Theodore Dwight

Theodore Dwight 1764-1846, American author, b. Northampton, Mass.; brother of Timothy Dwight and grandson of Jonathan Edwards. A leader of the Federalist party in New England, he became famous for his political pamphlets and articles. As one of the younger Connecticut Wits he proved himself a highly capable satirist. He served in Congress (1806-7), in the Connecticut state council (1809-15), and as secretary of the Hartford Convention . He later wrote the journal of the convention (1833).

Dwight, Theodore (1764–1846),Massachusetts lawyer, grandson of Jonathan Edwards and brother of Timothy Dwight, is remembered as one of the Connecticut Wits, of whom he was probably the most vehemently Federalist member. Democracy was anathema to him, as appears in his speeches and in his History of the Hartford Convention (1833) and The Character of Thomas Jefferson (1839). He also wrote Sketches of Scenery and Manners in the United States (1829), The Northern Traveller (1825), and a History of Connecticut (1841). His crisp Federalist verse, in The Echo and The Political Greenhouse, shows a mastery of Hudibrastic verse. From 1815 to 1817 he conducted the Albany Daily Advertiser, and thereafter edited the New York Daily Advertiser.

His son Theodore Dwight (1796–1866) edited an independent journal, Dwight's American Magazine (1845–52), and wrote several books about his travels.