George M. Dallas

George Mifflin Dallas (July 10, 1792 – December 31, 1864) was a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania and the 11th Vice President of the United States (1845-1849), serving under James K. Polk.

Family and early life

Of Scottish ancestry, George Mifflin Dallas was born on July 10, 1792, to Alexander James Dallas and Arabella Smith Dallas in Philadelphia.^[1] Dallas was the second of six children,^[1] another of whom, Alexander, would become the commander of Pensacola Navy Yard. Born in Kingston, Jamaica and educated in Edinburgh, the senior Alexander was the Secretary of the Treasury under United States President James Madison, and was also briefly the Secretary of War.^[1] Dallas graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) with highest honors in 1810, studied law thereafter, and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1813.^[1]

Early legal, diplomatic and financial service

Dallas did not have much enthusiasm at the time for legal practice, and wanted to fight in the War of 1812, a plan which he dropped due to his father's objection.^[1] Just after this, Dallas accepted an offer to be the private secretary of Albert Gallatin, and he went to Russia with Gallatin who was sent there to try to secure its aid in peace negotiations between Great Britain and the United States.^[1] Dallas enjoyed the opportunities offered to him by being in Russia, but after six months there he was ordered to go to London to determine whether the War of 1812 could be resolved diplomatically.^[1] In August 1814, he arrived in Washington, D.C. and delivered a preliminary draft of Britain's peace terms.^[1] There, he was appointed by James Madison to become the remitter of the treasury, which is considered a "convenient arrangement" because Dallas's father was serving at the time as that department's secretary.^[1] Since the job did not entail a large workload, Dallas found time to develop his grasp of politics, his major vocational interest.^[1] He later became the counsel to the Second Bank of the United States.^[1] In 1817, Dallas's father died, ending Dallas's plan for a family law practice, and he stopped working for the Second Bank of the United States and became the deputy attorney general of Philadelphia, a position he held until 1820.^[1]

Political career

After the War of 1812 ended, Pennsylvania's political climate was chaotic, with two factions in that state's Democratic party vying for control.^[1] One, the Philadelphia-based "Family party", was led by Dallas, and it espoused the beliefs that the Constitution of the United States was supreme, that an energetic national government should exist that would implement protective tariffs, a powerful central banking system, and undertake internal improvements to the country in order to facilitate national commerce.^[1] The other faction was called the "Amalgamators", headed by the future President James Buchanan.^[1]

Voters elected Dallas Mayor of Philadelphia as the candidate of the Family party, after the party had gained control of the city councils.^[1] However, he quickly grew bored of that post, and became the district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania in 1829, a position his father had held from 1801 to 1814, and continued in that role until 1831.^[1] In December of that year, he won a five-man, eleven-ballot contest in the state legislature, that enabled him to become the Senator from Pennsylvania in order to complete the unexpired term^[1] of the previous senator who had resigned.^[2]

Dallas served less than 15 months — from December 13, 1831, to March 4, 1833 — and declined to be a candidate for reelection. He was chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs.

Dallas resumed the practice of law, was attorney general of Pennsylvania from 1833 to 1835, and served as the Grand Master of Freemasons in Pennsylvania in 1835.^[3] He was appointed by President Martin Van Buren as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Russia from 1837 to 1839, when he was recalled at his own request. Dallas was elected Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket in 1844 with James K. Polk and served from March 4, 1845 to March 4, 1849.

President Franklin Pierce appointed Dallas in 1856 as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Britain, where he served until 1861, when he returned to Philadelphia. He died there in 1864 at the age of 72 and was interred in St. Peter's Churchyard. Dallas County, Iowa, Dallas County, Missouri, and Dallas County, Texas, and several U.S. cities and towns elsewhere were named in his honor such as Dallas, Georgia, Dallas, North Carolina (the former county seat of Gaston County, North Carolina), Dallas, Oregon (the county seat of Polk County, Oregon) and Dallastown, Pennsylvania . (It is debated that the city of Dallas, Texas is named after the Vice President—see History of Dallas, Texas (1839-1855) for more information.)

Dallas is the great-great-granduncle of former U.S. Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, and was the uncle of George M. Bache and Alexander Dallas Bache.

Footnotes

References

• "George Mifflin Dallas." Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936.
• Hatfield, Mark O. George Mifflin Dallas. Vice-Presidents of the United States, 1789-1983. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. 1979.
• "George Mifflin Dallas, 11th Vice President (1845-1849)". United States Senate. http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_George_Dallas.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-03. 

External links

• George M. Dallas at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• A Series of Letters Written from London by George M. Dallas
• George M. Dallas at Find a Grave
• "Barnard, Isaac Dutton, (1791 - 1834)". United States Congress. http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B000154.