1825 in the United States

Federal government

• President:

James Monroe (DR-Virginia) (until March 4)

John Quincy Adams (DR/NR-Massachusetts) (starting March 4)

• Vice President:

Daniel D. Tompkins (DR-New York) (until March 4)

John C. Calhoun (D-South Carolina) (starting March 4)

• Chief Justice: John Marshall (Virginia)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives:

Henry Clay (DR-Kentucky) (until March 4)

John W. Taylor (DR-New York) (starting December 5)

• Congress: 18th (until March 4), 19th (starting March 4)

January–March

• January 10 – Indianapolis becomes the capital of Indiana (moved from Corydon, Indiana).
• February 9 – After no presidential candidate receives a majority of U.S. Electoral College votes, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as President of the United States in a contingent election.
• February 12 – Treaty of Indian Springs: The Lower Creek Council, led by William McIntosh, cedes a large amount of Creek territory in Georgia to the United States government.
• March 4 – John Quincy Adams is sworn in as the sixth president of the United States, and John C. Calhoun is sworn in as the seventh vice president.
• March 17 – The Norfolk & Dedham Group is founded as The Norfolk Mutual Fire Insurance Company.

April–June

• April 30 – Upper Creek chief Menawa leads an attack that assassinates William McIntosh for signing the Treaty of Indian Springs.
• May 11 – American Tract Society is founded.
• June 3 – Kansa Nation cedes its territory to the United States (see History of Kansas).
• June 11 – The first cornerstone is laid for Fort Hamilton in New York City.

July–September

• July 14 – The Jefferson Literary and Debating Society is founded by 16 disgruntled members of the now-defunct Patrick Henry Society in Room 7, West Lawn, of the University of Virginia.
• August 19 – First Treaty of Prairie du Chien at Fort Crawford, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin

October–December

• October 25 – The Erie Canal opens, granting passage from Albany, New York to Lake Erie.
• November 7
  • Treaty of St. Louis: 1,400 Missouri Shawnees are forcibly relocated from Missouri to Kansas (see History of Kansas).
  • Beauchamp–Sharp Tragedy: Lawyer Jereboam O. Beauchamp murders Kentucky legislator Solomon P. Sharp in a family feud, becaming the first person legally executed in the state.
• November 12 – New Echota designated as the capital of the Cherokee Nation.
• November 26 – At Union College in Schenectady, New York a group of college students form Kappa Alpha Society as the first college social fraternity (it is the first to combine aspects of secret Greek-letter societies, literary societies and formalized student social groups).

Undated

• The Osage Nation cedes traditional lands by treaty.
• The Cherokee Nation officially adopts Sequoyah's syllabary.
• Vancouver, Washington is established by Dr. John McLoughlin on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company.
• Ypsilanti, Michigan is established.
• Vicksburg, Mississippi is incorporated.
• New Harmony, Indiana established as a social experiment, built by the Harmony Society and sold to Robert Owen.
• The United States Postal Service starts a dead letter office.
• Centenary College of Louisiana is founded in Jackson, Louisiana. The campus later moves to Shreveport, Louisiana.

Ongoing

• Era of Good Feelings (1817–1825)
• John Neal publishing serially the first written history of American literature, American Writers (1824–1825)^[1]