Dix was born in
Boscawen, New Hampshire. He joined the
Artillery as a military cadet at the age of 14. He served in the
United States Army, having attained the rank of captain.
In 1826, Dix married Catherine Morgan, the adopted daughter of Congressman
John J. Morgan, who gave Dix a job overseeing his upstate New York land holdings in
Cooperstown. John and Catherine moved to Cooperstown in 1828, and John practiced law in addition to overseeing the land holdings. Dix was appointed Adjutant General of New York State by Governor Throop, he moved to
Albany, New York in 1830, and he served as
Secretary of State of New York from 1833 to 1839.
Dix was elected as a
Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of
Silas Wright, Jr., and served from 1845 to 1849. He was not a candidate for reelection, having become a candidate for Governor. He was an unsuccessful
Free-Soil candidate for Governor in 1848 losing to
Hamilton Fish.
Later, he was appointed postmaster of the city of New York and served from 1860 to 1861. He was appointed
United States Secretary of the Treasury by
President James Buchanan in 1861. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he sent a telegram to the Treasury agents in
New Orleans ordering that:
"If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot." Although the telegram was intercepted by Confederates, and was never delivered to the Treasury agents, the text found its way to the press, and Dix became one of the first heroes of the North during the Civil War. The saying is found on many
Civil War tokens minted during the war, although the wording is slightly modified.
At the start of the American Civil War, Dix was appointed a
major general in the New York Militia. He joined the
Union Army as the highest ranking major general of volunteers during the war, effective
May 16, 1861. In the summer of 1861 he commanded the Department of Maryland and the Department of Pennsylvania. That winter, he commanded a regional organization known as "Dix's Command" within Maj. Gen.
George B. McClellan's Department of the Potomac. Dix commanded the Department of Virginia from June 1862 until July 1863, and the Department of the East from July 1863 until April 1865. Considered too old for field command, his most distinguished contribution during the war was the suppression of the
New York Draft Riots in July 1863. He was also active in the
defense of Suffolk which was part of his department. He served as the temporary chairman of the
1866 National Union Convention.
He was the United States Minister to France from 1866 to 1869.
He served as the Governor of New York in his seventies, as one of the oldest governors of New York, from January 1873 to December 1874; he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in November 1874. He suffered another defeat when he ran for the mayor of
New York City in 1876. He died in New York City and was interred in the
Trinity Church Cemetery.
Fort Dix, New Jersey, a
United States Army post, is named for Dix, as is
Dix, Illinois, and several
revenue cutters, John A. Dix.
In addition to his military and public duties, he was the president of the
Union Pacific from 1863 to 1868 during construction of the
First Transcontinental Railroad. In 1853 he had been president of the
Mississippi and Missouri Railroad. In both cases he was the
figurehead for rail baron
Thomas C. Durant.
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