Editing Samuel Dexter

{{Short description|American politician}}
{{about|the early American government official|his grandfather, the minister|Samuel Dexter (minister)|his father, the Massachusetts politician|Samuel Dexter (Massachusetts politician)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name          = Samuel Dexter
|image         = Samuel Dexter.jpg
|caption       = 
|office        = 3rd [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]]
|president     = [[John Adams]]<br />[[Thomas Jefferson]]
|term_start    = January 1, 1801
|term_end      = May 13, 1801
|predecessor   = [[Oliver Wolcott Jr.|Oliver Wolcott]]
|successor     = [[Albert Gallatin]]
|office1       = 4th [[United States Secretary of War]]
|president1    = John Adams
|term_start1   = June 1, 1800
|term_end1     = January 31, 1801
|predecessor1  = [[James McHenry]]
|successor1    = [[Henry Dearborn]]
|jr/sr2        = United States Senator
|state2        = [[Massachusetts]]
|term_start2   = March 4, 1799
|term_end2     = May 30, 1800
|predecessor2  = [[Theodore Sedgwick]]
|successor2    = [[Dwight Foster (1757–1823)|Dwight Foster]]
|state3        = Massachusetts
|district3     = {{ushr|MA|1|1st}}
|alongside3    = [[Fisher Ames]], [[Benjamin Goodhue]], and [[Samuel Holten]] ([[General Ticket]])
|term_start3   = March 4, 1793
|term_end3     = March 3, 1795
|predecessor3  = [[Fisher Ames]]
|successor3    = [[Theodore Sedgwick]]
|birth_date    = {{birth date|1761|5|14}}
|birth_place   = [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay|Massachusetts]], [[British America]]
|death_date    = {{death date and age|1816|5|4|1761|5|14}}
|death_place   = [[Athens, New York]], U.S.
|resting_place = [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]], [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
|party         = [[Federalist Party|Federalist]] (before 1812)<br />[[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]] (from 1812)
|education     = [[Harvard University]] {{small|([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])}}
|occupation    = Attorney
|spouse        = Katharine Gordon (m. 1786)
|children      = 4
|signature     = Samuel Dexter Signature.svg
|footnotes      = 
}}

[[File:Coat of Arms of Samuel Dexter.svg|upright|thumb|right|Coat of Arms of Samuel Dexter]]
'''Samuel Dexter''' (May 14, 1761{{spaced ndash}}May 4, 1816)<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://millercenter.org/president/jefferson/essays/dexter-1801-secretary-of-the-treasury|title=Samuel Dexter (1801)|date=October 4, 2016|website=Miller Center|language=en|access-date=December 3, 2019}}</ref> was an early [[United States|American]] statesman who served both in Congress and in the [[Cabinet of the United States|Presidential Cabinets]] of [[John Adams]] and [[Thomas Jefferson]]. A native of [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], Dexter was a 1781 graduate of [[Harvard College]]. After receiving his degree he [[reading law|studied law]], attained [[Admission to the bar in the United States|admission to the bar]] in 1784, and began to practice in [[Lunenburg, Massachusetts]].

A [[Federalist Party (United States)|Federalist]], Dexter served in the [[Massachusetts House of Representatives]] from 1788 to 1790. In 1792 he was elected to the [[United States House of Representatives]], and he served in the [[3rd United States Congress]]. The state legislature subsequently elected Dexter to the [[United States Senate]], and he served from March 1799 to May 1800. Dexter resigned his senate seat to accept appointment as the fourth [[United States Secretary of War]], and he served from 1800 to 1801. In January 1801, Dexter was appointed the third [[United States Secretary of the Treasury]], and he served until resigning in the day before his fortieth birthday.

After leaving office, Dexter practiced law in [[Washington, D.C.]] until he returned to Boston in 1805. Dexter joined the [[Democratic-Republican Party]] because of its support for the [[War of 1812]], and he was a candidate for [[Governor of Massachusetts|governor]] in 1814 and 1815. In 1815, Dexter declined President [[James Madison]]'s appointment as [[United States Ambassador to Spain|Minister to Spain]]. He was a candidate for governor again in 1816, but died on May 4, 1816, aged 54, while visiting his son in [[Athens, New York]]. Dexter was buried at [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].

== Early life and education ==

Born in [[Boston]] in the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], to [[Samuel Dexter (Massachusetts politician)|Samuel Dexter]], a Massachusetts politician and Hannah (Sigourney) Dexter. He was the grandson of [[Samuel Dexter (minister)|Samuel Dexter]], the fourth minister of [[Dedham, Massachusetts|Dedham]]. Dexter graduated from [[Harvard University]] in 1781 and then [[reading law|studied law]] in [[Worcester, Massachusetts|Worcester]] under [[Levi Lincoln Sr.]], the future [[Attorney General of the United States]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://history.army.mil/books/Sw-SA/Dexter.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100608152444/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Sw-SA/Dexter.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 8, 2010|title=Samuel Dexter|website=history.army.mil|access-date=December 3, 2019}}</ref> After he passed the bar in 1784, he began practicing in [[Lunenburg, Massachusetts|Lunenburg]], [[Massachusetts]].

== 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>

== Tenures as Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury ==
During his time at the War Department he urged congressional action to permit appointment and compensation of field officers for general staff duty.

When [[Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Oliver Wolcott Jr.]] resigned in December 1800, Adams appointed Dexter as interim secretary, and Dexter served from January to May 1801.<ref name=":0" /> With incoming President Thomas Jefferson wanting to delay his choice for Secretary of the Treasury, [[Albert Gallatin]], for a [[recess appointment]] in May, Dexter agreed to retain his duties as Secretary of the Treasury for the first two months of Jefferson's term.<ref>Dumas Malone, ''Jefferson The President: First Term, 1801-1805'', Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1970, pp. 34–36.</ref> In a letter to his wife on March 5, 1801, Gallatin said that Dexter had behaved "with great civility."<ref>Dumas Malone, ''Jefferson The President: First Term, 1801-1805'', Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1970, p. 36n.</ref>

== Later life ==
[[File:US-Fractional (4th Issue)-$0.50-Fr.1379.jpg|thumb|left|Dexter depicted on US [[fractional currency]]]]

He returned to Boston in 1805 and resumed the practice of law.<ref name=":0" /> He also invested in the [[Mother_Brook#Dedham_Manufacturing_Company|Dedham Manufacturing Company]].<ref>{{cite book | title = Mother Brook and the Mills of East Dedham | last = Neiswander | first = Judith | publisher = Damianos Publishing | year = 2024 | isbn = 978-1-941573-66-2|p=36}}</ref>

He left the Federalists and became a [[Democratic-Republican Party|Democratic-Republican]] because he supported the [[War of 1812]]. He was an unsuccessful candidate for [[Governor of Massachusetts]] in 1814, 1815 and 1816.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" />

Dexter was an ardent supporter of the [[temperance movement]] and presided over its first formal organization in [[Massachusetts]]. He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1800.<ref name="AAAS">{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter D|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterD.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=July 28, 2014}}</ref>

== Death and legacy ==
Dexter died at the age of fifty-four in [[Athens, New York]] on May 4, 1816, ten days shy of his fifty-fifth birthday. He was buried at [[Mount Auburn Cemetery]] in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].<ref name=":3" />

[[Simon Newton Dexter]] and [[Andrew Dexter Jr.]] were his nephews.

[[Samuel W. Dexter House#Samuel William Dexter|Samuel W. Dexter]], founder of [[Dexter, Michigan]], was his son.

Samuel Dexter is the namesake of [[Dexter, Maine]].<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n104 105]}}</ref> The [[USRC Dexter (1830)]] was named in his honor.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{CongBio|D000296}} Retrieved on 2009-5-20
*{{Find a Grave|6304729|access-date=May 20, 2009}}

{{Commons category|Samuel Dexter}}
{{Wikiquote|Samuel Dexter}}

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{{Federalist Party}}
{{USSenMA}}
{{MARepresentatives}}
{{USSecTreas}}
{{USSecArm}}
{{Adams cabinet}}
{{Jefferson cabinet}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dexter, Samuel}}
[[Category:1761 births]]
[[Category:1816 deaths]]
[[Category:Politicians from Boston]]
[[Category:Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery]]
[[Category:Federalist Party United States senators]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
[[Category:Jefferson administration cabinet members]]
[[Category:John Adams administration cabinet members]]
[[Category:Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives]]
[[Category:Members of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:United States secretaries of the treasury]]
[[Category:United States secretaries of war]]
[[Category:United States senators from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Politicians from Dedham, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Massachusetts Federalists]]
[[Category:Temperance activists from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Dexter, Maine]]
[[Category:Lawyers from Dedham, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:18th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:18th-century members of the United States House of Representatives]]
[[Category:18th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court]]
[[Category:19th-century United States government officials]]
[[Category:Candidates in the 1796 United States elections]]