Albert Gallatin

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin

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Albert Gallatin, portrait by Rembrandt Peale, 1805; in Independence National Historical Park,
(click to enlarge)
Albert Gallatin, portrait by Rembrandt Peale, 1805; in Independence National Historical Park, (credit: Courtesy of the Independence National Historical Park Collection, Philadelphia)
(born Jan. 29, 1761, Geneva, Switz.died Aug. 12, 1849, Astoria, N.Y., U.S.) U.S. secretary of the treasury (180114). At 19 he immigrated to Pennsylvania, where he became successful in business and finance. Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1795, he inaugurated the House Committee on Finance, a forerunner of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. As secretary of the treasury he reduced the national debt by $23 million. He opposed the War of 1812 and was instrumental in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent in 1814. After serving as minister to France (181623) and to Britain (182627), he was president of the National (later Gallatin) Bank in New York City (183139).

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Swiss-born Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) was U.S. secretary of the Treasury, as well as a diplomat, banker, and ethnographer.

Albert Gallatin was born in Geneva, Switzerland, on Jan. 29, 1761. His father was a prosperous merchant descended from an aristocratic family long politically prominent. Orphaned at the age of 9, Gallatin grew up in the home of a relative. He graduated from the Academy of Geneva in 1779. A young man of the age of the Enlightenment, he was sympathetic to the American Revolution and sailed for America in 1780, happy to be in "the freest country in the universe."

After a winter as a merchant in Maine, and a brief time with the colonial militia, Gallatin tutored in French in Boston in 1781. In 1782 he was appointed a tutor at Harvard College.

In 1783 Gallatin and a Frenchman planned to purchase western land and located an area in Virginia. Gallatin carried out surveying, mapped the interior, and registered land titles until an Indian uprising forced him to retreat. He took an oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1785.

Early Political Career

In 1786 Gallatin bought a 400-acre farm in western Pennsylvania and devoted himself to farming and land development. But his training and talents were unusual on the frontier, and he quickly became a political leader. In 1788 he was elected as a delegate to a meeting to propose amendments to the new U.S. Constitution. In 1789 he attended the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention. He was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature in 1790 and reelected the next 2 years. Quickly establishing a reputation for hard work and integrity, Gallatin became a skillful and logical orator. His greatest contribution came in the field of public finance. In 1793 he was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican.

However, when Gallatin took his Senate seat, the Federalists challenged his eligibility, based on the fact that he had not applied for citizenship early enough to meet technical citizenship requirements. The Senate ruled against him, and Gallatin returned to Pennsylvania, where the new excise tax on whiskey stills had stirred up the rioting known as the Whiskey Rebellion. Though he opposed the tax, Gallatin also opposed violence and tried to moderate the local militia's use of force. He was largely responsible for persuading his comrades to submit to the new law.

Elected to Congress

Meanwhile, Gallatin had been elected to Congress again. He entered the House of Representatives in 1795 and became the most knowledgeable Republican on public finance. He proposed creation of the Ways and Means Committee - Congress's first permanent standing committee - to receive financial reports from the secretary of the Treasury and to superintend government finances. His A Sketch of the Finances of the United States (1796), a moderate, detailed analysis of the Federalist financial program, argued that a public debt was a public curse. Because the debt had grown since 1790, he proposed several new measures.

When James Madison retired in 1797, Gallatin became the Republican spokesman in the House. He opposed the Federalists' warlike measures against France and, when the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) to silence domestic political opposition, he resisted with powerful arguments defending basic civil liberties.

Secretary of the Treasury

With Thomas Jefferson's presidency in 1800 and the triumph of the Republicans, Gallatin was named to head the Treasury Department. He held this position longer than had any other secretary of the Treasury, serving from 1801 to 1814. Pledged to reduce the national debt and eliminate the excise tax, he projected a plan to pay off the debt by 1817, outlined proposals for appropriations for specified purposes, advocated promotion of manufacturing, and argued for constructing a nationwide network of roads and canals with Federal aid.

For 6 years Gallatin's policies worked. But after 1807 the Embargo Act and other American efforts at peaceful coercion to avoid involvement in the Napoleonic Wars wrecked his policies. Although Gallatin favored rechartering the Bank of the United States in 1811, Congress refused, and America entered the War of 1812 with its monetary system in disarray. The war dealt the final blow to Gallatin's financial system.

Diplomatic Career

President Madison granted Gallatin leave from the Treasury to join John Quincy Adams and James A. Bayard in exploring Russia's offer to mediate in the war. When Great Britain rejected this offer, Madison appointed Gallatin to the commission to negotiate directly with Britain. He became its most influential member. Adams, not much given to praise, rated him as the leading negotiator on both sides. Historian Henry Adams labeled the Treaty of Ghent "the special and peculiar triumph of Mr. Gallatin."

Gallatin continued in diplomatic service for most of the next decade. He served as American minister to France (1816-1823). In 1818 he joined Richard Rush in London to work out a treaty extending earlier commercial agreements, securing American fishing rights off Newfoundland, drawing the northern boundary between Canada and the United States at the 49th parallel, and leaving the Oregon Territory open for joint occupation.

In 1823 Gallatin returned to the United States. Nominated for vice president on the Republican ticket headed by William H. Crawford, he withdrew when Crawford's manager attempted to substitute Henry Clay as the vice-presidential candidate. After Gallatin spent an interlude as a gentleman farmer, President John Quincy Adams appointed him minister to Great Britain in 1826. Gallatin's public career ended with his final report relating to the Maine boundary dispute.

Late Career

Settling in New York, Gallatin served as president of the National Bank from 1831 until his retirement in 1839. He unsuccessfully supported renewal of the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, but he was instrumental in obtaining the resumption of specie payments after their suspension following the economic panic of 1837. Although he criticized high tariffs and advocated free trade, he affirmed Congress's right to levy protective tariffs.

In his last years Gallatin was prominent in cultural affairs. He became president of New York University's council in 1830. In 1836 he was elected to the American Antiquarian Society, and in 1843 he headed the New York Historical Society. However, he devoted most of his attention to the ethnology of the American Indian and founded the American Ethnological Society in 1842.

In 1789 Gallatin had married Sophia Allegre, who died 5 months later. He married Hannah Nicholson in 1793, and they had two sons and three daughters. Gallatin died on Aug. 13, 1849.

Further Reading

A good biography of Gallatin is Raymond Walters, Jr., Albert Gallatin: Jeffersonian Financier and Diplomat (1957), though the older study by Henry Adams, The Life of Albert Gallatin (1879), remains useful. Special studies include Frederick Merk, Albert Gallatin and the Oregon Problem: A Study in Anglo-American Diplomacy (1950); Leonard D. White, The Jeffersonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1801-1829 (1951); and Alexander Balinsky, Albert Gallatin: Fiscal Theories and Policies (1958).

Additional Sources

Adams, Henry, Albert Gallatin, New York: Chelsea House, 1983.

Aitken, Thomas, Albert Gallatin: early America's Swiss-born statesman, New York: Vantage Press, 1985.

Gallatin, James, The diary of James Gallatin, secretary to Albert Gallatin, a great peace maker, 1813-1827, West Port, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979, 1916.

Kuppenheimer, L. B., Albert Gallatin's vision of democratic stability: an interpretive profile, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1996.

Columbia Encyclopedia:

Albert Gallatin

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Gallatin, Albert (găl'ətĭn), 1761-1849, American financier and public official, b. Geneva, Switzerland. Left an orphan at nine, Gallatin was reared by his patrician relatives and had an excellent education. He emigrated to the United States in 1780 and later settled (1784) in W Pennsylvania. A member of the Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1789-90, he also served in the state legislature from 1790 to 1792. Although elected U.S. Senator in 1793, he was deprived (1794) of his office by the Federalist-controlled Senate, which claimed he had not been a citizen long enough to hold a seat. Returning to Pennsylvania, his statesmanlike efforts helped restrain the Western farmers in the Whiskey Rebellion (1794), although Gallatin himself opposed the tax on whiskey. As a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (1795-1801), Gallatin became a recognized leader of the Republican (Jeffersonian) minority and was active in advocating financial reform and in opposing war with France. His demand that the Treasury Dept. be accountable to Congress led to the creation of a standing committee on finance in the House (later the Ways and Means Committee). As Secretary of the Treasury under President Jefferson, Gallatin undertook to change aspects of the country's financial policy from Federalist to Jeffersonian principles, and he reduced the country's debt despite the war against the Barbary States and the Louisiana Purchase. Continuing in office under President Madison, he helped to curtail appropriations for the armed forces and opposed the war hawks prior to the War of 1812 because he believed that federal money should go toward realizing the democratic vision of a broadly expanding internal economy. His fiscal accomplishments were virtually destroyed by the Embargo Act of 1807 and the War of 1812. Gallatin left the Treasury Dept. to undertake a diplomatic mission in 1813. He was a key figure in negotiating the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the war with Great Britain. He later served as minister to France (1816-23) and to Great Britain (1826-27). Greatly interested in the Native Americans, Gallatin wrote papers on them and was responsible for founding the American Ethnological Society in 1842. Gallatin's eclectic financial policies-although a Jeffersonian he was a supporter of the Bank of the United States-have been widely praised by conservatives and liberals alike; he was one of the most brilliant and successful of Jeffersonian statesmen.

Bibliography

See biographies by R. Walters, Jr. (1957, repr. 1969), F. E. Ewing (1959), and N. Dungan (2010).

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(1761-1849)

1836Synopsis of the Indian Tribes Within the United States, East of the Rocky Mountains and in the British and Russian Possessions in North America. The most important work of the frontier political leader, it earns Gallatin a reputation as "the father of American ethnology."

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Albert Gallatin
4th United States Secretary of the Treasury
In office
May 14, 1801 – February 8, 1814
President Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
Preceded by Samuel Dexter
Succeeded by George W. Campbell
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Pennsylvania's 12th district
In office
March 4, 1795 – March 4, 1801
Preceded by William Findley
Succeeded by William Hoge
United States Senator
from Pennsylvania
In office
December 2, 1793 – February 28, 1794
Preceded by William Maclay
Succeeded by James Ross
Personal details
Born January 29, 1761(1761-01-29)
Geneva, Switzerland
Died August 12, 1849(1849-08-12) (aged 88)
Astoria, New York, U.S.
Political party Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s) Sophia Gallatin (died 1790)
Hannah Gallatin
Profession Politician, Teacher
Signature

Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Swiss-American ethnologist, linguist, politician, diplomat, congressman, and the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1831, he founded the University of the City of New York. In 1896, this university was renamed New York University; it is now one of the largest private, non-profit universities in the United States.

Born in Switzerland, Gallatin immigrated to America in the 1780s, ultimately settling in Pennsylvania. He was politically active against the Federalist Party program, and was elected to the United States Senate in 1793, but was removed from office by a 14–12 party-line vote after a protest raised by his opponents suggested he had fewer than the required nine years of citizenship. In 1795 he was elected to the House of Representatives and served in the fourth through sixth Congresses, becoming House Majority Leader. He was an important leader of the new Democratic-Republican Party, its chief spokesman on financial matters, and led opposition to many of the policy proposals of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. He also helped found the House Committee on Finance (later the Ways and Means Committee) and often engineered withholding of finances by the House as a method of overriding executive actions to which he objected. While Treasury Secretary, his services to his country were honored in 1805 when Meriwether Lewis named one of the three headwaters of the Missouri River after Gallatin.

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Early life

Gallatin was born in Geneva, Switzerland, to the wealthy Jean Gallatin and his wife, Sophie Albertine Rollaz.[1] Gallatin's family had great influence in Switzerland, and many family members held distinguished positions in the magistracy, military, and in Swiss delegations of foreign armies. His parents married in 1753. Gallatin's father, a prosperous merchant, died in 1765, followed by his mother in April 1770. Gallatin, now orphaned, was taken into the care of Mademoiselle Pictet, a family friend and distant relative of Gallatin's father. Here, Gallatin remained, until January 1773 when he was sent to boarding school.[2]

While a student at the elite Academy of Geneva, Gallatin read deeply in philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the French Physiocrats; he became dissatisfied with the traditionalism of Geneva. As a student of the Enlightenment, he believed in human nature and believed that when free from social trammels, it would display nobler qualities and achieve vaster results, not merely in the physical but also in the moral world. Thus the democratic spirit of America attracted him in 1780 at the age of 19.[3]

In April 1780, he secretly left Geneva with his classmate Henri Serre. Armed with letters of recommendation from eminent Colonials (including Benjamin Franklin) that the Gallatin family procured, the two young men departed France in May, setting sail for the then-Colonies in an American ship, "the Kattie". They reached Cape Ann on July 14 and arrived in Boston the next day, traveling the intervening thirty miles by horseback.[4]

American travels

Bored with monotonous Bostonian life, the men set sail with a Swiss female companion, to the settlement of Machias, located on the northeastern tip of the Maine frontier. At Machias, Gallatin operated a bartering venture, in which he dealt with a variety of goods and supplies. He enjoyed the simple life and the natural environment surrounding him.[5] During the winter of 1780–81 Gallatin served in the defense of his new country and even commanded a garrison in Maine for a time.[5] Gallatin and Serre returned to Boston in October 1781, after abandoning their bartering venture in Machias. Gallatin supported himself by giving French language lessons. Soon afterward, he sent a letter to Mademoiselle Pictet, offering a frank account of the troubles he was having in America. Pictet sensed this would be the case, and she had already contacted Dr. Samuel Cooper, a distinguished Bostonian patriot, whose grandson was a student in Geneva. With Cooper's influence, Gallatin was able to secure a faculty position in July 1782 at Harvard College, where he taught French.

Pennsylvania

Gallatin used his early salary to purchase 370 acres (1.5 km2) of land in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, near Point Marion south of Pittsburgh which he thought well suited for farming and as a staging area for selling land and goods. Gallatin honored his friends by naming the new property Friendship Hill.[6] He moved there in 1784.[7] In the spring of 1789, Gallatin eloped with Sophia Allegre, the attractive daughter of his landlady, who disapproved of him. However, she fell ill and died later that year. He was in mourning for several years and seriously considered returning to Geneva. However, on November 1, 1793, he married Hannah Nicholson, daughter of the well-connected Commodore James Nicholson. They would have two sons and a daughter.

In 1794, Gallatin was hearing rumors of mass exodus of Europeans fleeing the French Revolution. An idea struck his fancy: perhaps he should develop a settlement for these emigrants. Throughout the spring and summer of 1795 Gallatin pondered, planned and finally selected Wilson's Port, a small river town located one mile (1.6 km) north of his Friendship Hill. Collecting four other investors, three of which were also Swiss, Gallatin had the partnership incorporated as Albert Gallatin & Company. Together they purchased Wilson's Port, Georgetown and vacant lots across the river in Greensboro. The partners named their new settlement New Geneva. With a company store, boat yard and mills along Georges Creek, the partners awaited the rush of settlers.

An improved European situation and mild economic recession in 1796-1797 did not bring the expected wealth to the Gallatin partnership. As Gallatin struggled with the Federalists in the Congress, his partners happened upon six German glassblowers traveling to Kentucky. Convinced that glass would revive their sagging investment, the partners asked the Germans to set up shop in New Geneva. Gallatin was appalled with the idea, and considered it to be a gamble. Nonetheless, production of glass began on January 18, 1798. Window glass, whiskey bottles and other hollow ware were produced. This was the first glass blown west of the Alleghenies.

The glass business was not without its problems. Poor initial profits, material shortages and a labor "insurrection" combined to make Gallatin believe that the glass industry should be abandoned. By 1800, though, the business had made a turnaround. With the availability of coal across the river, the glass works were moved to Greensboro in 1807. Later in 1816 Gallatin would call the glass works his most "productive property".

Another industry to make its appearance at the New Geneva complex was the manufacture of muskets. In 1797 a crisis with France had flared into an undeclared war. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania called out to its militia, only to find a shortage of muskets, bayonets and cartridge boxes. Contracts were awarded to private manufacturers to produce 12,000 stands of arms.

Seeing an opportunity to relieve festering debts from the land and glass businesses, the western partners sought Gallatin's advice and political pull in the state government to acquire an arms contract. Initially against the idea, the mounting debts forced Gallatin to reconsider. He signed a contract in January 1799 to produce 2000 muskets with bayonets. The Gallatin partners subcontracted Melchior Baker of Haydentown to make the muskets. Lack of skilled labor and quality steel supported by poor management plagued the business. By April 1801, only 600 muskets had been delivered, fifteen months behind schedule. Seeing only complete financial ruin if he remained in the agreement, Gallatin transferred all contractual obligations to Melchior Baker and Abraham Stewart.

During his fifth year as Minister to France, Albert Gallatin longed for retirement to Friendship Hill. Hoping to live off the profits of the glass business, Gallatin made substantial improvements to the house and grounds. It was not a happy homecoming. The economic "Panic of 1819" caught up with the glass business and forced its closure in 1821. While "contented to live and die amongst the Monongahela hills" Albert Gallatin sold his beloved Friendship Hill and other western holdings at great financial loss.

Political career

Daguerreotype of Albert Gallatin, original probably by Anthony, Edwards & Co.

Almost immediately, Gallatin became active in Pennsylvania politics; he was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1789, and was elected to the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1790.

Senator

In 1793, Gallatin won election to the United States Senate. When the Third Congress opened on December 2, 1793, he took the oath of office, but, on that same day, nineteen Pennsylvania Federalists filed a protest with the Senate that Gallatin did not have the minimum nine years of citizenship required to be a senator. The petition was sent to committee, which duly reported that Gallatin had not been a citizen for the required period. Gallatin rebutted the committee report, noting his unbroken residence of thirteen years in the United States, his 1785 oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia, his service in the Pennsylvania legislature, and his substantial property holdings in the United States. The report and Gallatin's rebuttal were sent to a second committee. This committee also reported that Gallatin should be removed. The matter then went before the full Senate where Gallatin was removed in a party-line vote of 14–12.

Gallatin's brief stint in the Senate was not without consequence. Gallatin had proven to be an effective opponent of Alexander Hamilton's financial policies, and the election controversy added to his fame. The dispute itself had important ramifications. At the time, the Senate held closed sessions. However, with the American Revolution only a decade ended, the senators were leery of anything which might hint that they intended to establish an aristocracy, so they opened up their chamber for the first time for the debate over whether to unseat Gallatin. Soon after, open sessions became standard procedure for the Senate.[8]

Whiskey Rebellion

Returning home, he found western Pennsylvanians (mostly Scotch Irish) angry at the whiskey tax imposed in 1791 by Congress at the demand of Alexander Hamilton to raise money to pay the national debt. Farmers could only export whiskey because transportation costs were too high for grain. Although Gallatin had opposed the tax before it was passed and attended numerous protest meetings, he counseled moderation. Nevertheless, the role he played in the Whiskey Rebellion in the early 1790s proved a lasting political liability, as President George Washington denounced the tax protesters, called out the militia, and marched at the head of the army to put down the rebellion. A group of radicals, headed by a blatant demagogue named David Bradford, staged incendiary meetings, to which they summoned the local militia, terrorized conservatives in Pittsburgh, threatened federal revenue officers with death, and called for rebellion.

Gallatin calmed the westerners; with courage and persuasive oratory, he faced the excited and armed mobs, heartened the moderates, won over the wavering, and at last secured a vote of 34 to 23 in the revolutionary committee of sixty for peaceable submission to the law of the country. The rebellion collapsed as the army moved near, Bradford fled, and there was no fighting. Gallatin's neighbors approved his advocacy of their cause and elected him to the U.S. House of Representatives for three terms, 1795-1801.

Party leader

Entering the House of Representatives in 1795, he served in the fourth through sixth Congresses. He was the major spokesman on finance for the new Jeffersonian Democratic-Republican Party, headed by James Madison. By 1797, when Madison retired, Gallatin became the party leader in the House, a position now known as House Majority Leader. He strongly opposed the domestic programs of the Federalist Party, as well as the Jay Treaty of 1795, which he thought was a sellout to the British. When the Quasi War with France erupted in 1798 he kept a low profile, but did oppose the Alien and Sedition Acts.

Although Gallatin opposed the entire program of Alexander Hamilton in the 1790s, when he came to power in 1801 he found himself keeping all the main parts, and supporting the Bank of the United States, which other Jeffersonians vehemently opposed.

As party leader, Gallatin put a great deal of pressure on President John Adams' Treasury Secretary Oliver Wolcott, Jr. to maintain fiscal responsibility. He also helped found the House Committee on Finance (which would evolve into the Ways and Means Committee) and often engineered withholding of finances by the House as a method of overriding executive actions to which he objected. His measures to withhold naval appropriations during this period were met with vehement animosity by the Federalists, who accused him of being a French spy.

Secretary of the Treasury

Albert Gallatin is honored with a statue in front of the northern entrance to the United States Treasury Building in Washington

Gallatin's mastery of public finance, an ability rare among members of the Jeffersonian party, led to his automatic choice as Secretary of the Treasury, despite Federalist attacks that he was a "foreigner" with a French accent. He was secretary from 1801 to May 1813 (and nominally until February 1814) under presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the longest tenure of this office in American history.

Budget

The national debt was seen as an indicator of waste and corruption, and Jeffersonians wanted it paid off totally. They also wanted to buy Louisiana and fight a war with Britain, and Gallatin managed to finance these grand objectives, but he could not simultaneously pay off the debt. The debt stood at $80 million in 1801, and Gallatin devoted three quarters of federal revenues to reducing it. Despite spending $15 million on Louisiana, and losing the tax on whiskey when it was repealed in 1802, Gallatin trimmed the debt to $45 million. The government saved money by mothballing the Navy and keeping the Army small and poorly equipped. Gallatin reluctantly supported Jefferson's embargo of 1807–1808, which tried to use economic coercion to change British policies, and failed to do so.[9] The War of 1812 (1812–1815) proved expensive, and the debt soared to $123 million, even with burdensome new taxes.

West

Gallatin helped plan the Lewis and Clark Expedition, mapping out the area to be explored. Upon finding the source of the Missouri River at present-day Three Forks, Montana, Captains Lewis and Clark named the eastern of the three tributaries after Gallatin; the other two were named after President Jefferson and James Madison, the Secretary of State (and next President). The Gallatin River descends from Yellowstone National Park, followed north by U.S. Highway 191 past the Big Sky Resort, towards Bozeman. A few miles southwest of the city the river turns northwest, where Interstate 90 follows it to Three Forks.

Internal improvements

In 1808 Gallatin proposed a dramatic $20 million program of internal improvements—that is, roads and canals along the Atlantic seacoast and across the Appalachian mountain barrier to be financed by the federal government. It was rejected by the "Old Republican" faction of his party that deeply distrusted the national government, and anyway there was no money to pay for it. Most of Gallatin's proposals were eventually carried out years later, but this was done not by the concerted federal action he proposed, but by local governmental and private action. Though often wasteful, this method enlisted local and private energies in large enterprises.[10] While not a pacifist, he strongly opposed building up a navy and endorsed Jefferson's scheme of using small gunboats to protect major ports. The plan failed in the War of 1812 as the British, unhindered, landed behind the harbors.

War of 1812

In 1812, the U.S. was financially unprepared for war. For example, the Democratic Republicans allowed the First Bank of the United States to expire in 1811, over Gallatin's objections. He had to ship $7 million to Europe to pay off its foreign stockholders just at a time money was needed for war. The heavy military expenditures for the War of 1812, and the decline in tariff revenue caused by the embargo and the British blockade cut off legitimate trade (there was plenty of smuggling, but smugglers never paid taxes.)

In 1813, the Treasury had expenditures of $39 million and revenue of only $15 million. Despite anger from Congress, Gallatin was forced to reintroduce the Federalist taxes he had denounced in 1798, such as the taxes on whiskey and salt, as well as a direct tax on land and slaves. Absent a national bank, and with the refusal of New England financiers to loan money for the war effort, Gallatin resorted to innovative methods to finance the war. In March 1813, he initiated the public bidding system that was to characterize subsequent government borrowings. A financial syndicate subscribed for 57% of the $16,000,000 loan, of which $5,720,000 came from New York City, $6,858,000 from Philadelphia, and $75,000 from Boston. He succeeded in funding the deficit of $69 million by bond issues, and thereby paid the direct cost of the war, which amounted to $87 million. Realizing the need for a national bank, he helped charter the Second Bank of the United States, in 1816.

Diplomat

In 1813, President James Madison sent him as the United States representative to a Russian-brokered peace talk, which Britain ultimately refused, preferring direct negotiations. Gallatin then resigned as Secretary of the Treasury to head the United States delegation for these negotiations and was instrumental in securing the Treaty of Ghent, which brought the War of 1812 to a close. His patience and skill in dealing not only with the British but also with his fellow members of the American commission, including Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams, made the Treaty "the special and peculiar triumph of Mr. Gallatin."[11]

Declining another term at the Treasury, from 1816 to 1823 Gallatin served as United States Minister to France, struggling with scant success to improve relations with the government during the Bourbon Restoration.

Politics

Gallatin returned to America in 1823 and was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic-Republican Congressional caucus that had chosen William H. Crawford as its Presidential candidate. Gallatin never wanted the role and was humiliated when he was forced to withdraw from the race because he lacked popular support.[12] Gallatin was alarmed at the possibility Andrew Jackson might win; he saw Jackson as "an honest man and the idol of the worshippers of military glory, but from incapacity, military habits, and habitual disregard of laws and constitutional provisions, altogether unfit for the office."[13]

He returned home to Pennsylvania where he lived until 1826.

By 1826, there was much contention between the United States and Britain over claims to the Columbia River system on the Northwest coast. Gallatin put forward a claim in favor of American ownership, outlining what has been called the "principle of contiguity" in his statement called "The Land West of the Rockies". It states that lands adjacent to already settled territory can reasonably be claimed by the settled territory. This argument is an early version of the doctrine of America's "manifest destiny". This principle became the legal premise by which the United States was able to claim the lands to the west. In 1826 and 1827, he served as minister to the Court of St. James's (i.e., minister to Great Britain) and negotiated several useful agreements, such as a ten year extension of the joint occupation of Oregon.

Later life

Albert Gallatin's grave at Trinity Churchyard.

He then settled in New York City, where he helped found New York University in 1831, in order to offer university education to the working and merchant classes as well as the wealthy. He became president of the National Bank (which was later renamed Gallatin Bank). In 1849, Gallatin died in Astoria in what is now the Borough of Queens, New York; he is interred at Trinity Churchyard in New York City. Prior to his death, Gallatin had been the last surviving member of the Jefferson Cabinet and the last surviving Senator from the 18th century.

Native American studies

His last great endeavor was founding the American science of ethnology, with his studies of the languages of the Native Americans; he has been called "the father of American ethnology."

Throughout his career, Gallatin pursued an interest in Native American language and culture. He drew upon government contacts in his research, gathering information through Lewis Cass, explorer William Clark, and Thomas McKenney of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Gallatin developed a personal relationship with Cherokee tribal leader John Ridge, who provided him with information on the vocabulary and structure of the Cherokee language. Gallatin's research resulted in two published works: A Table of Indian Languages of the United States (1826) and Synopsis of the Indian Tribes of North America (1836). His research led him to conclude that the natives of North and South America were linguistically and culturally related, and that their common ancestors had migrated from Asia in prehistoric times.

In 1842, Gallatin joined with John Russell Bartlett to found the American Ethnological Society. Later research efforts include examination of selected Pueblo societies, the Akimel O'odham (Pima) peoples, and the Maricopa of the Southwest. In politics, Gallatin stood for assimilation of Native Americans into European based American society, encouraging federal efforts in education leading to assimilation and denying annuities for Native Americans displaced by western expansion.

Honors

A 1967 U.S. stamp honoring Albert Gallatin.
  • The Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University honors his participation in the founding of the university.
  • The ALBERT student information system at New York University is named for him.
  • Gallatin's portrait was on the front of the $500 United States Note issued in 1862–63.
  • Gallatin's portrait was on the regular issue Prominent Americans series 1¼ ¢ postage stamp from 1967–73.
  • Friendship Hill National Historic Site, a 661-acre (2.67 km2) estate which includes the beautifully restored home of Albert Gallatin, is run by the National Park Service and is located in Fayette County, PA. It is open to the public.
  • The United States Department of the Treasury's highest career service award is named the Albert Gallatin Award in his honor.
  • 250 ton U. S. Revenue Cutter Albert Gallatin, built in 1871 and lost in 1892
  • USCGC Gallatin (WHEC-721), a 378-foot (115 m), high-endurance Coast Guard cutter homeported in Charleston, S.C., is named for him.
  • A school district in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in which his home, Friendship Hill is located is named the Albert Gallatin Area School District in his honor.

Placenames

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Stevens, John Austin (1888). Albert Gallatin. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. pp. 1. 
  2. ^ Stevens (1888), p2.
  3. ^ Henry Adams, Life of Albert Gallatin (1879) p. 16
  4. ^ Stevens (1888), pp 11-12.
  5. ^ a b Stevens (1888), p16.
  6. ^ Friendship Hill National Historic Site, National Park Service (nps.gov)
  7. ^ At the time of the purchase, his land was originally a part of Virginia, but it became part of Pennsylvania soon afterward.
  8. ^ Butler, Anne M.; Wolff, Wendy (1995). "Case 1: Albert Gallatin". Senate Election, Expulsion and Censure Cases from 1793 to 1990. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. pp. 3–5. 
  9. ^ Richard Mannix, "Gallatin, Jefferson, and the Embargo of 1808", Diplomatic History (1979) v.3 #3, pp 151–172.
  10. ^ Carter Goodrich, "The Gallatin Plan after One Hundred and Fifty Years." Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 1958 102(5): 436-441.
  11. ^ Adams (1879) p. 546
  12. ^ Raymond Walters, Albert Gallatin: Jeffersonian Financier and Diplomat (1957) pp 320-4
  13. ^ Adams (1879), p599.

Bibliography

  • Adams, Henry (1879). Life of Albert Gallatin.  online edition
  • Cachia-Riedl, Markus Claudius (1998). Albert Gallatin and the Politics of the New Nation. Ph.D. dissertation at U. of California, Berkeley. 
  • Dungan, Nicholas (2010). Gallatin: America's Swiss Founding Father. New York University Press. 
  • Goodrich, Carter (1958). "The Gallatin Plan after One Hundred and Fifty Years". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 102 (5): 436–441. http://www.jstor.org/pss/stable/985588. 
  • Hickey, Donald R. (1981). "American Trade Restrictions during the War of 1812". Journal of American History 68 (3): 517–538. JSTOR 1901937. 
  • Kuppenheimer, L. B. (1996). Albert Gallatin's Vision of Democratic Stability: An Interpretive Profile. 
  • Mannix, Richard (1979). Gallatin, Jefferson, and the Embargo of 1808. 3. pp. 151–172. ISSN 0145-2096. 
  • Nelson, John Robert (1979). Hamilton and Gallatin: Political Economy and Policy-Making in the New Nation, 1789-1812. Ph.D. dissertation, Northern Illinois U. 
  • Nettels, Curtis (1962). The Emergence of a National Economy, 1775-1815. 
  • Muzzey, David Saville (1931). "Gallatin, Abraham Alfonse Albert". Dictionary of American Biography. 4. 
  • Rothman, Rozann (1972). "Political Method in the Federal System: Albert Gallatin's Contribution". Publius 1 (2): 123–141. JSTOR 3329473. 
  • Stevens, John Austin. Albert Gallatin. 1883.
  • Walters, Raymond, Jr. (1957). Albert Gallatin: Jeffersonian Financier and Diplomat.  The standard scholarly biography online edition

Primary sources

External links

Media related to Albert Gallatin at Wikimedia Commons

United States Senate
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December 2, 1793 – February 28, 1794
(election declared void)
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United States House of Representatives
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February 23, 1840 – August 12, 1849
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