George Logan (September 9, 1753April 9, 1821) was an American physician, farmer, legislator and politician from

Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania Philadelphia County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the most populous county in Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, Philadelphia County had a population of 1,603,797. The county is the second smallest county in Pennsy ...

. He served in the Pennsylvania

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

and represented

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

Early life, education, and marriage

George Logan was born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

on September 9, 1753. He was the grandson of

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

's secretary James Logan. As a child, he was sent to England for schooling, and later his

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British C ...

family again sent him overseas when the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

broke out, this time to get medical training. He graduated from the

University of Edinburgh Medical School The University of Edinburgh Medical School (also known as Edinburgh Medical School) is the medical school of the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the United Kingdom and part of the University of Edinburgh College of Medicine and Veterinar ...

in 1779. He returned to the United States in 1780, and in 1781 he married Deborah Norris, who went on to become a noted historian and diarist. Two years later they moved into

Stenton Stenton ( sco, Staneton) is a parish and village in East Lothian, Scotland. It is bounded on the north by parts of the parishes of Prestonkirk and Dunbar, on the east by Spott and on the west by Whittingehame. The name is said to be of Saxon de ...

, a mansion built in the

Germantown Germantown or German Town may refer to: Places Australia * Germantown, Queensland, a locality in the Cassowary Coast Region United States * Germantown, California, the former name of Artois, a census-designated place in Glenn County * Ge ...

area of Philadelphia by James Logan that is now open to the public. Partly due to the demands of restoring and maintaining Stenton, Logan gave up his career as a physician and became a gentleman farmer and politician. At Stenton, the couple entertained a wide circle of politicians, artists, writers, and businesspeople, counting among their friends

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

and the painter

Charles Willson Peale Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) was an American Painting, painter, soldier, scientist, inventor, politician and naturalist. He is best remembered for his portrait paintings of leading figures of the American Revolu ...

. They were music lovers and had an admiration for many composers including

Haydn Franz Joseph Haydn ( , ; 31 March 173231 May 1809) was an Austrian composer of the Classical period. He was instrumental in the development of chamber music such as the string quartet and piano trio. His contributions to musical form have led ...

, Mozart,

Clementi Clementi may refer to: People * Aldo Clementi (1925–2011), Italian composer * Cecil Clementi (1875–1947), British colonial administrator and Governor of Hong Kong * Cecilia Clementi, Italian-American scientist * David Clementi (born 1949), B ...

and

Pleyel Ignace Joseph Pleyel (; ; 18 June 1757 – 14 November 1831) was an Austrian-born French composer, music publisher and piano builder of the Classical period. Life Early years He was born in in Lower Austria, the son of a schoolmaster named Ma ...

. The Logans had three sons, Albanus (1783–1854), Gustavus George (1786–1800), and Algernon Sydney (1791–1835).

Career

Despite his Loyalist background, Logan took part in the political life of the new United States. In 1785 he was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature, serving for four years; and he was elected for another term in the late 1790s. In 1790, he was disowned by the Society of Friends (Quakers) for having joined a militia, an activity wholly antithetical to the Quakers' pacifist views. A

Jeffersonian Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

, in 1793 he helped to found the

Democratic-Republican Societies Democratic-Republican Societies were local political organizations formed in the United States in 1793 and 1794 to promote republicanism and democracy and to fight aristocratic tendencies. They were independent of each other and had no coordinating ...

. That same year, Logan was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

. 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 The Quasi-War (french: Quasi-guerre) was an undeclared naval war fought from 1798 to 1800 between the United States and the French First Republic, primarily in the Caribbean and off the East Coast of the United States. The ability of Congress ...

. On his return, he found he had been denounced by the anti-Jeffersonian

Federalists The term ''federalist'' describes several political beliefs around the world. It may also refer to the concept of parties, whose members or supporters called themselves ''Federalists''. History Europe federation In Europe, proponents of de ...

, 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 1800, the year Jefferson was elected president, Logan was elected to the U.S. Senate for a six-year term. Logan's reputation was decidedly mixed. With reference to his political activities, he was called at various times a "busybody" and a "great fool", but Jefferson considered him "the best farmer in Pennsylvania, both in theory and practice." Logan died in 1821, and not long afterwards Deborah Logan wrote an account of his life under the title ''Memoir of Dr. George Logan of Stenton'', including excerpts from letters. It was published in 1899.

References

External links

Short article and portrait at "Discovering Lewis & Clark"
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Logan, George Alumni of the University of Edinburgh American diplomats Democratic-Republican Party United States senators Farmers from Pennsylvania Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Pennsylvania Democratic-Republicans People disowned by the Quakers Physicians from Pennsylvania United States senators from Pennsylvania 1753 births 1821 deaths

Early life, education, and marriage

Career

See also

References

Further reading

External links