware of Eaton’s correct age at the time of his appointment. In any case, the precedent of appointing a person under the age of 30 to fill a Senate vacancy had been established earlier, with the 1806 appointment of the 29-year-old Henry Clay and the 1816 appointment of the 28-year-old Armistead Mason.
Eaton was a prolific writer who wrote an early biography of future President Andrew Jackson. The book was published in 1817, a year before Eaton was nominated for the Senate and 12 years before Jackson became president.
After serving as United States Secretary of War from 1929 to 1831, Eaton served as Florida Territorial Governor from 1834 to 1836. His final gubernatorial appointment was that of United States minister to Spain, a position he held until 1840. Eaton and his family remained in Washington, DC, where he died in 1856.
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