George Logan (September 9, 1753April 9, 1821) was an American medical doctor, farmer, legislator and politician from Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. He served in the Pennsylvania state legislature and represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate.

Early life, education, and marriage

George Logan was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 9, 1753.

As a child, he was sent to England for schooling, and later his Loyalist family again sent him overseas when the American Revolution broke out, this time to get medical training. An accomplished farmer, he was also a founder of the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Agriculture.

In 1798, he went to Paris to negotiate peace with the French to settle the Quasi-War. On his return, he found he had been denounced by the anti-Jeffersonian Federalists, who had passed a statute informally known as the "Logan Act", which made it a crime for an individual citizen to interfere in a dispute between the United States and a foreign country.

In 1801, as Jefferson's presidency began, Logan ran for the open U.S. Senate seat previously held by William Bingham, who was retiring. He narrowly lost to Peter Muhlenberg. However, when Muhlenberg resigned in June of that year, Logan ran for the seat once again and won overwhelmingly against congressman Joseph Hiester.

Logan's reputation was mixed. With reference to his political activities, he was called at various times a "busybody" and a "great fool",

Further reading

  • Logan, Deborah Norris. Memoir of Dr. George Logan of Stenton. Frances A. Logan, ed. Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1899. (Modern reprint by Kessinger Publishing, .)
  • Tolles, Frederick B. George Logan of Philadelphia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1953.
  • Tolles, Frederick B. "Unofficial Ambassador: George Logan's Mission to France, 1798." William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 7 (1950): pp. 1–25.
  • Short article and portrait at "Discovering Lewis & Clark"