Dallas published edited reports of the first cases decided in the Supreme Court. He also published a pamphlet expressing opposition to Chief Justice John Jay’s Treaty of 1794 with Great Britain.

Educated at Edinburgh University, Dallas migrated to the United States and settled in Philadelphia in 1783. In 1793 he helped found the Pennsylvania Democratic Society and was an active politician, serving three consecutive terms as the secretary of state of Pennsylvania between 1791 and 1801. On March 10, 1801, President Thomas Jefferson appointed Dallas as the U.S. district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania, where he served for thirteen years and handled numerous cases.Reporters, Supreme CourtReporters, Supreme Court

While waiting for legal cases, Dallas edited the first reports of the Supreme Court and published four volumes of Reports of Cases, Adjudged in the Several Courts of the United States and of Pennsylvania Before and Following the Revolution, during the period from 1790 to 1807. Dallas was a strong opponent of Chief Justice John Jay’s TreatyJay’s Treaty of 1794 and published arguments against it in Features of Jay’s Treaty (1795). President James Madison appointed Dallas as the secretary of the treasury in 1814 at a critical juncture in government finance. Dallas restored public credit, advocated a national banking institution, which passed in 1816, and promoted a protective tariff.

Jay, John

Reporters, Supreme Court

Supreme Court Reporter

United States Reports