Alexander J. Dallas (statesman)
Alexander Dallas | |
---|---|
United States Secretary of War | |
Acting | |
In office March 2, 1815 – August 1, 1815 | |
President | James Madison |
Preceded by | James Monroe |
Succeeded by | William H. Crawford |
6th United States Secretary of the Treasury | |
In office October 6, 1814 – October 21, 1816 | |
President | James Madison |
Preceded by | George W. Campbell |
Succeeded by | William H. Crawford |
1st Reporter of Decisions of the United States Supreme Court | |
In office 1790–1800 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Succeeded by | William Cranch |
Personal details | |
Born | Alexander James Dallas June 21, 1759 Kingston, Colony of Jamaica |
Died | January 16, 1817 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | (aged 57)
Political party | Democratic-Republican |
Spouse |
Arabella Smith (m. 1780) |
Children | George M. Dallas |
Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
Signature | |
Alexander James Dallas (June 21, 1759 – January 16, 1817) was an American statesman who served as the 6th United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1814 to 1816 under President James Madison.[1]
Early life
Dallas was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Robert Charles Dallas, Sr. and Sarah Elizabeth (Cormack) Hewitt. His brother was Robert Charles Dallas, who wrote a history of the Jamaican Maroons. Dr Dallas bought the Boar Castle estate on the Cane River, Jamaica in 1758, changing its name to Dallas Castle. This property included 900 acres and 91 slaves. Dallas left the island in 1764, having mortgaged the estate and put it in a trust.[2]
When Alexander was five, his family moved to
U.S. Supreme Court Reporter
Dallas published the second set of state court reports (Ephraim Kirby was first with Connecticut Reports) entitled Reports of Cases Ruled and Adjudged in the Courts of Pennsylvania Before and Since the Revolution in 1790 containing cases from 1754 to 1789. He then published three succeeding volumes under the title, Reports of Cases Ruled and Adjudged in the Several Courts of the United States, and of Pennsylvania, Held at the Seat of the Federal Government (1797, 1799, 1806). As the first reporter for Pennsylvania and United States Supreme Court reporter of decisions, these volumes began the series of both state and federal reports. These early reports are considered unofficial because Dallas carried out his work publishing the official United States Reports volumes from his own funds. The first Supreme Court case reported was West v. Barnes, 2 U.S. (Dall.) 401 (1791), and it was shortened so that it did not include the full seriatim opinions of the justices. The volumes of reports, of which he produced only four, were faulted for being incomplete, inaccurate, and extremely tardy. The landmark ruling in Chisholm v. Georgia (1793) which prompted the Eleventh Amendment, was not reported by Dallas until five years later, well after the Amendment had been ratified. Later, he wrote: "I have found such miserable encouragement for my reports that I have determined to call them all in, and devote them to the rats in the State-House."[3] But his publications still serve as an important legal milestone in American legal publishing. He was a founder of the Democratic-Republican Societies in 1793.
Secretary of the Commonwealth
Governor
In 1798, Dallas represented Patrick Lyon, who was falsely accused in the 1798 Bank of Pennsylvania heist.[4]
U.S. Attorney and Secretary of the Treasury
In 1801, he was named
Acting Secretary of War and Acting Secretary of State
From March 2, 1815, to August 1, 1815, he was acting United States Secretary of War and for a time that year was also acting United States Secretary of State. He returned to Philadelphia, but lived only a year.
He was a member of the American Philosophical Society from 1791 and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.
Honors
His other son
His daughter, Sophia Burrell Dallas, married on April 4, 1805
Dallas was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1791.[6]
See also
References
- ^ Walters, Jr., Raymond (1943). "Alexander James Dallas Lawyer, Politician, Financier, 1759–1817" – via JSTOR.
- ^ "Robert Dallas: Legacies of British Slave-Ownership". University College London.
- ISBN 9780300113006.
- ^ Avery, Ron. "America's First Bank Robbery". Carpenters' Hall.
- ^ Walters Jr., Raymond (1945). "The origins of the Second Bank of the United States". Journal of Political Economy – via JSTOR.
- ^ "Alexander J. Dallas". American Philosophical Society. Archived from the original on 2022-07-14.