What was the position of Samuel Dexter from Mar 1799 to May 1800?
Samuel Dexter Samuel Dexter ( May 14 , 1761May 4 , 1816 ) was an early American statesman who served both in Congress and in the Presidential Cabinets of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson . Early life and education . Born in Boston in the Province of Massachusetts Bay , to Samuel Dexter , a Massachusetts politician , he was the grandson of Samuel Dexter , the fourth minister of Dedham . He graduated from Harvard University in 1781 and then studied law at Worcester under Levi Lincoln Sr. , the future Attorney General of the United States . After he passed the bar in 1784 , he began practicing in Lunenburg , Massachusetts . Congressional career . He was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and served from 1788 to 1790 . He was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Federalist , serving in the 3rd Congress . He served in the United States Senate from March 4 , 1799 , to May 30 , 1800 ( the 6th Congress ) . 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 . Dexters 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 . In December 1799 , he wrote the Senate eulogy for George Washington . 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 John Adams . 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 . 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 Jeffersons term . In a letter to his wife on March 5 , 1801 , Gallatin said that Dexter had behaved with great civility . Later career . He returned to Boston in 1805 and resumed the practice of law . He left the Federalists and became a Democratic-Republican because he supported the War of 1812 . He was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1814 , 1815 and 1816 . 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 . Death and legacy . Dexter died on May 4 , 1816 , shortly before his 55th birthday and is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge , Massachusetts . Simon Newton Dexter and Andrew Dexter Jr . were his nephews . Samuel W . Dexter , founder of Dexter , Michigan , was his son . Samuel Dexter is the namesake of Dexter , Maine . The USRC Dexter ( 1830 ) was named in his honor . External links . Retrieved on 2009-5-20