Alexander J. Dallas

Portrait of Alexander J. Dallas in the Treasury Department

Alexander James Dallas (born June 21, 1759 in Kingston , Jamaica , † January 16, 1817 in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania ) was an American politician who belonged to the cabinet of US President James Madison as Treasury Secretary .

Family, studies and professional career

Dallas came from a Scottish family of doctors who moved first to Edinburgh and later to London in 1764 , where he first completed a degree in linguistics , as he could not take up a degree in law that he himself wanted . After the family returned to Jamaica, he was admitted to the bar in 1781 due to his father's connections .

After relocating to Pennsylvania in 1783 because of his wife's health, he was admitted to the bar there two years later. Since the law firm was initially not very successful, he was also editor of the Pennsylvania Herald and Columbian Magazine from 1787 to 1789 .

From 1791 to 1800 he was the first editor of the United States Supreme Court's collection of decisions , the so-called Dallas Reports . However, since it was not an official office at the time, he issued the decisions at his own expense. However, this collection was incomplete, disorganized and mostly appeared very late. For example, the fundamental decision Chisholm v. Georgia of 1793, which ultimately led to the 11th Amendment , only five years after the amendment was ratified on February 7, 1795. After the Supreme Court moved to Washington, DC , he resigned from the position of editor.

Dallas was from 1791 until his death a member of the American Philosophical Society and temporarily a member of the Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania .

His second son, George, was Vice President of the United States during the tenure of James K. Polk .

Political career

Officials in Pennsylvania

In January 1791, the first Pennsylvania Governor , Thomas Mifflin , appointed him Secretary of the Commonwealth in the state government. In this function, which he also exercised under Mifflin's successor Thomas McKean until 1801, he was temporarily de facto acting governor.

In 1793 he was the founder of the Democratic Republican Societies , an organization that promoted the ideas of democracy and the republic at the local level and at the same time combated aristocratic tendencies . As such, he was a co-founder of the Democratic Republican Party in Pennsylvania and a strong supporter of the United States Constitution .

In 1801 he was appointed the first federal attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania. In this office he was active until October 6, 1814; he was succeeded by Charles Jared Ingersoll .

Treasury Secretary under President Madison

During the British-American War of 1812 he helped his personal friend Albert Gallatin , who was Treasury Secretary at the time, set up monetary funds to fight the United Kingdom .

On October 6, 1814, he succeeded George W. Campbell himself as Treasury Secretary of the United States, which was nearly bankrupt due to the war . During his tenure, the ministry was reorganized and the budget was balanced . He was also responsible for the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States and the return to coins .

During his time in the Madison cabinet he was also acting Secretary of State from September 30, 1814 to February 28, 1815 and acting Secretary of War between March 14 and December 1815 .

After leaving the Treasury Department on October 21, 1816, he retired to Philadelphia, where he died three months later. The district of Dallas County in the state of Alabama was named in his honor.

Publications

• Reports of Cases ruled and adjudged by the Courts of the United States and of Pennsylvania, before and since the Revolution. Philadelphia, 1790-1800 (4 volumes)
• Features of Jay's Treaty. Philadelphia, 1795
• Speeches on the Trial of Blount.
• Address to the Society of Constitutional Republicans. 1805
• Exposition of the Causes and Character of the War of 1812– '15.

Web links

Commons : Alexander J. Dallas  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Alexander J. Dallas in the nndb (English)
• Biography and portrait on the homepage of the Ministry of Finance
• Alexander J. Dallas in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)
• Biography at the University of Pennsylvania

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Member History: Alexander J. Dallas. American Philosophical Society, accessed July 4, 2018 .