Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Dallas, George Mifflin

George Mifflin Dallas was born July 10, 1792, to statesman ALEXANDER JAMES DALLAS. He graduated from Princeton University in 1810 and was admitted to the bar three years later.

In 1813, statesman Albert Gallatin was dispatched to Russia for the purpose of securing Russian aid in negotiating an end to the WAR OF 1812 between the United States and Great Britain. Dallas performed the duties of secretary to Gallatin and was commissioned in 1814 by the American delegates at the Ghent Peace Conference to relay the terms of peace to the British.

Dallas returned to Philadelphia and served as deputy attorney general before becoming mayor in 1829 for a three-year period. He also acted as U.S. district attorney, and in 1831, he entered the federal government.

Dallas filled a vacancy in the U.S. Senate and represented Pennsylvania until 1833; in that same year, he...