Alexander James Dallas (June 21, 1759 – January 16, 1817) was an American statesman who served as the 6th

United States Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

from 1814 to 1816 under

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

James Madison James Madison Jr. (March 16, 1751June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Father. He served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison is hailed as the "Father of the Constitution" for h ...

Early life

Dallas was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Dr. Robert Charles Dallas and Sarah Elizabeth (Cormack) Hewitt. His brother was

Robert Charles Dallas Robert Charles Dallas (1754 – 1824) was a Jamaican-born British poet and conservative writer. He is known also for a contentious book on Lord Byron, and a history of the Second Maroon War. Family Robert Charles Dallas was born in Kingston, Jama ...

, who wrote a history of the

Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...

. 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. Dr Dallas left the island in 1764, having mortgaged the estate and put it in a trust. When Alexander was five, his family moved to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

and then to London. There he studied under James Elphinston, a Scottish educator and linguist. He planned to study law, but was unable to afford it. In 1780, Alexander married Arabella Maria Smith (1761–1837) of Pennsylvania. Arabella came from a family lineage with prominent connections to the British military as the daughter of Maj. George Smith of the British Army and Arabella Barlow, and a great-granddaughter of Sir Nicholas Trevanion, by way of Rev. William Barlow and Arabella Trevanion. In 1781, the newlyweds moved to Jamaica. There, Alexander was

admitted to the bar An admission to practice law is acquired when a lawyer receives a license to practice law. In jurisdictions with two types of lawyer, as with barristers and solicitors, barristers must gain admission to the bar whereas for solicitors there are dist ...

through his father's connections. However, Maria's health suffered in Jamaica, and they subsequently moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

in 1783, where he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1785. To supplement his budding law practice, he also took side jobs editing the ''Pennsylvania Herald'' from 1787 to 1788 and the ''

Columbian Magazine The ''Columbian Magazine'', also known as the ''Columbian Magazine or Monthly Miscellany'', was a monthly American literary magazine established by Mathew Carey, Charles Cist, William Spotswood, Thomas Seddon, and James Trenchard. It was publish ...

'' from 1787 to 1789. Arabella Maria Smith Dallas

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 The Reporter of Decisions (sometimes known by other titles, such as Official Reporter or State Reporter) is the official responsible for publishing the decisions of a court. Traditionally, the decisions were published in books known as case repor ...

, 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 The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, orders, case tables (list of every case decided), in alphabetical order both by the name of the petitioner ...

'' volumes from his own funds. The first 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. For example, 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." But his publications still serve as an important legal milestone in American legal publishing. He was a founder of the

Democratic-Republican Societies Democratic-Republican Societies were local political organizations formed in the United States in 1793 and 1794 to promote republicanism and democracy and to fight aristocratic tendencies. They were independent of each other and had no coordinating ...

in 1793.

Secretary of the Commonwealth

Governor

Thomas Mifflin Thomas Mifflin (January 10, 1744January 20, 1800) was an American merchant, soldier, and politician from Pennsylvania, who is regarded as a Founding Father of the United States for his roles during and after the American Revolution. Mifflin wa ...

named Dallas Secretary of the Commonwealth, a post he held from 1791 to 1801. Because Mifflin was an alcoholic, Dallas functioned as de facto governor for much of the late 1790s. Dallas helped found the

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

party in Pennsylvania and advocated a strict construction of the new

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

U.S. Attorney and Secretary of the Treasury

In 1801, he was named United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and served in that capacity until 1814. His friend

Albert Gallatin Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Genevan–American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. Often described as "America's Swiss Founding Father", he was a leading figure in the early years o ...

was

Treasury Secretary The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

when the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

began and Dallas helped Gallatin obtain funds to fight Britain. The war nearly bankrupted the federal government by the time Dallas replaced Gallatin as Treasury Secretary. Dallas reorganized the Treasury Department, brought the government budget back into surplus, championed the creation of the

Second Bank of the United States The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ...

, and put the nation back on the specie system based on gold and silver.

Acting Secretary of War and Acting Secretary of State

From March 2, 1815, to August 1, 1815, he was acting

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

and for a time that year was acting Secretary of State as well. He returned to Philadelphia, but lived only a year. He was a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

from 1791 and a trustee of the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Honors

Dallas County, Alabama Dallas County is a county located in the central part of the U.S. state of Alabama. As of the 2020 census, its population was 38,462. The county seat is Selma. Its name is in honor of United States Secretary of the Treasury Alexander J. Dall ...

, and

Dallas Township, Pennsylvania Dallas Township is a township in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Back Mountain, a 118 square mile region in northern Luzerne County. The population was 9.124 at the 2020 census. History In 1797, Ephraim McCoy, a Rev ...

, are named for him. Six U.S. Coast Guard Cutters have been named DALLAS, the most recent was USCGC ''Dallas'' (WHEC-716).

Fort Dallas Fort Dallas was a military base during the Seminole Wars on the banks of the Miami River in what is now Downtown Miami, Florida, United States. History Old Fort Dallas was established on the plantation of Richard Fitzpatrick and William English ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

and the U.S. Navy ship USS ''Dallas'' (DD-199) were named after his son, Alexander J. Dallas, who died during his Navy service. His other son George Mifflin Dallas was

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

under

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

and one possible namesake for

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

; his father and brother are other possible namesakes of the

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

city. His daughter, Sophia Burrell Dallas, married on April 4, 1805 Richard Bache, Jr., the son of

Richard Bache Richard Bache (September 12, 1737 – April 17, 1811), born in Settle, West Riding of Yorkshire, England, immigrated to Philadelphia, in the colony of Pennsylvania, where he was a businessman, a marine insurance underwriter, and later served as ...

, Sr. and

Sarah Franklin Bache Sarah Franklin Bache (September 11, 1743 – October 5, 1808), sometimes known as Sally Bache, was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Deborah Read. She was a leader in relief work during the American Revolutionary War and frequently served as ...

. Her husband's father was a marine insurance underwriter and importer in Philadelphia who served as

United States Postmaster General The United States Postmaster General (PMG) is the chief executive officer of the United States Postal Service (USPS). The PMG is responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the agency. The PMG is selected and appointed by ...

from 1776 to 1782. Her husband's mother, known as Sally, was the only daughter of

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

, one of the

Founding Fathers of the United States The Founding Fathers of the United States, known simply as the Founding Fathers or Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American Revolution, American revolutionary leaders who United Colonies, united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the Am ...

, and his common-law wife, Deborah Read. Dallas was elected to the

in 1791.

Notes

External links

Biography and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania
*
Alexander J. Dallas (1815–1815): Secretary of War
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dallas, Alexander J. 1759 births 1817 deaths 18th-century Jamaican people 18th-century American people 19th-century American politicians United States Secretaries of the Treasury United States Attorneys for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Reporters of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States British emigrants to the United States Politicians from Kingston, Jamaica Pennsylvania lawyers University of Pennsylvania Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Madison administration cabinet members Fathers of vice presidents of the United States Burials at St. Peter's churchyard, Philadelphia