Background
Logan, George was born on September 9, 1753 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of William and Hannah (Emlen) Logan.
Diplomat farmer physician politician senator
Logan, George was born on September 9, 1753 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of William and Hannah (Emlen) Logan.
He graduated from the University of Edinburgh Medical School in 1779.
He served in the Pennsylvania state legislature and represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate. 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. Two years later they moved into Stenton, a mansion built in the Germantown 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.
The Logans had three sons, Albanus (1783-1854), Gustavus George (1786-1800), and Algernon Sydney (1791-1835). In 1785 he was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature, serving for four years.
And he was elected for another term in the late 1790s. A Jeffersonian Republican, in 1793 he helped to found the Democratic-Republican Societies.
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 Acting", 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 United States. 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 Doctor George Logan of Stenton, including excerpts from letters.
lieutenant was published in 1899.
Despite his Loyalist background, Logan was able to take part in the political life of the new United States.
Member American Philosophical Society, 1793. Member United States Senate from Pennsylvania, 1801-1807.
Married Deborah Norris, September 6, 1781, 3 children.