Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/129

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DALLAS


DALLAS


delphia, but resigned the office upon his appoint- ment by the President as United States attorney lor the eastern district of Pennsylvania. In 1831 he was elected to the United States sen- ate for the unexpired term of Senator Barnard, resigned, and in that body he supported the recharter of the United States bank and a pro- tective tariff in obedience to the instructions of the legislature of Pennsylvania. He championed the confirmation of the appointment of Edward Livingston, nominated by the President as sec- retary of state and then before the senate and although the nomination had been opposed by Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, they both withdrew their objections upon hearing his arguments. Upon the expiration of his term, March S, 1838, he declined a re-election and accepted the posi- tion of attorney-general of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, proffered hina by Governor Wolf. In 1837 President Van Buren appointed him minister to Russia and at his own request he was recalled in ^1839. President Van Buren then offered him the attorney-generalship in his cabinet which he declined. In 1844 he was elected vice-president of the United States on the ticket with James K. Polk for President. As president of the senate he was called upon, by a tie vote, to decide the revenue policy of the government. His vote confirmed the act that was passed by the house of representa- tives, July 3, 1816, by a vote of 114 to 95, and drawn in accordance with the recommenda- tion of the President. By this vote he vio- lated ante-election pledges by which the vote of Pennsylvania had been secured for his part}^ In February, 1856, Mr. Dallas was ap- pointed by President Pierce U.S. 'minister to Great Britain to succeed his pol,itical rival, James Buchanan, and on the accession of the latter to the presidency in Mai'ch, 1857. Mr. Dallas's services were retained. The diplomatic questions, including the Central American ques- tion and the request for the withdrawal of Sir John Crampton as British minister to the United States, so carefully outlined by Mr. Buchanan, were carried out to his entire satisfaction by Mr. Dallas. In 1861, upon the appointment of Charles Francis Adams as U.S. minister bj^ Pres- ident Lincoln, Mr. Dallas returned to America where he used his voice and pen in opposing the act of secession. He was married to Sophia Chew Nicklin. The College of New Jersey con- ferred upon him the degree of LL.D. in 1854. Among his published speeches are: An Essay on the Expediency of Erecting any Monument to Wash- ington except that involved in the Preservation of the Union (1811); A Vindication of President 3Ionroe for Authorizing General Jackson to ptirsue the hostile Indians into Florida (1819) ; JSIullification and the


Tccriff (1831) ; Eulogy on Andrew Jackson (1845); Speech on giving his Casting Vote on the Tariff of 1846 (1846) ; Vindication of the Vice-PresidenV s casting vote, in a series of Letters (1846) ; speech at Pittsburgh on War, Slavery and the Tariff (1841) ; and a speech at Philadelphia on The Necessity of Maintaining the Union, the Constitution and the Compromise (1850). His daughter Julia edited and published in 1869 his Letters from London. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 31, 1864.

DALLAS, Trevanion Barlow, manufacturer, was born in Washington, D.C., Sept. 11, 1843; son of Com. 'Alexander J. and Mary Byrd (Willis) Dallas. His maternal great-grandfather, Dr. Barlow of the Church of England, was a distin- guished astronomer, and his great-grandfather was Sir Nicholas Trevanion of Cornwall. He was educated principally in Virginia and before the formation of a Confederacy he joined the forces of General Chase in Florida and was with the state troops who took possession of Forts Barrancas and McRae, Pensacola, in 1860. He then enlisted in the Confederate army as a private and was in the command under Gen. Braxton Bragg. He was one of the detail in the bloody night attack on Santa Rosa Island, and aftei'ward served in the battle of Shiloli. He was commis- sioned lieutenant of artillery, served in the army of Tennes- see, principally on staff duty, and sur- rendered as captain of artillery at Gi'eens boro, N.C. in 1865. He then visited £2/, ^ /^ O. /^ p» France as the guest OTT^/O iTiUU^d} of his aunt, Princess Murat, wife of Prince Achille, eldest son of the King of Naples and Caroline Bonaparte. While in Europe he acted in 1866 as a voluntary aide-de-camp in the Prus- sian army during the war between Prussia and Austria. He then engaged in banking in New York city and in Vii-ginia, and in 1869 entered the dry goods business in Nashville, Tenn. He after- ward became a cotton manufacturer at Nashville, Tenn., and at Huntsville, Ala. He was married. May 11, 1869, to Ella, daughter of Hugh Douglas of Nashville, Tenn. Their son, Hugh Douglas Dallas, became assistant treasurer of the Dallas manufacturing company Mrs. Dallas died in 1870 and Mr. Dallas was married, Jan. 18, 1876, to Ida, daughter of Dr. M. H. Bonner of Nash- ville. In 1899 his cotton mills operated 70,000 spindles and 2200 looms.