George M. Dallas: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Vice presidentPresident of the United States from 1845 to 1849}}

| image = George MifflinM Dallas 1848 crop.pngjpg

| birth_place = [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], USU.S.

| death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USU.S.

| father parents = {{ubl|[[Alexander J. Dallas (statesman)|Alexander J. Dallas]]|Arabella Smith}}

'''George Mifflin Dallas''' (July 10, 1792 – December 31, 1864) was an American politician and diplomat who served as [[mayor of Philadelphia]] from 1828 to 1829, the 11th [[Vice President of the United States|vice president of the United States]] from 1845 to 1849, and [[United States Minister to the United Kingdom|U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom]] from 1856 to 1861. Dallas was a son of [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury Secretary]] [[Alexander J. Dallas (statesman)|Alexander J. Dallas]], and studied law in his father's office and was admitted to the bar in 1813. He served as the private secretary to [[Albert Gallatin]] and worked for the Treasury Department and the [[Second Bank of the United States]]. He emerged as a leader of the Family Party faction of the [[Pennsylvania]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. Dallas developed a rivalry with [[James Buchanan]], the leader of the Amalgamator faction. Between 1828 and 1835, he served as the mayor of [[Philadelphia]], [[United States Attorney|U.S. attorney]] for the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania|U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania]] and as Pennsylvania's attorney general. He also represented Pennsylvania in the [[United States Senate]] from 1831 to 1833 but declined to seek re-election. President [[Martin Van Buren]] appointed Dallas to the post of [[List of ambassadors of the United States to Russia|Minister to Russia]], and Dallas held that position from 1837 to 1839.

Dallas was born in [[Philadelphia]] on July 10, 1792, to [[Alexander J. Dallas (statesman)|Alexander James Dallas]] and Arabella Maria Smith Dallas.<ref name=USSBio/> His father, of Scottish descent,<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l0LAOkIqQH0C&dq=george+M.+Dallas+scotland&pg=PA710 | isbn=978-1-61640-070-5 | title=The Universal Dictionary of Biography and Mythology: Clu-hys | date=January 2010 | publisher=Cosimo }}</ref> born in [[Kingston, Jamaica|Kingston]], Jamaica, to Dr. Robert Dallas and educated in [[Edinburgh]], was the [[United States Secretary of the Treasury|Secretary of the Treasury]] under [[United States President]] [[James Madison]], and was also briefly the [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]].<ref name=USSBio>{{cite web | title = George Mifflin Dallas, 11th Vice President (1845–1849) | url = https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_George_Dallas.htm}}</ref> Dr Dallas left Jamaica in 1764, having mortgaged his estate, Dallas Castle, and put it in a trust. This property included 900 acres and 91 slaves.<ref>Ashcroft, Michael (1975). "Robert Charles Dalles identified as the author of an anonymous book about Jamaica". ''Jamaica Journal''. 9 (1): 94–101.</ref><ref>University College London, ''Legacies of British Slave-Ownership'' https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146651101 Retrieved 10 November 2020.</ref> George Dallas was given his middle name after [[Thomas Mifflin]], another politician who was good friends with his father.<ref name=Belohlavek109>Belohlavek. "George Mifflin Dallas", p. 109.</ref>

Dallas was the second of six children,<ref name=USSBio/> another of whom, [[Alexander J. Dallas (United States Navy officer)|Alexander]], would become the commander of [[Pensacola Navy Yard]]. During Dallas's childhood, the family lived in a mansion on Fourth Street, with a second home in the countryside, situated on the [[Schuylkill River]]. He was educated privately at Quaker-run [[University-preparatory school|preparatory schools]], before studying at the College of New Jersey (now [[Princeton University]]), from which he graduated with highest honors in 1810.<ref name=Belohlavek109/> While at College, he participated in several activities, including the [[American Whig–Cliosophic Society]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://theprince.princeton.edu/princetonperiodicals/cgi-bin/princetonperiodicals?a=d&d=Princetonian19750725-01.2.174&srpos=7&e=-------en-20--1--txt-IN-dallas----# |title=Daily Princetonian – Special Class of 1979 Issue 25 July 1975 — Princeton Periodicals |publisher=Theprince.princeton.edu |date=1975-07-25 |access-date=2013-04-19}}</ref> Afterwards, he [[reading law|studied law]] in his father's office, and he was [[Admission to the bar in the United States|admitted to the bar]] in 1813.<ref name=USSBio/>

As a new graduate, Dallas had little enthusiasm for legal practice; he wanted to fight in the [[War of 1812]], a plan that he dropped due to his father's objection.<ref name=USSBio/> 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.<ref name=USSBio/> 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.<ref name=USSBio/> In August 1814, he arrived in [[Washington, D.C.]], and delivered a preliminary draft of Britain's peace terms.<ref name=USSBio/> 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.<ref name=USSBio/> Since the job did not entail a large workload, Dallas found time to develop his grasp of politics, his major vocational interest.<ref name=USSBio/> He later became the counsel to the [[Second Bank of the United States]].<ref name=USSBio/> 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.<ref name=USSBio/>

Dallas resumed the practice of law, was attorney general of Pennsylvania from 1833 to 1835, was initiated to the [[Scottish Rite Freemasonry]] at the [[Benjamin Franklin|Franklin]] [[Masonic Lodge|Lodge]] #134, Pennsylvania,<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.matawanlodge.org/famous.htm | title = Celebrating more than 100 years of the Freemasonry: famous Freemasons in the history | language = en | website = Mathawan Lodge No 192 F.A. & A.M., New Jersey | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080510153526/http://www.matawanlodge.org/famous.htm | archive-date = 10 May 2008 | url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | author = Berre Heleen | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=U3JDAQAAMAAJ&q=freemasonry+%22George+M.+Dallas%22&pg=PA576 | title = Journal | volume = 47 (Part 2) | pages = 576–577 | isbn = 978-1847245748 | oclc = 145380045 | language = en | access-date = 24 Oct 2018 | quotation = Report attempting upon the account of George M. Dallas, a witness attending before the committed appointed to inquire into the evils of Freemasonry, at the session of 1835-1836. | archive-url = https://archive.today/2018.10.24-19105320181024191053/https://www.abebooks.it/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=22839726277&searchurl=tn%3DJournal%26sortby%3D20&cm_sp=snippet-_-srp1-_-title1#v=onepage&q=freemasonry%20%22George%20M.%20Dallas%22&f=false | archive-date = 24 October 2018 | url-status = live | year = 1837 }}</ref> and served as the Grand Master of [[Freemasons]] in Pennsylvania in 1835.<ref name="Ref_a">{{cite web |url=http://www.pagrandlodge.org/gmaster/history/1835dallas027.html |title=George Mifflin Dallas – 1835 |publisher=Pagrandlodge.org |access-date=2013-04-19 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716211931/http://www.pagrandlodge.org/gmaster/history/1835dallas027.html |archive-date=2012-07-16 }}</ref> 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 offered the role of Attorney General, but declined, and resumed his legal practice.<ref name="senate" /> In the lead-up to the [[1844 United States presidential election|1844 presidential election]], Dallas worked to help Van Buren win the Democratic nomination over Dallas's fellow Pennsylvanian, [[James Buchanan]].<ref name="senate" />

At the May [[1844 Democratic National Convention]] in [[Baltimore]], [[James K. Polk]] and [[Silas Wright]] were nominated as the Democratic ticket. However, Wright declined the nomination, and the delegates chose Dallas as his replacement. Dallas, who was not at the convention, was awakened at his home by convention delegates who had traveled to Philadelphia to tell him the news. Dallas somewhat reluctantly accepted the nomination. The Democratic candidates won the popular vote by a margin of 1.5%, and won the election with an electoral vote of 170 out of 275.<ref name="senate" />

Dallas was influential as the presiding officer of the Senate, where he worked to support Polk's agenda and cast several tie-breaking votes. He called for the annexation of all of the Oregon Territory and all of Mexico during the Mexican–American War, but was satisfied with compromises that saw the United States annex parts of both areas. Though Dallas was unsuccessful in preventing Polk from appointing Buchanan as Secretary of State, he helped convince Polk to appoint Robert J. Walker as Secretary of the Treasury. As vice president, Dallas sought to maneuver himself into contention for the presidency in the 1848 election, as Polk had promised to serve only one term. However, Dallas's reluctant vote to lower a tariff destroyed much of his base in Pennsylvania, and his advocacy of popular sovereignty on the question of slavery strengthened opposition against him.Could you please improve it?

===Tariffs===

Despite Dallas's efforts to avoid taking a stand, the Senate completed its voting on the Walker Tariff with a 27-to-27 tie. (A twenty-eighth vote in favor was held in reserve by a senator who opposed the measure but agreed to follow the instructions of his state legislature to support it.) When he cast the tie-breaking vote in favor of the tariff on July 28, 1846, Dallas rationalized that he had studied the distribution of Senate support and concluded that backing for the measure came from all regions of the country. Additionally, the measure had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives, a body closer to public sentiment. He apprehensively explained to the citizens of Pennsylvania that "an officer, elected by the suffrages of all twenty-eight states, and bound by his oath and every constitutional obligation, faithfully and fairly to represent, in the execution of his high trust, all the citizens of the Union" could not "narrow his great sphere and act with reference only to [Pennsylvania's] interests." While his action, based on a mixture of party loyalty and political opportunism, earned Dallas the respect of the president and certain party leaders—and possible votes in 1848 from the southern and western states that supported low tariffs—it effectively demolished his home state political base, ending any serious prospects for future elective office. (He even advised his wife in a message hand-delivered by the Senate Sergeant at Arms, "If there be the slightest indication of a disposition to riot in the city of Philadelphia, owing to the passage of the Tariff Bill, pack up and bring the whole brood to Washington.")

While Dallas's tariff vote destroyed him in Pennsylvania, his aggressive views on Oregon and the Mexican War crippled his campaign efforts elsewhere in the nation. In his last hope of building the necessary national support to gain the White House, the Vice President shifted his attention to the aggressive, expansionist foreign policy program embodied in the concept of "Manifest Destiny". He actively supported efforts to gain control of Texas, the Southwest, Cuba, and disputed portions of the Oregon territory.<ref name="senate" />

Dallas was influential as the presiding officer of the Senate, where he worked to support Polk's agenda and cast several [[List of tie-breaking votes cast by Vice Presidents of the United States|tie-breaking votes]]. Dallas called for the annexation of all of the [[Oregon Territory]] and [[All of Mexico Movement|all of]] Mexico during the [[Mexican–American War]], but was satisfied with compromises that saw the United States annex parts of both areas. Though Dallas was unsuccessful in preventing Polk from appointing Buchanan as Secretary of State, he helped convince Polk to appoint [[Robert J. Walker]] as Secretary of the Treasury. As vice president, Dallas sought to maneuver himself into contention for the presidency in the [[1848 United States presidential election|1848 election]], as Polk had promised to serve only one term. However, Dallas's reluctant vote to lower a tariff destroyed much of his base in Pennsylvania, and Dallas's advocacy of [[popular sovereignty]] on the question of slavery strengthened opposition against him.

In 1856, [[Franklin Pierce]] appointed Dallas minister to Great Britain, and he served in that post from February 4, 1856, until the appointment by President Lincoln of [[Charles Francis Adams Sr.|Charles F. Adams]], who relieved him on May 16, 1861. At the very beginning of his diplomatic service in [[England]], he was called to act upon the Central American question and the request made by the United States to the British government that [[Sir John Crampton, 2nd Baronet|Sir John Crampton]], the British minister to the United States, should be recalled. Dallas managed these delicate questions in a conciliatory spirit, but without any sacrifice of national dignity, and both were settled amicably. In 1859, following the USU.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the [[Dred Scott]] decision, Dallas refused [[Frederick Douglass]] a passport, on the grounds that Douglass was not a citizen; decades later, in [[Life and Times of Frederick Douglass]], Douglass remarked "This man is now dead and generally forgotten... but I have lived to see myself everywhere recognized as an American citizen." At the close of his diplomatic career, Dallas returned to private life and took no further part in public affairs except to express condemnation of secession.<ref name="senate">{{cite web|title=George Mifflin Dallas, 11th Vice President (1845–1849)|url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_George_Dallas.htm|work=U.S. Senate: Art & History Home|publisher=Library of Congress|access-date=10 October 2012}}</ref>

Dallas returned to [[Philadelphia]], where he lived until his death from a [[heart attack]] on Saturday, December 31, 1864, at the age of 72.<ref name=Belohlavek118>Belohlavek, "George Mifflin Dallas", p. 118.</ref> He is interred at [[St. Peter's Episcopal Church (Philadelphia)|St. Peter's Episcopal]] churchyard in Philadelphia.{{citation needed|date=November 2024}}

[[Dallas County, Iowa]],<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=7266 |title= Profile for Dallas County, Iowa, IA|publisher= ePodunk|access-date= September 2, 2012}}</ref> and one of its cities, [[Dallas Center, Iowa]],<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.city-data.com/city/Dallas-Center-Iowa.html|title= Dallas Center, Iowa|publisher= City-Data.com|access-date= 2 September 2012}}</ref> were named after the Vice President. InHe addition,is also the namesake of [[Dallas County, Arkansas]], [[Dallas County, Missouri]],<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=20229 |title= Profile for Dallas County, Missouri MO|publisher= ePodunk|access-date= September 2, 2012}}</ref> and [[Dallas County, Texas]],<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=22632 |title= Profile for Dallas County, Texas, TX|publisher= ePodunk|access-date= 2 September 2012}}</ref> were named in his honor.

Other U.S. cities and towns named in Dallas's honor include [[Dallas, Georgia]] (the county seat of [[Paulding County, Georgia]]),<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=7896 |title= Profile for Dallas, Georgia, GA|publisher= ePodunk|access-date= 2 September 2012}}</ref> [[Dallas, North Carolina]] (the former county seat of [[Gaston County, North Carolina]]),<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=19235 |title= Profile for Dallas, North Carolina, NC|publisher= ePodunk|access-date= 2 September 2012|archive-date= 30 January 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130130020741/http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=19235|url-status= dead}}</ref> [[Dallas, Oregon]] (the county seat of [[Polk County, Oregon]])<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=15237 |title= Profile for Dallas, Oregon, OR|publisher= ePodunk|access-date= 2 September 2012}}</ref> and [[Dallastown, Pennsylvania]],<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=13813|title= Profile for Dallastown, Pennsylvania, PA|publisher= ePodunk|access-date= 2 September 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170701025525/http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=13813|archive-date= 1 July 2017|url-status= dead}}</ref> It is debated whether the ''city'' of [[Dallas|Dallas, Texas]], is named after the Vice President—see ''[[History of Dallas, Texas (1839–1855)]]'' for more information.

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