page_title: Samuel Dexter
section_title: Congressional career
hierarchical_section_title: Samuel Dexter / Congressional career
caption_attribution_description: English: Engraved BEP portrait of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Samuel Dexter
context_page_description: Samuel Dexter was an early American statesman who served both in Congress and in the Presidential Cabinets of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.
context_section_description: 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. 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.
  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.
caption: Line engraving of Dexter from a US Treasury specimen book, c. 1902
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