Alexander James Dallas

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Alexander James Dallas

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Alexander James Dallas , 1759-1817, U.S. secretary of the treasury (1814-16), b. Jamaica, West Indies. He went (1783) to Philadelphia, practiced law, and was secretary of state (1791-1801) and U.S. district attorney (1801-14) in Pennsylvania. Appointed secretary of the treasury by President Madison , Dallas succeeded to the office near the close of the War of 1812, when treasury affairs were in an extremely critical conditon. He pushed Congress to levy taxes heavier than any previously borne in the United States and asked for the reestablishment of the Bank of the United States . Under Dallas's administration confidence in U.S. currency was restored. After securing Madison's veto on the first bank bill, which did not suit him, Dallas largely dictated the second bill, which John C. Calhoun forced through Congress; it became law in 1816.

Bibliography: See biographies by his son George Mifflin Dallas (1871) and R. Walters, Jr. (1943, repr. 1969).

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Dallas, Alexander James

The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States | 2005 | | © The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States 2005, originally published by Oxford University Press 2005. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Dallas, Alexander James (b. Kingston, Jamaica, 21 June 1759; d. Philadelphia, Pa., 16 Jan. 1817), first Supreme Court reporter, 1791–1800. Dallas's reportership was purely an entrepreneurial venture. Even before the Court's 1791 arrival in Philadelphia, he had published reports of state cases in periodicals and in a single bound volume. Hence 1 Dallas, now 1 United States Reports, contains no Supreme Court matter. Three more volumes followed, chronicling the Court's first decisions, from August term 1791 through its final activities in Philadelphia in August term 1800.

We owe much to Dallas for recognizing the need for Supreme Court reports, thereby in theory making the decisions of the new nation's highest court available to judges, lawyers, and citizens. Apart from his Reports, the Court's rulings could be known only through correspondence, word of mouth, and occasional newspaper accounts.

The execution of Dallas's self‐appointed task was marked, however, by delay, expense, omission, and questionable accuracy. In fairness, he faced formidable obstacles. Lack of government funding forced selective reporting, reflecting purchasers' unwillingness to finance fuller reports. Likewise, because the Court had no requirement of written decisions and Dallas's practice precluded constant attendance at its proceedings, he often relied on others' notes.

The results were uneven. Five years elapsed between Chisholm v. Georgia (1793), the last Supreme Court decision recorded in 2 Dallas, and publication of that volume; between Dallas's retirement as reporter and publication of 4 Dallas, seven years passed. Buyers complained of the volumes' price. Barely half of the Court's dispositions during its first decade were reported, and accounts of many cases, including Ware v. Hylton (1796), contain matter clearly not the justices' own.

Dallas left things better than he found them, but both he and the Court were disappointed in comparing aspiration with accomplishment. “I have found such miserable encouragement for my Reports,” he wrote upon relinquishing the reportership, “that I have determined to call them all in, and devote them to the rats in the State‐House.”

See also Reporters, Supreme Court.

Bibliography

Morris L. Cohen and and Sharon Hamby O'Connor , A Guide to the Early Reports of the Supreme Court of the United States (1995), pp. 11–22.
Craig Joyce , The Rise of the Supreme Court Reporter: An Institutional Perspective on Marshall Court Ascendancy, Michigan Law Review 83 (1985): 1291–1391.
Sandra Day O'Connor , The Supreme Court Reports, in The Majesty of the Law, edited by Craig Joyce (2003), pp. 24–30.

Craig Joyce

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KERMIT L. HALL. "Dallas, Alexander James." The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States. Oxford University Press. 2005. Retrieved November 12, 2009 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O184-DallasAlexanderJames.html

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