James McHenry (451)

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

ANB

Archives of Maryland (Biographical Series)

James McHenry (16 November 1753–3 May 1816) was a surgeon, soldier, politician, Secretary of War, and slaveholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1785. Born in Ballymena, Ireland to a merchant father, McHenry immigrated to Philadelphia in 1771. He attended the Newark Academy in Delaware in 1772 before studying medicine under Dr. Benjamin Rush from 1774 to 1775. He volunteered as an assistant surgeon when the Revolutionary War began and soon after was appointed surgeon in the Fifth Pennsylvania Battalion in 1776. That same year he was captured at Fort Washington but was exchanged in 1778. Shortly afterwards George Washington made James his assistant secretary. He held this position until 1780 when he became General Marquis de Lafayette’s aide-de-camp until the end of the war. While serving under Lafayette, McHenry received the rank of major. After the war, he became involved in Maryland politics where he served as Baltimore County justice of the peace (1782–1784), Baltimore County justice of the Orphans’ Court (1783–1784), state senator (1781–1786, 1791–1796), and a member of the Maryland House of Delegates (1788–1790). From 1783–1785 he served as a member of the Confederation Congress. McHenry became involved in the creation and ratification of the Constitution: first as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and signee of the Constitution, then later as a delegate to the Maryland ratification convention. McHenry convinced Maryland to charter a bank in Baltimore through an anonymous pamphlet called A Brief Exposition of the Leading Principles of a Bank in 1795. President Washington appointed McHenry Secretary of War 1796–1800. He then retired and focused on supporting various organizations, becoming president of the Bible Society of Baltimore, a founding member of the Society of the Cincinnati, and a prominent leader of the Washington Benevolent Society. He died at his country estate, Fayetteville, and was buried at Westminster Churchyard in Baltimore.