Richard Dobbs Spaight

Richard Dobbs Spaight (March 25, 1758 – September 6, 1802) was an American Founding Father, politician, planter, and signer of the United States Constitution, who served as a Democratic-Republican U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s 10th congressional district from 1798 to 1801. Born in New Bern, North Carolina, he was the son of the secretary of the Crown in the colony and a grand-nephew of colonial Governor Arthur Dobbs. Orphaned at the age of eight, Spaight was sent to live with his Dobbs relatives at Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland. He later followed his cousin Richard Dobbs to the University of Glasgow in Scotland, receiving the education and connections that would prepare him for a prominent role in the political life of the new United States.

During the American Revolutionary War, Spaight returned to North Carolina and entered public service on the patriot side. He served as aide-de-camp to Major General Richard Caswell and took part in the Southern campaign, including service at the Battle of Camden in 1780. His early political rise was rapid. The North Carolina General Assembly elected him a delegate to the Congress of the Confederation, where he served between 1782 and 1785. Afterward, he was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons, serving from 1785 to 1787 and becoming speaker of the House. In 1787 he was chosen as one of North Carolina’s delegates to the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the United States Constitution, and at age twenty-nine he signed the document, securing his place among the nation’s Founding Fathers.

Spaight’s prominence in state politics continued through the critical years of constitutional ratification and early state-building. Under the North Carolina Constitution of 1776, he was nominated for governor in 1787 but was defeated by a majority in the General Assembly. He was nominated for the United States Senate in 1789 and again was unsuccessful. In 1788 he served as a member of the North Carolina convention called to consider ratification of the federal Constitution; although the convention voted not to ratify at that time, Spaight himself supported ratification. On March 24, 1788, he married Mary Leach. She later gained distinction as the first lady to dance with President George Washington at a ball held in his honor at the Governor’s Palace in New Bern in 1791, reflecting the couple’s social prominence in the state.

For a period, Spaight retired from active politics because of ill health, but he returned to public life in 1792 as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. That same year, the General Assembly elected him the eighth governor of North Carolina and the first native-born North Carolinian to hold the office. He was re-elected by the legislature for two additional one-year terms, serving from 1792 to 1795, the maximum allowed under the state constitution. During his governorship, the sites were chosen for the new state capital at Raleigh and for the newly chartered University of North Carolina. Spaight served as chair of the university’s board of trustees during his term, helping to lay the institutional foundations of higher education in the state. He stepped down as governor in 1795 after completing three consecutive one-year terms.

Spaight’s national legislative career began at the close of the decade. In 1796 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives, losing to Nathan Bryan. After Bryan’s death, Spaight was elected in 1798 to fill the unexpired term and then won election to a full two-year term in 1799, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1798 to 1801 as the member for North Carolina’s 10th congressional district. Though elected as a Federalist, his views on states’ rights led him to become associated with the Democratic-Republican Party of Thomas Jefferson, and he is commonly identified as a Democratic-Republican U.S. Representative. As a member of the Republican Party representing North Carolina, Spaight contributed to the legislative process during two terms in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a formative period in the early republic. He was defeated for re-election in 1800 by Federalist John Stanly.

After leaving Congress in 1801, Spaight returned to state politics. He was elected to the North Carolina Senate beginning in 1801 and remained a significant figure in state affairs. In 1802 he again sought a seat in the state Senate. During this campaign, his former congressional opponent, Federalist U.S. Representative John Stanly, publicly denounced him as unworthy of office. Taking offense at these attacks on his character and honor, Spaight challenged Stanly to a duel. The two men met on September 5, 1802, and in the exchange of fire Stanly shot and mortally wounded Spaight. He died the following day, September 6, 1802. Spaight was buried at his estate, “Clermont,” near New Bern, North Carolina.

Spaight was part of the planter class and an extensive enslaver. According to federal census records, he enslaved 71 people in 1790 and 83 people in 1800, and at the time of his death in 1802 he was enslaving 89 people. His influence on national policy extended to the question of slavery: as a delegate to the Confederation Congress, he led the successful effort to remove Thomas Jefferson’s proposed ban on slavery from the Northwest Ordinance of 1784, a decision that had lasting consequences for the expansion of slavery into the American interior. His family continued to play a prominent role in North Carolina and national politics. His son, Richard Dobbs Spaight Jr., later served as governor of North Carolina, and his grandson Richard Spaight Donnell became a member of the United States House of Representatives. Spaight’s legacy is also reflected in the naming of Spaight Street in Madison, Wisconsin, one of several downtown streets there named in honor of signers of the United States Constitution.