Editing George M. Dallas (section)

==Early legal, diplomatic and financial service==
[[File:Thomas Sully - George Mifflin Dallas, Class of 1810 (1792-1864) - PP188 - Princeton University Art Museum.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Portrait of Dallas by [[Thomas Sully]], 1810]]
As a new graduate, Dallas had little enthusiasm for legal practice; he wanted to fight in the [[War of 1812]], a plan that he dropped due to his father's objection.<ref name=USSBio/> Just after this, Dallas accepted an offer to be the private secretary of [[Albert Gallatin]], and he went to [[Russia]] with Gallatin who was sent there to try to secure its aid in peace negotiations between Great Britain and the United States.<ref name=USSBio/> Dallas enjoyed the opportunities offered to him by being in Russia, but after six months there he was ordered to go to [[London]] to determine whether the War of 1812 could be resolved diplomatically.<ref name=USSBio/> In August 1814, he arrived in [[Washington, D.C.]], and delivered a preliminary draft of Britain's peace terms.<ref name=USSBio/> There, he was appointed by James Madison to become the remitter of the treasury, which is considered a "convenient arrangement" because Dallas' father was serving at the time as that department's secretary.<ref name=USSBio/> Since the job did not entail a large workload, Dallas found time to develop his grasp of politics, his major vocational interest.<ref name=USSBio/> He later became the counsel to the [[Second Bank of the United States]].<ref name=USSBio/>  In 1817, Dallas' father died, ending Dallas' plan for a family law practice, and he stopped working for the Second Bank of the United States and became the deputy attorney general of Philadelphia, a position he held until 1820.<ref name=USSBio/>