Editing Samuel Dexter (section)

== Congressional career ==
[[File:DEXTER, Samuel-Treasury (BEP engraved portrait).jpg|thumb|left|[[Line engraving]] of Dexter from a [[US Treasury specimen book]], {{circa|1902}}]]

He was elected to the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]] and served from 1788 to 1790.<ref name=":0" /> He was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]] as a [[Federalist Party|Federalist]], serving in the [[3rd United States Congress|3rd Congress]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000296|title=DEXTER, Samuel - Biographical Information|website=bioguide.congress.gov|access-date=December 3, 2019}}</ref> He served in the [[United States Senate]] from March 4, 1799, to May 30, 1800 (the [[6th United States Congress|6th Congress]]).<ref name=":3">''History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives,'' “DEXTER, Samuel,” https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/D/DEXTER,-Samuel-(D000296)/  (December 3, 2019)</ref> Between his terms in Congress, he unsuccessfully ran in the [[Massachusetts's 9th congressional district|9th congressional district]] in 1796.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A New Nation Votes |url=https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/gq67jr42b |access-date=2024-12-26 |website=elections.lib.tufts.edu}}</ref>

During a House discussion on a Naturalization Bill in 1795, Virginia Representative [[William Branch Giles]] controversially suggested that all immigrants be forced to take an oath renouncing any titles of nobility they previously held. Dexter responded by questioning why Catholics were not required to denounce allegiance to the Pope, because priestcraft had initiated more problems throughout history than aristocracy. Dexter's points caused an infuriated James Madison to defend American Catholics, many of whom, such as [[Charles Carroll of Carrollton]], had been good citizens during the American Revolution, and to point out that hereditary titles were barred under the Constitution in any event.<ref>Irving Brant, ''James Madison: Father of the constitution, 1787-1800'', Indianapolis, Ind. and New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1950, pp. 420–21.</ref>

In December 1799, he wrote the Senate [[eulogy]] for [[George Washington]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Elizabeth Bryant |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=olsSAAAAYAAJ |title=George Washington Day by Day |publisher=Cycle Publishing Company |year=1895 |page=188 |access-date=July 23, 2019 }}</ref> Dexter served in the Senate for less than a year, and resigned in order to accept his appointment as [[United States Secretary of War]] in the administration of [[President of the United States|President]] [[John Adams]].<ref>{{Cite web|title = 1787: From the Senate to the Cabinet, May 13, 1800|url = https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/From_the_Senate_to_the_Cabinet.htm|website = United States Senate|access-date = July 23, 2019}}</ref>