John M. Clayton

John M. Clayton was Secretary of State during Zachary Taylor’s presidency, serving from 1849 to 1850. A Delaware lawyer and Whig politician, he had served in the Senate and as chief justice of his state. His appointment came as rapid American expansion revived questions about access across Central America to the Pacific. ¹

Clayton negotiated with the British representative Henry Bulwer over a proposed canal through Nicaragua. The resulting Clayton-Bulwer Treaty sought to prevent either government from obtaining exclusive control of the canal and to neutralize the proposed passage. It addressed the rivalry between American commercial ambitions and Britain’s existing position in Central America. The treaty regulated a projected enterprise; the canal contemplated by the negotiations was not built. ^{1, 2, 3}

Other disputes, including disagreements with France and Portugal and criticism from Congress, complicated Clayton’s brief tenure. Taylor’s death in 1850 ended his service, and he resigned after Millard Fillmore became president. The canal agreement remained the most consequential result of his secretaryship, shaping later American efforts to revise the restrictions on an interoceanic waterway. Those later negotiations eventually concerned a different route and a different balance of power from the one Clayton had confronted. ^{1, 3}