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Macon (NATHANIEL an American)

NATHANIEL, an American statesman; born in Warren co., N. C., Dec. 17, 1757. He was educated at Princeton College; in 1777 left college. While yet in the army, in 1780, he was elected a member of the Senate of North Carolina; and when the Constitution of the United States was submitted to the vote of the people of that State he firmly opposed it, as conferring too much power on the new government. He retained till the end of his life this dislike of the Constitution, and his unlimited confidence in the capacity of the people for self-government. He was elected a member of the United States House of Representatives in 1791, and continued in that office by successive re-elections till 1815.

In 1816 he was elected to the Senate, where he served till 1828, when he resigned his seat, having been then a member of Congress for 37 successive years, the longest term of service that had then fallen to the lot of any legislator in the United States. He died on his plantation, in the same county where he was born, June 29, 1837.