1816 in the United States

Events from the year 1816 in the United States.

Federal government

 * President: James Madison (DR-Virginia)
 * Vice President: vacant
 * Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia)
 * Speaker of the House of Representatives: Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky)
 * Congress: 14th

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" ! Governors and lieutenant governors

Governors

 * Governor of Connecticut: John Cotton Smith (Federalist)
 * Governor of Delaware: Daniel Rodney (Federalist)
 * Governor of Georgia: David Brydie Mitchell (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Indiana: Thomas Posey (Democratic-Republican) (until December 11), Jonathan Jennings (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 11)
 * Governor of Kentucky:
 * until September 5: Isaac Shelby (Democratic-Republican)
 * September 5-October 14: George Madison (Democratic-Republican)
 * starting October 14: Gabriel Slaughter (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Louisiana: William C. C. Claiborne (Democratic-Republican) (until December 16), Jacques Villeré (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 16)
 * Governor of Maryland: Levin Winder (Federalist) (until January 2), Charles Carnan Ridgely (Federalist) (starting January 2)
 * Governor of Massachusetts: Caleb Strong (Federalist) (until May 30), John Brooks (Federalist) (starting May 30)
 * Governor of New Hampshire: John Taylor Gilman (Federalist) (until June 6), William Plumer (Democratic-Republican) (starting June 6)
 * Governor of New Jersey: Mahlon Dickerson (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of New York: Daniel D. Tompkins (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of North Carolina: William Miller (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Ohio: Thomas Worthington (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Pennsylvania: Simon Snyder (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Rhode Island: William Jones (Federalist)
 * Governor of South Carolina: David Rogerson Williams (Democratic-Republican) (until December 10), Andrew Pickens (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 10)
 * Governor of Tennessee: Joseph McMinn (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Vermont: Jonas Galusha (Democratic-Republican)
 * Governor of Virginia: Wilson Cary Nicholas (Democratic-Republican) (until December 1), James Patton Preston (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 1)

Lieutenant governors

 * Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: vacant (until month and day unknown), Jonathan Ingersoll (Democratic-Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Christopher Harrison (Democratic-Republican) (starting December 11)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky:
 * until month and day unknown: Richard Hickman (political party unknown)
 * month and day unknown: Gabriel Slaughter (political party unknown)
 * starting month and day unknown: vacant
 * Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: William Phillips, Jr. (political party unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of New York: DeWitt Clinton (Democratic-Republican)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Simeon Martin (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Jeremiah Thurston (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Robert Creswell (Democratic-Republican) (until month and day unknown), John A. Cuthbert (Democratic-Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
 * Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Paul Brigham (Democratic-Republican)
 * }

Events

 * April 11 – In Philadelphia, the African Methodist Episcopal Church is established by Richard Allen and other African-American Methodists, the first such denomination completely independent of White churches.
 * April 27 – The Dallas tariff is passed in Congress seeking to protect American manufacturing against an influx of cheaper British goods following the War of 1812.
 * May 11 – The American Bible Society is founded in New York City, New York.
 * June – Fort Dearborn is reestablished in the place that will become Chicago, IL.
 * August 24 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed in St. Louis, Missouri.
 * November – James Monroe defeats Rufus King in the U.S. presidential election.
 * November 7 – Jonathan Jennings is sworn in as the first governor of Indiana.
 * December 11 – Indiana is admitted as the 19th U.S. state (see History of Indiana).

Undated

 * 1816 was known as 'the year without a summer' in North America and elsewhere, with widespread unseasonal weather and crop failures.
 * The Second Bank of the United States obtains its charter.
 * E. Remington and Sons (the firearm and later typewriter manufacturing company) is founded in Ilion, New York.

Births

 * January 3 – Samuel C. Pomeroy, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1861 to 1873 and railroad president (died 1891)
 * January 30 – Nathaniel P. Banks, politician and general (died 1894)
 * March 1 – John Souther, mechanical engineer (died 1911)
 * March 14 – William Marsh Rice, university founder (died 1900)
 * April 25 – Eliza Daniel Stewart, temperance leader (died 1908)
 * May 3 – Montgomery C. Meigs, career United States Army officer and civil engineer, who served as Quartermaster General of the United States Army during and after the American Civil War (died 1892)
 * June 19 – William Henry Webb, industrialist and philanthropist (died 1899)
 * July 4 – James B. Howell, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1870 to 1871 (died 1880)
 * July 23 – Charlotte Cushman, actress (died 1876)
 * July 31 – George Henry Thomas, U.S. Army general (died 1870)
 * August 4
 * William Julian Albert, Congressman (died 1879)
 * Russell Sage, financier, railroad president and politician (died 1906)
 * October 11 – William W. Eaton, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1875 to 1881 (died 1898)
 * October 20 – James W. Grimes, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1859 to 1869 (died 1872)
 * October 26 – Philip Pendleton Cooke, lawyer and poet (died 1850)
 * November 3 – Jubal Early, Confederate general (died 1894)
 * November 4 – James L. Alcorn, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1871 to 1877 (died 1894)
 * November 29
 * Henry Mower Rice, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1858 to 1863 (died 1894)
 * Morrison Waite, 7th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (died 1888)
 * December 12 – Thomas C. McCreery, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1868 to 1871 (died 1890)
 * December 13 – Clement Claiborne Clay, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1853 to 1862, Confederate States Senator from Alabama from 1862 to 1864 (died 1882)

Deaths

 * April 3 – Thomas Machin, military engineer (born 1744 in Great Britain)
 * May 4 – Samuel Dexter, 3rd United States Secretary of the Treasury, 4th United States Secretary of War (born 1761)
 * June 25 – Hugh Henry Brackenridge, writer and Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice (born 1748 in Great Britain)
 * August 12 – Mary Katherine Goddard, publisher and postmistress (born 1738)
 * September 18 – Bernard McMahon, horticulturalist (born c. 1775 in Ireland)
 * November 8 – Gouverneur Morris, statesman and Founding Father of the U.S. (born 1752)