Historical Society of Pennsylvania

LOGAN, George, a Senator from Pennsylvania; born at ‘Stenton,’ Philadelphia County, Pa., September 9, 1753; was sent to England for his schooling; returned to America and was apprenticed to a merchant; graduated in medicine from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1779; devoted himself to scientific farming; member, State house of representatives 1785-1789, 1795-1796, and 1799; went to France in 1798 to treat unofficially for a better understanding between the two Governments, which action was subsequently responsible for the passage of the so-called Logan Act in 1799, prohibiting a private citizen from undertaking diplomatic negotiations; appointed and subsequently elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Peter G. Muhlenberg and served from July 13, 1801, to March 3, 1807; declined to be a candidate for reelection; despite the Logan Act, went to England in 1810 on a private diplomatic mission as an emissary of peace, but was not successful; published several agricultural pamphlets; died at ‘Stenton,’ near Philadelphia, Pa., April 9, 1821; interment in the Logan Graveyard in Stenton Park, Philadelphia, Pa.