Alexander J. Dallas (statesman)

Infobox US Cabinet official
name=Alexander James Dallas


order=1st
title=United States Supreme Court Reporter of Decisions
term_start=1790
term_end=1800
predecessor="(none)"
successor=William Cranch
order2=6th
title2=United States Secretary of the Treasury
term_start2=October 6, 1814
term_end2=October 21, 1816
predecessor2=George W. Campbell
successor2=William H. Crawford
birth_date=birth date|1759|6|21|mf=y
birth_place=Kingston, Jamaica
death_date=death date and age|1817|1|16|1759|6|21
death_place=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
party=Democratic-Republican
spouse=Arabella Maria Dallas
profession=Lawyer, Politician

Alexander James Dallas (June 21, 1759 – January 16, 1817) was an American statesman who served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary under President James Madison.

Dallas was born in Kingston, Jamaica, to Dr. Robert Charles Dallas (1710 – 1769) and Sarah Elizabeth (Cormack) Hewitt. When he was five his family moved to Edinburgh (his father was a Scotsman) and then to London. There he studied under James Elphinston. He planned to study law, but was unable to afford it. He married Arabella Maria Smith of Pennsylvania, the daughter of Maj. George Smith of the British Army and Arabella Barlow (in turn the daughter of the Rev. William Barlow and Arabella Trevanion, the daughter of Sir Nicholas Trevanion), in 1780 and the next year they moved to Jamaica. There he was admitted to the bar through his father's connections. Maria's health suffered in Jamaica and they moved to Philadelphia in 1783. Dallas was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1785. His law practice was slow and on the side he edited the "Pennsylvania Herald" from 1787 to 1788 and the "Columbian Magazine" from 1787 to 1789.

When the United States Supreme Court came to Philadelphia in 1791, he would become their first reporter of decisions. Because the post of reporter was an unofficial one, Dallas did his work from his own funds. The volumes, 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. When he abandoned reporting of decisions when the Court moved to the new capital, Washington, D.C., he declared "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." He was a founder of the Democratic-Republican Societies in 1793.

Governor Thomas Mifflin 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 party in Pennsylvania and advocated a strict construction of the new Constitution.

In 1801, he was named United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and served until 1814. When his friend Albert Gallatin was treasury secretary when the War of 1812 began, he helped Gallatin obtain funds to fight Britain. The war nearly bankrupted the country 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, and put the nation back on the specie system. From March 14, 1815 to December 1815 he was acting Secretary of War 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 from 1791 and a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania.

Dallas County, Alabama, is named for him, and Fort Dallas in Florida 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 under James K. Polk and one possible namesake for Dallas, Texas; his father and brother are other possible namesakes of the Texas city.

External links

* [http://www.archives.upenn.edu/histy/features/1700s/people/dallas_alex.html Biography and portrait at the University of Pennsylvania]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6661789 Alexander J. Dallas] at Find A Grave