BV r.a.
THE LIFE
OP
ALBERT GALLATIK
BY.
HENRY ADAMS.
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.
LONDON: 16 SOUTHAMPTON STREET, STRAND.
1880.
Copyright, 1879, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT A Co.
PREFACE.
A LAKGE part of the following biography relates to a period
of American history as yet unwritten, and is intended to supply
historians with material which, except in such a form, would be
little likely to see the light. The principal private source from
which the author has drawn his information is of course the rich
collection of papers which Albert Gallatin left behind him in
the hands of his only now surviving son and literary executor,
under whose direction these volumes are published. By the
liberality and courtesy of Mr. Evarts, Secretary of State, and
the active assistance of the admirable organization of the State
Department, much material in the government archives at
Washington has been made accessible, without which the story
must have been little more than a fragment. The interesting
series of letters addressed to Joseph H. Nicholson are drawn
from the Nicholson MSS., which Judge Alexander B. Hagner
kindly placed in the author's hands at a moment when he had
abandoned the hope of tracing them. For other valuable papers
and information he is indebted to Miss Sarah N. Randolph, of
Edgehill, the representative of Mr. Jefferson, the Nicholases,
and the Randolphs. The persevering inquiries of Mr. William
Wirt Henry, of Richmond, have resulted in filling some serious
gaps in the narrative, and the antiquarian research of Mr. James
Veech, of Pittsburg, has been freely put at the author's service.
Finally, he has to recognize the unfailing generosity with which
his numerous and troublesome demands have been met by one
whose path it is his utmost hope in some slight degree to have
smoothed, his friendly adviser, George Bancroft.
WASHINGTON, May, 1879.
(iii)
. librae
Cruz 1986
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAG*
BOOK I. YOUTH. 1761-1790 1
BOOK II. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801 76
BOOK III. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813 267
BOOK IV. DIPLOMACY. 1813-1829 493
BOOK V. AGE. 1830-1849 635
LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN.
BOOK I.
YOUTH. 1761-1790.
JEAN DE GALLATIN, who, at the outbreak of the French
revolution, was second in command of the regiment of Chateau-
vieux in the service of Louis XVI., and a devout believer in
the antiquity of his family, maintained that the Gallatins were
descended from A. Atilius Callatinus, consul in the years of
Rome 494 and 498 ; in support of this article of faith he fought
a duel with the Baron de Pappenheim, on horseback, with
sabres, and, as a consequence, ever afterwards carried a sabre-
cut across his face. His theory, even if held to be unshaken by
the event of this wager of battle, is unlikely ever to become one
of the demonstrable facts of genealogy, since a not unimportant
gap of about fifteen hundred years elapsed between the last con-
sulship of the Roman Gallatin and the earliest trace of the modern
family, found in a receipt signed by the Abbess of Bellacomba
for " quindecim libras Viennenses" bequeathed to her convent
by "Dominus Fulcherius Gallatini, Miles/ 7 in the year 1258.
Faulcher Gallatini left no other trace of his existence ; but some
sixty years later, in 1319, a certain Guillaume Gallatini, Cheva-
lier, with his son Humbert Gallatini, Damoiseau, figured dimly
in legal documents, and Humbert's grandson, Henri Gallatini,
Seigneur de Granges, married Agnes de Lenthenay, whose will,
dated 1397, creating her son Jean Gallatini her heir, fixes the
local origin of the future Genevan family. Granges was an
estate in Bugey, in the province of which Bellay was the capital,
then a part of Savoy, but long since absorbed in France, and now
1 1
2 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1761.
embraced in the De"partement de PAin. It lay near the Rhone,
some thirty or forty miles below Geneva, and about the same
distance above Lyons. This Jean Gallatini, Seigneur de Granges
and of many other manors, was an equerry of the Duke of Savoy,
and a man of importance in his neighborhood. He too had a son
Jean, who was also an equerry of the Duke of Savoy, and a man
of gravity, conscientious in his opinions and serious in his acts.
Not only Duke Philibert but even Pope Leo X. held him in
esteem; the Duke made him his secretary with the title of Vice
Comes, and the Pope clothed him with the dignity of Apostolic
Judge, with the power to create one hundred and fifty notaries and
public judges, and with the further somewhat invidious privilege
of legitimatizing an equal number of bastards. Notwithstanding
this mark of apostolic favor conferred 011 the " venerabilis vir
dominus Johannes Gallatinus, civis Gebennensis" by a formal act
dated at Salerno in 1522, Jean Gallatin was not an obedient son
of the Church. For reasons no longer to be ascertained, he had
in 1510 quitted his seigniories and his services in Savoy and caused
himself to be enrolled as a citizen of Geneva. The significance
of this act rests in the fact that the moment he chose for the
change was that which immediately preceded the great revolution
in Genevan history when the city tore itself away not only from
Savoy but from the Church. Jean Gallatin was a man of too
much consequence not to be welcomed at Geneva. He linked
his fortunes with hers, became a member of the Council, and
joined in the decree which, in 1535, deposed the Prince Bishop
and abrogated the power of the Pope. He died in 1536, the
year Calvin came to Geneva, and the Gallatins were so far
among the close allies of the great reformer that a considerable
number of his letters to them were still preserved by the family
until stolen or destroyed by some of the wilder reformers who
accompanied the revolutionary armies of France in 1794. 1
After the elevation of Geneva to the rank of a sovereign
republic in 1535, the history of the Gallatins is the history of
the city. The family, if not the first in the state, was second
1 A more detailed account of the Gallatin genealogy will be found in the
Appendix to vol. iii. of Gallatin's Writings, p. 593.
1761. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 3
to none. Government was aristocratic in this small republic,
and of the eleven families into whose hands it fell at the time
of the Reformation, the Gallatins furnished syndics and coun-
sellors, with that regularity and frequency which characterized
the mode of selection, in a more liberal measure than any of
the other ten. Five Gallatins held the position of first syndic,
and as such were the chief magistrates of the republic. Many
were in the Church ; some were professors and rectors of the
University. They counted at least one political martyr among
their number, a Gallatin who, charged with the crime of being
head of a party which aimed at popular reforms in the constitu-
tion, was seized and imprisoned in 1698, and died in 1719, after
twenty-one years of close confinement. They overflowed into
foreign countries. Pierre, the elder son of Jean, was the source
of four distinct branches of the family, which spread and mul-
tiplied in every direction, although of them all no male repre-
sentative now exists except among the descendants of Albert
Gallatin. One was in the last century a celebrated physician in
Paris, chief of the hospital established by Mme. Necker ; another
was Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Duke of Brunswick, who,
when mortally wounded at the battle of Jena, in 1806, com-
mended his minister to the King of Wiirtemberg as his best and
dearest friend. The King respected this dying injunction, and
Count Gallatin, in 1819, was, as will be seen, the Wiirtemberg
minister at Paris.
That the Gallatins did not restrict their activity to civil life
is a matter of course. There were few great battle-fields in
Europe where some of them had not fought, and not very many
where some of them had not fallen. Voltaire testifies to this
fact in the following letter to Cqunt d'Argental, which contains
a half-serious, half-satirical account of their military career :
VOLTAIRE TO THE COUNT D'ARGENTAL.
9 fevrier, 1761.
Voici la plus belle occasion, mon cher ange, d'exercer votre
ministere celeste. II s'agit du meilleur office que je puisse rece-
voir de vos bontes.
4 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL ATI N. 1761.
Je vous conjure, men cher et respectable ami, d'employer tout
votre credit aupres de M. le Due de Choiseul; aupres de ses
amis ; s'il le faut, aupres de sa maitresse, &c., &c. Et pourquoi
ose"-je vous demander tant d'appui, tant de zele, tant de vivacite",
et surtout un prompt succes? Pour le bien du service, mon cher
ange; pour battre le Due de Brunsvick. M. Galatin, officier
aux gardes suisses, qui vous prsentera ma tres-humble requite,
est de la plus ancienne famille de Geneve ; ils se font tuer pour
nous de pere en fils depuis Henri Quatre. L'oncle de celui-ci a e"te"
tue* devant Ostende ; son frere Pa 6te a la malheureuse et abomi-
nable journe"e de Rosbach, a ce que je crois; jour ne'e ou les regi-
ments suisses firent seuls leur devoir. Si ce n'est pas a Rosbach,
c'est ailleurs ; le fait est qu'il a e"te tu6 ; celui-ci a etc" blesse". II
sert depuis dix ans ; il a ete aide-major ; il veut 1'etre. II faut
des aides-major qui parlent bien allemand, qui soient actifs, intel-
ligens ; il est tout cela. Enfin vous saurez de lui precisement ce
qu'il lui faut ; c'est en g^n^ral la permission d'aller vite chercher
la mort a votre service. Faites-lui cette grace, et qu'il ne soit
point tu6, car il est fort aimable et il est neveu de cette Mme.
Calendrin que vous avez vue e*tant enfant. Mme. sa mere est
bien aussi aimable que Mme. Calendrin.
One Gallatin fell in 1602 at the Escalade, famous in Genevan
history; another at the siege of Ostend, in 1745; another at the
battle of Marburg, in 1760; another, the ninth of his name who
had served in the Swiss regiment of Aubonne, fell in 1788, act-
ing as a volunteer at the siege of Octzakow ; still another, in
1797, at the passage of the Rhine. One commanded a battalion
under Rochambeau at the siege of Yorktown. But while these
scattered members of the family were serving with credit and
success half the princes of Christendom, the main stock was
always Genevan to the core and pre-eminently distinguished in
civil life.
In any other European country a family like this would have
had a feudal organization, a recognized head, great entailed
estates, and all the titles of duke, marquis, count, and peer
which royal favor could confer or political and social influence
could command. Geneva stood by herself. Aristocratic as her
1761. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 5
government was, it was still republican, and the parade of rank
or wealth was not one of its chief characteristics. All the honors
and dignities which the republic could give were bestowed on
the Gallatin family with a prodigal hand; but its members had
no hereditary title other than the quaint prefix of Noble, and the
right to the further prefix of de, which they rarely used; they had
no great family estate passing by the law of primogeniture, no
family organization centring in and dependent on a recognized
chief. Integrity, energy, courage, and intelligence were for the
most part the only family estates of this aristocracy, and these
were wealth enough to make of the little city of Geneva the
most intelligent and perhaps the purest society in Europe. The
austere morality and the masculine logic of Calvin were here
at home, and there was neither a great court near by, nor great
sources of wealth, to counteract or corrupt the tendencies of
Calvin's teachings. In the middle of the eighteenth century,
when Gallatins swarmed in every position of dignity or useful-
ness in their native state and in every service abroad, it does not
appear that any one of them ever attained very great wealth, or
asserted a claim of superior dignity over his cousins of the name.
Yet the name, although the strongest, was not their only common
tie. A certain Francois Gallatin, who died in 1699, left by
will a portion of his estate in trust, its income to be expended for
the aid or relief of members of the family. This trust, known
as the Bourse Gallatin, honestly and efficiently administered,
proved itself to be all that its founder could ever have desired.
One of the four branches of this extensive family was repre-
sented in the middle of the eighteenth century by Abraham
Gallatin, who lived on his estate at Pregny, one of the most
beautiful spots on the west shore of the lake, near Geneva, and
who is therefore known as Abraham Gallatin of Pregny. His
wife, whom he had married in 1732, was Susanne Vaudenet,
commonly addressed as Mme. Gal latin- Vaudenet. They were,
if not positively wealthy, at least sufficiently so to maintain their
position among the best of Genevese society, and Mme. Gallatin
appears to have been a woman of more than ordinary character,
intelligence, and ambition. The world knows almost every
detail about the society of Geneva at that time ; for, apart from
6 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1761.
a very distinguished circle of native Genevans, it was the society
in which Voltaire lived, and to which the attention of much that
was most cultivated in Europe was for that reason, if for no
other, directed. Voltaire was a near neighbor of the Gallatins
at Pregny. Notes and messages were constantly passing between
the two houses. Dozens of these little billets in Voltaire's hand
are still preserved. Some are written on the back of ordinary
playing-cards. The deuce of clubs says :
" Nous sommes aux ordres de Mme. Galatin. Nous tacherons
d'employer ferblantier. Parlement Paris refuse tout 6dit et veut
que le roi demande pardon a Parlement Bezai^on. Anglais ont
voulu rebombarder Havre. N'ont r6ussi. Carosse a une heure J.
Kespects."
There is no date ; but this is not necessary, for the contents
seem to fix the date for the year 1756. A note endorsed "Des
Delices" is in the same tone :
" Lorsque V. se presente chez sa voisine, il n'a d'autre affaire,
d'autre but, que de lui faire sa cour. Nous attendons pour faire
des repetitions le retour du Tyran qui a nial a la poitrine. S'il
y a quelques nouvelles de Berlin, Mr. Gallatin est supplie" d'en
faire part. Mille respects."
Another, of the year 1759, is on business :
" Comment se porte notre malade, notre chere voisine, notre
chre fille ? J'ai e"te aux vignes, madame. Les guepes mangent
tout, et ce qu'elles ne mangent point est sec. Le vigneron de
Mme. du Tremblay est venu me faire ses representations. Mes
tonneaux ne sont pas relic's, a-t-il dit ; differez vendange. Relie
tes tonneaux, ai-je dit. Vos raisins ne sont pas murs, a-t-il dit.
Va les voir, ai-je dit. II y a e"te ; il a vu. Vendangez au plus
vite, a-t-il dit. Qu'ordonnez-vous, madame, au voisin V. ?"
Another of the same year introduces Mme. Gallatin's figs, of
which she seems to have been proud :
" Vos figues, madame, sont un present d'autant plus beau que
nous pouvons dire comme Pautre : car ce n'etait pas le temps des
figues. Nous n'en avons point aux Delices, mais nous aurons un
theatre a Tourney. Et nous partons dans une heure pour venir
vous voir. Eecevez vous et toute votre famille, madame, les
tendres respects de V."
1761. Y'OUTH. 1761-1790. 7
"Vous me donnez plus de figues, madame, qu'il n'y en a
dans le pays de papimanie; et moi, madame, je suis comme
le figuier de Pfivangile, sec et maudit. Ce n'est pas comme
acteur, c'est comme tres-attache" & toute votre famille que je
m'int^resse bien vivement a la sant6 de Mme. Galatin-Rolaz.
Nous repStons mardi en habits pontificaux. Ceux qui ont des
billets viendront s'ils veulent. Je suis a vous, madame, pour
ma vie. V."
Then follows a brief note dated " Ferney, 18 e 7re," 1761 :
"Nous comptions revenir tous souper a Ferney apres la
comedie. Mr. le Due de Villars nous retint; notre carosse se
rompit ; nous essuyames tous les contretemps possibles ; la vie
en est sem4e ; mais le plus grand de tous est de n'avoir pas eu
Thonneur de souper avec vous."
One of the friends for whom Mme. Gallatin- Vaudenet seems
to have felt the strongest attachment, and with whom she cor-
responded, was the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, a personage not
favorably known in American history. The Landgrave, in 1776,
sent Mme. Gallatin his portrait, and Mme. Gallatin persuaded
Voltaire to write for her a copy of verses addressed to the Land-
grave, in recognition of this honor. Here they are from the
original draft :
" J'ai baise ce portrait charmant,
Je vous 1'avourai sans mystere.
Mes filles en ont fait autant,
Mais c'est un secret qu'il faut taire.
Vous trouverez bon qu'une mere
Vous parle un peu plus hardiment ;
Et vous verrez qu'egalement
En tous les temps vous savez plaire." J
The success of Mme. Gallatin in the matter of figs led Vol-
taire to beg of her some trees ; but his fortune was not so good
as hers.
" lOe Auguste, 1768, a Ferney. Vous 6tes b6nie de Dieu,
madame. II y a six ans que je plante des figuiers, et pas un ne
reussit. Ce serait bien la le cas de secher mes figuiers. Mais
si j'avais des miracles a faire, ce ne serait pas celui-la. Je me
1 Printed in Voltaire's Works, xii. 371 (ed. 1819.)
g LIFEOFALBEKT GALLATIN. 1761.
borne a vous remercier, madame. Je crois qu'il n'y a que les
vieux figuiers qui donnent. La vieillesse est encore bonne a
quelque chose. J'ai comme vous des chevaux de trente ans;
c'est ce qui fait que je les aime ; il n'y a rien de tel que les vieux
amis. Les jeunes pourtant ne sont pas a mSpriser, mesdames.
V."
One more letter by Voltaire is all that can find room here.
The Landgrave seems to have sent by Mme. Gallatin some as-
paragus seed to Voltaire, which he acknowledged in these words :
VOLTAIKE TO THE LANDGRAVE OF HESSE.
Le 15e septembre, 1772, DE FERNET.
MONSEIGNEUK, Mme. Gallatin m'a fait voir la lettre ou
votre Altesse Se'renissime montre toute sa sagesse, sa bonte* et son
gout en parlant d'un jeune homme dont la raison est un peu
e"gare"e. Je vois que dans cette lettre elle m'accorde un bienfait
trSs-signale", qu'on doit rarement attendre des princes et meme
des mSdecins. Elle me donne un brevet de trois ans de vie, car
il faut trois ans pour faire venir ces belles asperges dont vous me
gratifiez. Agre"ez, monseigneur, mes tres-humbles remerciements.
J'ose espe>er de vous les renouveler dans trois ann6es ; car enfin
il faut bien que je me nourrisse d'esp&rance avant que de Petre de
vos asperges. Que ne puis-je tre en 6tat de venir vous demander
la permission de manger celles de vos jardins ! La belle Evolu-
tion de Suede opere"e avec tant de fermete" et de pruolence par le
roi votre parent, donne envie de vivre. Ce prince est comme
vous, il se fait aimer de ses sujets. C'est assure"ment de toutes
les ambitions la plus belle. Tout le reste a je ne sais quoi de
chime'rique et souvent de tres-funeste. Je souhaite a Votre
Altesse S6re"nissime de longues anne*es. C'est le seul souhait que
je puisse faire ; vous avez tout le reste. Je suis, avec le plus
profond respect, monseigneur, de Votre Altesse SerSnissime le
tres-humble et trs-obeissant serviteur,
" Le vieux malade de Ferney,
" VOLTAIRE."
The correspondence of his Most Serene Highness, who made
himself thus loved by his subjects, cannot be said to sparkle like
1761. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 9
that of Voltaire; yet, although the Landgrave's French was
little better than his principles, one of his letters to Mme. Galla-
tin may find a place here. The single line in regard to his troops
returning from America gives it a certain degree of point which
only Americans or Hessians are likely to appreciate at its full
value.
THE LANDGRAVE OF HESSE TO M=. GALLATIN-VAUDENET.
MADAME ! Je vous accuse avec un plaisir infini la lettre que
vous avez bien voulu m'toire le 27 mars dernier, et je vous fais
bien mes parfaits remercimens de la part que vous continuez de
prendre a ma sant4, dont je suis, on ne peut pas plus, content.
La votre m'interesse trop pour ne pas souhaiter qu'elle soit
e"galement telle que vous la de"sirez. Puisse la belle saison qui
vient de succ6der enfin au terns rude qu'il a fait, la raffermir
pour bien des anne"es, et puissiez-vous jouir de tout le contente-
ment que mes voeux empresses vous destinent.
Quoique la lettre dont vous avez charg6 Mr. Cramer m'ait e"te"
rendue, j'ai bien du regret d'avoir 6t6 priv6 du plaisir de faire
sa connaissance personnelle, puisqu'il ne s'est pas arrete a Cassel,
et n'a fait que passer. Le temoignage favorable que vous lui
donnez ne peut que prevenir en sa faveur.
Au reste je suis sur le point d'entreprendre un petit voi'age
que j'ai m6dit6 depuis longtems pour changer d'air. Je serais
deja en route, sans mes Trouppes revenus de PAmerique, que je
suis bien aise de revoir avant mon depart, et dont les derniers
regimens seront rendus a Cassel vers la fin du mois.
Continuez-moi en attendant votre cher souvenir, et, en faisant
bien mes complimens a Mr. et a Mile. Gallatin, persuadez-vous
que rien n'est au-dessus des sentimens vrais et invariables avec
lesquels je ne finirai d'etre, madame, votre trs-humble et tres-
obeissant serviteur.
FREDERIC L. D'HESSE.
CASSEL, le 25 mai, 1784.
Mme. Gallatin-Vaudenet had three children, one son and two
daughters. The son, who was named Jean Gallatin, was born
in 1733, and in 1755 married Sophie Albertine Rolaz du Rosey
of Rolle, the Mme. Gallatin-Rolaz already mentioned in one of
10 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1761-1775.
Voltaire's notes. They had two children, a boy, born on the
29th of January, 1761, in the city of Geneva, and baptized on
the following 7th of February by the name of Abraham Alfonse
Albert Gallatin ; and a girl about five years older.
Abraham Gallatin, the grandfather, was a merchant in part-
nership with his son Jean. Jean died, however, in the summer
of 1765, and his wife, Mme. Gallatin-Kolaz, who had talent and
great energy, undertook to carry on his share of the business
in her own separate name. She died in March, 1770. The
daughter had been sent to Montpellier for her health, which she
never recovered, and died a few years after, in 1777. The boy,
Albert, was left an orphan when nine years old, with a large
circle of blood-relations ; the nearest of whom were his grand-
father Abraham and his grandmother the friend of Voltaire
and of Frederic of Hesse. The child would naturally have been
taken to Pregny and brought up by his grandparents, but a
different arrangement had been made during the lifetime of his
mother, and was continued after her death. Mme. Gallatin-
Rolaz had a most intimate friend, a distant relation of her hus-
band, Catherine Pictet by name, unmarried, and at this time
about forty years old. When Jean Gallatin died, in 1765,
Mile. Pictet, seeing the widow overwhelmed with the care of
her invalid daughter and with the charge of her husband's
business, insisted on taking the boy Albert under her own care,
and accordingly, on the 8th of January, 1766, Albert, then five
years old, went to live with her, and from that time became in a
manner her child.
Besides his grandfather Abraham Gallatin at Pregny, and his
other paternal relations, Albert had a large family connection on
the mother's side, and more especially an uncle, Alphonse Rolaz
of Rolle, kind-hearted, generous, and popular. Both on the
father's and the mother's side Albert had a right to expect a
sufficient fortune. His interests during his minority were well
cared for, and nothing can show better the characteristic economy
and carefulness of Genevan society than the mode of the boy's
education. For seven years, till January, 1773, he lived with
Mile. Pictet, and his expenses did not exceed eighty dollars a
year. Then he went to boarding-school, and in August, 1775,
1779. YOUTH. 1761-1790. H
to the college or academy, where he graduated in May, 1779.
During all this period his expenses slightly exceeded two hun-
dred dollars a year. The Bourse Gallatin advanced a com-
.paratively large sum for his education -and for the expenses of
his sister's illness. " No necessary expense was spared for my
education," is his memorandum on the back of some old ac-
counts of his guardian ; " but such was the frugality observed
in other respects, and the good care taken of my property, that
in 1786, when I came of age, all the debts had been paid ex-
cepting two thousand four hundred francs lent by an unknown
person through Mr. Cramer, who died in 1778, and with him
the secret name of that friend, who never made himself known
or could be guessed." In such an atmosphere one might sup-
pose that economists and financiers must grow without the need
of education. Yet the fact seems to have been otherwise, and
in Albert Gallatin's closest family connection, both his grand-
father Abraham and his uncle Alphonse Rolaz ultimately died
insolvent, and instead of inheriting a fortune from them he was
left to pay their debts.
Of the nature of Albert's training the best idea can be got
from his own account of the Academy of Geneva, contained in
a letter written in 1847 and published among his works. 1 At
that time the academy represented all there was of education in
the little republic, and its influence was felt in every thought and
act of the citizens. "In its organization and general outlines
the academy had not, when I left Geneva in 1780, been mate-
rially altered from the original institutions of its founder. What-
ever may have been his defects and erroneous views, Calvin had
at all events the learning of his age, and, however objectionable
some of his religious doctrines, he was a sincere and zealous
friend of knowledge and of its wide diffusion among the people.
Of this he laid the foundation by making the whole education
almost altogether gratuitous, from the A B C to the time when
the student had completed his theological or legal studies. But
there was nothing remarkable or new in the organization or
forms of the schools. These were on the same plan as colleges
1 Letter to Eben Dodge, 21st January, 1847. Writings, vol. ii. p. 638.
12 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1779.
were then, and generally continue to be in the old seminaries of
learning. ... In the first place, besides the academy proper,
there was a preparatory department intimately connected with it
and under its control. This in Geneva was called ( the College/
and consisted of nine classes, . . . the three lower of which, for
reading, writing, and spelling, were not sufficient for the wants
of the people, and had several succursales or substitutes in various
parts of the city. But for that which was taught in the six
upper classes (or in the academy), there were no other public
schools but the college and the academy. In these six classes
nothing whatever was taught but Latin and Greek, Latin thor-
oughly, Greek much neglected. Professor de Saussure used his
best endeavors about 1776, when rector of the academy, to im-
prove the system of education in the college by adding some
elementary instruction in history, geography, and natural science,
but could not succeed, a great majority of his colleagues opposing
him. . . .
"When not aided and stimulated by enlightened parents or
friends, the students from the time when they entered the
academy (on an average when about or rather more than fifteen
years old) were left almost to themselves, and studied more or
less as they pleased. But almost all had previously passed
through at least the upper classes of the college. I was the
only one of my class and of the two immediately preceding and
following me who had been principally educated at home and
had passed only through the first or upper class of the college.
... In the years 1775-1779 the average number of the scholars
in the four upper classes of the college was about one hundred,
and that of the students in the four first years of the academical
course, viz., the auditoires of belles-lettres and philosophy, about
fifty, of whom not more than one or two had not passed through
at least the three or four upper classes of the college. Very few
mechanics, even the watchmakers, so numerous in Geneva and
noted for their superior intelligence and knowledge, went beyond
the fifth and sixth classes, which included about one hundred
and twenty scholars. As to the lower or primary classes or
schools, it would have been difficult to find a citizen intra muros
who could not read and write. The peasantry or cultivators of
1779. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 13
the soil in the small Genevese territory were, indeed, far more
intelligent than their Catholic neighbors, but still, as in the
other continental parts of Europe, a distinct and inferior class,
with some religious instruction, but speaking patois (the great
obstacle to the diffusion of knowledge), and almost univer-
sally not knowing how to read or to write. The population
intra muros was about 24,000 (in 1535, at the epoch of the Refor-
mation and independence, about 13,000), of whom nearly one
third not naturalized, chiefly Germans or Swiss, exercising what
were considered as lower trades, tailors, shoemakers, &c., and
including almost all the menial servants. I never knew or heard
of a male citizen or native of Geneva serving as such. The
number of citizens above twenty-five years of age, and having
a right to vote, amounted, exclusively of those residing abroad,
to 2000. . . .
" There was in Geneva neither nobility nor any hereditary
privilege but that of citizenship ; and the body of citizens as-
sembled in Council General had preserved the power of laying
taxes, enacting laws, and ratifying treaties. But they could
originate nothing, and a species of artificial aristocracy, composed
of the old families which happened to be at the head of affairs
when independence was declared, and skilfully strengthened by
the successive adoption of the most distinguished citizens and
emigrants, had succeeded in engrossing the public employments
and concentrating the real power in two self-elected councils of
twenty-five and two hundred members respectively. But that
power rested on a most frail foundation, since in a state which
consists of a single city the majority of the inhabitants may in
twenty-four hours overset the government. In order to preserve
it, a moral, intellectual superiority was absolutely necessary.
This could not be otherwise attained than by superior knowl-
edge and education, and the consequence was that it became
disgraceful for any young man of decent parentage to be an
idler. All were bound to exercise their faculties to the utmost ;
and although there are always some incapable, yet the number is
small of those who, if they persevere, may not by labor become,
in some one branch, well-informed men. Nor was that love and
habit of learning long confined to that self-created aristocracy.
14 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL A TIN. 1779.
A salutary competition in that respect took place between the
two political parties, which had a most happy effect on the general
diffusion of knowledge.
" During the sixteenth and the greater part of the seventeenth
century the Genevese were the counterpart of the Puritans of
Old and of the Pilgrims of New England, the same doctrines,
the same simplicity in the external forms of worship, the same
austerity of morals and severity of manners, the same attention
to schools and seminaries of learning, the same virtues, and the
same defects, exclusiveness and intolerance, equally banishing
all those who differed on any point from the established creed,
putting witches to death, &c., &c. And with the progress of
knowledge both about at the same time became tolerant and
liberal. But here the similitude ends. To the Pilgrims of New
England, in common with the other English colonists, the most
vast field of enterprise was opened which ever offered itself to
civilized man. Their mission was to conquer the wilderness, to
multiply indefinitely, to settle and inhabit a whole continent,
and to carry their institutions and civilization from the Atlantic
to the Pacific Ocean. With what energy and perseverance this
has been performed we all know. But to those pursuits all the
national energies were directed. Learning was not neglected ;
but its higher branches were a secondary object, and science was
cultivated almost exclusively for practical purposes, and only
as far as was requisite for supplying the community with the
necessary number of clergymen and members of the other
liberal professions. The situation of Geneva was precisely the
reverse of this. Confined to a single city and without terri-
tory, its inhabitants did all that their position rendered practi-
cable. They created the manufacture of watches, which gave
employment to near a fourth part of the population, and carried
on commerce to the fullest extent of which their geographical
situation was susceptible. But the field of active enterprise
was still the narrowest possible. To all those who were am-
bitious of renown, fame, consideration, scientific pursuits were
the only road that could lead to distinction, and to these, or
other literary branches, all those who had talent and energy
devoted themselves.
1779. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 15
" All could not be equally successful ; few only could attain a
distinguished eminence ; but, as I have already observed, a far
greater number of well educated and informed men were found
in that small spot than in almost every other town of Europe
which was not the metropolis of an extensive country. This
had a most favorable influence on the tone of society, which was
not light, frivolous, or insipid, but generally serious and in-
structive. I was surrounded by that influence from my earliest
days, and, as far as I am concerned, derived more benefit from
that source than from my attendance on academical lectures. A
more general fact deserves notice. At all times, and within my
knowledge in the years 1770-1780, a great many distinguished
foreigners came to Geneva to finish their education, among whom
were nobles and princes from Germany and other northern
countries ; there were also not a few lords and gentlemen from
England ; even the Duke of Cambridge, after he had completed
his studies at Gottingen. Besides these there were some from
America, amongst whom I may count before the American Revo-
lution those South Carolinians, Mr. Kinloch, William Smith,
afterwards a distinguished member of Congress and minister to
Portugal, and Colonel Laurens, one of the last who fell in the
war of independence. And when I departed from Geneva I
left there, besides the two young Penns, proprietors of Pennsyl-
vania, Franklin Bache, grandson of Dr. Franklin, Johan-
not, grandson of Dr. Cooper, of Boston, who died young. Now,
amongst all those foreigners I never knew or heard of a single
one who attended academical lectures. It was the Genevese
society which they cultivated, aided by private teachers in every
branch, with whom Geneva was abundantly supplied."
At the academy Albert Gallatin associated of course with all
the young Genevese of his day. As most of these had no per-
manent influence on him, and maintained no permanent relations
with him, it is needless to speak of them further. There were
but two whose names will recur frequently hereafter. Neither
of them was equal to Gallatin in abilities or social advantages,
but in politics and philosophy all were evidently of one mind,
and the fortunes of all were linked together. The name of
one was Henri Serre, that of the other was Jean Badollet.
16 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1779.
What kind of men they were will appear in the course of their
adventures. A fourth, whose name is better known than those
just mentioned, seems to have been a close friend of the other
three, but differed from them by not coming to America. He
was fitienne Dumont, afterwards the friend and interpreter of
Bentham.
However enlightened the society of Pregny may have been
under the influence of Voltaire and Frederic of Hesse, it is not
to be supposed that Mme. Gallatin-Vaudenet or any other mem-
bers of the Gallatin family were by tastes and interests likely
to lean towards levelling principles in politics. Of all people
in Geneva they were perhaps most interested in maintaining
the old Genevese regime. The Gallatins were for the most
part firm believers in aristocracy, and Albert certainly never
found encouragement for liberal opinions in his own family,
unless they may have crept in through the pathway of Voltairean
philosophy as mere theory, the ultimate results of which were
not foreseen. This makes more remarkable the fact that young
Gallatin, who was himself a clear-headed, sober-minded, practical
Genevan, should, by some bond of sympathy which can hardly
have been anything more than the intellectual movement of his
time, have affiliated with a knot of young men who, if not quite
followers of Rousseau, were still essentially visionaries. They
were dissatisfied with the order of things in Geneva. They
believed in human nature, and believed that human nature when
free from social trammels would display nobler qualities and
achieve vaster results, not merely in the physical but also in the
moral world. The American Revolutionary war was going on,
and the American Declaration of Independence embodied, per-
haps helped to originate, some of their thoughts.
With minds in this process of youthful fermentation, they
finished their academical studies and came out into the world.
Albert was graduated in May, 1779, first of his class in mathe-
matics, natural philosophy, and Latin translation. Before this
time, in April, 1778, he had returned to Mile. Pictet, and his
principal occupation for the year after graduating was as tutor
to her nephew, Isaac Pictet. Both Gallatin and Badollet were
students of English, and the iastruction given to Isaac Pictet
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 17
seems to have been partly in English. Of course the serious
question before him was that of choosing a profession, and this
question was one in which his family were interested ; in which,
indeed, their advice would naturally carry decisive weight. The
young man was much at Pregny with his grandparents, where,
during his childhood, he often visited Voltaire at Ferney. His
grandmother had her own views as to his career. She wished
him to take a commission of lieutenant-colonel in the military
service of her friend the Landgrave of Hesse, with whom her
interest was sufficient to insure for him a favorable reception and
a promising future. At that moment, it is true, the military
prospects of the Landgrave's troops in the Jerseys were not pecu-
liarly flattering, and the service can hardly have been popular with
such as might remember the dying words of Colonel Donop
at Red Bank ; but after all the opportunity was a sure one,
suitable for a gentleman of ancient family, according to the
ideas of the time, and flattering to the pride of Mme. Gallatin-
Yaudenet. She spoke to her grandson on the subject, urging
her advice with all the weight she could give it. He replied,
abruptly, that he would never serve a tyrant. The reply was
hardly respectful, considering the friendship which he knew to
exist between his grandmother and the Landgrave, and it is not
altogether surprising that it should have provoked an outbreak
of temper on her part which took the shape of a box on the ear :
" she gave me a cuff," were Mr. Gallatin's own words in telling
the story to his daughter many years afterwards. This " cuff"
had no small weight in determining the young man's course of
action.
Yet it would be unfair to infer from this box on the ear that
the family attempted to exercise any unreasonable control over
Albert's movements. If any one in the transaction showed
himself unreasonable, it was the young man, not his relations.
They were ready to aid him to the full extent of their powers
in any respectable line of life which might please his fancy.
They would probably have preferred that he should choose a
mercantile rather than a military career. They would have per-
mitted, and perhaps encouraged, his travelling for a few years
to fit himself for that object. It was no fault of theirs that he
2
18 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1780.
suddenly took the whole question into his own hands, and, after
making silent preparations and carrying with him such resources
as he could then raise, on the 1st April, 1780, in company with
his friend Serre, secretly and in defiance of his guardian and
relations, bade a long farewell to Geneva and turned his back
on the past.
The act was not a wise one. That future which the young
Gallatin grasped so eagerly with outstretched arms had little in
it that even to an ardent imagination at nineteen could compen-
sate for the wanton sacrifice it involved. There is no reason
to suppose that Albert Gallatin's career was more brilliant or
more successful in America than with the same efforts and with
equal sacrifices it might have been in Europe; for his charac-
ter and abilities must have insured pre-eminence in whatever
path he chose. Both the act of emigration and the manner of
carrying it out were inconsiderate and unreasonable, as is clear
from the arguments by which he excused them at the time. He
wished to improve his fortune, he said, and to do this he was
going, without capital, as his family pointed out, to a land
already ruined by a long and still raging civil war, without a
government and without trade. This was his ostensible reason ;
and his private one was no better, that " daily dependence" on
others, and particularly on Mile. Pictet and his grandmother,
which galled his pride. That he was discontented with Geneva
and the Genevan political system was true; but to emigrate
was not the way to mend it, and even in emigrating he did
not pretend that his object in seeking America was to throw
himself into the Revolutionary struggle. He felt a strong
sympathy for the Americans and for the political liberty which
was the motive of their contest ; but this sympathy was rather
a matter of reason than of passion. He always took care to
correct the idea, afterwards very commonly received, that he
had run away from his family and friends in order to fight the
British. So far as his political theories were concerned, aversion
to Geneva had more to do with his action than any enthusiasm
for war, and in the list of personal motives discontent with his
dependent position at home had more influence over him than
the desire for wealth. At this time, and long afterwards, he
1780 YOUTH. 1761-1790. 19
was proud and shy. His behavior for many years was controlled
by these feelings, which only experience and success at last soft-
ened and overcame.
The manner of departure was justified by him on the ground
that he feared forcible restraint should he attempt to act openly.
The excuse was a weak one, and the weaker if a positive pro-
hibition were really to be feared, which was probably not the
case. No one had the power to restrain young Gallatin very
long. He might have depended with confidence on having his
own way had he chosen to insist. But the spirit of liberty at
this time was rough in its methods. Albert Gallatin's con-
temporaries and friends were the men who carried the French
Revolution through its many wild phases, and at nineteen men
are governed by feeling rather than by common sense, even when
they do not belong to a generation which sets the world in
flames.
However severe the judgment of his act may be, there was
nothing morally wrong in it ; nothing which he had not a right
to do if he chose. In judging it, too, the reader is affected by
the fact that none of his letters in his own defence have been
preserved, while all those addressed to him are still among his
papers. These, too, are extremely creditable to his family, and
show strong affection absolutely free from affectation, and the
soundest good sense without a trace of narrowness. Among
them all, one only can be given here. It is from Albert's guar-
dian, a distant relative in an elder branch of the family.
P. M. GALLATIN TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
GENEVE, 21e mai, 1780.
MONSIEUR, Avant que de vous e'er ire j'ai voulu m'assurer
cFune maniSre plus precise que je n'avais pu le faire les premiers
jours de votre depart, et par vous-m^me, quels e"taient vos projets,
le but et le motif de votre voyage, les causes qui avaient fait
naitre une pareille ide"e dans votre esprit, vos sentimens passes et
pre"sens et vos desirs pour Tavenir. II m'etait difficile a tous ces
e"gards de comprendre comment vous ne vous 6tiez ouvert ni a
Mile. Pictet qui, vous le savez bien, ne vous avait jamais aime" pour
20 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1780.
elle-iueme mais pour vous seul, qui n'a jamais voulu que votre
plus grand bien, qui a pris de vous non-setilement les soins que vous
auriez pu attendre de madame votre mere avee laquelle elle s'etait
individualist a votre 6gard, mais nieme ceux que pen d'enfants
e*prouvent de leurs pdres ; ni a moi, qui jamais ne vous ai refus6
quoi que ce soit, parcequ'en effet les demandes en petit nombre
que vous m'aviez faites jusqu'a present m'ont toujours paru sages
et raisonnables; ni a aucun de vos parens, de qui vousn'avez recu
que des douceurs dans tout le cours de votre vie. C*est, je vous
Pavouerai, ce deTaut de confiance, qui continue encore chez vous
a notre gard, qui m'afflige le plus vivement, voyant surtout qu'il
tourne contre vous au lieu de servir a votre avantage. Croyez-
vous done, monsieur, a votre age, calculer niieux que les personnes
qui ont quelque experience ? ou nous supposiez-vous assez derai-
sonnables pour nous refuser a entrer dans des plans qui auraient
pu un jour vous conduire au bonheur que vous cherehez ? II est
vrai qu'il n'est point de bonheur parfait en ce monde ; mais pensez-
vous que nous aurions t sourds ou insensibles a vos motifs les
plus secrets ? vous dfiez-vous de notre discretion pour nous re-
fuser la confidence qui nous 6tait due du de"veloppernent successif
de vos sentimens? est-ce la contrainte pour le choix d'un etat,
sont-ce les lois que nous vous avons inipos^es pour quelque objet
que ce soit, qui nous ont enleve" votre confiance ? au contraire, ne
vous avons-nous pas declare en diverses occasions que nous vous
laissions cette Iibert4? de\-ions-noiis et pouvions-nous nous at-
tendre que vous Finterpre*teriez en une ind^pendance absolue qui
ne reconnaitrait pas non-seulement Pautorite legitime niais la
d^rence naturelle et le besoin de direction et de conseils ? Que
vos motifs fussent bons ou mauvais pour prendre le parti que
vous avez pris, je n'entre plus la-dedans. La demarche est faite
et surtout la resolution est prise ; je ne chercherai point vous
en de"touraer ; si vous ne re"ussissez pas, vous aurez 6t4 tromp^
par de faux raisonnemens, comme vous le dites, et voila tout.
Et quand ce projet nous aurait te communiqu6 avaut son exeeu-
tion, quand nous vous Paurions represent^ aussi extravagant qu'il
nous le parait> quand nous vous aurions d&aille les iuconveniens,
si vous 7 aviez persist^, nous aurions dit Amen ; mais alors du
moins nous aurions pu d'avance en pr^venir un grand nombre,
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 21
diminuer la grandeur de quelques autres, vous aider avec plus de
fruit pour le projet me 1 me, et avec moins d'inconve'niens en cas de
non-reussite ; nous aurions prepare" les voies autant qu'il nous
aurait ete possible pour Fexe"cution et nous vous aurions facilite*
le retour en fondant votre esp^rance d'un sort heureux si jamais
vous etiez force" de revenir ici. Monsieur du Rosey votre oncle
vous avait fait entrevoir une situation aise*e pour Favenir ; mais si
une honnete mediocrite n'eut pas satisfait vos dSsirs ambitieux,
ses oifres gen^reuses ne devaient-elles pas lui ouvrir votre coeur
et vous determiner a lui confier vos projets que (s'il n'eut pas pu
les aneantir par le raisonnement et la persuasion) il eut sans doute
favorises ? Un ordre positif! Avec quels yeux nous avez-vous
done vus? Aujourd'hui croyez-vous cette defiance injuste que
vous nous avez montre"e et par votre conduite et par vos lettres,
bien propre a le disposer en votre faveur? Soyez certain ce-
pendant, monsieur, que je vous aiderai autant que votre fortune
pourra le permettre sans deranger vos capitaux, dont je dois vous
rendre compte un jour et que vous me saurez peut-etre gre de vous
avoir conserves; en attendant je suis oblige" par un serment
solennel prt en justice que j'observerai inviolablement jusques
a ce que j'en sois juridiquement de"gage"; et vous refuser vos
capitaux pour un projet dont je ne saurais voir la fin, n'est ni
infamie ni durete", mais prudence et sagesse.
Aprs ces observations, dont j'ai cru que vous aviez besoin,
permettez-moi quelques reflexions sur votre projet. D'abord j'ai
lieu de croire que la somme qui vous reste, ou qui vous restait,
n'est pas a beaucoup pres de cent cinquante louis ; secondement,
le gain que vous pr6tendez faire par le commerce d'armement
est trs-incertain ; il est en troisieme lieu tr^s-lent a se faire
apercevoir; en attendant il faut vivre; et comment vivrez-vous?
de lecons ? quelle pitoyable ressource, pour ^tre la dernire, dans
un pays surtout oft les vivres sont si exorbitamment chers et oft
tout le reste se paye si mal ! Des terres incultes a acheter ? avec
quoi ? plus elles sont a bas prix, plus elles indiquent la cherte"
des denr^es ; le grand nombre de terres incultes, le besoin qu ? on
a de les deTricher, sont deux preuves des sommes considerables
qu ? il en coftte pour vivre. Yos reflexions sur le gain a faire sur
ces terres et sur le papier, supposent d'abord que vous aurez de
22 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1780.
quoi en acheter beaucoup, supposition ridicule, et feraient croire
que vous vous tes imaging disposer des e"venemens au gre" de vos
souhaits et selon vos besoins. . . .
Mr. Franklin doit vous recommander a Philadelphie. Vous
j trouverez des ressources que bien d'autres n'auraient pas, mais
vous en aurez moins et vous les aurez plus tard que si nous
avions e"te" pre"venus a terns. Mr. Kenlock, connu de Mile.
Beaulacre et de M. Muller, y est actuellement au Congrs; ne
faites pas difficult^ de le voir ; je ne saurais douter qu'il lie vous
aide de ses conseils et que vous ne trouviez aupres de lui des
directions convenables.
Malgre* les choses desagreables que je puis vous avoir toites
dans cette lettre, vous ne doutez pas, je Fespere, mon cher mon-
sieur, du tendre interet que je prends a votre sort, qui me les a
dictees, et vous devez tre persuade des voeux sinceres que je fais
pour 1'accomplissement de vos desirs. Le jeune Serre est plus
fait que vous pour reussir ; son imagination ardente lui fera
aisement trouver des ressources, et son courage actif lui fera
surmonter les obstacles ; mais votre indolence naturelle en vous
livrant aux projets hardis de ce jeune homme vous a expose* sans
reflexion a des dangers que je redoute pour vous, et si vous
comptez sur Famitie* inviolable que vous vous etes vouee Fun a
Fautre (dont a Dieu ne plaise que je vous invite a vous defier)
croyez-vous cependant qu'il soit bien delicat de se mettre dans le
cas d ? attendre ses ressources pour vivre, uniquenient de Fimagi-
nation et du courage d'autrui ? Adieu, mon cher monsieur ; ne
voyez encore une fois dans ce que je vous ai ecrit que le sentiment
qui Fa dicte*, et croyez-moi pour la vie, mon cher monsieur, votre
tr^s-afiectionne" tuteur.
As has been said, none of Albert's letters to his family have
been preserved. Fortunately, however, his correspondence with
his friend Badollet has not been lost, and the first letter of this
series, written while he was still in the Loire, from on board the
American vessel, the Katty, in which the two travellers had
taken passage from Nantes to Boston, is the only vestige of
writing now to be found which gives a certain knowledge of the
writer's frame of mind at the moment of his departure.
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 23
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PIMBEUF, 16 mai, 1780.
O'est un port de mer, 8 lieues
[au-dessous de Nantes. Nous]
nous y ennuyons beaucoup.
Mon cher ami, pourquoi ne m'as-tu point e"crit? j'attendois
pour t'e"crire de savoir si tu e"tois a Clerac ou a Geneve. J'espere
que c'est a Clerac, mais si notre affaire t'a fait manquer ta place,
j'espere, vu tout ce que je vois, que nous pourrons t'avoir cette
annee ; j'aimerois cependant mieux que tu eusses quelqu'argent,
parcequ'en achetant des marchandises tu gagnerois prodigieuse-
ment dessus. Si tu es a Clerac, c'est pour Fannie prochaine.
Fai re9U des lettres fort tendres qui m'ont presqu'e'branle' et
dans lesquelles on me promet en cas que je persiste, de Fargent
et des recommandations. J'ai deja re9U de celles-ci, et j'ai fait
connoissance ici avec des Ame'ricains de distinction. En cas
que tu sois a Clerac, je t'apprendrai que nous sommes venus a
Nantes dans cinq jours fort heureusement, que nous avons trouve
un vaisseau pour Boston nomine" la Katti, Cap. Loring, qui par-
toit le lendemain, mais nous avons e"te" retenus ici depuis 15 jours
par les vents contraires et nous irons a Lorient chercher un
convoi. Mon adresse est a Monsieur Gallatin a Philadelphie,
sous une enveloppe adressee: A Messieurs Struikmann &
Meinier freres, a Nantes, le tout affranchi. Des details sur ta
place, je te prie. Nous ne craignons plus rien ; on nous a promis
de ne pas s'opposer a notre dessein si nous persistions. Hentsch
s'est fort bien conduit. Adieu ; la poste part, j'ai deja teit cinq
lettres. Tout a toi.
Serre te fait ses complimens ; il dort pour le moment.
The entire sum of money which the two young men brought
with them from Geneva was one hundred and sixty-six and two-
thirds louis-d'or, equal to four thousand livres tournois, reck-
oning twenty-four livres to the louis. One-half of this sum
was expended in posting across France and paying their passage
to Boston. Their capital for trading purposes was therefore
about four hundred dollars, which, however, belonged entirely
24 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1780.
to Gallatin, as Serre had no means and paid no part of the
expenses. For a long time to come they could expect no more
supplies.
Meanwhile, the family at Geneva had moved heaven and earth
to smooth their path, and had written or applied for letters of
introduction in their behalf to every person who could be sup-
posed to have influence. One of these persons was the Due de la
Rochefoucauld d'Enville, who wrote to Franklin a letter which
may be found in Franklin's printed correspondence. 1 The letter
tells no more than we know; but Franklin's reply is characteristic.
Tt runs thus :
BENJ. FRANKLIN TO THE DUG DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD D'ENVILLE.
PASSY, May 24, 1780.
DEAR SIR, I enclose the letter you desired for the two
young gentlemen of Geneva. But their friends would do well
to prevent their voyage.
With sincere and great esteem, I am, dear sir, your most
obedient and most humble servant,
B. FRANKLIN.
The letter enclosed was as follows :
PASSY, May 24, 1780.
DEAR SON, Messrs. Gallatin and Serres, two young gentle-
men of Geneva, of good families and very good characters,
having an inclination to see America, if they should arrive in
your city I recommend them to your civilities, counsel, and
countenance.
I am ever your aifectionate father,
B. FRANKLIN.
To RICHARD BACHE, Postmaster-General, Philadelphia.
Lady Juliana Penn, also, wrote to John Penn at Philadelphia
in their favor. Mile. Pictet wrote herself to Colonel Kinloch,
1 Sparks's Franklin, viii. 454.
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 25
then a member of the Continental Congress from South Caro-
lina. Her description of the young men is probably more
accurate than any other : " Quoique je n'ai pas Pavantage d'etre
connue de vous, j'ai trop entendu parler de I'honntet6 et de la
sensibility de votre ame pour hesiter a vous demander un service
absolument essentiel au bonheur de ma vie. Deux jeunes gens
de ce pays, nomine" Gallatin et Serre, n'e"tant pas contents de leur
fortune, qui est effectivement mediocre, et s'e"tant e'chauffe' Pimagi-
nation du d6sir de s'en faire une cux-m^mes, aiders d'un peu
d'enthousiasme pour les Americains, prennent le parti de passer
a Philadelphie. Us sont tous deux pleins d'honneur, de bons
sentiments, fort sages, et n'ont jamais donne" le moindre sujet de
plainte a leurs families, qui ont le plus grand regret de leur
depart. ... Us out tous deux des talents et des connaissances ;
mais je crois qu'ils n'entendent rien au commerce et a la
culture des terres qui sont les moyens de fortune qu'ils ont
imagines." . . .
With such introductions and such advantages, aided by the
little fortune which Gallatin would inherit on coming of age in
1786, in his twenty-fifth year, the path was open to him. He
had but to walk in it. Success, more or less brilliant, was as
certain as anything in this world can be.
He preferred a different course. Instead of embracing his
opportunities, he repelled them. Like many other brilliant men,
he would not, and never did, learn to overcome some youthful
prejudices; he disliked great cities and the strife of crowded
social life ; he never could quite bring himself to believe in their
advantages and in the necessity of modern society to agglomerate
in masses and either to solve the difficulties inherent in close
organization or to perish under them. He preferred a wilderness
in his youth, and, as will be seen, continued in theory to prefer
it in his age. It was the instinct of his time and his associa-
tions ; the atmosphere of Rousseau and Jefferson ; pure theory,
combined with shy pride. He seems never to have made use
of his introductions unless when compelled by necessity, and
refused to owe anything to his family. Not that even in this
early stage of his career he ever assumed an exterior that was
harsh or extravagant, or manners that were repulsive; but
26 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1780.
he chose to take the world from the side that least touched his
pride, and, after cutting loose so roughly from the ties of home
and family, he could not with self-respect return to follow their
paths. His friends could do no more. He disappeared from
their sight, and poor Mile. Pictet could only fold her hands and
wait. Adoring her with a warmth of regard which he never
failed to express at every mention of her name, he almost broke
her heart by the manner of his desertion, and, largely from
unwillingness to tell his troubles, largely too, it must be ac-
knowledged, from mere indolence, he left her sometimes for
years without a letter or a sign of life. Like many another
woman, she suffered acutely ; and her letters are beyond words
pathetic in their effort to conceal her suffering. Mr. Gallatin
always bitterly regretted his fault : it was the only one in his
domestic life.
His story must be told as far as possible in his own words ;
but there remain only his letters to Badollet to throw light on
his manner of thinking and his motives of action at this time.
In these there are serious gaps. He evidently did not care to
tell all he had to endure ; but with what shall be given it will
be easy for the reader to divine the rest.
The two young men landed on Cape Ann on the 14th July,
1780. The war was still raging, and the result still uncertain.
General Gates was beaten at Camden on the 16th August, and
all the country south of Virginia lost. More than a year passed
before the decisive success at Yorktown opened a prospect of
peace. The travellers had no plans, and, if one may judge
from their tone and behavior, were as helpless as two boys of
nineteen would commonly be in a strange country, talking a
language of which they could only stammer a few words, and
trying to carry on mercantile operations without a market and
with a currency at its last gasp. They had brought tea from
Nantes as a speculation, and could only dispose of it by taking
rum and miscellaneous articles in exchange. Their troubles were
many, and it is clear that they were soon extremely homesick ;
for, after riding on horseback from Gloucester to Boston, they
took refuge at a French coffee-house kept by a certain Tahon,
and finding there a Genevan, whom chance threw in their way,
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 27
they clung to him with an almost pathetic persistence. On
September 4 they bought a horse and yellow chaise for eight
thousand three hundred and thirty-three dollars. Perhaps it
was in this chaise that they made an excursion to Wachusett
Hill, which they climbed. But their own letters will describe
them best.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
No. 2.
BOSTON, 14 septembre, 1780.
Mon cher ami, je t'ai deja e"crit une lettre il y a quatre jours,
mais elle a bien des hazards a courir, ainsi je vais t'en recrire une
seconde par une autre occasion, et je vais commencer par un re'sume'
de ce que je te disais dans ma premiere.
Nous parttmes le 27e mai de Lorient, aprs avoir paye* 60
louis pour notre voyage, les provisions comprises. Notre coquin
de capitaine, aussi frippon que bete et superstitieux, nous tint a
peu pres tout le terns a viande sale"e et a eau pourrie. Le second
du vaisseau, plus frippon et plus hypocrite que le premier, nous
vola 6 guinees dans notre poche, plus la moitie" de notre linge,
plus le 3-J pour 100 de fret de notre the. (II avait demande
5 pr. cent, de fret pour du the que nous embarquions, et il a
exig6 8|-.) Au reste, point de tempete pour orner notre re"cit,
peu malades, beaucoup d'ennui, et souvent effraye"s par des cor-
saires qui nous ont poursuivis. Enfin nous arrivames le 14e
juillet au Cap Anne a huit lieues de Boston ou nous nous
rendimes le lendemain a cheval.
Ce qui suit n'e"toit pas dans [ma premiere lettre].
Boston est une ville d'environ 18 mille ames, batie sur une
presqu'ile plus longue que large. Je la crois plus grande que
Geneve, mais il y a des jardins, des prairies, des vergers au milieu
de la ville et chaque famille a ordinairement sa maison. Ces
maisons ont rarement plus d'un 4tage ou deux. Elles sont de
briques ou de bois, couvertes de planches et d'ardoises, avec
des terrasses sur les toits et dans beaucoup d'endroits avec des
conducteurs qui ont presque tous trois pointes. Une ou deux
28 LIFE OF ALBEET GALL A TIN. 1780.
rues tirees ail cordeau, point d'edifices publics remarquables, un
havre tres-vaste et defendu par des lies qui ne laissent que deux
entries tres-e"troites, une situation qui rendrait la ville imprenable
si elle e"tait fortifie"e, voila tout ce que j'ai a te dire de Boston.
Les habitans n'ont ni delicatesse ni honneur ni instruction, et il
n'y a rien de trop a Pe"gard de leur probite, non plus qu'a l'e"gard
de celles des Frai^ais qui sont e*tablis ici et qui sont fort hai's des
naturels du pays. On s'ennuye fort a Boston. II n'y a aucun
amusement public et beaucoup de superstition, en sorte que 1'on
ne peut pas le dimanche chanter, jouer du violon, aux cartes,
aux boules, &c. Je t'assure que nous avons grand besoin de toi
pour venir augmenter nos plaisirs. En attendant, donne-nous
de tes nouvelles et fais-nous un peu part de la politique de
Geneve. Je vais te payer en te disant quelque chose de ce
pays. . . .
Then follow four close pages of statistical information about
the thirteen colonies, of the ordinary school-book type, which
may be omitted without injury to the reader ; at the end of
which the letter proceeds :
On m'a dit beaucoup de mal de tous les habitans de la
Nouvelle-Angleterre ; du bien de ceux de la Pensilvanie, de
la Virginie, du Maryland, et de la Caroline Septentrionale ; et
rien des autres.
J'en viens a FEtat de Massachusetts, que je connais le mieux
et que j'ai garde" pour le dernier.
II est divise" en huit comts et chaque comte" en plusieurs villes.
Car il n'y a point de bourgs. Des qu'un certain nombre de fa-
milies veulent smaller e"tablir dans un terrain en friche et qu'elles
consentent a entretenir un ministre et deux maitres d'ecole, on
leur donne un espace de deux lieues en quarre" nomine" township
et l'e"tablissement obtient le nom de ville et en a tous les privi-
le"ges. Les habitans de toutes les villes au-dessus de vingt-et-un
ans et qui possdent en Ame"rique un bien exce"dant trois livres
sterling de revenu, s'assemblent une fois Fan pour e"lire un
gouverneur et un senat de la province, compose* de six membres,
dont on remplace deux membres par an. On compte les suffrages
1780. TOUTH. 1761-1790. 29
dans chaque ville et ceux qui ont la plurality des villes sont elus.
Car les suffrages de chaque ville sont egaux. Boston n'a pas plus
de droit qu'un village de deux cents hommes. Le se*nat 6lit un
conseil au gouverneur et chaque ville envoye le nombre de deputes
a Boston qu'elle veut. Cela forme la chambre des repre"sentans
et Ton prend toujours les suffrages par ville. Environ deux cents
villes envoyent des deputes et plus de cent ne sont pas assez riches
pour en entretenir. II faut le consentement de ces trois corps
pour faire une loi, repartir les impots (car c'est le Congres Ge"-
neral qui les fixe sur chaque province, qui decide la paix ou la
guerre, &c.), &c. Chaque ville e*lit les magistrats de police.
Tout homme croyant un Dieu renmne'rateur et une autre vie est
tolere chez lui ; et nombre de sectes ont des e"glises. II y a cent
ans qu'on y persecutait les Anglicans. Tel est le nouveau plan
de gouvernement qui a eu Papprobation des villes apres que deux
autres ont e"te rejetes et qui sera en vigueur dans trois mois. Cette
province est la plus comme^ante de toutes et une des plus peu-
ple"es. Elle ne produit guere que du mai's, des patates, du poisson,
du bois et des bestiaux. Ce sont actuellement ses corsaires qui
la soutiennent. On fait ici d'excellent voiliers. Mais il n'y a
aucune fabrique (excepte des toiles grossieres). II y a un college
et une academic et une bibliotheque a Cambridge, petite ville a
une lieue de Boston. Je n'ai pas encore pu voir cela. II n'y a
aucune ville considerable excepte Boston dans cet e*tat. A l'egard
du comte de Main, les Anglais y ont un fort nomine* Penobscot
oil les Ame'ricains se sont fait bruler 18 vaisseaux Tann^e derniere
en voulant Tattaquer. II est a peu pres au milieu du comte*. Au
nord sont des tribus de sauvages ; au nord-est, FAcadie ou Nou-
velle-Ecosse ; et au nord-ouest, le Canada. * Je te dirai plus de
choses de ce pays dans peu de terns, car nous y allons faire un
petit voyage pour commercer en pelleteries. Nous allons a Ma-
chias (on prononce Maitchais) qui est la derniere place au nord.
Aye la bonte" de t'informer de toutes les particularity que tu
pourras apprendre sur les manufactures des environs de Bor-
deaux, sur la difficult^ qu'il y aurait a en transporter des ouvriers
ici, de m^me que des agriculteurs, sur le prix des marchandises
qui doivent y etre a bon compte tant parcequ'on les y fabrique
que parcequ'elles y arrivent aisement, sur ce que content les pen-
30 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1780.
dules de bois en particulier, &c. J'espere que nous te verrons
dans peu auprs de nous. Cela se fera sur un vaisseau que nous
pourrons t'indiquer. Nous aurons fait march6 avec le capitaine
et j'espre que tu pourras faire la traversed plus agrablement et
Sconomiquement que nous. Adieu, mon bon ami. Pense aussi
souvent & nous que nous a toi et ecris-nous longuement et tres-
souvent, car il y a bien des vaisseaux de pris.
"A MONSIEUR BADOLLET, Etudiant en ThSologie."
Whoever gave the writer his information in regard to the
Massachusetts constitution was remarkably ill informed. But
this is a trifle. The next letter soon follows :
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
No. 3.
MAOHIAS, 29 8re, 1780.
Mon cher ami, tu ne t'attendais sans doute pas & recevoir des
lettres dates d'un nom aussi baroque, mais c'est celui que les
sauvages y ont mis, et comme ils sont les premiers possesseurs
du pays, il est juste de Fappeler comme eux. (On prononce
Maitchais.) C'est ici que nous allons passer Thiver. ISTous
avons pre"fe*re" les glaces du nord au climat tempe"re~ qu'habitent
les Quakers, et si nous t'avions avec nous pour cele"brer PEscalade
et pour vivre avec nous, je t'assure que nous serions fort contens
de notre sort actuel. Car jusqu'a present notre saute" et nos
affaires pScuniaires vont fort bien ; quand je dis fort bien, c'est
qu'& l^gard du dernier article nous ne sommes pas trop am-
bitieux. Je vais te detail ler tout Pe"tat de nos affaires. Dans la
maison ou nous demeurions a Boston nous rencontrames une
Suissesse qui avait e"pouse un Genevois nomine* de Lesdernier de
Russin et dont je crois t'avoir dit deux mots dans une de mes
lettres prScMentes. II y avait trente ans qu'il 6tait venu
s^tablir dans la Nouvelle-Ecosse. Tu sais que cette province
et le Canada sont les seules qui soient restte sous le joug
anglais. Une partie des habitans de la premiere essaya cepen-
dant de se rSvolter il y a deux ou trois ans. Mais n'ayant pas
6t6 soutenus ils furent obliges de s'enfuir dans la Nouvelle-
Angleterre. Parmi eux 6tait un des fils de de Lesdernier. II
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 31
vint dans cette place oft il fut fait lieutenant. II fut ensuite
fait prisonnier et mene* a Halifax (la capitale de la Nouvelle-
Ecosse). Son pere Falla voir en prison et la lui fit adoucir
jusqu'a ce qu'il fut e"change*. Mais il essuya beaucoup de d6sa-
gre"mens de la part de ses amis qui lui reprochaient d'avoir un
fils parmi les rebelles. II eut ensuite une partie de ses effets
pris par les Ame'ricains tandis qu'il les faisait transporter sur mer
d'une place a une autre ou il allait s'etablir. L ? espe"rance de les
recouvrer s'il venait a Boston jointe au souvenir de Faffaire de
son fils Fengagea a quitter la Nouvelle-Ecosse avec un autre de
ses fils (trois autres sont au service du roi d'Angleterre) et sa
femme. Quand nous vinmes a Boston, n'ayant rien pu re-
couvrer, il e"tait alle" jusqu'a Baltimore dans le Maryland voir
s'il ne trouverait rien a faire ; et a Farrive"e de la flotte fran9aise
a Rhode Island, il y alia et y prit un Capucin pour servir de
missionnaire parmi les sauvages dans cette place. Car ils sont
tous catholiques et du parti des Fran9ais. Dans ce m6me temps
ayant de la peine ii vendre notre the" et voyant beaucoup de
difficulte*s pour le commerce du c6te" de la Pensilvanie, nous
e'changeames notre the" contre des marchandises des lies, et nous
re"solumes de venir ici acheter du poisson et faire la traite de la
pelleterie avec les sauvages. Machias est la dernire place au
nord-est de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, a environ cent lieues de
Boston, dans le comte de Main qui est annexe* a Fe"tat de Mas-
sachusetts Bay. II n'y a que quinze ans qu'on y a forme* un
e*tablissement qui est fort pauvre a cause de la guerre et qui ne
consiste qu'en 150 families disperses dans un espace de 3 & 4
lieues. Nous sommes dans le chef-lieu, ou est un fort, le colonel
Allan commandant de la place et surintendant de tous les
sauvages qui sont entre le Canada, la Nouvelle-Ecosse et la
Nouvelle-Angleterre, et tous les officiers. Lesdernier le fils,
chez qui nous logeons, est un tres-joli gar9on. Nous y passerons
Fhiver et probablement nous prendrons des terres le printems
prochain, non pas ici mais un peu plus au nord ou au sud ou
elles sont meilleures. On les a pour rien, mais elles sont en
friche et assez difficiles & travailler. Ajoute a cela le manque
d'hommes. C'est pourquoi je te le repete, informe-toi des con-
ditions auxquelles des paysans voudraient venir ici. Celles que
32 LIFE OP ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1780.
nous pourrions accorder & peu pres seraient de les faire trans-
porter gratis, de les entretenir la premiere annee, apres quoi la
moitie 1 du revenu des terres qu'ils defricheraient en cas que ce
fussent des bleds, ou le quart si c'etaient des paturages, leur
resteraient pendant dix, quinze ou vingt ans suivant les arrange-
mens (le plus longtems serait le mieux), et au bout de ce terns la
moide" ou le quart des terres leur appartiendrait a perpetuite" sans
qu'ils fussent obliges de cultiver davantage Fautre moitie ou les
autres trois quarts. En cas que tu en trouvasses, e"cris-nous le
avec les conditions, le nombre, &c.
Nous avons deja vu plusieurs sauvages, tous presqu'aussi noirs
que des negres, habille's presqu'a FEurop6enne excepte les femmes
qui Mais je veux te laisser un peu de curiosite sans la satis-
faire, afin que tu ayes autant de motifs que possible pour venir
nous joindre au plus tot. Mais ne pars que quand nous te le
dirons, parcequ'en cas que tu ayes de Fargent, nous t'indiquerons
quelles marchandises tu dois acheter, et parceque nous tacherons
de te procurer un embarquement agrSable. Dans notre passage
de Boston ici nous avons couru plus de risque qu'en venant
d'Europe. Le second jour de notre voyage nous relachames a
Newbury, jolie ville & dix lieues de Boston et nous y fume?
retenus 5 & 6 jours par les vents contraires. L'entree du havre.
est trs-e*troite et il y a un grand nombre de brisans, de maniero
que quand les vents ont souffle" depuis le dehors pendant quelque
terns il y a des vagues prodigieuses qui pouvaient briser ou renver-
ser le vaisseau quand nous voulumes sortir. Nous fumes done
obliges de rester encore quelques jours jusqu'^, ce que la mer ful
calm^e. Enfin nous partimes apres nous ^tre e"choue 2 fois dan?
le havre. Aprs deux jours de navigation les vents contraires ei
tres-forts nous obligerent d'entrer & Casco Bay, oil est la ville
de Falmouth, une des premieres victimes de cette guerre, car
elle a 6te" presqu'entierement bruise par les Anglais en ? 79. Le
lendemain nous en partimes. Bon vent tout le jour, la nuit et
le lendemain, mais un brouillard e"pais. Le lendemain un coup
de vent dechira notre grande voile. On la raccommoda tant
bien que mal, et & peine etait-elle replaced que le vent augmenta
et un quart d'heure apres on decouvrit tout ^ coup la terre ^
une port6e-de-fusil & gauche. Nous allions nord-est et le vent
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 33
6tait ouest, c'est a dire qu'il portait droit centre terre, et la
maree montait. L'on ne pouvait plus virer de bord et Ton flit
obligS dialler autant centre le vent qu'on le pouvait (par un
angle de 80 degres) ; malgr6 cela on approchait toujours de
terre, mais on en voyait le bout et heureusement elle tournait
moyennant quoi nous e"chappames, mais nous nations pas a deux
toises d'un roc qui 6tait a Pavant de la terre quand nous la d6-
passames. Nous gagnames le large au plus vite, et aprSs avoir
6t6 battus par la tempete toute la nuit, nous arrivames le lende-
main ici.
Je n'ai pas besoin de te dire que ceci est e"crit au nom de tous
les deux, et comme tu le vois le papier ne me permet pas de
causer plus longtems avec toi. Adieu, mon bon ami. Cette
lettre est achevee le 7e novembre. Je numSrote mes lettres.
Fais-en autant et dis-moi quels numeros tu as re9us.
Tu ne recevras point de lettres de nous d'ici au printems, la
communication 6tant ferm6e.
En relisant ma lettre je vois que je ne t'ai rien dit de la
maniere de vivre de ce pays. Le commerce consiste en poisson,
planches, matures, pelleteries, et il est fort avantageux. Avant la
guerre on ne faisait que couper des planches, depuis on a d6frich6
les terres ; il n'y a encore que fort peu de bleds, mais des patates
efc des racines de toute espece en abondance, point de fruits, et du
betail mais peu. Nous avons deja une vache. C'est un com-
mencement de me"tairie, comme tu vois. Trois rivieres se jettent
dans le havre et c'est a deux lieues au-dessus de leur embouchure
que nous sommes a la jonction de deux d'entr'elles. Nous aliens
en bateaux de toute espece et entr'autres sur des canots d'ecorce,
dont tu seras enchante", quelques fragiles qu'ils soient. Tout cela
gele tout 1'hyver et on peut faire dix lieues en patins. On va
sur la neige avec une sorte de machine qui s'attache aux pieds,
nominee raquettes, et avec laquelle on n'enfonce point, quelque
tendre qu'elle soit. On fait trente, quarante lieues a travers
les bois, les lacs, les rivieres, en raquettes, en patins, en canots
d'ecorce. Car on les porte sur son dos quand on arrive a un
endroit ou il n'y a plus d'eau jusqu'au premier ruisseau, ou Ton
se rembarque.
Dis-nous quelque chose de Geneve ; des affaires politiques, du
34 LIFE OF ALBEKT GAL LA TIN. 1780.
proces Rilliet, de ta maniere de passer ton terns a present, &c.
Adresse-nous tes lettres a Boston.
MONSIEUR JEAN BADOLLET,
Chez Monsieur le Chevalier de Vivens, a Cle"rac.
A letter from Serre, which was enclosed with the above long
despatch from Gallatin, throws some light on Serre's imaginative
and poetical character and his probable influence on the more
practical mind of his companion, although, to say the truth, his
idea of life and its responsibilities was simply that of the run-
away school-boy.
SERRE TO BADOLLET.
Mon cher ami Badollet, nous sommes ici dans un pays ou je
crois que tu te plairais bien ; nous demeurons au milieu d'une
fort sur le bord d'une riviere ; nous pouvons chasser, pecher,
nous baigner, aller en patins quand bon nous semble. A pre"-
sent nous nous chauffons gaillardement devant un bon feu, et ce
qu'il y a de mieux c'est que c'est nous-me'mes qui allons couper
le bois dans la fort. Tu sais comme nous nous amusions a
Geneve a nous promener en bateau. Eh bien ! je m'amuse encore
mieux ici a naviguer dans des canots de sauvagas. Us sont cons-
truits avec de l^corce de bouleau et sont charmants pour aller
un ou deux dedans ; on peut s'y coucher comme dans un lit, et
ramer tout a son aise ; il n'y a pas de petit ruisseau qui n'ait assez
d'eau pour ces jolies voitures. II y a quelque terns que je des-
cendis une petite riviere fort e"troite; le terns 6tait superbe; je
voyais des prairies a deux pas de moi ; j'6tais couch6 tout le long
du canot sur une couverture, et il y avait si peu d'eau qu'il me
semblait glisser sur les pres et les gazons. Je tourne, je char-
pente, je dessine, je joue du violon ; il n'y a pas diablerie que je
ne fasse pour m'amuser. Note avec cela que nous sommes ici en
compagnie de cinq bourgeois et bourgeoises de Geneve. II est
bien vrai qu'il y en a trois de n6s en Ame'rique, mais ils n'en ont
pas moins conserve" le sang rSpublicain de leurs ancetres, et M.
Lesdernier le fils, n6 dans ce continent d'un pere genevois, est
celui de tous les Am^ricains que j'ai vu encore le plus z6l6 et le
plus plein d'enthousiasme pour la Iibert6 de son pays.
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 35
Adieu, mon cher ami. J'espere que F6t prochain tu viendras
m'aider a pagaUler (signifie ramer) dans un canot de sauvage,
Xous irons remonter la riviere St. Jean ou le fleuve St. Laurent
visiter le Canada. Si tu pouvais trouver moyen de m'envoyer une
demi-douzaine de bouts de tubes capillaires pour thermometre,
tu obligerais beaucoup ton affection^ ami.
P.S. Xous allons bientot faire un petit voyage pour voir une
habitation de sauvages.
A little more information is given by the fragment of another
letter, written nearly two years afterwards, but covering the same
ground.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
CAMBRIDGE, 15 septeinbre, 1782.
Mon bon ami, je t'eeris sans savoir ou tu es, et sans savoir si
mes lettres te parviendront, ou si meme tu te soucies d'en rece-
voir ; car si je ne oomptais pas autant sur ton amitiS que je le
fais, je serais presqtie porte" a croire que tu n'as rSpondu a aucune
des lettres que nous t'avons ecrites, Serre et moi, depuis plus de
deux ans. C^pendant te jugeant par moi-m^me et surtout te
connaissant conime je fais, j'aime mieux penser que toutes nos
lettres ont t perdues, ou que toutes les tiennes ont subi ce sort.
Ainsi commencant par la deuxieme supposition, je vais te faire
un court narr6 de nos aventures.
Xotre voyage jusqu'en Ame"rique ne fut marque" par aucun
eYenernent remarquable except^ le vol que le second du vaisseau
nous fit de la moitiS de notre linge et de quelqu^argent. Xous
arrivames a Boston le 15 juillet, 1780, et nous y restames deux
mois avant de pouvoir nous dfaire de quelques caisses de th
que nous avions achetees avant de nous embarquer. La difficulte"
ue se transporter a Philadelphie et le desir d'augmenter un peu
nos fonds avant dy aller, nous d^termina a passer dans le nord
de cet 6tat dans le dernier e'tablissement qu'aient les Am^ricains
sur les frontieres de k Xouvelle-Ecosse. Cette place se nomme
Machias et est un port de mer situ^ sur la baye Funday, ou
Francaise, ^ cent lieues X.-E. de Boston. Un Gsnevois nomm4
36 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1780.
Lesdernier, un bon paysan de Russin, qui apres avoir fait de fort
bons Stablissements en Nouvelle-Ecosse, les avait perdus en partie
par sa faute, en partie par son attachement pour la cause des
Am6ricains, et qui allait avec un capucin (destinS a prcher des
sauvages) joindre son fils qui est lieutenant au service americain
a Machias, ce Genevois, dis-je, fut un des motifs qui nous en-
traina dans le nord, ou notre curiosit6 ne demandait pas mieux
que de nous conduire. Nous partimes de Boston le ler octobre,
1780, et apres avoir relach6 a Newbury et a Casco Bay (deux
ports de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, situes le premier a quinze lieues
et le second & quarante-cinq nord-est de Boston), et avoir pens6
nous perdre dans un brouillard contre un rocher, en grande partie
par Fignorance de nos matelots, nous arrivames le 15e octobre
dans la riviere de Machias. Te donner une idee de ce pays n'est
pas bien difficile ; quatre ou cinq maisons ou plutot cahutes de
bois eparses dans 1'espace de deux lieues de cote que Pon de-
co-uvre a la fois, deux ou trois arpens de terre defriches autour
de chaque cahute, et quand je dis defriches j'entends seulement
qu'on a conp les arbres des alentours et que Pan. a plante
quelques patates entre les souches, et au dela, de quel cot6 que
Pon se tourne, rien que des bois immenses qui bornent la vue de
tous cots, voil& ce que le premier coup-d'oeil pr^sente. II ne
laisse cependant pas que d'y avoir quelques vari6tes dans cette
vue, quelqu'uniforme qu'elle soit naturellement. Le port que la
riviere forme & son embouchure,, port qui pour le dire en passant
est assez beau et tres-sur, est parsem6 de quelques petites iles.
Les diiferentes rMexions du soleil sur les arbres de diiferentes
couleurs dont elles sont couvertes, sur les rocs escarpes qui en bor-
dent quelques-unes et sur les vagues qui se brisent a leur pied,
forment des contrastes assez agreables. Ajoute a cela quelques
bateaux a voiles ou a rames et quelques petits canots, les uns de
bois, les autres cPecorce d^arbre et faits par les sauvages, qui sont
menes par un ou deux homines, souvent par quelques jolies jeuncs
filles v^tues tres-simplement mais proprement, arme"s chacun
d ? une pagaye avec laquelle ils font voler leur fragile navire, et
til auras une idee de la vue de toutes les c6tes et bayes du nord de
la Nouvelle-Angleterre. Cinq milles au-dessus de Pembouchure
de la riviere est le principal etablissement, car il y a une vingt-
1780. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 37
aine de maisons et un fort de terre et de bois dSfendu par sept
pieces de canon, et par une garnison de 15 a 20 hommes. C'est
an colonel nomme Allan qui est le commandeur de cette re-
doutable place, mais il a un emploi un pen plus important, celui
de surintendant de tous les sauvages de cette partie. Je t'ai dit
qu'un de nos motifs pour aller a Machias 6tait d'augmenter un
peu nos fonds; pour cela nous avions employ^ les deux mille
livres argent de France qui formait notre capital, a acheter du
rhum, du sucre et du tabac, que nous comptions vendre aux
sauvages ou aux habitans; mais ces derniers n'ayant point
d'argent, la saison du poisson sale qu'ils pechent en assez grande
quantity . . .
The remainder of this letter is lost, and the loss is the more
unfortunate because the next movements of the two travellers
are somewhat obscure. They appear to have wasted a year at
Machias quite aimlessly, with possibly some advantage to their
facility of talking, but at a serious cost to their slender resources.
In the war, though they were on the frontier, and no doubt
quite in the humor for excitement of the kind, they had little
opportunity to take part. " I went twice as a volunteer," says
Mr. Gallatin, in a letter written in 1846, 1 "to Passamaquoddy
Bay, the first time in November, 1780, under Colonel Allen, who
commanded at Machias and was superintendent of Indian affairs
in that quarter. It was then and at Passamaquoddy that I was
for a few days left accidentally in command of some militia,
volunteers, and Indians, and of a small temporary work de-
fended by one cannon and soon after abandoned. As I never
met the enemy, I have not the slightest claim to military ser-
vices." But what was of much more consequence, he advanced
four hundred dollars in supplies to the garrison at Machias, for
which he was ultimately paid by a Treasury warrant, which,
as the Treasury was penniless, he was obliged to sell for what
it would bring, namely, one hundred dollars. Nevertheless he
found Machias and the Lesderniers so amusing, or perhaps he
felt so little desire to throw himself again upon the world, that
1 Letter to John Connor, 9th January, 1846. Writings, vol. ii. p. 621.
38 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1781.
he remained all the following summer buried in this remote
wilderness, cultivating that rude, free life which seems to have
been Serre's ideal even more than his own. They came at
length so near the end of their resources that they were forced
to seek some new means of support. In October, 1781, there-
fore, they quitted Machias and returned to Boston, where Gallatin
set himself to the task of obtaining pupils in French. None of
his letters during this period have been preserved except the
fragment already given, and the only light that can now be
thrown on his situation at Boston is found in occasional refer-
ences to his letters by his correspondents at home in their replies.
MLLE. PICTET TO GALLATIN.
No. 5.
GENEVE, 5 fevrier, 1782.
J'ai reyu, mon cher ami, ta lettre de Boston du 18e de"cembre,
1781, qui m'a fait grand plaisir. Je suis bien aise que vous ne
soyez plus dans Fespce de desert ou vous avez passe" Phiver
pre"ce"dent et ou je ne voyais rien a gagner pour vous mais beau-
coup a perdre par la mauvaise compagnie a laquelle vous 6tiez
r6duit. Je suis content aussi de Faveu naif que tu fais de ton
ennui ; . . . vous n^tes peut-etre pas beaucoup mieux & Boston,
n'y 6tant connu de personne; mais il n'est pas impossible de
faire quelques bonnes connaissances si vous y passez quelque
terns. Je t'y adressai line lettre le 6e Janvier, 1782, No. 4, sous
le convert de M. le Docteur Samuel Cooper, a laquelle je joignis
un me'moire pour lui demander a s'informer de vous a Machias,
ou je vous croyais encore, de vouloir bien vous proteger soit a
Machias soit & Boston. Je lui contais votre histoire . . . et lui
disais que M. Franklin, son ami, devait le charger de te remettre
mille livres, . . . qu'on remettrait ici & M. Marignac, chez lequel
M. Johannot son petit-fils est en pension. C'est ce jeune homme,
que nous voyons souvent, qui voulut bien envoyer le tout dans
une lettre de recommandation pour vous & son grand-peire. . . .
La lettre par laquelle M. Johannot te recommande a son ami et
le charge cle te payer mille livres . . .' n'arrivera vraisembla-
blement qu'en m6me terns que celle-ci, ce dont je suis tres-fachee,
ne doutant pas que tu n'aies grand besoin d'argent. J'ai peine
1782. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 39
a croire que les lepons de Franais que vous donnez suffisent &
vos besoins. ... Si ton oncle le cadet consent, je t'enverrai a
Philadelphie les 800 livres, . . . puisque tu dis que tu veux 7
aller au printems.
MLLE. PICTET TO GALLATIN.
No. 8.
14 novembre, 1782.
. . . Enfin le jeune Johannot vient de recevoir une lettre de
M. son grand-pere qui lui parle de toi ; il t'a fait obtenir une
place de Professeur en langue franyaise dans Facad6mie de
Boston. . . .
MLLE. PICTET TO GALLATIN.
No. 9.
30 novembre, 1782.
Je reyois, mon cher ami, ta lettre du 5e septembre, 1782,
No. 3. ... Elle m'a fait d'autant plus de plaisir que je Fai
trouve"e mieux que les prcedentes ; elle est sensed et de"pouille
d'enthousiasme ; il me semble que tu commences a voir les choses
sous leur vrai point de vue. . . . Je vois avec grand plaisir que
tu ne penses plus au commerce. . . . Je ne puis m'empe'cher de
te re"peter que tu dois te defier de Fimagination et de la tte de
Serre ; il Fa le"gere ; Fimagination a plus de part a ses projets
que le raisonnement. . . .
MLLE. PICTET TO GALLATIN.
No. 10.
26 decembre, 1782.
. . . Tu me dis que ta saute" est bonne ; je trouve que tu la
mets a de terribles Spreuves, et quoique ta vie soit moins penible
que quand tu e*tais coupeur de bois a Machias, la quantite" de
Ie9ons que tu es oblige" de donner me parait une chose bien
fatigante et bien ennuyeuse. J^espere que tu seras devenu un
peu moins difficile et moins sujet a Fennui. . . .
SERRE TO BADOLLET.
CAMBRIDGE, 13 decembre, 1782.
Mon cher ami, ma foi ! je perds patience et je n'ai pas tout &
fait tort. Tu conviendras avec nous qu'apres t'avoir e"crit une
douzaine de lettres sans recevoir aucune re"ponse, il nous est bien
40 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1782.
permis d'etre un peu en colre. Au nom de Dieu, dis-noiis ou
es-tu, que fais-tu, es-tu mort ou en vie? Comment serait-il
possible que tu n'eusses 169 a aucune de nos lettres, ou qu'en
ayant reyu, tu te fusses si peu embarrasse de nous ; toi sur qui
nous comptions si fort! Non; j'aime mieux croire que tu te
souviens encore de nous, et attribuer ta negligence apparente au
mauvais sort de tes lettres.
Je ne vais point te faire ici le detail de toutes nos aventures
dans ce pays, qui sont assez curieuses et inte'ressantes. Nous
avons visite" toute la cote septentrionale des ]5tats-Unis depuis
Boston jusqu'a Pasmacadie, quelquefois separes Tun de Pautre,
mais le plus souvent ensemble; nous avons habite" parmi les
sauvages, voyage avec eux, par terns dans leurs canots d^corce,
couche dans leurs cabanes et assiste a un de leurs festins ; nous
nous sommes trouves rassembles cinq Genevois a Machias pen-
dant un hiver, au milieu des bois et des Indiens. Combien de
fois nous avons pens6 a toi alors ; combien de fois nous t'avons
desire pour venir avec nous couper du bois le matin et le trans-
porter dans notre chaumiere pour nous en chauffer. Mr. Les-
dernier avec qui nous demeurions a ete fermier a Russin, et
quoique depuis trente ans dans ce pays il a conserve en entier
cette humeur joviale et franche et cet esprit libre qui caracterisent
nos habitans de la campagne. La premiere fois que je le vis je
me sentis emu de joie, j'aurais voulu lui sauter au cou et Tem-
brasser ; je me crus & Geneve parmi nos bons bourgeois de la
campagne et il me semblait voir en lui un ancien ami.
Partout oft nous avons ete nous t'avons toujours regrette*. De
tous les jeunes gens de notre connoissance a qui nous avons
pense", tu es le seul que nous ayons toujours desire" pour com-
pagnon de fortune et dont le caractere se plairoit le plus & notre
genre de vie. Si tu pouvais t'imaginer la liberte* dont nous
jouissons et tous les avantages qui Taccompagnent, tu n'h6siterais
pas un instant a venir la partager avec nous. Nous ne courons
point apres la Fortune. Inexperience nous a appris qu'elle court
souvent apres Fhomme a qui elle crie: Arrete; mais son ardente
ambition le rend sourd et la lui reprsente toujours comme
fuyant devant lui. Alors croyant Fatteindre & force de courses
et de fatigues, le malheureux s'en eloigne et lui 4chappe. De
1782. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 41
quels regrets ne doit-il pas etre consume" si apres tant de peines
et de travaux il vient a connaitre son erreur, miserable par sa
faute et trop faible pour retourner sur ses pas. Je ne m'e'ton-
nerais point que le desespoir de s'dtre si cruellement trompe", le
portat a se delivrer d'un reste d'existence que le souvenir de sa
faute et la pense"e rongeante de son ambition de^ue lui rendrait
insupportable. Ignorant done si la fortune nous suit ou si elle
nous precede, nous ne risquerons point notre bonheur pour la
joindre, et nous aimons mieux un e"tat qui procure une jouissance
modere'e mais pre*sente et continue, que celui qui demande des
souffrances preliminaires et n'offre en retour qu'un avenir plus
se"duisant, il est vrai, mais eloigne* et incertain. Et mSme en le
supposant certain, le grand avantage pour un homme qui a
employ 6 toute sa jeunesse (c'est a dire toute la par tie de sa vie
susceptible de jouissance) en veilles et en fatigues, de possMer
dans un age avance des richesses qui lui sont alors inutiles et
superflues ! Ce n'est pas lorsqu'il est devenu incapable de sentir,
qu'il a perdu presque toute la vivacite" de ses sens et de ses
passions, qu'il a besoin de Finstrument pour les satisfaire; le
plaisir le plus vif que ressent un vieillard est le ressouvenir de
ceux de la jeunesse, mais celui-ci n'aura que celui de ses peines
passe"es et cette reflexion le rendra triste et melancolique.
Notre but done, mon cher ami, est le plus tot que nous pourrons
de nous procurer un fond de terre et de nous mettre fermiers ;
ayant ainsi une ressource sure pour vivre agr6ablement et inde"-
pendants, nous pourrons lorsque Fenvie nous en prendra, aller de
terns en terns faire quelques excursions dans le dehors et courir
le pays, ce qui est un de nos plus grands plaisirs ; or nous n'atten-
drons que toi pour accomplir notre projet; fais ton paquet, je t'en
prie, et hormis que tu ne sois dans des circonstances bien avan-
tageuses, viens nous joindre tout de suite. Je ne saurais croire
avec quel plaisir je m'imagine quelquefois nous voir tous les
trois dans notre maison de campagne occupe*s des differents soins
de la campagne, puis de terns en terns pour varier, aller visiter
quelque nouvelle partie du monde ; si la fortune se trouve en
passant, nous mettons la main dessus; si au contraire quelque
revers nous abat, nous nous en revenons vite dans notre ferme,
ou nous en sommes quittes pour couper notre bois nous-memes et
42 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1782.
labourer notre champ ; voila notre pis-aller, et quel pis-aller ! un
de nos plus grands amusements !
Ah 9&, nous t'attendons pour le plus tard le printems prochain.
Pourvu que tu aies de quoi payer ton passage, ne t'inquiete pas
du reste. Nous ignorons ou nous serons positivement dans ce
temps, mais des le moment que tu seras arrive, si c'est a Boston
va loger chez Tahon qui tient une auberge fra^aise a Fenseigne
de Valliance dans la rue appele"e Fore Street, prononc6 Faure
Strite. Si tu n'arrives pas a Boston, 6cris a Tahon, qui t'indi-
quera ou nous sommes. Emporte avec toi tout ce que tu possedes
et tache de te munir d'un ou deux bons barometres et thermo-
metres et de tubes pour en faire, avec une longue vue.
Adieu, mon cher ami; je ne sais point a qui adresser cette
lettre pour qu'elle te parvienne, car j 'ignore totalement ou est ta
residence actuelle. Gallatin t'Scrit aussi, ainsi je ne te dis rien
de lui.
It was the watchful care and forethought of Mile. Pictet
that enabled Gallatin to tide over the difficulties of these two
years, by obtaining the countenance and aid of Dr. Cooper,
which opened to him the doors of Harvard College. The follow-
ing paper shows the position he occupied at the college, which
has been sometimes dignified by the name of Professorship :
"At a meeting of the President and Fellows of Harvard
College, July 2, 1782 : Vote 5. That Mr. Gallatin, who has
requested it, be permitted to instruct in the French language
such of the students as desire it and who shall obtain permission
from their parents or guardians in writing, signified under their
hands to the President ; which students shall be assessed in their
quarter-bills the sums agreed for with Mr. Gallatin for their
instruction ; and that Mr. Gallatin be allowed the use of the
library, a chamber in the college, and commons at the rate paid
by the tutors, if he desire it.
" Copy. Attest,
" JOSEPH WILLARD, President/ 7
The list of students who availed themselves of this privilege
1783. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 43
is still preserved, and contains a number of names then best
known in Boston. The terms offered were: "Provided fifty
students engage, the sum will be five dollars per quarter each,
and provided sixty (not included Messrs. Oatis, Pyncheon, and
Amory) have permits from their relations, the price will be four
dollars each. They are under no obligation to engage more than
by the quarter." The " Mr. Oatis" was apparently Harrison
Gray Otis. About seventy appear to have taken lessons, which
was, for that day, a considerable proportion of the whole number
of students. Gal latin's earnings amounted to something less
than three hundred dollars, and he seems to have found diffi-
culty in procuring payment, for he intimates on a memorandum
that this was the sum paid.
Of his life while in Boston and Cambridge almost nothing
can be said. He was not fond of society, and there is no reason
to suppose that he sought the society of Boston. The only
American friend he made, of whose friendship any trace remains,
was "William Bentley, afterwards a clergyman long settled at
Salem, then a fellow-tutor at Cambridge. When Gallatin left
Cambridge after a year of residence, President Willard, Professor
Wigglesworth, and Dr. Cooper, at his request, gave him a cer-
tificate that he had " acquitted himself in this department with
great reputation. He appears to be well acquainted with letters,
and has maintained an unblemished character in the University
and in this part of the country." And Mr. Bentley, in whose
hands he left a few small money settlements, wrote to him as
follows, enclosing the testimonial :
WILLIAM BENTLEY TO GALLATIN.
HOLLIS HALL, CAMBRIDGE, August 20, 1783.
MB. GALLATIN, I profess myself happy in your confidence.
Your very reputable conduct in the University has obliged all
its friends to afford you the most full testimony of their esteem
and obligation, as the within testimonials witness. I should
have answered your letter of July 1 1 sooner had not the call of
a dissenting congregation at Salem obliged my absence at that
time, and the immediately ensuing vacation prevented my atten-
44 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1783.
tion to your business. ... I expect soon to leave Cambridge,
as the day appointed for my ordination at Salem is the 24th of
September. In every situation of life I shall value your friend-
ship and company, and subscribe myself your devoted and very
humble servant.
N.B. The tutors all expressed a readiness to subscribe to any
recommendation or encomium which could serve Mr. Gallatin's
interest in America ; but our names would appear oddly on the
list with the president, professors, and Dr. Cooper.
If Gallatin gained the esteem of so excellent a man as Bentley,
there can be no doubt that he deserved it. In the small colle-
giate society of that day there was little opportunity to deceive,
and Bentley and President Willard only repeat the same account
of Gallatin's character and abilities which comes from all other
sources. There is, too, an irresistible accent of truth in the
quaint phraseology of Bentley's letter.
But he had no intention to stop here. In July, 1783, he took
advantage of the summer vacation to travel.
GALLATIN TO SERRE.
NEW YORK, 22e juillet, 1783.
Mon bon ami, nous voici arrives heureusement & New York
aprs un passage plus long que nous n'avions compte. Nous
laissames Providence jeudi passe", 17e courant, et arrivames le
lendemain a Newport, ou nous ne f imes que diner, et que j'ai
trouve" mieux situ et plus agrSable quoique moins bien bati et
moins comme^ant que Providence. Apropos de cette derniere
ville, j'ai Ste" voir le college, oft il n'y a que 12 Scoliers; je ne
pus voir le president, mais le tutor, car il n'y en a qu'un, me
park de Poullin; il me dit qu'ils seraient tres-charmes d'avoir
un maitre francais ; que le college ni les Scoliers ne pourraient
lui donner que peu de chose, mais qu'il se trouverait dans la
ville un nombre assez considerable d^coliers pour 1'occuper
autant qu'il voudrait; qu'en cas qu'il s'en pre"sentat un, le
college le ferait afficher sur la gazette afin qu'on ouvrit pour lui
1783. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 45
une souscription dans la ville et qu'il sut sur quoi compter.
Pour revenir, nous laissames Newport vendredi a 2h. aprs
diner, et ne sommes arrives ici que hier, lundi, a la nuit. Nous
avons eu beau terns mais calme. Les bords de la Longue-Isle
pres de New- York sont passables, mais ceux de File meTne ou
est batie New- York sont cou verts de campagnes char mantes au-
dessus de la ville. Le port parait fort beau et il y a deux fois
autant de vaisseaux qu'a Boston. Ce que j'ai vu de la ville est
assez bien, mais il y fait horriblement chaud. II y a com6die et
nous comptons y aller demain. II y a aussi beaticoup de soldats,
de marins, et de refugies, les derniers trs honnetes et polis a ce
qu'on dit, mais les autres fort insolens. Nous comptons partir
apres-demain pour Philadelphie, ou j'espere trouver de tes nou-
velles et de celles de N. W. Dans notre passage de Providence
nous avions pour compagnon de passage (parmi plusieurs autres)
un docteur fra^ais ou barbier, plus bavard que La Chapelle,
plus impudent que St. Pri et plus bete ma foi, je ne sais a qui
le comparer pour cela; c'e"tait un sot fran9ais au superlatif; il
a russi a nous escroquer trois piastres, sans compter ce qu'il a
fait aux autres. Les filles ne sont pas si jolies ici qu'& Boston
et nous n'avons pas encore eu la moindre aventure galante dans
toute notre route. Au reste, comme tu es sans doute a present
un grave maitre d'e"cole et que tu dois avoir pris toute la pManterie
inseparable du metier, ce n'est plus a toi que j'oserais faire de
telles confidences. J 7 espere cependant que tu n'auras pas long-
terns a t'ennuyer a ce sot emploi et je t'ecrirai tout ce que nous
avons a esp^rer ds que je serai a Philadelphie. Porte-toi bien.
Tout a toi.
Mr. Savary te fait bien des complimens. Notre autre com-
pagnon de voyage n'est pas ici. Aussi je les supposerai en son
nom. II est arrive hier ici une frigate d'Angleterre qui a, dit-on,
apporte" le traite" d^finitif . . . traite" de commerce de. . . .
The M. Savary mentioned here as Gallatin's fellow-traveller
from Boston was to have a great influence on his fortunes. M.
Savary de Yalcoulon was from Lyons. Having claims against
the State of Virginia, he had undertaken himself to collect them,
46 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1783.
and meeting Gallatin at Boston, they had become travelling com-
panions. They went to Philadelphia together, where they re-
mained till November. Serre rejoined them there; but Gallatin's
means were now quite exhausted. Their combined expenses,
since quitting Geneva, had been in three years about sixteen
hundred dollars, including three hundred dollars lost by the
Treasury warrant. Of this sum Gallatin had advanced about
thirteen hundred dollars, Serre's father resolutely refusing to send
his son any money at all or to honor his drafts. A settlement
was now made. Serre gave to Gallatin his note for half the debt,
about six hundred dollars, and, joining a countryman named
Mussard, went to Jamaica, where he died, in 1784, of the West
India fever. Fifty-three years afterwards his sister by will re-
paid the principal to Mr. Gallatin, who had, with great delicacy,
declined to ask for payment. But when this separation between
Gallatin and Serre took place, it was intended to be temporary
only; Serre was to return and to rejoin his friend, who mean-
while was to carry out their scheme of retreat by a new emigra-
tion. The sea-coast was not yet far enough removed from civili-
zation; they were bent upon putting another month's journey
between themselves and Europe; the Ohio was now their aim.
There may be a doubt whether they drew Savary in this direc-
tion, or whether Savary pointed out the path to them. In any
case, Serre sailed for Jamaica in the middle of September, before
the new plans were entirely settled, and nothing was ever heard
from him again until repeated inquiries produced, in the autumn
of 1786, a brief but apparently authentic report of his death
two years before. Gallatin accepted Savary's offers, and went
with him to Richmond to assist him in the settlement of his
claims. But before they left Philadelphia a larger scheme was
projected. Savary and Gallatin were to become partners in a
purchase of one hundred and twenty thousand acres of land in
Western Virginia, Gallatin's interest being one-fourth of the
whole, and his share to be paid, until his majority, in the form
of personal superintendence.
Meanwhile, a premonitory symptom of revolution had oc-
curred in Geneva. The two parties had come to blows; blood
was shed; the adjoining governments of Switzerland, France,
1783. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 47
and Savoy had interposed, and held the city in armed occupa-
tion. The Liberals were deeply disgusted at this treatment, and
to those who had already left their country the temptation to
return became smaller than ever.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, ce ler octobre, 1783.
Mon bon ami, je viens de recevoir ta lettre du 20 mars qui a
quelques egards m'a fait le plus grand plaisir, mais qui en m'ap-
prenant toutes les circonstances des troubles de notre malheureuse
patrie a acheve" de m'oter toute esprance de jamais pouvoir m'y
fixer. Non, mon ami, il est impossible & un homme de sens et
vertueux, n6 citoyen d'un e*tat libre, et qui est venu sucer encore
Tamour de Pindependance dans le pays le plus libre de Punivers;
il est impossible, dis-je, & cet homme, quelques puissent avoir e*te"
les prejuges de son enfance, d'aller jouer nulle part le r6le de
tyran ou d'esclave, et comme je ne vois pas qu'il y ait d'autre
situation & choisir a Geneve, je me vois force" de renoncer pour
toujours & ces murs che"ris qui m'ont vu naitre, a ma famille, &
mes amis ; & moins qu'une nouvelle revolution ne change beau-
coup la situation des affaires. Tu vois par ce que je viens de te
dire que la facon de penser de mes parens n'influe point sur la
mienne et que j'en ai change" depuis mon depart d'Europe. II
est tout simple qu'e"tant entoure des gens qui pensent tous de la
me'me maniere, on s'habitue a penser comme eux ; des que Ton
commence & tre de leur parti, le prejuge a deja pris possession
de vous et d, moins que par un heureux hasard la raison et le bon
droit ne soient du cote* que vous avez embrasse, vous tomberez
d'e"carts en hearts, de torts en torts, et vous ne verrez les exces
auxquels vous vous serez abandonne" que lorsque quelqu'e"vne-
ment d'eclat vous aura ouvert les yeux. En voil& je crois assez
pour me justifier d'avoir e"te N6gatif a 19 ans lorsque j'abandon-
nai Geneve. Mais a 1200 lieues de distance on juge bien plus
sainement ; le jugement n'etant plus embarrass^ par les petites
raisons, les petits prejugfe, les petites vues et les petite inte'rets de
vos alentours, ne voit plus que le fond de la question, et peut
decider hardiment. Si 1'on se laisse gagner par un peu d'en-
48 LIFE OP ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1783.
thousiasme il y a mille a gager centre un que ce sera en faveur
de la bonne cause. Voila ce qui pen a peu produisit un grand
changement dans mon opinion apres mon arrived en Amerique.
Je fus bientdt convaincu par la comparaison des gouvernemens
americains avec celui de Geneve que ce dernier 6tait fonde sur de
mauvais principes ; que le pouvoir judicatif tant au civil qu'au
criminel, le pouvoir executif en entier, et f du pouvoir legislatif
appartenant a deux corps qui se creaient presqu'entierement eux-
mmes, et dont les membres etaient elus a vie, il tait presqu'im-
possible que cette formidable aristocratic ne rompit tot ou tard
Fequilibre que Pon s'imaginait pouvoir subsister a Geneve. Je
compris que le droit d'elire la moitie des membres de Pun de ces
conseils sans avoir celui de les dplacer et le droit de deplacer
annuellement la 6me partie des membres de Fautre n ? taient que
de faibles barrieres contre des homines qui avaient la fortune et la
vie des citoyens entre les mains, le soin de la police de la maniere
la plus tendue, deux nSgatifs sur toutes les volontes du peuple,
et dont les charges etaient a \ le, pour ne pas dire he>editaires.
Quelle difference entre un tel gouvernement et celui d'un pays
ou les diffe"rents conseils a qui sont confies les pouvoirs legislatifs
et ex^cutifs ne sont elus que pour une annee, ou les juges, qui ne
font qu'expliquer la loi, une fois elus ne sont plus sous 1'influence
du souverain et ne peuvent ^tre d^placfe que juridiquement, ou
enfin Ton est juge" non pas meme par ces juges de nom, mais par
1 2 citoyens pris parmi les honne 1 tes gens et que 1'es parties peuvent
re"cuser. (Tu ne seras pas e'tonne', mon ami, apres une telle com-
paraison, que je me sois decide" a me fixer ici.) En voyant les
d^fauts du gouvernement genevois, je sentis qu'il 6tait de Fin-
t^ret des partisans de la liberte de veiller de pres les aristocrates,
mais non pas de vouloir les combattre. Le parti violent qu'ont
embrasse" les repr4sentans ne peut 6tre justifi6 qu'en disant que
les circonstances les ont entrained, car il 6tait impossible de n'en
pas pr^voir les consequences et que la politique artificieuse des
negatifs en tireroit tout le parti possible; je n'ai rien a aj outer
a ce que tu dis sur la bassesse de ces derniers, et la faute des
citoyens produite par Fenthousiasme de liberte n'est que trop
se" vehement punie.
La lettre que je viens de recevoir est la premiere qui nous soit
1783. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 49
parvenue de celles que tu nous annonces nous avoir toites. J'ai
quitt6 Cambridge en juillet de cette ann6e et je suis venu ici oft
je n'ai encore rien trouve a faire qui me convienne. Serre n'est
pas ici ; je Fai Iaiss6 a Boston d'oti il est parti pour aller a ...
et d'ou il ne reviendra que Fanned prochaine. Ce n'est pas pour
toi que je cache le lieu actuel de sa residence, mais il a des raisons
pour que d'autres Fignorent et j'ai peur que cette lettre n'e"prouve
des accidents. J'irai en Yirginie bientot, mais ecris-moi a
Philadelphie : To Albert Gallatin, citizen of Geneva, Phila-
delphia. Ce n'est que de peur d'e"quivoque que je conserve le
titre de citizen of Geneva. Ecris a Serre sous nion adresse. Tu
ne saurais croire le plaisir que j'ai e"prouve" en apprenant que tu
etais agreablement et avantageusement place, mais tu ne m ? a pas
donn6 assez de details sur ce qui te concerne; re"pare ta faute par
ta premiere lettre.
Tu desires sans doute savoir quelles sont mes vues pour
Favenir ; les voici ! Ay ant pour ainsi dire renonc6 a Geneve, je
n'ai pas dti. he"siter sur la choix de la patrie que je devais choisir,
et FAme"rique m'a paru le pays le plus propre a me fixer par sa
constitution, son climat, et les ressources que j'y pouvais trouver.
Mais il serait bien dur pour moi de me voir se"par6 de tous mes
amis et c'e"tait sur toi que je comptais pour me faire passer une
vie agre"able. Dumont, dis-tu, te retient; mais qu'est-ce qui
retient Dumont? II ne doit pas douter de tout le plaisir que
j'aurais a le voir. Si toi, lui, Serre et moi 6tions r&mis, ne
formerions-nous pas une socie"t6 tres-agre"able ? Tu vois que je
compte que vous seriez tous les deux aussi charme's d'etre avec
Serre et moi que nous deux d'etre avec vous. Reste a proposer
les moyens de pouvoir tre passablement heureux quand nous
serons r6unis en ayaut un honnete n^cessaire et jouissant de cette
me'diocrite' a laquelle je borne tous mes voeux. Comme la cam-
pagne est notre passion favorite, c'est de ce c6t6 que se tournent
entierement mes projets. Dans Fespace situe entre les Apalaches
et les Mississippi, sur les deux rives de FOhio se trouvent les
meilleures terres de FAmeYique, et comme le climat en est tem-
pSre" je les pr4frerais a celles de Machias et de la Nouvelle-
Angleterre. Celles au nord de FOhio appartiennent au Congrs,
et celles du sud a la Virginie, aux Carolines et a la Georgie. Le
4
50 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1783.
Congrs n'en a encore point vendu ou donne". C'est done de
celles de Virginie dont je vais parler, quoique ce que j'en dirai
puisse s'appliquer au nord de FOhio si les achats quand ils se
feront y etaient plus avantageux. Je rejette les deux Carolines
et la Georgie comme malsaines et moins avantageuses. Les
terres depuis le grand Canaway qui se jette dans FOhio 250
milles au-dessous du Fort Duquesne ou Fort Pitt ou Pittsburg,
jusques tout prs de Pendroit ou FOhio se de"charge dans le Mis-
sissippi, ont e"te" achete"es a tres-bas prix par divers particuliers
de Ffitat de Virginie, et c'est d'eux qu'il faudrait les racheter.
Elles valent depuis 30 sols & 20 francs (argent de France) Facre
suivant leur qualite" et surtout leur situation. Celles qui sont
situe"es pres de la chute de FOhio, le seul e"tablissement qu'il y
ait dans cet espace, sont les plus cheres. On peut en avoir
d'excellentes partout ailleurs pour 50 sols ou 3 francs. Je vais
actuellement en Virginie et d'apres mes informations j'en achete-
rai 2 a 3 mille acres dans une situation avantageuse. Si tu te
determines a venir te fixer avec moi, je tournerai sur-le-champ
toutes mes vues de ce c6te"-la. Je ne te demanderais pas de
quitter imme'diatement la place avantageuse que tu as, mais
seulement de me donner une reponse decisive. Aussitot que ma
majorite", qui sera le 29 Janvier, 1786, sera arrivee, j'emploierai
ma petite fortune a fixer un certain nombre de families de
fermiers irlandais, ame*ricains, &c., autour de moi, parcequ'ils
m'enrichiront en se rendant heureux (enrichir veut dire une
m^diocrit^ ais6e). Tu sens bien que si c'est mon avantage de
faire des avances & des indifferents, ce sera me rendre service que
de venir te joindre & nous, et que le peu que tu pourras apporter,
joint a ce qu'il sera de mon propre inte're't de t'avancer, te mettra
en e"tat de te former une habitation par toi-m^me, car depuis ton
paragraphe des deux louis je n'ose plus te dire que ce que j'ai
t'appartient comme a moi-m^me. Quant a moi j ? accepterais, je
ne dis pas un pr6t mais un don de toi comme si je prenais dans
ma bourse, et je suis tellement identifie" avec toi et Serre que
toutes les fois que je dis Je en parlant ou en pensant & quel-
que plan de vie on & quelque e"tablissement, j intends toujours
Badollet, Serre et Moi. Je ne suis pas tout-a-fait aussi lie avec
Dumont, mais je le suis autant avec lui qu'avec qui que ce soit
1783. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 51
except^ Serre et toi, et comme depuis mon depart de Geneve je
me suis beaucoup rapproche" de sa faon de penser & bien des
e"gards, comme il re"unit les qualit4s du coeur et de Fesprit, il n'y
a personne que je desirasse voir venir avec toi plus que lui, et a
qui, si je le pouvais, je fusse de quelque utility avec plus de
plaisir. J'espere qu'en voila assez pour Fengager a nous joindre
s'il n'est pas retenu a Geneve par des liens bien forts, et si ses
gouts sont les monies que les n6tres. Je n'ai pas besoin de te
dire qu'en s'e"tablissant dans un bois loin des villes et n'ayant
que peu d'habitans autour de soi, Ton doit s'attendre dans les
commencements a bien des privations et surtout ne compter sur
aucune des jouissances raffinees des villes. Je me sens assez de
courage pour cela, mais je ne conseillerais a personne de prendre
ce parti sans s'e'tre bien consulte". Comme je suis tres-gueux
dans ce moment-ci, comme plus tu restes dans ta place actuelle
et plus tu te prepares de moyens de re"ussite pour Fa venir, et
comme il vaut mieux perdre un an que de s'appre"ter des regrets,
attends des nouvelles plus positives pour partir a moins que tu
n'aies rien de mieux a faire. Mais surtout ne prends point
d'engagemens en Europe qui pussent t'emp^cher de venir nous
joindre dans Fannee prochaine ou au plus tard dans la suivante.
Si parmi les personnes que les malheurs de notre patrie en
chassent, il s'en trouvait quelques-unes qui d6sirassent re"unir
leurs petites fortunes pour former un Stablissement un peu plus
considerable, je de"sirerais que tu me le fisses savoir. Je pourrai
depuis la Yirginie leur proposer un plan plus determine et plus
stir. Je ne crois pas ce pays bien propre a e"tablir des manufac-
tures ; je ne parle que de petits capitalistes comme moi, et de
fermiers ou ouvriers, ces derniers (les ouvriers) en petit nombre.
S'il y avait un nombre suffisant de gens qui voulussent s'expa-
trier, peut-etre le Congres leur accorderait des terres. Je serais
charmS de pouvoir e"tre utile a tous ceux de mes compatriotes que
leur amour pour la liberte a force's de quitter Geneve, et s'ils
tournaient leur vue sur les ]5tats-Unis ils pourraient compter sur
mon zle a leur donner tous les renseignemens et a faire toutes
les demarches qui pourraient leur 4tre de quelque utilite". Les
citoyens ame'ricains sont tres-bien intentionnfe a leur e"gard et il
y a eu beaucoup de refroidissemens entre eux et les Francais a leur
52 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1783.
sujet. II y a environ un mois qu'un homme (Tun rang et d'un
m^rite distingue" de Philadelphie demandait & PAmbassadeur
fransais pourquoi sa Majeste* Tres-Chre"tienne s'e*tait melee des
divisions des Genevois. C'e"tait pour leur bien, re"pondit Mr.
de Marbois, consul de France. J'espre, r6pliqua PAm6ricam,
que le roi ne prendra jamais notre bien assez a co3iir pour se
meler de nos brouilleries intestines. On ne lui fit aucune re"ponse.
Quelque haine que je puisse avoir contre le Ministere fran9ais
qui nous a perdus, elle ne s'e"tend point j usque sur toute leur
nation ; je fais le plus grand cas d'un grand nombre de ses in-
dividus et il y en a quelques-uns a qui personnellement j'ai des
obligations essentielles.
Je souhaiterais que cette lettre ne fut pas vue de mes parens a
Geneve, non pas que je veuille qu'ils ignorent ma faeon de penser
politique, ou que des vues interesse'es me fassent de*sirer que mes
oncles ne sussent pas que je veux me fixer en Ame"rique, ce qui
est renoncer a toutes mes esperances de ce cote-la, mais parceque
cette resolution, si elle e*tait connue, ferait trop de peine a ma
tendre mSre Mile. Pictet, qui est le seul chainon subsistant des
liens qui me retenaient a Geneve. Je ne veux pas dire par la
qu'elle soit la seule personne qui m'y attire ; j ? y ai des amis et
surtout une amie qu'il me serait bien dur de quitter ; mais tu
me connais assez pour comprendre quels doivent etre mes senti-
mens a Fegard de la personne a qui je dois tout et que j'ai bien
mal recompense*e de son amiti6 et de ses soins.
Mille amities a Dumont. Fais faire mes complimens &
d'lvernois; la mani&re dont il s'est comport^ lui fait beaucoup
d'honneur. Ecris-moi promptement et longuement. Je te don-
nerai des nouvelles plus positives dans deux mois. Si tu changes
de demeure, prie M e . de Yivens de t'envoyer les lettres qui te
parviendront, et indique-moi ton adresse. J'espere que tu vien-
dras bient6t tirer parti de ton Anglais. Tout homme qui a des
terres ici devient citoyen et a droit de donner sa voix pour en-
voyer son repre"sentant ou depute* a FAssembl^e G^n^rale, et celui
d^tre 6lu soi-mme s ? il en est digne. Adieu, mon bon ami. Tout
a toi.
Cette lettre est mise abord du brig Le Comte du Duras, Capi-
1783. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 53
taine Fournier, allant a Bordeaux, et adressSe a Messrs. Archer,
Baix & Cie.
12 novembre, 1783.
Mon bon ami, le sus-dit vaisseau a fait naufrage a I'entre'e de
la Delaware. L/e"quipage s'est sauve" et ma lettre m'est revenue.
Je me porte toujours bien. Je pars demain matin pour Virginie
d'ou je reviendrai dans deux mois. Adresse toujours a Phila-
delphie. Je suis entre" pour J dans une speculation de 120,000
acres de terre en Virginie. Cela de toi a moi. Tout a toi.
Clearly young Gallatin now thought that he had found the
destiny so long imagined, and, modest as his sketch of their
future prospects may appear, his acts show that the original
scheme of bettering his fortune was by no means abandoned, but
rather entertained on a vaster scale. He had solved the difficulty
of speculating without capital and without debt; for certainly
that modest retreat which he imagined for himself, Serre, and
Badollet, did not require operations on the scale of a hundred
thousand acres, and the element of speculation must have absorbed
four-fifths of his thoughts. At this time, indeed, and for many
years afterwards, all America was engaged in these speculations.
General Washington was deep in them, and, as will be seen,
jostled against Gallatin in the very act of opening up his lands.
Robert Morris was a wild speculator, and closed his public career
a bankrupt and in prison for that reason. Promising as the
prospect was and certain as the ultimate profits seemed, it would
be difficult to prove that any one was ever really enriched by
these investments; certainly in Gallatin's case, as in the case of
Washington and Robert Morris, the result was trouble, disap-
pointment, and loss. It was for Gallatin something worse; it
was another false start.
For the moment, however, he was with Savary at Richmond,
attending to Savary's claims and making preparations for his
Western expedition. No more complaints of ennui are heard.
Richmond has far other fascinations than Boston. To the end
of his life Mr. Gallatin always recalled with pleasure his ex-
periences at this city, where he first began to feel his own powers
and to see them recognized by the world. In a letter written in
54 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1784.
1848, a few months before his death, to the Virginia Historical
Society, he expressed this feeling with all the warmth that age
gives to its recollections of youth. 1
" I cannot complain of the world. I have been treated with
kindness in every part of the United States where I have re-
sided. But it was at Richmond, where I spent most of the
winters between the years 1783 and 1789, that I was received
with that old proverbial Virginia hospitality to which I know
no parallel anywhere within the circle of my travels. It was
not hospitality only that was shown to me. I do not know how
it came to pass, but every one with whom I became acquainted
appeared to take an interest in the young stranger. I was only
the interpreter of a gentleman the agent of a foreign house that
had a large claim for advances to the State ; and this made me
known to all the officers of government and some of the most
prominent members of the Legislature. It gave me the first
opportunity of showing some symptoms of talent, even as a
speaker, of which I was not myself aware. Every one encouraged
me and was disposed to promote my success in life. To name
all those from whom I received offers of service would be to
name all the most distinguished residents at that time at Rich-
mond. I will only mention two : John Marshall, who, though
but a young lawyer in 1783, was almost at the head of the bar in
1786, offered to take me in his office without a fee, and assured
me that I would become a distinguished lawyer.' Patrick Henry
advised me to go to the West, where I might study law if I
chose ; but predicted that I was intended for a statesman, and
told me that this was the career which should be my aim ; he
also rendered me several services on more than one occasion."
Gallatin remained in Richmond till the end of February,
1784, and then returned to Philadelphia, where he made the
final preparations for his expedition to the West. None of his
letters are preserved, but his movements may be followed with
tolerable accuracy. He remained in Philadelphia during the
month of March, then crossed the mountains to Pittsburg in
April, went down the Ohio with his party, and passed the sum-
1 See Writings, vol. ii.,p. 659.
1784. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 55
mer in the occupation of selecting and surveying the lands for
which he and his associates had purchased warrants. These lands
were in what was then part of Monongalia County, Virginia ;
but this county was in wealth and resources far behind the ad-
jacent one of Fayette, in Pennsylvania, where no Indians had
ever penetrated since its first settlement in 1769, whereas Monon-
galia had suffered severely from Indian depredations in the Revo-
lution, a fact which decided Savary and Gallatin to fix upon a
base of operations as near the Pennsylvania line as possible.
They selected the farm of Thomas Clare, situated on the river
Monongahela and George's Creek, about four miles north of the
Virginia line, and here they established a store.
Gallatin seems to have been detained till late in the year by
these occupations. They excluded all other thoughts from his
mind. He wrote no letters ; perhaps it would have been diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to find a conveyance if he had written
them. There is but one fragment of his handwriting before the
close of the year, and this only an unfinished draft of a letter to
Badollet, which is worth inserting, not only because there is no-
thing else, but because it shows what was engaging his thoughts.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
DES BORDS DE LA SusQUEHANNA, 29 decembre, 1784.
Mon bon ami, retenu ici aujourd'hui par le mauvais temps
dans une miserable auberge, je vais tacher de passer quelques
moments agre"ables en causant avec toi. Je laissai Boston en
juillet, 1783, et vins a Philadelphie avec M. Savary de Val-
coulon de Lyon, appele" par ses affaires en Ame'rique et qui n'en-
tendant pas I 7 Anglais e"tait bien aise d'avoir avec lui quelqu'un
qui le sut; ou qui plutot ayant pris de Famiti6 pour moi et
voyant que ma situation dans la Nouvelle-Angleterre e"tait loin
d'etre gracieuse, crut qu'il me serait plus avantageux de changer
de place et me promit de m'e"tre aussi utile qu'il le pourrait. II
m'a bien tenu parole. Non-seulement il m'a aide" de sa bourse
et de son credit, mais il m'a mis a m^me d'espe"rer un jour de
pouvoir jouir du plaisir de vivre heureux avec Serre et toi. Tu
sens qu'un homme & qui j'ai consenti d'avoir des obligations doit
56 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1784.
avoir un cceur digne d'etre mon ami, et je crois te faire plaisir
en t ? annon9ant que ses plans sont les mmes que les ndtres et que
probablement tu auras dans ce pays un ami de plus que tu
ne Fespe*rais. Aprs avoir pass6 quatre mois a Philadelphie,
pendant lesquels Serre fut force" par notre situation de passer a
la Jamai'que avec Mussard de Geneve, M. Savary passa en Vir-
ginie pour des dettes que cet 6tat avait contracted avec sa maison,
et je Fy accompagnai. Ses plans de retraite e"tant les monies que
les miens, nous formions souvent ensemble des chateaux-en-
Espagne lorsque le hasard nous oifrit une occasion qui nous fit
espe"rer que nous pourrions les realiser. L J e"tat de Virginie est
borne* au sud par la Caroline, a Fest par la mer, au nord par le
Maryland et la Pensilvanie, au nord-ouest et a Fouest par la
riviere Ohio, ou Belle Riviere, et par le Mississippi. Une
chaine de montagnes nominees Apalaches ou Allegheny qui
courant sud-ouest et nord-est & environ 50 lieues de la mer
traverse tous les Etats-Unis de FAme'rique, separe la Virginie
en deux parties, dont la plus petite comprise entre la mer et les
montagnes est sans comparaison la plus peuplee. L'autre, in-
finiment plus grande, ne contient que deux e"tablissements. L'un
joignant les montagnes et le reste des anciens e"tablissements
s'e"tend sur FOhio jusqu'a Fishing Creek 150 milles au-dessous
de Fort Pitt, et de la par une ligne parallele a peu prs aux
montagnes, formant au-dela de ces montagnes une lisiere d'en-
viron 10 a 20 lieues de largeur qui contient environ 500 families.
Le second e"tablissement qui est celui de Kentuckey, que tu e"cris
Quintoquay, est situe" sur la riviere du m^me nom qui tombe
dans FOhio 700 milles au-dessous de Fort Pitt. II contient a
present 20 a 30 mille ames et est entour^ et se'pare* de tous les
pays habitSs par des deserts
There is, however, one proof that he was at George's Creek in
the month of September of this year. Among Mr. John Russell
Bartlett's "Reminiscences of Mr. Gallatin" is the following anec-
dote, which can only refer to this time :
" Mr. Gallatin said he first met General Washington at the
office of a land agent near the Kenawha River, in North- Western
Virginia, where he (Mr. G.) had been engaged in surveying.
1784. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 57
The office consisted of a log house fourteen feet square, in which
was but one room. In one corner of this was a bed for the use
of the agent. General Washington, who owned large tracts of
land in this region, was then visiting them in company with his
nephew, and at the same time examining the country with a
view of opening a road across the Alleghanies. Many of the
settlers and hunters familiar with the country had been invited
to meet the general at this place for the purpose of giving him
such information as would enable him to select the most eligible
pass for the contemplated road. Mr. Gallatin felt a desire to
meet this great man, and determined to await his arrival.
" On his arrival, General Washington took his seat at a pine
table in the log cabin, or rather land agent's office, surrounded
by the men who had come to meet him. They all stood up, as
there was no room for seats. Some of the more fortunate, how-
ever, secured quarters on the bed. They then underwent an
examination by the general, who wrote down all the particulars
stated by them. He was very inquisitive, questioning one after
the other and noting down all they said. Mr. Gallatin stood
among the others in the crowd, though quite near the table, and
listened attentively to the numerous queries put by the general,
and very soon discovered from the various relations which was
the only practicable pass through which the road could be made.
He felt uneasy at the indecision of the general, when the point
was so evident to him, and without reflecting on the impropriety
of it, suddenly interrupted him, saying, ' Oh, it is plain enough,
such a place [a spot just mentioned by one of the settlers] is
the most practicable/ The good people stared at the young
surveyor (for they only knew him as such) with surprise,
wondering at his boldness in thrusting his opinion unasked
upon the general.
" The interruption put a sudden stop to General Washington's
inquiries. He laid down his pen, raised his eyes from his paper,
and cast a stern look at Mr. Gallatin, evidently offended at the
intrusion of his opinion, but said not a word. Resuming his
former attitude, he continued his interrogations for a few minutes
longer, when suddenly stopping, he threw down his pen, turned
to Mr. Gallatin, and said, ' You are right, sir/
58 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1784.
t(< It was so on all occasions with General Washington/ re-
marked Mr. Gallatin to me; 'he was slow in forming an opinion,
and never decided until he knew he was right/
" To continue the narrative : the general stayed here all night,
occupying the bed alluded to, while his nephew, the land agent,
and Mr. Gallatin rolled themselves in blankets and buffalo-skins
and lay upon the bare floor. After the examination mentioned,
and when the party went out, General Washington inquired who
the young man was who had interrupted him, made his acquaint-
ance, and learned all the particulars of his history. They occa-
sionally met afterwards, and the general urged Mr. Gallatin to
become his land agent; but as Mr. Gallatin was then, or in-
tended soon to become, the owner of a large tract of land, he
was compelled to decline the favorable offer made him by
General Washington."
This is the story as told by Mr. Bartlett, and there can be
no doubt of its essential correctness. But General Washington
made only one journey to the West during which he could
possibly have met Mr. Gallatin. This journey was in the month
of September, 1784, and was not to the Kanawha, though origi-
nally meant to be so. He went no farther than to George's
Creek, and it so happens that he kept a diary of every day's
work during this expedition. The diary has never been pub-
lished ; but it is among the archives in the State Department
at Washington. In it are the following entries':
" September 23. Arrived at Colonel Phillips' about five o'clock
in the afternoon, sixteen miles from Beason Town and near the
mouth of Cheat River; . . . crossed no water of consequence
except George's Creek. An apology made me from the court of
Fayette (through Mr. Smith) for not addressing me, as they found
my horses saddled and myself on the move. Finding by in-
quiries that the Cheat River had been passed with canoes through
those parts which had been represented as impassable, and that
a Captain Hanway, the surveyor of Monongahela, lived within
two or three miles of it, south side thereof, I resolved to pass it
to obtain further information, and accordingly, accompanied by
Colonel Phillips, set off in the morning of the
" 24th, and crossed it at the mouth. . . . From the fork to the
1785. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 59
surveyor's office, which is at the house of one Pierpont, is about
eight miles along the dividing ridge. . . . Pursuing my inquiries
respecting the navigation of the Western waters, Captain Hanway
proposed, if I would stay all night, to send to Monongahela
[Monongalia] court-house at Morgantown for Colonel Zach.
Morgan and others who would have it in their power to give
the best accounts that were to be obtained, which assenting to,
they were sent for and came, and from them I received the
following intelligence, viz.," &c.
No mention is made of Mr. Gallatin, nor indeed of any others
besides Colonel Morgan, from whom the information was de-
rived ; but there can hardly be a doubt that this was the occasion
of the meeting. The only possible importance of this district
of country, in which both Washington and Gallatin had at times
large interests, was derived from the fact that it lay between the
head-waters of the Potomac and the nearest navigable branches
of the Ohio. 1 The reason why Gallatin and Savary selected
George's Creek for their base of operations was that in their
opinion they thus held in their hands the best practicable con-
nection between the Ohio and the Potomac which was their
path to Richmond and a market. Probably this subject had
engaged much of Gallatin's attention during a good part of this
summer, and it is not unlikely that he had already arrived, from
his own study, at the conclusion which he found Washington so
slow to adopt.
The following winter was also passed in Richmond, where
Savary ultimately built a brick house, long remembered for its
tall, round chimneys. Gallatin was now established here so
firmly that he regarded himself as a Virginian, and seems to
have been regarded as such by his acquaintances, as the following
paper testifies :
" The bearer hereof, Mr. Albert Gallatine, is going from this
place to Greenbriar County, and from thence towards Monon-
galia and the County s northwestward. His business is with the
surveyors of some of these Countys, particularly with him of
1 See map, p. 126.
60 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1784.
Greenbriar. And I do request that from him in particular, as
well as from all others, he may meet with particular attention
and respect.
" I feel it my duty in a peculiar manner to give every possible
facility to this gentleman, because his personal character, as well
as his present designs, entitle him to the most cordial regards.
" Given under my hand at Richmond this 25th March, 1785.
"P. HENKY."
Governor Henry also intrusted Gallatin with the duty of
locating two thousand acres of land in the Western country
for Colonel James Le Maire, or of completing the title if the
land were already located. This commission is dated March 29.
On the 30th, Gallatin wrote to Badollet a letter, of which the
following extract is all that has interest here. He at length tells
Badollet to come over at once. His own position is sufficiently
secure to warrant a decisive step of this kind. The next day
began his second expedition to the West.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
RICHMOND (EN YIRQINIE), ce 30 mars, 1785.
Mon bon ami, j'espre que tu as re9u la lettre que je t'ai e"crite
de Philadelphie en de"cembre dernier par laquelle je t'annonpais
la reception de la tienne du 9e avril, 1784, et par laquelle je te
renvoyais & ma premiere pour de plus grands details sur ce qui me
regardait. C'est avec le plus grand plaisir que je puis enfin te
dire de partir par la premiere occasion pour venir me joindre ; ce
n'est qu'aprs m'e'tre longtems consult^ que j'ai pris ce parti, ayant
toujours craint de te faire sacrifier un bien-tre re"el a des avan-
tages incertains. Cependant, conside"rant ma position actuelle et
voyant par tes lettres que ton attachement pour moi et ton gout
pour la retraite sont toujours les meTnes, je crois que je puis ac-
corder mon amitiS et ton bonheur ; du reste, voici Fe"tat exact oil
je suis, tu jugeras par la s'il te convient de venir le partager.
J'ai fait connaissance avec M. Savary de Lyon, homme d'un
rare me'rite, et dont le coeur vaut mieux que Fesprit ; apres Favoir
aide pendant quelque terns a suivre ses aifaires, il m'a inte'resse'
1785. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 61
d'abord pour un quart et ensuite pour une moiti6 dans une sp6cu-
lation de terres dans Fe"tat de Virginie. Sans entrer dans tons
les details de cette affaire, dont la rSussite est due en partie a mes
soins pendant le voyage que j'ai fait I'Ste" dernier dans les der-
rieres de la Virginie, il te suffira de savoir que nous possSdons
actuellement plus *de cent mille acres de terre sur les bords ou
pres de FOhio, 250 milles par eau au-dessous du Fort Pitt, autre-
fois Fort Duquesne, a 350 milles de Philadelphie et environ 300
de Baltimore. Elles sont situ6es entre le grand et le petit Kan-
hawa (ou Canhaway, ou Camvay), deux rivieres qui se jettent
dans FOhio. C'est un pays montueux, trs-coupe, mais fertile,
propre surtout a la culture du bled et & Clever du bStail. J'ai
fait arpenter presque toutes ces terres Fannee derniere ; je pars de-
main pour aller finir cet ouvrage et pour mener quelques families
afin de commencer un etablissement. Nous avons au reste re-
vendu quelques petites portions qui nous ont rembourse" les trois
quarts des premieres avances. . . .
During this summer Gallatin kept a brief diary, so that it is
possible to follow all his movements. Leaving Richmond on the
31st of March, alone, on horseback, he ascended James River,
crossed the Blue Ridge near the Peaks of Otter, and arrived at the
Court-House of Greenbrier County on the 18th April. Having
seen the surveyor and attended to his locations of land, he started
northwards on the 21st, and on the 29th reached his headquarters
at Clare's on George's Creek. Here Savary joined him, and
after making their preparations they set off on the 26th May,
and descended the Ohio with their surveying party to the mouth
of Little Sandy Creek, where from June 3 to July 1 they were
engaged in surveying, varied by building a log cabin, clearing
land, and occasionally killing a bear or a buffalo. On the
1st July, Gallatin, leaving Savary and four men at " Friends'
Landing" to carry on the work, set off by water for the Grand
Kanawha, and surveyed country about the head-waters of the
Big Sandy and between the Elk and the Pocotaligo. On August
13 he descended the Pocotaligo, and on the 15th, striking across
country to the southward, he reached "Meeting Camp," on
the Elk, and received letters from Savary announcing that the
62 LIFE OP ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1785.
Indians had broken up his operations on the Ohio and com-
pelled him to abandon the cabin and clearing.
This Indian outbreak deranged all their plans. It had
been their intention to settle on these lands between the two
Kanawhas, and for this purpose they had engaged men, built
the log cabin, and cleared several acres on the banks of the
Ohio adjoining the lands located by General Washington and
known as " Washington's Bottom." They themselves, it is
true, were not directly molested by the Indians, but boats had
been captured and emigrants murdered a few miles from their
settlement. They were obliged to abandon their plan and to
return to Clare's. This wild attempt to make his home in an
utter solitude one hundred and twenty miles beyond the last
house then inhabited on the banks of the Ohio, was obviously
impracticable even to Gallatin's mind, without incurring im-
minent danger of massacre.
The friends returned to George's Creek. It was then, at the
October court of Monongalia County, Virginia, according to the
record, that Gallatin at last " took the oath of allegiance and
fidelity to the Commonwealth of Virginia." He had long con-
sidered himself an American citizen ; this act merely fixed the
place of citizenship. By the laws of his native country he was
still a minor. He was actually residing in Pennsylvania. The
old Confederation was still the only national government. Vir-
ginia was the State to which he was attached, and of Virginia he
wished to be considered a citizen, so that even a year later he
signed himself in legal documents " of Monongalia County,
Virginia." He had fully determined to remain in the Western
country, and he chose Monongalia County because his lands lay
there ; but the neighboring Pennsylvania county of Fayette was
both by situation and resources a more convenient residence, and
even so early as 1784, as has already been shown, Savary and he
had established a store and made their base of operations in
Fayette County. In November of this year 1785 they leased
from Thomas Clare for five years a house and five acres of land
at George's Creek, in Springhill Township, on the Monongahela :
here they made their temporary residence, transferring their store
to it, and placing in it several men who had been engaged as
1785. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 63
settlers and had remained in their service. After the joint estab-
lishment had been carried on for two or three years, Gallatin
bought a farm of four hundred acres about a mile higher up
the river, to which he transferred the establishment, and which
ultimately became his residence, under the name of Friendship
Hill, perhaps to commemorate the friendship of Serre, Savary,
and Badollet.
This then was the promised land, the " fond de terre" which
poor Serre had described, and to which Badollet was now on
his way. In point of fact it suggested Switzerland. No better
spot could' have been found in the United States for men who had
passed their youth by the shore of Lake Geneva, overlooked by
the snow summit of Mont Blanc. Friendship Hill rises ab-
ruptly from the Monongahela, and looks eastward to the Laurel
Ridge, picturesque as Serre could have imagined, remote as
Rousseau could have wished. But as a place of permanent resi-
dence for men who were to earn their living according to the
Genevan theory, it had one disadvantage which is pointedly de-
scribed by Gallatin himself in a letter to Badollet, written about
half a century afterwards. 1 t( Although I should have been con-
tented to live and die amongst the Monongahela hills, it must
be acknowledged that, beyond the invaluable advantage of health,
they afforded either to you or me but few intellectual or physical
resources. Indeed, I must say that I do not know in the United
States any spot which afforded less means to earn a bare subsist-
ence for those who could not live by manual labor than the
sequestered corner in which accident had first placed us."
Thus much accomplished, Gallatin and Savary left George's
Creek on the 22d November, making their way to Cumber-
land on the Potomac, and so down the river to Richmond.
But in the following February he again returned to George's
Creek, and there he kept house for the future, having never less
than six persons and afterwards many more in his family. Here
Badollet now came, in obedience to his friend's wishes. "With
him Gallatin buried himself in the wilderness, and his family
entreated for letters in vain.
1 See "below, p. 646.
64 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1785.
ABRAHAM GALLATIN TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
PREGNY, ce 20 juin, 1785.
Quand une correspond ance, mon cher fils, est aussi mal Stabile
que la notre, on ne salt par oft commencer. Je t'ai e*erit quelques
lettres dont j 'ignore le sort ; j'en ai re9u une de toi, il y a deux
ou trois ans; si la date en e"tait exacte, elle me fut rendue ici
dans trente jours . . . d'ou je conclus que nous e"tions assez
voisins et qu'il ne tenait qu'a toi de nous donner plus souvent
de tes nouvelles. Nous n'en avons eu que bien peu et la plupart
indirectes. Mais enfin je ne te fais point de reproches ; je sais
que les jeunes gens s'occupent rareraent de leurs vieux parents et
que d'ailleurs j'ai cru entrevoir que tes occupations et tes divers
de"placements ont du avoir de longs momens inquie"tans et peni-
bles. II y a quelques mois qu'un Mr. Jennings qui a e"te" ton ami
et qui est parti pour File de Grenade, e"crivit a Mile. Pictet de
Baltimore le 28e fevrier qu'il avait e"te a Philadelphie ou il avait
compte* de te trouver, mais que malheureusement pour lui tu en
e*tais parti pour une province a 3 ou 400 lieues de la pour y
faire arpenter un trSs-grand terrain inculte que tu avais achete" a
vil prix. II ajoutait ensuite que s'etant informe exactement de
diverses personnes qui te connaissent, on avait fait de toi un tres-
bon rapport sur Pestime et le credit que tu y avais acquis. . . .
Tu n'as pas oubli4 sans doute que tu seras majeuf dans le courant
du mois de Janvier prochain, 1786. . . .
MLLE. PICTET TO GALLATIN.
22 juillet, 1785.
Enfin j'ai re9U ta lettre du 29e mars. . . . J'ai peine a excuser
ce long silence ; je ne saurais me'me prendre pour bonnes les rai-
sons que tu en donnes; il me parait plus vraisemblable que
Famour-propre t'empche d'ecrire lorsque tu n'as rien a dire
d'avantageux de ta situation. . . . Je me flatte que M. Savari a
un m^rite plus sur que Serre et Badollet. Quant a Serre, je
comprends qu'il y a quelques nuages entre vous. . . . Son gout
sera toujours de courir des aventures. . . .
1786. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 65
ANNE GALLATIN TO ALBERT GALLATIN.
6 mars, 1786.
Monsieur, Je ne puis imaginer que vous soyez instruit que
le bruit de votre mort est parvenu jusqu'd, Geneve comme la
chose du monde la plus certaine et que vous ne vous soyez pas
hate" de le d6truire par vos lettres. . . .
MLLE. PICTET TO GALLATIN.
1 octobre, 1787.
. . . Monsieur Chaston . . . m'a parle" de toi ; . . . il m'a dit
que tu avais conserve" ton ancienne indolence ; que tu te souciais
peu du monde, et que lorsque tu avais demeure" chez lui a Phila-
delphie il ne pouvait t'engager & voir le monde ni a t'habiller.
II dit que tu aimes toujours F4tude et la lecture. Voila des
gouts qui ne paraissent pas s'accorder avec tes grandes entreprises
et pour lesquels une grande fortune est bien inutile, que tu aurais
pu suivre sans quitter ton pays. . . .
So widely accredited was the rumor of his death that his family
in Geneva made an application to Mr. Jefferson, then the United
States minister at Paris, through the Genevan minister at that
Court, who was a connection of the Gallatin family; and Mr.
Jefferson on the 27th January, 1786, wrote to Mr. Jay on the
subject a letter which will be found in his printed works. Mr.
Jay replied on the 16th June, reassuring the family; but in the
mean while letters had arrived from Gallatin himself. There
were indeed other reasons than mere family affection which made
correspondence at this moment peculiarly necessary. Gallatin
reached his twenty-fifth year on the 29th January, when his little
patrimony became his own to dispose of at his will ; and without
attributing to him an inordinate amount of self-interest, it would
seem that he must certainly have been heard from at this time if
at no other, seeing that he was pledged to undertakings which
had been entered into on the strength of this expected capital.
The family were not left long in doubt. Letters and drafts soon
arrived, and Gallatin duly received through the firm of Kobert
5
(J6 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1787.
Morris about five thousand dollars, the greatest part of his
patrimony and all that could at once be remitted. This was
the only capital he could as yet command or call his own. What
he might further inherit was highly uncertain, and he seems to
have taken unnecessary pains to avoid the appearance of court-
ing a bequest. His grandfather's letter, just given, shows how
little there was of the mercenary in the young man's relations
with the wealthier members of his family, from whom he might
originally have hoped, and in fact had reason to expect, an
ultimate inheritance. In the course of time this expectation was
realized. He was left heir to the estates of both his grandfather
and his uncle, but the inheritance proved to be principally one
of debts. After these had been discharged there remained of a
fortune which should properly have exceeded one hundred thou-
sand dollars only a sum of about twenty thousand dollars, which
he practically sunk in Western lands and houses. But as yet his
hopes from such investments were high, and he had no reason to
be ashamed of his position.
Nevertheless, he was not yet quite firmly established in his
American life. His existence at George's Creek was not all that
imagination could paint; perhaps not all it once had painted.
The business of store-keeping and land-clearing in a remote
mountain valley had drawbacks which even the arrival of Badol-
let could not wholly compensate ; and finally the death of Serre,
learned only in the summer of 1786, was a severe blow, which
made Gallatin's mind for a time turn sadly away from its occu-
pations and again long for the sympathy and associations of the
home they had both so contemptuously deserted.
There was indeed little at this time of his life, between 1786
and 1788, which could have been greatly enjoyable to him, or
which can be entertaining to describe, in long residences at
George's Creek, varied by journeys to Richmond, Philadelphia,
and New York, land purchases and land sales, the one as un-
productive as the other, house-building, store-keeping, incessant
daily attention to the joint interests of the association while it
lasted, endless trials of temper and patience in dealing with his
associates, details of every description, since nothing could be
trusted to others, and no pleasures that even to a mind naturally
1787. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 67
disposed, like his, to contentment under narrow circumstances,
could compensate for its sacrifices.
In point of fact, too, nothing was gained by thus insisting
upon taking life awry and throwing away the advantages of
education, social position, and natural intelligence. All the
elaborate calculations of fortune to result from purchases of
land in Western Virginia were miscalculations. Forty years
later, after Mr. Gallatin had made over to his sons all his West-
ern lands, he summed up the result of his operations in a very
few words : " It is a troublesome and unproductive property,
which has plagued me all my life. I could not have vested
my patrimony in a more unprofitable manner." It is, too, a
mistake to suppose that he was essentially aided even in his
political career by coming to a border settlement. There have
been in American history three parallel instances of young men
coming to this country from abroad and under great disadvan-
tages achieving political distinction which culminated in the
administration of the national Treasury. These were, in the
order of seniority, Alexander Hamilton, Albert Gallatin, and
A. J. Dallas, the latter of whom came to America in 1783 and
was Gallatin's most intimate political friend and associate.
Neither Hamilton nor Dallas found it necessary or advisable
to retire into the wilderness, and political distinctions were con-
ferred upon them quite as rapidly as was for their advantage.
The truth is that in those days, except perhaps in New England,
the eastern counties of Virginia and South Carolina, there was a
serious want of men who possessed in any degree the rudimentary
qualifications for political life. Even the press in the Middle
States was almost wholly in the hands of foreign-born citizens.
Had Gallatin gone at once to. New York or Philadelphia and
devoted himself to the law, for which he was admirably fitted by
nature, had he invested his little patrimony in a city house, in
public securities, in almost any property near at hand and easily
convertible, there is every reason to suppose that he would have
been, financially and politically, in a better position than ever
was the case in fact. In following this course he would have
had the advantage of treading the path which suited his true
tastes and needs. This is proved by the whole experience of
68 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1788.
his life. In spite of himself, he was always more and more
drawn back to the seaboard, until at length he gave up the
struggle and became a resident of New York in fact, as he had
long been in all essentials.
The time was, however, at hand in these years from 1786 to
1788 when, under the political activity roused by the creation
of a new Constitution and the necessity of setting it in motion,
a new generation of public men was called into being. The
constitutional convention sat during the summer of 1787. The
Pennsylvania convention, which ratified the Constitution, sat
shortly afterwards in the same year. Their proceedings were of
a nature to interest Gallatin deeply, as may be easily seen from
the character of the letters already given. His first appearance
in political life naturally followed and was immediately caused
by the great constitutional controversy thus raised.
But before beginning upon the course of Mr. Gallatin's politi-
cal and public career, which is to be best treated by itself and is
the main object of this work, the story of his private life shall
be carried a few steps further to a convenient halting-point.
In the winter of 178788, according to a brief diary, he made
a rapid journey to Maine on business. He was at George's
Creek a few days before Christmas. On Christmas-day occurs
the following entry at Pittsburg : " Fait Noel avec Odrin (?) et
Breckenridge chez Marie. " Who these three persons were is
not clear. Apparently, the Breckenridge mentioned was not
Judge H. H. Brackenridge, who, in his " Incidents of the In-
surrection," or whiskey rebellion, declares that his first conver-
sation with Gallatin was in August, 1794. Marie was not a
woman, but a Genevan emigrant.
January 5, 1788, he was in Philadelphia, where he remained
till the 28th. On the 29th, his birthday, he was at Paulus
Hook, now Jersey City. On the 2d February occurs the fol-
lowing entry at Hartford: "Depuis que je suis dans 1'gtat de
Connecticut, j'ai toujours voyage avec des champs des deux
c6ts, et je n'ai rien vu en Ame'rique d'e"gal aux Stablissements
sur la riviere Connecticut." On the 6th : " Dejeune a Shrews-
bury. Souvenirs en voyant Wachusett Hill. . . . CouchS a
Boston." On the llth of February he started again for the
1789. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 69
East by the stage : " Voyage" avec Dr. Daniel Kilham de New-
bury Port, oppose" a la Constitution. Vu mon bon ami Bentley
a Salem ; il me croyait mort. Dine" a Ipswich avec mes anciens
Scoliers Amory et Stacey." On the 14th : " Loue" Hailey et un
slay; descendu sur la glace partie d'Amoruscoguin [Androscoggin]
River et Merrymeeting Bay, et traverse" Kennebeck, aborde" a
Woolwich, travers^ un Neck, puis sur la glace une cove de
Kennebeck, et alle" par terre & Wiscasset Point sur Sheepscutt
River." Apparently at this time of his life Gallatin was proof
against hardship and fatigue. In returning he again crossed the
bay and ascended the Androscoggin on the ice : " Tout le jour
il a neige" ; voyage" sur la glace sans voir le rivage ; gouverne"
notre course par la direction du vent." His return was much
retarded by snow, but he was again in Boston on the 27th, and
in New York on the 5th of March.
He passed the summer, apparently, in the West at his
George's Creek settlement, at least partially engaged in politics,
as will be shown hereafter. He passed also the winter here, and
it was not till the 12th March, 1789, that he set out on his usual
visit to Richmond, which he reached on the 1st April.
The following letter shows him occupied with a new interest.
Sophia Allegre was the daughter of William Allegre, of a
French Protestant family among the early settlers in this coun-
try. William Allegre married Jane Batersby, and died early,
leaving his widow with two daughters and a son. A young
Frenchman, Louis Pauly, who came to Virginia on some finan-
cial errand of his government, took lodgings with Mrs. Allegre,
fell in love with her daughter Jane, and married her against her
mother's consent. Young Gallatin also lodged under Mrs.
Allegre's roof, and fell in love with her other daughter, Sophia.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
KICHMOND, 4 mai, 1789.
Mon bon ami, je suis arrive" ici le ler avril et ai e"te" jusques
a present si occupe" de mes amours que je n'ai eu la tte & rien
d'autre. Sophie e"tait chez son beau-fr&re Pauli & New Kent.
J'y ai passe" plus de 15 jours a deux fois difF6rentes. Elle n'a
70 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1789
point fait la coquette avec moi, mais des le second jour m'a
donne" son plein consentement, m'a avoue qu'elle me Faurait
donn6 a mon dernier voyage ou peut-etre plus tot si je le lui avais
demand^ ; avait toujours cru que je Faimais, mais avait e"t6 sur-
prise de n'avoir pas entendu parler de moi pendant plus d'un
an, ce qui avait cause" sa re"ponse a Savary que tu m'apportas;
n'avait pas voulu s'ouvrir depuis & Savary parceque n'ayant pas
repondu a ma lettre, elle avait peur que je n'eusse change" et ne
voulait pas s'aventurer a faire une confidence inutile. Voil& le
bien ; voici le mal. La mere, qui s'est bien dout6e que je n'etais
pas h New Kent pour Famour de Pauly, a ordonnS a sa fille de
revenir, et je Fai en eifet amende a Richmond. Je lui ai alors
demande Sophie. Elle a 6te" furieuse, m'a refus6 de la manire
la plus brutale et m'a presque interdite sa maison. Elle ne veut
point que sa fille soit trainee sur les frontieres de la Pensilvanie
par un homme sans agre"mens, sans fortune, qui bredouille FAn-
glais comme un Frangais et qui a 6t6 maitre d'^cole a Cambridge.
J'ai ri de la plupart de ses objections, j'ai tache" de rSpondre aux
autres, mais je n'ai point pu lui faire entendre raison et elle
vient d'envoyer Sophie en campagne chez un de ses amis. C'est
une diablesse que sa fille craint horriblement,- en sorte que j'aurai
de la peine & lui persuader de se passer du consentement ma-
ternel. Je crois pourtant que je reussirai, et c'est a quoi je vais
travailler malgr^ la difficult^ que j'eprouve a la voir et a lui
parler. Des que cette affaire sera decidee, je 'penserai a celles
d'int^r^t. Je suis encore plus decide" que jamais a tout terminer
avec Savary, dont la conduite pendant mon absence a 6t6 presqu'
extravagante. Mais motus sur cet article. J'ai vu ici Perrin, qui
vient de repartir pour France, Savary ayant paye" son passage.
II a soutenu jusques au bout son digne caractere, ayant dit &
Mme. Allegre tout le mal possible de la Monongahela, tandis
qu'il savait par une lettre volee que j'aimais sa fille, et ayant fini
par mentir et tromper Savary qui est bien revenu sur son compte.
Tout le monde ici m'en a dit du mal.
Je crois que vu tout ce que j'ai a faire ici je ne pourrai gu5re
partir avant le mois prochain. Si je me marie, ce sera dans
environ 15 jours, et il faudra ensuite que je prenne des arrange-
mens avec Savary (quand je taxe sa conduite d'extravagante, ce
1789. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 71
n'est que sa tete que je blame ; son coeur est toujours excellent
mais trop facile et il lui fait souvent faire des sottises) ; ainsi tu
ne dois m'attendre qu'au milieu de juin. Tache de faire planter
bien abondamment des patates, afin qu'il y en ait pour toi et pour
moi. J'aurais bien a coaur que la maison se finit, mais si tu ne
veux pas t'en meler, fais-moi le plaisir de prier Clare de pousser
Weibel. Je ne te parle point de nos arrangemens futurs, parceque
je n'y vois encore rien de clair et qu'il faut que pre"alablement je
finisse avec Savary. Rien de nouveau ici. Tu auras sans doute
su que le roi d'Angleterre e"tait devenu fou et que le Prince de
Galles avait e"t6 nomm6 Regent. Par les dernieres nouvelles il
est r6tabli et va reprendre les re"nes du gouvernement, & la grande
satisfaction de la nation, qui avec raison preTere Pitt & Fox. II
y a apparence que la guerre continuera en Europe et que la
Prusse prendra ouvertement le parti de la Suede centre le Dane-
mark. Embrasse Peggy pour moi; je pense souvent a elle et
apres ne 1'avoir aime'e pendant longtems que par rapport a toi, je
commence a Faimer pour elle-me'me. Je compte trouver Albert
sur ses jambes si je reste aussi longtems ici. Fais mes compli-
mens a Clare et a la famille Philips. Dis a Pauly que son frere
se porte bien a un rhumatisme prs; son frere Joseph va re-
venir pour le joindre et prendre la tann-yard que Maesh quittera.
Mine. Pauly, la so3ur de Sophie, m'a aid6 autant qu'elle a pu
aupres de sa mere, mais elle dissuade sa soeur d'un mariage
contre son consentement. Au reste, la mere dit & tout le monde
qu'elle voit autant de mal qu'elle peut de moi et se fait par M
plus de tort qu'a moi-meine. Adieu, mon bon ami ; je pense &
toi tout le terns que je ne suis pas occupS de Sophie; j'espre que
lorsque nous ne serons plus lie's a un tiers, nos jours seront encore
heureux. Crois mon pronostic et ne perds pas courage. Tout
a toi.
The records of Henrico County Court contain the marriage
bond, dated May 14, 1789, declaring that " We, Albert Gallatin
and Savary de Yalcoulon, are held and firmly bound unto Bev-
erly Randolph, Esq., Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia,
in the sum of fifty pounds, current money," the condition being
"a marriage shortly to be solemnized between the above-bound
72 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL AT IN. 1789.
Albert Gallatin and Sophia Allegre." In a little account-book
of that date are some significant entries : " Ruban de queue,
Y 6 . Veste blanche JJ/. Tailleur, 2.16. Souliers de satin, gants,
bague, 1.11.6. License, ministre, 4.4. Perruquier, negre,
0.2.0." Finally, many years afterwards, the following letter
was printed as a historical curiosity in " The Staunton Vindi-
cator" :
SOPHIA ALLEGEE TO HER MOTHER.
NEW KENT, May 16, 1789.
MY DEAR MAMA, Shall I venture to write you a few lines
in apology for my late conduct ? and dare I flatter myself that
you will attend to them ? If so, and you can feel a motherly
tenderness for your child who never before wilfully offended
you, forgive, dear mother, and generously accept again your
poor Sophia, who feels for the uneasiness she is sure she has
occasioned you. She deceived you, but it was for her own
happiness. Could you then form a wish to destroy the future
peace of your child and prevent her being united to the man of
her choice ? He is perhaps not a very handsome man, but he
is possessed of more essential qualities, which I shall not pretend
to enumerate ; as coming from me, they might be supposed par-
tial. If, mama, your heart is inclinable to forgive, or if it is
not, let me beg you to write to me, as my only anxiety is to
know whether I have lost your affection or not. Forgive me,
dear mama, as it is all that is wanting to complete the happiness
of her who wishes for your happiness and desires to be considered
again your dutiful daughter,
SOPHIA.
No trace of Sophia Allegre now remains except this letter and
a nameless gravestone within the grounds of Friendship Hill.
Gallatin took her home with him to George's Creek ; for a few
months they were happy together, and then suddenly, in October,
she died ; no one knows, perhaps no one ever knew, the cause of
her death, for medical science was not common at George's Creek.
Gallatin himself left no account of it that has been preserved.
He suffered intensely for the time ; but he was fortunately still
1790. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 73
young, and the only effect of his wretchedness was to drive him
headlong into politics for distraction.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, 8 mars, 1790.
Mon cher Badollet . . . Tu sens surement comme moi que le
sejour du comte" de Fayette ne peut pas m'e'tre bien agrSable, et
tu sais que je dSsirerais m'eloigner mSme de PAmerique. J'ai
fait mes efforts pour rSaliser ce projet, mais j'y trouve tous les
jours de nouvelles difficult^. II m'est absolument impossible de
vendre mes terres de Yirginie a quel prix que ce soit, et je ne sais
comment je trouverais a vivre a Geneve. Sans parler de mon
age et de mes habitudes et de ma paresse, qui seraient autant
d'obstacles aux occupations quelconques que je serais oblige" d'em-
brasser en Europe, il s'en rencontre un autre dans les circonstances
actuelles de notre patrie. Les revolutions dans la politique et
surtout les finances de la France out opere" si fortement sur
Geneve que les marchands y sont sans credit et sans affaires, les
artisans sans ouvrage et dans la misere, et tout le monde dans
Fembarras. Non-seulement les gazettes en ont fait mention,
mais j'en ai re9U quelques details dans une lettre de M. Trembley,
qui quoiqu'anterieure aux derniers avis re9us par plusieurs Suisses
ici, et Scrite dans un terns ou les calamites publiques n'e"taient pas
au point ou elles sont a present, m'apprenait que les difficulte*s et
les dangers Staient tels qu'il avait depose* le peu d'argent qu'il
avait a moi dans la caisse de Phdpital. Tous les Strangers 6tablis
ici s'accordent a dire que les ressources pour se tirer d'affaires en
Europe sont presqu'aneanties, au moins pour ceux qui n'en ont
d'autre que leur Industrie, et ces faits sont confirme*s par nombre
d'e"migrants de toutes les nations et de tous les Stats. Dans ces
circonstances la petite rente que j'ai en France Stant tres-pre*caire
tant a cause de la tournure incertaine que prendront les affaires
que parcequ'elle est sur d'autres tetes et sur des ttes plus agees
que la mienne, il est bien clair que je n'aurais d'autres ressources
que celles que je pourrais tirer des dons de ma famille, vu que
leurs efforts seraient probablement inutiles quant a me procurer
quelqu'occupation a laquelle je fusse propre. Cette circon stance
74 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIST. 1790.
de recevoir serait non-seulement de"sagre"able, mais Pesp6rance en
serait fort incertaine ; mon oncle Rolas, le cadet, le seul qui n'ait
pas d'enfans, passe pour etre ge"nereux, mais il de"pense beaucoup,
plus, je crois, que ses revenus ; sa fortune qui est en partie en
France et en Hollande recevra probablement quelqu'e"chec dans
ce moment de crise, et la seule occupation que je pourrais suivre
en Europe serait celle de courtiser un heritage que je ne serais ni
faclie" ni honteux de recevoir s'il ne me coutait aucunes bassesses,
pour lequel je me serais cru peut-tre oblige" de faire quelques
demarches si une Spouse che"rie avait v6cu, mais qui dans mes
circonstances actuelles ne saurait m'engager seul a retourner a
Geneve pour y vivre dans une totale independance. Ce que je
dois a ma digne mere est la seule raison qui en pourrait contre-
balancer d'aussi fortes ; et si je puis entrevoir seulement la possi-
bilite" de vivre dans ma patrie pauvrement mais sans etre a charge
a personne, cette raison seule me d6cidera, mais jusqu'alors je ne
vois que trop la necessity de rester ici. Ce n'est pas que je me
fasse illusion et que je crois pouvoir faire beaucoup mieux en
Ame"rique, mais si j'y puis seulement vivre inde"pendant, c'est
toujours plus que je ne peux espe"rer en Europe, du moins a pre"-
sent, et je crois qu'un an d'application a Fe"tude des lois me suffira
non pas pour faire une fortune ou une figure brillante, mais pour
m'assurer du pain quelques puissent etre les e"venemens. Je t'ai
parle" bien longuement de moi seul, et la seule apologie que je te
donnerai c'est de ne Favoir pas fait plus tot. Ne crois pas cepen-
dant que dans mes incertitudes et les diffe"rentes ide"es qui m'ont
agite", je n'aie pas pens6 a toi. Je te d6clarerai d'abord franche-
ment que je n'aurais pas balance" entre Mile. Pictet et toi, et que
si je voyais possibility d ? aller la joindre, elle Femporterait stire-
ment ; Fide"e de devoir et de reconnaissance est si intimement lie"e
chez moi avec 1'affection que j'ai pour cette respectable personne
que quelques regrets que j'eusse de te quitter, j'e"prouverais me'me
du plaisir en le faisant dans Fintention de contribuer a son bon-
heur ; mais ce seul objet excepte", il n'y a rien que je ne te sacri-
fiasse ; je ne te sacrifierais me'me rien en te preferant au reste de
mes amis et parens a Geneve, et si le temps pouvait eifacer le
souvenir de mes chagrins, j'aimerais mieux vivre pres de toi en
Ame"rique que sans toi dans ma patrie, et meme dans ce moment
1790. YOUTH. 1761-1790. 75
je sens combien de consolations je recevrais du seul ami qui ait
connu mon aimable Sophie ; en un mot je n'ai pas besoin de te
dire que si je reste ici, mon sort doit tre intimement lie" avec le
tien. Mais a Fegard de la maniere, du lieu futur de notre sejour,
je ne puis encore former d'opinion vu Farrive'e de ton frSre. . . .
Quelque parti que nous puissions prendre pour Favenir, je desire
aussi fortement que toi que nous soyons inde"pendants Fun et
Fautre, quant a notre maniere de vivre. Si tu crois que nous ne
quittions pas Fayetfe, ne neglige pas Fouvrage que tu avais com-
mence" pour vivre chez toi en pr6parant une cabane joignant le
champ de Robert. Si tu supposes qu'il soit probable que nous
changions de demeure, attends jusques a Farrivee de ton frere
pour faire une defense qui n'augmenterait pas la valeur de la
terre. . . . Voila, je crois, tout ce que j'ai a te dire pour le pre"-
sent; si je ne peux pas vendre cette semaine une traite, je serai
dans 15 a 20 jours avec toi. . . .
Every letter received by Gallatin from Geneva between
1780 and 1790 had, in one form or another, urged his return
or expressed discontent at his situation. But the storm of the
French revolution had at last fairly begun, and Geneva felt it
severely and early. Not till the 7th of April, 1790, did Galla-
tin overcome his repugnance to writing in regard to his wife's
death to Mile. Pictet, and he then expressed to her his wish to
return for her sake. At this critical moment of his life the
feelings of his family had begun to change. They no longer
looked upon him as a subject of pity. "L'e"tat pre*caire de la
France" is mentioned by Mile. Pictet in June and July, 1790,
as a subject of anxiety ; " nous ignorons encore quel il sera, notre
gouvernement ;" " quant aux conseils que tu me demandes par
rapport a ton retour, et aux ressources que tu pourrais trouver
dans notre pays, je suis bien embarrassed a te re"pondre." It
was too late. Indeed, it may be doubted whether this idea of
returning to Geneva for the sake of Mile. Pictet was really more
than the momentary sickness at heart consequent on a great
shock, which in any case could not have lasted long. Galla-
tin's career already lay open before him. His misfortunes only
precipated the result.
BOOK II.
THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801.
THE Federal Constitution of 1787, accepted only a few years
later by all parties and by the whole people as the last word of
political wisdom, was at its birth greatly admired by no one.
The public mind was divided between two classes of axioms
and theories, each embodying sound reasoning and honest con-
viction, but resting at bottom upon divergent habits of life and
forms of industry. Among the commercial and professional
citizens of the sea-board towns a strong government was thought
necessary to protect their trade and their peace ; but there was a
wide latitude of opinion in regard to the degree of strength re-
quired for their purpose, and while a few of the ablest and most
determined leaders would have frankly accepted the whole theory
of the English constitution and as much of its machinery as
possible, the mass even of their own followers instinctively pre-
ferred a federative and democratic system. Among the agricul-
tural and scattered population of the country, where the necessity
of police and authority was little felt, and where a strong govern-
ment was an object of terror and hatred, the more ignorant and
the more violent class might perhaps honestly deny the necessity
for any national government at all ; with the great majority,
however, it was somewhat unwillingly conceded that national
government was a necessary evil, and that some concessions of
power must be made to it ; their object was to reduce these con-
cessions to the lowest possible point. No one can doubt where
Mr. Gallatin's sympathies would lie as between the two great
social and political theories. The reaction against strong gov-
ernments and their corruptions had a great part in that general
feeling of restlessness and revolt which drew him from the centre
of civilization to its outskirts. There could be no question of
76
1788. THE LEGISLATTJKE. 1789-1801. 77
the " awful squinting towards monarchy" in portions of the pro-
posed constitution, more especially in the office of President, and
no one pretended that the instrument as it stood contained suffi-
cient safeguards against abuse of public or of private liberties.
It could expect little real sympathy among the western counties
of Pennsylvania.
Nevertheless, in the convention, which was immediately called
to ratify the Constitution on the part of the State, there was a
majority in its favor of nearly two to one ; a majority so large
and so earnest that extremely little respect was paid to the
minority and its modest proposals of amendments, the vote of
ratification being at last carried against a helpless opposition by a
species of force. Of this convention Mr. Gallatin was not a
member; but when the action of other States, and notably
of Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York, in recommending
amendments at the moment of ratification, gave to the opposi-
tion new hopes of yet carrying some of their points, the party
made a last effort in Pennsylvania, which resulted in calling
a conference at Harrisburg on the 3d September, 1788. There
thirty-three gentlemen assembled, of whom Mr. Gallatin was
one ; Blair McClanachan was chosen chairman ; " free discussion
and mature deliberation" followed, and a report, or declaration
of opinion, was formally adopted. Two drafts of this docu-
ment are among Mr. Gallatin's papers, both written in his own
hand, one of them, much amended and interlined, obviously a
first sketch, used probably in committee as the ground-work of
the adopted instrument. It is only a natural inference that he
was the draughtsman.
There can be no doubt that Mr. Gallatin was one of those
persons who thought the new Constitution went much too far.
He would, doubtless, have preferred that all the great depart-
ments executive, legislative, and judicial should have been
more closely restricted in their exercise of power, and, indeed,
he would probably have thought it better still that the President
should be reduced to a cipher, the legislature limited to functions
little more than executive, and the judiciary restricted to admi-
ralty and inter-state jurisdiction, with no other court than the
Supreme Court, and without appellate jurisdiction other than
78 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1788.
by writ of error from the State courts. This would best have
suited his early theories and prejudices. This rough draft, there-
fore, has some interest as showing how far he was disposed to
carry his opposition to the Constitution, and it seems to show
that he was inclined to go considerable lengths. The resolu-
tions as there drafted read as follows :
" 1st. Resolved, that in order to prevent a dissolution of the
Union, and to secure our liberties and those of our posterity, it-
is necessary that a revision of the Federal Constitution be ob-
tained in the most speedy manner.
" 2d. That the safest manner to obtain such a revision will be,
in conformity to the request of the State of New York, to use
our endeavors to have a convention called as soon as possible ;
"Resolved, therefore, that the Assembly of this State be
petitioned to take the earliest opportunity to make an application
for that purpose to the new Congress.
"3d. That in order that the friends to amendments of the
Federal Constitution who are inhabitants of this State may act
in concert, it is necessary, and it is hereby recommended to the
several counties in the State, to appoint committees, who may
correspond one with the other and with such similar committees
as may be formed in other States.
"4th. That the friends to amendments to the Federal Con-
stitution in the several States be invited to meet in a general
conference, to be held at , on , and
that members be elected by this conference, who, or
any of them, shall meet at said place and time, in order
to devise, in concert with such other delegates from the several
States as may come under similar appointments, on such amend-
ments to the Federal Constitution as to them may seem most
necessary, and on the most likely way to carry them into
effect."
But it seems that the tendency of opinion in the meeting was
towards a less energetic policy. The first resolution was trans-
formed into a shape which falls little short of tameness, and has
none of the simple directness of Gallatin's style and thought :
" 1st. Resolved, that it be recommended to the people of this
State to acquiesce in the organization of the said government.
1788. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 79
But although we thus accord in its organization, we by no means
lose sight of the grand object of obtaining very considerable
amendments and alterations which we consider essential to pre-
serve the peace and harmony of the Union and those invaluable
privileges for which so much blood and treasure have been
recently expended.
" 2d. Resolved, that it is necessary to obtain a speedy revision
of said Constitution by a general convention.
" 3d. Resolved that, therefore, in order to effect this desirable
end, a petition be presented to the Legislature of the State re-
questing that honorable body to take the earliest opportunity to
make application for that purpose to the new Congress."
Thus it appears that if Mr. Gallatin went to this conference
with the object indicated in his first draft, he abandoned the
scheme of a national organization for a reform of the Constitu-
tion, and greatly modified his attitude towards the Constitution
itself before the conference adjourned. The petition, with which
the report closed, recommended twelve amendments, drawn from
among those previously recommended by Massachusetts, Vir-
ginia, New York, and other States, and containing little more
than repetitions of language already familiar. How far Mr.
Gallatin led or resisted this acquiescent policy is unknown ; at
all events, it was the policy henceforth adopted by the opposi-
tion, which readily accepted Mr. Madison's very mild amend-
ments and rapidly transformed itself into a party organization
with hands stretched out to seize for itself these dangerous gov-
ernmental powers. But Mr. Gallatin never changed his opinion
that the President was too powerful ; even in his mogt mature
age he would probably have preferred a system more nearly re-
sembling some of the present colonial governments of Great
Britain.
In the course of the next year the Legislature of Pennsylvania
summoned a convention to revise the State constitution. There
was perhaps some ground for doubting the legality of this step,
for the existing constitution of 1776 gave to the Council of Cen-
sors the power to devise and propose amendments and to call a con-
vention, and the Assembly had properly nothing to do with the
subject. Mr. Gallatin held strong opinions upon the impropriety
SO LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1789.
of obtaining the desired amendments by a process which was
itself unconstitutional, and he even attempted to organize an
opposition in the western counties, and to persuade the voters
of each election district to adopt resolutions denouncing the pro-
ceeding as unconstitutional, unnecessary, and highly improper,
and refusing to elect delegates. Early in October, 1789, he wrote
to this effect to the leading politicians of Washington and Alle-
ghany Counties, and, among the rest, to Alexander Addison,
who was a candidate for the convention, and whom he urged to
withdraw. A part of this letter, dated October 7, ran as follows :
"Alterations in government are always dangerous, and no
legislator ever did think of putting, in such an easy manner,
the power in a mere majority to introduce them whenever they
pleased. Such a doctrine once admitted would enable not only
the Legislature but a majority of the more popular house, were
two established, to make another appeal to the people on the first
occasion, and instead of establishing on solid foundations a new
government, would open the door to perpetual changes and de-
stroy that stability so essential to the welfare of a nation ; as no
constitution acquires the permanent affection of the people but in
proportion to its duration and age. Finally, those changes would,
sooner or later, conclude in an appeal to arms, the true meaning
of those words so popular and so dangerous, An appeal to the
People."
Mr. Gallatin's opposition came too late. His correspondents
wrote back to the effect that combined action was impossible, and
a few days later he was himself chosen a delegate from Fayette
County to this same convention which he had felt himself bound
in conscience to oppose. This was in accordance with all his
future political practice, for Mr. Gallatin very rarely persisted
in following his own judgment after it had been overruled, but
in this instance his course was perhaps decisively affected by the
sudden death of his wife, which occurred at this moment and
made any escape from his habitual mode of life seem a relief
and an object of desire.
The convention sat from November 24, 1789, till February
26, 1790, and was Gallatin's apprenticeship in the public service.
Among his papers are a number of memoranda, some of them
1790. THE LEGISLATTJKE. 1789-1801. 81
indicating much elaboration, of speeches made or intended to be
made in this body; one is an argument in favor of enlarging the
number of Representatives in the House ; another, against James
Boss's plan of choosing Senators by electors; another, on the
liberty of the press, with " quotations from Roman code, supplied
by Duponceau." There is further a memorandum of his motion
in regard to the right of suffrage, by virtue of which every
"freeman who has attained the age of twenty-one years and
been a resident and inhabitant during one year next before the
days of election ;" every naturalized freeholder, every naturalized
citizen who had been assessed for State or county taxes for two
years before election day, or who had resided ten years succes-
sively in the State, should be entitled to the suffrage, paupers
and vagabonds only being excluded. Gallatin seems also to
have been interested, both at this time and subsequently, in an
attempt to lessen the difficulties growing from the separation of
law and equity. On this subject he wrote early to John Mar-
shall for advice, and although the reply has no very wide popular
interest, yet, in the absence of any collection of Marshall's
writings, this letter may claim a place here, illustrating, as it
does, not only the views of the future chief justice, but the
interests and situation of Mr. Gallatin :
JOHN MARSHALL TO- GALLATIN.
EICHMOND, January 3, 1790.
DEAR SIR, I have received yours of the 23d of December,
and wish it was in my power to answer satisfactorily your ques-
tions concerning our judiciary system, but I was myself in the
army during that period concerning the transactions of which
you inquire, and have not since informed myself of the reasons
which governed in making those changes which took place before
the establishment of that system which I found on my coming
to the bar. Under the colonial establishment the judges of
common law were also judges of chancery ; at the Revolution
these powers were placed in different persons. I have not under-
stood that there was any considerable opposition to this division
of jurisdiction. Some of the reasons leading to it, I presume,
6
2 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1790.
were that the same person could not appropriate a sufficiency of
time to each court to perform the public business with requisite
despatch ; that the principles of adjudication being different in
the two courts, it was scarcely to be expected that eminence in
each could be attained by the same man ; that there was an ap-
parent absurdity in seeing the same men revise in the characters
of chancellors the judgments they had themselves rendered as
common-law judges. There are, however, many who think that
the chancery and common-law jurisdiction ought to be united in
the same persons. They are actually united in our inferior courts ;
and I have never heard it suggested that this union is otherwise
inconvenient than as it produces delay to the chancery docket.
I never heard it proposed to give the judges of the general court
chancery jurisdiction. When the district system was introduced
in '82, it was designed to give the district judges the powers of
chancellors, but the act did not then pass, though the part con-
cerning the court of chancery formed no objection to the bill.
When again introduced it assumed a different form, nor has the
idea ever been revived.
The first act constituting a high court of chancery annexed
a jury for the trial of all important facts in the cause. To this,
I presume, we were led by that strong partiality which the citizens
of America have for that mode of trial. It was soon parted
with, and the facts submitted to the judge, with a power to direct
an issue wherever the fact was doubtful. In most chancery
cases the law and fact are so blended together that if a jury was
impanelled of course the whole must be submitted to them, or
every case must assume the form of a special verdict, which would
produce inconvenience and delay.
The delays of the court of chancery have been immense, and
those delays are inseparable from the court if the practice of
England be observed. But that practice is not necessary. 7 Tis
greatly abridged in Virginia by an Act passed in 1787, and
great advantages result from the reform. There have been in-
stances of suits depending for twenty years, but under our present
regulations a decision would be had in that court as soon as any
other in which there were an equal number of weighty causes.
The parties may almost immediately set about collecting their
1790. THE LEGISLATE KE. 1789-1801. 83
proofs, and so soon as they have collected them they may set the
cause on the court docket for a hearing.
It has never been proposed to blend the principles of common
law and chancery so as for each to operate at the same time in
the same cause; and I own it would seem to me to be very
difficult to effect such a scheme, but at the same time it must
be admitted that could it be effected it would save considerable
sums of money to the litigant parties.
I enclose you a copy of the act you request. I most sincerely
condole with you on your heavy loss. Time only, aided by the
efforts of philosophy, can restore you to yourself.
I am, dear sir, with much esteem, your obedient servant,
J. MARSHALL.
In a letter written in 1838, when the constitution was re-
vised, Mr. Gallatin gave an account of the convention of 1789,
which was, he said, "the first public body to which I was elected,
and I took but a subordinate share in its debates. It was one
of the ablest bodies of which I was a member and with which
I was acquainted. Indeed, could I except two names, Madison
and Marshall, I would say that it embraced as much talent and
knowledge as any Congress from 1795 to 1812, beyond which
my personal knowledge does not extend. But the distinguishing
feature of the convention was that, owing perhaps to more favor-
able times, it was less affected by party feelings than any other
public body that I have known. The points of difference were
almost exclusively on general and abstract propositions; there
was less prejudice and more sincerity in the discussions than
usual, and throughout a desire to conciliate opposite opinions
by mutual concessions. The consequence was that, though not
formally submitted to the ratification of the people, no public
act was ever more universally approved than the constitution of
Pennsylvania at the time when it was promulgated." l
The next year, in October, 1790, Mr. Gallatin was elected to
the State Legislature, to which he was re-elected in 1791 an^
1792. In 1790 there was a contest, and he had a majority of
1 Writings, ii. 523.
84 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1790.
about two-thirds of the votes. Afterwards he was returned
without opposition.
The details of State politics are not a subject of great interest
to the general public, even in their freshest condition, and the
local politics of Pennsylvania in 1790 are no exception to this
law. They are here of importance only so far as they are a
part of Mr. Gallatin's life, and the medium through which he
rose to notice. He has left a memorandum, which is complete
in itself, in regard to his three years' service in the State
Legislature :
"I acquired an extraordinary influence in that body (the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives), the more remarkable,
as I was always in a party minority. I was indebted for it to
my great industry and to the facility with which I could under-
stand and carry on the current business. The laboring oar was
left almost exclusively to me. In the session of 1791-1792 I
was put on thirty-five committees, prepared all their reports, and
drew all their bills. Absorbed by those details, my attention
was turned exclusively to administrative laws, and not to legis-
lation properly so called. The great reforms of the penal code,
which, to the lasting honor of Pennsylvania, originated in that
State, had already been carried into effect, principally under the
auspices of William Bradford. Not being a professional lawyer,
I was conscious of my incapacity for digesting any practicable
and useful improvement in our civil jurisprudence. I proposed
that the subject should be referred to a commission, and Judge
Wilson was accordingly appointed for that purpose. He did
nothing, and the plan died away. It would have been better
to appoint the chief justice and the attorney-general of the State
(McKean and Bradford), and, in the first instance at least, to
have confined them to a revision of the statute law, whether
colonial, State, or British, still in force.
" I failed, though the bill I had introduced passed the House,
in my efforts to lay the foundation for a better system of educa-
tion. Primary education was almost universal in Pennsylvania,
but very bad, and the bulk of schoolmasters incompetent, miser-
ably paid, and held in no consideration. It appeared to me that
in order to create a sufficient number of competent teachers, and
1790-1793. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 85
to raise the standard of general education, intermediate academ-
ical education was an indispensable preliminary step; and the
object of the bill was to establish in each county an academy,
allowing to each out of the treasury a sum equal to that raised
by taxation in the county for its support. But there was at that
time in Pennsylvania a Quaker and a German opposition to
every plan of general education.
"The spirit of internal improvements had not yet been
awakened. Still, the first turnpike-road in the United States
was that from Philadelphia to Lancaster, which met with con-
siderable opposition. This, as well as every temporary improve-
ment in our communications (roads and rivers) and preliminary
surveys, met, of course, with my warm support. But it was in
the fiscal department that I was particularly employed, and the
circumstances of the times favored the restoration of the finances
of the State.
"The report of the Committee of Ways and Means of the
session 1790-1791 (presented by Gurney, chairman) was en-
tirely prepared by me, known to be so, and laid the foundation
of my reputation. I was quite astonished at the general enco-
miums bestowed upon it, and was not at all aware that I had
done so well. It was perspicuous and comprehensive; but I
am confident that its true merit, and that which gained me the
general confidence, was its being founded in strict justice, without
the slightest regard to party feelings or popular prejudices. The
principles assumed, and which were carried into effect, were the
immediate reimbursement and extinction of the State paper
money, the immediate payment in specie of all the current
expenses or warrants on the treasury (the postponement and
uncertainty of which had given rise to shameful and corrupt
speculations), and provision for discharging without defalcation
every debt and engagement previously recognized by the State.
In conformity with this the State paid to its creditors the differ-
ence between the nominal amount of the State debt assumed by
the United States and the rate at which it was funded by the
Act of Congress.
" The proceeds of the public lands, together with the arrears,
were the fund which not only discharged all the public debts but
86 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1790-1793.
left a large surplus. The apprehension that this would be
squandered by the Legislature was the principal inducement for
chartering the Bank of Pennsylvania with a capital of two
millions of dollars, of which the State subscribed one-half. This
and similar subsequent investments enabled Pennsylvania to
defray out of the dividends all the expenses of government
without any direct tax during the forty ensuing years, and till
the adoption of the system of internal improvement, which
required new resources.
" It was my constant assiduity to business and the assistance
derived from it by many members which enabled the Republican
party in the Legislature, then a minority on a joint ballot, to
elect me, and no other but me of that party, Senator of the
United States."
Among the reports enumerated by Mr. Gallatin as those of
which he was the author is the following, made by a committee
on the 22d March, 1793 :
" That they . . . are of opinion that slavery is inconsistent
with every principle of humanity, justice, and right, and repug-
nant to the spirit and express letter of the constitution of this
Commonwealth; therefore submit the following resolution, viz. :
" Resolved, that slavery be abolished in this Commonwealth,
and that a committee be appointed to bring in a bill for that
purpose."
A certificate dated "Philadelphia, 3d moiith, 25th, 1793,"
signed by James Pemberton, President, records that Albert
Gallatin a is a member of the Pennsylvania Society for pro-
moting the abolition of slavery, the relief of free negroes un-
lawfully held in bondage, and for improving the condition of
the African race."
Party spirit was not violent in Pennsylvania during these
few years of Washington's first Administration. As yet Mr.
Madison was a good Federalist; Mr. Jefferson, as Secretary of
State, was the champion of his country against Genet and French
aggression; Governor Mifflin was elected without opposition
from the Republican interest; Alexander J. Dallas was appointed
by him Secretary of State for Pennsylvania ; and Albert Galla-
tin was elected Senator by a Federalist Legislature. Gallatin,
1791. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 87
who at every period of his life required the spur of sincere con-
viction to act a partisan part, found in this condition of things
precisely the atmosphere most agreeable to his tastes ; but there
was one political issue which had already risen, and which, while
tending to hasten the rapid growth of parties, threatened also to
wreck his entire career. This was the excise.
So far as Mr. Gallatin himself was concerned, the tax on
whiskey-stills could hardly have been a matter of serious im-
portance, and he must have seen that as a political issue it was not
less dangerous to his own party than to the Administration ; but
he was the representative of a remote border county, beyond the
mountains, where the excise was really oppressive and worked
injustice, and where the spirit of liberty ran high. Opposition
to the tax was a simple matter to Republicans elsewhere ; they
had merely to vote and to argue, and make what political ad-
vantage they might from this unpopular measure into which
the Administration was dragged in attempting to follow out the
policy of Mr. Hamilton ; but the case was very different with
Mr. Gallatin. He had not only to lead the attack on Mr. Hamil-
ton, but to restrain his own followers from fatal blunders to which
they were only too well disposed ; over these followers, at least
outside his own county, he had absolutely no authority and very
little influence. From the first it became a mere question of
policy how far he could go with his western friends. The
answer was simple, and left a very narrow margin of uncer-
tainty : Mr. Gallatin, like any other political leader, could go
to the limits of the law in opposition to the tax, and no further.
His political existence depended on his nerve in applying this
rule at the moment of exigency.
The excise on domestic spirits was a part of Mr. Hamilton's
broad financial scheme, and the necessary consequence of the
assumption of the State debts. To this whole scheme, and to all
Mr. Hamilton's measures, the Republican party, and Gallatin
among them, were strongly opposed. In the original opposition,
however, Gallatin had no public share ; he began to take a part
only when his position as a Representative required him to do so.
The very first legislative paper which he is believed to have
drafted is a series of resolutions on the excise, introduced into
88 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATLN. 1791.
the Pennsylvania Legislature, by Francis Gurney, on the 14th
January, 1791, and intended to affect the bill then before Con-
gress. These resolutions were very strong, and intimated a dis-
tinct opinion that the excise bill, as it stood, was "subversive of
the peace, liberty, and rights of the citizen," and " exhibited the
singular spectacle of a nation resolutely opposing the oppression
of others in order to enslave itself." Strong as they were, how-
ever, the House of Representatives adopted them by a vote of
40 to 16.
The reasons of the peculiar hostility of the western counties
to the whiskey tax are clearly given in the petition which Gal-
latin drafted in 1792 for presentation to Congress on the part of
the inhabitants of that country:
" Our peculiar situation renders this duty still more unequal
and oppressive to us. Distant from a permanent market and
separate from the eastern coast by mountains, which render the
communication difficult and almost impracticable, we have no
means of bringing the produce of our lands to sale either in
grain or in meal. "We are therefore distillers through necessity,
not choice, that we may comprehend the greatest value in the
smallest size and weight. The inhabitants of the eastern side
of the mountains can dispose of their grain without the addi-
tional labor of distillation at a higher price than we can after
we have bestowed that labor upon it. Yet with this addi-
tional labor we must also pay a high duty, from which they are
exempted, because we have no means of selling our surplus
produce but in a distilled state.
"Another circumstance which renders this duty ruinous to us
is our scarcity of cash. Our commerce is not, as on the eastern
coast, carried on so much by absolute sale as by barter, and we
believe it to be a fact that there is not among us a quantity of
circulating cash sufficient for the payment of this duty alone.
We are not accustomed to complain without reason; we have
punctually and cheerfully paid former taxes on our estates and
possessions because they were proportioned to our real wealth.
We believe this to be founded on no such equitable principles,
and are persuaded that your honorable House will find on in-
vestigation that its amount, if duly collected, will be four times
1792. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 89
as large as any taxes which we have hitherto paid on the whole
of our lands and other property."
The excise law was passed in 1791, and in that year a public
meeting was held in the town of "Washington, and adopted reso-
lutions, one of which brought the remonstrants to the extreme
verge of lawful opposition. They agreed to hold no communi-
cation with, and to treat with contempt, such men as accepted
offices under the law. Mr. Gallatin was not present at this
meeting, which was held while he was attending to his duties as
a member of the State Legislature.
Few of his letters at this period have been preserved, and of
these none have any public interest. During the session of
1792 the following extracts from letters to Badollet are all that
have the smallest political importance :
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, 7th January, 1792
. . . We have yet done nothing very material, and Congress
do 'not seem to be over-anxious to shorten their sitting, if at
least we can form any judgment from the slowness of their pro-
ceedings. As to that part of their laws which concerns us more
immediately, I mean the excise and the expected amendments,
all the papers relative to it, petitions, &c., have been referred
to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Hamilton, by the House
of Representatives. That officer has not yet reported, nor can
we guess at what will probably be the outlines of his report,
although I am apt to think the amendments he will propose will
fall short of our wishes and expectations. As to a repeal, it is
altogether out of the question.
But the event which now mostly engrosses the public atten-
tion, and almost exclusively claims ours, is the fatal defeat of
St. Glair's army. Our frontiers are naked; the Indians must
be encouraged by their success ; the preparations of the United
States must take some time before they are completed, and our
present protection must rest chiefly on the security we may
derive from the season of the year and on the exertions of the
people and of the State government. . . .
90 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1792
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, February 22, 1792.
DEAR FRIEND, . . . You must observe, on the whole,
that for this year past we have not gone backwards, as we had
the five preceding, and that being the most difficult part of any-
thing we might undertake, we may hope that, better taught by
experience, we will in future be more successful. It is true the
part of the country where we have fixed our residence does not
afford much room for the exercise of the talents we may possess ;
but, on the other hand, we enjoy the advantage in our poverty
not to be trampled upon or even hurt by the ostentatious display
of wealth. The American seaports exhibit now such a scene of
speculation and excessive fortunes, acquired not by the most
deserving members of the community, as must make any person
who has yet some principles left, and is not altogether corrupted
or dazzled by the prospect, desirous of withdrawing himself from
these parts, and happy to think he has a retreat, be it ever so
poor, that he may call his own. Do not think, however, from
what I now say that I am dissatisfied at my being here ; I should
not wish to reside at Philadelphia, but feel very happy to stay
in it a few months in the station I am now in, and nothing
would be wanted to render this kind of life perfectly satisfactory
to me except seeing you happy, and finding a home and a family
of my own when I return to Fayette. . . .
As to ourselves we have yet done but little, and have a great
deal to do. We will this session pay the principal of all our
debts, and remain rich enough to go on three or four years
without taxes. We have a plan before us, which I brought
forward, to establish a school and library in each county ; each
county to receive 1000 for buildings and beginning a library,
and from 75 to 150 a year, according to its size, to pay at
least in part a teacher of the English language and one of the
elements of mathematics, geography, and history. I do not know
whether it will succeed ; it is meant as a preparatory step to town-
ship schools, which we are not yet rich enough to establish. I
had the plan by me, but your letter, in which you mention the
1792. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 91
want of more rational teachers, &c., spurred me in attempting
to carry it this session. I have also brought forward a new plan
of county taxation, but am not very satisfied with it myself.
We are trying to get the land office open upon generous terms
to actual settlers ; if we succeed, we will have a settlement at
Presqu' Isle, on Lake Erie, within two years, if the Indians
permit us. But the illiberality of some members of the lower
counties throws every possible objection and delay in the way
of anything which may be of advantage to the western country.
Some, however, now join us for fear that the other States should
become more populous, and of course have a larger representa-
tion in Congress than Pennsylvania. We have thrown out a
chancery bill a few days ago, and are now attempting to engraft
in our common law the beneficial alterations adopted by the
courts of equity in England, without their delays, proceedings
and double jurisdiction, so as to have but one code. But I
much doubt our ability to carry it into execution ; the thing is
difficult in itself, and our lawyers eithe-r unwilling or not capable
to give us the requisite assistance. . . .
Modifications of the excise law were made on the recommenda-
tion of Mr. Hamilton, but without pacifying the opposition, and
on the 21st August, 1792, another meeting was held, this time at
Pittsburg, and of this meeting John Canon was chairman and
Albert Gallatin clerk. Among those present were David Brad-
ford, James Marshall, John Smilie, and John Badollet. The
meeting appointed David Bradford, James Marshall, Albert
Gallatin, and others to draw up a remonstrance to Congress.
They appointed also a committee of correspondence, and closed
by reiterating the resolution adopted by the Washington meeting
of 1791. This resolution is as follows :
" Whereas, some men may be found among us so far lost to
every sense of virtue and feeling for the distresses of this country
as to accept offices for the collection of the duty,
" Resolved, therefore, that in future we will consider such
persons as unworthy of our friendship, have no intercourse or
dealings with them, withdraw from them every assistance and
withhold all the comforts of life which depend upon those duties
92 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1792.
that as men and fellow-citizens we owe to each other, and upon
all occasions treat them with that contempt they deserve, and
that it be and it is hereby most earnestly recommended to the
people at large to follow the same line of conduct towards them."
To these resolutions Mr. Gallatin's name is appended as clerk
of the meeting. It is needless to say that he considered them
unwise, and that they were adopted against his judgment; but he
did not attempt to throw off his responsibility for them on that
score. In his speech on the insurrection, delivered in the Penn-
sylvania House of Representatives in January, 1795, he took
quite a different ground. " I was," said he, " one of the persons
who composed the Pittsburg meeting, and I gave my assent to
the resolutions. It might perhaps be said that the principle of
those resolutions was not new, as it was at least partially adopted
on a former period by a respectable society in this city, a soci-
ety that was established during the late war in order to obtain
a change of the former constitution of Pennsylvania, and whose
members, if I am accurately informed, agreed to accept no offices
under the then existing government, and to dissuade others
from accepting them. I might say that those resolutions did
not originate at Pittsburg, as they were almost a transcript of
the resolutions adopted at Washington the preceding year ; and
I might even add that they were not introduced by me at the
meeting. But I wish not to exculpate myself where I feel I
have been to blame. The sentiments thus expressed were not
illegal or criminal ; yet I will freely acknowledge that they
were violent, intemperate, and reprehensible. For by attempt-
ing to render the office contemptible, they tended to diminish
that respect for the execution of the laws which is essential to
the maintenance of a free government ; but whilst I feel regret
at the remembrance, though no hesitation in this open confession
of that my only political sin, let me add that the blame ought to
fall where it is deserved," that is to say, on the individuals who
composed the meeting, not on the people at large.
Who, then, was the person who introduced these violent resolu-
tions? This is nowhere told, either by Gallatin, Findley, or
Brackenridge in their several accounts of the troubles. Perhaps
a guess may be hazarded that David Bradford had something to
1792. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 93
do with them. Bradford was a lawyer with political aspirations,
and had seized on the excise agitation as a means of riding into
power ; as will be seen, he was jealous of Gallatin, a jealousy
requited by contempt. He was this year returned by Washing-
ton County as a member of the House of Representatives of the
State, and went up to Philadelphia with other delegates.
GALLATIN TO THOMAS CLARE.
PHILADELPHIA, December 18, 1792.
DEAR SIR, We arrived here, Bradford, Smilie, Torrence,
Jackson, and myself, the first Sunday of this month, all in good
health, and have found our friends as kind and even our oppo-
nents as polite as ever, so that the apprehensions of some of our
fearful friends to the westward who, from the President's procla-
mation and other circumstances, thought it was almost dangerous
for us to be here, were altogether groundless. True it is that our
meeting at Pittsburg hurt our general interest throughout the
State, and has rather defeated the object we had in view, to wit,
to obtain a repeal of the excise law, as that law is now more
popular than it was before our proceedings were known. To
everybody I say what I think on the subject, to wit, that our
resolutions were perhaps too violent, and undoubtedly highly
impolitic, but in my opinion contained nothing illegal. Indeed,
it seems that last opinion generally prevails, and no bills having
been even found at York against the members of the committee
must convince everybody that our measures were innocent, and
that the great noise that was made about them was chiefly, if not
merely, to carry on electioneering plans. In this, however, the
views of the high-fliers have been so completely defeated, and
the election of Smilie has disappointed them to such a degree,
that I believe they rather choose to be silent on the subject, and
are now very willing to give us districts for the next election. I
must add that the conduct of Clymer has rendered him obnox-
ious to many of his own friends and ridiculous to everybody.
He has published a very foolish piece on the occasion, to which
Wm. Findley has answered under the signature of Monongahela;
as the pieces were published before my coming to town, I have
94 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1792.
not got the newspapers in which they were published, but I
suppose they have been reprinted in the Pittsburg Gazette. . . .
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, December 18 1792.
MY DEAR FRIEND, I found on my arrival here a letter
from Geneva, dated the last spring, which announced to me the
death of my grandfather, which has happened more than one
year ago, and which was followed a short time after by that of
my aunt, his only daughter. My grandmother, worn out by
age and disorders, had, happily perhaps for herself, fell in a state
of insensibility bordering upon childhood, which rendered those
losses less painful to her and my presence altogether useless to
her, as she would not be able to derive much comfort from it
and had preserved but very faint ideas of me. Yet it may per-
haps be necessary that in order finally to settle my business I
should go over there, but I have resolved not to go the ensuing
summer, so that I will have time to speak to you more largely
on the subject. My grandfather has left but a small landed
estate, much encumbered with debts. That and the settlement
of what may be my share of the West India inheritance of my
Amsterdam relation would be the reasons that might oblige me
to go ; the pleasure to see once more my respectable mother would
perhaps be sufficient to induce me to take that 'trip, was it not
that I think she would grieve more at seeing me setting off again
for this country than she possibly can now at my absence. . . .
We have not yet done any business here; we are generally
blamed, by even our friends, for the violence of our resolutions at
Pittsburg, and they have undoubtedly tended to render the ex-
cise law more popular than it was before. It is not perhaps a
bad sign on the whole in a free country that the laws should be
so much respected as to render even the appearance of an illegal
opposition to a bad law obnoxious to the people at large, although
I am still fully convinced that there was nothing illegal in our
measures, and that the whole that can be said of them is that
they were violent and impolitic. Two bills have been found in
the federal court against Alexander Beer and Carr, of
1793. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 95
the town of Washington, as connected with the riot there. I
believe them to be innocent, and I think the precedent a very
dangerous one to drag people at such a distance in order to be
tried on governmental prosecutions. I wish, therefore, they may
keep out of the way and not be found when the marshal will go
to serve the writ ; but, at all events, I hope the people will not
suffer themselves to be so far governed by their passions as to
offer any insult to the officer, as nothing could be more hurtful
to our cause, and indeed to the cause of liberty in general. It
must also be remembered that he is a man who did not accept
the office with a view of hurting our western country, but that
mere accident obliges him to go there in the discharge of the
duties of his office. . . .
GALLATIN TO THOMAS CLARE.
PHILADELPHIA, March 9, 1793.
MY DEAR SIR, ... I have attended but very little to the
land or other business I was intrusted with, owing to the great
attention I have been obliged to pay, much against my inclina-
tion you may easily guess, to our business both in the House and
in committees, owing to the very great indolence of most of our
members this year. I have not, however, neglected your bill for
Dublin, which I got at par. We have now got to work in
earnest, and I believe three weeks will finish the whole of our
business, but I will be obliged to stay some time longer in order
to complete the private business of other people. You will see
by the enclosed papers that the whole world is in a flame, Eng-
land ready to make war against France, Ireland ready to assert
her own rights, &c. As to our private news, I can tell you that
three commissioners are appointed to treat with the Indians,
General Lincoln, Tim. Pickering, and Beverly Randolph ; what
they can possibly do nobody pretends to say, but every person
seems tired of Indian wars; about twelve hundred thousand
dollars a year might be better employed ; but I do not like the
idea of a disgraceful peace.
You will see by the papers that I am elected one of the Sen-
ators to represent this State in the Senate of the United States,
96 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIK 1793,
an appointment which has exceedingly mortified the high-fliers,
but which, notwithstanding its importance, I sincerely wish had
not taken place for more reasons than I can write at present, but
Gappen may give you some details relative to that point until I
have the pleasure to see you myself. It will be enough to say
that none of my friends wished it, and that they at last consented
to take me up because it was nearly impossible to carry any other
person of truly Republican principles. The votes were, for my-
self, 45 ; for Henry Miller, of York, 35 ; for General Irvine, 1 ;
and for General St. Clair, 1 ; absent members, 5.
. . . Congress died away last Sunday ; our friends will have a
majority of ten or fifteen votes in the next, so that if the Indian
war is at an end, I am not without hopes to see the excise law
repealed. . . . Poor Bradford makes but a poor figure in our
Legislature. Tenth-rate lawyers are the most unfit people to send
there. He has done nothing but drafting a fee bill, which is
not worth a farthing as far as I am able to judge. . . .
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, 9th March, 1793.
MY DEAR FRIEND, I thank you for your letter, which has
pleased me exceedingly, on account both of the sentiments it
contains and of the situation of mind it seems to show you are
in. May you long remain so, and enjoy that happiness which
depends more upon ourselves than we are commonly aware of.
I wrote you, I believe, that I had some thoughts of going to
Geneva this summer, in order to try to settle finally my business
there ; but I can assure you nothing was more remote from my
mind than finally to fix there. Your supposing that if a change
of government was to take place there I might be of use, shows
your good opinion of me, but not your knowledge of men ; for
you may rely upon it that opportunity and circumstances will
have more influence towards giving weight to a man, and of
course rendering him useful, than his talents alone ; and, grant-
ing I have some in politics, I think at Geneva they would be
of no use, as prejudices would there strongly operate against
me. A complete revolution, however, has taken place there.
1793. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 97
Hardly had the Swiss troops left Geneva, in conformity with the
agreement made with France, when the looks, the discourse, and
the rising commotions of the mass of the people began to fore-
tell a storm. The magistrates for once were wise enough to
avert it by yielding before it was too late. An almost unanimous
vote of the three councils has extended the right of citizenship
to every native, and has given a representation to the people,
who are now acting under the name of Genevan Assembly. I
believe that fear of the people joining France has been the real
motive which has induced their proud aristocracy at last to bend
their necks.
I have found myself, however, obliged to lay aside my plan
of an European trip. The two Houses of Assembly having at
last agreed to choose a Senator of the United States by joint
vote, I have been elected from necessity rather than from the
wishes of our friends, and although there is yet a doubt whether
I will take my seat there, I cannot run the risk of being absent at
the next meeting of Congress. . . . Your Bradford is an empty
drum, as ignorant, indolent, and insignificant as he is haughty
and pompous. I do not think he'll wish himself to come another
year, for his vanity must be mortified on account of the poor
figure he has been cutting here. . . .
We have before us a militia law, a fee bill, a law to reduce
the price of improved lands, a new system of county taxation,
where I have introduced trustees yearly elected, one to each
township, without whose consent no tax is to be raised, nor any
above one per cent, on the value of lands, &c., which I hope,
if carried, will, by uniting the people, tend to crush the aris-
tocracy of every petty town in the State; also, a plan for
schools, &c. . . .
GALLATIN TO THOMAS CLARE.
PHILADELPHIA, 3d May, 1793.
. . . You must have heard that I cannot go home this sum-
mer ; the reason is that Mr. Nicholson, the comptroller-general,
having been impeached by the House for misdemeanor in office,
it was thought proper to appoint a committee of three members
7
98 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1793.
to investigate all his official accounts and transactions during the
recess, and to report to the House at their next meeting, which
will be the 27th of August. I am one of the committee, and
the business we are to report on is so complex and extensive,
that it will take us the whole of the recess to do it even in an
imperfect manner.
As these letters show, Mr. Gallatin left the western country at
the beginning of December, 1792, passed his winter in Phila-
delphia, laboring over legislation of an almost entirely non-
partisan character, and was still detained in Philadelphia by
public business during the summer of 1793. From the time
of his leaving home, in December, 1792, till the time of his
next return there, in May, 1794, his mind was occupied in
matters much more attractive than the tax on whiskey ever
could have been.
In fact, his opposition to the excise and his strong republican
sympathies did not prevent his election to the Senate of the
United States by a Federalist Legislature, notwithstanding the
fact that he did not seek the post and his closer friends did not
seek it for him. At the caucus held to select a candidate for
Senator, when his name was proposed, he made a short speech
to the effect that there were many other persons more proper to
fill the office, and indeed that it was a question whether he was
eligible, owing to the doubt whether he had been nine years a
citizen. His reasons for not wishing the election are nowhere
given, but doubtless one of the strongest was that the distinction
was invidious and that it was likely to make him more enemies
than friends. His objection as to citizenship was overruled by
the caucus at its next meeting. He was accordingly chosen
Senator on the 28th February, under circumstances peculiarly
honorable to him, by a vote of 45 to 37 ; yet one member of his
party a member, too, from the county of Washington refused
to support him, and threw away his vote on General Irvine.
This was David Bradford, who from the beginning of Mr.
Gallatin's political career was uniformly, openly, and personally
hostile to him, from motives, as the latter believed, of mere envy
and vanity; such at least is the statement made by Mr. Gal-
1793. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 99
latin himself in a note written on the margin of p. 104 in
Brackenridge's " Incidents of the Insurrection."
Other matters, however, soon began to engage Mr. Gallatin's
thoughts, and made even the Senatorship and politics less in-
teresting than heretofore. Immediately after the Legislature
adjourned he joined his friends Mr. and Mrs. Dallas on an
excursion to Albany.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, 30th July, 1793.
. . . And so you have a woman-like curiosity to know what
took me to Albany. Instinct (I beg your pardon) dictated that
expression to you, for there was a woman in the way, or rather
she fell in the way. I went merely upon an excursion of pleas-
ure, in order to get a little diversion and to recover my health,
which so long confinement and so strict an attention to business
had rather impaired. Dallas, his wife and another friend, and
myself went together to Passyack Falls, in New Jersey, to New
York, and thence by water up to Albany, looked at the Mohock
Falls, and returned, highly delighted with our journey, which
took us near four weeks. I recovered my health, and have not
felt myself better these many years. But at New York I got
acquainted with some ladies, friends of Mrs. Dallas, who were
prevailed upon to go along with us to Albany; and amongst
them there was one who made such an impression on me that
after my arrival here I could not stay long without returning to
New York, from whence I have been back only a few days. I
believe the business to be fixed, and (but for some reasons this
must remain a secret to anybody but Savary, Clare, and your-
self) I know you will be happy in hearing that I am contracted
with a girl about twenty-five years old, who is neither handsome
nor rich, but sensible, well-informed, good-natured, and belong-
ing to a respectable and very amiable family, who, I believe, are
satisfied with the intended match. However, for some reasons
of convenience, it will not take place till next winter. . . .
The young lady in question was Hannah Nicholson, and the
100 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL A TIN. 1793.
characteristic self-restraint of Mr. Gallatin's language in de-
scribing her to his friend is in striking contrast with the warmth
of affection which he then felt, and ever retained, towards one
whose affection and devotion to him during more than half a
century were unbounded. Of Mr. Gallatin's domestic life from
this time forward little need be said. His temper, his tastes,
and his moral convictions combined to make him thoroughly
dependent on his wife and his children. He was never happy
when separated from them, and he received from them in return
an unlimited and unqualified regard.
Hannah Nicholson was the daughter of Commodore James
Nicholson, born in 1737 at Chester Town, on the Eastern Shore
of Maryland, of a respectable family in that province. He chose
to follow the sea for a profession, and did so with enough success
to cause Congress in 1775, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary
war, to place him at the head of the list of captains. In 1778
he took command of the Trumbull, a frigate of thirty-two guns,
and fought in her an action with the British ship-of-war Wyatt,
which, next to that of Paul Jones with the Serapis, is supposed
to have been the most desperate of the war. After a three hours'
engagement both ships were obliged to draw off and make port as
best they could. On a subsequent cruise Commodore Nicholson
had another engagement of the same severe character, which ended
in the approach of a second English, cruiser, and after the loss
of three lieutenants and a third of her crew the Trumbull was
towed a prize into New York harbor without a mast standing.
In 1793> Commodore Nicholson was living in New York, a
respectable, somewhat choleric, retired naval captain, with a
large family, and in good circumstances. He had two brothers,
Samuel and John, both captains in the naval service during the
Revolution. Samuel was a lieutenant with Paul Jones on the
Bon Homme Richard, and died at the head of the service in
1811 ; he had four sons in the navy, and his brother John had
three. Eighteen members of this family have served in the
navy of the United States, three of whom actually wore broad
pennants, and a fourth died just as he was appointed to one. 1
1 Cooper's Naval History, vol. i. p. 226.
1793. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 1Q1
One brother, Joseph, resided in Baltimore, and among his
children was Joseph H. Nicholson, of whom more will be said
hereafter.
Commodore Nicholson married Frances Witter, of New York,
and their second child, Hannah, was born there on .the llth
September, 1766. The next daughter was Catherine, who mar-
ried Colonel Few, the first Senator from Georgia. A third,
Frances, married Joshua Seney, a member of Congress from
Maryland. Maria, the youngest, in 1793 an attractive and
ambitious girl, ultimately married John Montgomery, a member
of Congress from Maryland and mayor of Baltimore. Thus
Mr. Gallatin's marriage prodigiously increased his political con-
nection. Commodore Nicholson was an active Republican poli-
tician in the city of New York, and his house was a head-quarters
for the men of his way of thinking. The young ladies' letters
are full of allusions to the New York society of that day, and
to calls from Aaron Burr, the Livingstons, the Clintons, and
many others, accompanied by allusions anything but friendly to
Alexander Hamilton. Another man still more famous in some
respects was a frequent visitor at their house. It is now almost
forgotten that Thomas Paine, down to the time of his departure
for Europe in 1787, was a fashionable member of society, ad-
mired and courted as the greatest literary genius of his day.
His aberrations had not then entirely sunk him in public esteem.
Here is a little autograph, found among the papers of Mrs*
Gal latin ; its address is to
Miss Hannah Nicholson
at
The Lord knows where.
You Mrs. Hannah, if you don't come home, I'll come and
fetch you.
T. PAINE.
But both Mrs. Nicholson and the Commodore were religious
people, in the American sense as well as in the broader meaning
of the term. They were actively as well as passively religious,
102 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1793.
and their relations with Paine, after his return to America
in 1802, were those of compassion only, for his intemperate
and offensive habits, as well as his avowed opinions, made
intimacy impossible. When confined to his bed with his last
illness he sent for Mrs. Few, who came to see him, and when
they parted she spoke some words of comfort and religious
hope. Poor Paine only turned his face to the wall and kept
silence.
When Mr. Gallatin came into the family Paine was in Europe.
Party spirit had not yet been strained to fury by the French
excesses and by Jay's treaty. In this short interval fortune
smiled on the young man as it never had smiled before. He
had at length and literally found his way out of the woods in
which he had buried himself with so much care ; he was popu-
lar ; a United States Senator at the age of thirty -three ; adopted
into a new family that received him with unreserved cordiality
and attached him by connection and interest to the active intel-
lectual movement of a great city. Revelling in these new
sensations, he thought little about Geneva or about Fayette,
and let his correspondence, except with Miss Nicholson, more
than ever take care of itself.
The meeting of the Pennsylvania Legislature, of which he
was still a member, recalled him to business ; but his story may
now be best gathered from his letters to his future wife :
GALLATIN TO MISS NICHOLSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 25th July, 1793.
. . . For four years I have led a life very different indeed
from what I was wont to follow. Looking with equal indiffer-
ence upon every pleasure of life, upon every object that can
render life worth enjoying, and, of course, upon every woman,
lost in a total apathy for everything which related to myself,
alive only to politics (for an active mind must exert itself in
some shape or another), I had become perfectly careless of my
own business or my private fortune. . . . Of course I led the
most active life as a public man, the most indolent as an in-
dividual.
1793. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 1Q3
27th August, 1793.
. . . And yet you think that I can improve you. Except
some information upon a few useful subjects which you have not
perhaps turned your attention to, I will be but a poor instructor.
Women are said generally to receive from a familiar intercourse
with men several advantages, one of the most conspicuous of
which I have often heard asserted to be the acquirement of a
greater knowledge of the world, in which they are supposed to
live less than our bustling sex. There, however, I am but a
child, and will have to receive instruction from you, for most of
my life has been spent very far indeed from anything like the
polite part of the world. I had but left college when I left
Geneva, and the greatest part of the time I have spent in America
has been very far from society, at least from that society I would
have relished. Thence, although I feel no embarrassment with
men, I never yet was able to divest myself of that anti-Ches-
terfieldan awkwardness in mixed companies which will forever
prevent a man from becoming a party in the societies where he
mixes. It is true the four last years, on account of my residence
in Philadelphia, I might have improved, but I felt no wish of
doing it ; so that whilst I will teach you either history, French,
or anything else I can teach or you wish to learn, I will have to
receive far more important instructions from you. You must
polish my manners, teach me how to talk to people I do not
know, and how to render myself agreeable to strangers, I was
going to say, to ladies, but as I pleased you without any in-
structions, I have become very vain on that head. . . .
25th August, 1793.
. . . Well, my charming patriot, why do you write me about
politics? ... I believe that, except a very few intemperate, un-
thinking, or wicked men, no American wishes to see his country
involved in war. As to myself, I think every war except a
defensive one to be unjustifiable. We are not attacked by any
nation, and unless we were actually so, or had undeniable proofs
that we should be in a very short time, we should be guilty of a
political and moral crime were we to commence a war or to behave
so as to justify any nation in attacking us. As to the present
104 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1793.
cause of France, although I think that they have been guilty of
many excesses, that they have many men amongst them who are
greedy of power for themselves and not of liberty for the nation,
and that in their present temper they are not likely to have a
very good government within any short time, yet I firmly believe
their cause to be that of mankind against tyrants, and, at all
events, that no foreign nation has a right to dictate a government
to them. So far I think we are interested in their success ; and
as to our political situation, they are certainly the only real allies
we have yet had. I wish Great Britain and Spain may both
change their conduct towards us and show that they mean to be
our friends, but till then no event could be more unfavorable to
our national independence than the annihilation of the power
of France or her becoming dependent upon either of those two
powers. Yet, considering our not being attacked and our weak-
ness in anything but self-defence, I conceive we should be satisfied
with a strict adherence to all our treaties whether with France or
with other powers. That is certainly the object of the President,
and the only difficulty that has arisen between him and Mr. Genet
is upon the construction of some articles of the treaty with France.
So far as I am able to judge, it seems to me that the interpreta-
tion given by the President is the right one, and I guess that
although Mr. Genet is a man of abilities and of firmness, he is
not endowed with that prudence and command of his temper
which might have enabled him to change the' opinion of our
Executive in those points where they might be in the wrong.
I have, however, strong reasons to believe that Messrs. Jay and
King were misinformed in the point on which they gave their
certificate. Upon the whole, I think that unless France or Eng-
land attack us we shall have no war, and of either of them doing
it I have no apprehension. . . . Please to remember that my
politics are only for you. Except in my public character I do
not like to speak on the subject, although I believe you will agree
with me that I need not be ashamed of my sentiments; but
moderation is not fashionable just now. . . . This city is now
violently alarmed, more indeed than they should, on account of
some putrid fevers which have made their appearance in Water
Street. I mention this because I suppose you will read it in the
1793. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 1Q5
newspapers, and I want to inform you that I live in the most
healthy part of the city, and the most distant from the infection.
29th August, 1793.
. . . The alarm is greater than I could have conceived it to
be, and although there is surely so far this foundation for it, that
a very malignant and, to all appearances, infectious fever has
carried away about forty persons in a week, yet, when we con-
sider the great population of this city and that the disease is yet
local, I believe that with proper care it might be checked, whilst,
on the other hand, the fears of people will undoubtedly tend to
spread it. Our Legislature are very much alarmed. I believe
that if it was not for the comptroller's impeachment they would
adjourn at once ; and as it is, they may possibly remove to Ger-
mantown. . . .
2d September, 1793.
I feel, my beloved friend, very much depressed this evening.
My worthy friend Dr. Hutchinson lies now dangerously ill with
the malignant fever that prevails here, and it is said the crisis of
this night must decide his fate. He was the boldest physician in
this city, and from his unremitted attention to the duties of his
profession, both as physician of the port and as practitioner, he
has caught the infection, and such is the nature of that fatal dis-
order that his best friends, except his family and the necessary
attendants, cannot go near him. His death would be a grievous
stroke to his family, who are supported altogether by his indus-
try, to his friends, to whom he was endeared by every social virtue,
and, indeed, to his country, who had not a better nor more active
friend. From his extensive information I had many times
derived the greatest assistance, and his principles, his integrity,
and the warmth of his affection for me had attached me to him
more than to any other man in Philadelphia. . . . The disorder,
although it has not yet attacked those who use proper cautions, is
rather increasing in the poorer class of people, who are obliged to
follow their daily industry in every part of the town, who are
less cautious and perhaps less cleanly than others, and who can-
not use bark, wine, and other preventives, whose price is above
their faculties. The corporation have, however, taken precau-
106 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL A TIN. 1793.
tions to prevent their spreading the disorder and to provide for
their being properly attended. Hamilton's house at Bush Hill
is converted into an hospital for that purpose. The members of
the Legislature are so much alarmed and so unfit to attend to
business that I believe it is not improbable they will adjourn this
week, and the time of the election being so very near, they will,
I guess, adjourn sine die. If that happens, my intention is to
go immediately to New York. ... I will not dissemble that,
although I feel it was of some importance that some public busi-
ness should have been finished whilst I was in the Legislature
(I write to you what I would say to no other person), and
although it is not impossible that by using proper exertions the
Assembly might have been prevented from breaking up, I have
felt more alarmed than I thought myself liable to, as much
indeed as most of my fellow-members, and have not attempted
anything to inspire the members with a courage I did not feel
myself. Can you guess at the reason ? Yet I trust that if I
thought it an absolute duty to stay I should not suffer even love
to get the better of that. Indeed, I know you would not like
me the better for making myself unworthy of you, and if there
is any hesitation or any division upon the subject, I think, unless
some new argument prevails with me, that I will vote against
the adjournment, but if everybody agrees it is best to go, I will
throw no objection in the way. So much for my fortitude,
which you see is not greater than it ought to be.' . . .
4th September, 1793.
. . . Yesterday I was appointed a member of a committee
to confer with a committee of the Senate upon the expediency of
an adjournment, so that I had to take an active part upon that
very subject which of all I wished to be decided by others. Will
it please you to hear that I urged every reason against an ad-
journment that I could think of? If that does not afford you
much satisfaction, it will perhaps relieve you to know that at the
same time I was almost wishing that my arguments might have
no effect. Whether it arose from that cause or not I do not
know, but my eloquence was thrown away upon the Senate, and
they immediately after resolved that they would adjourn to-day.
1793. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 1Q7
Of that resolution, however, we have in our house taken no
notice; but this afternoon the Senate have resolved that they
would not try the comptroller's impeachment this session, and as
they are the only judges of that point, inasmuch as we cannot
oblige them to fix any earlier period, and as that was the only
business of sufficient importance to detain us, I rather believe
that our house will agree to adjourn to-morrow, as the whole
blame of it, if any, will fall upon the Senate. If that takes
place, you will easily believe that I do not mean to stay long
here. ... I feel much happier than I did two days ago. Dr.
Hutch inson is much better, though not yet out of danger. 1 . . .
The symptoms of the raging fever are said to be milder than at
first. Several have escaped or are in a fair way of recovering
who had been attacked, although there was no instance a few
days ago of any person once infected being saved. The number
of sick and that of deaths are still considerable, but although the
first has not diminished, the last, I believe, has ; and there is less
alarm amongst the citizens than there was a few days ago. . . .
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, 1st February, 1794.
MY DEAR FKIEND, I was deprived of the pleasure of writing
you sooner by Major Heaton not calling on me, nor giving me
notice of the time of his departure ; I hope, however, that not-
withstanding your complaints, you know me too well to have
ascribed my silence to forgetfulness or want of friendship ; but,
without any further apologies, let me proceed to answering your
letter, which, by the by, is the only one I have received of you
since I let you know, in last August, that I was in expectation
of getting married after a while. Now for my history since
that time. The dreadful calamity which has afflicted this city
had spread such an alarm at the time when the Assembly met,
that our August session was a mere scene of confusion, and we
adjourned the 6th of September. The next day I set off for
New York, according to contract ; it was agreed that I should
1 Dr. Hutch inson died on the 6th.
108 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1793.
go and spend a week there, and from thence go to Fayette
County, where I was to remain till December, and then upon
my return here we were to fix the time of our union. As I
expected to be only a week absent, I left all my papers, clothes,
patents, money, &c., in Philadelphia ; but on my arrival at New
York, and after I had been there a few days, the disorder in-
creased to such a degree in Philadelphia, it became so difficult
to leave that city if you were once in it, and the terrors were so
much greater at a distance, that I was easily prevailed upon not
to return here, although I was wishing to go nevertheless to
Fayette, which I could have done, as I had left my horse in
Bucks County. Three weeks, however, elapsed without my
perceiving time was running away, and I was in earnest pre-
paring to set off, when I fell sick, a violent headache, fever, &c. ;
the symptoms would have put me on the list of the yellow fever
sick had I been in Philadelphia, and although I had been absent
three weeks from thence, the alarm had increased so much at
New York, that it was thought that, if the people knew of my
disorder, they might insist on my being carried to a temporary
hospital erected on one of the islands of the harbor, which was
far from being a comfortable place. Under those circumstances
Commodore Nicholson (at present my father-in-law) would have
me to be removed to his house, where I was most tenderly
attended and nursed, and very soon recovered. It was then too
late to think of going home before the meeting of Congress, and
being under the same roof we agreed to complete our union, and
were accordingly married on the llth of November. And now
I suppose you want to know what kind of a wife I have got.
Having been married near three months, my description will not
be as romantic as it would have been last fall ; but I do not
know but what it may still be partial, if we feel so in favor of
those we love. Her person is, in my opinion, far less attractive
than either her mind or her heart, and yet I do not wish her to
have any other but that she has got, for I think I can read in
her face the expression of her soul ; and as to her shape and
size you know my taste, and she is exactly formed on that scale.
She was twenty-six when I married her. She is possessed of
the most gentle disposition, and has an excellent heart. Her
1793. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 1Q9
understanding is good ; she is as well informed as most young
ladies; she is perfectly simple and unaffected; she loves me,
and she is a pretty good democrat (and so, by the by, are all
her relations). But, then, is there no reverse to that medal?
Yes, indeed, one, and a pretty sad one. She is what you will
call a city belle. She never in her life lived out of a city, and
there she has always lived in a sphere where she has contracted
or should have contracted habits not very well adapted to a
country life, and specially to a Fayette County life. This I
knew before marriage, and my situation she also knew. Never-
theless, we have concluded that we would be happier united than
separated, and this spring you will see us in Fayette, where you
will be able to judge for yourself. As to fortune, she is, by her
grandfather's will, entitled to one-sixth part of his estate at her
mother's death (and what that is I do not know) ; but at present
she receives only three hundred pounds, New York money. To
return, I attended Congress at their meeting, and upon Mr. and
Mrs. Dallas's invitation I brought Mrs. Gallatin to this place
about the latter end of December, and have remained at their
house ever since. I believe I wrote you, at the time of my
being elected a Senator, that the election would probably be
disputed. This has, agreeable to my expectation, taken place,
which arises from my having expressed doubts, prior to my
election, whether I had been a citizen nine years. The point as
a legal one is a nice and difficult one, and I believe it will be
decided as party may happen to carry. On that ground it is
likely I may lose my seat, as in Senate the majority is against
us in general.
I believe I have told you now everything of any importance
relative to myself. By the enclosed you will see that your
brother is safe at Jeremie, which is now in the possession of the
British. Who has been right or in the wrong in the lamentable
scene of Hispaniola nobody can tell ; but to view the subject in-
dependent of the motives and conduct of the agent who may have
brought on the present crisis, I see nothing but the natural con-
sequence of slavery. For the whites to expect mercy either from
mulattoes or negroes is absurd, and whilst we may pity the mis-
fortune of the present generation of the whites of that island, in
HO LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1793.
which, undoubtedly, many innocent victims have been involved,
can we help acknowledging that calamity to be the just punish-
ment of the crimes of so many generations of slave-traders and
slave-holders ? As to our general politics, I send you, by Jack-
son, the correspondence between our government and the French
and British ministers, which will give you a better idea of our
situation in regard to those two countries than either newspapers
or anything I could write. The Spanish correspondence and
that relative to the Algerian business were communicated by the
President "in confidence," and therefore are not printed. If
there be another campaign, as there is little doubt of at pres-
ent, our situation next summer will be truly critical. France,
at present, offers a spectacle unheard of at any other period.
Enthusiasm there produces an energy equally terrible and sub-
lime. All those virtues which depend upon social or amily
affections, all those amiable weaknesses which our natural feel-
ings teach us to love or respect, have disappeared before the
stronger, the only, at present, powerful passion the Amor Patrice.
I must confess my soul is not enough steeled not sometimes to
shrink at the dreadful executions which have restored at least
apparent internal tranquillity to that republic. Yet, upon the
whole, as long as the combined despots press upon every frontier
and employ every engine to destroy and distress the interior
parts, I think they and they alone are answerable for every act
of severity or injustice, for every excess, nay, for every crime
which either of the contending parties in France may have
committed.
The above letter to Badollet runs somewhat in advance of the
story, which is resumed in the letters to his wife. After their
marriage on the llth November, he remained with her till the
close of the month, when he was obliged to take his seat in the
Senate.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 2d December, 1793.
I have just time to let you know that I arrived safe to this
place ; indeed, it is not an hour since I am landed, and we must
meet an hour hence. ,
1793. THE LEGMSLATUEE. 1789-1801. HI
3d December, 1793.
. . . We made a house the first day we met, and have had
this day the President's speech. The very day we met, a petition
was sent to our house signed by nineteen individuals of York-
town objecting to my election, and stating that I have not been
nine years a citizen of the United States. It lies on the table,
and has not yet been taken up. Mr. Morris told me it was first
given to him by a member of the Legislature for the county of
York, but that he declined presenting it, and that he meant to
be perfectly neutral on the occasion. . . .
6th December, 1793.
. . . Till now we have had nothing to do but reading long
correspondences and no real business to apply to. Whilst I am
on that subject I must add that from all the correspondence of
the French minister, I am fully confirmed in the opinion I had
formed, that he is a man totally unfit for the place he fills. His
abilities are but slender ; he possesses some declamatory powers,
but not the least shadow of judgment. Violent and self-conceited,
he has hurted the cause of his country here more than all her
enemies could have done. I think that the convention will recall
him agreeable to the request of the President, and that if they
do not he will be sent away. ... I met here with my friend
Smilie and some more, who brought me letters from my, shall I
say from our, home. They do not know what has become of
me, are afraid I have died of the yellow fever, scold me in case
I am alive for having neglected to write, and tell me that neither
my barn, my meadow, nor my house are finished. I write back
and insist on this last at least being finished this winter. . . .
llth December, 1793.
. . . The. situation of America (I know my love is not
indifferent to her country's fate) is the most critical she has
experienced since the conclusion of the war that secured her in-
dependence. On the one hand, the steps taken by the Executive
to obtain the recall of Genet, the intemperance of that minister,
and the difficulty of forming any rational conjecture of the part
the national convention may take, give us sufficient grounds of
112 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1793.
alarms, whilst, on the other, the declared intentions (declared to
us officially) of Great Britain to break through every rule of
neutrality and to take our vessels, laden with provisions, the
hostility of the Indians and of the Algerines, and our own
weakness render it equally difficult to bear so many insults with
temper and to save the dignity of the nation. I guess the first
step must be to establish some kind of naval force, but I have
as yet formed no fixed opinion of my own, nor do I know what
is the general intention. . . .
15th December, 1793.
I was indeed sadly disappointed, my dearest love, on receiv-
ing your letter of the 12th. Whether it was wiser or not that
you should not come here till after the decision of my election I
will not pretend to say. To myself that decision will not be
very material. As I used no intrigue in order to be elected, as
I was indeed so rather against my own inclination, and as I was
undoubtedly fairly elected, since the members voted viva voce, I
will be liable to none of those reflections which sometimes fall
upon a man whose election is set aside, and my feelings cannot be
much hurt by an unfavorable decision, since having been elected is
an equal proof of the confidence the Legislature of Pennsylvania
reposed in me, and not being qualified, if it is so decided, cannot
be imputed to me as a fault. ... I hope that a decision will
take place this week, and if it does, I will go to 'New York next
Saturday, and once more enjoy the society of my Hannah, either
there or here. I think the probability is that it will be there,
as the committee (to wit : Livermore, Cabot, Mitchell, Ellsworth,
and Rutherford) are undoubtedly the worst for me that could
have been chosen, and they do not seem to me to be favorably
disposed; this, however, between you and me, as I should not
be hasty in forming a judgment, or at least in communicating it.
... I am happy to see that you are a tolerable democrat, and,
at the same time, a moderate one. I trust that our parties at
this critical juncture will as far as possible forget old animosi-
ties, and show at least to the foreign powers who hate us that
we will be unanimous whenever the protection and defence of
our country require it. None but such as are entirely blinded
1793. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. H3
by self-interest or their passions, and such as wish us to be only
an appendage of some foreign power, can try to increase our
weakness by dividing us. I hope that the public measures will
show firmness tempered with moderation, but if France is anni-
hilated, as seems to be the desire of the combined powers, sad
indeed will the consequences be for America. They talk of
fortifying some of the principal seaports and of building a few
frigates. Both measures may probably be adopted. . . .
18th December, 1793.
... I really enjoy no kind of pleasure in this city, and if
the committee delay their report much longer I believe I may be
tempted to run away and let them decide just as they please. I
know, or rather I have the best grounds to believe, that they
mean to report unanimously against me, and if their report, a&
it is most likely, is adopted by the Senate, what will my girl say
to my dividing our winter into three parts? the best, the longest,
and the most agreeable part to be spent in New York ; a fort-
night in Philadelphia, with our friends Mr. and Mrs. Dallas,
and by myself, four weeks to go, stay, and return from Fayette.
. . . You must be sensible, my dearest friend, that it will also
be necessary for me this winter to take such arrangements as will
enable me to follow some kind of business besides attending my
farm. What that will be I cannot yet tell, but it either will be
in some mercantile line, but to a very limited and moderate ex-
tent, or in some land speculation, those being indeed the two
only kinds of business I do understand. As I mentioned that
it would be only to a limited amount that I would follow any
kind of mercantile business, I think I will have a portion of
time left, which I may devote possibly to the study of law, the
principles of which I am already acquainted with, and in which
some people try to persuade me I could succeed. My only ap-
prehension is that I am too old, at least my memory is far from
being equal to what it was ten years ago. Upon the whole I do
not know but what, although perhaps less pleasing, it may not
turn out to be more advantageous for me (and of course for my
love) to be obliged to abandon those political pursuits in which I
trust I have been more useful to the public than to myself. . . .
8
114 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1793.
20th December, 1793.
. . . This committee business is protracted farther than I
had expected, and had I nothing but a personal concern in it, I
would really leave them to themselves; but as the question
seems to be whether Pennsylvania will have one or two Senators
(for there is no law to fill the vacancy if I am declared ineligi-
ble), and as I owe some regard to the proof of confidence given
to me by the Legislature, I am obliged to appear as a party
and to support what I conceive to be right as well as I can. I
was in hopes they would have reported to-day ; now I doubt
whether they will do it before Tuesday or Thursday next. . . .
11 o'clock. Notwithstanding what I wrote you this morning, it
is not impossible that I may get off to-morrow for New York,
in which case I mean that we should return together on Monday
evening to this place, as I could not be absent any longer time.
The reason of this change of opinion since this morning is that
by the turn which this business takes in the committee, it will
not come, I believe, to a conclusion for a fortnight or three
weeks, and to be so long absent is too much. . . .
Mr. Gallatin was a member of the Senate only a few weeks,
from December 2, 1793, till February 28, 1794, during which
time he was, of course, principally occupied with the matter of
his own election. There was, however, one point to which he
paid immediate attention. Being above all things a practical
business man, he had very strict ideas as to the manner in
which business should be performed, and the Department of the
Treasury was, therefore, in his eyes the most important point to
watch. That Department, organized a few years before by Mr.
Hamilton, had not yet quite succeeded in finding its permanent
place in the political system, owing perhaps partially to the fact
that Mr. Hamilton may have, in this respect as in others, adopted
in advance some theoretical views drawn from the working of
the British system, but also owing to the fact that there had not
yet been time to learn the most convenient rules for governing
the relations of the Departments to the Legislature. Even the
law requiring an annual report from the Secretary of the Treas-
ury was not enacted till the year 1800. In the interval Congress
1793. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. H5
knew of the proceedings of the Treasury only what the Secretary
from time to time might please to tell them, or what they them-
selves might please to call for. The Department was organized
on the assumption that Congress would require no more than
what the Secretary would naturally and of his own accord supply;
any unusual call for additional information deranged the whole
machinery of the Treasury and called forth the most energetic
complaints of its officers. 1 Such calls, too, were always some-
what invidious and implied a reflection on the Department; they
were therefore not likely to proceed from the friends of the gov-
ernment, and the opposition was not strong in financial ability.
The appearance of Mr. Gallatin in the Senate, with already a
high reputation as a financier, boded ill for the comfort of the
Treasury, and it is difficult to see how a leader of the opposition
under the circumstances could possibly have performed his duty
without giving trouble. One of Mr. Gallatin's financial axioms
was that the Treasury should be made to account specifically for
every appropriation ; a rule undoubtedly correct, but very diffi-
cult to apply. On the 8th of January, 1794, he moved in the
Senate that the Secretary of the Treasury be called upon for
certain elaborate statements: 1st, a statement of the domestic
debt under six specific heads; 2d, of the redeemed domestic
debt under specific heads; 3d, of the foreign debt in a like
manner ; 4th, a specific account of application of foreign loans
in like manner ; and finally a summary statement, for each year
since 1789, of actual receipts and expenditures, distinguishing
the receipts according to the branch of revenue, and the expendi-
tures according to the specific appropriations, and stating the
balances remaining unexpended either in the Treasury or in the
hands of its agents.
This was a searching inquiry, and one that might give some
trouble, unless the books of the Treasury were kept in precisely
such a manner as to supply the information at once ; probably,
too, a portion of the knowledge might have been obtained from
previous statements already supplied ; but the demand was, from
1 See Hamilton's letter to the Senate of 6th February, 1794, State Papers,
vii. 274.
116 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1794.
the legislative point of view, not unreasonable, and the resolu-
tions were accordingly adopted, without a division, on the 20th
January.
The exclusion of Mr. Gallatin from the Senate on the 28th
February put an end to his inquiries, and the only answer he
ever got to them came in the shape of an indirect allusion con-
tained in a letter from Secretary Hamilton to the Senate on
another subject, dated 22d February, 1794. This letter, which
seems never to have been printed, offers an example in some
respects so amusing and in some so striking of the political
ideas of that day, and of the species of discipline in which Mr.
Hamilton trained his majority in Congress, that it must be
introduced as an essential element in any account of Mr. Gal-
latin's political education. 1
1 Endorsed by Mr. Gallatin in a later hand, u complains of unnecessary
calls, alluding indirectly to certain resolutions, founded on my motion,
calling for explanatory financial statements which were never furnished."
ALEXANDER HAMILTON TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, February 22, 1794.
SIR, I have received a late order of the Senate on the subject of a peti-
tion of Arthur Hughes. Diligent search has been made for such a petition,
and it has not been found. Neither have I now a distinct recollection of
ever having seen it. Whether, therefore, it may not have originally failed
in the transmission to me, or may have become mislaid by a temporary dis-
placement of the papers of my immediate office, occasioned by a fire which
consumed a part of the building in the use of the Treasury, or by some of
those accidents which in an extensive scene of business will sometimes at-
tend papers, especially those of inferior importance, is equally open to con-
jecture. There is no record in the office of its having been received, nor
does any of my clerks remember to have seen it. A search in the auditor's
office has brought up the enclosed paper, which it is presumed relates to the
object of the petition; but this paper, it will appear from the memorandum
accompanying it, was placed in that office prior to the reference of the
petition.
The auditor of the Treasury is of opinion, though his recollection is not
positive, that the claim had relation to the services of John Hughes as
forage-master. Two objections opposed its admission : 1, the not being
presented in time; 2, the name of John Hughes in the capacity in which
he claimed not appearing upon any return in the Treasury.
If these be the circumstances, I should be of opinion that it would not be
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. H7
" The occupations necessarily and permanently incident to the
office [of Secretary of the Treasury]," said Mr. Hamilton, " are
at least sufficient fully to occupy the time and faculties of one
man. The burden is seriously increased by the numerous pri-
vate cases, remnants of the late war, which every session are
objects of particular reference by the two Houses of Congress.
advisable by a special legislative interposition to except the case out of the
operation of the acts of limitation.
The second order of the Senate on the subject of this petition leads to the
following reflections :
Does this hitherto unusual proceeding (in a case of no public and no
peculiar private importance) imply a supposition that there has been undue
delay or negligence on the part of the Secretary of the Treasury ?
If it does, the supposition is unmerited ; not merely from the circum-
stances of the paper, which have been stated, but from the known situation
of the officer. The occupations necessarily and permanently incident to the
office are at least sufficient fully to occupy the time and faculties of one man.
The burden is seriously increased by the numerous private cases, remnants
of the late war, which every session are objects of particular reference by
the two Houses of Congress. These accumulated occupations, again, have
been interrupted in their due course by unexpected, desultory, and distressing
calls for lengthy and complicated statements, sometimes with a view to
general information, sometimes for the explanation of points which certain
leading facts, witnessed by the provisions of the laws and by information
previously communicated, might have explained without those statements,
or which were of a nature that did not seem to have demanded a laborious,
critical, and suspicious investigation, unless the officer was understood to
have forfeited his title to a reasonable and common degree of confidence.
Added to these things, it is known that the affairs of the country in its
external relations have for some time past been so circumstanced as un-
avoidably to have thrown additional avocations on all the branches of the
Executive Department, and that a late peculiar calamity in the city of
Philadelphia has had consequences that cannot have failed to derange more
or less the course of public business.
In such a situation was it not the duty of the officer to postpone matters
of mere individual concern to objects of public and general concern, to the
preservation of the essential order of the department committed to his care ?
Or is it extraordinary that in relation to cases of the first description there
should have been a considerable degree of procrastination ? Might not
an officer who is conscious that public observation and opinion, whatever
deficiencies they may impute to him, will not rank among them want of
attention and industry, have hoped to escape censure, expressed or implied,
on that score ?
I will only add that the consciousness of devoting myself to the public
service to the utmost extent of my faculties, and to the injury of my health,
118 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1794.
These accumulated occupations, again, have been interrupted in
their due course by unexpected, desultory, and distressing calls
for lengthy and complicated statements, sometimes with a view
to general information, sometimes for the explanation of points
which certain leading facts, witnessed by the provisions of the
laws and by information previously communicated, might have
explained without those statements, or which were of a nature
that did not seem to have demanded a laborious, critical, and
suspicious investigation, unless the officer was understood to have
forfeited his title to a reasonable and common degree of confi-
dence. ... I will only add that the consciousness of devoting
myself to the public service to the utmost extent of my faculties,
and to the injury of my health, is a tranquillizing consolation of
which I cannot be deprived by any supposition to the contrary."
A country which can read expressions like this with feelings
only of surprise or amusement must have greatly changed its char-
acter. Only in a simple and uncorrupted stage of society would
such a letter be possible, and the time has long passed when a
Secretary of the Treasury, in reply to a request for financial
details, would venture to say in an official communication to the
Senate of the United States : "The consciousness of devoting my-
self to the public service to the utmost extent of my faculties,
and to the injury of my health, is a tranquillizing consolation of
which I cannot be deprived by any supposition to the contrary."'
Nevertheless, this was all the information which Mr. Gallatin
obtained as to the condition of the Treasury in response to his
inquiries, and he resigned himself the more readily to accepting
assurances of the Secretary's injured health as an equivalent for
a statement of receipts and expenditures, for the reason that the
is a tranquillizing consolation of which I cannot be deprived by any supposi-
tion to the contrary.
With perfect respect, I have the honor to be, sir, your most obedient
servant,
Signed ALEXANDER HAMILTON,
Secretary of the Treasury.
THE VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
AND PRESIDENT or THE SENATE.
True copy. Attest : SAMUEL A. OTIS, S. Secretary.
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. H9
Senate, on this strong hint from the Treasury, proceeded at once
to cut short the thread of his own official existence.
The doubt which Mr. Gallatin had expressed in caucus as to
his eligibility to the Senate was highly indiscreet ; had he held
his tongue, the idea could hardly have occurred to any one, for
he was completely identified with America, and he had been a
resident since a time antecedent to both the Federal Constitutions;
but Article I. Sect. 3, of the new Constitution declared that,
"No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to
the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the
United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant
of that State for which he shall be chosen." Mr. Gallatin had
come to America, as a minor, in May, 1780, before the adoption
of the old Articles of Confederation which created citizenship
of the United States. That citizenship was first defined by the
fourth of these Articles of Confederation adopted in March,
1781, according to which "the free inhabitants," not therefore
the citizens merely, " of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds,
and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all priv-
ileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States."
Mr. Gallatin had certainly been an inhabitant of Massachusetts
from July, 1780.
Moreover, the fact of Mr. Gallatin's citizenship was established
by the oath which he had taken as a citizen of Virginia, in Octo-
ber, 1785. Whatever doubt might attach to his previous citizen-
ship, this act had certainly conferred on him all the privileges of
free citizens in the several States, and without the most incon-
trovertible evidence it was not to be assumed that the new
Constitution, subsequently adopted, was intended to violate this,
compact by depriving him, and through him his State, of any
portion of those privileges. Equity rather required that the
clause of the Constitution which prescribed nine years' citizenship
should be interpreted as prospective, and as intended to refer only
to persons naturalized subsequently to the adoption of the Consti-
tution. If it were objected that such an interpretation, applied
to the Presidency, would have made any foreigner naturalized in
1788 immediately eligible to the chief magistracy of the Union,
a result quite opposed to the constitutional doctrine in regard to
120 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIK 1794.
foreign-born citizens, a mere reference to Article II., Section 1,
showed that this was actually the fact: "No person except a
natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time
of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office
of President." There never was a doubt that Mr. Gallatin was
eligible to the Presidency. That a reasonable interpretation
of Article I., Section 3, must have made him equally eligible to
the Senate is also evident from the fact that a strict interpretation
of that clause, if attempted in 1789 when Congress first met,
must have either admitted him or vacated the seat of every other
Senator, seeing that technically no human being had been a
citizen of the United States for nine years ; national citizenship
had existed in law only since and by virtue of the adoption of
the Articles of Confederation in 1781, before which time State
citizenship was the only defined political status.
Opposed to this view stood the letter of the Constitution. We
now know, too, through Mr. Madison's Notes, that when the
question of eligibility to the House of Representatives came
before the Convention on August 13, 1788, both Mr. Hamilton
and Gouverneur Morris tried to obtain an express admission of
the self-evident rights of actual citizens. For unknown reasons
Mr. Morris's motion was defeated by a vote of 6 States to 5.
Failing here, he seems to have succeeded in regard to the Pres-
idency by inserting his proviso in committee, and no one in the
Convention subsequently raised even a question lagainst its pro-
priety. Of course the Senate was at liberty now to put its own
interpretation on this obvious inconsistency, and the Senate was
so divided that one member might have given Mr. Gallatin his
seat. The vote was 14 to 12, with Vice-President John Adams
in his favor had there been a tie. There was no tie, and Mr.
Gallatin was thrown out. He always believed that his oppo-
nents made a political blunder, and that the result was beneficial
to himself and injurious to them.
GALLATIN TO THOMAS CLARE.
PHILADELPHIA, 5th March, 1794.
... I have nothing else to say in addition to what I wrote
you by my last but what Mr. Badollet can tell you. He will
1794. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801.
inform you of what passed on the subject of my seat in the
Senate, and that I have lost it by a majority of 14 to 12. One
vote more would have secured it, as the Vice- President would
have voted in my favor; but heaven and earth were moved in
order to gain that point by the party who were determined to
preserve their influence and majority in the Senate. The whole
will soon be published, and I will send it to you. As far as
relates to myself I have rather gained credit than otherwise,
and I have likewise secured many staunch friends throughout
the Union. All my friends wish me to come to the Assembly
next year. . . .
After this rebuff, Mr. Gallatin, being thrown entirely out of
politics for the time, began to pay a little more attention to his
private affairs. He could not at this season of the year set out
for Fayette, and accordingly returned to New York, where he
left his wife with her family, while he himself went back to
Philadelphia to make the necessary preparations for their west-
ern journey and future residence. Here he sold a portion of his
western lands to Robert Morris, who was then, like the rest of
the world, speculating in every species of dangerous venture.
Like everything else connected with land, the transaction was
an unlucky one for Mr. Gallatin.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 7th April, 1794.
We arrived here, my dearest friend, on Saturday last. . . .
No news here. You will see by the newspapers the motion of
Mr. Clark to stop all intercourse with Great Britain. I believe
it is likely to be supported by our friends. Dayton is quite
warm. The other day, when it was observed in Congress by
Tracy that every person who would vote for this motion of
sequestering the British debts must be an enemy to morality
and common honesty, 'I might/ replied Dayton, 'I might
with equal propriety call every person who will refuse to vote for
that motion a slave of Great Britain and an enemy to his coun-
try ; but if it is the intention of those gentlemen to submit to
every insult and patiently to bear every indignity, I wish (point-
122 LIFE OF ALBEKT GAL LATIN. 1794.
ing to the eastern members, with whom he used to vote), I wish
to separate myself from the herd*
The majority of the Assembly of Pennsylvania had several
votes, previous to the election of a Senator in my place, to agree
upon the man. Sitgreaves, a certain Coleman, of Lancaster
County, a fool and a tool, and James Ross, were proposed and
balloted for. Ross had but seven votes, on account of his being
a western man and a man of talents, who upon great many
questions would judge for himself. They divided almost equally
between Sitgreaves and Coleman, and at last agreed to take up
Coleman, in order to please the counties of Lancaster and York.
Our friends, who were the minority, had no meeting, and waited
to see what would be the decision of the other party, in hopes
that they might divide amongst themselves. As soon as they
saw Coleman taken up they united in favor of Ross as the best
man they had any chance of carrying, and they were joined
by a sufficient number of the disappointed ones of the other
party to be able to carry him at the first vote. As he comes
chiefly upon our interest, I hope he will behave tolerably well,
and, upon the whole, although it puts any chance of my being
again elected a member of that body beyond possibility itself, I
am better pleased with the fate of the election than most of our
adversaries. . . .
PHILADELPHIA, 19th April, 1794.
... I have concluded this day with Mr. Robert Morris, who,
in fact, is the only man who buys. I give him the whole of
my claims, but without warranting any title, for 4000, Penn-
sylvania currency, one-third payable this summer, one-third in
one year, and one-third in two years. That sum therefore, my
dearest, together with our farm and five or six hundred pounds
cash, makes the whole of our little fortune. Laid out in culti-
vated lands in our neighborhood it will provide us amply with
all the necessaries of life, to which you may add that, as property
is gradually increasing in value there, should in future any cir-
cumstances induce us to change our place of abode, we may always
sell to advantage. . . .
Early in May Mr. and Mrs. Gallatin set out for Fayette. His
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801.
mind was at this time much occupied with his private affairs and
private anxieties. His sale of lands to Robert Morris had, as
he hoped, relieved him of a serious burden ; but he was again
trying the experiment of taking an Eastern wife to a frontier
home, and he was again driven by the necessities and responsi-
bilities of a family to devise some occupation that would secure
him an income. The farm on George's Creek was no doubt
security against positive want, but in itself or in its surround-
ings offered little prospect of a fortune for him, and still less for
his children.
He had barely reached home, and his wife had not yet time
to set her house in order and to get the first idea of her future
duties in this wholly strange condition of life, when a new
complication threatened them with dangers greater than any
which their imaginations could have reasonably painted. They
suddenly found themselves in the midst of violent political
disturbance, organized insurrection and war, an army on either
side.
For eighteen months Mr. Gallatin had almost lost sight of
the excise agitation, and possibly had not been sorry to do so.
Throughout his political life he followed the sound rule of
identifying himself with his friends and of accepting the full
responsibility, except in one or two extreme cases, even for
measures which were not of his own choice. But under the
moderation of his expressions in regard to the Pittsburg reso-
lutions of 1792 it seems possible to detect a certain amount of
personal annoyance at the load he was thus forced to carry, and
a determination to keep himself clear from such complications
in future. The year had been rather favorable than otherwise
to the operation of the excise law. To use his own language in
his speech of January, 1795: "It is even acknowledged that
the law gained ground during the year 1793. With the events
subsequent to that meeting [at Pittsburg] I am but imperfectly
acquainted. I came to Philadelphia a short time after it, and
continued absent from the western country upon public business
for eighteen months. Neither during that period of absence,
nor after my return to the western country in June last, until
the riots had begun, had I the slightest conversation that I can
124 LIFE OF ALBEKT OALLATIN. 1794.
recollect, much less any deliberate conference or correspondence,
either directly or indirectly, with any of its inhabitants on the
subject of the excise law. I became first acquainted with almost
every act of violence committed either before or since the meet-
ing at Pittsburg upon reading the report of the Secretary of the
Treasury."
Occasional acts of violence were committed from time to time
by unknown or irresponsible persons with intent to obstruct
the collection of the tax, but no opposition of any consequence
had as yet been offered to the ordinary processes of the courts;
not only the rioters, wherever known, but also the delinquent
distillers, were prosecuted in all the regular forms of law, both
in the State and the Federal courts. The great popular griev-
ance had been that the distillers were obliged to enter appear-
ance at Philadelphia, which was in itself equivalent to a serious
pecuniary fine, owing to the distance and difficulty of commu-
nication. In modern times it would probably be a much smaller
hardship to require that similar offenders in California and
Texas should stand their trial at Washington. This grievance
had, however, been remedied by an Act of Congress approved
June 5, 1794, by which concurrent jurisdiction in excise cases was
given to the State courts. Unluckily, this law was held not to
apply to distillers who had previously to its enactment incurred
a penalty, and early in July the marshal set out to the western
country to serve a quantity of writs issued on May 31 and re-
turnable before the Federal court in Philadelphia. All those
in Fayette County were served without trouble, and the distillers
subsequently held a meeting at Uniontown about the 20th July,
after the riots had begun elsewhere and the news had spread to
Fayette; a meeting which Mr. Gallatin attended, and at which
it was unanimously agreed to obey the law, and either abandon
their stills or enter them. In fact, there never was any resistance
or trouble in Fayette County except in a part the most remote
from Mr. Gallatin's residence.
But the marshal was not so fortunate elsewhere. He went on
to serve his writs in Alleghany County, and after serving the
last he was followed by some men and a gun was fired. General
Neville, the inspector, was with him, and the next day, July 16,
1794. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 127
General Neville's house was approached by a body of men, who
demanded that he should surrender his commission. They were
fired upon and driven away, with six of their number wounded
and one killed. Then the smouldering flame burst out. The
whole discontented portion of the country rose in armed rebellion,
and the well-disposed, although probably a majority, were taken
completely by surprise and were for the moment helpless. The
next day Neville's house was again attacked and burned, though
held by Major Kirkpatrick and a few soldiers from the Pittsburg
garrison. The leader of the attacking party was killed.
The whole duration of the famous whiskey rebellion was
precisely six weeks, from the outbreak on the 15th July to the
substantial submission at Redstone Old Fort on the 29th August.
This is in itself evidence enough of the rapidity with which the
various actors moved. From the first, two parties were apparent,
those in favor of violence and those against it. The violent
party had the advantage in the very suddenness of their move-
ment. The moderates were obliged to organize their force at
first in the districts where their strength lay, before it became
possible to act in combination against the disturbers of the peace.
Of course an armed collision was of all things to be avoided by
the moderates, at least until the national government could have
time to act ; in such a collision the more peaceable part of the
community was certain to be worsted.
Mr. Gallatin, far away from the scene of disturbance, did not
at first understand the full meaning of what had happened. He
and his friend Smilie attended the meeting of distillers at Union-
town, and, although news of the riots had been received there,
they found no difficulty in persuading the distillers to submit.
He therefore felt no occasion for further personal interference
until subsequent events showed him that there was a general
combination to expel the government officers. 1 But events
moved fast. On the 21st July, the leaders in the attack on Nev-
ille's house called a meeting at Mingo Creek meeting-house
for the 23d, which was attended by a number of leading men,
among whom were Judge Brackenridge and David Bradford.
1 Gallatin's Deposition in Brackenridge 's Incidents, vol. ii. p. 186.
128 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL A TIN. 1794.
Judge Brackenridge, then a prominent lawyer of Pittsburg,
was a humorist and a scholar, constitutionally nervous and timid,
as he himself explains/ the last man to meet an emergency such
as was now before him, and furthermore greatly inclined to run
away, if he could, and leave the rebels to their own devices ; he
did nevertheless make a fairly courageous stand at the Mingo
Creek meeting, and disconcerted the movements of the insurgents
for the time. Had others done their duty as well as he, the
organization of the insurgents would have ended then and there,
but Brackenridge was deserted by the two men who should have
supported him. James Marshall and David Bradford had gone
over to the insurgents, and by their accession the violent party
was enabled to carry on its operations. The Mingo Creek meet-
ing ended in a formal though unsigned invitation to the town-
ships of the four western counties of Pennsylvania and the
adjoining counties of Virginia to send representatives on the
14th August to a meeting at Parkinson's Ferry on the Monon-
gahela.
Had this measure been left to itself it is probable that it would
have answered sufficiently well the purposes of the peace party,
since it allowed them time for consultation and organization,
which was all they really required. Bradford and his friends
knew this, and were bent on forcing the country into their own
support; Bradford therefore conceived the ingenious idea of
stopping the mail and seizing the letters which might have been
written from Pittsburg and Washington to Philadelphia. This
was done on the 26th by a cousin of Bradford, who stopped the
post near Greensburg, about thirty miles east of Pittsburg, and
took out the two packages. In the Pittsburg package were
found several letters from Pittsburg people, the publication of
which roused great offence against them, and, what was of more
consequence, carried consternation among the timid. It was the
beginning of a system of terror.
Certainly Bradford showed energy and ability in conducting
his campaign, at least as considered from Brackenridge's point
of view. His stroke at the peace party through the mail-rob-
1 Incidents, vol. ii. p. 63.
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 129
bery was instantly followed up by another, much more serious
and thoroughly effective. On the 28th July he with six others,
among whom was James Marshall, issued a circular letter, in
which, after announcing that the intercepted letters contained
secrets hostile to their interest, they declared that things had now
"come to that crisis that every citizen must express his sen-
timents, not by his words but by his actions." This letter,
directed to the officers of the militia, was in the form of an order
to march on the 1st August, with as many of their command as
possible, fully armed and equipped, with four days' provision, to
the usual rendezvous of the militia at Braddock's Field.
This was levying war on a complete scale, but it was well
understood that the chief object was to overawe opposition, more
especially in Pittsburg, although the Federal garrison and stores
in that city were also aimed at. The order met with strong re-
sistance, and under the earnest remonstrances of James Ross and
other prominent men, in a meeting at Washington, even Marshall
was compelled to retract and assent to a countermand. But, not-
withstanding their opposition, the popular vehemence in Wash-
ington County was such that it was decided to go forward, and,
after a moment's wavering, Bradford became again the loudest
of the insurgent leaders.
On the 1st August, accordingly, several thousand people as-
sembled at Braddock's Field, about eight miles from Pittsburg.
Of these some fifteen hundred or two thousand were armed
militia, all from the counties of Washington, Alleghany, and
Westmoreland ; there were not more than a dozen men present
from Fayette. Brackenridge has given a lively description of
this meeting, which he attended as a delegate from Pittsburg,
in the hope of saving the town, if possible, from the expected
sack. Undoubtedly a portion of the armed militia might easily
have been induced to attack the garrison, which would have led
to the plundering of the town, but either Bradford wanted the
courage to fight or he found opposition among his own followers.
He abandoned the idea of assailing the garrison, and this for-
midable assemblage of armed men, after much vague discussion,
ended by insisting only upon marching through the town, which
was done on the 2d of August, without other violence than the
130 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1794.
burning of Major Kirkpatrick's barn. A lively sense of the
meaning of excise to the western people is conveyed by the casual
statement that this march cost Judge Brackenridge alone four
barrels of his old whiskey, gratuitously distributed to appease the
thirst of the crowd ; how much whiskey the western gentleman
usually kept in his house nowhere appears, but it is not sur-
prising under such circumstances that the march should have
thoroughly terrified the citizens of Pittsburg and quenched all
thirst for opposition in that quarter.
Mr. Gallatin did not attend the meeting at Braddock's Field ;
it was not till after that meeting that the serious nature of the
disturbances first became evident to him. What had been riot
was now become rebellion. He rapidly woke to the gravity of
the occasion when disorder spread on every side and even Fay-
ette was invaded by riotous parties of armed men. A liberty-
pole was raised, and when he asked its meaning he was told it
was to show they were for liberty ; he replied by expressing the
wish that they would not behave like a mob, and was met by the
pointed inquiry whether he had heard of the resolves in West-
moreland that if any one called the people a mob he should be
tarred and feathered. 1 Unlike many of the friends of order, he
felt no doubts in regard to the propriety of sending delegates to
the coming assembly at Parkinson's Ferry, and, feeling that
Fayette would inevitably be drawn into the general flame unless
measures were promptly taken to prevent it, he offered to serve
as a delegate himself, and was elected. All the friends of order
did not act with the same decision. The meeting at Braddock's
Field was intended to control the elections to the meeting at
Parkinson's Ferry, and to a considerable extent it really had
this effect. The peace party was overawed by it. The rioters
extended their operations; chose delegates from all townships
where they were a majority, and from a number where they were
not, and made an appearance of election in some places where
no election was held. The peace party hesitated to the last
whether to send delegates at all.
When the 14th of August came, all the principal actors were
1 Gallatin 's Deposition.
1794. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 131
on the spot, Bradford, Marshall, Brackenridge, Findley, and
Gallatin, 226 delegates in all, of whom 93 from Washington,
43 from Alleghany, 49 from "Westmoreland, and 33 from Fay-
ette, 2 from Bedford, 5 from Ohio County in Virginia, and about
the same number of spectators. They were assembled in a grove
overlooking the Monongahela. Marshall came to Gallatin before
the meeting was organized, and showed him the resolutions which
he intended to move, intimating at the same time that he wished
Mr. Gallatin to act as secretary. Mr. Gallatin told him that he
highly disapproved the resolutions, and had come to oppose both
him and Bradford, therefore did not wish to serve. Marshall
seemed to waver ; but soon the people met, and Edward Cook,
who had presided at Braddock's Field, was chosen chairman,
with Gallatin for secretary.
Bradford opened the debate by a speech in which, beginning
with a history of the movement, he read the original intercepted
letters, and stated the object of the present meeting as being
to deliberate on the mode in which the common cause was to
be effectuated ; he closed by pronouncing the terms of his own
policy, which were to purchase or procure arms and ammunition,
to subscribe money, to raise volunteers or draft militia, and to
appoint committees to have the superintendence of those depart-
ments. Marshall supported Bradford, and moved his resolutions,
which were at once taken into consideration. The first denounced
the practice of taking citizens to great distances for trial, and this
resolution was put to vote and carried without opposition. The
second appointed a committee of public safety " to call forth the
resources of the western country to repel any hostile attempt that
may be made against the rights of the citizens or of the body of the
people." It was dexterously drawn. It did not call for a direct
approval of the previous acts of rebellion, but, by assuming their
legality and organizing resistance to the government on that
assumption, it committed the meeting to an act of treason. 1
Mr. Gallatin immediately rose, and, throwing aside all tactical
manoeuvres, met the issue flatly in face. " What reason," said he,
1 See the resolutions as proposed and as ultimately adopted, in Appendix
to Gallatin's speech on the insurrection. Writings, iit. 56.
132 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1794.
" have we to suppose that hostile attempts will be made against
our rights ? and why, therefore, prepare to resist them ? Riots
have taken place which may be the subject of judicial cognizance,
but we are not to suppose hostility on the part of the general
government; the exertions of government on the citizens in
support of the laws are coercion and not hostility ; it is not un-
derstood that a regular army is coming, and militia of the United
States cannot be supposed hostile to the western country. 77 1 He
closed by moving that the resolutions should be referred to a
committee, and that nothing should be done before it was known
what the government would do*
Mr. Gallatin's speech met the assumption that resistance to the
excise was legal by a contrary assumption, without argument,
that it was illegal, and thus threatened to force a discussion of
the point of which both sides were afraid. Mr. Gallatin him-
self believed that the resolutions would then have been adopted
if put to a vote; the majority, even if disposed to peace, had
not the courage to act. Now was the time for Brackenridge to
have thrown off his elaborate web of double-dealing and with his
utmost strength to have supported Gallatin's lead ; but Brack-
enridge's nerves failed him. "I respected the courage of the
secretary in meeting the resolution," he says, 2 " but I was alarmed
at the idea of any discussion of the principle." " I affected to
oppose the secretary, and thought it might not be amiss to have
the resolution, though softened in terms." Nevertheless, the
easential point was carried; Marshall withdrew the resolution, and
a compromise was made by referring everything to a committee
of sixty, with power to call a new meeting of the people.
The third and fourth resolutions required no special opposi-
tion. The fifth pledged the people to the support of the laws,
except the excise law and the taking citizens out of their counties
for trial. Gallatin attacked this exception, and succeeded in
having it expunged. A debate then followed on the adoption of
the amended resolution, which was supported by both Bracken-
1 Brackenridge, Incidents, vol. i. p. 90; Findley, p. 144; Gallatin's
Deposition.
2 Incidents, vol. i. p. 90.
1794. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 133
ridge and Gallatin, and an incident said to have occurred in the
course of the latter's speech is thus related by Mr. Brackenridge : l
" Mr. Gallatin supported the necessity of the resolution, with
a view to the establishment of the laws and the conservation of
the peace. Though he did not venture to touch on the resist-
ance to the marshal or the expulsion of the proscribed, yet he
strongly arraigned the destruction of property ; the burning of
the barn of Kirkpatrick, for instance. 'What!' said a fiery
fellow in the committee, ' do you blame that ?' The secretary
found himself embarrassed ; he paused for a moment. ' If you
had burned him in it/ said he, * it might have been something ;
but the barn had done no harm,' 'Ay, ay/ said the man, 'that
is right enough/ I admired the presence of mind of Gallatin,
and give the incident as a proof of the delicacy necessary to
manage the people on that occasionu"
Opposite this passage on the margin of the page, in Mr.
Gallatin's copy of this book, is written in pencil the following
note, in his hand :
" Totally false. It is what B. would have said in my place.
The fellow said, 'It was well done.' I replied instantly, 'No;
it was not well done/ and I continued to deprecate in the most
forcible terms every act of violence. For I had quoted the
burning of this house as one of the worst."
The result of the first day's deliberation was therefore a sub-
stantial success for the peace party, not so much from what they
succeeded in effecting as from the fact that they had obtained
energetic leadership and the efficiency which comes from confi-
dence in themselves. The resolutions were finally referred to a
committee of four, Gallatin, Bradford, Herman Husbands, and
Brackenridge; a curious party in which Brackenridge must have
had a chance to lay up much material for future humor, Brad-
ford being an utterly hollow demagogue, Husbands a religious
lunatic, and Brackenridge himself a professional jester. 2
1 Incidents, vol. i. p. 91.
2 Badollet, who was at the same time a terribly severe critic of himself
and of others, had little patience with Judge Brackenridge, who was per-
haps the first, and not far from being the best, of American humorists.
Badollet's own sense of humor seems not to have been acute, to judge
134 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1794.
This committee, or rather Gallatin and Bradford, the next
morning remodelled the resolutions. The only point on which
Bradford insisted was that the standing committee to which all
business was now to be committed should have power, " in case
of any sudden emergency, to take such temporary measures as
they may think necessary."
The next point with Gallatin was to get the meeting dissolved.
The Peace commissioners were expected soon to arrive on the
opposite bank of the river, and President Washington's procla-
mation calling out the militia to suppress the insurrection had
already been received. In the general tendency of things the
army could hardly fail to decide the contest in favor of the peace
party by the mere moral effect of its advance ; but at the moment
the news excited and exasperated the violent, who were a very
large proportion, if not a majority, of the meeting. The com-
mittee of sixty was chosen, one from each township, from whom
another committee of twelve was selected to confer with the Fed-
eral and State commissioners. The final struggle came upon
the question whether the meeting should be now dissolved, or
should wait for a report from their committee of twelve after
from the following extract from one of his letters to Gallatin, dated 13th
February, 1790 :
" J'ai vu Brakenridge a Cat-fish ou j'ai ete a 1'occasion d'Archey, et je
puis declarer en conscience que de mes jours je n'ai vu,un si complet im-
pertinent fat. Peut-etre ne seras-tu pas fache de lire une partie d'uhe con-
versation qu'il eut devant moi. Un inconnu (a moi du moins) voulant le
faire parler, a ce que je suppose, lui adresse ainsi la parole :
"N. I think, Mr. Brakenridge, you are one of the happiest men in the
world.
" B. Yes, sir ; nothing disturbs me. I can declare that I never feel a
single moment of discontent, but laugh at everything.
"N. I believe so, sir; but your humor . . .
" B. Oh, sir, truly inexhaustible ; yes, truly inexhaustible, et tout en
disant ces mots avec complaisance il tirait ses manchettes et son jabot,
caressait son visage de sa main, et souriait en Narcisse, truly inexhaust-
ible. Sir, I could set down and write a piece of humor for fifty-seven years
without being the least exhausted. I have just now two compositions
agoing. . . .
" N. Happy turn of mind !
" B. You may say that, sir. I enjoy a truly inexhaustible richness and
strength of mind, &c , &c."
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 135
a conference with the commissioners of the government. Both
Gallatin and Brackenridge exerted themselves very much in
carrying this point, and after great difficulty succeeded in getting
a dissolution. 1
The result of the Parkinson's Ferry meeting was practically
to break the power of the insurrectionary party. Bradford and
his friends, instead of carrying the whole country with them,
were checked, outmano3iivred, and lost their prestige at the mo-
ment when the calling out of a Federal army made their cause
quite desperate; nevertheless, owing to the fact that the com-
mittee of sixty was chosen by the meeting, and therefore was of
doubtful complexion, much remained to be done in order to
bring about complete submission ; above all, time was needed,
and the government could not allow time, owing to the military
necessity of immediate action.
On the 20th August the committee of twelve held their con-
ference with the government commissioners at Pittsburg. All
except Bradford favored submission and acceptance of the very
liberal terms offered by the government. The committee of sixty
was called together at Redstone Old Fort (Brownsville) on the
28th. It was a nervous moment. The committee itself was in
doubt, and the desperate party was encouraged by the accidental
presence of sixty or seventy riflemen, whose threatening attitude
very nearly put Brackenridge's nerves to a fatal test; the simple
candor with which he relates how Gallatin held him up and car-
ried him through the trial is very honorable to his character. 2
The committee met; Bradford attempted to drive it into an
immediate decision and rejection of the terms, and it was with
difficulty that a postponement till the next day was obtained.
Such was the alarm among the twelve conferees that Gallatin's
determination to make the effort, cost what it might, seems to
have been the final reason which decided them to support their
1 "In the report of the commissioners of the United States to the Presi
dent, it was most erroneously stated that I wanted the committee, viz., the
Parkinson's Ferry members, to remain till the twelve commissioners or
conferees should report. The reverse was the fact." Marginal note by
Mr. Gallatin on pp. 98-99 of Brackenridge 's Incidents.
2 Incidents, vol. i. p. 111.
136 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1794.
own report ;* even then they only ventured to propose half of
it ; they made their struggle on the question of accepting the gov-
ernment proposals, not on that of submission. The next morn-
ing Gallatin took the lead ; no one else had the courage. " The
committee having convened, with a formidable gallery, as the day
before, Gallatin addressed the chair in a speech of some hours.
It was a piece of perfect eloquence, and was heard with attention
and without disturbance." 2 This is all that is known of what
was, perhaps, Mr. Gallatin's greatest effort. Brackenridge fol-
lowed, and this time spoke with decision, notwithstanding his
alarm. Then Bradford rose and vehemently challenged the full
force of the alternative which Gallatin and Brackenridge had
described ; he advocated the creation of an independent govern-
ment and war on the United States. James Edgar followed,
with a strong appeal in favor of the report. William Findley,
who should have been a good judge, says, " I had never heard
speeches that I more ardently desired to see in print than those
delivered on this occasion. They would not only be valuable
on account of the oratory and information displayed in all the
three, and especially in Gallatin's, who opened the way, but they
would also have been the best history of the spirit and the mis-
takes which then actuated men's minds. But copies of them
could not be procured. They were delivered without any pre-
vious preparation other than a complete knowledge of the actual
state of things and of human nature when in similar circum-
stances. This knowledge, and the importance of the occasion on
which it was exhibited, produced such ingenuity of reasoning and
energy of expression as never perhaps had been exhibited by the
same orators before."
Bradford's power was not yet quite broken; even on the
frontiers human nature is timid, and a generation which was
shuddering at the atrocities of Robespierre might not unreason-
ably shrink from the possibilities of David Bradford. Gallatin
pressed a vote, but could not induce the committee to take it;
1 Findley, History of the Insurrection, p. 122 ; Brackenridge, Incidents,
vol. i. p. 111.
2 Brackenridge, Incidents, vol. i. p. 112.
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 137
the twelve conferees alone supported him. He then proposed
an informal vote, and still the sixty hesitated. At last a member
suggested that Mr. Gallatin, as secretary, should write the words
" yea" and " nay" on sixty scraps of paper, and, after distrib-
uting them among the members, should collect the votes in a
hat. This expedient was, of course, highly satisfactory to Gal-
latin, and Bradford could not openly oppose. It was adopted,
and, with these precautions, the vote was taken, each man, of his
own accord, carefully concealing his ballot and destroying that
part of the paper on which was the yea or nay not voted.
The tickets were taken out of the hat and counted ; there
were 34 yeas and 23 nays ; Gallatin had won the battle. The
galleries grumbled ; the minority were enraged ; Bradford's face
fell and his courage sank. Outwardly the public expressed
dissatisfaction at the result. Brackenridge's terrors became more
acute than ever, and not without reason, for had Bradford chosen
now to appeal to force, he might have cost the majority their
lives; men enough were at the meeting ready to follow him
blindly, but either his nerves failed him or he had sense to see
the folly of the act ; he allowed the meeting to adjourn, and he
himself went home, leaving his party without a head and dis-
solved into mere individual grumblers.
Throughout this meeting, Mr. Gallatin was in personal danger
and knew it. Any irresponsible, drunken frontiersman held the
lives of his opponents in his hands ; a word from Bradford, the
old, personal enemy of Gallatin, would have sent scores of bullets
at his rival. Doubtless Mr. Gallatin believed David Bradford
to be " an empty drum," deficient in courage as in understanding,
and on that belief he risked his whole venture ; but it was a
critical experiment, not so much for the western country, which
had now little to fear from violence, but for the obnoxious
leader, who, by common consent, was held by friends and enemies
responsible for the submission of the people to the law.
From the time of this meeting, and the vote of 34 to 23 at
Redstone Old Fort, the situation entirely changed and a new class
of difficulties and dangers arose ; it was no longer the insurgents
who were alarming, but the government. As Bradford on one
side was formally giving in his submission, and, on finding that
138 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1794.
his speech at Redstone had put him outside the amnesty, made
a rapid and narrow escape down the Ohio to Louisiana, on the
other side an army of fifteen thousand men was approaching,
and the conditions of proffered amnesty could not be fulfilled
for lack of time. Before the terms were fixed between the com-
mittee of twelve and the government commissioners, three days
had passed; to print and prepare the forms of submission to
be signed by the people took two days more. The 4th Septem-
ber arrived before these preliminaries were completed; the llth
September was the day on which the people were to sign. No
extension of time was possible. In consequence there was only
a partial adhesion to the amnesty, and among those excluded were
large numbers of persons who refused or neglected to sign on the
ground that they had been in no way concerned in the insurrection
and needed no pardon.
Gallatin was active in procuring the adhesion of the citizens
of Fayette, and the address he then drafted for a meeting on
September 10 of the township committees of that county is to
be found in his printed works. 1 There, indeed, the danger was
slight, because of all the western counties Fayette had been the
least disturbed ; yet there, too, numbers were technically at the
mercy of the army and the law. Mr. Gallatin was, therefore,
of opinion that as the rebellion was completely broken, and the
submissions made on the llth September, if not universal, were
so general and had been followed by such prostration among the
violent party as to preclude the chance of resistance, a further
advance of the army was inadvisable. He drafted a letter on
the part of the Fayette townships committee to the governor, on
the 17th September, representing this view of the case. 2 The
President, however, acting on the report of the government com-
missioners, decided otherwise, and the order for marching was
issued on the 25th September.
The news of the riots and disturbances of July had caused
prompt action on the part of the general government for the res-
toration of order, and on the 7th August, President Washington
had issued a proclamation calling out the militia of Pennsylvania,
1 Writings, vol. i. p. 4. 2 Ibid, p. 9.
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 139
New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. The 1st September
was the time fixed for the insurgents to disperse, and active
preparations were made for moving the militia when ordered.
Naturally the feeling predominant in the army was one of
violent irritation, and, as strict discipline was hardly to be ex-
pected in a hastily-raised militia force, there was reason to fear
that the western country would suffer more severely from the
army than from the rebels. The arrival of the President and
of Secretary Hamilton, however, and their persistent eiforts to
repress this feeling and to maintain strict discipline among the
troops, greatly diminished the danger, and the army ultimately
completed its march, occupied Pittsburg, and effected a number
of arrests without seriously harassing the inhabitants. Never-
theless there was, perhaps inevitably, more or less injustice done
to individuals, and, as is usual in such cases, the feeling of the
army ran highest against the least offending parties. Mr. Gallatiu
was one of the most obnoxious, on the ground that he had been a
prominent leader of opposition to the excise law and responsible
for the violence resulting from that opposition. In this there
was nothing surprising; Gallatin was unknown to the great
mass of the troops, and the victorious party in politics cannot
be expected to do entire justice to its opponents. So far as
the President was concerned, no one has ever found the smallest
matter to blame in his bearing ; the only prominent person con-
nected with the government whose conduct roused any bitterness
of feeling was the Secretary of the Treasury. It was asserted,
and may be believed, that Mr. Hamilton, who in Pittsburg
and other places conducted the examination into the conduct
of individuals, showed a marked desire to find evidence in-
criminating Gallatin. In what official character Mr. Hamilton
assumed the duty of examiner, which seems to have properly
belonged to the judicial authorities, does not appear; Findley,
however, asserts that certain gentlemen, whose names he gives,
were strictly examined as witnesses against Gallatin, urged to
testify that Gallatin had expressed himself in a treasonable man-
ner at Parkinson's Ferry, and when they denied having heard
1 Findley, History, &c., p. 240.
140 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1794.
such expressions, the Secretary asserted that he had sufficient
proofs of them already. It is not impossible that Mr. Hamilton
really suspected Mr. Gallatin of tampering with the insurgents,
and really said that " he was a foreigner, and therefore not to
be trusted;" 1 it is not impossible that he thought himself in any
case called upon to probe the matter to the bottom; and finally, it
is not impossible that he foresaw the advantages his party would
gain by overthrowing Mr. Gallatin's popularity. However this
may be, the Secretary gave no public expression to his suspicions
or his thoughts, and Gallatin was in no way molested or annoyed.
The regular autumnal election took place in Pennsylvania on
the 14th October. The army had not then arrived, but there
was no longer any idea of resistance or any sign of organization
against the enforcement of all the laws. More than a month
had passed since order had been restored; even Bradford had
submitted, and he and the ottuer most deeply implicated insur-
gents were now flying for their lives. On the 2d October
another meeting of the committee had been held at Parkinson's
Ferry, and unanimously agreed to resolutions affirming the gen-
eral submission and explaining why the signatures of submission
had not been universal; on the day of election itself written
assurances of submission were universally signed throughout the
country ; but the most remarkable proof of the complete triumph
of the peace party was found in the elections themselves.
Members of Congress were to be chosen, as well as members
of the State Legislature. Mr. Gallatin was, as a matter of
course, sent back to his old seat in the Assembly from his own
county of Fayette. In the neighboring Congressional district,
comprising the counties of Washington and Alleghany and the
whole country from Lake Erie to the Virginia line, there was
some difficulty and perhaps some misunderstanding in regard to
the selection of a candidate. Very suddenly, and without pre-
vious consultation, indeed without even his own knowledge, and
only about three days before election, Mr. Gallatin's name was
introduced. The result was that he was chosen over Judge
Brackenridge, who stood second on the poll, while the candi-
1 Findley, p. 243.
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801.
date of the insurgents, who had received Bradford's support,
was lowest among four. By a curious reverse of fortune Mr.
Gallatin suddenly became the representative not of his own
county of Fayette, but of that very county of Washington whose
citizens, only a few weeks before, had been to all appearance
violently hostile to him and to his whole course of action. This
spontaneous popular choice was owing to the fact that Mr. Gal-
latin was considered by friend and foe as the embodiment of
the principle of law and order, and, rightly or wrongly, it was
believed that to his courage and character the preservation of
peace was due. It was one more evidence that the true majority
had at last found its tongue.
This restoration of Mr. Gallatin to Congress was by no means
pleasing to Mr. Hamilton, who, as already mentioned, on his
arrival soon afterwards at Pittsburg expressed himself in strong
terms in regard to the choice. From the party point of view it
was, in fact, a very undesirable result of the insurrection, but
there is no reason to suppose that the people in making it cast
away a single thought on the question of party. They chose
Mr. Gallatin because he represented order.
The 1st November, 1794, had already arrived before the mili-
tary movements were quite completed. The army had then
reached Fayette, and Mr. Gallatin, after having done all in his
power to convince the government that the advance was unneces-
sary, set off with his wife to New York, and, leaving her with
her family, returned to take his seat in the Assembly at Phila-
delphia. Here again he had to meet a contested election. A
petition from citizens of Washington County was presented,
averring that they had deemed it impossible to vote, and had
not voted, at the late election, owing to the state of the country,
and praying that the county be declared to have been in insur-
rection at the time, and the election void. The debate on this
subject lasted till January 9, 1795, when a resolution was adopted
to the desired effect. In the course of this debate Mr. Gallatin
made the first speech he had yet printed, which will be found in
his collected works. 1 Like all his writings, it is a plain, concise,
1 Writings, vol. iii. pp. 3-52.
142 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATI^". 1794.
clear statement of facts and argument, extremely well done, but
not remarkable for rhetorical show, and effective merely because,
or so far as, it convinces. He rarely used hard language under
any provocation, and this speech, like all his other speeches, is
quite free from invective and personality; but, although his
method was one of persuasion rather than of compulsion, he
always spoke with boldness, and some of the passages in this
argument grated harshly on Federalist ears.
The decision of the Pennsylvania Legislature, " that the elec-
tions held during the late insurrection . . . were unconstitutional,
and are hereby declared void," was always regarded by him as
itself in clear violation of the constitution, but for his personal
interests a most fortunate circumstance. His opponents were,
in fact, by these tactics giving him a prodigious hold upon his
party; he had the unusual good fortune of being twice made
the martyr of a mere political persecution. This second attempt
obviously foreshadowed a third, for if the election to the State
Legislature was unconstitutional, that to Congress was equally so,
and there was no object in breaking one without breaking the
other ; but the action of the western country rendered the folly
of such a decision too obvious for imitation. All the ejected
members except one, who declined, were re-elected, and Mr. Gal-
latin took his seat a second time on the 14th February, 1795, not
to be again disturbed. During this second part of the session he
seems to have been chiefly occupied with his bill in regard to
the school system ; but he closed his service in the State Legis-
lature on the 12th of March, when other matters pressed on his
attention.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 3d December, 1794.
... I arrived here without any accident and have already
seen several of my friends. The Assembly met yesterday, but
my colleague having neglected to take down the return of our
election we must wait as spectators till it comes, which will not
be before a fortnight, I believe. ... I saw Dallas yesterday.
Poor fellow had a most disagreeable campaign of it. He says
the spirits, I call it the madness, of the Philadelphia Gentlemen
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 143
Corps was beyond conception before the arrival of the President.
He saw a list (handed about through the army by officers, nay,
by a general officer) of the names of those persons who were to
be destroyed at all events, and you may easily guess my own was
one of the most conspicuous. Being one day at table with sun-
dry officers, and having expressed his opinion that the army were
going only to support the civil authority and not to do any mili-
tary execution, one of them (Dallas did not tell me his name, but
I am told it was one Ross, of Lancaster, aide-de-camp to Mifflin)
half drew a dagger he wore instead of a sword, and swore any
man who uttered such sentiments ought to be dagged. The
President, however, on his arrival, and afterwards Hamilton,
took uncommon pains to change the sentiments, and at last it
became fashionable to adopt, or at least to express, sentiments
similar to those inculcated by them. . . .
7th December, 1794.
. . . You want me to leave politics, but I guess I need not
take much pains to attain that object, for politics seem disposed
to leave me. A very serious attempt is made to deprive me of
my seat in next Congress. The intention is to try to induce the
Legislature of this State either to vacate the seats of the mem-
bers for the counties of Alleghany and Washington, or to pass a
law to declare the whole election both for Congress and Assem-
bly in that district to be null and void, and to appoint another
day for holding the same. If they fail in that they will pursue
the thing before Congress. A petition was accordingly presented
to the Legislature last Friday, signed by thirty-four persons,
calling themselves peaceable inhabitants of Washington County,
and requesting the Assembly to declare the district to have been
in a state of insurrection at the time of the election, and to vacate
the same. John Hoge, who, however, has not signed it, is the
ostensible character who has offered it to be signed, but he did
not draw it, and I know the business originated in the army. It
is couched in the most indecent language against all the members
elect from that district. Did those poor people know how little
they torment me by tormenting themselves, I guess they would
not be so anxious to raise a second persecution against me.
144 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1794.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET, GREENSBURG, WASHINGTON Co.
PHILADELPHIA, 10th January, 1795.
. . . Savary writes you on the fate of our elections. One
thing only I wish and I must insist upon. If the same mem-
bers are not re-elected, the people here will undoubtedly say
that our last elections were not fair and that the people were in
a state of insurrection. The only danger I can foresee arises
from your district. You have been ill-treated; you have no
member now, and every engine will now be set at work to mis-
lead you by your very opponents. Fall not in the snare ; take up
nobody from your own district ; re-elect unanimously the same
members, whether they be your favorites or not. It is necessary
for the sake of our general character. . . .
Meanwhile, a new scheme was brought to Mr. Gallatin's atten-
tion. The French revolution produced a convulsion in Geneva.
Large numbers of the Genevese emigrated or thought of emigra-
tion. Mr. Gallatin was consulted and made a plan for a joint-
stock company, to form a settlement by immigration from Geneva.
The expected immigration never came, but this scheme ended in
an unforeseen way ; Mr. Gallatin joined one or two of the origi-
nators of the plan in creating another joint-stock company, and
his mind was long busied with its affairs.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, 29th December, 1794.
Mon bon ami, si je t'ecris cette lettre en fran9ais ce n'est pas
qu'elle contienne des secrets d'6tat, car je n'en ai point a te dire,
mais c'est qu'elle renferme plusieurs choses particulieres et qui
jusqu'a nouvel ordre doivent rester entre toi et moi absolument.
. . . Le retour de mon election est ou perdu ou n'a jamais e*te"
envoye, en sorte que je n'ai pas encore pu prendre siege dans
P Assembled, et demain 1'on va decider si Felection de nos quatre
comtes sera cassee ou non, sans que je puisse prendre part aux
de*bats. . . . Ci-inclus tu trouveras un abridge* de la dernire
revolution de Genfcve, 4crit par D'Yvernois qui est a Londres.
1794. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 145
Geneve est dans la situation la plus triste. Affam6 e"galement
par les Fra^ais et par les Suisses, de"chir6 par des convulsions
sanguinaires auxquelles Pesprit national paraissait si oppose", une
grande partie de ses habitants cherchent, et beaucoup sont obliges
de quitter ses murs. Plusieurs tournent leurs yeux vers PAme*-
rique et quelques-uns sont deja arrives. D'Yvernois avait forme
le plan de transplanter toute Puniversite de Geneve ici, et il m'a
ecrit sur cet objet ainsi qu'a Mr. Jeiferson et a Mr. Adams; mais
il supposait qu'on pourrait obtenir des tats-Unis pour cet objet
15,000 dollars de revenu, ce qui est impraticable ; et il comptait
associer a ce projet une compagnie de terres par actions avec un
capital de 3 a 400,000 piastres. I>'un autre c6te" les Genevois
arrives ici cherchaient tant pour eux que pour ceux qui devaient
les suivre quelque manire de s'e"tablir, de devenir fermiers, &c.
Us se sont adresses a moi, et d'apre\s les lettres de D' Yvernois et les
conversations que les nouveaux arrives et moi avons eues ensem-
ble, nous avons forme" un plan d'e"tablissement et une soci&4 dans
laquelle je t'ai reserve" une part. En voici les fondements. . . .
Tu sais bien que je n'ai jamais encourage" personne except^ toi a
venir en Ame"rique de peur qu'ils n'y trouvassent des regrets,
mais les temps ont change". II faut que beaucoup de Genevois
e"migrent et un grand nombre vont venir en Ame"rique. J'ai
trouve" autant de plaisir que c'etait de mon devoir de tacher de
leur oifrir le plan qui m'a paru devoir leur convenir le mieux en
arrivant. En ler lieu j'ai cru qu'il serait essentiel qu'ils fussent
r^unis, non-seulement pour pouvoir s'entr'aider, mais aussi afin
d^tre a m^me de retrouver leurs moeurs, leurs habitudes et me'me
leurs amusements de Geneve. 2e, que, comme il y aurait parmi
les Emigrants bien des artisans, hommes de lettres, &c., et qu'il
e"tait bon d'ailleurs d'avoir plus d'une ressource, il conviendrait
de former une ville ou village dans le centre d'un corps de terres
qu'on acheterait pour cela, en sorte qu'on put exercer une indus-
trie de ville ou de campagne suivant les gouts et les talents. Ci-
inclus tu trouveras deux papiers que je viens de retrouver et qui
renferment une esquisse des premieres ide"es que j'avais jete"es sur
les papiers sur ce sujet, et le brouillon de notre plan d^association
qui consiste de 150 actions de 800 piastres chacune, dont nous
Genevois ici, savoir Odier, Fazzi, deux Cazenove, Cheriot, Bour-
10
146 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1795.
dillon, Duby, Couronne, toi et moi avons pris 25 ; nous en offrons
25 autres ici a des Ame"ricains et je les ai deja presque toutes dis-
tributes ; je crois mdme que je pourrais distribuer cent de plus ici
sur-le-champ si je voulais; et nous avons envoy e" les cent autres
a Geneve, en Suisse, et a D'Yvernois pour les Genevois qui vou-
dront y prendre part. . . . En attendant une re"ponse de Geneve
nous comptons examiner les terres et peut-tre me'me en acheter,
si nous le croyons ne*cessaire. II est entendu que c'est a toi et a
moi a faire cet examen, car c'est surtout a nous que s'en rapportent
tant les e'migre's que ceux qui doivent les suivre. J'ai jete" les
yeux en general sur la partie nord-est de la Pennsilvanie on sur
la partie de New York qui la joint. Jette les yeux sur la carte
et trouve Stockport sur la Delaware et Harmony tout pres de la
sitr la Susqtiehannah joignant presque Pe"tat de New York. Des
gens qui veulent s'inte"resser a la chose m'offrent le corps de terres
compris entre le Big Bend de la Susquehannah joignant Harmony
et la ligne de New York; mais il faut d'abord examiner. Si on
casse nos elections, j'emploierai a ce travail cet hiver ; sinon, c'est
sur toi que nous comptons, bien entendu que quoique ce ne fut
pas aussi ne"cessaire, il me serait bien plus agreable que tu pusses
aller avec moi si j'allais moi-me"me. . . .
In April, 1795, he made an expedition through New York to
examine lands with a view to purchase for the projected Geneva
settlement. This expedition brought him at last to Philadelphia,
where he was detained till August by the trials of the insurgents
and by the business of his various joint-stock schemes.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
CATSKILL LANDING, 22d April, 1795.
. . . The more I see of this State the better I like Pennsyl-
vania. It may be prejudice, or habit, or whatever you please,
but there are some things in the western country which contrib-
ute to my happiness, and which I do not find here. Amongst
other things which displease me here I may mention, in the first
place, family influence. In Pennsylvania not only we have neither
Livingstones nor Rensselaers, but from the suburbs of Philadel-
1795. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 147
phia to the banks of the Ohio I do not know a single family that
has any extensive influence. An equal distribution of property
has rendered every individual independent, and there is amongst
us true and real equality. In the next place, the lands on the
western side of the river are far inferior in quality to those of
Pennsylvania, and in the third place, provisions bear the same
price as they do in New York, whence arises a real disadvantage
for persons wishing to buy land ; for the farmers will sell the
land in proportion to the price they can get for their produce,
and that price being at present quite extravagant and above the
average and common one, the consequence is that the supposed
value of land is also much greater. In a word, as I am lazy I
like a country where living is cheap, and as I am poor I like a
country where no person is very rich. . . .
PHILADELPHIA, May 6, 1795.
... I arrived here yesterday, pretty much jolted by the
wagon, and went to bed in the afternoon, so that I saw nobody
till this morning. . . . Hardly had I walked ten minutes in the
streets this morning before I was summoned as a witness before
the grand jury on the part of government, and must appear there
in a few minutes. . . .
8th May, 1796.
... I wrote you that I was summoned on behalf of gov-
ernment. I am obliged to attend every day at court, but have
not yet been called upon. I am told the bill upon which I am
to be examined is not yet filled. I guess it is against Colonel
Gaddis ; but I have, so far as I can recollect, nothing to say
which in my opinion can hurt him. You remember that Gaddis
is the man who gave an affidavit to Lee against me. He came
yesterday to me to inform me that he meant to have me sum-
moned in his favor, as he thought my testimony must get him
discharged. I did not speak to him about his affidavit, nor he
to me, but he had a guilty look. I guess the man was fright-
ened, and now feels disappointed in his hope that his accusing
me would discharge him. The petty jury consists of twelve
from each of the counties of Fayette, Washington, and Alle-
ghany, and twelve from Northumberland, but none from West-
148 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL AT IN. 1795.
moreland. Your friend Sproat is one of them, Hoge another.
All from Fayette supposed to have been always friendly to the
excise, but I think in general good characters. All those of
any note known to have been in general of different politics
with us. ...
12th May, 1795.
. . . The two bills for treason against Mr. Corbly and Mr.
Gaddis have been returned ignoramus by the grand jury ; but
there are two bills found against them for misdemeanor, against
the first for some expressions, against the last for having been
concerned in raising the liberty-pole in Union town. I am a
witness in both cases, in the case of Mr. Corbly altogether in
his favor; in the other case my evidence will about balance
itself. . . . The grand jury have not yet finished their inquiry,
but will conclude it this morning. They have found twenty-
two bills for treason. Some of those against whom bills were
found are not here ; but I believe fourteen are in jail and will
be tried. I do not know one of them. John Hamilton, Sedg-
wick, and Crawford, whom Judge Peters would not admit to
bail, and who were released little before we left town, after
having been dragged three hundred miles and being in jail
three months, are altogether cleared, the grand jury not having
even found bills for misdemeanor against them. After the
strictest inquiry the attorney-general could send to the grand
jury bills only against two inhabitants of Fayette, to wit, Gaddis
and one Mounts ; he sent two against each of them, one for
treason and one for misdemeanor. In the case of Mounts, who
has been in jail more than five months, and who was not ad-
mitted to give bail, although the best security was offered, not a
shadow of proof appeared, although the county was ransacked
for witnesses,, and both bills were found ignoramus. And it is
proper to observe that the grand jury, who are respectable, were,
however, all taken from Philadelphia and its neighborhood, and,
with only one or two exceptions, out of one party, so that they
cannot be suspected of partiality. In the case of Gaddis the
bill for treason was returned ignoramus; the bill for misde-
meanor was found. So that the whole insurrection of Fayette
County amounts to one man accused of misdemeanor for raising
1795. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 149
a pole. I can form no guess as to the fate of the prisoners who
are to be tried for treason, and whether, in case any are found
guilty, government mean to put any to death. There is not a
single man of influence or consequence amongst them, which
makes me hope they may be pardoned. There is one, however,
who is said to be Tom the Tinker ; he is a New England man,
who was concerned in Shay's insurrection, but it is asserted that
he signed the amnesty. I have had nothing but that business
in my head since I have been kere, and can write about nothing
else. . . .
25th May, 1795.
I believe, my dear little wife, that I will not be able to see
thee till next week, for the trials go on but very slowly ; there
has been but one since my last letter, and there are nine more
for high treason, besides misdemeanors. I am sorry to add that
the man who was tried was found guilty of high treason. He
had a very good and favorable jury, six of them from Fayette;
for, although he is from Westmoreland County, the fact was
committed in Fayette. . . . There is no doubt of the man
[Philip Vigel] being guilty in a legal sense of levying war
against the United States, which was the crime charged to him.
But he is certainly an object of pity more than of punishment,
at least when we consider that death is the punishment, for he
is a rough, ignorant German, who knew very well he was com-
mitting a riot, and he ought to have been punished for it, but
who had certainly no idea that it amounted to levying war and
high treason. . . .
1st June, 1795.
. . . Those trials go still very slowly, only two since I wrote
to you ; the men called Curtis and Barnet, both indicted for the
attack upon and burning NeviPs house, and both acquitted ; the
first without much hesitation, as there was at least a strong pre-
sumption that he went there either to prevent mischief or at most
only as a spectator. The second was as guilty as Mitchell, who
has been condemned, but there were not sufficient legal proofs
against either. The difference in the verdict arises from the
difference of counsel employed in their respective defences, and
150 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1795
chiefly from a different choice of jury. Mitchell was very poorly
defended by Thomas, the member of Senate, who is young, un-
experienced, impudent, and self-conceited. He challenged (that
is to say, rejected, for, you know, the accused person has a right
to reject thirty-five of the jury without assigning any reason)
every inhabitant of Alleghany, and left the case to twelve
Quakers (many of them probably old Tories), on the supposition
that Quakers would condemn no person to death ; but he was
utterly mistaken. Lewis defended Barnet, made a very good
defence, and got a jury of a different complexion; the conse-
quence of which was that, although the evidence, pleadings, and
charge took up from eleven o'clock in the forenoon till three
o'clock the next morning, the jury were but fifteen minutes out
before they brought in a verdict of not guilty. Brackenridge
says that he would always choose a jury of Quakers, or at least
Episcopalians, in all common cases, such as murder, rape, etc.,
but in every possible case of insurrection, rebellion, and treason,
give him Presbyterians on the jury by all means. I believe
there is at least as much truth as wit in the saying. . . I have
drawn, at the request of the jury who convicted Philip Vigel, a
petition to the President recommending him as a proper object
of mercy ; they have all signed it, but what effect it will have
I do not know, and indeed nobody can form any conjecture
whether the persons convicted will be pardoned or not. It rests
solely with the President. . .
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
PHILADELPHIA, 20th May, 1795.
I am sorry, my dear friend, that I cannot go and meet you,
agreeable to our appointment ; but I am detained here as an evi-
dence in the case of Corbly, and of two more in behalf of the
United States, although I know nothing about any of them ex-
cept Corbly. I lend my horse to Cazenove, who goes in my
room, and who will tell you what little has passed since I saw
you on the subject of our plan. Upon the whole, I conceive that
further emigrations from Geneva will not take place at present,
and that our plan will not be accepted in Europe. We must
therefore depend merely on our own present number and strength,
1795. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 151
and this you should keep in view in the course of the examina-
tion you are now making. Our own convenience and the inter-
est of those few Genevans who now are here must alone be
consulted, and it may be a question whether under those circum-
stances it will be worth while for you and me to abandon our
present situation, and for them to encounter the hardships and
hazards of a new settlement in the rough country you are now
exploring ; whether, on the contrary, it would not be more ad-
vantageous for them to fix either in the more populous parts of
the State, or even in our own neighborhood, where they might
perhaps find resources sufficient for a few and enjoy all the
advantages resulting from our neighborhood, experience, and
influence.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 29th June, 1795.
. . . You will see in this day's Philadelphia paper an ab-
stract of the treaty ; it is pretty accurate, for I read the treaty
itself yesterday. I believe it will be printed at large within a
day or two. It exceeds everything I expected. ... As to the
form of ratification I have not seen it, but from the best infor-
mation I could collect it is different from what has been printed
in some papers. It is, I think, nearly as followeth : The Senate
consent to and advise the President to ratify the treaty upon
condition that an additional article be added to the same sus-
pending the operation of, or explaining (I do not know which),
the 12th Article, so far as relates to the intercourse with the
West India Islands. If that information is accurate, it follows
that the treaty is not ratified, because the intended additional
article, if adopted by Great Britain, is not valid until ratified by
the Senate, and unless that further ratification takes place the
whole treaty falls through. You know the vote, and that Gunn
is the man who has joined the ratifying party. I am told that
Burr made a most excellent speech. ... I think fortitude is a
quality which depends very much upon ourselves, and which we
lose more and more for want of exercising it. Indeed, I want it
now myself more than you. I have just received a letter from
one of my uncles, under date 23d January, which informs me
152 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1795.
that Miss Pictet is dangerously ill and very little hope of her
recovering. She had not yet received my and your letter. I
hope she may, for I know how much consolation it would give
her ; but I have not behaved well. . . .
Gallatin remained in Philadelphia till July 31, to form a
new company, dissolving the old one, and joining with Bour-
dillon, Cazenove, Badollet, and his brother-in-law, James W.
Nicholson, in a concern with nine or ten thousand dollars capital,
the business being a to purchase lots at the mouth of George's
Creek," " a mill or two" in the neighborhood, keeping a retail
store and perhaps two (the main business), and land speculations
on their own account and on commission. After settling the
partnership he remained to buy supplies and to get money from
Morris, who at last paid him eight hundred dollars cash and
gave a note at ninety days for a thousand. On July 31 he
started for Fayette.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 31st July, 1795.
. . . After being detained here two days by the rain, we
finally go this moment. ... I have settled with Mr. Morris.
... I have balanced all my accounts, and find that we are just
worth 7000 dollars. ... In addition to that, we have our plan-
tation, Mr. Morris's note for 3600 dollars, due next May, and
about 25,000 acres waste lands. . . .
FAYETTE COUNTY, September 6, 1795.
. . . Upon a further examination of Wilson's estate I have
purchased it at 3000, which is a high price, but then we have
the town seat (which is the nearest portage from the western
waters to the Potowmack and the Federal city, and as near as
any to Philadelphia and Baltimore) and three mill seats, one
built, another building, and the third, which is the most valuable,
will be on the river-bank, so that we will be able to load boats
for New Orleans from the mill-door, and they stand upon one of
the best, if not the very best, stream of the whole country. The
boat-yards fall also within our purchase, so that, with a good
1795. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 153
store, we will, in a great degree, command the trade of this part
of the country. I have also purchased, for about 300, all the
lots that remained unsold in the little village of Greensburgh,
on the other side of the river, opposite to our large purchase,
and 20 acres of the bottom-land adjoining it. It will become
necessary, of course, for us to increase our capital. ... As
to politics, I have thought but little about them since I have
been here. I wish the ratification of the treaty may not involve
us in a more serious situation than we have yet been in. May
I be mistaken in my fears and everything be for the best ! I
would not heretofore write to you on the subject of the dispute
between your father and Hamilton, as I knew you were not ac-
quainted with it. I feel indeed exceedingly happy that it has
terminated so, but I beg of you not to express your sentiments
of the treatment I have received with as much warmth as you
usually do, for it may tend to inflame the passions of your friends
and lead to consequences you would forever regret. It has in-
deed required all my coolness and temper, and I might perhaps
add, all my love for you, not to involve myself in some quarrel
with that gentleman or some other of that description ; but, how-
ever sure you may be that I will not myself, others may, so that
I trust that my good girl will be more cautious hereafter. . . .
PHILADELPHIA, 29th September, 1795.
... I arrived here pretty late last night. . . . Since I wrote
to you I received the account which I expected, that of the death
of my second mother. I trust, I hope at least, the comfort she
must have experienced from hearing she had not been altogether
disappointed in the hopes she had formed of me, and in the cares
she had bestowed on my youth, will in some degree have made
amends for my unpardonable neglect in writing so seldom to her.
... I expect to set off to-morrow.
The dispute between Commodore Nicholson and Mr. Hamil-
ton, to which allusion is made above, was a private one, which,
of course, had its source in politics. For a time the commodore
expected a duel, and it may well be imagined that to a gentleman
of his fighting temperament a duel was not altogether without
154 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1795.
its charm. Mr. Hamilton, however, had too much good sense
to seek this species of distinction. The dispute was amicably
settled, and probably no one was better pleased at the settlement
than Mr. Gallatin, although he had nothing to do with the
quarrel.
Mr. Gallatin's career as a member of Congress now began,
and lasted till 1801, when he became Secretary of the Treasury.
In some respects it was without a parallel in our history. That
a young foreigner, speaking with a foreign accent, laboring
under all the odium of the western insurrection, surrounded by
friendly rivals like Madison, John Nicholas, W. B. Giles, John
Randolph, and Edward Livingston ; confronted by opponents
like Fisher Ames, Judge Sewall, Harrison Gray Otis, Roger
Griswold, James A. Bayard, R. G. Harper, W. L. Smith, of
South Carolina, Samuel Dana, of Connecticut, and even John
Marshall, that such a man under such circumstances should
have at once seized the leadership of his party, and retained it
with firmer and firmer grasp down to the last moment of his
service; that he should have done this by the sheer force of
ability and character, without ostentation and without the tricks
of popularity; that he should have had his leadership admitted
without a dispute, and should have held it without a contest,
made a curious combination of triumphs. Many of the great
parliamentary leaders in America, John Randolph, Henry Clay,
Thaddeus Stevens, have maintained their supremacy by their
dogmatic and overbearing temper and their powers of sarcasm
or invective. Mr. Gallatin seldom indulged in personalities.
His temper was under almost perfect control. His power lay
in courage, honesty of purpose, and thoroughness of study.
Undoubtedly his mind was one of rare power, perhaps for this
especial purpose the most apt that America has ever seen; a
mind for which no principle was too broad and no detail too
delicate ; but it was essentially a scientific and not a political
mind. Mr. Gallatin always tended to think with an entire dis-
regard of the emotions; he could only with an effort refrain
from balancing the opposing sides of a political question. His
good fortune threw him into public life at a time when both
parties believed that principles were at stake, and when the
1795 THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 155
struggle between those who would bar the progress of democracy
and those who led that progress allowed little latitude for doubt
on either side in regard to the necessity of their acts. While
this condition of things lasted, and it lasted throughout Mr.
Gallatin's stormy Congressional career, he was an ideal party
leader, uniting boldness with caution, good temper with earnest-
ness, exact modes of thought ivith laborious investigation, to a
degree that has no parallel in American experience. Perhaps
the only famous leader of the House of Kepresentatives who
could stand comparison with Mr. Gallatin for the combina-
tion of capacities, each carried to uniform excellence, was Mr.
Madison; and it was precisely Mr. Madison whom Gallatin
supplanted.
On the subject of his Congressional service Mr. Gallatin left
two fragmentary memoranda, which may best find place here :
"As both that body [Congress] and the State Legislature sat
in Philadelphia, owing also to my short attendance in the United
States Senate and my defence of my seat, I was as well known
to the members of Congress as their own colleagues, and at once
took my stand in that Assembly. The first great debate in
which we were engaged was that on the British treaty ; and my
speech, or rather two speeches, on the constitutional powers of
the House, miserably reported and curtailed by B. F. Bache
were, whether I was right or wrong, universally considered as
the best on either side. I think that of Mr. Madison superior
and more comprehensive, but for this very reason (compre-
hensiveness) less impressive than mine. Griswold's reply was
thought the best; in my opinion it was that of Goodrich, though
this was deficient in perspicuity. Both, however, were second-
rate. The most brilliant and eloquent speech was undoubtedly
that of Mr. Ames; but it was delivered in reference to the
expediency of making the appropriations, and treated but inci-
dentally of the constitutional question. I may here say that
though there were, during my six years of Congressional service,
many clever men in the Federal party in the House (Griswold,
Bayard, Harper, Otis, Smith of South Carolina, Dana, Tracy,
Hillhoiise, Sitgreaves, &c.), I met with but two superior men,
Ames, who sat only during the session of 1795-1796, and John
156 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1795.
Marshall, who sat only in the session of 1799-1800, and who
took an active part in the debates only two or three times, but
always with great effect. On our side we were much stronger
in the Congress of 1795-1797. But Mr. Madison and Giles
(an able commonplace debater) having withdrawn, and Richard
Brent become hypochondriac, we were reduced during the im-
portant Congress of 1797-1799 to Ed. Livingston, John Nicholas,
and myself, whilst the Federalists received the accession of
Bayard and Otis. John Marshall came in addition for the Con-
gress of 1799-1801, and we were recruited by John Randolph
and Joseph Nicholson."
"The ground which I occupied in that body [Congress] is
well known, and I need not dwell on the share I took in all the
important debates and on the great questions which during that
period (1795-1801) agitated the public mind, in 1796 the British
treaty, in 1798-1800 the hostilities with France and the various
unnecessary and obnoxious measures by which the Federal party
destroyed itself. It is certainly a subject of self-gratulation that
I should have been allowed to take the lead with such coadjutors
as Madison, Giles, Livingston, and Nicholas, and that when
deprived of the powerful assistance of the two first, who had
both withdrawn in 1798, I was able to contend on equal term*
with the host of talents collected in the Federal party, Griswold,
Bayard, Harper, Goodrich, Otis, Smith, Sitgreaves, Dana, and
even J. Marshall. Yet I was destitute of eloquence, and had to
surmount the great obstacle of speaking in a foreign language,
with a very bad pronunciation. My advantages consisted in
laborious investigation, habits of analysis, thorough knowledge
of the subjects under discussion, and more extensive general in-
formation, due to an excellent early education, to which I think
I may add quickness of apprehension and a sound judgment.
" A member of the opposition during the whole period, it could
not have been expected that many important measures should
have been successfully introduced by me. Yet an impulse was
given in some respects which had a powerful influence on the
spirit and leading principles of subsequent Administrations.
The principal questions in which I was engaged related to con-
stitutional construction or to the finances. Though not quite so
1795. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 157
orthodox on the first subject as my Virginia friends (witness
the United States Bank and internal improvements), I was op-
posed to any usurpation of powers by the general government.
But I was specially jealous of Executive encroachments, and to
keep that branch within the strict limits of Constitution and of
law, allowing no more discretion than what appeared strictly
necessary, was my constant effort.
" The financial department in the House was quite vacant, so
far at least as the opposition was concerned ; and having made
myself complete master of the subject and occupied that field
almost exclusively, it is not astonishing that my views should
have been adopted by the Republican party and been acted upon
when they came into power. My first step was to have a stand-
ing committee of ways and means appointed. That this should
not have been sooner done proves the existing bias in favor of
increasing as far as possible the power of the Executive branch.
The next thing was to demonstrate that the expenditure had till
then exceeded the income : the remedy proposed was economy.
Economy means order and skill ; and after having determined
the proper and necessary objects of expense, the Legislature can-
not enforce true economy otherwise than by making specific ap-
propriations. Even these must be made with due knowledge of
the subject, since, if carried too far by too many subdivisions,
they become injurious, if not impracticable. This subject has
ever been a bone of contention between the legislative and ex-
ecutive branches in every representative government, and it is in
reality the only proper and efficient legislative check on executive
prodigality.
" Respecting the objects of expenditure, there was not, apart
from that connected with the French hostilities, any other subject
of division but that of the navy. And the true question was
whether the creation of an efficient navy should be postponed to
the payment of the public debt/ 7 . . .
During Mr. Gallatin's maiden session of Congress, the exciting
winter of 1795-96, when the first of our great party contests
took place, not even a private letter seems to have been written
by him that throws light on his acts or thoughts. His wife was
with him in Philadelphia. If he wrote confidentially to any
158 LIFE OF ALBEET GAL LATIN. 1796.
other person, his letters are now lost. The only material for his
biography is in the Annals of Congress and in his speeches, with
the replies they provoked ; a material long since worn threadbare
by biographers and historians.
Of all portions of our national history none has been more often
or more carefully described and discussed than the struggle over
Mr. Jay's treaty. No candid man can deny that there was at
the time ample room for honest difference of opinion in regard
to the national policy. That Mr. Jay's treaty was a bad one
few persons even then ventured to dispute ; no one would ven-
ture on its merits to defend it now. There has been no moment
since 1810 when the United States would have hesitated to prefer
war rather than peace on such terms. No excuse in the tempo-
rary advantages which the treaty gained can wholly palliate the
concessions of principle which it yielded, and no considerations
of a possible war with England averted or postponed can blind
history to the fact that this blessing of peace was obtained by
the sacrifice of national consistency and by the violation of neu-
trality towards France. The treaty recognized the right of Great
Britain to capture French property in American vessels, whilst
British property in the same situation was protected from capture
by our previous treaty with France ; and, what was yet worse,
the acknowledgment that provisions might be treated as contra-
band not only contradicted all our principles, but subjected the
United States government to the charge of a mean connivance
in the British effort to famish France, while securing America
from pecuniary loss.
Nevertheless, for good and solid reasons, the Senate at the time
approved, and President Washington, after long deliberation,
signed, the treaty. The fear of a war with Great Britain, the
desire to gain possession of the Western posts, and the commercial
interests involved in a neutral trade daily becoming more lucra-
tive, were the chief motives to this course. So far as Mr. Galla-
tin's private opinions were concerned, it is probable that no one
felt much more aversion to the treaty than he did ; but before
he took his seat in Congress the Senate had approved and the
President had signed it; a strong feeling in its favor existed
among his own constituents, always in dread of Indian diffi-
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 159
culties ; the treaty, in short, was law, and the House had only to
consider the legislation necessary to carry it into effect.
Bad as the treaty was, both in its omissions and in its admis-
sions, as a matter of foreign relations, these defects were almost
trifles when compared with its mischievous results at home. It
thrust a sword into the body politic. So far as it went, and it
went no small distance, it tended to overturn the established
balance of our neutrality and to throw the country into the arms
of England. Nothing could have so effectually arrayed the two
great domestic parties in sharply defined opposition to each other,
and nothing could have aroused more bitterness of personal feel-
ing. In recent times there has been a general disposition to ex-
plain away and to soften down the opinions and passions of that
day ; to throw a veil over their violence ; to imagine a possible
middle ground, from which the acts and motives of all parties
will appear patriotic and wise, and their extravagance a mere
misunderstanding. Such treatment of history makes both par-
ties ridiculous. The two brilliant men who led the two great
divisons of national thought were not mere declaimers; they
never for a moment misunderstood each other; they were in
deadly earnest, and no compromise between them ever was or
ever will be possible. Mr. Jefferson meant that the American
system should be a democracy, and he would rather have let the
world perish than that this principle, which to him represented
all that man was worth, should fail. Mr. Hamilton considered
democracy a fatal curse, and meant to stop its progress. The
partial truce which the first Administration of Washington had
imposed on both parties, although really closed by the retirement
of Mr. Jefferson from the Cabinet, was finally broken only by
the arrival of Mr. Jay's treaty. From that moment repose was
impossible until one party or the other had triumphed beyond
hope of resistance; and it was easy to see which of the two
parties must triumph in the end.
One of the immediate and most dangerous results of the Brit-
ish treaty was to put the new Constitution to a very serious test.
The theory which divides our government into departments,
executive, legislative, and judicial, and which makes each depart-
ment supreme in its own sphere, could not be worked out with
160 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1796.
even theoretical perfection ; the framers of the Constitution were
themselves obliged to admit exceptions in this arrangement of
powers, and one of the most serious exceptions related to treaties.
The Constitution begins by saying, "All legislative powers
herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States,
which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives,"
and proceeds to give Congress the express power " to make all
laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into exe-
cution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this
Constitution in the government of the United States or in any
department or officer thereof." But on the other hand the Con-
stitution also says that the President " shall have power, by and
with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties,"
and finally it declares that " this Constitution, and the laws of
the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, and
all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority
of the United States shall be the supreme law of the land,"
State laws or constitutions to the contrary notwithstanding.
Here was an obvious conflict of powers resulting from an
equally obvious divergence of theory. Congress possessed all
legislative powers. The President and Senate possessed the
power to make treaties, which were, like the Constitution and
the laws of Congress, the supreme law of the land. Congress,
then, did not possess all legislative powers. The President alone,
with two-thirds of the Senate, could legislate.
The British treaty contained provisions which could only
be carried into execution by act of Congress ; it was, therefore,
within the power of the House of Representatives to refuse
legislation and thus practically break the treaty. The House
was so evenly divided that no one could foresee the result, when
Edward Livingston began this famous debate by moving to call
on the President for papers, in order that the House might delib-
erate with official knowledge of the conditions under which the
treaty was negotiated.
The Federalists met this motion by asserting that under the
Constitution the House had no right to the papers, no right to
deliberate on the merits of the treaty, no right to refuse legisla-
tion. In Mr. Griswold's words, " The House of Representatives
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 161
have nothing to do with the treaty but provide for its execu-
tion." Untenable as this ground obviously was, and one which
no respectable legislative body could possibly accept, it was boldly
taken by the Federalists, who plunged into the contest with their
characteristic audacity and indomitable courage, traits that compel
respect even for their blunders.
The debate began on March 7, 1796, and on the 10th Mr.
Gallatin spoke, attacking the constitutional doctrine of the Feder-
alists and laying down his own. He claimed for the House, not
a power to make treaties, but a check upon the treaty-making
power when clashing with the special powers expressly vested in
Congress by the Constitution ; he showed the existence of this
check in the British constitution, and he showed its necessity in
our own, for, " if the treaty-making power is not limited by ex-
isting laws, or if it repeals the laws that clash with it, or if the
Legislature is obliged to repeal the laws so clashing, then the
legislative power in fact resides in the President and Senate, and
they can, by employing an Indian tribe, pass any law under the
color of treaty."
The argument was irresistible ; it was never answered ; and
indeed the mere statement is enough to leave only a sense of sur-
prise that the Federalists should have hazarded themselves on such
preposterous ground. Some seventy years later, when the pur-
chase of Alaska brought this subject again before the House on
the question of appropriating the purchase-money stipulated by
the treaty, the Administration abandoned the old Federalist
position ; the right of the House to call for papers, to deliberate
on the merits of the treaty, even to refuse appropriations if
the treaty was inconsistent with the Constitution or with the
established policy of the country, was fully conceded. The Ad-
ministration only made the reasonable claim that if, upon just
consideration, a treaty was found to be clearly within the con-
stitutional powers of the government, and consistent with the
national policy, then it was the duty of each co-ordinate branch
of the government to shape its action accordingly. 1 This claim
1 See the Speech of N. P. Banks, of June 30, 1868, Cong. Globe, vol. Ixxv.,
Appendix, p. 385.
11
162 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1796,
was recognized ; the House voted the money, and the controversy
may be considered at an end. In 1796, on the contrary, Mr.
Griswold, whose reply to Mr. Gallatin's argument was considered
the most effective, and who never shrank from a logical conclu-
sion however extreme, admitted and asserted that the legislative
power did reside in the President and Senate to the exclusion of
the House, and added, " Allowing this to be the case, what fol-
lows ? that the people have clothed the President and Senate
with a very important power."
On this theme the debate was continued for several weeks ;
but the Federalists were in a false position, and were conse-
quently overmatched in argument. Madison, W. C. Nicholas,
Edward Livingston, and many other members of the opposi-
tion, in speeches of marked ability, supported the claim of their
House. The speakers on the other side were obliged to take
the attitude of betraying the rights of their own body in order
to exaggerate the powers of the Executive, and as this practice
was entirely in accordance with the aristocratic theory of gov-
ernment, they subjected themselves to the suspicion at least of
acting with ulterior motives.
On the 23d March, Mr. Gallatin closed the debate for his
side of the House by a second speech, in which he took more
advanced ground. He had before devoted his strength to over-
throwing the constitutional theory of his opponents; he now
undertook the far more difficult task of establishing one of his
own. The Federalist side of the House was not the temperate
side in this debate, and Mr. Gallatin had more than one personal
attack to complain of, but he paid no attention to personalities,
and went on to complete his argument. Inasmuch as the Fed-
eralists characterized their opponents on this question as disor-
ganizers, disunionists, and traitors, and even to this day numbers
of intelligent persons still labor under strong prejudice against
the Eepublican opposition to Washington's Administration, a few
sentences from Mr. Gallatin's second speech shall be inserted here
to show precisely how far he and his party did in fact go :
" The power claimed by the House is not that of negotiating
and proposing treaties ; it is not an active and operative power
of making and repealing treaties; it is not a power which absorbs
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 163
and destroys the constitutional right of the President and Senate
to make treaties ; it is only a negative, a restraining power on
those subjects over which Congress has the right to legislate.
On the contrary, the power claimed for the President and Senate
is that, under color of making treaties, of proposing and origi-
nating laws; it is an active and operative power of making laws
and of repealing laws ; it is a power which supersedes and anni-
hilates the constitutional powers vested in Congress.
" If it is asked, in what situation a treaty is which has been
made by the President and Senate, but which contains stipula-
tions on legislative objects, until Congress has carried them into
effect? whether it is the law of the land and binding upon the
two nations? I might answer that such a treaty is precisely
in the same situation with a similar one concluded by Great
Britain before Parliament has carried it into effect.
" But if a direct answer is insisted on, I would say that it is
in some respects an inchoate act. It is the law of the land and
binding upon the American nation in all its parts, except so far
as relates to those stipulations. Its final fate, in case of refusal
on the part of Congress to carry those stipulations into effect,
would depend on the will of the other nation."
The Federalists had in this debate failed to hold well to-
gether ; the ground assumed by Mr. Griswold was too extreme
for some even among the leaders, and concessions were made on
that side which fatally shook their position ; but among the Ee-
publicans there was concurrence almost, if not quite, universal
in the statements of the argument by Mr. Madison and Mr.
Gallatin, and this closing authoritative position of Mr. Gallatin
was on the same day adopted by the House on a vote of 62 to
37, only five members not voting.
The Administration might perhaps have contented itself with
refusing the papers called for by the House, and left the matter
as it stood, seeing that the resolution calling for the papers said
not a word about the treaty-making power, and the journals of
the House contained no allusion to the subject ; or the President
might have contented himself with simply asserting his own
powers and the rights of his own Department ; but, as has
been already seen, there was at this time an absence of fixed
164 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1796
precedent which occasionally led executive officers to take liber-
ties with the Legislature such as would never afterwards have
been tolerated. The President sent a message to the House
which was far from calculated to soothe angry feeling. Two
passages were especially invidious. In one the President ad-
verted to the debates held in the House. In the other he assumed
a position in curious contrast to his- generally cautious tone:
" Having been a member of the general convention, and know-
ing the principles on which the Constitution was formed, I have,
&C., &c." For the President of the United States on such an
occasion to appeal to hi& personal knowledge of the intentions of
a body of men who gave him no authority for that purpose, and
whose intentions were not a matter of paramount importance,
seeing that by universal consent it was not their intentions which
interpreted the Constitution, but the intentions of the people
who adopted it ; and for him to use this language to a body of
which Mr. Madison was leader, and which had adopted Mr.
Madison's views, was a step not likely to diminish the perils of
the situation. Had the President been any other than Wash-
ington, or perhaps had the House been led by another than
Madison,, the opportunity for a ferocious retort would probably
have been irresistible. As it was, the House acted with great
forbearance ; it left unnoticed this very vulnerable part of the
message, and in reply to the implication that the House claimed
to make its assent " necessary to. the validity of a. treaty," it con-
tented itself with passing a resolution denning its own precise
claim. Oft this resolution Mr. Madison spoke at some length and
with perfect temper in reply to what could only be considered as
the personal challenge contained in the message, while Mr. Gal-
latin did not speak at all. The resolutions were adopted by 57 to
35, and the House then turned to the merits of the treaty.
On this subject Mr. Gallatin spoke at considerable length on
the 26th April,, a few days before the close of the debate. The
situation was extremely difficult. In the country at large opinion
was as closely divided as it was in the House itself. Even at the
present moment it is not easy to decide in favor of either party.
Nothing but the personal authority of General Washington carried
the hesitating assent of great masses of Federalists. Nothing but
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801.
fear of war made approval even remotely possible. Whether
the danger of war was really so great as the friends of the treaty
averred may be doubted. No Federalist Administration would
have made war on England, for it was a cardinal principle with
the Hamiltonian wing of the party that only through peace with
England could their ascendency be preserved, while war with
England avowedly meant a dissolution of the Union by their
own act. 1 The Republicans wanted no war with England, as
they afterwards proved by enduring insults that would in our
day rouse to madness every intelligent human being within the
national borders. Nevertheless war appeared or was represented
as inevitable in 1796 ; the eloquent speech of Fisher Ames con-
tained no other argument of any weight ; it was abject fear to
which he appealed : " You are a father : the blood of your sons
shall fatten your corn-field. You are a mother : the war-whoop
shall wake the sleep of the cradle."
It was the truth of this reproach on the weakness of the argu-
ment for the treaty that made the sting of Mr, Gallatin's closing
remarks :
" I cannot help considering die cry of war, the threats of a
dissolution of government, and the present alarm, as designed
for the same purpose, that of making an impression on the fears
of this House. It was through the fear of being involved in a
war that the negotiation with Great Britain originated; under
the impression of fear the treaty has been negotiated and signed ;
a fear of the same danger, that of war, promoted its ratification:
and now every imaginary mischief which can alarm our fears k
conjured up, in order to deprive us of that discretion which this
House thinks it has a right to exercise, and in order to force us to
carry the treaty into effect."
Nevertheless Mr. Gallatin carefully abstained from advocating
a refusal to carry the treaty into effect. With his usual caution
he held his party back from any violent step ; he even went so
far as to avow his wish that the treaty might not now be defeated:
" The further detention of our posts, the national stain that
would result from receiving no reparation for the spoliations on
1 See, among other expressions to this effect, Lodge's Cabot, pp. 342, 345.
166 LITE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1796,
our trade, and the uncertainty of a final adjustment of our dif-
ferences with Great Britain, are the three evils which strike me
as resulting from a rejection of the treaty ; and when to these
considerations I add that of the present situation of the country,
of the agitation of the public mind, and of the advantages that
would arise from a union of sentiments ; however inj urious and
unequal I conceive the treaty to be, however repugnant it may
be to my feelings and, perhaps, to my prejudices, I feel induced
to vote for it, and will not give my assent to any proposition
which would imply its rejection."
He also carefully avoided taking the ground which was un-
doubtedly first in his anxieties, that of the bearing which the
treaty would have on our relations with France. This was a
subject which his semi-Gallican origin debarred him from dwell-
ing upon. The position he took was a new one, and for his
party perfectly safe and proper ; it was that, in view of the con-
duct of Great Britain since the treaty was signed, her impress-
ment of our seamen, her uninterrupted spoliations on our trade,
especially in the seizure of provision vessels, "a proceeding
which they might perhaps justify by one of the articles of the
treaty," a postponement of action was advisable until assurances
were received from Great Britain that she meant in future to
conduct herself as a friend.
This was the ground on which the party recorded their vote
against the resolution declaring it expedient to make appro-
priations for carrying the treaty into effect. In committee the
division was 49 to 49, Muhlenberg, the chairman, throwing
his vote in favor of the resolution, and thus carrying it to the
House. There the appropriation was voted by 51 to 48.
Perhaps the only individual in any branch of the government
who was immediately and greatly benefited by the British treaty
was Mr. Gallatin ; he had by common consent distinguished
himself in debate and in counsel ; bolder and more active than
Mr. Madison, he was followed by his party with instinctive con-
fidence ; henceforth his leadership was recognized by the entire
country.
Absorbing as the treaty debate was, it did not prevent other
and very weighty legislation. One Act, adopted in the midst
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 167
of the excitement of the treaty, was peculiarly important, and,
although the idea itself was not new, Mr. Gallatin was the firsi
to embody it in law, so far as any single individual can lay
claim to that distinction. This Act created the land-system
of the United States government; it applied only to lands
north-west of the Ohio River, in which the Indian titles had
been extinguished, and it provided for laying these out in
townships, six miles square, and for selling the land in sections,
under certain reservations. This land-system, always a subject
of special interest to Mr. Gallatin, and owing its existence pri-
marily to his efforts while a legislator, took afterwards an im-
mense development in his hands while he was Secretary of the
Treasury, and, had he been allowed to carry out his schemes,
would probably have been made by him the foundation of a
magnificent system of internal improvement. Circumstances
prevented him from realizing his plan; only the land-system
itself and the Cumberland Road remained to testify the breadth
and accuracy of his views; but even these were achievements of
the highest national importance.
Deeply as these two subjects interested him, his permanent and
peculiar task was a different one. To Mr. Gallatin finance was
an instinct. He knew well, as Mr. Hamilton had equally clearly
understood before him, that the heart of the government was the
Treasury ; like many another man of high financial reputation,
he had little talent for money-making, and never was, or cared
to be, rich ; but he had one great advantage over most Americans
of his time, even over Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Jefferson ; he was
an economist as well as a statesman ; he was exact not merely in
the details but in the morality of affairs; he held debt in horror;
punctilious exactness in avoiding debt was his final axiom in
finance ; the discharge of debt was his first principle in states-
manship ; searching and rigid economy was his invariable demand
whether in or out of office, and he made this demand imperative
upon himself as upon others.
Mr. Hamilton, to whom the organization of the financial system
was due, and who left public life just as Gallatin began his Con-
gressional career, had belonged to a different school and had acted
on different principles. Adhering more or less closely to the
168 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1796
English financial and economical theories then in vogue, he had
intentionally constructed a somewhat elaborate fabric, of which
a considerable national debt was the foundation. Had Mr.
Hamilton foreseen in 1790 the course public affairs would take
during the next ten years, he would perhaps have modified his
plan and would have guarded more carefully against overloading
the Treasury; but at that moment it was not unreasonable to
suppose that what the country wanted was centralization, and
that a national debt was one means of consolidating divergent
local interests. Mr. Hamilton, therefore, accepted as much debt
as he thought the country could reasonably bear, and allowed the
rest to be expunged. In forming this debt he had at least in
one respect permitted an unnecessary and very mischievous addi-
tion to be made to the acknowledged and existing national bur-
den. In order to settle the accounts between the States, he had
permitted Congress perhaps forced Congress to assume a large
proportion of the State debts. The balance to be adjusted by
payment of the debtor to the creditor States was ultimately as-
certained to be a little more than $8,000,000. To settle this
account as nearly as it was settled in fact, required an assump-
tion of State debts to the amount of $11,609,000; but, instead
of waiting for a settlement of accounts, Congress had, in 1790,
voted to assume a certain amount of State debts at once and to
charge each State in the ultimate settlement with the amount
assumed on her account. A sum of over $18,000,000 was thus
funded, and so much debt transferred from the States to the
national government. In addition to this sum a further amount
of about $3,500,000 .was funded in order to get rid of the
balances in favor of the creditor States. Altogether, including
back interest from 1790 to 1795, a debt of $22,500,000 was
imposed on the new government, where half that sum would
have answered the purpose, and of this ab'out $2,000,000 was
actually new debt, created for the occasion.
The entire amount of the national debt when fairly funded
was about $78,000,000. Had no political complications in its
foreign relations embarrassed the government, this burden might
have been easily carried in spite of Indian wars and even in spite
of the whiskey rebellion, though these troubles steadily tended
1796. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801.
to increase the sum. The annual charge was in 1796 nearly
$4,000,000, but after the year 1800 an additional charge of
1,100,000 on deferred stock was to be provided for by taxation,
and this future addition to the annual charge hung over the gov-
ernment during all these years as a perpetual anxiety. The
population of the country in 1791 was not quite 4,000,000 souls,
of whom 700,000 were slaves. The expenditures, including the
charge on the debt, amounted in 1796 to about $7,000,000 a
year, and the receipts nearly balanced the expenditures. Con-
sidering the poverty of the country, taxation was high ; so high
as to make any increase dangerous. Thus the new government
was not in a condition to hazard experiments, and needed five or
ten years of careful management in order to give the country
time for expansion.
In the middle of this state of affairs, while the Treasury was
wrestling with the problems of Indian wars and domestic revolt,
came the ominous signs of foreign aggression. War was thought
to be imminent, either with France or England, from 1795 to
1800, and the government was in great straits to provide for it.
The time now came when the Federalists would probably have
been delighted to recover the ten millions which had been un-
necessarily assumed, and the theory of a national debt must have
taken a different aspect in their eyes. Mr. Hamilton had not
calculated on this emergency ; his system had rested on the
assumption that the old situation was to be permanent. The
question was forced upon the country whether it should increase
its debt or neglect its defences.
Here was the point where the theories of Mr. Hamilton and
of Mr. Gallatin sharply diverged. The Federalists in a body
demanded an army and navy, with an indefinite increase of
debt. Mr. Gallatin and his party demanded that both army
and navy should be 'postponed until they could be created with-
out increase of debt. The question as a matter of statesmanship
was extremely difficult. In a country like America any really
efficient defence, either by land or sea, was out of the question
except at an appalling cost, yet to be quite defenceless was to
tempt aggression. Deeper feelings, too, were involved in the
dispute. An army and a navy might be used for domestic as
170 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1796
well as foreign purposes ; to use the words of Fisher Ames in
private consultation with the Secretary of the Treasury in 1800,
when the situation was most critical : " a few thousand, or even
a few hundred, regular troops, well officered, would give the
first advantages to government in every contest;" 1 and this idea
was always foremost in the minds of the extreme Federalists as
it was among the extreme Republicans. To crush democracy by
force was the ultimate resource of Hamilton. To crush that
force was the determined intention of Jefferson.
Mr. Gallatin's policy was early, openly, and vigorously avowed
and persistently maintained. In this session of 1795-96, when
appropriations for finishing three frigates were demanded, he
said in a few words what he continued to say to the end of his
service: "I am sensible that an opinion of our strength will
operate to a certain degree on other nations ; but I think a real
addition of strength will go farther in defending us than mere
opinion. If the sums to be expended to build and maintain
the frigates were applied to paying a part of our national debt,
the payment would make us more respectable in the eyes of
foreign nations than all the frigates we can build. To spend
money unnecessarily at present will diminish our future re-
sources, and instead of enabling us will perhaps render it more
difficult for us to build a navy some years hence." " Perhaps I
may be asked if we are then to be left without protection. I
think there are means of protection which arise from our pecu-
liar situation, and that we ought not to borrow institutions from
other nations, for which we are not fit. If our commerce has
increased, notwithstanding its want of protection ; if we have
a greater number of seamen than any other nation except
England, this, I think, points out the way in which commerce
ought to be protected. The fact is, that our only mode of war-
fare against European nations at sea is by putting our seamen on
board privateers and covering the sea with them ; these would
annoy their trade and distress them more than any other mode
of defence we can adopt." 2
1 Gibbs's Administrations of Washington and Adams, ii. p. 320.
2 Annals of Congress, February 10, 1797.
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 171
Yet government has to deal with beings ruled not only by
reason but by feeling, and its success depends on the degree to
which it can satisfy or at least compromise between the double
standard of criticism. Mr. Gallatin habitually made too little
allowance for the force and complexity of human passions and
instincts. Self-contained and self-reliant himself, and, like most
close reasoners, distrustful of everything that had a mere feeling
for its justification, he held government down to an exact ob-
servance of rules that made no allowance for national pride.
The three frigates whose construction he so pertinaciously re-
sisted were the Constitution, the Constellation, and the United
States. The time came, after Mr. Gallatin and his party had
for nearly twelve years carried out their own theories with
almost absolute power, when the American people, bankrupt
and disgraced on land, turned with a frenzy of enthusiasm to-
wards the three flags which these frigates were carrying on the
ocean, and, with little regard to party diiferences, would have
seen the national debt and no small part of the national life ex-
punged rather than have parted with the glories of these ships ;
when the broadsides of the Constitution and United States, to
use the words of George Canning in the British Parliament,
" produced a sensation in England scarcely to be equalled by
the most violent convulsion of nature ;" and when Mr. Gallatin
himself, exhausting every resource of diplomacy in half the
courts of Europe, found that his country had no national dignity
abroad except what these frigates had conquered.
Notwithstanding all this, and with every motive to recognize
in the fullest extent the honors won by the American navy, the
cool and candid decision of history should be that Mr. Gallatin
was essentially in the right. A few years of care and economy
were alone necessary in order to secure the certainty of national
power, and that power would be so safe in its isolation as to be
able to dispense with great armies and navies. The real injury
suifered by Great Britain in the war of 1812 was not in the loss
of half a dozen vessels of war out of her eight hundred in com-
mission, but in the ravages of our privateers on her commercial
marine. As a matter of fact the United States have continued
to act on Mr. Gallatin's theory ; government has never pre-
172 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1796.
tended to protect the national commerce by a powerful navy ;
no navy, not even that of Great Britain, could protect it in case
of war. That commerce has continued to flourish without such
protection. Every one concedes that it would be the wildest
folly even now, with forty millions of people and a continent to
protect, for America to establish a proportionate navy. Every
smatterer in finance knows that, inefficient as the existing navy
is, hundreds of millions have been uselessly expended upon it.
There could be no more instructive thesis proposed to future
Secretaries of the Treasury than to ask themselves on entering
into office, " What would Mr. Gallatin wish to do with the navy
were he now in my place ?"
But opposition to a navy was only a detail in Mr. Gallatin's
theory of American finance, and his plans extended over a far
wider range than could be comprehended within the limits of
one or many speeches. The debate on the British treaty had, no
doubt, won him a large share of attention, but the essentials of
power in a deliberative body are only to be secured by labor and
activity and by mastery of the business in hand. Mr. Gallatin
knew perfectly well what was to be done, and lost no time in
acting. Before the House had been ten days in session, on the
17th December, 1795, he brought forward a resolution for the
appointment of " a committee to superintend the general opera-
tions of finance. No subject," said he, " more requires a system,
and great advantages will be derived from it." This is the
origin of the standing Committee of Ways and Means, the
want of which hitherto he ascribed, it seems, to Mr. Hamilton's
jealousy of legislative supervision. On the 21st December the
resolution was adopted and a committee of fourteen appointed,
Mr. William Smith, of South Carolina, being chairman, sup-
ported by Theodore Sedgwick, Madison, Gallatin, and other
important members of the House.
The British treaty consumed most of this session, and until
that question was settled the regular business was much neg-
lected ; but Mr. Gallatin did not wait till then in order to be-
gin his attack. As early as April 12, 1796, a somewhat warm
debate arose in the House on the subject of the debt, and he
undertook, with an elaborate comparison of receipts and expend-
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 173
itures, to analyze the financial situation and to show that the
revenue was steadily running behindhand. The true situation
of the government was a point not altogether easy to ascertain.
One of several English ideas adopted by Mr. Hamilton from
Mr. Pitt was a sinking fund apparatus. Even at that time of
Mr. Pitt's supreme authority it can hardly be conceived that
any one really believed a sinking fund to be effective so long as
the government's expenditure exceeded its income ; it was, how-
ever, certainly the fashion to affect a belief in its efficacy at all
times, and although, if Mr. Pitt and Mr. Hamilton had been
pressed on the subject, they might perhaps have agreed that a
sinking fund was always expensive and never efficient except
when there was a surplus, they would in the end have fallen
back on the theory that it inspired confidence in ultimate pay-
ment of the debt. Their opponents would not unnaturally
consider it to be a mere fraud designed to cover and conceal the
true situation.
Apart, however, from every question of the operation of the
sinking fund, there were intrinsic difficulties in ascertaining the
facts. The question was, as in such cases it is apt to be, in a
great degree one of accounts. The immediate matter in dispute
was a sum of $3,800,000 advanced by the bank in anticipation
of revenue. Mr. Sedgwick and the Administration wished to
fund it, and made considerable effort to prove that the debt would
not only be unaffected thereby, but that, as a matter of fact, the
debt had been diminished. Mr. Gallatin opposed the funding,
and insisted that provision should be made for its payment, and
he undertook to prove by a comparison of receipts and expendi-
tures that the debt had been increased $2,800,000 down to the
1st January, 1796. It was felt to be a crucial point, and Mr.
Gallatin was not allowed to go unanswered. On the last day of
the session Mr. William Smith replied to him, elaborately prov-
ing that so far from there being a total increase of $5,000,000
in the debt, as he had undertaken to show, there was an actual
excess of over $2,000,000 in favor of the government. To this
Mr. Gallatin made an immediate reply, Mr. Smith rejoined, and
the session ended.
Of course each party adhered to its own view, which was a
174 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1796.
matter of very little consequence so long as Mr. Gallatin gained
his point of fixing public attention upon the subject; his aim
was to educate his own party and to plant his own principles
deep in popular convictions. After the adjournment he wrote a
book for this purpose called " A Sketch of the Finances of the
United States/ 7 which was in fact a text-book, and answered its
purpose admirably. In two hundred pages, with a few tabular
statements appended, he discussed the revenues, expenditures,
and debt of the United States with his usual clearness, and,
while avoiding all apparent party feeling, he freely criticised the
financial measures of the government. The duty of preventing
increase of debt, of discharging the principal as soon as possible,
was the foundation of the work ; criticisms of the cases in which
the burden had been unnecessarily increased were interwoven in
the statement, which concluded with suggestions of additional
sources of revenue. 1
Thus already in the first year of his Congressional service Mr.
Gallatin had sketched out and begun to infuse into his party
those financial schemes and theories that were ultimately to
be realized when they came into power. That these ideas, as
forming a single complete body of finance, were essentially new,
has already been remarked. In theory Mr. Hamilton also was
in favor of discharging the debt, and originated the machinery
for doing so ; that is to say, he originated the sinking fund
machinery, or rather borrowed it from Mr. Pitt, although this
financial juggle has now become, both in England and America,
a monument of folly rather than of wisdom; while a much
more effectual step was taken in the last year of his service,
when he recommended the conversion of the six per cents,
into an eight per cent, annuity for twenty-three years, which
was equivalent to an annual appropriation of about $800,000
a year for the payment of the principal. This, however, was
not the real point of difference between the systems of Mr.
Gallatin and Mr. Hamilton. Laying entirely aside the gen-
eral proposition that the Hamiltonian Federalists considered a
national debt as in itself a desirable institution, and conceding
1 This essay is republished in his Writings, vol. iii. p. 70.
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 175
that the Federalists would themselves have ultimately reduced
or discharged it, there still remains the fact that the Fed-
eralists made the debt a subordinate, Mr. Gallatin made it a
paramount, consideration in politics. The one believed that if
debt was not a positive good, it was a far smaller evil than the
growth of French democracy ; the other, that debt was the most
potent source of all political evils and the most active centre of
every social corruption. The Hamiltonian doctrine was that the
United States should be a strong government, ready and able to
maintain its dignity abroad and its authority at home by arms.
Mr. Gallatin maintained that its dignity would protect itself if
its resources were carefully used for self-development, while its
domestic authority should rest only on consent.
Which of these views was correct is quite another matter.
Certain it is that the system so long and ably maintained by Mr.
Gallatin was rudely overthrown by the war of 1812, and over-
threw Mr. Gallatin with it. Equally certain it is that the United
States naturally and safely gravitated back to Mr. Gal latin's
system after the war of 1812, and has consistently followed it to
the present time. The debt has been repeatedly discharged.
Neither army nor navy has been increased over the proportions
fixed by Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Jefferson. Commerce protects
itself not by arms nor even by the fear of arms, but by the
interests it creates. America has pursued in fact an American
system, the system of Mr. Gallatin.
True it also is that this result does not settle the question as
between Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Gallatin, for there were special
circumstances which then made the situation exceptional. As
has been said, the war of 1812 was a practical demonstration of at
least the momentary failure of Mr. Gallatin's principle, and the
failure occurred in dealing with precisely those difficulties which
the Federalists had foreseen and tried to provide for. The question
therefore recurs, whether the Federalist policy would have resulted
better, and this is one of those inquiries which lose themselves in
speculation. There is no answer to so large a problem.
Congress rose on the 1st June, 1796, and Mr. and Mrs. Galla-
tin passed the summer in New York. Meanwhile, the co-part-
nership in which he had engaged had resulted in establishing on
176 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL A TIN 1796.
George's Creek a little settlement named New Geneva, and here
were carried on various kinds of business, the most important
and profitable of which was that of glass-making, begun during
Mr. Gallatin's absence in the spring of 1797.
Leaving his wife in New York, Mr. Gallatin went to New
Geneva for a few weeks in the autumn of 1796.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 26th September, 1796.
... I arrived here last Saturday. ... I have received
pretty positive and certain information that Findley will be re-
elected unanimously in our district, my name not being mentioned
there, and that I will be superseded in Washington and Alleghany
by Thomas Stokeley. This I have from Woods's friends, who
seem to be equally sure that neither he nor myself are to be
elected. The Republicans despair to be able to carry me, not,
by the by, so much on account of the treaty question as because
I do not reside in the district and have not been this summer in
the western country, and they hesitate whether they will support
Edgar or Brackenridge. At all events, I think I will be gently
dropped without the parade of a resignation. The other party
will call it a victory, but it will do neither me nor our friends
any harm. I think, indeed, it will not be any disadvantage to
the Republican interest that my name should be out of the way,
at least for a while. . . .
SHIPPENSBTJRG, 3d October, 1796.
. . . The farther I go from you the more I feel how hateful
absence is, and the stronger my resolution is not to be persuaded
to continue in public life. Indeed, we must be settled and give
up journeying. This design gives me but one regret, it is to
part you and to part myself from your family; they are the only
beings I will feel sorry to leave behind, but I will feel the want
of them more than I can express. . . .
NEW GENEVA, 12th October, 1796.
... I arrived here last Friday without any accident. . . .
As to politics, the four or five last newspapers are filled with the
most scurrilous and abusive electioneering pieces for and against
1796. THE LEGISLATES E. 1789-1801. 177
myself and Thomas Stokeley. This has raised the contention so
high in the counties of Alleghany and Washington that my old
friends have again taken me up very warmly, and I came too
late to prevent it. There is, however, the highest probability
that I will not be elected. The election took place yesterday, but
we do not know the result. In this and Westmoreland County
James Findlay, who was a great admirer of the treaty, has been
prevailed upon by Addison & Co. to oppose William Findley,
whom we have been supporting, notwithstanding all his weak-
nesses, because it became a treaty question, and I expect he must
be elected by a majority of two to one* . . .
NEW GENEVA, 16th October, 1796.
. . . "No, my Hannah, we shall not, so far as it can depend
upon ourselves, we shall not hereafter put such a distance
between us. It is perfectly uncertain whether I am elected in
Congress or not ; but if I am, that shall not prevent the execu-
tion of our plans, and I will undoubtedly resign a seat which in
every point of view is perfectly indifferent to me, and which is
certainly prejudicial to my interest if it does interfere with the
happiness of our lives. . . . Ambition, love of power, I never
felt, and if vanity ever made one of the ingredients which im-
pelled me to take an active part in public life, it has for many
years altogether vanished away. . . .
NEW GENEVA, November 9, 1796.
... I will not put your patience and good nature to a much
longer trial, and I know you will be glad to hear that this is
the last letter I mean to write you from this place, and that
next Tuesday, the 15th inst., is the day I have fixed for my
departure. I have been tolerably industrious since I have been
here, settling accounts, arranging some matters relative to the
concerns of the copartnership, getting some essential improve-
ments on our farm, getting rid of my tenants, and electioneering
for electors of the President. Our endeavors to induce the
people to turn out on that day have not been as successful as
I might have wished. In this county our ticket got 406 votes,
and Adams's had 66. What the general result will be you will
know before I do. ...
12
178 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1796
The Presidential election of 1796, which was to decide the
succession to Washington, ended in the choice of John Adams
over Thomas Jefferson and in a very evenly balanced condition
of parties. The constitutional arrangement by which the Presi-
dent was not chosen by the people, but by electors themselves
chosen by Legislatures, makes it impossible to decide where the
popular majority lay ; and the rule that the person having the
highest number of electoral votes should be President, without
regard to the intentions of the electors, at once began to throw
discord into the ranks of both parties. John Adams thought
with reason that he had been nearly made the victim of an
intrigue to elect Thomas Pinckney; and Aaron Burr, the Re-
publican leader in the North, as Jefferson was in the South,
with equal reason believed himself to have been sacrificed as a
candidate for the Vice-Presidency by the jealousy of Virginia.
Both these suspicions, deeply rooted in sectional feeling, bore
fruit during the next few years.
Mr. Gallatin, contrary to his expectation, was re-elected to the
House of Representatives by the district which had chosen him
two years before, although his long absences from the western
country and his opposition to the British treaty threatened to
destroy his popularity. After six weeks' absence at New Geneva
during the elections, he returned to Philadelphia to take part in
the coming session.
The times were stormy. President Washington, whose personal
weight had thus far to a great extent overawed the opposition,
was about to leave office, and his successor could hope for little
personal consideration. The British treaty and the policy which
dictated it had been warmly resented by France. The govern-
ment of that country was in a state of wild confusion, and its
acts were regulated by no steadiness of policy and by little
purity of principle. Without actually declaring war, it insulted
our agents and plundered our commerce. Its course was
damaging in the extreme to the opposition party in America;
it strengthened and consolidated the Federalists, and left the
Republicans only the alternative of silence or of apology more
fatal than silence. Mr. Monroe, our minister to France, re-
called by President Washington for too great subservience to
1796. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 179
French influence, adopted the course of apologizing for France,
and was supported by most of his party. Mr. Gal latin wisely
preferred silence. The economical condition of the country was
equally unsatisfactory. Speculation had exhausted itself and
had broken down. Robert Morris was one of the victims, and
Mr. Gallatin began to despair of recovering his debt. Things
were in this situation when Congress met, and Gallatin, leaving
his wife in New York, took his seat, December 5, 1796.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 14th December, 1796.
. . . Every day in this city increases the distress for money r
and you may rely upon it that the time is not far when a gen-
eral and heavy shock will be felt in all the commercial cities of
America. This opinion is not grounded upon a slight or partial
view of the present situation of affairs. Many will be much
injured by it, and frugality is the only remedy I see to the evil.
As to ourselves, I look upon Morris's debt as being in a very
precarious situation. He has told me that he could not make
any payment to me until he had satisfied the judgments against
him. We must do as well as we can, and, although I had
rather it was otherwise, it is not one of those circumstances
which will make me lose a single hour of rest. . . . As to
politics, we are getting to-day upon the answer to the Presi-
dent's address. The one reported by the committee is as poor
a piece of stuff, as full of adulation and void of taste and
elegance, as anything I ever saw. The return of Greene County
did not come ; but Mr. Miles voted for Jefferson and Pinckney,
which made the general vote what you have seen. . . .
After remaining a fortnight in Philadelphia he took leavfe
of absence and went to New York, where he remained till
the 1st January. His eldest child, James, was born on the 18th
December, 1796, a circumstance which not a little contributed
to turn his attention away from politics and to disgust him
with the annoying interruptions of domestic life then insepa-
rable from a political career. From this time forward his letters
180 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1796.
to his wife are chiefly about herself and the child, but here and
there come glimpses of public characters and affairs. Party
feeling was now running extremely high, and Mr. Gallatin was
a party leader, thoroughly convinced of the justice of his views,
smarting under bitter and often brutal attacks, which he never
returned in kind, and imbued with the conviction that the inten-
tions of a large portion of his political opponents were deeply
hostile to the welfare of his country and the interests of man-
kind. In his letters to his wife he sometimes expresses these feel-
ings in a personal form. It will be seen that he felt strongly;
but the worst he said was mildness in comparison to what he
had daily to hear.
So far as his Congressional work was concerned he confined
himself closely to finance, and, although taking a very consider-
able share in debate, he avoided as much as possible the discus-
sion of foreign affairs. His most strenuous efforts were devoted
to cutting down the estimates, preventing an increase, and, if
possible, diminishing the force of the army and navy, and insist-
ing upon the rule of specific appropriations. He had begun to
apply this rule more stringently in the appropriation bills of the
preceding session, and how necessary the application was is shown
by a letter now written by the Secretary of the Treasury, saying
that " it is well known to have been a rule since the establishment
of the government that the appropriations for the military estab-
lishment were considered as general grants of money, liable to be
issued to any of the objects included under that Department."
It was only with considerable difficulty that he carried this year
his restriction of specific appropriations against the resistance of
the Administration party.
In his efforts this year and in subsequent years to cut down
appropriations for the army, navy, and civil service, he was
rarely successful, and earned much ill-will as an obstructionist.
Acting as he did on a view of the duties of government quite
antagonistic to those of his adversaries, it was inevitable that he
should arouse hostile feeling. Whether his proposed reductions
were always wise or not depends of course on the correctness of
his or his opponents' theories ; but the point is of little importance
to his character as a leader of opposition. The duty of an op-
1797. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 181
position is to compel government to prove the propriety of its
measures, and Mr. Gallatin's incessant watchfulness gave the
party in power a corresponding sense of responsibility.
Mr. Gallatin, too, did his utmost to carry the imposition of a
direct tax, in view of the increasing burden of expenditure and
of debt. The additional annual expense of $1,100,000 to be met
in 1800 weighed not only on his mind but on that of Secretary
Wolcott ; they agreed that a direct tax was the best resource, and,
unless advocated in principle at once, would stand no chance of
adoption, but on this point they had both parties against them,
and for the present failed.
The session of Congress ended with the 3d March, but a new
session was called to meet on May 13, to consider our relations
with France. Of this new Congress Mr. Madison was not a
member, and Mr. Gallatin more and more assumed the leader-
ship of the party. On questions of foreign policy he left the
debate, for the most part, to others, and confined himself to
limiting the appropriations and resisting all measures which
directly tended to war.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
llth January, 1797.
. . . And have you really set aside a mother's partiality and
then decided that our boy was a lovely child ? You may rely
upon it that I shall not appeal from your decision, whether im-
partial or not ; but I feel every day a stronger desire to see him
and to judge for myself. Yet I must not begin to fret, for fear
you may catch the infection, and the 5th of March is not so far
distant but what you, with the comfort you receive from your
boy, and I, with my head, though not my heart, full of politics,
may wait at least with resignation if not without reluctance. . . .
17th January, 1797.
... I pay no visits ; I see nobody ; I never dine out ; I sit
up late, and sleep regularly till nine in the morning ; I hardly
speak in Congress, and, when I do, a great deal worse than I used
formerly ; I neither write nor think, only read some miscella-
neous works ; I am in fact good for nothing when I am not with
you. . . .
182 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1797,
24th January, 1797.
Most charming nurse of the loveliest and most thoughtful-
looking babe of his age (I mean of the age he lives in), your
husband is as worthless as ever. Instead of writing to you last
night, he sat up two hours examining Judge Symmes's contract
for lands on the Miami, which is now before Congress, and in-
stead of devoting part of this morning to you, he remained in
bed till nine o'clock, as usual, and hardly had he done breakfast,
dressing, etc., when he was obliged to go to Mr. Wolcott, with
whom he has been agreeably employed for more than one hour
on the entertaining subject of direct taxes. ... It seems to me
that I have just now mentioned dressing. Yet it is necessary
that you should know that I have not exhibited my new, or
rather my only good coat, my new jacket, and my pair of black
silk inexpressibles more than once, to wit, last Thursday at the
President's, where I dined and saw him for the first time this
year. He looked, I thought, more than usually grave, cool, and
reserved. Mrs. W. inquired about you, so that you may suppose
yourself still in the good graces of our most gracious queen, who,
by the by, continues to be a very good-natured and amiable
woman. Not so her husband, in your husband's humble opinion;
but that between you and me, for I hate treason, and you know
that it would be less sacrilegious to carry arms against our country
than to refuse singing to the tune of the best and greatest of
men. . . .
31st January, 1797.
. . . Your husband was not formed for the bustles of a
political life in a stormy season. Conscious of the purity of my
motives and (shall I add when I write to my bosom friend?)
conscious of my own strength, I may resist the tempest with
becoming firmness, but happinesss dwells not there. I feel the
truth of that observation more forcibly this winter than ever I
did before. I feel disgusted at the mean artifices which have so
long been successfully employed in order to pervert public opinion,
and I anticipate with gloomy apprehension the fatal consequences
to our independence as a nation and to our internal union which
must follow the folly or wickedness of those who have directed
1797. THE LEGISLATUEE. 1789-1801. 183
our public measures. Nor are my depressed spirits enlivened
by the pleasures of society ; I can relish none at a distance from
you, and was I to continue much longer my present mode of life
I would become a secluded and morose hermit. . . . Perhaps,
however, am I myself to blame, and a more intense application
to business might have contributed to render this session less
tiresome, but . . , disgust at the symptoms of the prevailing in-
fluence of prejudice in the public mind have rendered me far
more indolent than usual. The latter part of this session will,
however, give me more employment than its beginning, as many
money questions must necessarily compel me to take an active
share. . . .
26th February, 1797.
... I never, I believe, write you anything about our politics
and on what takes place in Congress. But we have had nothing
very interesting, being employed only in the details of adminis-
tration. And then you see the substance in the newspapers,
though not very correct, as to our speeches and debates. The
little anecdotes I reserve for the happy time when we shall meet,
and in the mean while I am sufficiently engaged in the scene
without spending the moments I correspond with you in thinking
on the dry subject. . . .
GALLATIN TO JAMES NICHOLSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 26th May, 1797.
DEAE SIR, I received your political letter, and am not sur-
prised at seeing your irritation upon the perusal of Mr. Adams's
speech. I have felt less because I was not much disappointed.
I mean in a pretty long letter to give you a better idea of our
present situation than you can possibly derive from a view of our
debates. These give only the apparent state of the business, and
at this time it is very different from the real one. For the pres-
ent, as I have not time to enter into details, I will only mention
that the complexion of affairs is much less gloomy now than at
the beginning of the session, that although the other party have
rather a majority in this Congress, and although from party pride,
and indeed for the sake of supporting their party through the
184 LITE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1797
United States, they may be induced to negative any proposition
coming from us, yet there are but few of that party who do not
feel and acknowledge in conversation the propriety of treating
with France upon the terms we mention. They add, indeed,
that it is necessary to obtain at the same time a compensation for
the spoliations upon our trade. Upon the whole, I believe that
we will not adopt a single hostile measure, and that we will
evince such a spirit as will induce Mr. Adams to negotiate on the
very ground we propose. I am of opinion that Wolcott, Picker-
ing, Wm. Smith, Fisher Ames, and perhaps a few more were
disposed to go to war, and had conceived hopes to overawe us by
a clamor of foreign influence and to carry their own party any
lengths they pleased. They are disappointed in both points, for
we have assumed a higher tone than ever we did before, and their
own people will not follow them the distance they expected. . . .
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 14th June, 1797.
. . . As to our debates, they are tedious beyond measure, and
we are beating and beaten by turns, although, by the by, our
defeats are usually owing to the mistakes of some of our friends,
who do not always perceive the remote consequences of every
object which comes under consideration. . . . Your papa has not
yet answered my last political letter. I am afraid he thinks me
too moderate and believes I am going to trim. But moderation
and firmness have ever been and ever will be my motto. . . .
PHILADELPHIA, 19th June, 1797.
... I cannot yet form any very accurate opinion as to the
time of our adjournment, although I think it probable that it
will be some time next week. William Smith & Co. wish to
detain us as long as they can, from a hope, which is not alto-
gether groundless, that some of our members will abandon the
field, return to their homes, and leave them an undisputed
majority at the end of the session. My own endeavors and
those of most of our friends are now applied to despatching
with as little debate as possible the most important business
1797. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 135
which remains to be decided. I brought a motion to adjourn
on next Saturday, but I must modify it to this day week;
whether it will pass is yet uncertain. ... I dine next Thursday
at court. Courtland, dining there the other day, heard her
majesty, as she was asking the names of the different members
of Congress to Hindman, and being told that of some one of
the aristocratic party, say, 'Ah, that is one of our people/ So
that she is Mrs. President not of the United States/ but of a
faction. . . . But it is not right. Indeed, my beloved, you
are infinitely more lovely than politics.
PHILADELPHIA, 21st June, 1797.
. . . Mr. Gerry is nominated envoy to France instead of
Mr. Dana, who has declined, but it is doubtful whether the
aristocratic party in Senate will appoint him. We are very still
just now waiting for European intelligence. May it bring us
the tidings of general peace ! But many doubt it. ...
23d June, 1797.
. . . The Senate approved yesterday Mr. Gerry's nomination,
with six dissentient voices, to wit, Sedgwick, Tracy, Reed, Good-
hue, Ross, and Marshall. The real reason of the opposition was
that Gerry is a doubtful character, not British enough ; but the
ostensible pretence was that he was so obstinate that he would
not make sufficient concessions. . . .
26th June, 1797.
... A vessel has arrived at New York, but we have not
yet got the news, although I am sorry to say that from present
appearances it seems to be the intention of France to prosecute
the war against Great Britain. The aristocrats here give up the
point as to that kingdom, and acknowledge that she is gone
beyond recovery. The situation of their bank and finances and
the mutiny of the fleet seem to have worked a rather late con-
viction upon their minds. Had they been something less preju-
diced in favor of the perpetual power of that country, ours
would be in a better situation now. I dined at the President.
. . . Blair McClanachan dined there, and told the President
that by G he had rather see a world annihilated than this
186 LIFE OF ALBEBT GALLATIN. 1797.
country united with Great Britain ; that there would not remain
a single king in Europe within six months, &c., &c. All that
in the loudest and most decisive tone. It did not look at all
like Presidential conversation. . . .
28th June, 1797.
. . . Mr. Monroe arrived last night. ... I spent two hours
with him, during which he gave us (Jefferson and Burr, who is
also in town) much interesting information, chiefly in relation to
his own conduct and to that of the Administration respecting
himself and France. It appears that he was desirous, as soon
as the treaty had been concluded by Jay, that it should be com-
municated to him, in order that he might lay it with candor and
at once before the Committee of Public Safety ; and he appre-
hends that if that mode had been adopted, France, under the
then circumstances, would have been satisfied, would have ac-
cepted some verbal explanations, and would not have taken any
further steps about it. 1 But he never got the treaty until it
appeared in the newspapers in August, 1795 (it was signed in
November, 1794). The French government received it, of
course, indirectly and without any previous preparations having
been made to soften them. Yet did Mr. Monroe, unsupported
by the Administration here, without having any but irritating
letters to show, for seven months stop their proceedings, giving
thereby full time to our Administration to send powers or any
conciliatory propositions which might promote an accommoda-
tion. But the precious time was lost, and worse than lost;
and it is indeed doubtful whether for a certain length of time
it will be possible to make any accommodation. The time they
chose to recall Monroe was when from his correspondence they
had reason to believe that he had succeeded in allaying the re-
sentment of the French. Then, thinking they had nothing to
fear from France, and that they had used Monroe so as to
obtain every service that he could render, they recalled him,
with the double view of giving to another person the merit of
1 This statement should be compared with Mr. Monroe's published ac-
count of this transaction (View of the Conduct of the Executive, pp.
xix.-xxii.), in order to gather the sense in which Mr. Monroe probably
meant it to be understood.
1797. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 187
terminating the differences and of throwing upon him (Monroe)
the blame of any that had existed before. They were, however,
deceived as to the fact, for, in spite of his honest endeavors, as
soon as the final vote of the House of Representatives in favor
of the treaty was known in France (and long before the letters
of recall had reached that country) the die was cast. Upon the
whole, I am happy to tell you that from my conversation with
Monroe, from his manner and everything about him (things
which are more easily felt than expressed), I have the strongest
impression upon my mind that he is possessed of integrity su-
perior to all the attacks of malignity, and that he had conducted
with irreproachable honor and the most dignified sense of duty.
Sorry am I to be obliged to add that I am also pretty well con-
vinced that the American Administration have acted with a
degree of meanness only exceeded by their folly, and that they
have degraded the American name throughout Europe. If you
want more politics, read Bache, where you will find a letter from
Thomas Paine. I have marked it with his name. . . . The
second mutiny on board the British fleet still subsists, and is
considered as being of very serious nature. Adams says that
England is done over, and I am told that France will not make
peace with that country, but mean to land there.
30th June, 1797.
. . . We give to-morrow a splendid dinner to Monroe at
Oeller's hotel, in order to testify our approbation of his con-
duct and our opinion of his integrity. Jefferson, Judge McKean,
the governor, and about fifty members of Congress will be
there ; for which I expect the Administration, Porcupine & Co.
will soundly abuse us. . . .
Congress adjourned on July 10, and Gallatin at once went to
New Geneva with his wife.
On the 20th November he was again in Philadelphia, writing
to his wife at her father's in New York.
PHILADELPHIA, 1st December, 1797.
. . . Do you not admire our unanimity and good nature?
Yet it is difficult to say whether it is the calm that follows or
188 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1797
that which precedes a storm. On the subject of the address, it
seems to have been agreed on all hands that something general
and inoffensive was the best answer that could be given to the
wise speech of our President. He was highly delighted to find
that we were so polite, and in return treated us with cake and
wine when we carried him the answer. . . '.
19th December, 1797.
. . . Our Speaker has made Harper chairman of several com-
mittees, amongst others of that of Ways and Means, and he is
as great a bungler as ever I knew, very good-hearted, and not
deficient in talents, exclusively of that of speaking, which he cer-
tainly possesses to a high degree ; but his vanity destroys him.
Dana is the most eloquent man in Congress. Sewall is the first
man of that party ; but, upon the whole, I think this Congress
weaker than the last or any former one. The other party have
a small majority, and our members do not attend well as usual.
Add to that that we are extremely deficient on our side in speakers.
Swan wick is sick and quite cast down. I do not believe from
his statement, which he has published, that he will be able to
pay above twelve shillings in the pound. It is extremely unfor-
tunate for us that he and B. McClanachan have been chosen by
our party. Yet, notwithstanding all that, I think that unless
the French government shall treat our commissioners very ill,
this session will pass on quietly and without much mischief
being done. We will attack the mint and the whole establish-
ment of foreign ministers, and will push them extremely close
on both points. Even if we do not succeed in destroying those
useless expenses, we may check the increase of the evil. I have
read Fauchet's pamphlet on the subject of our dispute with
France. There is but one copy, which is in the hands of Ad-
ministration, and I only could obtain a reading in the House.
It is candid, argumentative, well written, and not in the least
tainted with the fashionable French declamation. After a pretty
full refutation of Pickering's arguments on many points, blaming,
however, the Directory in many things, he strongly advises a
reconciliation.
1798. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 189
PHILADELPHIA, 2d January, 1798.
. . . "According to custom, I have been monstrously lazy ever
since I have been here, have seen nobody, not even . . . Mr.
Jefferson, to whom I owe a visit this fortnight past. I mean,
however, within a short time to make a powerful effort and to
pay half a dozen of visits in one morning. . . . My greatest
leisure time is while Congress sits, for we have nothing of any
real importance before us. ...
llth January, 1798.
. . . You wonder at our doing nothing, but you must know
that, generally speaking, our government always fails by doing or
attempting to do and to govern too much, and that things never
go better than when we are doing very little. Upon the whole,
we remain in suspense in relation to the most important subject
that can attract our attention, the success of our negotiation with
France, and till we know its fate we will not, I believe, enter
into any business with much spirit.
19th January, 1798.
. . . Our situation grows critical ; it will require great firm-
ness to prevent this country being involved in a war should our
negotiations with France meet with great delay or any serious
interruption. We must expect to be branded with the usual
epithets of Jacobins and tools of foreign influence. We must
have fortitude enough to despise the calumnies of the war-faction
and to do our duty, notwithstanding the situation in which we
have been dragged by the weakness and party spirit of our Ad-
ministration and by the haughtiness of France. We must pre-
serve self-dignity, not suffer our country to be debased, and yet
preserve our Constitution and our fellow-citizens from the fatal
effects of war. The task is difficult, and will be impracticable
unless we are supported by the body of the American people.
You know that I am not deficient in political fortitude, and I
feel therefore perfectly disposed to do my duty to its full extent
and under every possible circumstance. We have made a violent
attack upon our foreign intercourse, as it relates to the increase
of ministers abroad, of ministerial influence, &c., and we have
made it violent because it is of importance that we should begin
190 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1798.
to assume that high tone which we must necessarily support in
case of worse news from France, and because there is no other
way to make any important impression upon public opinion. . . .
30th January, 1798.
Indeed I am to blame. I should have written to you two
days earlier, and it is no sufficient justification that I have been
interrupted every moment I had set aside to converse with you.
My mind has, it is true, been uncommonly taken up and agitated
by the question now before Congress. The ground is so exten-
sive, the views and principles of the two parties so fully displayed
in the debate, so much yet remains to be said and ideas upon
that subject crowd so much upon my mind, that I think it im-
portant to speak again, and feel afraid that it will not be in my
power to do justice to my own feelings and to the cause in
which we are engaged. The subject has the same effect upon
many others ; it keeps Nicholas and Dr. Jones almost in a fever,
and it has actually made Brent very sick. It is not that we ex-
pect at present to carry the question ; it stands so much on party
grounds that we cannot expect at once to break upon their well-
organized phalanx; but we must lay the foundation in the minds
of the disinterested and moderate part of their own side of the
House of a change as to the general policy of our affairs. We
must show to the President and his counsellors that we under-
stand fully their principles, and we must publish and expose to
the people of America the true grounds upon which both parties
act in and out of Congress. . . .
3d February, 1798.
. . . Although I had intended not to write till to-morrow,
when I will have time to converse more amply with you, yet
having a few minutes to spare this morning I thought you would
be glad to hear something of myself and of our Congressional dis-
pute which has interrupted our debates on the foreign ministers.
As to myself, I am very well and feel in pretty good spirits. I
have been so long used to personal abuse from party that I hardly
knew I had lately received any till your letter informed me that
you had felt on the occasion; but, upon the whole, that circum-
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 191
stance cannot make me unhappy. We have a new acquisition in
our family, Mr. and Mrs. Law (she was, you know, Miss Custis),
both very agreeable, and I feel quite rejoiced that there should
be some female in our circle in order to soften our manners;
indeed, the dispute between Griswold and Lyon shows you what
asperity has taken place between members of Congress. The
facts you now know from the accounts in the papers, the report
of the committee, and Lyon's defence in this morning's Aurora.
I must only add that there is but little delicacy in the usual con-
versation of most Connecticut gentlemen ; that they have con-
tracted a habit of saying very hard things, and that considering
Lyon as a low-life fellow they were under no restraint in regard
to him. No man can blame Lyon for having resented the insult.
All must agree in reprobating the mode he selected to show his
resentment, and the place where the act was committed. As two-
thirds are necessary to expel, he will not, I believe, be expelled,
but probably be reprimanded at the bar by the Speaker. . . .
The once famous affair of Lyon and Griswold is narrated in
every history or memoir that deals with the time, and the facts
are given at large in the Annals of Congress. Mr. Gallatin's
comment on Connecticut manners is supported by ample evidence,
among which the contemporaneous remarks of the Due de Roche-
foucauld-Liancourt may be consulted with advantage, himself
one of the very few thorough gentlemen in feeling who have
ever criticised America. General Samuel Smith, of Maryland,
whose evidence may be supposed impartial, since his party charac-
ter was at this time not strongly marked, told the story of Gris-
wold and Lyon to the committee ; after narrating a bantering
conversation which had been going on in the rear of the House
between Matthew Lyon, of Vermont, Roger Griswold, of Con-
necticut, the Speaker (Dayton, of New Jersey), and others, General
Smith continued :
" Mr. Griswold had removed outside of the bar to where Mr.
Lyon stood. At this time, having left my seat with intention to
leave the House, I leaned on the bar next to Mr. Lyon and front-
ing Mr. Griswold. Mr. Lyon having observed (still directing
himself to the Speaker) that could he have the same opportunity
192 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1798.
of explanation that he had in his own district, he did not doubt
he could change the opinion of the people in Connecticut. Mr.
Griswold then said, ' If you, Mr. Lyon, should go into Connecti-
cut, you could not change the opinion of the meanest hostler in
the State/ To which Mr. Lyon then said, ' That may be your
opinion, but I think differently, and if I was to go into Connecti-
cut, I am. sure I could produce the eifect I have mentioned.'
Mr. Griswold then said, ' Colonel Lyon, when you go into Con-
necticut you had better take with you the wooden sword that
was attached to you at the camp at .' On which Mr. Lyon
spit in Mr. Griswold's face, who coolly took his handkerchief out
of his pocket and wiped his face."
Some days afterwards, while Lyon was sitting at his desk just
before the House was called to order, Griswold walked across
the House and beat him over the head and shoulders " with all
his force" with "a large yellow hickory cane." Lyon disengaged
himself from his desk, got hold of the Congressional tongs, and
attempted to try their power on the head of the Connecticut
member, whereupon Mr. Griswold closed with him and they both
rolled on the floor, various members pulling them apart by the
legs, while the Speaker, justly indignant, cried, " What ! take
hold of a man by the legs ! that is no way to take hold of him !"
Being, however, pulled apart by this irregular process, they went
on to endanger the personal safety of members by striking at
each other with sticks in the lobbies and about the House at
intervals through the day, until at last Mr. H. G. Otis succeeded
in procuring the intervention of the House to compel a suspen-
sion of hostilities. Lyon, though a very rough specimen of
democracy, was by no means a contemptible man, and, politics
aside, showed energy and character in his subsequent career.
Mr. Griswold was one of the ablest and most prominent members
of the Federal party, and also one of the most violent in his
political orthodoxy then and afterwards.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
8th February, 1798.
. . . We are still hunting the Lyon, and it is indeed the
most unpleasant and unprofitable business that ever a respect-
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 193
able representative body did pursue. Enough on that subject,
for I hear too much of it every day. ... I am good for nothing
without you. I think and I smoke and I fret and I sleep and
I eat, but that is really the sum total of the enjoyments both of
my body and soul. I walk not, I visit not, I read not, and,
you know, alas, I write not. . . .
13th February, 1798.
. . . Are you as tired of modern Congressional debates as I
am ? I suspect you wish your husband had no share in them,
and was in New York instead of attending the farcical exhibi-
tion which has taken place here this last week ; and indeed my
beloved Hannah is not mistaken. I feel as I always do when
absent from her, more anxious to be with her than about any-
thing else ; but in addition to that general feeling I am really
disgusted at the turn of public debates, and if nothing but such
subjects was to attract our attention it must be the desire of
every man of sense to be out of such a body. The affectation
of delicacy, the horror expressed against illiberal imputations
and vulgar language in the mouth of an Otis or a Brooks, were
sufficiently ridiculous ; but when I saw the most modest, the
most decent, the most delicate man, I will not say in Congress,
but that I ever met in private conversation, when I saw Mr.
Nicholas alone dare to extenuate the indecency of the act com-
mitted by Lyon, and when I saw at the same time Colonel
Parker, tremblingly alive to the least indelicate and vulgar ex-
pression of the Yermonteer, vote in favor of his expulsion, I
thought the business went beyond forbearance, and the whole of
the proceeding to be nothing more than an affected cant of pre-
tended delicacy or the offspring of bitter party spirit. And
after all that, the question recurs, When shall I go and visit
New York ? Alas, my love, I do not know it. I am bound
here the slave of my constituents and the slave of my political
friends. We do not know which day may bring the most im-
portant business before us. Every vote is important, and our
side of the House is so extremely weak in speakers and in men
of business that it is expected that at least Nicholas and myself
must stay, and at all events be ready to give our support on the
floor to those measures upon which the political salvation of the
194 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1798.
Union may perhaps eventually depend. I feel it, therefore, a
matter of duty now to stay. . . .
23d February, 1798.
. . . Do you want to know the fashionable news of the
day ? The President of the United States has written, in an-
swer to the managers of the ball in honor of G. Washington's
birthday, that he took the earliest opportunity of informing
them that he declined going. The court is in a prodigious
uproar about that important event. The ministers and their
wives do not know how to act upon the occasion ; the friends of
the old court say it is dreadful, a monstrous insult to the late
President; the officers and office-seekers try to apologize for Mr.
Adams by insisting that he feels conscientious scruples against
going to places of that description, but it is proven against him
that he used to go when Vice-President. How they will finally
settle it I do not know ; but to come to my own share of the
business. A most powerful battery was opened against me to
induce me to go to the said ball ; it would be remarked ; it would
look well ; it would show that we democrats, and I specially,
felt no reluctance in showing my respect to the person of Mr.
Washington, but that our objections to levees and to birthday
balls applied only to its being a Presidential, anti-republican
establishment, and that we were only afraid of its being made a
precedent; and then it would mortify Mr. Adams and please
Mr. Washington. All those arguments will appear very weak
to you when on paper, but they were urged by a fine lady, by
Mrs. Law, and when supported by her handsome black eyes
they appeared very formidable. Yet I resisted and came off
conqueror, although I was, as a reward, to lead her in the room,
to dance with her, &c. ; all which, by the by, were additional
reasons for my staying at home. Our club have given me great
credit for my firmness, and we have agreed that two or three of
us who are accustomed to go to these places, Langdon, Brent,
&c., will go this time to please the Law family. . . .
27th February, 1798.
. . . We are pretty quiet at present ; G. and L. business at
an end. The other party found that L. could not be expelled,
1798 THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 195
on account of the assault committed on him, and the question
as to his first misbehavior was already decided in the negative.
They concluded, therefore, not to expel G., and we generally
joined them on the same principle upon which we had acted in
respect to L., and we then proposed to reprimand both ; but
their anxiety to shelter G. from any kind of censure induced
them to reject that proposal 48 to 47 -through the means of
the previous question. . . .
2d March, 1798.
... I spoke yesterday three hours and a quarter on the
foreign intercourse bill, and my friends, who want the speech to
be circulated, mean to have it printed in pamphlets, and have
laid upon me the heavy tax of writing it. I wish you were
here to assist me and correct. Alas, I wish you upon every
possible account. . . .
6th March, 1798.
. . . The task imposed upon me by my friends to write my
speech, of which they are going to print two thousand copies,
leaves me no time to converse with you. I had rather speak
forty than write one speech. I have received your letter, and
will expect you anxiously; the roads are very deep, but the
weather delightful. . . . You will receive by this day's post the
papers containing the French intended decree. It will, I am
afraid, put us in a still more critical situation. They behave
still worse than I was afraid from their haughtiness they would.
May God save us from a war ! Adieu. . . .
1 3th March, 1798.
... I feel now as desirous that you should not be on the
road during this boisterous, damp weather as I was anxious last
week to see you arrived. ... I cannot form any conjecture of
the plans of our statesmen ; they have got a majority, and if they
are unanimous among themselves they may do what they please.
So far as I can judge and hear, it seems that the other despatches
of our commissioners at Paris will not be communicated to us,
under the plea that they contain details which might injure their
personal safety there ; but it is whispered that the true reason is
196 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1798.
because their contents might injure the party, either because they
declare that their powers were not sufficient, or because they inti-
mate that France has no objection to treat with the United States,
but has some personal objections to the individuals appointed for
that purpose. This last reason, if true, appears to me a very bad
plea on the part of France, who have nothing to do, that I can
see, with the personal character or politics of the envoys our
government may think fit to appoint. But it is perhaps appre-
hended by our Administration that a knowledge of the fact would
injure their own character here by evincing a want of sincerity or
of wisdom. I rather think, although it is extremely doubtful, that
the arming merchantmen will not take place ; but it is probable
that the frigates will be armed and a dozen of vessels that may
carry from fourteen to twenty guns be purchased, and both placed
in the hands of the President to act as convoys and to protect the
coast (by coast I mean not only our harbors, but to the extent of
one or two hundred miles off) against the privateers, who may
be expected to come on a spring cruise to take British goods in
our vessels. All this will be very expensive, of little real utility,
and may involve us still deeper. It seems to me that it would be
wiser to wait at all events, to bear with the loss of a few more
captures, and to see whether peace will not be concluded this
spring between France and England, an event which to me ap-
pears highly probable, and if it does not, what will be the result
of the intended invasion. May God preserve to us the blessings
of peace, and may they soon be restored to all the European
nations! . . .
GALLATTN TO MARIA NICHOLSON.
PHILADELPHIA, 10th July, 1798.
... I see the prosecutions of printers are going on. I do not
admire much the manner in which the new editor of the Time-
Piece conducts his paper. Cool discussion and fair statements
of facts are the only proper modes of conveying truth and dis-
seminating sound principles. Let squibs and virulent paragraphs
be the exclusive privilege of Fenno, Porcupine & Co., and let
those papers which really are intended to support Republicanism
candor and moderation to unconquerable firmness. Pieces
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 197
may be written in an animated style without offending decency.
This is the more necessary at a time when the period of perse-
cution is beginning, and at this peculiar crisis prudence might
enforce what propriety at all times should dictate. . . .
The Time-Piece was a newspaper originally edited by Freneau,
the poet, who soon associated Matthew L. Davis in the direction.
After a few months of editorship, Freneau seems to have retired,
and in March, 1798, Davis became the sole responsible editor.
The Time-Piece was short-lived, and expired about six weeks
after Mr. Gallatin's letter was written.
The speech on Foreign Intercourse, made on the 1st March,
1798, was that in which Mr. Gallatin rose to a freer and more
rhetorical treatment of his subject than had yet been his custom.
The motion was to cut off the appropriations for our ministers
in Berlin and Holland, which would have limited our diplo-
matic service to Great Britain, France, and Spain. Mr. Gallatin
began by proving, against the Federalist arguments, that the
House might lawfully refuse appropriations, and then proceeded
to attack the whole system of diplomatic connections and com-
mercial treaties, asking whether, as a matter of fact, we had
derived any commercial advantages from the commercial treaties
we had made, and entering into an eloquent discussion of the
dangers attending increase of executive patronage and influ-
ence. " What has become of the Cortes of Spain ? Of the
States-General of France? Of the Diets of Denmark? Every-
where we find the executive in the possession of legislative,
of absolute powers. The glimmerings of liberty which for a
moment shone in Europe were owing to the decay of the feudal
system." To Mr. Bayard, who had argued that the executive
was the weakest branch of the government and most in danger
of encroachment, he replied : " To such doctrines avowed on this
floor, to such systems as the plan of government which the late
Secretary of the Treasury (Mr. Hamilton) proposed in the con-
vention, may perhaps be ascribed that belief in a part of the
community, the belief, which was yesterday represented as highly
criminal, that there exists in America a monarchico-aristocratic
faction who would wish to impose upon us the substance of the
198 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1798.
British government. I have allowed myself to make this last
observation only in reply to the gentleman who read the paper I
alluded to. 1 It is painful to recriminate ; I wish denunciations
to be avoided, and I am not in the habit of ascribing improper
motives to gentlemen on the other side of the question. Never
shall I erect myself into a high-priest of the Constitution,
assuming the keys of political salvation and damning without
mercy whosoever differs with me in opinion. But what tone is
assumed to us by some gentlemen on this floor? If we com-
plain of the prodigality of a branch of the Administration or
wish to control it by refusing to appropriate all the money which
is asked, we are stigmatized as disorganizers ; if we oppose the
growth of systems of taxation, we are charged with a design of
subverting the Constitution and of making a revolution ; if we
attempt to check the extension of our political connections with
European nations, we are branded with the epithet of Jacobins.
Revolutions and Jacobinism do not flow from that line of policy
we wish to see adopted. They belong, they exclusively belong
to the system we resist ; they are its last stage, the last page in
the book of the history of governments under its influence."
The speech, which was in effect a vigorous and eloquent
defence of Mr. Jefferson's Mazzei letter, although that letter was
barely mentioned in its course, is probably the best ever made on
the opposition side in the Federalist days, and ranks with that
of Fisher Ames on the British treaty, as representing the highest
point respectively attained by the representative orators of the
two parties. Doubtless Mr. Gallatin saw reason in his maturer
age to modify his opinions of commercial treaties, for a large
part of the twelve best years of his life was subsequently passed
in negotiations for commercial treaties with England, France,
and the Netherlands ; possibly, too, he modified his hostility to
diplomatic connections with Europe, for bitter experience taught
him that too little diplomatic connection might produce worse
evils than too much ; but he never overcame his jealousy of
executive power, and never doubted the propriety of his course
in 1798. Whether the time is to come when Mr. Gallatin's views
1 Mr. Coit, of Connecticut, had read Mr. Jefferson's Mazzei letter.
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 199
in regard to the diplomatic service will be universally adopted
may remain a matter for dispute ; the essential point to be re-
membered is that in 1798 the majority in Congress made a de-
liberate and persistent attempt to place extraordinary powers in
the hands of the President, with a view to the possible necessity
for the use of such powers in case of domestic difficulties then
fully expected to occur. The extreme Federalists hoped that a
timely exercise of force on their side might decide the contest
permanently in their favor. They were probably mistaken, for,
as their correspondence shows, 1 there never was a time when
the political formulas of Hamilton, George Cabot, Fisher Ames,
Gouverneur Morris, and Rufus Griswold could have been
applied even in New England with a chance of success ; but it
is none the less certain that a small knot of such men, with no
resources other than their own energy and will, practically created
the Constitution, administered the government under it for ten
years, and at last very nearly overthrew it rather than surrender
their power. Fisher Ames, one of their ablest chiefs, thought in
1806 that there were hardly five hundred who fully shared his
opinions. 2 It was against the theoretical doctrines and ulterior
aims of this political school that Mr. Gallatin was now waging
active war.
The difficulties with France were on the point of a tremendous
explosion, but he avoided so far as possible every public reference
to the subject. As a native of Geneva he had no reason to love
France. Unfortunately, the distinction between Geneva and
France was not one to which his opponents or the public were
likely to pay attention ; to them he was essentially a Frenchman,
and he could not expect to be heard with patience. Neverthe-
less, he was not absolutely silent. As the conduct of the French
Directory pushed our government nearer and nearer to war, he
recognized the fact and accepted it, but urged that if war was
necessary the House should at least avow the fact, and not be
drawn into it by the pretence that it already existed by the act
1 See especially George Cabot to Pickering, 14th February, 1804. Lodge's
Cabot, p. 341.
2 See Works of Fisher Ames, ii. 354.
200 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1798.
of France. On the 27th March, Mr. Gallatin spoke on a reso-
lution then before the House in committee, "that under existing
circumstances it is not expedient for the United States to resort
to war against the French republic/ 7 and after recapitulating the
steps of both governments and the last decree of France, he
said, "I differ in opinion from the gentleman last up (Mr.
Sewall, of Massachusetts) that this is a declaration of war. I
allow it would be justifiable cause for war for this country, and
that on this account it is necessary to agree to or reject the pres-
ent proposition, in order to determine the ground intended to be
taken. For, though there may be justifiable cause for war, if it
is not our interest to go to war the resolution will be adopted.
. . . The conduct of France must tend to destroy that influence
which gentlemen have so often complained of as existing in this
country. Indeed, I am convinced that at the commencement of
her revolution there was a great enthusiasm amongst our citizens
in favor of her cause, which naturally arose from their having
been engaged in a similar contest ; but I believe these feelings
have been greatly diminished by her late conduct towards this
country. I think, therefore, that whether we engage in war or
remain in a state of peace, much need not be apprehended from
the influence of France in our councils."
A few days afterwards, on the 3d April, the President sent to
Congress the famous X.Y.Z. despatches, which set the country
in a flame, and for a time swept away all effective resistance to
the war policy. These despatches were discussed by the House
in secret session, and there are no letters or memoranda of Mr.
Gallatin which reflect his feelings in regard to them. His policy,
however, is clearly foreshadowed by his course before, as it was
consistently carried out by his course after, the excitement. Be-
lieving, as he did, that America had nothing to fear but foreign
war, he preferred enduring almost any injuries rather than resort
to that measure. His conviction that war was the most danger-
ous possible course which the United States could adopt was
founded on sound reason, and was in reality shared by a vast
majority of his fellow-citizens, who were divided in principle
rather by the question whether war could be avoided and whether
resistance was not the means best calculated to prevent it. He
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 201
took clear ground on this subject in a speech made on April 19
in the discussion on war measures :
" The committee is told by the gentleman from South Caro-
lina (Mr. Harper) that if we do not resist, France will go on
step by step in her course of aggressions against this country.
This is mere matter of speculation. It is possible France may
go on in this way. If she goes on to make war upon us, then
let our vessels be used in their full power. Let us not, however,
act on speculative grounds, but examine our present situation,
and, if better than war, let us keep it. The committee has been
told that this doctrine is a doctrine of submission. The gentle-
man calls war by the name of resistance, and they give the
appellation of abject submission to a continuance of forbear-
ance under our present losses and captures. I affix a different
idea to the word submission. I would call it submission to
purchase peace with money. I would call it submission to accept
of ignominious terms of peace. I would call it submission to
make any acknowledgments unworthy of an independent coun-
try. I would call it submission to give up by treaty any right
which we possess. I would call it submission to recognize by
treaty any claim contrary to the laws of nations. But there is
a great difference between surrendering by treaty our rights and
independence as a nation, and saying, ' We have met with cap-
tures and losses from the present European war ; but, as it is
coming to a close, it is not our interest to enter into it, but rather
to go on as we have done/ This I think would be a wise course,
and extremely different from a state of submission."
For these remarks Mr. Gallatin was violently assailed, the
Speaker (Dayton) leading the attack. Perhaps the sting lay,
however, not so much in what the Speaker called its " tame and
submissive language," as in its implied suggestion that Mr. Jay's
treaty, not a merely passive attitude of protest, was the real act
of submission. Whether his policy was correct or not is a
matter of judgment in regard to which enough has already been
said ; but there would seem to have been nothing in his language
or in his sentiments that justified the savageness with which he
was assailed. In truth, after the X.Y.Z. storm burst, Gallatin
was left to bear its brunt alone in Congress, and the forbearance
202 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1798.
which he exercised in regard to personalities was not imitated by
his Opponents; Mr. K. G. Harper, then of South Carolina,
Mr. H. G. Otis, of Massachusetts, and Speaker Dayton, to say
nothing of the Connecticut gentlemen, were as much attached
to this kind of political warfare as Mr, Gallatin was averse to
it, and, the majority having now fairly settled to their side, they
could afford to resort freely to the weapons of majorities every-
where. There was, too, some excuse for the violence of their
attacks, for Mr. Gallatin exhibited very extraordinary powers
during the remainder of this excessively difficult session. Party
feeling never ran so high; he stood exposed to its full force,
and by his incessant activity in opposition concentrated all its
energy upon himself, until to break him down became a very
desirable object, for, though always outvoted on war measures,
his influence was still very troublesome to the Administration.
On the 5th April of this year, Secretary Wolcott wrote to Ham-
ilton : " The management of the Treasury becomes more and
more difficult. The Legislature will not pass laws in gross.
Their appropriations are minute ; Gallatin, to whom they yield,
is evidently intending to break down this Department by charging
it with an impracticable detail." 1 Three weeks later, on the
26th April, Mr. Jefferson wrote from Washington to Mr. Mad-
ison: "The provisional army of 20,000 men will meet some
difficulty. It would surely be rejected if our members were all
here. Giles, Clopton, Cabell, and Nicholas have, gone, and Clay
goes to-morrow. . . . Parker has completely gone over to the
war party. In this state of things they will carry what they
please. One of the war party, in a fit of unguarded passion,
declared some time ago they would pass a citizen bill, an alien
bill, and a sedition bill; accordingly, some days ago Coit laid a
motion on the table of the House of Representatives for modi-
fying the citizen law. Their threats pointed at Gallatin, and it
is believed they will endeavor to reach him by this bill. 772 The
citizen's bill broke down so far as it was aimed at Mr. Gallatin,
the Constitution standing in the way ; but the feeling behind it
1 Gibbs's Administrations, &c., ii. 45.
2 Jefferson's Works, iv. 237.
1798. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 203
was so strong that a serious attempt was made to amend the
Constitution itself. Long afterwards Mr. Gallatin recurred to
this scheme in a letter to Samuel Breck, dated 20th June, 1843. 1
He said, in reply to an inquiry made by Mr. Breck, " I believe
the t black cockade 7 of 1798 to have been worn exclusively by
members of the Federal party, but certainly not by all of them.
Many did object to such external badge ; to what extent it was
adopted I really cannot say, as I have but a general and vague
recollection of that slight incident. In some other respects my
impaired memory is more retentive, and I have not forgotten
acts of kindness. Your mention of Mr. Hare reminds me, and
I do recollect with feelings of gratitude, that his father was the
principal agent in arresting in Pennsylvania an amendment to
the Constitution of the United States, proposed and adopted by
the New England States, which was personally directed against
me. And I may add that, notwithstanding the heat of party
feelings, I was always treated with personal kindness and con-
sideration by Mr. Hare's father and by his connections, the
Willing, Bingham, and Powell families. It is well known that
I think the general policy of the Federal party at that time to
have been erroneous ; but independent of this, which is a matter
of opinion, it certainly became intoxicated. The black cockade
was a petty act of folly that did not originate with the leaders ;
but they committed a series of blunders sufficient alone to have
given the ascendency to their opponents, and which at this time
appears almost incredible."
Mr. Gallatin made no blunders. He led his party into no
untenable positions. He offered no merely factious or dilatory
opposition. Beaten at one point he turned to another, accepting
the last decision as final and contesting the next step with equal
energy. The Federalists, on their part, gave him incessant oc-
cupation. Feeling that the country was with them and that for
once there was no hindrance to their giving to government all
the " energy" it required in order to accord with their theories,
the Administration party in the Legislature, without waiting even
for a request from the President, proceeded to enact bill after bill
1 Gallatin 's Writings, vol. ii. p. 604.
204 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIK 1798.
into law, conferring enlarged or doubtful powers on the Execu-
tive. Two of these, the most famous, are mentioned in Mr.
Jefferson's letter above quoted, the alien and sedition laws.
There were in fact two alien laws: one relating to alien
enemies, which was permanent in its nature and applied only
during periods of declared foreign war; the other relating to
alien friends, and limited in operation to two years. This last
was the subject of hot opposition and almost hotter advocacy.
As enacted, it empowered the President, without process of law,
to order out of the country any alien whatever whom " he shall
judge dangerous" or "shall have reasonable grounds to suspect"
to be dangerous to the public peace and safety ; and in case of
disobedience to the order the alien " shall, on conviction thereof,
be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years" and be denied
the right to become a citizen.
The sedition law, as enacted, was also limited to two years, and
expired on the 3d March, 1801. Its first section was calculated
to annoy Mr. Gallatin, who had always maintained, in opposition
to his opponents, that the famous Pittsburg resolutions of 1792
were not illegal, however ill-advised. These resolutions had
been flung in his face during every exciting debate since he had
entered Congress. The sedition law enacted, first, that any per-
sons who " shall unlawfully combine with intent to oppose" any
measure of government, or to impede the operation of any law, or
to prevent any officer from doing his duty, or who shall attempt
to procure any unlawful combination, shall be guilty of a mis-
demeanor and punished by fine and imprisonment. Whether the
Pittsburg meeting came within the terms of this law was, how-
ever, a matter of mere personal interest, about which Mr. Gallatin
did not trouble himself, but devoted all his labor to the second
section of the bill.
This was certainly vulnerable enough. It enacted that " if
any person shall write, print, utter, or publish," or aid in so
doing, any scandal against the government, or either House, or
the President, with intent to defame, or to excite hatred or un-
lawful combinations against the laws, he shall be punished by
fine and imprisonment.
The alien law came first under consideration, and Mr. Gallatin
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 205
took the ground that under the Constitution Congress had no
power to restrain the residence of alien friends, this power being
among those reserved to the States ; and after arguing this point
he turned to the clause in the Constitution which debarred
Congress from prohibiting "the emigration or importation of
such persons as any of the States shall think proper to admit/'
and maintained that this provision, so far as it related to immi-
grants, would be defeated by the law, which gave the President
the right to remove such persons even though the States might
admit them. His third position was that the law suspended the
right of habeas corpus guaranteed by the Constitution except in
cases of rebellion and insurrection, and that it violated the clause
that " no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law."
The friends of the bill, Sewall and Otis, of Massachusetts,
Bayard, of Delaware,. and Dana, of Connecticut, replied to the
constitutional objections by deriving the authority of Congress
from the power to regulate commerce; from that to lay and
collect taxes, to provide for the common defence and general
welfare ; and ultimately from the essential right of every gov-
ernment to protect itself. Mr. Gallatin made a rejoinder on each
of these heads, and reinforced his own arguments by attacking
the alleged necessity of the measure and dwelling on the conflict
it tended to excite between the general and the State governments.
In the debate that followed, Mr. Harper adverted to the plot
which he asserted to exist, and of which he intimated that the
opposition to this bill was a part, aiming at the betrayal of the
country to a French invading army. To this insinuation Mr.
Gallatin replied with an exhibition of warmth quite unusual
with him ; he turned sharply upon Mr. Harper with the ques-
tion, "Might I not, if I chose to preserve as little regard to
decency as that gentleman, charge him at once with a wilful
intention to break the Constitution and an actual violation of the
oath he has taken to support it ?" Mr. Harper's retort shows
the spirit of the majority, of which he was now the acknowledged
leader. He neither apologized nor disavowed : " When a gentle-
man, who is generally so very cool, should all at once assume such
a tone of passion as to forget all decorum of language, it would
206 LIFE OP ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1798.
seem as if the observation had been properly applied to that
gentleman." Obviously Mr. Gallatin was driven to the wall ;
the majority had no idea of sparing him if he laid himself open
to their attacks, and indeed, at this moment, to crush Mr. Galla-
tin would have been to crush almost the last remnant of parlia-
mentary opposition. Mr. Jeiferson has himself described the
situation at this time in language which, if somewhat exag-
gerated, is, as regards Mr. Gallatin, essentially exact. 1 "The
Federalists' usurpations and violations of the Constitution at
that period, and their majority in both Houses of Congress, were
so great, so decided, and so daring, that, after combating their
aggressions inch by inch without being able in the least to check
their career, the Republican leaders thought it would be best for
them to give up their useless efforts there, go home, get into their
respective Legislatures, embody whatever of resistance they could
be formed into, and, if ineffectual, to perish there as in the last
ditch. All therefore retired, leaving Mr. Gallatin alone in the
House of Representatives and myself in the Senate, where I then
presided as Vice-President. . . . No one who was not a witness
to the scenes of that gloomy period can form any idea of the
afflicting persecutions and personal indignities we had to brook."
Then it was that the Federalist majority, on the 18th May, 1798,
amended the standing rules by providing that no member should
speak more than once on any question, either in the House or in
committee of the whole, an amendment intended to silence Mr.
Gallatin. He laughed at it, and, the House very soon becoming
convinced of its uselessness, the rule was repealed.
The alien bill passed, after a warm but a short debate, by a
vote of 46 to 40, and on the 5th July, ten days before the ses-
sion closed, the sedition bill came down from the Senate. As the
bill then stood, it contained a clause enacting that " if any person
shall, by writing, printing, or speaking, threaten" an officer of
the government " with any damage to his character, person, or
estate," he shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor and
be punished by fine and imprisonment.
Edward Livingston immediately moved that the bill be re-
1 Works, vol. ix. p. 507.
1798. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 207
jected. In opposition to this motion, and in order to prove
the necessity of such extravagant legislation, Mr. Allen, of Con-
necticut, made an elaborate speech, which is still entertaining
and instructive reading. He arraigned the newspapers, and as-
serted that they showed the existence of a dangerous combination
to overturn the government; to this combination Mr. Edward
Livingston was a party, as shown by an extract from his speech
on the alien bill; the New York Time-Piece was one of its
organs, as shown by a tirade against the President ; the Aurora,
of Philadelphia, was another organ, " the great engine of all
these treasonable combinations." These quotations now read
tamely, and it requires a considerable exercise of the imagina-
tion to understand how America could ever have had a society
to which such writings should have seemed dangerous. Mr.
Harper himself, the author of " The Plot," was obliged to
concede that he did not give much weight to the newspapers ; in
his eyes Mr. Edward Livingston was the real offender, and
speeches made in that House were the real objects which the bill
aimed to suppress. Mr. Livingston had in fact announced that
the people would oppose and the States would not submit to the
alien act, and added, in imitation of Lord Chatham's famous
declaration, " They ought not to acquiesce, and I pray to God
they never may." The debate went on in this style, with crimi-
nations and recriminations, until Mr. Gallatin rose. He took the
ground the only ground indeed which he could take in the
present stage of the bill that necessity alone could warrant its
passage ; that the proof of that necessity must be furnished by its
supporters ; that the proof thus far furnished was by no means
sufficient ; that the newspaper paragraphs cited by Mr. Allen
were not of a nature to require such a measure of coercion ; that
the expressions used by members in debate could not be reached
by the bill; that the bill itself as it then stood was in part
useless, in part dependent on the proof of necessity, and had
best be rejected.
The House, by a vote of 47 to 36, refused to reject the bill,
but when, a few days afterwards, they entered on the discussion
of its sections, even Mr. Harper took the lead in advocating
considerable amendments. By his assistance and. that of Mr.
208 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1798.
Bayard the bill was remodelled, and especially a clause was in-
serted allowing evidence of the truth to be given in justification
of the matter contained in the libel, and another giving to the
jury the right to determine the law and the fact. On the bill
as thus amended one day of final debate took place, closed on
the part of the opposition by Mr. Gallatin, and by Mr. Harper
on behalf of the majority.
Mr. Gallatin's speech as reported is quite short, and mostly
devoted to the constitutionality of the measure. He first an-
swered Mr. Otis, who had argued that Congress had the power
to punish libel, because the men who framed the Constitution
were familiar with the common law and had given the judiciary
a common-law jurisdiction, and that this power was not taken
away by the amendment to the Constitution securing the free-
dom of speech and of the press. The argument indeed answered
itself to a great degree, for if the Federal courts had this common
law jurisdiction, why enact this measure which had no other
object than to confer it on them ? But the courts had no such
jurisdiction, and Congress had no power to give it, because it
was conceded that no such power was specifically given, and
yet the Constitution and the laws hitherto made in pursuance
thereof had actually specified the offences for which Congress
might define the punishment. They must therefore fall back on
the " necessary and proper" clause ; but, as this was to be used
only to carry the specific powers into eifect, it could not apply
here : " they must show which of those constitutional powers it
was which could not be carried into eifect unless this law was
passed ;" and finally the amendment which secured the liberty of
speech and of the press had been proposed and adopted precisely
to guard against an apprehended perversion of this " necessary
and proper" clause. This outline was filled up with concise
argument, and comparatively little was said on the merits of the
bill, although it was pointed out that the mere expression of an
opinion was made punishable by it, and how could the truth of
an opinion be proven by evidence? The writing of a paper
which might be adjudged a libel was punishable, even though
not communicated to any one, and this was the rule under which
Sidney suffered. In Pennsylvania the marshal would summon
1798. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 209
the juries, and the marshal was the President's creature. To this
and the other arguments in opposition Mr. Harper replied, and
the bill then passed by a vote of 44 to 41. A week later Con-
gress rose.
So much has already been said of this memorable session that
it would utterly exhaust the patience of readers to give any com-
pleter sketch of Mr. Gallatin's activity in legislation on other
subjects. His share in measures of finance and in opposition
to the abrogation of the French treaties, as well as to the other
war measures, may be passed over ; but one word must be said
on another point.
In March of this year, 1798, a bill for the erection of a gov-
ernment in the Mississippi Territory being before the House, Mr.
Thacher, of Massachusetts, moved an amendment that would
have excluded slavery forever from all the then existing territory
west of Georgia. This amendment was strongly supported by
Mr. Gallatin, on the ground that, if it were rejected, Congress
really established slavery in that country for all time, but he
found only ten members in the House to support Mr. Thacher
and himself.
The session of 1798 closed on the 16th July, and Mr. Gal-
latin returned with his wife to New Geneva. Hard as his posi-
tion was in public life, it was becoming yet more alarming in
his private affairs. The joint-stock company which he had
formed, and in which all his available capital was invested, had
been obliged to act independently, owing to his long absences,
and had been largely controlled by a Genevese named Bour-
dillon, a man of ability, but more fond of speculation than Mr.
Gallatin ever could have been. He had adopted a system of
buying and selling on credit, which he carried further than Mr.
Gallatin approved, and the company had also entered into the
manufacture of glass, an undertaking which promised well, but
which required a considerable expenditure of borrowed money
at the outset. Meanwhile, the country was still suffering from
the collapse of speculation. Eobert Morris was quite bankrupt,
and Gallatin could recover neither land nor money. Among the
Gallatin papers is an autograph which tells its own story in this
relation :
14
210 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1798.
DEAR SIR, Asking you to come here is not inviting you
as I wish to a pleasant place, but, as I want an opportunity of
conversing with you a few minutes, I hope you will give me a
call as soon as your convenience will permit.
I am your obedient servant,
EGBERT MORRIS.
Monday morning, 10th Dec., 1798.
Hon'ble ALBERT GALLATIN.
This note is endorsed in Mr. Gallatin's hand, " Written from
city gaol."
To anxiety in connection with his private affairs was added a
certain degree of embarrassment arising from his political situa-
tion as representative of a district which was not his residence
and to which he was almost a total stranger. It is an extraordi-
nary proof of his importance to his party that he should have
been three times re-elected to Congress over all local opposition.
This year he went so far as to decline a re-election, and in June
sent early notice of his intention to Judge Brackenridge, in order
that he might take advantage of it if he chose ; but Mr. Brack-
enridge absolutely rejected all idea of coming forward, and united
with others in urging Mr. Gallatin to remain. No steps were
taken to provide a new candidate, and when, late in September,
a letter was at last received from Mr. Gallatin containing the
bare consent to serve if re-elected, the season \yas already so far
advanced that a new candidate could hardly have been put in
the field. In spite of his private interests and of what was
more important still, the wishes of his wife, who was cruelly
situated during these long separations, Mr. Gallatin was in a
manner compelled to remain in public life. Beyond a doubt all
his true interests lay there, and he knew it, yet these compli-
cations, resulting from the theories of his boyhood and their
conflict with all the facts of his character, continued to embarrass
his situation during his whole public career.
A few weeks at New Geneva were all the vacation he could
obtain, and these in the turmoil of an election. The war
fever against France had been employed by the Federalists to
strengthen the hands of government, and no one now denies that
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 211
the Federalists carried this process too far ; the alien and sedition
laws were unwise; the greatest of all the Federalists, next to
Washington, John Marshall, of Virginia, did not hesitate to
avow this opinion at the time, though at the risk of being ruled
out of the party by his New England allies ; but a more curious
example of Federalist temper is furnished by the constitutional
amendment proposed by Massachusetts :
COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.
In the House of Representatives, June 28, 1798.
... It is the wish and opinion of this Legislature that any
amendment which may be agreed upon should exclude at all
events from a seat in either branch of Congress any person who
shall not have been actually naturalized at the time of making
this amendment, and have been admitted a citizen of the United
States fourteen years at least at the time of such election.
This amendment was universally understood to be aimed at
Mr. Gallatin, yet it is not easy to see how its supporters could
have expected its adoption unless they looked forward to a devel-
opment of party power as a result of the war fever, and a sub-
stantial eradication of the Republicans, such as would leave no
bounds to their own sway. On the other hand, the Republicans
were not behindhand in their acts of defence. They believed,
not without ground/ that the Federalists aimed at a war with
France and an alliance with England for the purpose of creating
an army and navy to be used to check the spread of democracy
in America ; already the army had been voted and Hamilton had
been made its commander, in fact if not in name. A collision
between the two parties was imminent, and Virginia prepared
for it on her side as the Federalists were doing on theirs. She
armed her militia and made ready to seize the government ar-
senals. Her Legislature and that of Kentucky took in advance
the ground that was to sustain their acts, and Mr. Madison him-
1 See the letters of Wolcott to Ames, 29th December, 1799, and Ames to
Wolcott, 12th January, 1800. Gibbs's Administrations, &c., ii. 313-321
212 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1798.
self drew the famous nullification resolves of Virginia, in which
he declared that Virginia was " in duty bound to interpose for
arresting the progress of the evil," and did " hereby declare" the
alien and sedition laws " unconstitutional and not law, but utterly
null, void, and of no force or effect." It is true that the words
italicized were struck out by the Legislature; but the principle
remained. What Mr. Gallatin thought of these measures no-
where appears, but there is among his papers a copy of the
Virginia resolutions as adopted, which was endorsed by him
at a much later period : " Moved by Taylor, of Caroline. Mr.
Madison was not member of Legislature at that session. At the
ensuing session he drew the report justifying the resolutions as
well as he could." Mr, Madison continued all his life to justify
these resolutions " as well as he could," but the only justification
they were susceptible of receiving was one of history and not of
law. They formed a foundation for revolution, if revolution
proved unavoidable.
The session of 1798-99 opened in the midst of a highly-
excited political feeling. The two parties were face to face, and
the Union was in the utmost peril ; all that was needed to insure
collision was war with France, for in that case the repressive
measures adopted or contemplated by the Hamiltonian Federalists
must have been put in force, and both parties were well aware
what would result. Meanwhile, Mr. Gallatin, aided only by
John Nicholas, of Virginia, carried on the opposition as he best
could. Cautious as ever, he rarely risked himself in a position
he could not maintain, and his boldest sallies were apt to be
made in order to cover the retreat of less cautious friends, like
Edward Livingston, who were perpetually quitting the lines
to fight in advance of their leader. How Mr. Gallatin was
then regarded by his party is best seen in the letters of Curtius,
which had a great vogue during this winter and were reprinted
in Bache's paper, afterwards the Aurora. Their author, John
Thompson, was looked upon as a most brilliant young man, and,
since his age was but twenty-three, it is probable that he might
have one day worked through the stilted and artificial style and
thought of this early production and developed into something
ripe and strong, although it must be confessed that the reader
1798. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 213
who now runs his eye over these pages of ponderous invective
addressed to John Marshall is strongly inclined to smile at the
expressions as well as at the thought. At all events, they serve
to show how Mr. Gallatin was regarded by at least one young
Virginian of unusual promise, whose language was an echo of
party feeling, however florid in expression.
"Mr. Gallatin has been persecuted with all the detestable
rancor of envy and malice. The accuracy of his information, the
extent of his knowledge, the perspicuity of his style, the moder-
ation of his temper, and the irresistible energy of his reason-
ing powers render him the ablest advocate that ever appeared
in the cause of truth and liberty. Patient and persevering,
temperate and firm, no error escapes his vigilance, no calumny
provokes his passions. To expose the blunders and absurdities
of his adversaries is the only revenge which he will condescend
to take for their insolent invectives. Serene in the midst of
clamors, he exhibits the arguments of his opponents in their
genuine colors, he divests them of the tinsel of declamation and
the cobwebs of sophistry, he detects the most plausible errors,
he exposes the most latent absurdities, he holds the mirror up
to folly, and reasons upon every subject with the readiness of
intuition and the certainty of demonstration. Elevated above
the intrigues of parties and the weaknesses of the passions, he is
never transported into any excess by the zeal of his friends or
the virulence of his enemies. His object is the happiness of the
people ; his means, economy, liberty, and peace ; his guide, the
Constitution. The sympathies which fascinate the heart and
mislead the understanding have never allured him from the
arduous pursuit of truth through her most intricate mazes.
Never animated by the impetuous and turbulent feelings which
agitate popular assemblies, he preserves in the midst of contend-
ing factions that coolness of temper and that accuracy of thought
which philosophy has hitherto claimed as the peculiar attribute
of her closest meditations. He unites to the energy of eloquence
and the confidence of integrity the precision of mathematics, the
method of logic, and the treasures of experience. His opponents
slander him and admire him; they assail him with ignorant
impertinence and pitiless malice, and yet they feel that he is
214 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1798.
the darling of philosophy, the apostle of truth, and the favorite
votary of liberty. . . . The men who are supported by a foreign
faction have the effrontery to vilify him because he is a foreigner.
. . . This foreigner has defended the Constitution against the
attacks of native Americans, and has displayed a noble ardor in
the defence of his adopted country/ 7 . . .
Critical as the situation was, and trying to the temper and
courage of a party leader, it had nevertheless some conspicuous
advantages for Gallatin. He had nothing to gain by deserting
his post and retiring to- the safe shelter of a State Legislature.
The nullification of an Act of Congress had no fascinations for
him. Like other foreign4)orn citizens, in this respect like Mr.
Hamilton himself, Gallatin felt the force of his larger allegiance
to the Union more strongly than men like Jefferson and Madison,
Fisher Ames or Roger Griswold,, whose heartiest attachments
were to their States,, and who were never quite at their ease ex-
cept on the soil and in the society of their birthplace. Gallatin
was equally at home in Virginia, in Pennsylvania, and in New
York. It is curious to observe tha>t even in argument he rarely
attempted to entrench himself behind States' rights without a
perceptible betrayal of discomfort and a still more evident want
of success. His triumphs must necessarily be those of a national
leader upon national ground, and these triumphs were helped
rather than hurt by that defection among his friends which left
him to sustain the contest alone. There was no one to control
his freedom of action, and there was little danger that his party
would refuse to follow where he led, when they had no other
leader. Moreover,, even in that day,, when party feeling ran higher
than ever since, there was. no such party tyranny as grew up after-
wards in Americaiu politics^ During the six turbulent years of
Gallatini's Congressional service there were but two meetings of
his party associates in Congress called to deliberate on their polit-
ical action : the first was after the House had asserted its abstract
right to decide on the propriety of making appropriations neces-
sary to carry a treaty into effect, whether such appropriations
should be made with respect to the British treaty ; the other was
in this year, 1798, to decide upon the course to be pursued after
the hostile and scandalous conduct of the French Directory. On
1798. THE LEGISLATUKE. -1789-1801. 215
both occasions the party was divided, and the minority were left
to vote as they pleased without being considered as abandoning
their party principles. 1 Under such circumstances an honest
man might belong to a party, and a leader might remain an
honest man ; his action was not impeded by the dictation of a
caucus, and his personal authority and influence were irresistible.
If the discipline and unanimity of his own party were in his
favor, on the other hand the strength of his opponents was more
apparent than real. In the face of a foreign war the Federalists
were in equal peril whether they advanced or whether they re-
ceded. The Hamiltonian Federalists were ardent for war, for
an army, and for coercive measures against domestic opposition ; 2
the moderate Federalists, probably a large majority of the party
with the President at their head, would have been glad to
recede with credit. Under these circumstances Mr. Gallatin
adopted the only safe and sensible line of conduct open to
him; leaving the field of foreign relations entirely alone, and
abandoning every attempt to stand between the exasperated
majority and the corrupt French Directory, he turned his atten-
tion exclusively to domestic affairs, to the necessity for economy,
to the alien and sedition laws, and to Executive encroachments.
Within these limits he was ready and able to carry on a vigor-
ous and effective campaign, and accordingly he reappeared at the
opening of the session of 1798-99 with as little hope of a majority
as ever, but determined to maintain his position and to assert his
strength. At the very outset this determination brought him
sharply in contact with his old antagonist, Harper, of South
Carolina, in debate on the principle of " Logan's Act," by which
it was made a high misdemeanor for any man to carry on " di-
rectly or indirectly any verbal or written correspondence or inter-
course with any foreign government" or its officers with intent
to influence its measures in any dispute with the United States.
Dr. Logan, of Philadelphia, had constituted himself a negotiator
with the French nation, and his conduct gave rise to the Act.
1 See Gallatin's Writings, iii. 553.
2 See the letter of George Cabot to Wolcott of 6th Oct6ber, 1798. Lodge's
Cabot, p. 168. The letter is printed in Gibbs's Administrations, &c., as of
25th October, vol. ii. p. 109.
216 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1798.
Mr. Gallatin opposed the resolution which directed a committee
to report such a bill, and he concluded a speech by threatening
retaliation on those who imputed motives to him and his party
after the manner which Mr. Harper greatly affected :
u I should have been glad to have avoided any insinuations of
party motives ; but if motions are laid upon the table to bring
about again and again declamations such as have been heard, full
of the grossest insinuations, all I can say is that I shall be ready
to repel them. If it is the intention of gentlemen constantly to
make it appear we are a divided people, I am not willing to stand
mute as a mark to be shot at. I shall attack them in my turn
as to their motives and principles ; I will carry war into their
own territory and oppose them on their own ground."
Mr. Harper responded to this challenge with a defiance that
carried an innuendo with it, the meaning of which, whether
public or private in its direction, was not and is not obvious :
" Whom does the gentleman expect to frighten by this menace?
Let me remind him, before he begins, of an old proverb on which
he will do well seriously to reflect: ' A man living in a glass house
should never throw stones at his neighbors/ The gentleman's
own habitation is exceedingly brittle. A small pebble will be
sufficient to demolish it. Let him therefore beware how he
rashly provokes a retort."
And Mr. Harper followed up this defiance by charging Mr.
Gallatin himself with gross offences on the score of personality
and insinuations. To this Mr. Gallatin at once replied, and his
reply is characteristic :
" Notwithstanding what the gentleman from South Carolina
has insinuated to the contrary, I believe it will be allowed that
the manner in which I argue upon any proposition is as unexcep-
tionable as that of any other member. It is not my custom to
depart from a question under discussion ; still less have I done it,
and that times without number, as that gentleman has done, for
the purpose of introducing declamation on the conduct and mo-
tives, not of one man, but of all who differ from him in opinion
with respect to his favorite measures. By ' offensive war' I did
not mean personal attack, but a retaliation of that kind of attack
which the gentleman from South Carolina himself made. If
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 217
that member thinks proper to misrepresent the motives of the
party opposed to him, I will myself retaliate, not by personality
nor by vague assertions, but by bringing forth facts to show the
true motives of the party to which that gentleman belongs. As
to the personal attacks which he says I have made upon him.
what are they ? That I charged that gentleman two years ago
with not understanding the subject of revenue. Is this person-
ality ? Certainly not. How could I resist an argument on the
subject of revenue, made by that gentleman, better than by show-
ing that he does not understand the subject, if that is true ? And
I think, indeed, the gentleman ought to be obliged to me for
having told him so ; because it led him to attend to the subject,
and I believe he understands it much better now than he did
then. Unconscious as I am of having made any personal attack
upon the gentleman from South Carolina, I shall not be deterred
on a proper occasion from carrying into effect that kind of offen-
sive war I alluded to, from that investigation of the true motives
of that gentleman's party, by any threats of personal retaliation,
especially from that gentleman. Of whatever materials my
house may be composed, it is at least proof against any pebble
which that gentleman may cast against it. I believe that both
my private and political character, when compared with that of
that member, are not in much danger of being hurt by any
insinuations coming from that quarter."
This was perhaps the sharpest thrust that Mr. Gal latin ever
allowed himself to make in debate, and its full force could only
be appreciated on the spot, where both men were best known.
During the session he resumed his attacks on the navy, which
it was proposed to augment by building six seventy-fours. The
President in his speech and the committee in their report had
dwelt upon the effect of the naval force already created, in re-
ducing the dangers of capture and the rates of insurance. Mr.
Gallatin criticised this argument at some length, and then pro-
ceeded to impress the necessity of economy, fortifying himself
by a statement which showed that the expense of the permanent
establishment, as it now stood, exceeded the revenue by half a
million dollars, to which it was proposed to add the cost of a
navy. In a second and more elaborate speech, a few days later,
218 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1798.
he returned to the general question of the advantages of a navy
and the unsoundness of the proposition that commerce required
one for its protection, or that the commerce of any European
state had in fact been protected by her ships of war. England
alone had required a naval force for reasons which did not exist
in the United States. Commerce depended on wealth and indus-
try, not on a navy ; the expense of a naval establishment bore
with disproportionate weight on domestic industry. " We have
had no navy, no protection to our commerce. During the course
of the present war we have been plundered by both parties in a
most shameful manner. . . . Yet year after year our exports and
imports have increased in value." He then discussed the ques-
tion of increasing the national burdens for the purpose of creat-
ing a navy. Mr. Harper had taken the ground that this increase
was not to be feared ; that the national means increased more
rapidly than the national burdens ; that we paid less taxes than
other nations and could bear an increase of them. " I am not
surprised/ 7 said Mr. Gallatin, " that we should at this time pay
less taxes than Great Britain, Holland, and France ; but paying
what we do at present, if we follow their steps, as we are now
proposing to do, by building a navy and increasing our debt,
it cannot be doubted that before our system has been as long
in existence as theirs have been we shall pay as much as they
do. What do we pay now? To the general government ten
millions of dollars. How much do we pay to, the State gov-
ernments ? How much for poor-rates, county taxes, &c. ? Sup-
pose these do not exceed two millions of dollars ; that will
make twelve millions of dollars to be paid by four millions
of white people, about three dollars a head annually. I do
not think this is a very low tax." And he closed by recurring
to his favorite proposition that the effect of a navy would be
merely to draw us into the political movement of Europe. " I
know not," said he, " whether I have heretofore been indulging
myself in a visionary dream, but I had conceived, when con-
templating the situation of America, that our distance from the
European world might have prevented our being involved in
the mischievous politics of Europe, and that we might have
lived in peace without armies and navies and without being
1799. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 219
deeply involved in debt. It is true in this dream I had con-
ceived it would have been our object to have become a happy
and not a powerful nation, or at least no way powerful except
for self-defence."
The navy having been provided for, the House fell into a dis-
pute on the reference of certain petitions against the alien and
sedition laws. Matthew Lyon, the member from Vermont, had
been, during the summer, prosecuted, convicted, and imprisoned
under the sedition law. There was great vehemence of feeling
on both sides regarding this law, and the majority in the House
were unwilling even to hear it discussed. Mr. Gallatin took the
occasion to disavow all idea of encouraging resistance to it. " I
do not expect the alien law to be repealed, though I have hopes
that the sedition law may be repealed ; and though I do not be-
lieve the alien law to be supported by the Constitution, yet I wish
the people to submit to it. So far from desiring to inflame the
public opinion on account of it or anything else, I would endeavor
to calm the minds of the people, because I know that whenever
anarchy shall be produced in any part of the country it will ruin
the cause which I wish to support, and tend only to give addi-
tional power to the Executive department of the government,
which, in my opinion, already possesses too much/' A few days
afterwards occurred the curious scene mentioned by Mr. Jeiferson
in his letter of 26th February, 1799, to Mr. Madison: "Yester-
day witnessed a scandalous scene in the House of Representa-
tives. It was the day for taking up the report of their committee
against the alien and sedition laws, &c. They held a caucus
and determined that not a word should be spoken on their side in
answer to anything which should be said on the other. Gallatin
took up the alien and Nicholas the sedition law ; but after a little
while of common silence they began to enter into loud conversa-
tions, laugh, cough, &c., so that for the last hour of these gen-
tlemin's speaking they must have had the lungs of a vendue
master to have been heard. Livingston, however, attempted to
speak. But after a few sentences the Speaker called him to order
and to'd him what he was saying was not to the question. It
was impossible to proceed. The question was taken and carried
in favor of the report, fifty-two to forty-eight ; the real strength
220 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1799.
of the two parties is fifty-six to fifty. But two of the latter have
not attended this session."
These two speeches of Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Nicholas were
published in pamplet form and widely circulated. That of Mr.
Gallatin was devoted to answering the report of the committee,
and followed closely the arguments of that paper; he urged that
the doctrine of constructive powers, on which Congress rested its
belief of the necessity and propriety of this Act, " substituted in
that clause of the Constitution a supposed usefulness or propriety
for the necessity expressed and contemplated by the instrument,
and would, in fact destroy every limitation of the powers of
Congress. It will follow that instead of being bound by any
positive rule laid down by their charter, the discretion of Con-
gress, a discretion to be governed by suspicions, alarms, popular
clamor, private ambition, and by the views of fluctuating fac-
tions, will justify any measure they may choose to adopt." There
was no good answer to this objection, and none has ever been
made, but nevertheless it is quite clear that Congress alone can
decide upon the necessity and propriety of any Act intended to
carry its powers into effect, and that there exists no force in the
government which can control its decision. The "necessary and
proper" clause, dangerous as it was and is, did not become less
dangerous by the defeat of the Federalists and their expulsion
from power. The time came when Mr. Gallatin and his present
opponents stood in positions precisely reversed, and when he was
compelled by the force of circumstances to ask for powers quite
as dangerous as those he was now arguing against. Congress
granted them, and he exercised them, greatly against his will
and amid the denunciations of his Federalist enemies. The logic
of events not infrequently proved, in Mr. Gallatin's experience,
more effective than all his theoretical opinions.
Already, however, a week before this speech was delivered,
an event had occurred which entirely changed the situation
of affairs and made Mr. Gallatin's position comparatively easy.
The President suddenly intervened between the two excited par-
ties, and, taking the matter into his own hands, without consult-
ing his Cabinet, without the knowledge of any of his friends,
on the 19th February, 1799, sent to the Senate the nomination
1799. THE LEGISLATUEE. 1789-1801. 221
of William Vans Murray as minister to the French republic.
This nomination fell like a thunder-bolt between the conflicting
forces. At first its full consequences were not understood ; only
by slow degrees did it become clear that it meant the expulsion
from power of the Hamiltonian wing of the party and the end
of their whole system of politics. Their war with France, their
army, their navy, their repressive legislation, all fell together.
The immediate dangers, which had threatened civil war, dis-
appeared. A violent schism in the Federal ranks immediately
followed, and the overthrow of that party in the next election
became almost inevitable.
Before these startling changes were fully understood by either
party, the Fifth Congress came to its end, on the 4th March,
1799, and Mr. Gallatin at once set out for Fayette to rejoin his
wife and struggle with the financial difficulties that now per-
plexed his mind. After long hesitation, he had taken on the
part of his firm a contract for supplying arms to the State of
Pennsylvania. Like most of his financial undertakings, this
became a source of loss rather than of profit, and it was probably
fortunate that his acceptance of the Treasury Department in 1801
obliged him to dissolve his partnership and wind up its affairs.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
PHILADELPHIA, 7th December, 1798.
. . . Once more I am fixed at Marache's, and write you
from the fire-corner in my old front room. I wrote you a few
lines from Lancaster, which I hope you have received. I could
not make my letter any longer, and it was with difficulty I could
even write at all. I arrived there after dark, mistook the tavern
I intended to have lodged at, and took my lodgings at an old
German Tory who happened to know me. He was a little tipsy,
followed me to my room where I was writing, in order to have
some political conversation with me, and was, at the time whilst
I was writing my letter to you, reading me a lecture to prove to
me that the Hessian fly was improperly so called, that Porcupine
had proven it to be of French extraction, and that it was a just
cause of war against that nation. Saturday night I lodged com-
222 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1798.
fortably at Downingstown, where many kind inquiries were made
about you. The weather changed during the night, and Sunday
we had almost all day a cold, chilling rain. William Findley
joined me in the morning at Downing's, and we made shift to go
that evening as far as Buck. Monday was a fine day, and at nine
o'clock I was at breakfast in Marache's parlor with Mr. Lang-
don, who arrived a few minutes after me. Havens joined us the
same day, as did Elmendorf the following and Nicholas yesterday.
Dr. Jones is not yet in town. . . . The account of my business
in Europe is as folio weth : 1st. They have sold my grand-
father's estate and paid all his debts, which (on account of losses
of rents, &c.) amounted to about 200 dollars more than what
they sold the estate for. The price it sold for is less than one-
half of what it was worth before the French revolution. But
my orders were positive to sell and to pay all the debts, although
they amounted to more than the proceeds of the estate, in order
to do full honor to the memory of my parents. Thus their in-
heritance has cost me 200 dollars, instead of leaving me 6000 as
they expected, but I could not have reconciled it to my feelings
that any individual had lost a single half-penny either by me or
by them. 2d. My annuities in France, amounting to about 3000
livres a year (555 dollars), have in four years produced 369 livres
cash (not quite 80 dollars), and the principal, which at the begin-
ning of the revolution was worth about 5000 dollars, has been
paid off in various species of paper which are worth now exactly
300 dollars cash. 3d. My share of the Dutch inheritance con-
sists of 15,000 guilders (6000 dollars) in the Dutch public funds,
333 pounds sterling in the English South Sea stock, and one-
sixth undivided part of a sugar plantation in Surinam. The
effect of the French and Dutch revolutions on the Dutch funds
has been to sink them 60 per cent., so that my 6000 dollars there
are worth only 2000. You may see by that that the French
revolution has cost me exactly 16,000 dollars, to wit: 6000 loss
on my grandfather's inheritance, 6000 on the interest and princi-
pal of my annuities in France, and 4000 on the Dutch stock.
Yet the Federals call me a Frenchman, in the French interest
and forsooth in the French pay. Let them clamor. I want
no reward but self-approbation, and yours, my beloved, too.
1798. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 223
... On the other hand, my friends' letters are as affection-
ate and tender as I could expect, and more than from my long
neglect I deserved. Many things for you. They say that at a
former period they would have insisted on my bringing you to
Europe, but think that Providence has placed us in a better
situation. And so do I. ... As to politics, you know the de-
struction of the French fleet in Egypt. The news of peace being
made by them at Radstat with the Empire and Emperor is gen-
erally believed. That they have found it their interest to change
their measures with all neutrals, and that an honorable accom-
modation is in the power of our Administration is, in my opinion,
a certain fact. We are to have the speech only to-morrow
(Saturday). I expect it will be extremely violent against an
insidious enemy and a domestic faction. They (the Federals)
avow a design of keeping up a standing army for domestic pur-
poses, for since the French fleet is destroyed they cannot even
affect to believe that there is any danger of French invasion.
General Washington, Hamilton, Pinckney, are still in town. In
their presence and at the table of Governor Mifflin, Hamilton
declared that a standing army was necessary, that the aspect of
Virginia was threatening, and that he had the most correct and
authentic information that the ferment in the western counties
of Pennsylvania was greater than previous to the insurrection
of 1794. You know this to be an abominable lie. But I sup-
pose that Addison & Co. have informed him that the people
turning out on an election day was a symptom of insurrection.
Pickering says that militia are good for nothing unless they have
50,000 men of regular troops around which to rally. When
John Adams was informed that the Batavian republic had offered
their mediation to accommodate the disputes between this country
and France, he answered, " I do not want any mediation." . . .
14th December, 1798.
. . . The papers will show you the speech of the President
more moderate than we expected. For by offering terms of
peace in case France shall send an ambassador, and I believe
they will do it, he has left an opening to negotiation which was
not perhaps desired by all his faction. If we consider that at
224 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1798.
the same time he openly disclaims any idea of alliance with any
nation, and if it is also remembered that from the wisdom of our
conduct all our trade now centres in Great Britain, and that this
last nation, being also now the most favored here, derives in fact
greater benefit from our continuing to act in the same manner we
have lately done than from our becoming actually parties to the
war ; it will not appear improbable that a refusal on the part of
England to enter into an alliance with us except on such terms
as even our Administration would not or dared not accept, is the
true occasion of the apparent change. I do not enclose the de-
bates, since Bache has reprinted them from Claypoole. We have
thought better to let the answer to the address go without debate,
as we mean, if possible, to avoid fighting on foreign ground.
Their clamor about foreign influence is the only thing we have to
fear, and on domestic affairs exclusively we must resist them. . . .
21st December, 1798.
. . . Here government proceeds slowly. We have not yet
received the promised communication of French affairs ; we un-
derstand that the object of the Executive party will be to obtain
from us the building of six 74-gun ships and something that may
increase the number of Federal volunteers and convert a greater
part of the militia into an army. As to ourselves, we will avoid
French questions and foreign ground, and, when our House is
full, make an attempt against the sedition and alien bills. Reso-
lutions to declare them unconstitutional, null and void, are now
before the Legislature of Virginia, and will probably be carried
by a large majority. The amendment to the Constitution (to ex-
clude me) proposed by Massachusetts has also been recommended
by the four other New England States and rejected by Maryland.
It will, I believe, be recommended by Pennsylvania, as the party
have got a majority in both Houses. All that is very ridiculous,
for they have nothing to do with it unless two-thirds of both
Houses of Congress shall first recommend it, and then three-
fourths of the States must again take it into consideration and
ratify it. I do not believe it will even be taken under consider-
ation by Congress, and if it is, it will be rejected. Poor, weak
Governor Henry recommended its adoption to the Legislature
1799. THE. LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 225
of Maryland in his last speech. They rejected it almost unani-
mously. The poor old gentleman is since dead. . . .
4th January, 1799.
. . . Another year has revolved over our heads, and on a retro-
spect (how shall I ever dare to accuse you with want of fortitude
or resignation ?) I mark it as one of those in which I have ex-
perienced most unhappiness. Take notice, however, that I do
not set it down as one of those in which I have been least happy.
... I think that no man ever felt less uneasiness from a mere
loss of money than I do. The folly of applying a part of our
property to the building of houses, &c., the bad sale of my lands
to Mr. Morris, the final loss of the balance of 3000 dollars he
owed me, the eventual loss of the 1000 dollars I had lent to Ba-
dollet in our company's business and which he has consumed, the
almost total destruction of what I might have called a handsome
estate, I mean my property in Europe, and I may add of my
future prospects there, all these, although they are losses in-
curred since our union, have never had the least effect on my
spirits or happiness. To be in debt was at all times viewed by
me with a kind of horror, and that feeling has become so much
the habit of my mind that it has perhaps disarmed me from that
fortitude which is necessary in order to meet any of the accidents
of life ; at least I am sure that I cannot exercise it in that par-
ticular instance. Hence the egregious folly, knowing myself as
I did, ever to have entered in business with anybody, so as to
put it in the power of any person to involve me in a situation in
which no possible consideration would have induced me volun-
tarily to fall. A folly still more aggravated by the knowledge I
had that I could not personally attend myself, and that the busi-
ness would be chiefly conducted by a man whose disposition and
turn of mind were unknown to me. . . . From all these consider-
ations arises that fluctuation of mind which you cannot but have
observed in my correspondence on the subject of the contract for
arms. . . . Should I agree to that contract, and should we fail
in the execution from any accident whatever, it is a risk of
26,000 dollars, that is to say, more than we as a company, and
I as an individual, are worth. . . .
15
226 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1799.
18th January, 1799.
... I begin to think that one of the causes of my opposition
to a great extension of Executive power is that constitutional
indolence which, notwithstanding some share of activity of mind,
makes me more fit to think than to act. I believe that I am well
calculated to judge and to determine what course ought to be fol-
lowed either in private or public business. But I must have
executive officers who will consult me and act for me. In that
point of view my connection with Bourdillon was unfortunate.
. . . My eyes are no better. I neither read nor write after dark,
and I go to bed earlier. But every morning when I rise, almost
an hour elapses before I can read without feeling something like
fatigue. In the evening I might read if I chose ; it is only out of
caution that I have given it up. Hence I have but very little
time to do anything whatever. For rising at 9, attending Con-
gress from 11 till 3, and, it being dark almost immediately
after dinner, I have literally but one hour, from 10 to 11, to
read or write anything whatever. I have made this year no
statement and have prepared myself for no business in Congress.
As to Congress, we stand on higher ground than during last ses-
sion, and can feel that a change of public opinion in the people
and of confidence in the Executive party has taken place. . . .
25th January, 1799.
... I have this day, upon mature consideration, taken the
contract for arms in my own name (this last was necessary, as the
application had been made and reported upon by the quarter-
master-general of Pennsylvania in my name), and have only got
inserted as a proviso that I might deliver the arms either in the
western country or in Philadelphia, so that if any unforeseen
accident should prevent a completion of the contract at home
I might be enabled to transfer it to some one person here, and
not run the risk to which I had alluded in my gloomy letter to
you. . . .
1st February, 1799.
... I have very much recovered my spirits, and feel ready to
continue my exertions to extricate ourselves. I think we have
well-grounded hopes to do it within a reasonable time, and your
1799. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 227
last letter on the success of the last blast, although it does not
dazzle me, induces me to believe that we may not finally be losers
by those glass-works which have caused me so much anxiety and
have so much contributed to involving us in our difficulties.
You ask, " Who is Curtius ?" Poor fellow ! I am afraid by this
time I can only inform you who he vxis. For by the last post
from Petersburg, in Virginia, we hear that he was on the point
of death by a pleurisy, and no hopes left of his recovery. His
name was John Thompson, his age only twenty-three, too young
to be Giles's successor in the ensuing Congress, but would have
undoubtedly been elected in the following one. One of the
brightest geniuses of Virginia and the United States; spoke
with as much eloquence as he wrote, and remarkable for exten-
sive information and immense assiduity. His loss will be as
severe to the Republican interest as any we have yet felt. I
never saw him, and he knew me only from report and from my
political conduct. . . .
1st March, 1799.
... I have been overwhelmed with business since my last to
you. I have been obliged to correct for the press two speeches
on the navy, which I enclose ; you will find, however, that they
are not written by me but by Gales, and although correct in point
of sense are not so as to style. I have also written one on the
subject of the alien bill, and in addition to that I have had our
goods to select and sundry political meetings to attend on the sub-
ject of our next election for governor. Thos. McKean is to be
our man, and James Ross the other. . . . Do you want a dish
of politics till I see you ? The President nominated Mr. Mur-
ray minister to France with powers to treat, with instructions
that he should not go from Holland to Paris until he should
have received assurances of being met by a similar envoy ; and
he sent along with it a letter from Talleyrand to the secretary of
the French legation at the Hague, in which, referring to some
former conversations of the secretary with Murray, he added
that they would lead to a treaty, and that the French govern-
ment were ready to admit any American envoy as the representa-
tive of a free, great, and independent nation. Murray, I guess,
wanted to make himself a greater man than he is by going to
228 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1799.
France and treating, and wrote privately, it is said, to the Presi-
dent on the subject. The President, without consulting any of
his Secretaries, made the nomination. The whole party were
prodigiously alarmed. Porcupine and Fenno abused the old
gentleman. The nomination instead of being approved was in
the Senate committed to a select committee. They then attacked
so warmly the President that he sent a new nomination of Ells-
worth, P. Henry, and Murray, and none of them to go until
assurances are received here that France will appoint a similar
envoy. Which will postpone the whole business six months at
least. . . .
The summer and autumn of 1799 were passed at New Geneva,
and when Mr. Gallatin returned to Philadelphia for the session
of 1799-1800, he brought his wife with him, and they kept
house in Philadelphia till the spring. There were therefore no
domestic letters written during this season, and his repugnance
to writing was such that even the letters he received were chiefly
filled with grumbling at his silence. There seems at no time
before 1800 to have been much communication by writing be-
tween Mr. Gallatin and the other Republicans. One or two
unimportant letters from Edward Livingston, Matthew L. Davis,
Walter Jones, or Tench Coxe, are all that remain on Mr. Gal-
latin's files. The long series of Mr. Jefferson's notes or letters,
most carefully preserved, begin only in March, 1801. The same
is true of Mr. Madison's and Mr. Monroe's. Mr. Gallatin had
no large constituency of highly-educated people to correspond
with him ; he was greatly occupied with current business ; his
own State of Pennsylvania was the seat of government, and its
affairs were carried on directly by word of mouth, Mr. Jeffer-
son, the leader of the party, did attempt by correspondence and
by personal influence to produce some sort of combination in its
movements, but sharp experience taught him to remain as quiet
as possible, and his relations were chiefly with his confidential
Virginia friends. In this respect the Federalists were much
better organized than their rivals.
It is unfortunate, too, that the debates of the Sixth Congress,
from December, 1799, to March, 1801, should have been very
1800. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 229
poorly reported ; indeed, hardly reported at all. Yet the winter
of 1799-1800 was so much less important than those which pre-
ceded and followed it, that the loss may not be very serious.
The death of General Washington a few days after Congress
met had a certain momentary effect in diverting the current of
public thought. The attitude of the President occupied the
attention of his own party, and the probability, which approached
a certainty, of peace with France, paralyzed the armaments.
Mr. Gallatin himself was not disposed to press his economies too
strongly. " I was averse," he said in debate, " to the general
system of hostility adopted by this country; but once adopted, it
is my duty to support it until negotiation shall have restored us
to our former situation or some cogent circumstances shall com-
pel a change. At present I think it proper that the system of
hostility and resistance should continue, and I would vote against
any motion to change that system. At the same time I am of
opinion that a naval establishment is too expensive for this
country, but, as we have assumed an attitude of resistance, it
would be wrong to change it at present." His opinion was that a
reduction should be made in the army to the extent of $2,500,000,
which would, he thought, still leave a deficiency of an equal
amount to be provided for by a loan.
It was in connection with this motion to reduce the army that
Mr. Harper made a speech, of which the following passage is a
portion :
. . . " Sir, we never need be, and I am persuaded never shall
be, taxed as the English are. A very great portion of their per-
manent burdens arises from the interest of a debt which the gov-
ernment most unwisely suffered to accumulate almost a century,
without one serious effort or systematic plan for its reduction.
Her present minister, at the commencement of his administra-
tion in 1783, established a permanent sinking fund, which now
produces very great effects ; he also introduced a maxim of in-
finite importance in finance which he has steadily adhered to,
that whenever a new loan is made the means shall be provided
not only of paying the interest but of effecting a gradual ex-
tinction of the principal. Had these two ideas been adopted and
practised upon at the beginning of the century which we have
230 LIFE OP ALBEET GALLATIN. 1800.
just seen close, England might have expended as much money
as she has expended and not owed at this moment a shilling of
debt, except that contracted in the present war. These ideas,
profiting by the example of England, we have adopted and
are now practising on. We have provided a fund which is
now in constant operation for the extinguishment of our debt.
This fund will extinguish the foreign debt in nine years from
now, and the six per cent., a large part of our domestic debt, in
eighteen years. I trust we shall adhere to this plan, and when-
ever we are compelled by the exigency of our aifairs to make a
loan, by providing also for its timely extinguishment, we may
always avoid an inconvenient or burdensome accumulation of
debt. We may gather all the roses of the funding system
without its thorns/'
This was the theory of the English financiers, of William Pitt
and his scholars, which held possession of the English exchequer
throughout the French war and was only exploded in 1813 by
a pamphlet written by a Scotchman named Hamilton. 1 Mr. Gal-
latin, however, was never its dupe. He answered Mr. Harper
on the spot ; and short as his reply was, it gave in perfectly clear
language the substance of all that fourteen years later was sup-
posed to be a new discovery in English finance :
. . . " I know but one way that a nation has of paying her
debts, and that is precisely the same which individuals practise.
* Spend less than you receive/ and you may then apply the sur-
plus of your receipts to the discharge of your debts. But if you
spend more than you receive, you may have recourse to sinking
funds, you may modify them as you please, you may render
your accounts extremely complex, you may give a scientific ap-
pearance to additions and subtractions, you must still necessarily
increase your debt. If you spend more than you receive, the
difference must be supplied by loans; and if out of these receipts
you have set a sum apart to pay your debts, if you have so mort-
gaged or disposed of that sum that you cannot apply it to your
1 Inquiry concerning the Kise and Progress, the Kedemption and Present
State, and the Management of the National Debt of Great Britain. By
Ptobert Hamilton, LL.D. Edinburgh, 1813. Reprinted at Philadelphia, in
1816, and by Lord Overstone in his collection of Financial Tracts, 1856-1859.
1800. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 231
useful expenditure, you must borrow so much more in order to
meet your expenditure. If your revenue is nine millions of
dollars and your expenditure fourteen, you must borrow, you
must create a new debt of five millions. But if two millions of
that revenue are, under the name of sinking fund, applicable to
the payment of the principal of an old debt, and pledged for it,
then the portion of your revenue applicable to discharging your
current expenditures of fourteen millions is reduced to seven
millions; and instead of borrowing five millions you must borrow
seven ; you create a new debt of seven millions, and you pay an
old debt of two. It is still the same increase of five millions of
debt. . The only difference that is produced arises from the rela-
tive price you give for the old debt and rate of interest you pay
for the new. At present we pay yearly a part of a domestic
debt bearing six per cent, interest, and of a foreign debt bearing
four or five per cent, interest ; and we may pay both of them at
par. At the same time we are obliged to borrow at the rate of
eight per cent. At present, therefore, that nominal sinking fund
increases our debt, or at least the annual interest payable on our
debt." . . .
The two speeches made by Mr. Harper and Mr. Gallatin on
this occasion, the 10th January, 1800, were very able, and are
even now interesting reading ; but they find their proper place
in the Annals of Congress, and the question of the reduction of
the army was to be settled by other events. A matter of a very
different nature absorbed the attention of Congress during the
months of February and March. This was the once famous
case of Jonathan Robbins, a British sailor claiming to be an
American citizen, who, having committed a murder on board
the British ship-of-war Hermione, on the high seas, had escaped
to Charleston, and under the 27th article of the British treaty
had been delivered up by the United States government. At
that time extradition was a novelty in our international relations.
The President was violently attacked for the surrender, and a
long debate ensued in Congress. Mr. Gallatin spoke at con-
siderable length, but his speech is not reported, and although
voluminous notes, made by him in preparing it, are among his
papers, it is impossible to say what portion of these notes was
232 LIFE OF ALBEKT GAL LATIN. 1800.
actually used in the speech. The triumphs of the contest, how-
ever, did not fall to him or to his associates, but to John
Marshall, who followed him, and who, in a speech that still
stands without a parallel in our Congressional debates, replied
to him and to them. There is a tradition in Virginia that after
Marshall concluded his speech, the Republican members pressed
round Gallatin, urging with great earnestness that it should be
answered at once, and that Gallatin replied in his foreign accent,
" Gentlemen, answer it yourselves ; for my part I think it un-
answerable," laying the stress on the antepenultimate syllable.
The story is probably true. At all events, Mr. Gallatin made
no answer, and Mr. Marshall's argument settled the dispute by
an overwhelming vote.
But the coming Presidential election, one of the most inter-
esting in our history, now cast its shadow in advance over the
whole political field. The two parties were so equally divided
that the vote of New York City would probably decide the
result, and for this reason the city election of May, 1800, was
the turning-point of American political history in that gener-
ation. There the two party champions, Hamilton and Burr,
were pitted against each other. Commodore Nicholson was
hotly engaged, and Edward Livingston, Matthew L. Davis, and
the other Republican politicians of New York became persons
of uncommon interest. Mr. Gallatin, as leader of the Repub-
lican party in Congress and as closely connected by marriage
with the Republican interests of New York City, was kept
accurately informed of every step in the political campaign.
He himself was in constant communication with Matthew L.
Davis, who was Burr's most active friend then and ever after-
wards. Davis's letters are now of historical importance, and
may be compared with the narrative in his subsequent Life of
Burr:
MATTHEW L. DAVIS TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, March 29, 1800.
DEAR SIR, I yesterday saw a family letter of yours devel-
oping the views of the Federal party ; with many of the facts
contained in that letter I was previously acquainted, but I was
1800. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 233
in some measure at a loss to account for certain proceedings of
the supreme Legislature; this letter completely unmasks the
party. Your opinion respecting the importance of our election
for members of Assembly in this city is the prevailing opinion
among our Republican friends. You ask, "What are your
prospects?" All things considered, they are favorable. We
have been so much deceived already that a prudent man per-
haps will not hazard an opinion but with extreme diffidence.
At the request of Mr. Nicholson, I shall briefly state the leading
features of our plan.
You are already acquainted with the circumstances which so
much operated against us at the last election : the tale of the
ship Ocean, Captain Kemp ; the Manhattan Company ; the con-
templated French invasion; the youth of many of our candi-
dates, &c., &c. These things, united with bank influence and
bank jealousy, had a most astonishing effect. The bank influence
is now totally destroyed ; the Manhattan Company will in all
probability operate much in our favor ; and it is hoped the crew
of the Ocean will not again be murdered; but this is not all:
a variety of trifling acts passed during the session of the former
Legislature were also brought forward and adapted to the pur-
poses of the party. Menaces from the Federal party -had also a
great influence. I think they will not dare to use them at the
approaching election.
The Federalists have had a meeting and determined on their
Senators; they have also appointed a committee to nominate
suitable characters for the Assembly. Out of the thirteen that
now represent the city, eleven decline standing again. They are
much perplexed to find men. Mr. Hamilton is very busy, more
so than usual, and no exertions will be wanting on his part.
Fortunately, Mr. Hamilton will have at this election a most
powerful opponent in Colonel Burr. This gentleman is ex-
tremely active ; it is his opinion that the Republicans had better
not publish a ticket or call a meeting until the Federalists have
completed theirs. Mr. Burr is arranging matters in such a way
as to bring into operation all the Republican interest. He is
not to be on our nomination, but is to represent one of the
country counties. At our first meeting he has pledged himself
234 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1800.
to come forward and address the people in firm and manly
language on the importance of the election and the momentous
crisis at which we have arrived. This he has never done at any
former election, and I anticipate great advantages from the effect
it will produce.
In addition to this, he has taken great trouble to ascertain
what characters will be most likely to run well, and by his
address has procured the assent of eleven or twelve of our most
influential friends to stand as candidates. Among the number
are:
George Clinton (late governor). Philip J. Arcularius.
Henry Rutgers (colonel). Thos. Storm.
Sam. Osgood. Ezek. Robbins.
Jno. Broome. Sam. L. Mitchill.
Geo. Warner, Sen. Jno. Swartwout.
Elias Nexsen.
On the whole, I believe we shall offer to our fellow-citizens the
most formidable list ever offered them by any party in point of
morality, public and private virtue, local and general influence,
&c., &c. From this ticket and the exertions that indisputably
will be made we have a right to expect much, and I trust
we shall be triumphant. If we carry this election, it may be
ascribed principally to Colonel Burr's management and perse-
verance. Hamilton fears his influence; the -party seem in a
st#te of consternation, while ours possess more than usual spirits.
Such are our prospects. We shall open the campaign under the
most favorable impressions, and headed by a man whose intrigue
and management is most astonishing, and who is more dreaded
by his enemies than any other character in our [ ].
Excuse, sir, this hasty scrawl ; I have no time to copy. . . .
MATTHEW L. DAVIS TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, April 15, 1800.
Tuesday night, 11 o'clock.
DEAR SIR, Well knowing the importance of the approaching
election in this city, and consequently the anxiety which you and
1800. THE LEGISLATES E. 1789-1801. 235
every friend to our country must experience on the subject, I
am highly gratified in affording you such information on the
occasion as will be interesting and pleasing. The eyes of our
friends and of our enemies are turned towards us ; all unite
in the opinion that if the city and county of New York elect
Republicans they will most assuredly have it in their power to
appoint Republican electors for President and Vice-President.
The counties of Westchester and Orange have selected the most
respectable and influential advocates for the rights of the people
their respective towns afforded. But of our adversaries in
this city. This evening, agreeably to public notice, a meeting
was held ; the assembly was small, and not attended by either
Colonels Hamilton or Troup, two gentlemen who are generally
most officious on these occasions. I have already stated to you
in a former letter that jealousies and schisms existed among
them. This fact has not only been evinced in their numerous
caucuses, but they have been doomed to the mortification of
bringing the matter this night before the public. A few of
their most active men had determined on Philip Brazier as a
candidate for the Assembly. Mr. Brazier is a man of very little
influence and very limited understanding; he is, however, a
Republican, but composed of such pliable materials as will
enable his leaders to mould him to almost any form. A large
majority of the Federal committee were opposed to him, but
his adherents possessing stronger lungs and being vociferous at
one of their caucuses, he was carried.
A division took place in the same committee on another sub-
ject, viz., who was the most proper candidate for Congress.
Some supported Colonel J. Morton, while others as furiously
supported William W. Woolsey ; both gentlemen consented to
stand ; as the committee could not agree owing to their divisions,
it was resolved to report both candidates to the meeting and let
them make their election. Accordingly the two names were
publicly brought forward this night, and after much confusion
and litigation it was determined by a majority of only 15 or
20 that Jacob Morton should be the candidate for Congress,
while the adherents of Mr. Woolsey bawled aloud, "Morton
shall not be the man." Next came the Assembly ticket. It
236 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1800.
was agreed to without opposition, excepting in the case of Mr.
Brazier. He was again violently opposed, and a large majority
appeared against him; yet the chairman being a military
commander (Brigadier-General Jared Hughes), he decided that
it was carried in favor of Mr. Brazier. In this temper the
meeting separated. So much for the friends of good order
and regular government.
Jacob Morton, Esq
FEDERAL TICKET.
For Congress.
For Assemblymen.
Peter Schermerhorn, ship-chandler.
Jno. Bogert, baker.
Gabriel Furman, nothing. The man who whipped the
ferryman in Bridewell, and on account of whom Kettletas was
imprisoned.
John Croleus, Jim., potter.
Philip Ten Eyck, bookseller, late clerk, present partner of
Hugh Gaine.
Isaac Burr, grocer.
Samuel Ward, a bankrupt endeavoring to settle his affairs by
paying 000 in the pound.
C. D. Golden, assistant attorney-general.
James Tyler, shoemaker.
Philip Brazier, lawyer.
N. Evertson, lawyer.
Isaac Sebring, grocer, one of the firm Sebring & Van Wyck.
Abraham Russel, mason.
A private meeting of our friends was held this evening at the
house of Mr. Brockholst Livingston ; about forty attended ; we
determined on calling the Republicans together on Thursday
evening next, and for that purpose sent advertisements to the
different printers. The prevailing opinion was that we should
appoint a committee at that meeting to withdraw for half an
1800 THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 237
hour, form a ticket, and return and report, so that on Friday
morning we shall most probably publish. Never have I observed
such an union of sentiment, so much zeal, and so general a deter-
mination to be active. Indeed, on presenting the Federal ticket
to our meeting (for we had friends who attended theirs) all was
joy and enthusiasm. Our ticket is complete, and stands as
follows :
Congress.
Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill.
Assembly.
Geo. Clinton.
Horatio Gates.
Henry Rutgers.
Thomas Storm.
Samuel Osgood.
Geo. Warner, Senior.
John Broome.
Philip J. Arcularius.
Ezekiel Robins.
Brockholst Livingston.
John Swartwout.
James Hunt.
Elias Nexsen.
The late hour at which I write this will be a sufficient apology
for the scrawl. . .
MATTHEW L. DAVIS TO GALLATIN.
Thursday night, 12 o'clock.
May 1, 1800.
REPUBLICANISM TRIUMPHANT.
DEAR SIR, It affords me the highest gratification to assure
you of the complete success of the Republican Assembly ticket
in this city. This day the election closed, and several of the
wards have been canvassed for Congress ; the result as follows :
238 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1800.
For Mitchill. For Morton.
First Ward, majority, ... 76
Second do., do., ... 258
Third do., not 'canvassed.
Probable majority, . . . 250
Fourth do., canvassed majority, 72 ...
Fifth do., not canvassed.
Probable majority, 100 ...
Sixth do., canvassed majority, 432 . . .
604 584
Seventh do. do. do.
For Van Cortlandt, 312.
Thus, sir, it is probable Mr. Mitchill is elected a member of
Congress, and no doubt can remain but our whole Assembly
ticket is elected by a majority of three hundred and fifty votes.
To Colonel Burr we are indebted for everything. This day has
he remained at the poll of the Seventh Ward ten hours without
intermission. Pardon this hasty scrawl; I have not ate for
fifteen hours.
With the highest respect, &c.
P.S. Since writing the above I learn from undoubted
authority that Mr. Mitchill is elected by upwards of one hun-
dred majority.
MATTHEW L. DAVIS TO GALLATIN.
NEW YOKK, May 5, 1800.
DEAR SIR, I have already informed you of the complete
triumph which we have obtained in this city, a triumph which
I trust will have some influence in promoting the rights of the
people and establishing their liberties on a permanent basis. Our
country has arrived at an awful crisis. The approaching elec-
tion for President and Vice-President will decide in some measure
on our future destiny. The result will clearly evince whether
a republican form of government is worth contending for. On
this account the eyes of all America have been turned towards
1800. THE LEGISLATUEE. 1789-1801. 239
the city and county of New York. The management and in-
dustry of Colonel Burr has effected all that the friends of civil
liberty could possibly desire.
Having accomplished the task assigned us, we in return feel
a degree of anxiety as to the characters who will probably be
candidates for those two important offices. I believe it is pretty
generally understood that Mr. Jefferson is contemplated for
President. But who is to fill the Vice-President's chair? I
should be highly gratified in hearing your opinion on this sub-
ject ; if secrecy is necessary, you may rely on it ; and, sir, as I
have no personal views, you will readily excuse my stating the
present apparent wishes and feelings of the Republican party in
this city.
It is generally expected that the "Vice-President will be se-
lected from the State of New York. Three characters only can
be contemplated, viz., Geo. Clinton, Chancellor Livingston, and
Colonel Burr.
The first seems averse to public life, and is desirous of retiring
from all its cares and toils. It was therefore with great diffi-
culty he was persuaded to stand as candidate for the State Legis-
lature. A personal interview at some future period will make
you better acquainted with this transaction. In addition to this,
Mr. Clinton grows old and infirm.
To Mr. Livingston there are objections more weighty. The
family attachment and connection; the prejudices which exist
not only in this State, but throughout the United States, against
the name ; but, above all, the doubts which are entertained of
his firmness and decision in trying periods. You are well ac-
quainted with certain circumstances that occurred on the im-
portant question of carrying the British treaty into effect. On
that occasion Mr. L. exhibited a timidity that never can be
forgotten. Indeed, it had its effect when he was a candidate for
governor, though it was not generally known.
Colonel Burr is therefore the most eligible character, and on
him the eyes of our friends in this State are fixed as if by sym-
pathy for that office. Whether he would consent to stand I am
totally ignorant, and indeed I pretend not to judge of the policy
farther than it respects this State. If he is elected to the office
240 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL AT IN. 1800.
of V. P., it would awaken so much of the zeal and pride of our
friends in this State as to secure us a Republican governor at
the next election (April, 1801). If he is not nominated, many
of us will experience much chagrin and disappointment. If, sir,
you do not consider it improper, please inform me by post the
probable arrangement on this subject. I feel very anxious. Any
information you may wish relative to our election I will at all
times cheerfully communicate.
With sentiments of respect, &c.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIPE.
PHILADELPHIA, 6th May, 1800.
... The New York election has engrossed the whole at-
tention of all of us, meaning by us Congress and the whole city.
Exultation on our side is high; the other party are in low spirits.
Senate could not do any business on Saturday morning when the
intelligence was received, and adjourned before twelve. As to
the probabilities of election, they stand as followeth :
Adams. Doubtful. Jefferson.
New Hampshire . . . .6 ... ...
Massachusetts . . . .14 2 ...
Connecticut 9 ... ...
Khode Island . . . .4 ... ...
Vermont 4 ' . . . ...
New York 12
New Jersey . . . . .... 7 ...
Pennsylvania ... ...
Delaware 3 ...
Maryland 3 5 2
Virginia ... 21
Kentucky . ... 4
N. Carolina 2 4 6
S. Carolina ... 8
Tennessee ... 3
Georgia . . . ..... ... 4
42 21 60
1800. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 241
There are 123 electors, supposing Pennsylvania to have no
vote. Of these, 62 make a majority. We count 60 for Jeffer-
son certain. If we therefore get only 2 out of the 21 doubtful
votes, he must be elected. Probabilities are therefore highly in
our favor. Last Saturday evening the Federal members of
Congress had a large meeting, in which it was agreed that there
was no chance of carrying Mr. Adams, but that he must still be
supported ostensibly in order to carry still the votes in New
England, but that the only chance was to take up ostensibly
as Vice-President, but really as President, a man from South
Carolina, who, being carried everywhere except in his own State
along with Adams, and getting the votes of his own State with
Jefferson, would then be elected. And for that purpose, aban-
doning Thomas Pinckney, they have selected General Charles
Cotesworth Pinckney. I think they will succeed neither in S.
Carolina in getting the votes for him, nor in New England in
making the people jilt Adams. "Who is to be our Vice-Presi-
dent, Clinton or Burr ? This is a serious question which I am
delegated to make, and to which I must have an answer by
Friday next. Remember this is important, and I have engaged
to procure correct information of the wishes of the New York
Republicans. . . .
JAMES NICHOLSON TO GALLATIN.
May 6, 1800.
DEAR SIR, My situation and health did not permit my
writing you during our election, but supposed you received in-
formation from Mr. Warner, who I requested would take the
task off my hands. That business has been conducted and
brought to issue in so miraculous a manner that I cannot
account for it but from the intervention of a Supreme Power
and our friend Burr the agent. The particulars I have since
the election understood, and which justifies my suspicion. His
generalship, perseverance, industry, and execution exceeds all
description, so that I think I can say he deserves anything and
everything of his country ; but he has done it at the risk of his
life. This I will explain to you when I have the pleasure of
seeing you. I am informed he is coming on to you. Perhaps
16
242 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1800.
he will be the bearer of this. I shall conclude by recommend-
ing him as a general far superior to your Hambletons j 1 as much
so as a man is to a boy ; and I have but little doubt this State,
through his means and planning, will be as Republican in the
appointment of electors as the State of Virginia.
I have not been able since my being here before to-day to
visit my friend and neighbor, Governor Clinton. I understand
his health and spirits are both returning. His name at the head
of our ticket had a most powerful effect. I cannot inform you
what either Burr's or his expectations are, but will write you
more particularly about the governor after my visit. . . .
JAMES NICHOLSON TO GALLATIN.
GREENWICH LANE, May the 7th, 1800.
DEAR SIR, I have conversed with the two gentlemen men-
tioned in your letter. George Clinton, with whom I first spoke,
declined. His age, his infirmities, his habits and attachment to
retired life, in his opinion, exempt him from active life. He
(Governor Clinton) thinks Colonel Burr is the most suitable
person and perhaps the only man. Such is also the opinion of
all the Republicans in this quarter that I have conversed with ;
their confidence in A. B. is universal and unbounded. Mr. Burr,
however, appeared averse to be the candidate. He seemed to
think that no arrangement could be made which would be
observed to the southward ; alluding, as I understood, to the
last election, in which he was certainly ill used by Virginia and
North Carolina.
I believe he may be induced to stand if assurances can be
given that the Southern States will act fairly.
Colonel Burr may certainly be governor of this State at the
next election if he pleases, and a number of his friends are very
unwilling that he should be taken off for Vice-President, think-
ing the other the most important office. Upon the whole, how-
ever, we think he ought to be the man for V. P., if there is a
moral certainty of success. But his name must not be played
the fool with. I confidently hope you will be able to smooth
i.'flfe.
1800. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 243
over the business of the last election, and if Colonel Burr is
properly applied to, I think he will be induced to stand. At
any rate we, the Republicans, will make him.
MRS. GALLATIN TO HER HUSBAND.
7th May, 1800.
. . . Papa has answered your question about the candidate
for Vice-President. Burr says he has no confidence in the
Virginians; they once deceived him, and they are not to be
trusted. . . .
GKALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
12th May, 1800.
. . . We do not adjourn to-day, but certainly shall to-morrow.
. . . We had last night a very large meeting of Republicans,
in which it was unanimously agreed to support Burr for Vice-
President. . . .
Between the adjournment of Congress in May and his depart-
ure for the western country in July, Mr. Gallatin prepared and
published another pamphlet on the national finances, which was
his contribution to the canvass for the Presidential election of that
year. Mr. Wolcott, the Secretary of the Treasury, in a letter to
the Committee of Ways and Means, dated January 22, 1800,
had expressed the opinion that the principal of the debt had in-
creased $1,516,338 since the establishment of the government in
1789. A committee of the House, on the other hand, had on
May 8 reported that the debt had been diminished $1,092,841
during the same period. Mr. Gallatin entered into a critical ex-
amination of the methods by which these results were obtained,
and then proceeded to test them by applying his own method of
comparing the receipts and expenditures. His conclusion was
that the nominal debt had been increased by $9,462,264. Two
millions of this increase, however, was caused by unnecessary
assumption of State debts. But allowing for funds actually ac-
quired by government and susceptible of being applied to reduc-
tion of debt, the nominal increase reduced itself to $6,657,319.
244 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATHST. 1801.
And since all these results were more or less nominal, he devoted
the larger part of his work to an elaborate and searching inves-
tigation into the actual receipts and expenditures of the past ten
years.
The summer of 1800 was again passed in the western country ;
the last summer which Mr. Gallatin was to pass there for more
than twenty years. With the autumn came the Presidential elec-
tion, and the dreaded complication occurred by which Mr. Jeffer-
son and Mr. Burr, having received an equal number of electoral
votes, became rival candidates for the choice of the House of
Representatives. The session of 18001801 was almost wholly
occupied in settling this dispute. The whole Federalist party
insisted upon voting for Burr, and, although not able to elect
him, they were able to delay for several days the election of Mr.
Jefferson. Mr. Grallatin's position as leader of the Republicans
in the House, and in a manner responsible for the selection of
Mr. Burr as candidate for the Vice-Presidency, was one of con-
trolling influence and authority. His letters to his wife give a
clear picture of the scene at Washington as he saw it from day
to day, but there are one or two points on which some further
light is thrown by his papers.
He rarely expressed his opinions of the men with whom he
acted. He never expressed any opinion about Colonel Burr.
Yet he knew that the Virginians distrusted Burr, and even in
his own family, where Colonel Burr was -probably warmly
admired, there were moments when their faith was shaken.
The following letter is an example :
MARIA NICHOLSON TO MRS. GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, February 5, 1801.
... As I know you are interested for Theodosia Burr, I
must tell you that Mr. Alston has returned from Carolina, it
is said, to be married to her this month. She accompanied
her father to Albany, where the Legislature are sitting ; he fol-
lowed them the next day. I am sorry to hear these accounts.
Report does not speak well of him ; it says that he is rich, but
he is a great dasher, dissipated, ill-tempered, vain, and silly.
1801. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 245
I know that he is ugly and of unprepossessing manners. Can
it be that the father has sacrificed a daughter so lovely to afflu-
ence and influential connections ? They say that it was Mr.
A. who gained him the 8 votes in Carolina at the present
election, and that he is not yet relieved from pecuniary embar-
rassments. Is this the man, think ye ? Has Mr. G. a favor-
able opinion of this man of talents, or not ? He loves his child.
Is he so devoted to the customs of the world as to encourage
such a match ? . . .
Colonel Burr himself overacted his part. For some private
reason Mr, Gallatin was unable to take his seat when Congress
met, and it was not till January 12, 1801, that he at last ap-
peared in Washington, to which place the government had been
transferred during the summer. The contest, which was to decide
the election, took place a month later. Colonel Burr was at New
York, about to go up to Albany to perform his duties as member
of the Legislature, He felt the necessity of reassuring the minds
of his friends at Washington, and he did so from time to time
with a degree of off-hand simplicity very suggestive of ulterior
thoughts. His first letter to Gallatin is as follows :
AARON BURR TO GALLATIN,
YORK, 16th January, 1801.
DEAR SIR, I am heartily glad of your arrival at your post.
You were never more wanted, for it was absolutely vacant.
Livingston will tell you my sentiments on the proposed usur-
pation, and indeed of all the other occurrences and projects of
the day.
The short letter of business which I wrote you may be
answered to Dallas ; anything you may wish to communicate to
me may be addressed this city. Our postmaster and that at
Albany are " honorable men."
Yours, A. B.
The next is written from Albany, in reply to a letter from
Mr. Gallatin, which has not been preserved :
246 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
AARON BURR TO GALLATIN.
ALBANY, 12th February, 1801.
DEAR SIR, My letters for ten days past had assured me that
all was settled and that no doubt remained but that J. would
have 10 or 11 votes on the first trial; I am, therefore, utterly
surprised by the contents of yours of the 3d. In case of usur-
pation, by law, by President of Senate pro tern., or in any other
way, my opinion is definitively made up, and it is known to S. S.
and E. L. On that opinion I shall act in defiance of all timid,
temporizing projects.
On the 21st I shall be in New York, and in Washington the
3d March at the utmost; sooner if the intelligence which I may
receive at New York shall be such as to require rny earlier
presence.
Mr. Montfort was strongly recommended to me by General
Gates and Colonel Griffin. At their request I undertook to
direct his studies in pursuit of the law. He left New York
suddenly and apparently in some agitation, without assigning to
me any cause and without disclosing to me his intentions or
views, or even whither he was going, except that he proposed to
pass through Washington. Nor had I any reason to believe that
I should ever see him again. You may communicate this to Mr.
J., who has also written me something about him.
Yours, A. B.
Mr. Gallatin in the last years of his life came upon this letter,
and endorsed on it, in a hand trembling with age, the following
words with a significant mark of interrogation :
" had thought that Jefferson would be elected on first ballot
by 10 or 11 votes (out of 16)?"
Burr's last letter in this connection was written from Philadel-
phia after the result was decided :
BURR TO GALLATIN.
PHILADELPHIA, February 25, 1801.
DEAR SIR, The four last letters of your very amusing his-
tory of balloting met me at New York on Saturday evening. I
1801. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 247
thank you much for the obliging attention, and I join my
hearty congratulations on the auspicious events of the 17th.
As to the infamous slanders which have been so industriously
circulated, they are now of little consequence, and those who
have believed them will doubtless blush at their own weak-
ness.
The Feds boast aloud that they have compromised with Jef-
ferson, particularly as to the retaining certain persons in office.
Without the assurance contained in your letter, this would gain
no manner of credit with me. Yet in spite of my endeavors it
has excited some anxiety among our friends in New York. I
hope to be with you on the 1st or 2d March.
Adieu.
These letters from Mr. Burr suggest much more than they
intentionally express ; for if they show that Burr still felt the
weight of that Virginia mistrust which had four years previously
cost him his place as next in succession to Mr. Jefferson, they
show, too, that his confidence in Virginia was scarcely greater
than when in May, 1800, he told Commodore Nicholson that
the Virginians had once deceived him and were not to be
trusted. There was a sting in his remark about the anxiety
among his friends in New York. In spite of his efforts to
the contrary, they still thought that Mr. Jefferson might have
made a bargain with the Federalists. The letters also show
that Mr. Gallatin at the very moment denied the existence of
any such bargain ; with his usual disposition to conciliate, he
seems to have coupled together the charges against both can-
didates as equal slanders. Whether Mr. Gallatin was admitted
so far into the confidence of his chief as to know all that was
said and done in reference to this election in February, 1801,
is a question that may remain open ; but that something passed
between Mr. Jefferson and General Smith which was regarded
by the Federalists as a bargain, is not to be denied. Fortu-
nately, Mr. Gallatin lived to hear all the discussions which
rose long afterwards on this subject, and almost the last letter
he ever wrote was written to record his understanding of the
matter :
248 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1801.
GALLATIN TO HENRY A. MUHLENBERG.
NEW YORK, May 8, 1848.
DEAR SIR, A severe cold, which rendered me incapable of
attending to any business, has prevented an earlier answer to
your letter of the 12th of April.
Although I was at the time probably better acquainted with
all the circumstances attending Mr. Jefferson's election than any
other person, and I am now the only surviving witness, I could
not, without bestowing more time than I can spare, give a satis-
factory account of that ancient transaction. A few observations
must suffice.
The only cause of real apprehension was that Congress should
adjourn without making a decision, but without usurping any
powers. It was in order to provide against that contingency
that I prepared myself a plan which did meet with the appro-
bation of our party. No appeal whatever to physical force was
contemplated, nor did it contain a single particle of revolu-
tionary spirit. In framing this plan Mr. Jefferson had not
been consulted, but it was communicated to him, and he fully
approved it.
But it was threatened by some persons of the Federal party
to provide by law that, if no election should take place, the
executive power should be placed in the hands of some public
officer. This was considered as a revolutionary act of usurpa-
tion, and would, I believe, have been put down by force if
necessary. But there was not the slightest intention or sugges-
tion to call a convention to reorganize the government and to
amend the Constitution. That such a measure floated in the
mind of Mr. Jefferson is clear from his letters of February 15
and 18, 1801, to Mr. Monroe and Mr. Madison. He may have
wished for such measure, or thought that the Federalists might
be frightened by the threat.
Although I was lodging in the same house with him, he never
mentioned it to me. I did not hear it even suggested by any
one. That Mr. Jefferson had ever thought of such plan was
never known to me till after the publication of his correspond-
ence, and I may aver that under no circumstances would that
1801. THE LEGISLATUEE. 1789-1801. 249
plan have been resorted to or approved by the Republican
party. Anti-federalism had long been dead, and the Republi-
cans were the most sincere and zealous supporters of the Con-
stitution. It was that which constituted their real strength.
I always thought that the threatened attempt to make a
President by law was impracticable. I do not believe that, if a
motion had been made to that effect, there would have been
twenty votes for it in the House. It was only intended to
frighten us, but it produced an excitement out-of-doors in which
some of our members participated. It was threatened that if
any man should be thus appointed President by law and accept
the office, he would instantaneously be put to death. It was
rumored, and though I did not know it from my own knowl-
edge I believe it was true, that a number of men from Maryland
and Virginia, amounting, it was said, to fifteen hundred (a
number undoubtedly greatly exaggerated), had determined to
repair to Washington on the 4th of March for the purpose of
putting to death the usurping pretended President.
It was under those circumstances that it was deemed proper
to communicate all the facts to Governor McKean, and to sub-
mit to him the propriety of having in readiness a body of militia,
who might, if necessary, be in Washington on the 3d of March
for the purpose not of promoting, but of preventing civil war
and the shedding of a single drop of blood. No person could
be better trusted on such a delicate subject than Governor
McKean. For he was energetic, patriotic, and at the same time
a most steady, stern, and fearless supporter of law and order.
It appears from your communication that he must have con-
sulted General Peter Muhlenberg on that subject. But subse-
quent circumstances, which occurred about three weeks before
the 4th of March, rendered it altogether unnecessary to act upon
the subject.
There was but one man whom I can positively assert to have
been decidedly in favor of the attempt to make a President by
law. This was General Henry Lee, of Virginia, who, as you
know, was a desperate character and held in no public estima-
tion. I fear from the general tenor of his conduct that Mr.
Griswold, of Connecticut, in other respects a very worthy man,
250 LIFE OP ALBEET GALLATIN. 1801.
was so warm and infatuated a partisan that he might have run
the risk of a civil war rather than to see Mr. Jefferson elected.
Some weak and inconsiderate members of the House might have
voted for the measure, but I could not designate any one.
On the day on which we began balloting for President we
knew positively that Mr. Baer, of Maryland, was determined
to cast his vote for Mr. Jefferson rather than that there should
be no election ; and his vote was sufficient to give us that of
Maryland and decide the election. I was certain from personal
intercourse with him that Mr. Morris, of Vermont, would do
the same, and thus give us also the vote of that State. There
were others equally prepared, but not known to us at the time.
Still, all those gentlemen, unwilling to break up their party,
united in the attempt, by repeatedly voting for Mr. Burr, to
frighten or induce some of us to vote for Mr. Burr rather than
to have no election. This balloting was continued several days
for another reason. The attempt was made to extort concessions
and promises from Mr. Jefferson as the conditions on which he
might be elected. One of our friends, who was very erroneously
and improperly afraid of a defection on the part of some of our
members, undertook to act as an intermediary, and confounding
his own opinions and wishes with those of Mr. Jefferson, re-
ported the result in such a manner as gave subsequently occasion
for very unfounded surmises.
It is due to the memory of James Bayard, of Delaware, to
say that although he was one of the principal and warmest
leaders of the Federal party and had a personal dislike for Mr.
Jefferson, it was he who took the lead and from pure patriotism
directed all those movements of the sounder and wiser part of
the Federal party which terminated in the peaceable election of
Mr. Jefferson.
Mr. Jefferson's letter to Mr. Monroe dated February 15, 1801,
at the very moment when the attempts were making to obtain
promises from him, proves decisively that he made no con-
cessions whatever. But both this letter, that to Mr^. Madison
of the 18th of February, and ^ome others of preceding dates
afford an instance of that credulity, so common to warm parti-
sans, which makes them ascribe the worst motives, and occasion-
1801. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 251
ally acts of which they are altogether guiltless, to their opponents.
There was not the slightest foundation for suspecting the fidelity
of the post. . . .
This interesting letter also suggests something more than ap-
pears on its surface. Evidently Mr. Gallatin meant to intimate,
with as much distinctneas as was decent, his opinion that it was
not Mr. Jefferson who guided or controlled the result of this
election, and that altogether too much importance was attached
to what Mr. Jefferson did and said. The election belonged to
the House of Representatives, where not Mr. Jefferson but Mr.
Gallatin was leader of the party and directed the strategy. The
allusion to General Samuel Smith's intervention is very sig-
nificant. Evidently Mr. Gallatin considered General Smith to
have been guilty of what was little better than an impertinence
in having intruded between the House and Mr. Jefferson with
" erroneous and improper" fears of the action of men for whom
Mr. Gallatin himself was responsible. This was the first occasion
on which the Smiths crossed Gallatin's path, and when he looked
back upon it at the end of fifty years it seemed an omen.
Mr. Gallatin considered himself to be, and doubtless was, the
effective leader in this struggle. He marshalled the forces ; he
fought the battle; he made the plans, and in making them he did
not even consult Mr. Jefferson, but simply obtained his assent
to what had already received the assent of his followers in the
House. These plans, alluded to in the Muhlenberg letter, are
printed in Mr. Gallatin's Writings. 1 They were framed to cover
every emergency. If the Federalists, acting on the assumption
of a vacancy in the Presidential office, undertook to fill that
vacancy by law, the Eepublicans were to refuse recognition of
such a President and to agree on a uniform mode of not obeying
the orders of the usurper, and of discriminating between those
and the laws which should be suffered to continue in operation.
In case only a new election were the object desired, without
usurpation^of power in the mean while, submission was on the
whole preferable to resistance. An assumption of executive
i Vol. i. pp. 18-23.
252 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1801.
power by the Republicans in any mode not recognized by the
Constitution was discouraged, and a reliance on the next Con-
gress was preferred in any case short of actual usurpation. The
idea of a convention to reorganize the government was not even
suggested.
The crisis lasted until the 17th February, when the Federalists
gave way and Mr. Jefferson's election was quietly effected. With
this event Mr. Gallatin's career in Congress closed.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
WASHINGTON CITY, 15th January, 1801.
... I arrived here only on Saturday last. The weather
was intensely cold the Saturday I crossed the Alleghany Moun-
tains, and afterwards I was detained one day and half by rain
and snow. . . . Our local situation is far from being pleasant or
even convenient. Around the Capitol are seven or eight board-
ing-houses, one tailor, one shoemaker, one printer, a washing-
woman, a grocery shop, a pamphlets and stationery shop, a small
dry-goods shop, and an oyster house. This makes the whole of
the Federal city as connected with the Capitol. At the distance
of three-fourths of a mile, on or near the Eastern Branch, lie
scattered the habitations of Mr. Law and of Mr. Carroll, the
principal proprietaries of the ground, half a dozen houses, a very
large but perfectly empty warehouse, and a wharf graced by not
a single vessel. And this makes the whole intended commercial
part of the city, unless we include in it what is called the Twenty
Buildings, being so many unfinished houses commenced by Morris
and Nicholson, and perhaps as many undertaken by Greenleaf,
both which groups lie, at the distance of half-mile from each
other, near the mouth of the Eastern Branch and the Potow-
mack, and are divided by a large swamp from the Capitol Hill
and the little village connected with it. Taking a contrary
direction from the Capitol towards the President's house, the
same swamp intervenes, and a straight causeway, which measures
one mile and half and seventeen perches, forms the communica-
tion between the two buildings. A small stream, about the size
of the largest of the two runs between Clare's and our house,
1801. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 253
and decorated with the pompous appellation of " Tyber," feeds
without draining the swamps, and along that causeway (called
the Pennsylvania Avenue), between the Capitol and President's
House, not a single house intervenes or can intervene without
devoting its wretched tenant to perpetual fevers. From the
President's House to Georgetown the distance is not quite a
mile and a half; the ground is high and level ; the public offices
and from fifty to one hundred good houses are finished; the
President's House is a very elegant building, and this part of the
city on account of its natural situation, of its vicinity to George-
town, with which it communicates over Rock Creek by two
bridges, and by the concourse of people drawn by having busi-
ness with the public offices, will improve considerably and may
within a short time form a town equal in size and population to
Lancaster or Annapolis. But we are not there ; the distance is
too great for convenience from thence to the Capitol ; six or seven
of the members have taken lodgings at Georgetown, three near
the President's House, and all the others are crowded in the
eight boarding-houses near the Capitol. I am at Conrad &
McMunn's, where I share the room of Mr. Varnum, and pay at
the rate, I think, including attendance, wood, candles, and liquors,
of 15 dollars per week. At table, I believe, we are from twenty-
four to thirty, and, was it not for the presence of Mrs. Bailey
and Mrs. Brown, would look like a refectory of monks. The
two Nicholas, Mr. Langdon, Mr. Jeiferson, General Smith, Mr.
Baldwin, &c., &c., make part of our mess. The company is
good enough, but it is always the same, and, unless in my own
family, I had rather now and then see some other persons. Our
not being able to have a room each is a greater inconvenience. As
to our fare, we have hardly any vegetables, the people being
obliged to resort to Alexandria for supplies; our beef is not
very good ; mutton and poultry good ; the price of provisions
and wood about the same as in Philadelphia. As to rents, I
have not yet been able to ascertain anything precise, but, upon
the whole, living must be somewhat dearer here than either in
Philadelphia or New York. As to public news, the subject
which engrosses almost the whole attention of every one is the
equality of votes between Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Burr. The
254 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1801.
most desperate of the Federalists wish to take advantage of this
by preventing an election altogether, which they may do either
by dividing the votes of the States where they have majorities
or by still persevering in voting for Burr whilst we should per-
severe in voting for Jefferson ; and the next object they would
then propose would be to pass a law by which they would vest
the Presidential power in the hands of some man of their party.
I believe that such a plan if adopted would be considered as an
act of usurpation, and would accordingly be resisted by the
people ; and I think that partly from fear and partly from prin-
ciple the plan will not be adopted by a majority. But a more
considerable number will try actually to make Burr President.
He has sincerely opposed the design, and will go any lengths to
prevent its execution. Hamilton, the Willing and Bingham
connection, almost every leading Federalist out of Congress in
Maryland and Virginia, have openly declared against the project
and recommend an acquiescence in Mr. Jefferson's election.
Maryland, which if decided in our favor would at once make
Mr. J. President (for we have eight States sure, New York,
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Georgia), is afraid about the fate of the Federal
city, which is hated by every member of Congress without ex-
ception of persons or parties ; and I know that if a vote was to
take place to-day we would obtain the vote of that State. Even
Bayard from Delaware and Morris from Vermont (this last I
suspect under the influence of Gouv. Morris) are inclined the
same way. The vote of either is sufficient to decide in our favor.
And from all those circumstances I infer that there will be an
election, and that in favor of Mr. Jefferson. If not, there will
be either an interregnum until the new Congress shall meet and
then a choice made in favor of him also, or in case of usurpation
by the present Congress (which of all suppositions is the most
improbable), either a dissolution of the Union if that usurpation
shall be supported by New England, or a punishment of the
usurpers if they shall not be supported by New England. In
every possible case I think we have nothing to fear. The next
important object is the convention with France, which hangs in
the Senate. The mercantile interest, Mr. Adams and Mr. Ham-
1801. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 255
ilton are in favor of its ratification. Yet I think it rather prob-
able that either a decision will be postponed or that it shall be
clogged by the rejection or modification of some articles, an event
which might endanger the whole. I understand that Great
Britain does not take any oifence at the treaty itself, and that
being the case, although I dislike myself several parts of the in-
strument, I see no sufficient reason why we should not agree to
it. . . .
22d January, 1801.
... As to politics, you may suppose that being all thrown
together in a few boarding-houses, without hardly any other
society than ourselves, we are not likely to be either very mod-
erate politicians or to think of anything but politics. A few,
indeed, drink, and some gamble, but the majority drink naught
but politics, and by not mixing with men of different or more
moderate sentiments, they inflame one another. On that ac-
count, principally, I see some danger in the fate of the election
which I had not before contemplated. I do not know precisely
what are the plans of the New England and other violent Fed-
erals, nor, indeed, that they have formed any final plan ; but I
am certain that if they can prevail on three or four men who
hold the balance, they will attempt to defeat the election under
pretence of voting for Burr. At present it is certain that our
friends will not vote for him, and as we cannot make nine States
without the assistance of some Federal, it is as certain that, if
all the Federal will vote for him, there will be no choice of the
House. Tn that case what will be the plans of the Federalists,
having, as they have, a majority in both Houses ? Will they
usurp at once the Presidential powers? An attempt of that
kind will most certainly be resisted. Will they only pass a law
providing for a new election ? This mode, as being the most
plausible, may, perhaps, be the one they will adopt. And in
that case, as no State has provided for an election in such cases ;
as the concurrence of the Legislature of any one State will be
necessary to pass a law providing for the same; as in the five
New England States, Jersey, and Delaware (which give 49 Fed-
eral votes), both branches of the Legislature are Federal, whilst
in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South Carolina,
256 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1801.
where we have a majority, the State Senates are against us ; the
consequence might be that the Senates of these four last States
refusing to act, the 49 votes of New England, Jersey, and Dela-
ware would outweigh the 44 votes of Virginia, North Carolina,
Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee ; and they would thus, by in
fact disfranchising four States and annulling the last election,
perpetuate themselves in power, whilst they would in appearance
violate none of the forms of our Constitution. If they shall
act so, shall we submit ? And if we do not submit, in what
manner shall we act ourselves ? These are important questions,
and not yet finally decided. At all events, no appeal shall be
made to the physical strength of the country except in self-
defence, and as that strength is with us, I am not afraid of an
attack on their part. Thus I am confident that we will have no
civil war, and the love of union and order is so general that I
hope that in every possible case we shall preserve both. My
opinion is, however, decided that we must consider the election
as completed, and under no possible circumstance consent to a
new election. In that I may be overruled by our friends, but I
think it a miserable policy, and calculated to break for a length
of time the Republican spirit, should we at present yield one
inch of ground to the Federal faction, when we are supported
by the Constitution and by the people. I will every mail let
you know the prospect. At present it is still considered as
probable that Maryland will unite in the vote in favor of Mr.
Jefferson. . . .
29th January, 1801.
. . . Here the approaching llth February engrosses all our
attention. And opinions vary and fluctuate so much every day,
that I will confine myself to a few general observations in com-
municating to you what I know you must be very anxious of
understanding as fully as the nature of the case will admit. If
a choice is not made by the House, either the next House must
choose between Jefferson and Burr or a new election must take
place. Which mode would be most constitutional is doubtful
with many. I think the first to be the only truly constitutional
way of acting. But whatever mode be adopted, we are sure of
success, provided the election be fair. The next House will give
1801. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 257
us a majority of nine States, and, counting members individually,
of more than twenty votes. That House must be in session at
all events before a new election can be completed in order to
count the votes. That House may therefore adopt either the
mode I think right, by choosing between J. and B., or acquiesce
in a new election if it has been fair (that is to say, if the Senates
of Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and South Carolina
shall have permitted those States to vote). But if through
trick or obstinacy the election has been unfair, that House will
not acquiesce. That being an indubitable position, what interest
can the Federalists have in defeating an election ? None, unless
they mean to usurp government. And if they do make the
attempt, is it possible they would run the immense risk attending
the attempt merely for the sake of keeping government in their
hands till December next, with the certainty of losing it then
and the probability of being punished, at all events annihilated
as a party on account of the attempt ? Hence I conclude that
if they are in earnest they must mean something more than a
temporary usurpation. The intention of the desperate leaders
must be absolute usurpation and the overthrow of our Constitu-
tion. But although this may be the object of a few individuals
actuated by pride and ambition, it cannot be the true object of
a majority of the Federal men. Many may not indeed see and
calculate all the consequences of their defeating an election.
But I am confident that the true motive of action, which may
possibly induce at first a sufficient number to vote against Mr.
J., is an opinion of our imbecility and a supposition that we will
yield ourselves rather than to run any risk. This is the only
rational way to account for their conduct. It is yet extremely
doubtful whether we will not on the first ballot carry Mr. J. ;
but if we do not, I am firmly of opinion that by persevering
we will compel a sufficient number of Federals to yield. Should,
however, the election be defeated, I apprehend no very danger-
ous consequences. Usurpation will undoubtedly be resisted in
a legal and constitutional way by several of the largest and most
populous States, and I much doubt whether they would find any
man bold enough to place himself in front as an usurper. If,
what I think much more probable, there is no usurpation, we
17
258 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1801.
would acquiesce in a kind of interregnum until the meeting of
next Congress, which in that case would probably be hastened.
I conclude on that subject by observing that there is no appear-
ance of any of our friends seceding. If any do secede, B. may
be elected ; if not, I think it is one hundred to one that Jef.
will. . . . Lucius H. Stockton (the indicter of Baldwin) was
nominated Secretary of War. The Senate suspended the ap-
pointment and gave him time to decline. His brother, your
friend's husband, writes on this occasion that although it might
be well for Mr. A. to reward those who had written in his favor,
yet he should take care not to offer them appointments which
must render them ridiculous. And to-day Griswold, of our
House, has been nominated for the same Department. He has
too much sense not to be mortified at being rendered ridiculous
by that nomination, and I am sure will not accept. Mr. Mar-
shall is Chief Justice. His Department (Secretary of State) is
not yet filled, so that Dexter is pro temp. Secretary in chief of
all the Departments. He is rather unfortunate ; the auditor's
office and all the papers therein were burnt. Malice ascribes
the fire to design, and party will believe it. But I do not.
What renders the thing unlucky is that the very books which
had been, through the infidelity of a clerk, in Duane's hands
are burnt. Hence it will be extremely difficult to remove the
suspicion from the minds of many. The French convention, as
I had foretold, has been rejected by the Senate. But they have
contrived to agree that it was not a final determination, and they
are now negotiating amongst themselves on the subject. The
merchants are in favor of the convention ; the Senators who
voted against it are rather afraid of the unpopularity of the
measure, and some of them are willing to come in and approve,
provided they may have a decent cover for changing their vote.
So that it is not improbable that on the next trial the convention
may be adopted with some immaterial modifications ; but it is
far from certain.
I believe I have given you every political and private infor-
mation that I can trust to a letter. Much will remain for me to
tell when we meet. Yet, as the newspapers have made me Sec-
retary of the Treasury, hereafter, that is to say, I may tell you
1801. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 259
that I have received no hint of that kind from Mr. J. Indeed,
I do not suppose that it would be proper in him to say anything
on the subject of appointments until he knows whether he shall
be elected. The Republicans may wish me to be appointed, but
there exist two strong doubts in my mind on the subject, 1st,
whether the Senate would confirm ; 2d, what you have already
heard me express, whether my abilities are equal to the office. . . .
5th February, 1801.
. . . Indeed, I feel more forcibly than ever I did before that
you cannot, that you must not be left alone in that country. The
habits of the people and state of society create difficulties and
inconveniences which you cannot overcome. And it is to similar
circumstances that we are to ascribe the establishment and intro-
duction of slavery in the Middle States. Under my and your
peculiar situation and place of abode, it has required no uncom-
mon exertion to resist the temptation. And should imperious
circumstances compel a longer residence in the western country
than we now contemplate, some method must be taken to obviate
the inconvenience. At all events, if through any means I can
subsist and be independent on this side the mountains I will
attempt it, for from experience I am fully convinced that you
cannot live happy where you are. ... I have had a cold since
my last, and nursed myself; have been out but once to dine at
Georgetown with some of our. members who lodge there. I
mean to go and stay there all night this evening in order to have
a more full conversation with Dallas in relation to myself and
future plans than can be done by letter.
The Federal party in Senate got frightened at their having
rejected the French treaty, which is certainly extremely popular.
And they offered to recant provided they were afforded a decent
cover. To this our friends agreed, and the treaty was two days
ago ratified, with the exception of the 2d Article (which was a
mere matter of form and introduced at the request of our own
commissioners), and a limitation for eight years. From thence I
am inclined to think that the party will also want perseverance
in the execution of the other plan, that of defeating the election.
A variety of circumstances induce me to believe that either the
260 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
plan is abandoned or that they know that it will fail. Bayard
has proposed, and a committee of sixteen members, one from
each State, have agreed, that on the llth February, the day fixed
by law for counting the votes, if it shall appear, as is expected,
that the two persons highest in vote (Jef. and Burr) have an
equality, the House shall immediately proceed (in their own
chamber) to choose by ballot the President, and shall not ad-
journ until a choice is made. I do not know whether the House
will agree ; but if they do, and the two parties are obstinate in
adhering, the one to B., the other to Jef., we will have for the
last three weeks of the session to sleep on blankets in the Cap-
itol, and also to eat and drink there. For the idea is that of a
permanent sitting, without doing any other business whatever
until we have chosen. But this evidently shows that they mean
to choose. For if no choice was made, they could neither pass
a law for a new election or usurpation, nor indeed for any object
whatever; and there is as yet no appropriation law passed;
which would leave us on 3d March without any government.
I believe I told you before that we had expectations of Bayard
and Morris joining us on this question. Mr. Adams has very
improperly called Senate for the 4th of March next, at which
time the three new Republican Senators from Kentucky, Georgia,
and South Carolina cannot, from their distance, be here; the new
Republican Senator from Pennsylvania instead of Bingham will
not be appointed, our thirteen Senators refusing to agree ; the
same with a new Senator from Maryland; Charles Pinckney
has also dislocated his shoulder. The fact is that in December
next the Senate will be 16 to 16, or at worst 15 to 17. And on
4th March only 8 or 9 Republicans against 17 or 18. The
secretaries may and probably will all resign on that day, and
the Senate being in session, that will compel Mr. J. to appoint
immediately and submit his appointments to that Rump Senate.
The object is undoubtedly to embarrass him by crippling his
intended Administration. . . .
12th February, 1801.
. . . Yesterday, on counting the votes, Burr and Jefferson had
73 votes each, as was already known. At one o'clock in the
afternoon we returned to our chamber and kept balloting till
1801. THE LEGISLATUEE. 1789-1801. 261
eight o'clock this morning without making a choice. We bal-
loted 27 times, and on each ballot the result was the same; eight
States for Jefferson, six for Burr, two divided. At eight o'clock
we agreed (without adjourning the House) to suspend the further
balloting till twelve o'clock, and during that time I went to sleep.
We have just returned and balloted once more, when, the result
being still the same, we have just now agreed to suspend the
balloting till to-morrow at eleven o'clock. Still the House is
not adjourned, and we consider this as a permanent sitting; but
by mutual agreement it is a virtual adjournment, as we shall not
meet nor do any business till to-morrow. I must write to Phila-
delphia, Lancaster, and New York, to keep them acquainted of
our situation, and I want to return to bed, which must be my
apology, with my love, for this short letter. Our hopes of a
change on their part are exclusively with Maryland, but every-
thing on that subject is conjecture. . . .
GALLATIN TO JAMES NICHOLSON, NEW YORK.
CITY OP WASHINGTON, 14th February, 1801.
3 o'clock, afternoon.
DEAR SIB, Nothing new to-day; 3 ballots, making in all
33, result the same. We have postponed balloting till Monday,
twelve o'clock.
That day will, I think, show something more decisive, either
yielding on their part or an attempt to put an end to balloting
in order to legislate. We will be ready at all points, and rest
assured that we will not yield. It is the most impudent thing
that they, with only six States and two half States, represented
on this floor only by 39 members, should expect that a majority
of eight States and two half States, represented on this floor by
67 members, should give up to the minority, and that, too,
against the decided opinion of an immense majority of the
people.
Federal instructions are pouring from this vicinity on Thomas,
the representative of this district, to induce him to make an
election by voting for Mr. Jefferson, but I do not know what
effect they may have.
262 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1801.
Mr. Joseph Nicholson has been very unwell, but would not
desert his post. A bed was fixed for him in the committee-room,
and he lay there and voted all night the llth to 12th. He has
also attended every day since, and has recovered amazingly, not-
withstanding the risk he ran in exposing himself to cold.
GALLATIN TO JAMES NICHOLSON, NEW YOKK.
CITY or WASHINGTON, 16th February, 1801.
DEAR SIR, I am sorry that I cannot yet relieve you from
the present general anxiety. We have balloted for the 34th time
this morning, and the result is still the same.
Mr. Bayard had positively declared on Saturday to some of
his own party that he would this day put an end to the business
by voting for Mr. Jefferson. He has acted otherwise. But it
is supposed that the cause of the delay is an attempt on his part
and some others to prevail on the whole Federal party to come
over.
We have agreed to suspend the ballot till to-morrow, twelve
o'clock.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
17th February, 1801
. . . We have this day, after 36 ballots, chosen Mr. Jefferson
President. Morris, of Vermont, withdrew;, Craik, Dennis,
Thomas, and Baer put in blank votes ; this gives us ten States.
The four New England States voted to the last for Mr. Burr.
South Carolina and Delaware put in blank ballots in the general
ballot-box ; that is to say, they did not vote. Thus has ended
the most wicked and absurd attempt ever tried by the Fed-
eralists. . . .
19th February, 1801.
. . . My last letter informed you of our final success in elect-
ing Mr. Jefferson. The Republicans are allowed, even by their
opponents, to have acted on that occasion with a cool firmness
which, before the first day of the contest was over, convinced
the wisest of that party that we would never yield, that we had
well ascertained the ground on which we stood, and that a de-
1801. THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801. 263
termination thus formed was not likely to be changed from fear
or intrigue. They were much at a loss how to act ; unsupported
even by their party out-of-doors, terrified at the prospect of their
own attempt, convinced that they must give up their untenable
ground, their unsubdued pride stood in the way of any dignified
way of acting on their part. They had but one proper mode to
pursue, and that was for the whole party to come over ; instead
of which they contrived merely to suffer Mr. Jefferson to be
chosen without a single man of theirs voting for him. This is
construed by some as a symptom of a general hostility hereafter
by an unbroken phalanx. But in this I do not agree, and I
have no doubt of our making an impression on them and effect-
ually breaking up the party, provided we have patience and dis-
cretion. At present, however, they are decidedly hostile, and
as the Senate has, very improperly indeed, been called by Mr.
Adams to meet on the 4th March next, when three of the newly-
elected Republican Senators cannot attend, and the expected
Eepublican Senator from Maryland is not yet elected, they will,
it is expected, evince that hostility by thwarting Mr. Jefferson's
nominations. Amongst those nominations which, as communi-
cated yesterday to me by Mr. Jefferson, are intended to be made,
the most obnoxious to the other party, and the only one which I
think will be rejected, is that of a certain friend of yours. That
he should be fixed at the seat of government and should hold
one of the great offices is pressed on him in such manner and
considered as so extremely important by several of our friends,
that he will do whatever is ordered. But I will not be sorry
nor hurt in my feelings if his nomination should be rejected, for
exclusively of the immense responsibility, labor, &c., &c., at-
tached to the intended office, another plan which would be much
more agreeable to him and to you has been suggested not by his
political friends, but by his New York friends. I will be more
explicit when we meet. . . .
23d February, 1801.
. . . From every present appearance I am led to think that
it will be necessary for us (by us I mean you, the children, and
me) to remove to this city about 1st May next ; but then there
is a chance that we may leave it next fall if the Senate shall
264 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1801.
then refuse to confirm. At all events, I conclude that, however
inconvenient that arrangement may be in other respects, it will
be agreeable to you. But I must state one thing. Remember
that whatever may be our station this side the mountains, it will
be essentially necessary that we should be extremely humble in
our expenses. This I know will be found by you a little harder
than you expect, for the style of living here is Maryland-like,
and it requires more fortitude to live here in a humble way than
it did in Philadelphia ; but I repeat it, it will be strictly neces-
sary, and on that you must resolve before you conclude to leave
our present home. . . .
26th February, 1801.
... I still calculate upon leaving this city Friday week, 6th
of March ; at all events, not before the Thursday. Wednesday,
4th, is the inauguration day of our new President. I want to
stay on that day at least, and so long as to ascertain how far the
Senate will approve or reject the nominations submitted to them
for the intended future Administration. These will be but few
in number and decided on Wednesday or Thursday at farthest.
As I had foreseen, the greatest exertions are made to defeat the
appointment of a Secretary of the Treasury, and I am still of
opinion that if presented the 4th of March it will be rejected.
If not presented, and an appointment by the President without
Senate should afterwards take place, it must be confirmed in
December next, and although it is probable, yet it is not certain,
that it would then be ratified. This would be a serious incon-
venience. To have removed to this place at considerable ex-
pense, made, as must necessarily be the case, some sacrifices in
order to close the business at home, and in winter to be obliged
to move again, would not be pleasing nor advantageous. In-
deed, on the whole, a positive refusal to come in on any terms
but a previous confirmation by Senate was at first given; but
subsequent circumstances, which I cannot trust to a letter, but
will mention at large when we meet, induced a compliance with
the general wish of all our political friends. The Federal
Senators generally continue very hostile. They have brought
in a bill to prevent the Secretary of the Navy from being con-
cerned in trade, which is aimed at General S. Smith, and is the
1801. THE LEGISLATUKE. 1789-1801. 265
more indecent on their part, as Stoddart has always been in trade
himself. Bingham is quite sincere in his exertions in support
of the intended nomination of Secretary of the Treasury, but
in favor of the bill intended on the subject of the Secretary
of the Navy. I speak to you more on that than on any other
subject because I know you feel more interested in it. ...
6th March, 1801.
. . . The President was inaugurated yesterday, and this day
has nominated Messrs. Madison, Dearborn, Lincoln, and Robert
R. Livingston for Secretaries of State and War, Attorney-General
and minister to France, respectively, all of which have been
approved of by the Senate. A majority of that body would, it
is supposed, have rejected a nomination for a new Secretary
of the Treasury; whether that be true or not I cannot tell,
but as I could not at any event have accepted immediately, no
nomination was made. Mr. Dexter has with great civility to
the President agreed to stay until a successor shall have been
appointed. Both Smith and Langdon decline. Mrs. Smith is
here and hates this place. But to come to the point : Mr. Jef-
ferson requested that I should stay three days longer in order to
see Mr. Madison and that I should be able to understand the
general outlines which are contemplated or may be agreed on as
the leading principles of the new Administration. As it was
for my convenience that the appointment was delayed, I could
not, even had I thought my presence useless, have objected to
his wish. . . . Mr. Adams left the city yesterday at four o'clock
in the morning. You can have no idea of the meanness, inde-
cency, almost insanity, of his conduct, specially of late. But
he is fallen and not dangerous. Let him be forgotten. The
Federal phalanx in Senate is more to be feared. Yet with the
people on our side and the purity of our intentions, I hope we
will be able to go on. But indeed, my dear, this is an arduous
and momentous undertaking in which I am called to take a
share. . . .
The struggle was completely over. All the dangers, real and
imaginary, had vanished. The great Federal party which had
266 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
created, organized, and for twelve years administered the gov-
ernment, and whose chief now handed it, safe and undisturbed,
to Mr. Jefferson and his friends, was prostrate, broken and
torn by dying convulsions. The new political force of which
Mr. Jefferson was the guide had no word of sympathy for the
vanquished. Full of hope and self-confidence, he took the
helm and promised that " now the ship was put on her Repub-
lican tack she would show by the beauty of her motion the skill
of her builders/' Even Mr. Gallatin's cooler head felt the
power of the strong wine, success. He too believed that human
nature was to show itself in new aspects, and that the failures
of the past were due to the faults of the past. " Every man,
from John Adams to John Hewitt, who undertakes to do what
he does not understand deserves a whipping," he wrote to his
wife a year later, when his tailor had spoiled a coat for him.
He had yet to pass through his twelve years of struggle and
disappointment in order to learn how his own followers and his
own President were to answer his ideal, when the same insolence
of foreign dictation and the same violence of a recalcitrant party
presented to their and to his own lips the cup of which John
Adams was now draining the dregs.
BOOK III.
THE TREASURY. 1801-1813.
IN governments, as in households, he who holds the purse
holds the power. The Treasury is the natural point of control
to be occupied by any statesman who aims at organization or
reform, and conversely no organization or reform is likely to
succeed that does not begin with and is not guided by the
Treasury. The highest type of practical statesmanship must
always take this direction. Washington and Jefferson doubtless
stand pre-eminent as the representatives of what is best in our
national character or its aspirations, but Washington depended
mainly upon Hamilton, and without Gallatin Mr. Jefferson
would have been helpless. The mere financial duties of the
Treasury, serious as they are, were the least of the burdens these
men had to carry; their keenest anxieties were not connected
most nearly with their own department, but resulted from that
effort to control the whole machinery and policy of government
which is necessarily forced upon the holder of the purse. Pos-
sibly it may be said with truth that a majority of financial min-
isters have not so understood their duties, but, on the other hand,
the ministers who composed this majority have hardly left great
reputations behind them. Perhaps, too, the very magnitude and
overshadowing influence of the Treasury have tended to rouse a
certain jealousy in the minds of successive Presidents, and have
worked to dwarf an authority legitimate in itself, but certainly
dangerous to the Executive head. Be this as it may, there are,
to the present time, in all American history only two examples
of practical statesmanship which can serve as perfect models, not
perhaps in all respects for imitation, but for study, to persons
who wish to understand what practical statesmanship has been
under an American system. Public men in considerable numbers
267
268 LITE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
and of high merit have run their careers in national politics, but
only two have had at once the breadth of mind to grapple with
the machine of government as a whole, and the authority neces-
sary to make it work efficiently for a given object; the practical
knowledge of affairs and of politics that enabled them to foresee
every movement; the long apprenticeship which had allowed
them to educate and discipline their parties; and finally, the good
fortune to enjoy power when government was still plastic and
capable of receiving a new impulse. The conditions of the
highest practical statesmanship require that its models should be
financiers; the conditions of our history have hitherto limited
their appearance and activity to its earlier days.
The vigor and capacity of Hamilton's mind are seen at their
best not in his organization of the Treasury Department, which
was a task within the powers of a moderate intellect, nor yet in
the essays which, under the name of reports, instilled much sound
knowledge, besides some that was not so sound, into the minds
of legislature and people; still less are they shown in the arts of
political management, a field into which his admirers can follow
him only with regret and some sense of shame. The true ground
of Hamilton's great reputation is to be found in the mass and
variety of legislation and organization which characterized the
first Administration of Washington, and which were permeated
and controlled by Hamilton's spirit. That this work was not
wholly his own is of small consequence. Whoever did it was
acting under his leadership, was guided consciously or uncon-
sciously by his influence, was inspired by the activity which
centred in his department, and sooner or later the work was sub-
ject to his approval. The results legislative and administrative
were stupendous and can never be repeated. A government
is organized once for all, and until that of the United States
fairly goes to pieces no man can do more than alter or improve
the work accomplished by Hamilton and his party.
What Hamilton was to Washington, Gallatin was to Jefferson,
with only such difference as circumstances required. It is true
that the powerful influence of Mr. Madison entered largely into
the plan of Jefferson's Administration, uniting and modifying
its other elements, and that this was an influence the want of
1801. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 269
which was painfully felt by Washington and caused his most
serious difficulties ; it is true, too, that Mr. Jefferson reserved to
himself a far more active initiative than had been in Washing-
ton's character, and that Mr. Gallatin asserted his own individ-
uality much less conspicuously than was done by Mr. Hamilton ;
but the parallel is nevertheless sufficiently exact to convey a true
idea of Mr. Gallatin's position. The government was in fact a
triumvirate almost as clearly denned as any triumvirate of Rome.
During eight years the country was governed by these three men,
Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin, among whom Gallatin not
only represented the whole political influence of the great Middle
States, not only held and effectively wielded the power of the
purse, but also was avowedly charged with the task of carrying
into effect the main principles on which the party had sought and
attained power.
In so far as Mr. Jefferson's Administration was a mere protest
against the conduct of his predecessor, the object desired was
attained by the election itself. In so far as it represented a
change of system, its positive characteristics were financial. The
philanthropic or humanitarian doctrines which had been the
theme of Mr. Jefferson's philosophy, and which, in a somewhat
more tangible form, had been put into shape by Mr. Gallatin in
his great speech on foreign intercourse and in his other writings,
when reduced to their simplest elements amount merely to
this : that America, standing outside the political movement of
Europe, could afford to follow a political development of her
own ; that she might safely disregard remote dangers ; that her
armaments might be reduced to a point little above mere police
necessities ; that she might rely on natural self-interest for her
foreign commerce ; that she might depend on average common
sense for her internal prosperity and order ; and that her capital
was safest in the hands of her own citizens. To establish these
doctrines beyond the chance of overthrow was to make demo-
cratic government a success, while to defer the establishment of
these doctrines was to incur the risk, if not the certainty, of follow-
ing the career of England in " debt, corruption, and rottenness."
In this political scheme, whatever its merits or its originality,
everything was made to depend upon financial management, and,
270 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801
siuce the temptation to borrow money was the great danger,
payment of the debt was the great dogma of the Democratic
principle. " The discharge of the debt is vital to the destinies
of our government/ 7 wrote Mr. Jefferson to Mr. Gallatin in
October, 1809, when the latter was desperately struggling to
maintain his grasp on the Administration ; " we shall never see
another President and Secretary of the Treasury making all other
objects subordinate to this" And Mr. Gallatin replied : " The
reduction of the debt was certainly the principal object in bring-
ing me into office." With the reduction of debt, by parity of
reasoning, reduction of taxation went hand in hand. On this
subject Mr. Gallatin's own words at the outset of his term of
office give the clearest idea of his views. On the 16th November,
1801, he wrote to Mr. Jefferson :
" If we cannot, with the probable amount of impost and sale
of lands, pay the debt at the rate proposed and support the
establishments on the proposed plans, one of three things must
be done ; either to continue the internal taxes, or to reduce the
expenditure still more, or to discharge the debt with less rapidity.
The last recourse to me is the most objectionable, not only be-
cause I am firmly of opinion that if the present Administration
and Congress do not take the most effective measures for that
object, the debt will be entailed on us and the ensuing genera-
tions, together with all the systems which support ifc and which
it supports, but also, any sinking fund operating in an increased
ratio as it progresses, a very small deduction from an appropria-
tion for that object would make a considerable difference in the
ultimate term of redemption which, provided we can in some shape
manage the three per cents, without redeeming them at their
nominal value, I think may be paid at fourteen or fifteen years.
" On the other hand, if this Administration shall not reduce
taxes, they never will be permanently reduced. To strike at the
root of the evil and avert the danger of increasing taxes, en-
croaching government, temptations to offensive wars, &c., nothing
can be more effectual than a repeal of all internal taxes ; but let
them all go and not one remain on which sister taxes may be
hereafter engrafted. I agree most fully with you that pretended
tax-preparations, treasure-preparations, and army-preparations
1801. THE TKEASTJEY. 1801-1813. 271
against contingent wars tend only to encourage wars. If the
United States shall unavoidably be drawn into a war, the people
will submit to any necessary tax, and the system of internal
taxation which then shall be thought best adapted to the then
situation of the country may be created instead of engrafted on
the old or present plan. If there shall be no real necessity for
them, their abolition by this Administration will most power-
fully deter any other from reviving them."
To these purposes, in the words of Mr. Jefferson, all other
objects were made subordinate, and to carry these purposes into
effect was the peculiar task of Mr. Gallatin. No one else ap-
pears even to have been thought of; no one else possessed any
of the requisites for the place in such a degree as made him even
a possible rival. The whole political situation dictated the selec-
tion of Mr. Gallatin for the Treasury as distinctly as it did that
of Mr. Jefferson for the Presidency.
But the condition on which alone the principles of the Re-
publicans could be carried out was that of peace. To use again
Mr. Gallatin's own words, written in 1835: "No nation can,
any more than any individual, pay its debts unless its annual
receipts exceed its expenditures, and the two necessary ingredients
for that purpose, which are common to all nations, are frugality
and peace. The United States have enjoyed the last blessing in
a far greater degree than any of the great European powers.
And they have had another peculiar advantage, that of an un-
exampled increase of population and corresponding wealth. We
are indebted almost exclusively for both to our geographical and
internal situation, the only share which any Administration or
individual can claim being its efforts to preserve peace and to
check expenses either improper in themselves or of subordinate
importance to the payment of the public debt. In that respect
I may be entitled to some public credit, as nearly the whole of
my public life, from 1795, when I took my seat in Congress,
till 1812, when the war took place, was almost exclusively de-
voted with entire singleness of purpose to those objects." 1
To preserve peace, therefore, in order that the beneficent in-
1 Letter to Gales & Seaton, 5th February, 1835, Writings, ii. 535.
272 LIFE OF ALBEET GALL ATI N. 1801.
fluence of an enlightened internal policy might have free course,
was the special task of Mr. Madison. How much Mr. Gallatin's
active counsel and assistance had to do with the foreign policy
of the government will be seen in the narrative. Here, how-
ever, lay the danger, and here came the ultimate shipwreck. It
is obvious at the outset that the weak point of what may be
called the Jeffersonian system lay in its rigidity of rule. That
system was, it must be confessed, a system of doctrinaires, and
had the virtues and faults of a priori reasoning. Far in advance,
as it was, of any other political effort of its time, and represent-
ing, as it doubtless did, all that was most philanthropic and all
that most boldly appealed to the best instincts of mankind, it
made too little allowance for human passions and vices ; it relied
too absolutely on the power of interest and reason as opposed to
prejudice mid habit ; it proclaimed too openly to the world that
the sword was not one of its arguments, and that peace was
essential to its existence. When narrowed down to a precise
issue, and after eliminating from the problem the mere dogmas
of the extreme Hamiltonian Federalists, the real difference be-
tween Mr. Jefferson and moderate Federalists like Eufus King,
who represented four-fifths of the Federal party, lay in the
question how far a government could safely disregard the use of
force as an element in politics. Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Gallatin
maintained that every interest should be subordinated to the
necessity of fixing beyond perad venture the cardinal principles
of true republican government in the public mind, and that
after this was accomplished, a result to be marked by extinction
of the debt, the task of government would be changed and a
new class of duties would arise. Mr. King maintained that
republican principles would take care of themselves, and that
the government could only escape war and ruin by holding ever
the drawn sword in its hand. Mr. Gallatin, his eyes fixed on
the country of his adoption, and loathing the violence, the ex-
travagance, and the corruption of Europe, clung with what in a
less calm mind would seem passionate vehemence to the ideal he
had formed of a great and pure society in the New World,
which was to offer to the human race the first example of man
in his best condition, free from all the evils which infected
1801. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 273
Europe, and intent only on his own improvement. To realize
this ideal might well, even to men of a coarser fibre than Mr.
Gallatin, compensate for many insults and much wrong, borne
with dignity and calm remonstrance. True, Mr. Gallatin always
looked forward to the time when the American people might
safely increase its armaments ; but he well knew that, as the
time approached, the need would in all probability dimmish :
meanwhile, he would gladly have turned his back on all the
politics of Europe, and have found compensation for foreign
outrage in domestic prosperity. The interests of the United
States were too serious to be put to the hazard of war ; govern-
ment must be ruled by principles; to which the Federalists
answered that government must be ruled by circumstances.
The moment when Mr. Jefferson assumed power was pecu-
liarly favorable for the trial of his experiment. Whatever the
original faults and vices of his party might have been, ten years
of incessant schooling and education had corrected many of its
failings and supplied most of its deficiencies. It was thoroughly
trained, obedient, and settled in its party doctrines. And while
the new administration thus profited by the experience of its
adversity, it was still more happy in the inheritance it received
from its predecessor. Whatever faults the Federalists may have
committed, and no one now disputes that their faults and blun-
ders were many, they had at least the merit of success ; their
processes may have been clumsy, their tempers were under de-
cidedly too little control, and their philosophy of government
was both defective and inconsistent; but it is an indisputable
fact, for which they have a right to receive full credit, that when
they surrendered the government to Mr. Jefferson in March,
1801, they surrendered it in excellent condition. The ground
was clear for Mr. Jefferson to build upon. Friendly relations
had been restored with France without offending England ; for
the first time since the government existed there was not a serious
difficulty in all our foreign relations, the chronic question of
impressment alone excepted ; the army and navy were already
reduced to the lowest possible point ; the civil service had never
been increased beyond very humble proportions ; the debt, it is
true, had been somewhat increased, but in nothing like proper
18
274 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1801.
tion to the increase of population and wealth; and through all
their troubles the Federalists had so carefully managed taxation
that there was absolutely nothing for Mr. Gallatin to do ; and he
attempted nothing, in regard to the tariff of impost duties, which
were uniformly moderate and unexceptionable, while even in re-
gard to the excise and other internal taxes he hesitated to interfere.
This almost entire absence of grievances to correct extended even
to purely political legislation. The alien and sedition laws expired
by limitation before the accession of Mr. Jefferson, and only the
new organization of the judiciary offered material for legislative at-
tack. Add to all this that Europe was again about to recover peace.
On the other hand, the difficulties with which Mr. Jefferson
had to deal were no greater than always must exist under any
condition of party politics. From the Federalists he had
nothing to fear; they were divided and helpless. The preju-
dices and discords of his own followers were his only real dan-
ger, and principally the pressure for office which threatened to
blind the party to the higher importance of its principles. In
proportion as he could maintain some efficient barrier against
this and similar excesses and fix the attention of his followers
on points of high policy, his Administration could rise to the
level of purity which was undoubtedly his ideal. What influ-
ence was exerted by Mr. Gallatin in this respect will be shown
in the course of the narrative.
The assertion that Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin were a
triumvirate which governed the country during eight years takes
no account of the other members of Mr. Jefferson's Cabinet, but
in point of fact the other members added little to its strength.
The War Department was given to General Dearborn, while
Levi Lincoln became Attorney-General ; both were from Massa-
chusetts, men of good character and fair though not pre-eminent
abilities. Mr. Gallatin described them very correctly in a letter
written at the time :
GALLATIN TO MARIA NICHOLSON.
CITY or WASHINGTON, 12th March, 1801.
MY DEAR SISTER, I think I am going to reform; for I
feel a kind of shame at having left your friendly letters so long
1801. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 275
unanswered. How it happens that I often have and still now
do apparently neglect, at least in the epistolary way, those per-
sons who are dearest to me, must be unaccountable to you. I
think it is owing to an indulgence of indolent habits and to
want of regularity in the distribution of my time. In both a
thorough reformation has become necessary, and as that necessity
is the result of new and arduous duties, I do not know myself,
or I will succeed in accomplishing it. You will easily under-
stand that I allude to the office to which I am to be appointed.
This has been decided for some time, and has been the cause of
my remaining here a few days longer than I expected or wished.
To-morrow morning I leave this place, and expect to return
about the first day of May with my wife and family. Poor
Hannah has been and is so forlorn during my absence, and she
meets with so many difficulties in that western country, for
which she is not fit and which is not fit for her, that I will at
least feel no reluctance in leaving it. Yet were my wishes alone
to be consulted I would have preferred my former plan with all
its difficulties, that of studying law and removing to New York.
As a political situation the place of Secretary of the Treasury is
doubtless more eligible and congenial to my habits, but it is
more laborious and responsible than any other, and the same
industry which will be necessary to fulfil its duties, applied to
another object, would at the end of two years have left me in
the possession of a profession which I might have exercised
either in Philadelphia or New York. But our plans are all
liable to uncertainty, and I mast now cheerfully undertake that
which had never been the object of my ambition or wishes,
though Hannah had always said that it should be offered to me
in case of a change of Administration.
... As to our new Administration, the appearances are favor-
able, but storms must be expected. The party out of power had
it so long, loved it so well, struggled so hard to the very last to
preserve it, that it cannot be expected that the leaders will rest
contented after their defeat. They mean to rally and to improve
every opportunity which our errors, our faults, or events not
under our control may afford them. As to ourselves, Mr. Jef-
ferson's and Mr. Madison's characters are well known to you.
276 LIFE OFALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
General Dearborn is a man of strong sense, great practical in-
formation on all the subjects connected with his Department,
and what is called a man of business. He is not, I believe, a
scholar, but I think he will make the best Secretary of War we
[have] as yet had. Mr. Lincoln is a good lawyer, a fine scholar,
a man of great discretion and sound judgment, and of the
mildest and most amiable manners. He has never, I should
think from his manners, been out of his own State or mixed
much with the world except on business. Both are men of
1776, sound and decided Republicans; both are men of the
strictest integrity; and both, but Mr. L. principally, have a
great weight of character to the Eastward with both parties.
We have as yet no Secretary of the Navy, nor do I know on
whom the choice of the President may fall, if S. Smith shall
persist in refusing. . . .
The Navy Department in a manner went begging. General
Smith was strongly pressed to take it, and did in fact perform
its duties for several weeks. Had he consented to accept the
post he would have added to the weight of the government,
for General Smith was a man of force and ability ; but he per-
sisted in refusing, and ultimately his brother, Robert Smith,
was appointed, an amiable and respectable person, but not one
of much weight except through his connections by blood or
marriage.
The first act of the new Cabinet was to reach a general under-
standing in regard to the objects of the Administration. These
appear to have been two only in number : reduction of debt and
reduction of taxes, and the relation to be preserved between
them. On the 14th March, Mr. Gallatin wrote a letter to Mr.
Jefferson,, discussing the subject at some length ; l immediately
afterwards he set out for New Geneva to arrange his affairs there
and to> bring his wife and family to Washington. His sharp
experience of repeated exclusion from office by legislative bodies
made him nervous in regard to confirmation by the Senate, and
Mr. Jefferson therefore postponed the appointment until after
1 Writings, vol. i. p. 24.
1801. THE TKEASUEY. 1801-1813. 277
the Senate had adjourned. These fears of factious opposition
were natural enough, but seem to have been unfounded. Samuel
Dexter, the Secretary of the Treasury under President Adams,
consented to hold over until Mr. Gallatin was ready. Mr.
Stoddart, President Adams's Secretary of the Navy, was equally
courteous. If the story, told in some of Mr. Jefferson's biog-
raphies, be true, that Mr. Marshall, while still acting as Secretary
of State, was turned out of his office by Mr. Lincoln, under the
orders of Mr. Jefferson, at midnight on the 3d of March, 1 it
must be confessed that, so far as courtesy was concerned, the
Federalists were decidedly better bred than their rivals. The
new Administration was in no way hampered or impeded by
the old one, and Mr. Gallatin himself was perhaps of the whole
Administration the one who suffered least from Federal attacks ;
henceforward his enemies came principally from his own camp.
This result was natural and inevitable ; it came from his own
character, and was a simple consequence of his principles ; but,
since this internal dissension forced itself at once on the Admin-
istration and became to some extent its crucial test in the matter
of removals from office for party reasons, the whole story may
best be told here before proceeding with the higher subjects of
state policy.
Among Mr. Gallatin's papers is a sort of pamphlet in manu-
script, stitched together, and headed in ornamental letters:
"CITIZEN W. $m&9&" It is endorsed in Mr. Gallatin's
hand: "1801. Clerks in offices; given by W. Duane." It
contains a list of all the Department clerks, after the following
style :
Offices. Names. Remarks.
o s 1400 Jacob Wagner. Complete picaroon.
| 600 Steph. Pleasanton. Nothingarian.
1 1 800 Brent. Nincumpoop.
Some of Duane's remarks are still more pointed :
1 See Miss Kandolph's Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson, pp. 307-308,
and Parton's Jefferson, pp. 585-586.
278 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
Offices. Names. Remarks.
1500 John Newman. Democratic executioner.
800 Golding. Adamite.
600 Israel Loring. Assistant throat-cutter.
1000 Charles W. Goldsborough. \
1000 Jeremiah Nicolls. I Damned Re P s '
1700 A. Bradley, Jr., A.P.M. |
1200 Kobt. T. Howe. iree
800 Tunis Craven. J
1200 E. Jones. A notorious villain.
1200 David Sheldon. Wolcott's dear nephew.
1200 Jos. Dawson. Hell-hot.
The pressure for sweeping removals was very great. From
the first, Mr. Gallatin set his face against them, and although
apparently yielding adhesion to Mr. Jefferson's famous New
Haven letter of July 12, in which it was attempted to justify
the principle and regulate the proportion of removals, he urged
Mr. Jefferson to authorize the issue of a circular to collectors
which would have practically made the New Haven letter a
nullity. On the 25th July he sent to the President a draft of
this circular :
CIRCULAR TO COLLECTORS.
The law having given to the collectors the appointment of a
number of inferior officers subject to my approbation, there is on
that subject on which we must act in concert, but one sentiment
that I wish to communicate ; it is that the door of office be no
longer shut against any man merely on account of his political
opinions, but that whether he shall differ or not from those
avowed either by you or by myself, integrity and capacity suit-
able to the station be the only qualifications that shall direct our
choice.
Permit me, since I have touched this topic, to add that whilst
freedom of opinion and freedom of suffrage at public elections
are considered by the President as imprescriptible rights which,
possessing as citizens, you cannot have lost by becoming public
officers, he will regard any exercise of official influence to restrain
1801. THE TEEASUKY. 1801-1813. 279
or control the same rights in others as injurious to that part of
the public administration which is confided to your care, and
practically destructive of the fundamental principles of a repub-
lican Constitution.
In his letter to Mr. Jefferson of the same date he said, " It is
supposed that there is no danger in avowing the sentiment that
even at present, so far as respects subordinate officers, talent and
integrity are to be the only qualifications for office. In the second
paragraph, the idea intended to be conveyed is that an electioneer-
ing collector is commonly a bad officer as it relates to his official
duties (which I do sincerely believe to be true), and that the
principle of a corrupting official influence is rejected by the present
Administration in its own support and will not be forgiven when
exercised against itself."
Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison thought this declaration pre-
mature, and the circular was not issued. The time never came
when they thought it had reached maturity ; nevertheless Mr.
Jefferson wrote back : " I approve so entirely of the two para-
graphs on the participation of office and electioneering activity
that on the latter subject I proposed very early to issue a procla-
mation, but was restrained by some particular considerations ;
with respect to the former, we both thought it better to be kept
back till the New Haven remonstrance and answer have got into
possession of the public, and then that it should go further and
require an equilibrium to be first produced by exchanging one-
half of their subordinates, after which talents and worth alone to
be inquired into in the case of new vacancies."
Mr. Gallatin, however, soon returned to his remonstrances :
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
10th August, 1801.
. . . The answer to New Haven seems to have had a greater
effect than had been calculated upon. The Republicans hope for
a greater number of removals; the Federals also expect it. I
have already received several letters from Philadelphia applying
for the offices of customs, upon the ground that it is generally
understood that the officers there are to be removed.
280 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1801.
There is no doubt that the Federal leaders are making a power-
ful effort to rally their party on the same ground. Although
some mistakes may have been made as to the proper objects both
of removal and appointment, it does not appear that less than
what has been done could have been done without injustice to
the Republicans.
But ought much more to be done ? It is so important for the
permanent establishment of those republican principles of limita-
tion of power and public economy for which we have so success-
fully contended, that they should rest on the broad basis of the
people, and not on a fluctuating party majority, that it would be
better to displease many of our political friends than to give an
opportunity to the irreconcilable enemies of a free government
of inducing the mass of the Federal citizens to make a common
cause with them. The sooner we can stop the ferment the better,
and, at all events, it is not desirable that it should affect the east-
ern and southern parts of the Union. I fear less from the im-
portunity of obtaining offices than from the arts of those men
whose political existence depends on that of party. Office-
hunters cannot have much influence; but the other class may
easily persuade the warmest of our friends that more ought to
be done for them. Upon the whole, although a few more
changes may be necessary, I hope there will be but a few. The
number of removals is not great, but in importance they are
beyond their number. The supervisors of all the violent party
States embrace all the collectors. Add to that the intended
change in the post-office, and you have in fact every man in
office out of the seaports. . . .
JEFFERSON TO GALLATIN.
MONTICELLO, August 14, 1801.
. . . The answer to New Haven does not work harder than I
expected; it gives mortal offence to the Monarchical Federalists
who were mortally offended before. I do not believe it is thought
unreasonable by the Republican Federalists. In one point the
effect is not exactly what I expected. It has given more expec-
tation to the sweeping Republicans than I think its terms justify;
1801. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 281
to the moderate and genuine Republicans it seems to have given
perfect satisfaction. I am satisfied it was indispensably necessary
in order to rally round one point all the shades of Republicanism
and Federalism, exclusive of the monarchical ; and I am in hopes
it will do it. At any event, while we push the patience of our
friends to the utmost it will bear, in order that we may gather
into the same fold all the Republican Federalists possible, we
must not even for this object absolutely revolt our tried friends.
It would be a poor mano3uvre to exchange them for new con-
verts. . . .
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
17th August, 1801.
. . . You will find by the other letter that the Republicans
expect a change in Philadelphia; this expectation is owing partly
to the removal of the collector of New York and partly to the
answer to New Haven, which, as I mentioned before, has had a
greater if not a better eifect than was expected. . . . Upon the
whole ... it is much better to wait the meeting of Congress.
Dallas, who was here, agrees with me. Yet it must be allowed
that the warm Republicans will be displeased ; it is the same in
New York in regard to Rogers, who though the most capable
was the most obnoxious to the zealous Republicans. Duane has
been here, and I have taken an opportunity of showing the im-
propriety of numerous removals. He may think the reasons
good, but his feelings will be at war with any argument on the
subject. . . .
With regard to Duane, he was quite right. The course of
Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Dallas in resisting the sweeping removals
urged by the Aurora forfeited Duane's confidence. Perhaps Mr.
Gallatin, who had yet to learn something about the depths of
human nature, expected that at least Duane would give him the
credit of honest intention ; perhaps he thought the Aurora itself
might be disregarded if the public were satisfied; possibly he
foresaw all the consequences of making Duane an enemy, and
accepted them ; certain it is that the party schisms in Pennsyl-
vania began here, and that in the long list of enmities which
282 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
were at last to coalesce for Mr. Gallatin's overthrow, this of
Duane stands first in importance and in date.
Years, however, were to pass before the full effects of this
difference showed themselves; meanwhile the removals were
checked, and Duane pacified at least in some degree, but it is
a curious fact that the cause which interposed the first obstacle to
these wholesale removals was another party schism, of which New
York was the field and Aaron Burr the victim; and in this case
it appears that Mr. Gallatin favored removal rather than other-
wise, while it was Mr. Jefferson who, out of distrust to Burr,
maintained the Federal incumbent in office. The story is curious
and interesting.
The naval officer in New York was one Rogers, said to have
been a Tory of the Revolution. The candidate for his place was
Matthew L. Davis, Burr's right-hand man, and supported by
Burr with all his energy. The great mass of New York Repub-
licans, outside of the Livingston and Clinton interests, were
attached to Burr and pressed Davis for office. Commodore
Nicholson was hot about it. "It is rumored," he wrote to
Gallatin on the 10th August, " that Mr. Harrison in the State
government and Mr. Rogers in the general one are to be con-
tinued. Should that be the determination, a petition should go
on to both governments pointing out the consequences. I can
with truth declare I have no doubt it will bring the Repub-
lican interest in this city (if not the State) in the minority;
and as it applies to the President himself,' I am of opinion
that he ought to be made acquainted with it. There is no truth
more confirmed in my mind of the badness of the policy than
keeping their political enemies in office to trample upon us;
after which, if he perseveres, I am bold to say if I live to see
another election I shall think it my duty to use my interest
against his re-election." The commodore was a great admirer of
Burr, but a month later the commodore himself, much against
Mr. Gallatin's wishes, applied for and obtained the post of
loan-officer in New York, under a recommendation of De "Witt
Clinton, and his mouth was henceforth closed. The share which
Mr. Gallatin took in the New York contest is shown in the
following letters :
1801. THE TEEASUKY. 1801-1813. 283
BURR TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, June 8, 1801.
DEAR SIR, I have seen with pain a paragraph in the Citizen
of Friday respecting removals from office. Pray tell the Presi-
dent, notwithstanding any ebullitions of this kind, he may be
confidently assured that the great mass of Republicans in this
State are determined that he shall do things at his own time and
in his own manner, and that they will justify his measures with-
out inquiring into his reasons. I think you will not see any
more paragraphs in the style of that referred to. ...
BURR TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, June 28, 1801.
DEAR SIR, . . . Strange reports are here in circulation
respecting secret machinations against Davis. The arrangement
having been made public by E. L., the character of Mr. D. is,
in some measure, at stake on the event. He has already waived
a very lucrative employment in expectation of this appoint-
ment. I am more and more confirmed in the opinion that his
talents for that office are superior to those of any other person
who can be thought of, and that his appointment will be the
most popular. The opposition to him, if any is made, must
proceed from improper motives, as no man dare openly avow an
opinion hostile to the measure. This thing has, in my opinion,
gone too far to be now defeated. Two men from the country,
both very inferior to Mr. Davis in talents and pretensions, are
spoken of as candidates, I hope not seriously thought of. Any
man from the country would be offensive, either of these would
be absurd, and Davis is too important to be trifled with.
You say nothing of the sinking fund.
Affectionately yours.
If you will show to the President what of the above relates to
the naval office, you will save me the trouble of writing and him
that of reading a longer letter to him on the subject.
284 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
BURR TO GALLATIN.
NEW YORK, September 8, 1801.
DEAR SIR, Mr. Davis is on his way to Monticello on the
business too often talked of and too long left in suspense. I
was surprised to learn from Mr. Jefferson that nothing had been
said to him on this subject since a meeting had with his ministers
early in May. About that period I wrote you a letter which I
desired you to show him. Such requests are, however, always
an appeal to discretion. The matter is now arrived at a crisis
which calls for your opinion. This, I presume, you will give
in unqualified terms. In the letter you may write by Davis I
beg you also to inform Mr. J. of the characters of the gentlemen
whose letters will be shown you, and I do entreat that there may
now be a determination of some kind, for it has become a matter
of too much speculation here why R. is kept in and why D. is
not appointed.
Bradley will resign in the course of this month ; you will
have due notice. The next time you send a verbal message on
business, I will thank you to commit it to writing.
God bless you !
Mr. D. has been goaded into this journey by the instances of
an hundred friends, of whom I am not one. Yet I have not
opposed it, and am rather gratified that he undertakes it.
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
WASHINGTON, September 12, 1801.
DEAR SIR, This will be handed by M. L. Davis, of New
York, the candidate for the naval office. I used my endeavors
to prevent his proceeding to Monticello, but he has left New
York with that intention, and is not easily diverted from his
purpose. The reason he gives for his anxiety is that, imme-
diately after the adjournment of Congress, E. Livingston and
others mentioned to him that a positive arrangement was made
by the Administration by which he was to be appointed to that
office ; that he was so perfectly confident, till some time in June,
1801 THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 285
that such was the fact as to refuse advantageous proposals of a
permanent establishment, and the general belief on that subject
has placed him in a very awkward situation in New York.
He presses me much, on the ground of my personal knowledge
both of him and of the local politics of New York, to give you
my opinion in a decided manner on that subject, which to him I
declined, both because in one respect it was not made up, and
because my own opinion, even if decided, neither ought nor would
decide yours. The propriety of removing Rogers remains with
me the doubtful point ; after Fish's removal and that of others,
they in New York seem to suppose that the removal of Rogers
is, on account of ante-revolutionary adherence to enemies, un-
avoidable ; the answer to New Haven appears to have left no
doubt on their minds on that subject, and I apprehend that the
numerous removals already made by you there, and the almost
general sweep by their State government, have only increased
the anxiety and expectations of a total change. In relation to
Rogers himself, though he is a good officer, I would feel but
little regret at his being dismissed, because he has no claim de-
tached from having fulfilled his official duties, has made an
independent fortune by that office, and, having no personal
popularity, cannot lose us one friend nor make us one enemy.
But I feel a great reluctance in yielding to that general spirit of
persecution, which, in that State particularly, disgraces our cause
and sinks us on a level with our predecessors.
Whether policy must yield to principle by going further into
those removals than justice to our political friends and the public
welfare seem to require, is a question on which I do not feel
myself at present capable of deciding.
I have used the word " persecution," and I think with pro-
priety, for the council of appointments have extended their re-
movals to almost every auctioneer, and that not being a political
office the two parties ought certainly to have an equal chance in
such appointments.
As to the other point, if Rogers shall be removed, I have no
hesitation in saying that I do not know a man whom I would
prefer to Mr. Davis for that office.
This may, however, be owing to my knowing him better than
286 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LA TIN. 1801.
I do others who may be equally well qualified. I believe Davis
to be a man of talent, particularly quickness and correctness,
suited for the office, of strict integrity, untainted reputation, and
pure Kepublican principles. Nor am I deterred from saying so
far in his favor on account of any personal connection with any
other individuals; because I am convinced that his political
principles stand not on the frail basis of persons, but are exclu-
sively bottomed on conviction of their truth and will ever govern
his political conduct. So far as I think a prejudice against him
in that respect existed, I consider myself in justice to him bound
to declare as my sincere opinion. Farther I cannot go. ...
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
WASHINGTON", 14th September, 1801.
. . . This is, however, only a trifling family controversy, and
will not be attended with any other effect abroad except giving
some temporary offence to Duane, Beckley, Israel, and some other
very hot-headed but, I believe, honest Republicans. This leads
me to a more important subject. Pennsylvania is, I think, fixed.
Although we have there amongst our friends several office-hunters,
Republicanism rests there on principle pretty generally, and it
rests on the people at large, there not being in the whole State a
single individual whose influence could command even now one
county, or whose defection could lose us one hundred voters at
an election.
It is ardently to be wished that the situation of New York
was as favorable ; but so much seems to depend in that State on
certain individuals, the influence of a few is so great, and the
majority in the city of New York, on which, unfortunately, the
majority in the State actually depends (that city making one-
eighth of the whole), is so artificial, that I much fear that we will
eventually lose that State before next election of President.
The most favorable event would certainly be the division of
every State into districts for the election of electors ; with that
single point and only common sense in the Administration,
Republicanism would be established for one generation at least
beyond controversy; but if not attainable as a general constitu-
1801. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 287
tional provision, I think that our friends, whilst they can, ought
to introduce it immediately in New York. Davis's visit to Mon-
ticello has led me to that conclusion by drawing my attention
to that subject.
There are also two points connected with this, on which I wish
the Republicans throughout the Union would make up their
mind. Do they eventually mean not to support Burr as your
successor, when you shall think fit to retire? Do they mean
not to support him at next election for Vice-President ? These
are serious questions, for although with Pennsylvania and Mary-
land we can fear nothing so long as you will remain the object
of contention with the Federalists, yet the danger would be
great should any unfortunate event deprive the people of your
services. Where is the man we could support with any reason-
able prospect of success ? Mr. Madison is the only one, and his
being a Virginian would be a considerable objection. But if,
without thinking of events more distant or merely contingent,
we confine ourselves to the next election, which is near enough,
the embarrassment is not less, for even Mr. Madison cannot on
that occasion be supported with you, and it seems to me that
there are but two ways : either to support Burr once more or to
give only one vote for President, scattering our other votes for
the other person to be voted for. If we do the first, we run, on
the one hand, the risk of the Federal party making Burr Presi-
dent, and we seem, on the other, to give him an additional pledge
of being eventually supported hereafter by the Republicans for
that office. If we embrace the last party, we not only lose the
Vice-President, but pave the way for the Federal successful can-
didate to that office to become President. All this would be
remedied by the amendment of distinguishing the votes for the
two offices, and by that of dividing the States into districts ; but,
as it is extremely uncertain whether such amendments will suc-
ceed, we must act on the ground of elections going on as hereto-
fore. And here I see the danger, but cannot discover the remedy.
It is indeed but with reluctance that I can ever think of the
policy necessary to counteract intrigues and personal views, and
wiser men than myself must devise the means. Yet had I felt
the same diffidence, I mean total want of confidence, which
288 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL ATI N. 1801.
during the course of last winter I discovered in a large majority
of the Republicans towards Burr, I would have been wise enough
never to give my consent in favor of his being supported last
election as Vice-President. In this our party, those at least who
never could be reconciled to having him hereafter as President,
have made a capital fault, for which there was no necessity at the
time, and which has produced and will produce us much embar-
rassment. I need not add that so far as your Administration can
influence anything of that kind, it is impossible for us to act
correctly unless the ultimate object is ascertained. Yet I do not
believe that we can do much, for I dislike much the idea of sup-
porting a section of Republicans in New York and mistrusting
the great majority because that section is supposed to be hostile
to Burr and he is considered as the leader of that majority. A
great reason 'against such policy is that the reputed leaders of that
section, I mean the Livingstons generally, and some broken rem-
nants of the Clintonian party, who hate Burr (for Governor
Clinton is out of question and will not act), are so selfish and so
uninfluential that they never can obtain their great object, the
State government, without the assistance of what is called Burr's
party, and will not hesitate a moment to bargain for that object
with him and his friends, granting in exchange their support
for anything he or they may want out of the State. I do not
include in that number the Chancellor nor Mr. Armstrong, but
the first is in that State only a name, and there is something
which will forever prevent the last having any direct influence
with the people. I said before that I was led to that train of
ideas by Davis's personal application, for, although in writing to
you by him I said, as I sincerely believe it, that he never would
nor could be influenced by B. or any other person to do an im-
proper act or anything which could hurt the general Republican
principle, yet it is not to be doubted that, after all that has been
said on the subject, his refusal will by Burr be considered as a
declaration of war. The Federals have been busy on the occasion.
Tillotson also has said many things which might not have been said
with equal propriety, and I do not know that there is hardly a
man who meddles with politics in New York who does not believe
that Davis's rejection is owing to Burr's recommendation. . . .
1801. THE TKEASTJRY. 1801-1813. 289
To all this Mr. Jefferson merely replied in a letter of 18th
September, written from Monticello : " Mr. Davis is now with
me. He has not opened himself. When he does, I shall inform
him that nothing is decided, nor can be till we get together at
Washington/ 7
The appointment was not made. Rogers was retained in office
until May 10, 1803, when he was removed and Samuel Osgood
appointed in his place. Burr's last appeal is dated March 25,
1802, after the matter had been a year in debate. It is actually
pathetic :
BURR TO GALLATIN.
March 25.
DEAR SIR, . . . As to Davis, it is a small, very small favor
to ask a determination. That "nothing is determined" is so
jommonplace that I should prefer any other answer to this only
request which I have ever made.
I shall be abroad this evening, which I mention lest you
might meditate a visit.
Yours.
These letters need no comment. Be the merits of the ulti-
mate rupture between Jefferson and Burr what they may, the
position of Mr. Gallatin is clear enough. He did not want that
rupture. He had no affection for the great New York families
which were the alternative to Burr; he regretted that deep-set
distrust of the Vice-President which had always existed among
the Virginians; his own relations with Burr and his friends
were never otherwise than agreeable, and he could have no
motive for expelling them from the party and driving them to
desperation. On the other hand, Burr never included Mr.
Gallatin in that exasperated vindictiveness of feeling which he
entertained towards Mr. Jefferson himself and the southern
Republicans; long afterwards, in conversation with Etienne
Dumont in London, he expressed the opinion that Gallatin was
the best head in the United States. 1 Yet, little as Mr. Gallatin
was inclined to join in the persecution of Burr, he could not be
1 See Parton's Burr, ii. 69.
19
290 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIX. 1801.
blind to the fact that the large majority of Republicans felt no
confidence in him ; and time showed that this distrust was de-
served. Mr. Jefferson followed quietly his own course of silent
ostracism as regarded the Vice-President, and retained Rogers
in office, so far as can be seen, solely to destroy Burr's influence,
in the teeth of the reflection curtly expressed by Commodore
Nicholson in the concluding sentence of the letter above quoted :
" I would have Mr. Jefferson reflect, before I conclude, what
will be said of his conduct in displacing officers who served in
our revolution, and retaining a British tory, to say the least of
Rogers." Whatever may have been Mr. Gallatin's own wishes,
further intervention on his part was neither judicious nor likely
to be successful.
Under the influence of these jealousies, Burr was rapidly forced
into opposition, and New York politics became more than ever
chaotic. Whether the Administration ultimately derived any
advantage from pulling down Burr in order to set up George
Clinton and General Armstrong is a matter in regard to which
the opinion of Mr. Madison in 1812 would be worth knowing.
The slight personal hold which Mr. Gallatin might have retained
upon New York through the agency of his old friend Edward
Livingston, who had received the appointment of district attor-
ney, was destroyed in 1803 by Livingston's defalcation and re-
moval to New Orleans. As these events occurred, and as they
were rapidly followed by the Pennsylvania schism, in which
Mr. Jefferson carefully balanced between the two parties, Mr.
Gallatin, more and more disgusted at the revelations of moral
depravity which forced themselves under his eyes, drew away
from local and personal politics as far as he could, and became
to a considerable degree isolated in regard to the two great States
which he represented in the Cabinet. Disregarding, perhaps,
too much the controversies which, however contemptible, neces-
sarily involved his political influence, he devoted his attention
to the loftier interests of national policy.
The summer and autumn of 1801 were consumed in master-
ing the details of Treasury business, in filling appointments to
office, and in settling the scale of future expenditure in the
different Departments. But when the time came for the prepa-
1801. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 291
ration of the President's message at the meeting of Congress in
December, Mr. Gallatin had not yet succeeded in reaching a
decision on the questions of the internal revenue and of the
debt. He had the support of the Cabinet on the main point,
that payment of the debt should take precedence of reduction
in the taxes, but reduction in the taxes was dependent on the
amount of economy that could be effected in the navy, and the
Secretary of the Navy resisted with considerable tenacity the
disposition to reduce expenditures.
What Mr. Gallatin would have done with the navy, had he
been left to deal with it in his own way, nowhere appears. He
had opposed its construction, and would not have considered
it a misfortune if Congress had swept it away ; but he seems
never to have interfered with it, after coming into office, further
than to insist that the amount required for its support should
be fixed at the lowest sum deemed proper by the head of that
Department. In fact, Mr. Jefferson's Administration disap-
pointed both friends and enemies in its management of the
navy. The furious outcry which the Federalists raised against
it on that account was quite unjust. Considering the persistent
opposition which the Republican party had offered to the con-
struction of the frigates, there can be no better example of the
real conservatism of this Administration than the care which
it took of the service, and even Mr. Gallatin, who honestly be-
lieved that the money would be better employed in reducing
debt, grumbled not so much at the amount of the appropriations
as at the want of good management in its expenditure. He
thought that more should have been got for the money ; but so
far as the force was concerned, the last Administration had itself
fixed the amount of reduction, and the new one only acted under
that law, using the discretion given by it. That this is not a
mere partisan apology is proved by the effective condition of
our little navy in 1812 ; but the facts in regard to the subject
are well known and fully stated in the histories of that branch
of the service, works in which there was no motive for political
misrepresentation. 1
1 See Cooper's Naval History, i. 192-194.
292 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
Mr. Jefferson was in the habit of communicating the draft of
his annual message to each head of department and requesting
them to furnish him with their comments in writing. On these
occasions Mr. Gallatin's notes were always elaborate and interest-
ing. In his remarks in November, 1801, on the first annual
message he gave a rough sketch of the financial situation, and at
this time it appears that he hoped to cut down the army and
navy estimates to $930,000 and $670,000 respectively. His
financial scheme then stood as follows :
REVENUE. EXPENDITURE.
Impost, $9,500,000 Interest, &c., $7,200,000
Lands and postage, 800,000 Civil expend., 1,000,000
$9,800,000 Military 930,000
Naval " 670,000
$9,800,000
He calculated that the annual application of $7,200,000 to the
payment of interest and principal would pay off about thirty-
eight millions of the debt in eight years, and, fixing this as his
standard, he proposed to make the other departments content
themselves with whatever they could get as the difference between
$7,200,000 and the revenue estimated at $9,800,000. On these
terms alone he would consent to part with the internal revenue,
which produced about $650,000.
This, however, seems to have been beyond his power. Few
finance ministers have ever pressed their economies with more
perseverance or authority than Mr. Gal latin, but he never suc-
ceeded in carrying on the government with so much frugality
as this, and the sketch seems to indicate what the Administration
would have liked to do, rather than what it did. The report of
the Secretary of the Treasury a month later shows that he had
been obliged to modify his plan. As officially announced, it was
as follows :
REVENUE.
EXPENDITURE.
Impost, &c.,
$9,500,000
Interest, &c.,
$7,100,000
Lands and postage,
450,000
Civil expend.,
980,000
$9,950,000
Military "
1,420,000
Internal revenue,
650,000
Navy "
1,100,000
Total, $10,600,000 $10,600,000
1801.
THE TREASURY. 1801-1813.
293
The problem of repealing the internal taxes was therefore not
yet settled, and it is not very clear on the face of the estimates
how it would be possible to effect this object. Mr. Gallatin ex-
pected to do it by economies in the military and naval establish-
ments by which he should save the necessary $650,000. It is
worth while to look forward over his administration and to see
how far this expectation was justified, in order to understand
precisely what his methods were.
His first step, as already noticed, was to fix the rate at which
the debt should be discharged. This rate was ultimately repre-
sented by an annual appropriation of $7,300,000, which at the
end of eight years, according to his first report, would pay off
$32,289,000, and leave $45,592,000 of the national debt, and
within the year 1817 would extinguish that debt entirely. This
sum of $7,300,000 was therefore to be set aside out of the
revenue as the permanent provision for paying the principal and
interest of the debt.
Of the residue of income, which, without the internal taxes,
was estimated at about $2,700,000, the civil expenditure was to
require one million, the army and navy the remainder. But the
tables of actual expenditure show a very different result :
Civil.
Military.
Naval.
1802
$1,462,928
$1,358,988
$915,561
1803
1,841,634
944,957
1,215,230
1804
2,191,008
1,072,015
1,189,832
1805
3,768,597
991,135
1,597,500
1806
2,890,136
1,540,420
1,649,641
1807
1.697,896
1,564,610
1,722,064
1808
1,423,283
3,196,985
1,884,067
1809
1,195,803
3,761,108
2,427,758
1810
1,101,144
2,555,692
1,654,244
1811
1,367,290
2,259,746
1,965,566
Total.
$18,939,719
$19,245,656
$16,221,463
Total.
$3,737,477
4,001,821
4,452,855
6,357,232
6,080,197
4,984,570
6,504,335
7,384,669
5,311,080
5,592,602
$54,406,838
From these figures it appears that Mr. Gallatin's proposed
economies were never realized, and that his results must have
been attained by other means. The average expenditure on the
navy during these ten years was $1,600,000 a year. Instead of
establishments costing $2,700,000, the average annual expendi-
294 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1801.
ture reached $5,400,000, or precisely double the amount named.
As a matter of fact, notwithstanding the frugality of Mr. Galla-
tin and the complaints of parsimony made by the Federalists, it
is difficult to see how Mr. Jefferson's Administration was in
essentials more economical than its predecessors, and this seems
to have been Mr. Gallatin's own opinion at least so far as con-
cerned the Navy Department. On the 18th January, 1803, he
wrote a long letter to Mr. Jefferson on the navy estimates, closing
with a strong remonstrance : " I cannot discover any approach
towards reform in that department, and I hope that you will
pardon my stating my opinion on that subject when you recollect
with what zeal and perseverance I opposed for a number of years,
whilst in Congress, similar loose demands for money. My
opinions on that subject have been confirmed since you have
called me in the Administration, and although I am sensible
that in the opinion of many \vise and good men my ideas of ex-
penditure are considered as too contracted, I feel a strong confi-
dence that on this particular point I am right." Again, on the
20th May, 1805, he renewed his complaint: "It is proper that
I should state that the War Department has assisted us in that
respect [economy] much better than the Navy Department. . . .
As I know that there was an equal wish in both departments to
aid in this juncture, it must be concluded either that the War is
better organized than the Navy Department, or that naval busi-
ness cannot be conducted on reasonable terms. Whatever the
cause may be, I dare predict that whilst that state of things con-
tinues we will have no navy nor shall progress towards having
one. As a citizen of the United States it is an event that I will
not deprecate, but I think it due to the credit of your Adminis-
tration that, after so much has been expended on that account,
you should leave an increase of, rather than an impaired fleet.
On this subject, the expense of the navy greater than the object
seemed to require, and a merely nominal accountability, I have,
for the sake of preserving perfect harmony in your councils,
however grating to my feelings, been almost uniformly silent,
and I beg that you will ascribe what I now say to a sense of
duty and to the grateful attachment I feel for you."
Nevertheless, the internal duties were abolished as one of the
1801. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 295
first acts of Mr. Jefferson's Administration, and at the same time
Congress adopted Mr. Gallatin's scheme of regulating the dis-
charge of the public debt. The truth appears to be that the repeal
of these taxes was a party necessity, and that under the pressure
of that necessity both the Secretary of War and the Secretary of
the Navy were induced to lower their estimates to a point at which
Mr. Gallatin would consent to part with the tax. Mr. Gallatin
never did officially recommend the repeal. This measure was
founded on a report of John Randolph for the Committee of
Ways and Means, and Mr. Randolph's recommendation rested
on letters of the War and Navy Secretaries promising an economy
of 600,000 in their combined departments. These economies
never could be effected. The resource which for the time carried
Mr. Gallatin successfully over his difficulties was simply the
fact that he had taken the precaution to estimate the revenue
very low, and that there was uniformly a considerable excess in
the receipts over the previous estimate ; but even this good for-
tune was not enough to save Mr. Gallatin's plan from failure.
The war with Tripoli had already begun, and further economies
in the navy were out of the question. Government attempted
for two years to persevere in its scheme, but it soon became evi-
dent that, even with the increased production of the import duties,
the expense of that war could not be met without recovering the
income sacrificed by the repeal of the internal taxes in 1802.
Accordingly an addition of 2J per cent, was imposed on all im-
ported articles which paid duty ad valorem. The result of the
whole transaction, therefore, amounted only to a shifting of the
mode of collection, or, in other words, instead of raising a million
dollars from whiskey, stamps, &c., the million was raised on
articles of foreign produce or manufacture. This extra tax was
called the Mediterranean Fund, and was supposed to be a tem-
porary resource for the Tripolitan war.
The final adjustment of this difficulty, therefore, took a simple
shape. Mr. Gallatin obtained his fund of $7,300,000 for dis-
charging principal and interest of the debt. This was what
he afterwards called his " fundamental substantial measure,"
which was intended to affirm and fix upon the government the
principle of paying its debt and of thus separating itself at
296 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1801.
once from the whole class of corruptions and political theories
which were considered as the accompaniment of debt and which
were at that time identified with English and monarchical prin-
ciples. To obtain the surplus necessary for maintaining this
fund he relied at first on frugality, and, finding that circum-
stances offered too great a resistance in this direction, he resorted
to taxation in the most economical form he could devise. In
regard to mere machinery he made every effort to simplify rather
than to complicate it. In his own words : " As to the forms
adopted for attaining that object [payment of the debt], they
are of a quite subordinate importance. Mr. Hamilton adopted
those which had been introduced in England by Mr. Pitt, the
apparatus of commissioners of the sinking fund, in whom were
vested the redeemed portions of the debt, which I considered as
entirely useless, but could not as Secretary of the Treasury
attack in front, as they were viewed as a check on that officer,
and because, owing to the prejudices of the time, the attempt
would have been represented as impairing the plan already
adopted for the payment of the debt. I only tried to simplify
the forms, and this was the object of my letter [of March 31,
1802] to the Committee of Ways and Means. The injury which
Mr. Pitt's plan did was to divert the public attention from the
only possible mode of paying a debt, viz., a surplus of receipts
over expenditures, and to inspire the absurd belief that there
was some mysterious property attached to a sinking fund which
would enable a nation to pay a debt without 'the sine qua non
condition of a surplus. . . . But the only injury done here by
the provisions respecting the commissioners of the sinking fund,
and by certain specific appropriations connected with the subject,
was to render it more complex, and the accounts of the public
debt less perspicuous and intelligible. Substantially they did
neither good nor harm. The payments for the public debt and
its redemption were not in the slightest degree affected, either
one way or the other, by the existence of the commissioners of
the sinking fund or by the repeal of the laws in reference to
them. The laws making permanent appropriations were much
more important. Even with respect to these it is obvious that
they must also have become nugatory whenever the expenditure
1801. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 297
exceeded the income. Still they were undoubtedly useful by
their tendency to check the public expenses."
The letter on the management of the sinking fund, mentioned
in the above extract, will be found in the American State Papers 1
by readers who care to study the details of American finance.
These details have a very subordinate importance; the essen-
tial points in Mr. Gallatin's history are the rules he caused to be
adopted in regard to the payment of the debt, and the measures
he took to secure revenue with which to make that payment.
The rule adopted at his instance secured the ultimate extinction
of the debt within the year 1817, provided he could maintain
the necessary surplus revenue. The story of Mr. Gallatin's
career as Secretary of the Treasury relates henceforward prin-
cipally to the means he used or wished to use in order to defend
or recover this surplus, and the interest of that career rests
mainly in the obstructions which he met and the defeat which
he finally sustained.
Nevertheless, it would be very unjust to Mr. Gallatin to
imagine that his interest in the government was limited to
payment of debt or to details of financial management. He
was no doubt a careful, economical, and laborious financier, and
this must be understood as the special field of his duty, but he
was also a man of large and active mind, and his Department
was charged with interests that were by no means exclusively
financial. One of these interests related to the public lands.
As has been already seen, the public land system was organized
under the previous Administrations, but it took shape and found
its great development in Mr. Gallatin's hands. When the
Administration of Mr. Jefferson came into power there were
sixteen States in the Union, all of them, except Kentucky and
Tennessee, lying on or near the Atlantic seaboard ; at that time
the Mississippi River bounded our territory to the westward, and
the 31st parallel, which is still the northern line of portions of
the States of Florida and Louisiana, was our southern boundary
until it met the Mississippi. The public lands lay therefore in
two great masses, divided by the States of Kentucky and Ten-
1 Finance, vol. i. p. 746.
298 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1802.
nessee ; one of these masses was north of the Ohio River, extend-
ing to the lakes, the other west of Georgia, and both extended
to the Mississippi. As yet the Indian titles had been extin-
guished over comparatively small portions of these territories,
and in the process of managing her part of the lands the State
of Georgia had succeeded in creating an entanglement so com-
plicated as to defy all ordinary means of extrication. One of
the first duties thrown upon Mr. Gallatin was that of acting,
together with Mr. Madison and Mr. Lincoln, as commissioner
on the part of the United States, to effect a compromise with the
State of Georgia in regard to the boundary of that State and the
settlement of the various claims already existing under different
titles. Mr. Gallatin assumed the principal burden of the work,
and the settlement effected by him closed this fruitful source of
annoyances, fixed the western boundary of Georgia, and opened
the way to the gradual development of the land system in the
Alabama region. This settlement was the work of two years,
but it was so deeply complicated with the famous Yazoo cor-
ruptions that fully ten years passed before the subject ceased to
disturb politics.
At the same time he took in hand the affairs of the North-
Western Territory. The more eastern portion of this vast domain
had already a population sufficient to entitle it to admission as a
State, and the subject came before Congress on the petition of
its inhabitants. It was referred to a select committee, of which
Mr. William B. Giles was chairman, and this committee in Feb-
ruary, 1802, made a report based upon and accompanied by a
letter from Mr. Gallatin. 1 The only difficulty presented in this
case was that " of making some effectual provisions which may
secure to the United States the proceeds of the sales of the west-
ern lands, so far at least as the same may be necessary to discharge
the public debt for which they are solemnly pledged." To secure
this result Mr. Gallatin proposed to insert in the act of admission
a clause to that effect, but in order to obtain its acceptance by
the State convention he suggested that an equivalent should be
offered, which consisted in the reservation of one section in each
1 Gallatin to W. B. Giles, 14th Feb., 1802, Writings, vol. i. p. 76.
1802. THE TREASTJKY. 1801-1813. 299
township for the use of schools, in the grant of the Scioto salt
springs, and in the reservation of one-tenth of the net proceeds
of the land, to be applied to the building of roads from the
Atlantic coast across Ohio. Congress reduced this reservation
one-half, so that one-twentieth instead of one-tenth was reserved
for roads ; but, with this exception, all Mr. Gal latin's ideas were
embodied in a law passed on the 30th April, 1802, under which
Ohio entered the Union. This was the origin of the once famous
National Road, and the first step in the system of internal
improvements, of which more will be said hereafter.
The details of organization of the land system belong more
properly to the history of the new Territories and States than to
a biography. 1 They implied much labor and minute attention,
but they are not interesting, and they may be omitted here.
There remains but one subject which Mr. Gallatin had much at
heart, and which he earnestly pressed both upon the Administra-
tion and upon Congress. This was his old legislative doctrine
of specific appropriations, which he caused Mr. Jefferson to in-
troduce into his first message, and which he then seems to have
persuaded his friend Joseph H. Nicholson to take in charge as
the chairman of a special committee. At the request of this
committee, Mr. Gallatin made a statement at considerable length
on the 1st March, 1802. 2 The burden of this document was
that too much arbitrary power had been left to the Secretary of
the Treasury to put his own construction on the appropriation
laws, and that no proper check existed over the War and Navy
Departments ; the remedies suggested were specific appropria-
tions and direct accountability of the War and Navy Depart-
ments to the Treasury officers. Mr. Nicholson accordingly intro-
duced a bill for these purposes on April 8, 1802, but it was
never debated, and it went over as unfinished business. Probably
the resistance of the Navy Department prevented its adoption,
for the letters of Mr. Gallatin to Mr. Jefferson, quoted above,
show how utterly Mr. Gallatin failed in securing the exactness
1 See Mr. Gallatin's " Introduction to the Collection of Land Laws, &c., !
reprinted in his "Writings, vol. iii.
2 Printed in American State Papers, Finance, i. p. 755.
300 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1802.
and accountability in that Department which he had so per-
sistently demanded. Nor was this all. Probably nothing was
farther from Mr. Gallatin's mind than to make of this effort a
party demonstration. He was quite in earnest and quite right
in saying that the practice had hitherto been loose and that it
should be reformed, but his interest lay not in attacking the late
Administration so much as in reforming his own. Unfortunately,
the charge of loose practices under the former Administrations,
unavoidable though it was, and indubitably correct, roused a storm
of party feeling and even called out a pamphlet from the late
Secretary of the Treasury, Wolcott. Mr. Gallatin therefore not
only was charged with slandering the late Administration, but
was obliged to submit to see the very vices which he complained
of in it perpetuated in his own.
These were the great points of public policy on which Mr.
Gallatin's mind was engaged during his first year of office, and
it is evident that they were enough to absorb his entire attention.
The mass of details to be studied and of operations to be learned
or watched completely weighed him down, and caused him ever
to look back upon this year as the most laborious of his life.
The mere recollection of this labor afterwards made him shrink
from the idea of returning to the Treasury when it was again
pressed upon him in later years : " To fill that office in the
manner I did, and as it ought to be filled, is a most laborious
task and labor of the most tedious kind. To fit myself for it,
to be able to understand thoroughly, to embrace and to control
all its details, took from me, during the two first years I held it,
every hour of the day and many of the night, and had nearly
brought a pulmonary complaint." l Fortunately, his mind was
not, in these early days of power, greatly agitated by anxieties
or complications in public affairs. The whole struggle which
had tortured the two previous Administrations both abroad and
at home, the internecine contest between France and her enemies,
was for a time at an end ; Mr. Madison had nothing on his
hands but the vexatious troubles with the Algerine powers, in
regard to which there was no serious difference of opinion in
1 See infra, p. 607.
1802. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 3Q1
America ; Congress was mainly occupied with the repeal of the
judiciary bill, a subject which did not closely touch Mr. Gal-
latin's interests otherwise than as a measure of economy ; Mr.
Jefferson's keenest anxieties, as shown in his correspondence
of this year, seem to have regarded the distribution of offices
and the management of party schisms. After the tempestuous
violence of the two last Administrations the country was glad
of repose, and its economical interests assumed almost exclusive
importance for a time.
It was at this period of his life that Gilbert Stuart painted
the portrait, an engraving of which faces the title-page of this
volume. Mrs. Gallatin always complained that her husband's
features were softened and enfeebled in this painting until their
character was lost. Softened though they be, enough is left to
show the shape and the poise of the head, the outlines of the
features, and the expression of the eyes. Set side by side with
the heads of Jefferson and Madison, this portrait suggests curious
contrasts and analogies, but, looked at in whatever light one will,
there is in it a sense of repose, an absence of nervous restless-
ness, mental or physical, unusual in American politicians ; and,
unless Stuart's hand for once forgot its cunning, he saw in
Mr. Gallatin 's face a capacity for abstraction and self-absorption
often, if not always, associated with very high mental power;
an habitual concentration within himself, which was liable to be
interpreted as a sense of personal superiority, however carefully
concealed or controlled, and a habit of judging men with judg-
ments the more absolute because very rarely expressed. The
faculty of reticence is stamped on the canvas, although the keen
observation and the shrewd, habitual caution, so marked in the
long, prominent nose, are lost in the feebleness of the mouth,
which never existed in the original. Mr. Gallatin lived to
have two excellent portraits taken by the daguerreotype process.
Students of character will find amusement in comparing these
with Stuart's painting. Age had brought out in strong relief
the shrewd and slightly humorous expression of the mouth ;
the most fluent and agreeable talker of his time was still the
most laborious analyzer and silent observer ; the consciousness
of personal superiority was more strongly apparent than ever;
302 LIFE OF ALBEKT GAL LATIN. 1802.
but the man had lost his control over events and his confi-
dence in results; he had become a critic, and, however genial
and conscientious his criticism might be, he had a deeper sense
of isolation than fifty years before.
In person he was rather tall than short, about five feet nine
or ten inches high, with a compact figure, and a weight of
about one hundred and fifty pounds. His complexion was
dark ; his hair black ; but when Stuart painted him he was
already decidedly bald. His eyes were hazel, and, if one
may judge from the painting, they were the best feature in
his face.
Of his social life, his private impressions, and his intimate
conversation with the persons most in his confidence at this time,
not a trace can now be recovered. Rarely separated from his
wife and children, except for short intervals in summer, he had
no occasion to write domestic letters, and his correspondence, even
with Mr. Jefferson, was for the most part engrossed by office-
seeking and office-giving. After some intermediate experiment
he at last took a house on Capitol Hill, where he remained
through his whole term of office. When the British army
entered Washington in 1814, a shot fired from this house at
their general caused the troops to attack and destroy it, and
even its site is now lost, owing to the extension of the Capitol
grounds on that side. It stood north-east of the Capitol, on the
Bladensburg Road, and its close neighborhood to the Houses
of Congress brought Mr. Gallatin into intimate social relations
with the members. The principal adherents of the Adminis-
tration in Congress were always on terms of intimacy in Mr.
Gallatin's house, and much of the confidential communication
between Mr. Jefferson and his party in the Legislature passed
through this channel. Nathaniel Macon, the Speaker; John
Randolph, the leader of the House ; Joseph H. Nicholson, one
of its most active members ; Wilson Cary Nicholas, Senator
from Virginia ; Abraham Baldwin, Senator from Georgia, and
numbers of less influential leaders, were constantly here, and
Mr. Gallatin's long service in Congress and his great influence
there continued for some years to operate in his favor. But the
communication was almost entirely oral, and hardly a trace of
1802. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 303
it has been preserved either in the writings of Mr. Gallatin or
in those of his contemporaries. For several years the govern-
ment worked smoothly ; no man appeared among the Repub-
licans with either the disposition or the courage to oppose Mr.
Jefferson, and every moment of Mr. Gallatin's time was absorbed
in attention to the duties of his Department, on which the prin-
cipal weight of responsibility fell.
The adjournment of Congress on May 3, 1802, left the Ad-
ministration at leisure to carry on the business of government
without interruption. Mr. Gallatin immediately afterwards took
his wife and family to New York, where, as now became their
custom, they passed the summer with Commodore Nicholson, and
where Mr. Gallatin himself was in the habit of joining them
during the unhealthy season of the Washington climate, when
the Administration usually broke up. "Grumble who will,"
wrote Mr. Jefferson, " I will never pass those months on tide-
water." Leaving his wife in New York, Mr. Gallatin returned
to his work at Washington. On these journeys he usually
stopped at Baltimore to visit the Nicholsons, and at Philadel-
phia to see Mr. and Mrs. Dallas. The society of Washington
was small and intimate, but seems to have had no very strong
hold over him. He was much in the habit, when left alone
there, of dining informally with Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison.
General Dearborn's family was in close relations with his, and
the Laws, who were now at Mount Vernon, were leaders of
fashionable society. But his residence at Washington was sad-
dened in the month of April of this year, by the loss of an
infant daughter, a misfortune followed in 1805 and 1808 by
two others almost precisely similar, which tended to throw a
dark shadow over the Washington life and to make society
distasteful. His close attention to business seems at this time
to have affected his health, and the absence of his family
still more affected his spirits. He worked persistently to get
the business of his office into a condition that would enable
him to rejoin his wife for a time, and almost the only glimpse
of society his letters furnish is contained in the following ex-
tract, which has a certain interest as characteristic of his political
feelings :
304 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1802.
GALLATIX TO HIS WIFE.
WASHINGTON, 7th July, 1802.
. . . Monday all the city, ladies and gentlemen, dined in a tent
near the navy yard; we were about 150 in company. I suppose
every one enjoyed it as his spirits permitted ; to me it looked very
sober and dull. Indeed, dinners of a political cast cannot, in the
present state of parties, be very cheerful unless confined to one
party. It is unfortunate, but it is true. I had another cause
which damped my spirits. We were in an enclosure formed
with sails stretched about six feet high, and some marines were
placed as sentries to prevent intrusion ; for the arrangements had
been made by Burrows and Tingey. The very sight of a bayonet
to preserve order amongst citizens rouses my indignation, and
you may judge of my feelings when I tell you that one of the
sentries actually stabbed a mechanic who abused him because he
had been ordered away. The bayonet went six inches in his
body and close to his heart. He is not dead, but still in great
danger, and the marine in jail. Such are the effects of what is
called discipline in times of peace. The distribution of our little
army to distant garrisons where hardly any other inhabitant is
to be found is the most eligible arrangement of that perhaps
necessary evil that can be contrived. But I never want to see
the face of one in our cities and intermixed with the people.
The mammoth cheese was cut on Monday ; it is said to be good ;
I found it detestable.
At length he succeeded in getting away, but was obliged to
return in August, and his letters became wails of despair, in
which there was always a little mingling of humor. The
following is a specimen : .
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
WASHINGTON, August 17, 1802.
... As to myself I cannot complain, but yet am as low-spirited
as before ; it will never do for me to keep house apart from you
and in this hateful place. I am told that even within five or six
1802. THE TKEASUEY. 1801-1813. 3Q5
miles from this place, and off the waters, intermittent and bilious
complaints are unknown. . . . I am good for nothing during
your absence; the servants do what they please; everything goes as
it pleases. I smoke and sleep ; mind nothing, neither chairs,
bedstead, or house, ten to one whether I will call on Mrs. Carroll
till your return. All those concerns you must mind. I grow
more indolent and unsociable every day. If I have not you, and
the children, and the sisters in a very short time, I cannot tell
what will become of me. I have not called on Mrs. Law, though
she sent a message to know when you and Maria were expected.
How is Maria ? as prudish as ever ? I wish she was in love.
You do not perceive the connection, perhaps, but I do. Tell
her, ugly as I am, I love her dearly, that is to say, as much as
my apathy will permit. ... I have been so gloomy this sum-
mer that I mean to frolic all next winter with the girls, assem-
blies, dinners, card-parties, abroad and at home. You, my dear,
will stay home to nurse the children and entertain political
visitors. . . .
24th August, 1802.
. . . Nothing but the hope of seeing you soon has kept in any
degree my spirits from sinking. Whether in the plains or over
the hills, whether in city or in retreat, I cannot live without you.
It is trifling with that share of happiness which Providence per-
mits us to enjoy to be forever again and again parted. I am now
good for nothing but for you, and good for nothing without you;
you will say that anyhow I am not good for much ; that may be, but
such as I am, you are mine, and you are my comfort, my joy, and
the darling of my soul. Now do not go and show this to Maria;
not that I am ashamed of it, for I glory in my love for you; but
she will think my expressing myself that way very foolish, and
I am afraid of her.
Early in October, 1802, they were again in Washington, and
Mr. Gal latin resumed work with more philosophy. The rest of
the Cabinet gradually assembled. When the time came for the
Secretary of the Treasury to make his annual report to Congress,
he was able to say, as the result of his first year's administration,
that the revenue from import duties, instead of $9,500,000 as he
20
306 LIFE OF ALBEET GAL LA TIN. 1802.
had estimated, had produced $12,280,000, a sum which exceeded
"by $1,200,000 the aggregate heretofore collected in any one
year, on account of both the import and the internal duties re-
pealed by an Act of last session." The report, however, was
still cautious in its estimates for the future ; in the face of possi-
ble losses in revenue, arising from peace in Europe, it adhered
closely to last year's estimates, and in the face of navy deficits
for 1801 and 1802 still maintained $1,700,000 as the total ap-
propriation for army and navy combined. The receipts and ex-
penditures were still to be $10,000,000, and last year's excess
was to be held as a protection against a possible falling off in the
revenue.
In his notes on the draft of Mr. Jefferson's annual message,
Mr. Gallatin's criticisms this year seem to express the satisfaction
he doubtless felt at the success they had met. Mr. Jefferson's
weakest side was his want of a sense of humor and his consequent
blind exposure to ridicule. Mr. Gallatin himself now and then
ventured to indulge a little of his own sense of humor at the cost
of his chief, as, for instance, when he criticised the first paragraph
of this message as follows : " As to style, I am a bad judge ; but
I do not like in the first paragraph the idea of limiting the quan-
tum of thankfulness due to the Supreme Being, and there is also,
it seems, too much said of the Indians in the enumerations of our
blessings in the next sentence." But occasionally he flatly op-
posed Mr. Jefferson's favorite schemes, and it is curious to notice
the results in some of these cases. This year; in regard to Mr.
Jefferson's famous recommendation of dry-docks at Washington,
Mr. Gallatin's note said: "I am in toto against this recommenda-
tion, 1st, because, so long as the Mediterranean war lasts, we will
not have any money to spare for the navy ; and 2d, because, if
dry-docks are necessary, so long as we have six navy-yards, it
seems to me that a general recommendation would be sufficient,
leaving the Legislature free either to designate the place or to
trust the Executive with the selection." This was certainly
travelling out of his own department into the bounds of another,
and Mr. Jefferson adhered to his dry-docks in spite of Mr. Gal-
latin, who told him that the scheme would not command thirty
votes in Congress ; and this turned out to be the case.
1802. THE TKEASUEY. 1801-1813. 307
But the Mediterranean war was Mr. Gallatin's great annoyance
at present. His letters to Mr. Jefferson show how persistently
he pressed his wish for peace. In one, dated August 16, 1802,
he said : " I sincerely wish you could reconcile it to yourself to
empower our negotiators to give, if necessary for peace [with
Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco], an annuity to Tripoli. I consider
it no greater disgrace to pay them than Algiers. And, indeed,
we share the dishonor of paying those barbarians with so many
nations as powerful and interested as ourselves, that, in our pres-
ent situation, I consider it a mere matter of calculation whether
the purchase of peace is not cheaper than the expense of a war,
which shall not even give us the free use of the Mediterranean
trade. . . . Eight years hence we shall, I trust, be able to assume
a different tone ; but our exertions at present consume the seeds
of our greatness and retard to an indefinite time the epoch of our
strength."
But the Tripolitan war and the difficulties with Morocco were
soon thrown into the shade by events of a much more serious
kind, which threatened to break down Mr. Gallatin's arrange-
ments in a summary way. In the course of the summer of 1802
it had become known that France, by a secret treaty, had acquired
Louisiana from Spain, and had determined to take possession of
that province. While our minister in Paris was reporting the
progress of the movements which were to place a French army
across the stream of the lower Mississippi, our government
received information in October that the Spanish intendant at
New Orleans had interdicted the right of deposit for merchant-
dise which had hitherto been enjoyed there by our citizens.
Kentucky and Tennessee w^ere exasperated at this step, and
there was some danger that they might begin a war on their own
account. The Administration at once took measures to guard
against these perils, so far as w^as possible. A confidential mes-
sage was sent to the Senate on January 11, containing the nom-
ination of Mr. Monroe to act with Mr. Livingston, then minister
in Paris, as special commissioners for the purchase of the eastern
bank of the Mississippi. Another confidential message had been
previously sent to the House, which debated upon it in secret
session. What passed there is briefly mentioned by Mr. Galla-
308 LIFE OP ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1802.
tin in a note of the 3d December, 1805 : "A public resolution
. . . was moved by Randolph and adopted by the House. A
committee in the mean while brought in a confidential report to
support and justify the President in the purchase he was going
to attempt, and to this an appropriation law in general terms was
added."
After a few months of anxiety and silent preparation, the
Administration had the profound satisfaction to see this storm
disappear as suddenly as it had risen. The renewal of war
between England and France led the First Consul not to accept
the American offer to purchase Louisiana from the Mississippi
to Pensacola, but to propose the sale of all Louisiana, which
then embraced the whole western bank of the Mississippi from
its source to the Gulf of Mexico. This idea was naturally
accepted with eagerness by the Administration, and even Mr.
Gallatin seems to have felt for once no hesitation about in-
creasing the national debt, a necessary consequence of the
purchase.
The session, however, did not pass away without producing
an attack upon Mr. Gallatin's management of the Treasury.
This attack was not a very serious one, nor is it one that either
then or now could be made interesting. The Federal party,
which had created the United States Bank, viewed with jealousy
the course pursued by the Administration towards that institu-
tion. Mr. Jefferson's letters, in fact, show a deep and not very
intelligent hostility to the bank. On the 7th October, 1802, he
wrote to Mr. Gallatin that he should make a judicious distribu-
tion of his favors among all the banks, since the stock of the
United States Bank was held largely by foreigners, and " were
the Bank of the United States to swallow up the others and
monopolize the whole banking business of the United States,
which the demands we furnish them with tend shortly to favor,
we might, on a misunderstanding with a foreign power, be im-
mensely embarrassed by any disaffection in that bank." On
the 12th July, 1803, he renewed this proposition from another
stand-point : " I am decidedly in favor of making all the banks
republican by sharing deposits among them in proportion to the
dispositions they show. If the law now forbids it, we should
1803. THE TREASUKY. 1801-1813. 309
not permit another session of Congress to pass without amend-
ing it. It is material to the safety of Republicanism to detach
the mercantile interest from its enemies and incorporate them
into the body of its friends. A merchant is naturally a Repub-
lican, and can be otherwise only from a vitiated state of things." l
Mr. Gallatin gently put aside these demonstrations of Mr. Jef-
ferson, 2 and administered his Department on business principles,
with as little regard to political influence as possible. He looked
on the bank as an instrument that could not be safely thrown
away ; without it his financial operations would be much more
slow, more costly, more hazardous, and more troublesome than
with it ; indeed, he was quite aware that its fall would neces-
sarily be followed by much financial confusion, and he had no
mind to let such experiments in finance come between him and
his great administrative objects. He was, therefore, by necessity
a friend and protector of the bank.
The Federalists did not yet fully understand this fact, and
they were disturbed at learning that Mr. Gallatin had sold, on
account of the sinking fund, a certain number of bank shares
in order to pay the Dutch debt. The shares were purchased
by Alexander Baring under very favorable conditions, and the
Federalists showed that they expected little from their motion
by making it only on the last day of the session. At the same
time Mr. Griswold, in an elaborate speech made on March 2,
attacked the accounts of the sinking fund. The only result of
these combined attacks was to call out replies from the Admin-
istration speakers and a long letter from Mr. Gallatin himself
on the operations of the sinking fund. This letter, replying to
Mr. Griswold's attack, was written in response to a resolution
of the House, and was completed in time to be presented, before
the close of the session, on the night of the 3d March. It
appears to have met all Mr. Griswold's criticisms. At all
1 See also his letter to Mr. Gallatin of 13th December, 1803, Jefferson's
Works, iv. 518.
2 See his letter to Mr. Jefferson of 13th December, 1803, Writings, vol.
i. p. 171.
3 This paper is printed in the Annals of Congress, 7th Cong., 2d Sess.,
p. 690; also in American State Papers, Finance, vol. ii. p. 37.
310 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1803.
events, the attack seems to have made no impression, and in all
probability the Federalists themselves intended only to punish
Mr. Gallatin for the trouble he had so often in a similar manner
inflicted upon them.
The adjournment of Congress closed the second year of Mr.
Jefferson's Administration. With the exception of that Louisi-
ana anxiety, which another month was to clear away, these two
years had been marked by complete success. Never before had
the country enjoyed so much peace, contentment, and prosperity.
Mr. Gallatin himself had in these two years succeeded in making
himself master of the situation; he was more powerful and
more indispensable than ever; his financial policy was firmly
established; his hold, both in Cabinet and in Congress, was
undisputed ; every day brought his projects nearer to realization,
and every day relieved him from the absorbing labor which had
made his first two years of office so burdensome.
Nevertheless there was cause enough for anxiety. The ap-
proaching storm in Europe, which was to shake Louisiana into
the President's lap, brought with it dangers in regard to which
the experience of Washington and John Adams would have been
valuable to Mr. Jefferson had he only been willing to profit by
it ; but, over-confident in the virtue of his theories, he, as his cor-
respondence shows, was firmly convinced that he could balance
himself between the two mighty powers which had dealt so
rudely with his predecessors, and it was a cardinal principle with
the Republican party that our foreign relations 'were endangered
only by the faults of Federalism, and were safe only in Repub-
lican hands. " I do not believe," wrote Mr. Jefferson on July
11, 1803, "we shall have as much to swallow from them as our
predecessors had." "We think," he wrote on the next day,
" that peaceable means may be devised of keeping nations in the
path of justice towards us, by making justice their interest, and
injuries to react on themselves." This was the very point to be
proved, and on the result of this theoretical doctrine was to
depend the fate of Mr. Jefferson's Administration and of Mr.
Gal latin's financial hopes.
Besides this grave danger, which was destined steadily to take
more and more serious proportions, there were smaller political
1803. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 31 1
difficulties, which in their nature must increase in importance
with every embarrassment that the future had in store. The
party schism led by Vice-President Burr was now beginning to
rage with fury and to do infinite mischief in New York. In
Pennsylvania matters were still worse, at least for Mr. Gallatin,
whose political interests lay in that State. The very completeness
of the Republican triumph in Pennsylvania was fatal to the
party. The extremists, led by Duane and his friend Michael
Leib, began a schism of their own, the more dangerous because
they avoided the mistake of Burr and declared no war on Mr.
Jefferson. Indeed, they followed the very opposite policy, and,
sheltering themselves under the cover of their pure Republi-
canism with Mr. Jefferson for their peculiar patron, they de-
clared war upon Mr. Jefferson's Cabinet. On the 10th May,
1803, Joseph H. Nicholson warned Mr. Gallatin of what was to
happen : " I have enclosed the President a letter from Captain
Jones to me, which you can see if you please. He says that
Duane and his coadjutors meditate an attack upon Mr. Madison
and yourself for setting your faces against the office-hunters."
Mr. Jefferson on this occasion did not treat Duane as he had
treated Burr ; he attempted to intervene and soothe the suscepti-
bilities of his over-zealous partisans. He consulted Mr. Gallatin
on the subject, and sent him the draft of a letter to Duane. Mr.
Gallatin, on the 13th August, 1803, returned the draft and at-
tempted to dissuade the President from sending the proposed
letter: "Either a schism will take place, in which case the
leaders of those men would divide from us, or time and the good
sense of the people will of themselves cure the evil. I have
reason to believe that the last will happen, and that the number
of malcontents is not very considerable and will diminish. . . .
It is highly probable that Duane, who may be misled by vanity
and by his associates, but whose sincere Republicanism I cannot
permit myself to doubt, will adhere to us when his best friends
shall have taken a decided part. ... If a letter shall be written,
I think that, if possible, it should be much shorter than your
draft, and have perhaps less the appearance of apology. The
irresistible argument to men disposed to listen to argument ap-
pears to me to be the perfect approbation given by the Republi-
312 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1803.
cans to all the leading measures of government, and the inference
that men who are disposed under those circumstances to asperse
Administration seem to avow that the hard struggle of so many
years was not for the purpose of securing our republican insti-
tutions and- of giving a proper direction to the operations of
government, but for the sake of a few paltry offices, offices not
of a political and discretionary nature, but mere inferior admin-
istrative offices of profit."
Mr. Jefferson seems to have followed this advice and to have
suppressed the proposed letter. 1 Duane continued his attacks on
the moderate wing of the Republican party, and Mr. Gallatin's
hopes that he would find no following were soon disappointed.
A complete separation took place between him and Governor
McKean. Perhaps the existence of this schism had something
to do with the offer, which Mr. Dallas was now commissioned
to make, of putting Governor McKean in nomination for the
Vice-Presidency in the general election of 1804. The offer was
declined, and George Clinton was substituted in his place, but
Governor McKean's letter of declination is so characteristic as
to be worth publication.
THOMAS McKEAN TO ALEXANDER J. DALLAS.
LANCASTER, 16th October, 1803.
DEAR SIR, Your friendly letter of the 14th has been read
with pleasure. I am much obliged to the kind sentiments of
my friends in thinking me a suitable character to be proposed as
a candidate for the dignified station of Vice-President of the
United States, but must absolutely decline that honor. The
office of Governor of Pennsylvania satisfies my ambition, and it
has been conferred in such a manner, at two elections, that the
people are endeared to me ; indeed, it appears to me that I am
engaged to continue in this distinguished character the constitu-
tional term, if it shall be the desire of my fellow-citizens. I am
now descending in the vale of years, and am satisfied with my
share of honors ; that of President of the United States in Con-
1 This letter will be found in Gallatin's "Writings, vol. i. p. 130.
1803. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1818. 313
gress assembled in the year 1781 (a proud year for Americans)
equalled any merit or pretensions of mine, and cannot now be
increased by the office of Vice-President. But, all personal con-
siderations waived, what would be the probable result of my
acceptance of the proposed post? Little, very little benefit to
the people of America, but at least a doubtful situation to my
fellow-citizens of Pennsylvania. What would be the fate of my
friends, of those I have placed in office, and of the liberty of the
State at this most critical period, were I to resign the office?
Who is there to control the wanton passions of men in general
respectable, suddenly raised to power and frisking in the pasture
of true liberty, yet not sufficiently secured by proper barriers ?
But I must say no more on this head, even to a friend ; it savors
so much of vanity. In brief, who will be my successor, possess-
ing the same advantages from nativity in the State, education,
experience, and from long public services in the most influential
stations and employments ; who can or will take the same liberty
in vetoes of legislative acts, or otherwise, as I have done ? I con-
fess I am at a loss to name him, and yet, when I must resign by
death or otherwise, I trust the world will go on as well as it has
done, if not better, though I never had existed.
Be so good as to pay my most respectful compliments to the
President, to Messrs. Madison, Gallatin, Dearborn, Granger, etc.,
and compliments to all mine and your friends. Farewell and
prosper. Adieu.
Mr. Jefferson's party required very delicate handling. Em-
bracing, as it did, materials of the most discordant kind, schism
was its normal condition. Between the purity of Madison and
Gallatin and the selfishness and prejudice of the local politicians,
Mr. Jefferson was obliged to make what compromise he could ;
but while with quiet determination he drove Burr out of the
party, he tolerated Duane and Leib with extraordinary patience.
There were very strong reasons which justified or excused his
treatment of Burr; particularly the position of heir-apparent,
which the Vice-President occupied, made it necessary either to
recognize or reject his claims, and Mr. Jefferson did not hesitate
to reject them. Whether his treatment of Duane was to be
314 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1803.
equally defensible became more and more a subject of vital con-
sequence to Mr. Gallatin.
So long as Virginia remained steady the Administration had
little to fear, and as yet there was no sign of schism in the Vir-
ginia ranks. Of all the Virginia members John Randolph was
the most prominent, and his support was firm. Mr. Gallatin and
he were on the most intimate terms, and since Gallatin's letters
to him are lost, some of his letters to Gallatin may be worth
inserting, to show their relations together :
JOHN RANDOLPH TO GALLATIN.
BIZARRE, 9th April (27th year), 1803.
DEAR Sra, When your letter arrived I was from home, and,
ours being a weekly post, my reply is necessarily delayed longer
than I could wish.
Mr. Griswold's first objections to the report of the commis-
sioners of the sinking fund are (if in existence, which I very
much doubt) among other loose papers which I left in George-
town. The paragraph which you enclose differs from most which
have appeared of late in a certain description of prints, in this,
that it contains some truth. But, as it is resorted to only to serve
as the vehicle of much falsehood, it is proper that a correct state-
ment should go forth to the public of this singular transaction.
If I mistake not, the printing of the report of the sinking
fund was considerably delayed. Be that as it may, when Mr.
Griswold moved to commit it to the Ways and Means he specified
no objection ; he barely said that there were some parts which
required explanation ; but, as all documents of that sort are of
course committed to that committee, there was no occasion for
any reasoning to induce the House to agree to such a motion.
The resolution which he afterwards drafted, and which he
showed to me, was, I believe, couched in the very terms of that
which was passed by the House, the words " in fact" excepted,
which at my suggestion he expunged, since he declared that he
had no intention to criminate the Treasury and doubted not that
everything could and would be satisfactorily explained. I then
proposed to him to reduce his objections to writing. They con-
1803. THE TEEASUKY. 1801-1813. 315
sisted of a denial of the soundness of the construction given by
the Treasury to the law of 1802 making provision for the re-
demption of the whole public debt, which was the object em-
braced by the resolution; and an inquiry into the variance
between the report of the Secretary of the Treasury of Decem-
ber, 1801, and the report of the sinking fund, in respect to the
amount of interest of the public debt and the instalments of the
Dutch debt due in 1802. There may have been some items
which I do not recollect. But I perfectly remember what they
did not contain. There was not a syllable about the unaccounted
balance of 114,000 dollars, nor of the detailed accounts in rela-
tion to the remittances on account of the foreign debt, contained
in the 4th, 7th, and part of the 3d queries in my official letter to
you (A. 1). The first intelligence which I had of this un-
accounted balance was from yourself. It made its appearance in
a pamphlet ascribed to Stanley and addressed to his constituents.
So careful were the friends of this little work that it should not
get abroad, that by mere accident a single copy fell into the hands
of Alston on the day before Mr. Griswold brought forward his
motion. Huger, who let Alston have it, enjoined him not to let
it go out of his hands. He on the contrary carried it to you, and
during the short time that it was in your possession I accidentally
stepped in whilst you were looking over it, and this was the first
notice which I received of Mr. Griswold's redoubtable attack on
that point, It may be proper to add that when he put into ray
hands the paper containing the first objections to the report, I
offered to transmit them to you, provided he would move it in
committee ; and the committee were actually convened for that
purpose, but he did not attend. He declined also a proposition
of waiting on you in person when I offered to accompany him.
The committee taking no order on his objections, they were sub-
mitted to you by me, and so long a time elapsed that I really
conceived he had abandoned his project. On our return home
Alston told me that Huger was very much irritated against him,
and those in his quarter of the House mortified and astonished,
when I mentioned the coincidence between Griswold's speech and
Stanley's letter.
And now, dismissing this miserable race of cavillers and
316 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1803.
equivocators, let me beg you to have a reverend care of your
health, and to assure Mrs. G. (not Griswold) and her sisters of
my best wishes for their health and happiness. Mr. Nym and
the young secretary will participate my friendly inquiries. I do
not ask you to continue to write to me, because I know the
demands upon your time both by health and business. But a
line of how and where you all are will always be acceptable to
one who interests himself in everything relating to you.
My health is fluctuating; the weather is raw and the spring a
month behindhand. Moreover, we have had but one rain, and
that moderate, since the last snow on the 8th March. Of course
I am vaporish and gouty. Adieu.
Yours truly.
P.S. Smith should make a statement " by authority" in his
paper conformably with the within.
At an election at Charlotte C. H. on Monday last, J. Ran-
dolph had 717 votes, C. Carrington 2.
JOHN RANDOLPH TO GALLATIN.
BIZARRE, 4th June, 27th year [1803].
DEAR SIR, Having sustained an injury in my hand, I have
been for some time debarred the use of my pen. The first exercise
of my recovered right shall be to thank you for your last very
friendly and acceptable letter.
Nothing can be more clear and satisfactory than Bayard's
answer to himself, according to your statement of it. But I
cannot help suspecting a difference between the printed speech
and the original, not at all to the advantage of the latter. I
am unwilling to believe that he was guilty of so gross an ab-
surdity (in debate), because I am unwilling to believe that we
were guilty of yet grosser stupidity, even after making every
allowance for being worried down with fatigue. Such a thing
might have escaped me, and perhaps Nicholson ; but that Gen-
eral Smith should fail to detect it appears incredible. So far,
however, from overdosing me with the bank stock, as you seem
to apprehend, it is evident you have not given me quantum
suff.
1803. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 317
You have seen the result of our elections. Federal exultation
has, however, received a severe check in those of New York.
Indeed, I do not conceive the event here to be indicative of any
change in the public sentiment. The elections, with a single
exception, have been conducted on personal rather than on party
motives. Brent completely defeated himself, and, although I
love the man, I cannot very heartily lament his ill success. By
the way, I think you wise men at the seat of government have
much to answer for in respect to the temper prevailing around
you. By their fruit shall ye know them. Is there something
more of system yet introduced among you ? or are you still in
chaos, without form and void ? Should you have leisure, give
me a hint of the first news from Mr. Monroe. After all the
vaporing, I have no expectation of a serious war. Tant pis
pour nous.
You ask if I have seen KennelPs new map of North Africa?
forgetting that I live out of the light of anything but the sun ;
and he has not condescended to shine, but at short intervals, for
a fortnight. I suppose it is the map which he compiled from
Parke's Travels. Do you recollect my suggesting to you, soon
after the work came out, a suspicion that the Niger was the
true Nile? and your determining that he should be swallowed
up in the sands of the desert, which we carried into instant
execution.
Present me most sincerely, and permit me to add, affection-
ately, to Mrs. Gallatin, and believe me, dear sir, most truly
yours.
P.S. I address this to Washington, where it will be put in
train to reach you. I sincerely hope it will find you much
recruited by the wise step which you have taken.
The Louisiana treaty threw on Mr. Gallatin a new class of
duties. He had to make all the arrangements not only for pay-
ment of the purchase-money to France, but for the modifications
of his financial system which so large and so sudden an emer-
gency required. Fortunately, Alexander Baring was the person
with whom he had principally to deal in regard to payments,
318 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1803.
and his relations with Mr. Baring were very friendly ; so friendly,
indeed, as to have a decisive influence, some ten years later, in a
most serious crisis of Mr. Gallatin's life and of our national
history. With Mr. Baring's assistance the business details were
successfully arranged, and it only remained to adjust the new
burden of debt to the national resources.
Congress was called together in October on account of the
Louisiana business. It is curious to notice how, in his com-
ments on this year's message, Mr. Gallatin gently held the Pres-
ident back from every appearance of hostility to England and of
overwarm demonstrations towards Bonaparte, and how he still
talked of economies in the Navy Department to supply some of
his financial deficiencies, though this resource was already men-
tioned only as a desirable possibility. In fact, Congress was
about to abandon the attempt at further economy in that De-
partment, and in order to relieve the Treasury the Mediterranean
fund was now created for naval expenses. Mr. Gallatin had to
look for his resources elsewhere.
The financial problem was to provide for the new purchase
and its consequent expenditure without imposing new taxes.
The point was a delicate one, and was managed by Mr. Gallatin
as follows :
The purchase-money for Louisiana was $15,000,000. Of this
sum, $11,250,000 was paid in new six per cent, stock. There
was specie enough in the Treasury to pay $2,000,000 more;
and Mr. Gallatin requested authority to borrow the remaining
$1,750,000 at six per cent.
The consequent increase of annual interest on the debt, in-
cluding commissions and exchange, he estimated at $800,000.
To provide this he counted on an increase of revenue from
imposts and lands, as indicated by the returns for the past year,
equal to $600,000, and an income of $200,000 from Louisiana.
An annual appropriation of $700,000 was to be set aside for
the interest on the $11,250,000 new stock, and added to the
permanent appropriation of $7,300,000 ; so that in future
$8,000,000 should be annually applied to payment of interest
and principal of the debt, thus preserving the ratio of reduction
already established.
1803. THE TREASUKY. 1801-1813. 319
Perhaps as a matter of fact the success of Mr. Gallatin in
avoiding new taxes was rather apparent than real. Had he been
able to carry out his economies in the navy, he might indeed have
avoided taxation, but this was fairly proved impossible, and the
confession of a failure here was only evaded by the fiction of
creating a temporary fund for extraordinary naval purposes,
which allowed the supposed regular naval expenditure to be
estimated at Mr. Gallatin's figures. This was obviously in the
nature of a compromise between the Treasury and the Navy,
but it was not the less a real increase of taxation, and, as events
proved, a permanent increase. The capture of the frigate Phila-
delphia by the Tripolitans was, it is true, the immediate occasion
for this tax, but not its cause ; this lay much deeper, and, as Mr.
Gallatin's letters clearly show, was the result of a failure in the
attempt at economy in the navy.
Even at the last hour, however, the Administration was
alarmed by the fear that Louisiana might after all be lost ; the
protest of Spain against the sale gave reason to doubt whether
she would consent to surrender the province. Here again Mr.
Gallatin of his own accord urged increased expenditure, and
actively pressed the collection and movement of troops to take
possession by force if the Spanish government should resist.
Fortunately, the alarm proved to be unnecessary : Louisiana was
promptly handed over to the French official appointed for the
purpose, and by him to General Wilkinson and Governor Clai-
borne ; the troops were stopped on their march from Tennessee
and ordered home, and all that remained to be done was to incor-
porate the new territory in the old, and to settle its boundaries
with Spain.
The process of incorporation, however, brought into prominence
a very serious constitutional question, which had already been
elaborately argued in the Cabinet. Had the Constitution given
to the President and Congress the right to do an act of this tran-
scendent importance, an act which could not but result in immense
and incalculable changes in the relations between the States who
were the original parties to the constitutional compact ; an act
which could only rest on a prodigious extension of the treaty-
making power, such as would legalize the annexation of Mexico
320 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1803.
or of Europe itself? Mr. Jefferson was very strongly of opinion
that an amendment to the Constitution could alone legalize the
act, and this opinion seems to have been shared by Mr. Madison
and by the Attorney-General. The tenor of Mr. Gallatin's
reasoning as a member of Congress in opposition certainly leads
to the inference that he would take the same side. His speeches
on the alien bill had carried the doctrine of strict construction
to the verge of extravagance. Nevertheless, Mr. Gallatin did
not properly belong to the Virginia school of strict construc-
tionists, and although, as a member of Congress, he earnestly
resisted the growth of Executive power, he assumed with dif-
ficulty and with a certain awkwardness the tone of States' rights.
In this Louisiana case he wrote on the 13th January, 1803, a
letter to Mr. Jefferson, which might have been written, without
a syllable of change, by Alexander Hamilton to General Wash-
ington ten years before :
" To me it would appear, 1st. That the United States as a
nation have an inherent right to acquire territory.
" 2d. That whenever that acquisition is by treaty, the same
constituted authorities in whom the treaty-making power is
vested have a constitutional right to sanction the acquisition.
" 3d. That whenever the territory has been acquired, Congress
have the power either of admitting into the Union as a new
State, or of annexing to a State with the consent of that State,
or of making regulations for the government of such territory.
"The only possible objection must be derived from the 12th
amendment, which declares that powers not delegated to the
United States nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved io
the States or to the people. As the States are expressly prohibited
from making treaties, it is evident that if the power of acquiring
territory by treaty is not considered within the meaning of the
amendment as delegated to the United States, it must be reserved
to the people. If that be the true construction of the Constitu-
tion, it substantially amounts to this, that the United States are
precluded from and renounce altogether the enlargement of ter-
ritory ; a provision sufficiently important and singular to have
deserved to be expressly enacted. Is it not a more natural con-
struction to say that the power of acquiring territory is delegated
1803. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 321
to the United States by the several provisions which authorize
the several branches of government to make war, to make treaties,
and to govern the territory of the Union ?" l
Mr. Jefferson, it is needless to say, was not convinced by this
reasoning. He mildly replied : " I think it will be safer not to
permit the enlargement of the Union but by amendment of the
Constitution." 2 But the heresy spread into his own Virginia
church, and his friend and confidant Wilson Gary Nicholas
became infected by it. In reply to him Mr. Jefferson wrote a
passionate appeal : " Our peculiar security is in the possession
of a written Constitution ; let us not make it a blank paper by
construction." For a time he adhered to this view, and framed
an amendment to answer his purpose, but at length he resigned
himself to committing the whole responsibility to Congress, and
held his peace. Mr. Gallatin's opinion became the accepted
principle of the party and the ground on which then* legislation
was made to rest.
The same fate attended Mr. Jefferson's vehement remonstrances
against the establishment of a branch bank of the United States
at New Orleans, an object which Mr. Gallatin considered as of
the highest importance and one which he was actively engaged
in carrying into effect. Mr. Jefferson, however, wrote to him on
the 13th December, 1803, in the strongest language against this
plan : " This institution is one of the most deadly hostility exist-
ing against the principles and form of our Constitution. . . .
What an obstruction could not this bank of the United States,
with all its branch banks, be in time of war? It might dictate
to us the peace we should accept, or withdraw its aids. Ought
we then to give further growth to an institution so powerful, so
hostile?" And he went on to give his own views as to the
proper course for government to follow, which was in fact
very nearly the plan ultimately realized in the form of a sub-
treasury. Mr. Gallatin, however, attached no great weight to
these arguments ; he wrote back on the same day : " I am ex-
tremely anxious to see a bank at New Orleans ; considering the
distance of that place, our own security and even that of the
1 Gallatin's Writings, vol. i. p. 111. 2 Ibid., p. 115.
21
322 .LI.FE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1804.
collector will be eminently promoted, and the transmission of
moneys arising both from the impost and sales of lands in the
Mississippi Territory would without it be a very difficult and
sometimes dangerous operation. Against this there are none but
political objections, and those will lose much of their force when
the little injury they can do us and the dependence in which they
are on government are duly estimated. They may vote as they
please and take their own papers, but they are formidable only
as individuals and not as bankers. Whenever they shall appear
to be really dangerous, they are completely in our power and
may be crushed."
Mr. Jeiferson again yielded, and Mr. Gallatin procured the
passage of an Act of Congress authorizing the establishment of a
branch bank at New Orleans. Meanwhile Governor Claiborne
had undertaken to establish a bank there by his own authority.
When the news of this proceeding reached Mr. Gallatin he was
very angry, and wrote to Mr. Jefferson at once on April 12, 1804,
sharply condemning Governor Claiborne for this unauthorized
act, which, he added, " will probably defeat the establishment
of a branch bank which we considered of great importance to
the safety of the revenue and as a bond of union between the At-
lantic and Mississippi interests." Apparently, therefore, Mr. Gal-
latin believed that he had entirely converted his chief; in reality
the conversion was only one more example of that capacity for
yielding his own prejudices to the weight of his advisers, which
made Mr. Jefferson so often disappoint his enemies and preserve
the harmony of his party.
On the whole, this third year of the Administration closed not
less satisfactorily than its predecessors, and Congress adjourned
without anxiety after carrying into effect all the measures which
Mr. Gallatin had at heart. So far as he was concerned, hardly
a lisp of discontent was heard, except, perhaps, among the fol-
lowers of Duane and Leib. By them he was accused of wishing
to build up a third party by the patronage of the Treasury, a
charge which meant only that he had refused to put his patronage
at their disposal.
The summer again found Mr. Gallatin at Washington, alone,
discontented, and occupied only with the details of Treasury
1804. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 323
work. One pleasure indeed he had, and as his acquaintance
with Alexander Baring was destined to have no little value to
him in future life, so his acquaintance of this summer with
Alexander von Humboldt was turned to good account in after-
years. In a letter to his wife he gave an amusing account of
his first impressions of Humboldt. Among his correspondents
of this year there are none whose letters seem to have any per-
manent value, unless one by John Randolph be an exception.
In this there are curious suggestions of restlessness under the
sense of political inferiority. It would be interesting to know
what that opinion of Mr. Gallatin's was which could induce
Randolph to concur with it so far as to favor the creation of a
navy to blow the British cruisers out of water.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
WASHINGTON, 6th June, 1804.
... I have received an exquisite intellectual treat from Baron
Humboldt, the Prussian traveller, who is on his return from
Peru and Mexico, where he travelled five years, and from which
he has brought a mass of natural, philosophical, and political
information which will render the geography, productions, and
statistics of that country better known than those of most Eu-
ropean countries. We all consider him as a very extraordinary
man, and his travels, which he intends publishing on his return
to Europe, will, I think, rank above any other production of
the kind. I am not apt to be easily pleased, and he was not
particularly prepossessing to my taste, for he speaks more than
Lucas, Finley, and myself put together, and twice as fast as
anybody I know, German, French, Spanish, and English, all
together. But I was really delighted, and swallowed more in-
formation of various kinds in less than two hours than I had
for two years past in all I had read or heard. He does not
seem much above thirty, gives you no trouble in talking your-
self, for he catches with perfect precision the idea you mean to
convey before you have uttered the third word of your sentence,
and, exclusively of his travelled acquirements, the extent of his
reading and scientific knowledge is astonishing. I must ac-
324 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1804.
knowledge, in order to account for my enthusiasm, that he was
surrounded with maps, statements, &c., all new to me, and
several of which he has liberally permitted us to transcribe.
JOHN RANDOLPH TO GALLATIN.
BIZARRE, 14th October, 1804. 29th Ind.
On my return from Fredericksburg after a racing campaign,
I was very agreeably accosted by your truly welcome letter ; to
thank you for which, and not because I have anything (stable
news excepted) to communicate, I now take up the pen. It is
some satisfaction to me, who have been pestered with inquiries
that I could not answer on the subject of public affairs, to find
that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Lord of the
Treasury is in as comfortable a state of ignorance as myself.
Pope says of governments, that is best which is best adminis-
tered. What idea, then, could he have of a government which
was not administered at all ? The longer I live, the more do I
incline to somebody's opinion, that there is in the affairs of this
world a mechanism of which the very agents themselves are
ignorant, and which, of course, they can neither calculate nor
control. As much free will as you please in everything else,
but in politics I must ever be a necessitarian. And this com-
fortable doctrine saves me a deal of trouble and many a twinge
of conscience for my heedless indolence. I therefore leave
Major Jackson and his Ex. of Casa Yrujo to give each other
the lie in Anglo-American or Castilian fashions, just as it suits
them, and when people resort to me for intelligence, instead of
playing the owl and putting on a face of solemn nonsense, I
very fairly tell them with perfect nonchalance that I know
nothing of the matter, from which, if they have any discern-
ment, they may infer that I care as little about it, and then
change the subject as quickly as I can to horses, dogs, the plough,
or some other upon which I feel myself competent to converse.
In short, I like originality too well to be a second-hand poli-
tician when I can help it. It is enough to live upon the broken
victuals and be tricked out in the cast-off finery of you first-rate
statesmen all the winter. When I cross the Potomac, I leave
1804. THE TKEASURY. 1801-1813. 325
behind me all the scraps, shreds, and patches of politics which
I collect during the session, and put on the plain homespun, or
(as we say) the " Virginia cloth," of a planter, which is clean,
whole, and comfortable, even if it be homely. Nevertheless, I
have patriotism enough left to congratulate you on the fulness
of the public purse, and cannot help wishing that its situation
could be concealed from our Sangrados in politics, with whom
depletion is the order of the day. On the subject of a navy
you know my opinion concurs with yours. I really feel ashamed
for my country, that, whilst she is hectoring before the petty
corsairs of the coast of Barbary, she should truckle to the great
pirate of the German Ocean ; and I would freely vote a naval
force that should blow the Cambrian and Leander out of water.
Indeed, I wish Barren's squadron had been employed on that
service. I am perfectly aware of the importance of peace to
us, particularly with Great Britain, but I know it to be equally
necessary to her; and, in short, if we have any honor as a
nation to lose, which is problematical, I am unwilling to sur-
render it.
On the subject of Louisiana you are also apprised that my
sentiments coincide with your own; and it is principally be-
cause of that coincidence that I rely upon their correctness.
But as we have the misfortune to differ from that great political
luminary, Mr. Matthew Lyon, on this as well as on most other
points, I doubt whether we shall not be overpowered. If Spain
be "fallen from her old Castilian faith, candor, and dignity" it
must be allowed that we have been judicious in our choice of a
minister to negotiate with her; and Louisiana, it being presuma-
ble, partaking something of the character which distinguished her
late sovereign when she acquired that territory, the selection of
a pompous nothing for a governor will be admitted to have been
happy. At least, if the appointment be not defensible upon
this principle, I am at a loss to discover any other tenable point.
In answer to your question I would advise the printing of ...
thousand copies of Tom Paine's answer to their remonstrance
and transmitting them by as many thousand troops, who can
speak a language perfectly intelligible to the people of Louisiana,
whatever that of their governor may be. It is, to be sure, a
326 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1804
little awkward, except in addresses and answers where each
party is previously well apprised of what the other has to say,
that whilst the eyes and ears of the admiring Louisianians are
filled with the majestic person and sonorous periods of their
chief magistrate, their understandings should be utterly vacant.
If, however, they were aware that, even if they understood
English, it might be no better, they would perhaps be more
reconciled to their situation. You really must send something
better than this mere ape of greatness to those Hispano-Gaulo.
He would make a portly figure delivering to " my lords and
gentlemen" a speech which Pitt had previously taught him ;
but we want an automaton, and a puppet will not supply his
place.
Pray look to the " ways and means" of entertainment for man
and horse against the assembling of our annual mob. Here we
have no bilious fevers, and although I shall enjoy your geograph-
ical treat I shall require more substantial food.
Because I had nothing to say, I have prattled through four
pages; like a quondam fellow-laborer of ours, who seemed to
speak not to express his ideas, but to gain time to acquire
some.
The general election of November, 1804, proved the strength
of the Administration in a more emphatic manner than even its
friends had counted upon. Mr. Jefferson received an almost
unanimous electoral vote. In Pennsylvania, however, there was
little satisfaction over the result ; the schism there became more
and more serious, and on the 16th October, 1804, Mr. Dallas
could only write to Mr. Gallatin : "Thank Heaven, our election
is over ! The violence of Duane has produced a fatal division.
He seems determined to destroy the Republican standing and use-
fulness of every man who does not bend to his will. He has
attacked me as the author of an address which I never saw till
it was in the press. He menaces the governor. You have
already felt his lash. And I think there is reason for Mr. Jeffer-
son himself to apprehend that the spirit of Callender survives."
Again Congress came together, and for the fourth time the
President was able to draw a picture of the political situation
1805. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 327
which had few shadows and broad light. For the fourth time
Mr. Gallatin sent in a report which announced a steadily increas-
ing revenue, if not a reduced expenditure. He had not yet made
use of his authority to borrow the additional $1,750,000 of the
Louisiana purchase, and hoped for a surplus that would render
this loan unnecessary. For the coming year he estimated an
expenditure of $11,540,000, and a revenue of $11,750,000.
The usual reaction which follows general elections followed
that of 1804, and the Administration escaped attack in the fol-
lowing session of 1804-05, which was chiefly devoted to the trial
of Judge Chase. Whether Mr. Gallatin had anything to do
with influencing the result of this trial is unknown. A curious
mystery has always hung and probably always will hang over
the share which Mr. Jefferson's Administration had in affecting
the decision of the Senate by which Judge Chase was acquitted.
Probably, however, the schism which was taking place in Penn-
sylvania on this same point of impeachments had an immediate
effect on the party at Washington and cooled its eagerness for
conviction. Perhaps Mr. Gallatin's feelings may be partly
reflected in a letter from his friend Mr. Dallas, who was now
acting as counsel for the impeached Pennsylvania judges. This
letter, it will be noticed, was written while the trial of Judge
Chase was going on, and only a few days before Mr. Dallas was
called to Washington to give his testimony before the Senate.
A. J. DALLAS TO GALLATIN.
LANCASTER, 16th January, 1805.
MY DEAR SIR, I thank you for your friendly letter, but I
regret that it expresses a depression on public business which I
have long felt. It is obvious to me that unless our Administra-
tion take decisive measures to discountenance the factious spirit
that has appeared, unless some principle of political cohesion can
be introduced into our public councils as well as at our elections,
and unless men of character and talents can be drawn from pro-
fessional and private pursuits into the legislative bodies of our
governments, federal and State, the empire of Republicanism
will moulder into anarchy, and the labor and hope of our lives
328 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1805.
will terminate in disappointment and wretchedness. Perhaps
the crisis is arrived when some attempt should be made to rally
the genuine Republicans round the standard of reason, order,
and law. At present we are the slaves of men whose passions
are the origin and whose interests are the object of all their
actions, I mean your Duanes, Cheethams, Leibs, &c. They
have the press in their power, and, though we may have virtue
to assert the liberty of the press, it is too plain that we have not
spirit enough to resist the tyranny of the printers. We will talk
of this matter when we meet.
. . . The argument on our impeachment will close to-day, and
the decision will probably be given to-morrow or Monday. The
Aurora man has been here during the trial, with all his audacity,
intrigue, and malevolence. I think, however, he will fail. A
cause more deserving of success than that of the judges never was
discussed, and I am confident that there will be an acquittal. . . .
The letter in which Mr. Gallatin expressed his depression is
lost, but there was more than one cause to justify it. However
annoying the condition of Pennsylvania politics might be, the
greatest actual danger to be feared from it was that it might
spread into national politics and find leaders in Congress. The
conduct of John Randolph already suggested an alliance between
him and Duane that might paralyze the Administration and ruin
the Republican party. This alliance was foreshadowed not only
by the fact that Randolph led the impeachment 6f Judge Chase
in the spirit of Duane, but also by another still more extrava-
gant display of Randolph's temper which touched Mr. Gallatin
personally. When the public lands came under Mr. Gallatin's
direction in 1801, he had been obliged to disentangle the State of
Georgia, as well as he could, from a complication which she had
herself created. One element in this tangle consisted in the
corrupt sale by Georgia of certain lands, and her subsequent
annulling these sales on the ground of her own corruption.
The purchasers pressed their claims, and Mr. Gallatin with his
fellow-commissioners, Madison and Lincoln, recommended a
compromise by which five million acres were to be reserved in
order to make a reasonable compensation for all claims, these as
1805. THE TKEASUKT. 1801-1813. 329
well as others ; a proposition which was embodied by Congress
in a law. To carry this compromise into effect was the work of
ten years, during which time the subject was incessantly before
Congress. . When it came up in January, 1805, John Randolph
astounded the House by a series of speeches violent beyond all
precedent, outrageously and vindictively slanderous, and fatal to
the harmony of the party and to all effective legislation. With
the malignity of a bully he attacked Gideon Granger, the Post-
master-General, who could not answer him, and he only met his
match in Matthew Lyon, whose old experience now, to the
delight of the Federalists, enabled him to meet Randolph with
a torrent of personal abuse, and to tell him that he was a jackal
and a madman with the face of a monkey. All this was doubtr-
less vexatious enough to Mr. Gallatin, who knew well that it
boded no good to the Administration ; but Randolph could not
even stop here. He made a very serious reflection upon Mr.
Gallatin himself and the report of the commissioners. " When
I first read their report/ 7 said he, " I was filled with unutterable
astonishment ; finding men in whom I had and still have the
highest confidence, recommend a measure which all the facts and
all the reasons which they had collected opposed and unequivo-
cally condemned." This speech was made on February 3,
1805, and the course taken by Randolph was warmly applauded
by Duane.
Mr. Gallatin remained impassive and his relations with Ran-
dolph were undisturbed. Randolph himself either had no clear
idea what he was doing, or was indifferent to its consequences.
One of his letters to Mr. Gallatin, written in October, 1805, is
so judicial in its tone and expresses such proper sentiments
about divisions in the party as to appear quite out of keeping
with its writer and to suggest dissimulation, which was not at
all in his character. But on one point the two men had strong
sympathies : their concurrence of opinion on the management of
the navy was a bond of union.
The summer of 1805 brought matters to a crisis. Duane and
his friends set up an opposition candidate to Governor McKean
in the person of Simon Snyder, Speaker of the House, and car-
ried the bulk of the party with them. Mr. Dallas and the con-
330 LIFE OF ALBEKT GAL LATIN. 1805
servative element were obliged to depend upon Federalist aid in
order to carry the election of McKean. Mr. Jefferson and the
Administration refrained from interference, and the result was to
isolate Mr. Gallatin and to deprive him of that support in his
own State, without which the position of a public man must
always be precarious. The elements of future trouble were
gathering into alarming consistency and needed only some national
crisis to concentrate all their force against Mr. Gallatin.
A. J. DALLAS TO GALLATIN.
4th April, 1805.
. . . The political part of your letter corresponds precisely
with the ideas I entertain and have uniformly inculcated on the
subject. The Aurora perverts everything, however, that can be
said or done. The Legislature adjourns to-day. You have read
the report ; but I fear it will be followed by some wild, irregular
step after the adjournment, aimed against the Governor as well
as the Constitution. The evil of the day has obviously proceeded
from the neglect of Dr. Leib's official pretensions ; and Duane's
assertions that he possesses the confidence and acts at the instance
of the President will buoy him up on the surface for some time
longer. While he has influence, the State, the United States, will
never enjoy quiet. I hope therefore, and there is every reason
to expect, that his present machinations will be exposed and
defeated as a prelude to his fall. . . .
JOHN RANDOLPH TO GALLATIN.
BIZARRE, June 28, 1805.
... I do not understand your manoeuvres at headquarters,
nor should I be surprised to see the Navy Department abolished,
or, in more appropriate phrase, swept by the board, at the next
session of Congress. The nation has had the most conclusive proof
that a head is no necessary appendage to the establishment. . . .
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
WASHINGTON, 25th October, 1805.
. . . Whilst the Republicans opposed the Federalists the
necessity of union induced a general sacrifice of private views
1805. THE TEEASUEY. 1801-1813. 331
and personal objects ; and the opposition was generally grounded
on the purest motives and conducted in the most honorable man-
ner. Complete success has awakened all those passions which
only slumbered. In Pennsylvania particularly the thirst for
offices, too much encouraged by Governor McKean's first meas-
ures, created a schism in Philadelphia as early as 1802. Leib,
ambitious, avaricious, envious, and disappointed, blew up the
flame, and watched the first opportunity to make his cause a
general one. The vanity, the nepotism, and the indiscretion of
Governor McKean afforded the opportunity. Want of mutual
forbearance amongst the best intentioned and most respectable
Republicans has completed the schism. Duane, intoxicated by
the persuasion that he alone had overthrown Federalism, thought
himself neither sufficiently rewarded nor respected, and, possessed
of an engine which gives him an irresistible control over public
opinion, he easily gained the victory for his friends. I call it
victory, for the number of Republicans who have opposed him
rather than supported McKean does not exceed one-fourth, or at
most one-third, of the whole; and McKean owes his re-election
to the Federalists. What will be the consequence I cannot even
conjecture. My ardent wishes are for mutual forgiveness and a
reunion of the Republican interest ; but I hardly think it prob-
able. MoKean and Duane will be both implacable and immov-
able, and the acts of the first and the continued proscriptions of
the last will most probably and unfortunately defeat every attempt
to reconcile. Yet I do not foresee any permanent evil beyond
what arises from perpetual agitation and from that party spirit
which encourages personal hatred ; but the intolerance and per-
secution which we abhorred in Federalism will be pursued by the
prevailing party till the people, who do not love injustice, once
more put it down.
JOHN RANDOLPH TO GALLATIN.
BIZARRE, October 25, 1805.
DEAR SIR, Your very acceptable letter reached me this
morning, and I hasten to return you my thanks for it and to
answer your very friendly inquiries after my health. It is much
better than it has been for some months; so much so that I pro-
332 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIK 1805.
pose braving another winter at Washington. I do assure you,
however, that I look forward to the ensuing session of Congress
with 110 very pleasant feelings. To say nothing of the disad-
vantages of the place, natural as well as acquired, I anticipate a
plentiful harvest of bickering and blunders ; of which, however,
I hope to be a quiet, if not an unconcerned, spectator.
It is a great comfort to me to find that we entirely agree as to
the causes of disunion in Pennsylvania. I have no interest in
their local squabbles, except so far as they may affect the Union
at large. In that point of view I have regretted the divisions
of the Republican party in that great and leading State, well
knowing that whichever side prevailed, Federalism must thereby
acquire a formidable accession of strength. It now remains to
be seen whether there is temper and good sense enough left
among them to heal their animosities, or whether, as to Penn-
sylvania at present and speedily throughout the Union, we must
acknowledge the humiliating position of our adversaries, " that
the Republicans do not possess virtue and understanding enough
to administer the government." Perhaps the reconciliation which
I speak of is more to be desired than hoped. Wiser heads and
those better acquainted with the particular circumstances of the
case than mine must determine whether this is to be effected by
an act of mutual amnesty and oblivion, or by expelling in the
first instance the rogues on both sides. That such there are is
self-evident; though who they are is a much more difficult
question. Unconnected as I am in that quarter, yourself ex-
cepted, it appears from what I can gather that there has been
no want of indiscretion, intemperance, and rashness on either
side. If the vanquished party have exceeded in these, it has
been amply counterbalanced by dereliction of principle in the
victors. I speak of chieftains. As to the body of the people,
their intentions are always good, since it can never be their in-
terest to do wrong. Whilst you in Pennsylvania have been
tearing each other to pieces about a governor, we in Virginia,
who can hardly find any one to accept our throne of the Mah-
rattas, have been quietly taking the goods the gods have provided
us ; enjoying the sports of the turf and the field. Which has
the better bargain, think you ?
1805. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 333
... I regret exceedingly Mr. Jefferson's resolution to retire,
and almost as much the premature annunciation of that deter-
mination. It almost precludes a revision of his purpose, to say
nothing of the intrigues which it will set on foot. If I were
sure that Monroe would succeed him, my regret would be very
much diminished. Here, you see, the Virginian breaks out;
but, like the Prussian cadet, " I must request you not to make
this known to the Secretary of the Treasury."
A. J. DALLAS TO GALLATIN.
21st December, 1805.
MY DEAR SIR, In perfect confidence I tell you that Gov-
ernor McK. has pressed me to accept the office of chief justice.
This I have peremptorily declined. But I believe he means to
appoint the present Attorney-General to that office ; and I am
again pressed to say whether I will accept the commission of
Attorney-General. It is an office more lucrative, less troublesome,
and infinitely less responsible than the one I hold. There are
considerations, however, that make me pause. I am disgusted
with the fluctuation of our politics, with the emptiness of party
friendships, and with the influence of desperate and violent men
upon our popular and legislative movements in the State business.
I had determined never to think of State dependence. At this
time, too, when the thunders of the Aurora are daily rolling
over my head ; when it is publicly asserted that I have lost the
personal and political confidence of the Administration; a resig-
nation would be perverted into a dismissal, and my succession
to the office of Attorney-General would increase the clamors
against Governor McKean. In this dilemma I repose myself
on your friendship for information and advice. I do not want
either office, but I am shocked at the idea of incurring the least
disgrace under the sanction of an Administration which has had
all my attachment and all my services. Tell me, therefore, what
I ought to do by the return of the post. I do not wish you to
enter into any detail of the grounds of your opinion, but let the
opinion be explicit, and, if you please, let it be the result of a
consultation with our friend Robert Smith.
334 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1805.
Meanwhile, the fate of the Administration became every day
more visibly involved in the management of foreign affairs.
Mr. Jefferson's theory, that the belligerents would not make
him swallow so much as they had forced down the throats of
his predecessors, was rapidly becoming more than questionable.
England blockaded our ports and impressed our seamen ; Spain
refused to carry out her pledges of indemnification for illegal
seizures of our ships, insisted upon limiting our Louisiana pur-
chase to a mere strip of territory on the west bank of the Mis-
sissippi, and was supported by France in doing so. Mr. Jefferson
was at this time impressed with the idea that he could balance
one belligerent against another and could force Spain to recede
by throwing himself into the arms of England.
Under these circumstances, on the 7th August, 1805, he called
upon the members of his Cabinet for their written opinions on
the course to be pursued towards Spain. Mr. Gallatin's reply,
dated September 12, 1 is a very interesting paper, covering the
whole ground of discussion, and composed in a spirit of judicial
fairness towards Spain very unusual in American state papers.
Acting on his invariable theory of American interests, he dis-
suaded from war, and urged continued negotiation even if it
only resulted in postponing a rupture. To gain time was with
him to gain everything; after the year 1809 the redemption of
debt would have gone so far that $3,500,000 would be annually
available, out of the 8,000,000 fund, for other purposes ; adding
the savings and preparations of these three years and the inter-
mediate growth of the country, there was no difficulty in show-
ing the importance of preserving peace. But perhaps the most
curious part of this paper is that in which Mr. Gallatin accepts
the doctrine of a navy ; after explaining that he could count on
a probable annual surplus of $2,000,000, he went on to deal
with its application :
" It is probable that the greater part of that surplus will be
applied to the formation of a navy; and if Congress shall decide
in favor of that measure, I would suggest that the mode best
calculated, in my opinion, to effect it, and so impress other
1 Gallatin's Writings, vol. i. p. 241.
1805. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 335
nations that we are in earnest about it, would be a distinct Act
enacted for that sole purpose, appropriating for a fixed number
of years (or for as many years as would be sufficient to build a
determinate number of ships of the line) a fixed sum of money,
say one million of dollars annually, . . . the money to be ex-
clusively applied to the building of ships of the line, for there
would still be a sufficient surplus to add immediately a few
frigates to our navy. . . . Whether the creation of an efficient
navy may not, by encouraging wars and drawing us in the usual
vortex of expenses and foreign relations, be the cause of greater
evils than those it is intended to prevent, is not the question
which I mean to discuss. This is to be decided by the repre-
sentatives of the nation, and although I have been desirous that
the measure might at least be postponed, I have had no doubt
for a long time that the United States would ultimately have a
navy. It is certain that, so long as we have none, we must
perpetually be liable to injuries and insults, particularly from
the belligerent powers when there is a war in Europe ; and in
deciding for or against the measure Congress will fairly decide
the question, whether they think it more for the interest of the
United States to preserve a pacific and temporizing system, and
to tolerate those injuries and insults to a great extent, than to
be prepared, like the great European nations, to repel every
injury by the sword."
This seems to have been sound Federalist doctrine so far as it
went. Time and the growth of natural resources were gradually
bringing Mr. Gallatin to a point not much behind the last Ad-
ministration ; had the Navy been in the hands of a stronger man
it is not unlikely that the appropriation offered by Mr. Gallatin
might now have been carried through Congress, but even in
making the proposition Mr. Gallatin showed his sense of Mr.
Robert Smith's capacity by insisting that the money should be
placed in the hands of commissioners. To judge from John
Randolph's expressions, he was at this time of the same opinion
with Mr. Gallatin, both in regard to the navy and its Secretary.
But Mr. Jefferson's views, never heartily turned towards strong
measures, soon changed. On the 23d October, 1805, he wrote to
Mr. Gallatin that there was no longer any occasion for a hasty
336 LIFE OF ALBEET GALL AT IN. 1805.
decision ; the European war was certain to continue. " We may
make another effort for a peaceable accommodation with Spain
without the danger of being left alone to cope with both France
and Spain." And he closed by propounding an entirely new
proposition : " Our question now is in what way to give Spain
another opportunity of arrangement. Is not Paris the place?
France the agent ? The purchase of the Floridas the means ?"
If there was anything in this rapid change of front on the
part of Mr. Jefferson that argued vacillation of mind, it still
amounted to the adoption of Mr. Gallatin's views, and he seems
to have so regarded it. Unfortunately, when Mr. Jefferson
undertook to carry out his new policy he attempted the diffi-
cult task of concealing it under the cover of the old one ; he
wished, in other words, to combine the advantages of a war
policy with those of a peace policy, and to escape the conse-
quences of both, so far as risks were concerned. The success of
the Louisiana purchase, two years before, now led him to repeat
the experiment; the scheme in his mind was intended to be a
close imitation of the course which had resulted in obtaining
Louisiana ; Spain was partly to be frightened, partly to be bribed,
into the sale of Florida.
Mr. Gallatin's notes on the message of this year seem to in-
dicate that it showed in the original draft more inconsistency
than in its ultimate form. Mr. Jefferson spoke of war as prob-
able, and recommended preparation for it, organization of the
militia, gun-boats, and land-batteries; he even gave a strong
hint that he was ready to build ships of the line; yet at the same
time he recommended the abandonment of the Mediterranean
Fund which, as Mr. Gallatin pointed out, was necessary to pro-
vide for the purchase of Florida on their own scheme, or to im-
pose upon Spain a sense of their being in earnest about war. 1
After thorough revision the message was at last made to suit its
double purpose, and was sent in.
This, however, was only the beginning. The plan of opera-
tions was intended to be an exact repetition of that which had
been followed in the Louisiana case, a public message to be
1 Gallatin's Writings, vol. i. p. 263.
1805. THE TEEASUEY. 1801-1813. 337
followed by a secret one, public resolutions to be adopted by the
House, and a confidential report and appropriation. Mr. Galla-
tin advised this course as the one already settled by precedent,
and Mr. Jefferson set to work drafting the public resolutions which
were to be adopted by the House and to impose upon Spain.
The President's first draft 1 met with little success; indeed,
it was open to ridicule, and both Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Joseph
H. Nicholson remonstrated. Mr. Jefferson accordingly made
what he called a revised edition ; 2 but there was a serious dif-
ficulty in the task itself, as Mr. Gallatin wrote on December 3,
1805, to Mr. Jefferson: "The apparent difficulty in framing
the resolutions arises from the attempt to blend the three objects
together. The same reasons which have induced the President
to send two distinct messages, render it necessary' that the public
resolutions of Congress should be distinct from the private ones ;
those which relate to the war-posture of the Spanish affairs,
which are intended to express the national sense on that subject,
and to enable the President to take the steps which appear im-
mediately necessary on the frontier, should not be mixed with
those proceedings calculated only to effect an accommodation."
There was, however, a more serious difficulty, on which Mr.
Gallatin did not dwell ; the Administration was not in earnest.
He had himself already pointed out what should be done if war
were really contemplated. Half a dozen ships of the line, a few
more frigates, and 'some regiments for the regular army were the
only measures which Spain would respect. It is true that this
policy would have been merely a repetition of that pursued by
the last Administration towards France, but that policy had at
least not been feeble. Mr. Jefferson should not have taken a
" war posture" unless he was ready to do so with vigor.
The confidential message was sent in on the 6th December,
1805, three days after the annual message. Its object as under-
stood by Mr. Gallatin was " to inform Congress that France
being disposed to favor an arrangement, the present moment
should not be lost, but that the means must be supplied by Con-
gress. It is also intended to say that in the mean while, and in
1 G-allatin's Writings, vol. i. p. 277. 2 Ibid., p. 281.
22
338 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1805.
order to promote an arrangement, force should be interposed to
a certain degree. ... To the tenor of the message itself I have
but one objection : that it does not explicitly declare the object
in view, and may hereafter be cavilled at as having induced Con-
gress into a mistaken opinion of that object. For although the
latter end of the third paragraph is expressed in comprehensive
terms, yet the omission of the word Florida may lead to error ;
nor does the message convey the idea that in order to effect an
accommodation a much larger sum of money will probably be
requisite than had been contemplated."
The President had now carried out his part of the project.
Both the public and secret messages were before the House ; it
remained for the House to echo back the wishes of the Ad-
ministration, and on this score Mr. Jefferson seems to have felt
no alarm, for he supposed himself to be asking merely an exact
repetition of action taken only two years before in the Louisiana
case. John Randolph had done then precisely what he was
expected to do now. Mr. Gallatin, on the 7th December, wrote
a note to Mr. Nicholson, and put the matter of the President's
resolutions in his hands. John Randolph called on the President
the same day and made an appointment with him for a conver-
sation the next morning. He has himself given an account of
this interview. Full explanations were made to him, and Mr.
Jefferson seems to have told him with perfect frankness all the
views of the Administration. There was in fact, so far as Con-
gress was concerned, nothing to conceal.
" He then learned," according to his account published under
the signature of Deems, in the Richmond Enquirer, the follow-
ing August, " not without some surprise, that an appropriation
of two millions was wanted to purchase Florida. He told the
President without reserve that he would never agree to such a
measure, because the money had not been asked for in the mes-
sage ; that he could not consent to shift upon his own shoulders
or those of the House the proper responsibility of the Executive;
but that even if the money had been explicitly demanded he
should have been averse to granting it, because, after the total
failure of every attempt at negotiation, such a step would dis-
grace us forever."
1806. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 339
This opposition of Mr. Kandolph endangered the whole
scheme. Mr. Nicholson, who was second on the committee, was
a close friend of Randolph, and more or less influenced by him,
while the other members friendly to the Administration wanted
the weight necessary to overbalance the chairman. Nevertheless
it was impossible to recede. After waiting till the 21st Decem-
ber for Randolph to act, Mr. Nicholson seems to have interposed
and in a manner obliged him to meet the committee. "As they
were about to assemble," says Decius, " the chairman (Randolph)
was called aside by the Secretary of the Treasury, with whom
he retired, and who put into his hands a paper headed ' Provision
for the purchase of Florida/ As soon as he had cast his eyes
on the title the chairman declared that he would not vote a shil-
ling. The Secretary interrupted him by observing, with his
characteristic caution, that he did not mean to be understood as
recommending the measure, but, if the committee should deem
it advisable, he had devised a plan for raising the necessary
supplies, as he had been requested or directed in that case to
do. The chairman expressed himself disgusted with the whole
of the proceeding, which he could not but consider as highly
disingenuous."
Not until January 3, 1806, did the committee report, and then
its report provided only for a " war posture," and not for pur-
chase. The House now proceeded in secret session to debate the
message, and then at last Mr. Randolph flung his bomb into the
midst of his friends and followers. Seizing with considerable
dexterity, but with extravagant violence, the really weak point
in Mr. Jefferson's message, he assailed the Administration, or at
least its foreign policy, with the fury of a madman. The whole
Administration phalanx was thrown into disorder and embittered
to exasperation ; the whole effect proposed from the negotiation
was destroyed in advance ; but the government was obliged to
go on, and at last its propositions, in spite of Randolph, were
carried through Congress.
Although the actual struggle took place in secret session, Ran-
dolph lost no time in making his attack public, and it very soon
became evident that the true object of his hostility was Mr.
Madison. On the 5th March, in debating the non-importation
340 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1806.
policy, he began a violent assault by asserting that he had asked
the Administration, " What is the opinion of the Cabinet ? . . .
My answer was (and from a Cabinet minister, too), ' There is no
longer any Cabinet.' " On the 15th, he developed this suggestion
into a rhetorical panegyric upon Mr. Gallatin at the expense of
Mr. Madison ; he told how certain despatches from Europe had
arrived at the State Department in December, and how Mr.
Gallatin, in reply to an inquiry, had told him at a later time
that the contents of these despatches had not yet been communi-
cated to the Cabinet : " It was when I discovered that the head
of the second department under the government did not know
they were in existence, much less that his opinion on them had
not been consulted, that I declared what I repeat, that there is
no Cabinet. You have no Cabinet ! What, the head of the
Treasury Department, a vigorous and commanding statesman,
a practical statesman, the benefit of whose wisdom and experience
the nation fondly believes it always obtained before the great
measures of the government are taken, unacquainted with and
unconsulted on important despatches, and yet talk of a Cabinet !
Not merely unconsulted, but ignorant of the documents. ... I
have no hesitation in saying, there is no Cabinet, when I see a
man second to none for vigorous understanding and practical
good sense ousted from it."
The movement was an insidious one, calculated to sow distrust
between Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Madison; but to judge from the
tone of Mr. Randolph's letters, even as far back' as June, 1803,
it was an understood fact with him and with Mr. Gallatin that
the Administration wanted cohesion and co-operation, and it ap-
pears clearly enough that at least so far as the Navy Department
was concerned, Mr. Gallatin made this a subject of repeated re-
monstrance to the President himself, although he never made
complaint against Mr. Madison, and, as his correspondence
shows, he was fully in harmony with the foreign policy pur-
sued. 1 That he agreed with Randolph in considering the Presi-
dent too lax in discipline seems certain.
Mr. Gallatin did what he could to correct the impression thus
1 Cf. Jefferson to Wirt, 3d May, 1811. Jefferson's Writings, vol. v. p. 593.
1806. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 341
given, and Randolph was obliged ultimately to withdraw his
assertion, or at least essentially to qualify it ; but this seems to
have irritated him into making another similar attack on the
7th April, immediately after withdrawing the former one : " I
wish/ 7 said he, " the heads of departments had seats on this floor.
Were this the case, to one of them I would immediately propound
this question : Did you or did you not, in your capacity of a
public functionary, tell me, in my capacity of a public functionary,
that France would not suffer Spain to settle her differences with
us, that she wanted money, that we must give her money or take
a Spanish or French war? ... I would put this question to
another head of department: Was or was not an application
made to you for money to be conveyed to Europe to carry on
any species of diplomatic negotiation there ? I would listen to his
answer, and if he put his hand on his heart and like a man of
honor said, No ! I would believe him, though it would require a
great stretch of credulity. I would call into my aid faith, not
reason, and believe where I was not convinced."
At the moment this was said, Mr. Gallatin was on the floor of
the House, and Mr. Jackson, of Virginia, at once asked him
whether it was true that such an application was made. He
replied that it was not, and explained how the mistake arose.
Mr. Jackson immediately took the floor and repeated his words,
characterizing the charge that Mr. Madison had attempted to
draw money out of the Treasury without the authority of law, as
" destitute of truth and foundation, mark the expression ; I say
it is destitute of truth," evidently courting a quarrel. He took
care, however, to relieve Mr. Gallatin of responsibility for these
words, while, in order to establish the fact of denial, he caused a
resolution of inquiry to be adopted by the House, which pro-
duced a categorical reply from Mr. Gallatin, "that no ' applica-
tion has been made to draw money from the Treasury before an
appropriation made by law for that purpose. 7 The circumstances
which may have produced an impression that such an application
had been made, being unconnected with any matter pertaining to
the duties of the office of Secretary of the Treasury, are not pre-
sumed to come within the scope of the information required from
this Department by the House."
342 LIFE OF ALBERT GALL ATI N. 1806.
Meanwhile Mr. Gallatin had already taken measures to correct
at its source the error to which Mr. Randolph was giving cur-
rency. 1 It appears that in explaining the wishes of the govern-
ment to two New York members, George Clinton, Jr., and Josiah
Masters, Mr. Gallatin had found them sceptical in regard to the
propriety of the proposed action of Congress, and, in order to
convince them that the President and Cabinet were in earnest
and really anxious for the appropriation, he said that so anxious
were they as to have actually had a discussion in Cabinet, before
Congress met, whether they might not promise in the negotiation
to pay a sum down without waiting for action from Congress; so
anxious were they that Mr. Madison, although the bill was not
yet fairly passed, though certain to pass within less than a week,
had already requested Mr. Gallatin to buy exchange. 2 This con-
versation, repeated by Mr. Masters, and coming to the ears of
John Eandolph, produced his solemn inquiry meant to imply
that Mr. Madison had approached Mr. Gallatin with a proposi-
tion to take money illegally from the Treasury, and that Mr.
Gallatin had repelled the idea. What made this notion more
absurd was that the first proposition was not Mr. Madison's, but
came from Mr. Jefferson; only by jumbling the two facts
together and recklessly disregarding every means of better in-
forming himself, had Randolph succeeded in dragging Mr.
Madison into the field at all.
This official denial and private correction of the story, after-
wards made public in the shape of a letter from 'the New York
member to his constituents, seem to be sufficient for the satisfac-
tion of all parties. Still, the innuendo of Randolph was com-
promising to Mr. Gallatin, and was made the theme of long-
continued attacks upon him. Five years afterwards, when Mr.
Madison was President and Gallatin was in sore need of sup-
port, Mr. Jefferson wrote to William Wirt a letter warmly
defending him in this matter as in others. He said, in taking
up one by one the charges that Mr. Gallatin had been a party
1 Letter to George Clinton, Jr., dated 5th April, 1806. Writings, vol. i.
p. 295.
2 Gallatin's Writings, Endorsement on letter of G-. Clinton, Jr., vol. i.
p. 298.
1806. ., THE TEEASUEY. 1801-1813. 343
to Randolph's opposition : " But the story of the two millions ;
Mr. Gallatin satisfied us that this affirmation of J. E. was as
unauthorized as the fact itself was false. It resolves itself, there-
fore, into his inexplicit letter to a committee of Congress. As to
this, my own surmise was that Mr. Gallatin might have used
some hypothetical expression in conversing on that subject, which
J. R. made a positive one, and he being a duellist, and Mr. Gal-
latin with a wife and children depending on him for their daily
subsistence, the latter might wish to avoid collision and insult
from such a man."
There are occasions when defence is worse than attack. If
Mr. Jefferson thought that his Secretary of the Treasury wanted
the moral courage to speak out at the risk of personal danger,
there is no more to be said so far as concerns Mr. Jeiferson ;
but in regard to Mr. Gallatin the suggestion seems to be com-
pletely set aside by two considerations : in the first place, the
question put by Randolph was not founded, nor even alleged to
be founded, on his own conversations with Mr. Gallatin, 1 and
therefore not he, but Mr. Masters alone, had the right to call
Mr. Gallatin to account; in the second place, Mr. Gallatin's
letter was very explicit on one point, and that to a duellist the
essential one ; it flatly and categorically contradicted Randolph's
charge, and there seems to be no reason why Mr. Randolph
might not have founded a challenge on that contradiction as
well as on any other had he felt that the occasion warranted a
duel.
The truth is that Mr. Randolph at this time might have
fought as many duels as there were days, had he wished to do
so. Bitter as his tongue was, there were men enough who were
not afraid either of it or of his pistols. Mr. Gallatin, on the
other hand, was anxious that, if possible, Randolph should not
be outlawed. Until March, 1807, at all events, he was chair-
man of the Ways and Means, and Mr. Gallatin's relations with
him must be maintained. More than this, there was absolutely
no other member on the Administration side of the House who
1 See " Decius, II.," Eichmond Enquirer, November, 1806, republished
in the Aurora for 25th November, 1806.
344 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1800
had the capacity to take the place of leader. Even in October,
1807, when Randolph was at last dethroned, it was, as will be
seen, much against Mr. Gallatin's will, and, as he well knew,
much to the risk of public interest and his own comfort. He
would rather have continued to tolerate Randolph than to trust
the leadership of the House in the hands of incompetent men.
Nevertheless, this conduct of Mr. Randolph necessarily broke
up the confidence existing between him and Mr. Gallatin, and
although Randolph was never one of Mr. Gallatin's declared
enemies, but, on the contrary, always spoke of him as " that
great man, for great let me call him," l their intimacy ceased
from this time. In July, 1807, Randolph wrote to Joseph H.
Nicholson : " I have no communication with the great folks.
Gallatin used formerly to write to me, but of late our intercourse
has dropped. I think it is more than two years since I was in
his house. How this has happened I can't tell, or rather I can,
for I have not been invited there." The loss was all the more
serious to Mr. Gallatin, because at this same moment Joseph H.
Nicholson left the House to accept a seat on the bench, and
thus the two members on whom he had most depended were
beyond his reach. A corresponding loss of personal influence
was inevitable ; but this was not all ; the Aurora, while shrewdly
avoiding direct support of Randolph's defection, made use of Ran-
dolph's assertions to charge Mr. Gallatin with what amounted to
treason against Mr. Jefferson, and at last Mr. Jefferson himself
had to interpose to reassure his Secretary of the Treasury in the
following letter :
JEFFERSON TO GALLATIN.
WASHINGTON, October 12, 1806.
DEAR SIR, You witnessed in the earlier part of the Ad-
ministration the malignant and long-continued efforts which the
Federalists exerted in their newspapers to produce misunder-
standing between Mr. Madison and myself. These failed com-
pletely. A like attempt was afterwards made through other
1 See .Randolph's speeches in Congress of May 26, 1812, and 15th April,
1824.
1800. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 345
channels to effect a similar purpose between General Dearborn
and myself, but with no more success. The machinations of
the last session to put you at cross-questions with us all were so
obvious as to be seen at the first glance of every eye. In order
to destroy one member of the Administration, the whole were
to be set to loggerheads to destroy one another. I observe in
the papers lately new attempts to revive this stale artifice, and
that they squint more directly towards you and myself. I can-
not, therefore, be satisfied till I declare to you explicitly that
my affection and confidence in you are nothing impaired, and
that they cannot be impaired by means so unworthy the notice
of candid and honorable minds. I make the declaration that
no doubts or jealousies, which often beget the facts they fear,
may find a moment's harbor in either of our minds. I have
so much reliance on the superior good sense and candor of all
those associated with me as to be satisfied 1 they will not suffer
either friend or foe to sow tares among us. Our Administration
now drawing towards a close, I have a sublime pleasure in be-
lieving it will be distinguished as much by having placed itself
above all the passions which could disturb its harmony, as by
the great operations by which it will have advanced the well-
being of the nation.
Accept my affectionate salutations and assurances of my con-
stant and unalterable respect and attachment.
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
WASHINGTON, 13th October, 1806.
DEAR SIB, In minds solely employed in honest efforts to
promote the welfare of a free people there is but little room left
for the operation of those passions which engender doubts and
jealousies. That you entertained none against me I had the
most perfect conviction before I received your note of yesterday.
Of your candor and indulgence I have experienced repeated
proofs ; the freedom with which my opinions have been delivered
has been always acceptable and approved, even when they may
have happened not precisely to coincide with your own view of
the subject and you have thought them erroneous. But I am not
346 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1806.
the less sensible of your kindness in repeating at this juncture
the expression of your confidence. If amongst the authors of
the animadversions to which you allude there be any who believe
that in my long and confidential intercourse with Republican
members of Congress, that particularly in my free communica-
tions of facts and opinions to Mr. Randolph, I have gone beyond
what prudence might have suggested, the occasion necessarily re-
quired, or my official situation strictly permitted, those who are
impressed with such belief must be allowed to reprove the indis-
cretion, and may perhaps honestly suspect its motive. For those
having charged me with any equivocation, evasion, or the least
deviation from truth in any shape whatever, I cannot even frame
an apology. And, without cherishing resentment, I have not the
charity to ascribe to purity of intention the Philadelphia attacks,
which indeed I expect to see renewed with additional virulence
and a total disregard for truth. I am, however, but a secondary
object, and you are not less aware than myself that the next
Presidential election lurks at the bottom of those writings and
of the Congressional dissensions. [To you my wish may be ex-
pressed that whenever you shall be permitted to withdraw, the
choice may fall on Mr. Madison, as the most worthy and the
most capable. But I know that on that point, as well as on all
others which relate to elections, no Executive officer ought to
interfere]. 1
Much more, however, do I lament the injury which the Re-
publican cause may receive from the divisions amongst its friends
in so many different quarters. Sacrificing the public good and
their avowed principles to personal views, to pride and resent-
ment, they afford abundant matter of triumph to our opponents;
they discredit at all events, and may ultimately ruin, the cause
itself. But if we are unable to control the conflicting passions
and jarring interests which surround us, they will not at least
affect our conduct. The Administration has no path to pursue
but to continue their unremitted attention to the high duties en-
trusted to their care, and to persevere in their efforts to preserve
peace abroad, and at home to improve and invigorate our repub-
1 Omitted in final draft.
1806. THE TKEASURY. 1801-1813. 347
lican institutions. The most important object at present is to
arrange on equitable terms our differences with Spain. That
point once accomplished, your task shall have been satisfactorily
completed, and those you have associated in your labors will be
amply rewarded by sharing in the success of your Administra-
tion. From no other source can any of them expect to derive
any degree of reputation.
With sincere respect and grateful attachment.
GALLATIN TO MARIA NICHOLSON.
WASHINGTON, October 27, 1806.
. . . I had seen the piece in the " Enquirer" to which you allude
before I left New York. To be abused and misunderstood by
political friends of worth is not pleasant, but the great question in
all those things is : Did you perform your duty, and did you, as far
as you were able, promote the public good ? For, worldly as you
think me, rest assured that, however I may prize public opinion,
it is not there that I seek for a reward. I suspect but that is
solely between ourselves that some friends of John Randolph,
mortified at his conduct and still more at its effect on his conse-
quence, would wish to throw the blame of his excesses on me ;
and that, on the other hand, a weak friend of the President has
felt hurt that my opinions had not in every particular coincided
with the President's. To those joint causes I ascribe the Vir-
ginia attack. Mr. Jefferson, thinking that I might be hurt by
it, wrote me the enclosed letter. ... It affords additional proof
of the goodness of his heart, and shows that he is much above
all those little squabbles. . . .
In order to follow out to its conclusion this long story of
John Randolph's schism, it has been necessary to leave the
larger questions of public interest far behind. Whatever mis-
statements of fact Randolph may have made, his opinion on one
point was indubitably correct : Mr. Jefferson's Spanish policy in
1805-6 was feeble, and it was a failure. It was feeble not
because it proposed the purchase of Florida from France or
from Spain, but because it threatened war without backing its
348 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIK 1806.
threats by real force. The situation in regard to England was
no better. To the very serious questions of impressments, of
the annual blockade of New York, and of the lawless proceed-
ings of the British ships of war, was now added the settled
determination on the part of England to stop the prodigious
increase of American commerce which threatened to ruin the
shipping interests of Great Britain. For this purpose an old
rule of the war of 1756 was revived, and the American ship-
ping engaged in the hitherto legal trade of carrying West India
produce from the United States to Europe was suddenly swept
into British ports and condemned. All the resistance that Mr.
Madison could offer was a pamphlet, convincing enough as
to the right, but not equally so as to the power, of the United
States. Congress, however, reinforced it by a non-importation
act, and Mr. Monroe and William Pinkney were appointed a
special commission to negotiate.
Meanwhile, the affairs of Mr. Gallatin's own Department
had suffered no check or misfortune. His report of December,
1805, showed that the revenue had risen high above its highest
previous mark, to $12,672,000, which, with the produce of the
Mediterranean Fund and of the land sales, carried the receipts
of the government nearly to $14,000,000. The surplus in the
Treasury, after meeting all the regular expenditures and navy
deficiencies, French claims, and the $1,750,000 of the Louisiana
purchase, for which a loan had been authorized, would still ex-
ceed one million dollars on a reasonable estimate. The reduction
of debt had already reached that point at which Mr. Gallatin
was obliged to pause and impress upon Congress the idea that a
new class of duties lay before them ; four years more of the
application of his system would pay off all the debt that was
susceptible of immediate payment ; the rest could be redeemed
only by purchase, or by waiting until the law permitted its
redemption. " Should circumstances render it eligible, a con-
siderable portion of the revenue now appropriated for that pur-
pose [payment of debt] may then, in conformity with existing
provisions, be applied to other objects."
The following year, 1806, was still more prosperous. The
regular revenue exceeded $13,000,000; the receipts altogether
1806. THE TEEASUBY. 1801-1813. 349
had reached the sum of $14,500,000 ; the two millions appro-
priated for purchasing Florida had been supplied out of surplus
and sent abroad; the Tripolitan war was over; a surplus of
$4,000,000 was left in the Treasury; and only three years
remained before the day when some disposition must be made
of the excess of revenue.
So far as the mere financial arrangements for this event were
concerned, Mr. Gallatin took them himself in charge. He aban-
doned at once the salt tax, which produced about $500,000, and
he proposed to continue the Mediterranean Fund only one year
longer. At the same time he procured the passage of an Act
authorizing him to convert the unredeemed amount of the old
six per cent, deferred stock, representing a capital of about
$32,000,000, and the three per cents, (about $19,000,000), into
a six per cent, stock, redeemable at six months 7 notice. The
inducements offered to the holders are explained in Mr. Galla-
tin's letter of 20th January, 1806, 1 to John Randolph, chairman
of the Ways and Means Committee.
The greater measures of public policy which were to crown
the edifice of republican government, and to realize all those
ideal benefits to humanity which Mr. Jefferson and his friends
aimed at, fell of necessity and properly to the President's charge.
Nowhere in all the long course of Mr. Jefferson's great career
did he appear to better advantage than when in his message of
1806 he held out to the country and the world that view of his
ultimate hopes and aspirations for national development, which
was, as he then trusted, to be his last bequest to mankind.
Having now reached the moment when he must formally an-
nounce to Congress that the great end of relieving the nation
from debt was at length within reach, and with it the duty of
establishing true republican government was fulfilled, he paused
to ask what use was to be made of the splendid future thus
displayed before them. Should they do away with the taxes ?
Should they apply them to the building up of armies and navies?
Both relief from taxation and the means of defence might be
sufficiently obtained without exhausting their resources, and still
1 State Papers, Finance, ii. p. 212.
350 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1807.
the great interests of humanity might be secured. These great
interests were economical and moral ; to supply the one, a system
of internal improvement should be created commensurate with
the magnitude of the country ; " by these operations new chan-
nels of communication will be opened between the States, the
lines of separation will disappear, their interests will be identi-
fied, and their union cemented by new and indissoluble ties."
To provide for the other, the higher education should be placed
among the objects of public care; "a public institution can
alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are
yet necessary to complete the circle, all the parts of which con-
tribute to the improvement of the country and some of them to
its preservation." A national university and a national system
of internal improvement were an essential part, and indeed the
realization and fruit, of the republican theories which Mr.
Jefferson and his associates put in practice as their ideal of
government.
In this path Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Gallatin went hand in
hand. The former, indeed, thought an amendment of the Con-
stitution necessary in order to bring these objects within the
enumerated powers of the government, while Mr. Gallatin, here,
as in regard to the bank and the Louisiana purchase, found no
difficulty on that score ; but Mr. Jefferson looked forward to the
adoption of such an amendment before the three years' interval
had elapsed, and in the mean while Mr. Gallatin was actually
putting his schemes into operation. The first report of the com-
missioners appointed to lay out the Cumberland Eoad, from the
Potomac to the Ohio, was laid before Congress in January, 1807.
A month later Congress passed the act under which the coast
survey was authorized, and appropriated $50,000 to carry it into
effect. A few weeks afterwards, Senator Worthington, of Ohio,
one of Mr. Gallatin's closest friends, caused a resolution to be
adopted directing the Secretary of the Treasury to prepare and
report to the Senate a general scheme of internal improvement.
Few persons have now any conception of the magnitude of
the scheme thus originated. The university was but a trifle,
which Mr. Gallatin was ready to take upon his shoulders at once
without waiting for other resources than he already had. He
1807. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 351
seemed to have a passion for organization. The land system,
the sinking fund system, the Cumberland Koad, the coast survey,
were all in his hands, and were, if not exclusively yet essentially,
organized by him. He now turned his attention to the creation
of a new scheme, in comparison with which all the others were
only fragments and playthings. His report on internal improve-
ments was sent in to the Senate on the 12th of April, 1808, after
a year's preparation. It presented a plan the mere outlines of
which can alone find place here.
According to this sketch, the projected improvements were
classified under the following heads :
I. Those parallel with the sea-coast, viz., canals cutting Cape
Cod, New Jersey, Delaware, and North Carolina, so as to make
continuous inland navigation along the coast to Cape Fear, at an
estimated cost of $3,000,000; and a great turnpike road from
Maine to Georgia, at an estimated cost of $4,800,000.
II. Those that were to run east and west, viz., improvement
of the navigation of four Atlantic rivers, the Susquehanna, the
Potomac, the James, and the Santee, and of four corresponding
western rivers, the Alleghany, the Monongahela, the Kanawha,
and the Tennessee, to the highest practicable points, at an esti-
mated cost of $1,500,000; and the connection of these highest
points of navigation by four roads across the Appalachian range,
at an estimated cost of $2,800,000 ; and finally, a canal at the
falls of the Ohio, $300,000, and improvement of roads to Detroit,
St. Louis, and New Orleans, $200,000.
III. Those that were to run north and northwest to the lakes,
viz., to connect the Hudson River with Lake Champlain,
$800,000 ; to connect the Hudson River with Lake- Ontario at
Oswego by canal, $2,200,000; a canal round Niagara Falls,
$1,000,000.
IV. Local improvements, $3,400,000.
The entire estimated expense was $20,000,000 ; by an appro-
priation of $2,000,000 a year the whole might be accomplished
in ten years ; by a system of selling to private parties the stock
thus created by the government for turnpikes and canals, the
fund might be made itself a permanent resource for further
improvements.
352 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1807.
Naturally the improvements thus contemplated were so laid
out as to combine and satisfy local interests. The advantage
which Mr. Gallatin proposed to gain was that of combining
these interests in advance, so that they should co-operate in one
great system instead of wasting the public resources in isolated
efforts. He wished to fix the policy of government for at least
ten years, and probably for an indefinite time, on the whole sub-
ject of internal improvements, as he had already succeeded in
fixing it in regard to the payment of debt. By thus establishing
a complete national system to be executed by degrees, the whole
business of annual chaffering and log-rolling for local appropri-
ations in Congress, and all its consequent corruptions and incon-
sistencies, were to be avoided.
Nor did Mr. Gallatin in making these propositions overlook
the pressing necessity of providing for the national defence. His
anticipated surplus exceeded five millions of dollars, and he in-
tended that while two millions were annually set aside for inter-
nal improvements, the other three millions should be applied
simultaneously for arsenals, magazines, and fortifications, or, if
desired, for building a navy, while even from a military point
of view the proposed roads and canals were as essential as arms,
forts, or ships to national defence. In one respect, however,
Mr. Gallatin differed rather widely from Mr. Jefferson, and this
difference of opinion concerned a cardinal point of the President's
policy. The famous gun-boat scheme, which seems to have been
the creation of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Robert Smith, took shape
during the winter of 1806-7, in a special message, dated Feb-
ruary 10, which recommended the immediate building of two
hundred gun-boats. When the draft of this message was sent
to Mr. Gallatin for his criticisms, he wrote that he was " clearly
of opinion" there was no necessity for building so many of these
vessels, and he urged that the seventy-three already in course of
construction were more than enough in a time of peace. " Of
all the species of force which war may require, armies, ships
of war, fortifications, and gun-boats, there is none which can
be obtained in a shorter notice than gun-boats, and none there-
fore that it is less necessary to provide beforehand. I think that
within sixty days, perhaps half the time, each of the seaports
1807. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 353
of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore might build
and fit out thirty, and the smaller ports together as many, espe-
cially if the timber was prepared beforehand. But beyond that
preparation I would not go, for exclusively of the first expense
of building and the interest of the capital thus laid out, I appre-
hend that, notwithstanding the care which may be taken, they
will infallibly decay in a given number of years, and will be a
perpetual bill of costs for repairs and maintenance." J
Mr. Jefferson's reply to this argument will be found in his
letter of February 9, 1807, to Mr. Gallatin. When he fairly
mounted a hobby-horse he rode it over all opposition, and, of all
hobby-horses, gun-boats happened at this time to be his favorite.
He insisted that the whole two hundred must be built, for five
reasons: 1. Because they could not be built in two, or even in
six, months. 2. Because, in case of war, the enemy would de-
stroy them on the stocks in New York, Boston, Norfolk, or any
seaport. 3. "The first operation of war by an enterprising
enemy would be to sweep all our seaports of their vessels at
least." 4. The expense of their preservation would be nothing.
5. The expense of construction would be less than supposed. 2
Mr. Jefferson was a great man, and like other great men he
occasionally committed great follies, yet it may be doubted
whether in the whole course of his life he ever wrote anything
much more absurd than this letter. When war came, each of
his three former reasons was shown to be an error, and long
before the war arrived, his two concluding reasons were contra-
dicted by facts. These letters were written in February, 1807.
In June, 1809, barely two years later, the then Secretary of the
Navy, Paul Hamilton, reported that 176 gun-boats had been
built, of which 24 only were in actual service. The aggregate
expense to that date had been $1,700,000, or about $725,000
a year; while the reader will remember that the whole navy
expenditure for 1807 was $1,722,000, and in 1808 nearly
$1,900,000, against the modest $650,000 which had been agreed
upon at the beginning of Mr. Jefferson's Administration. Any
one who is curious to see how far Mr. Gallatin's opinion as to
1 Gallatin's Writings, i. 330. 2 Jefferson's Writings, v. 42.
23
354 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL ATI N. 1807
the " perpetual bill of eo^ts for repairs" was correct, may refer
to Paul Hamilton's letter of June 6, 1809, to the Senate com-
mittee. 1 Had all this expenditure improved the national de-
fences, the waste of money would have seemed less outrageous
even to Mr. Gallatin, who was its chief victim ; but, as most naval
officers expected, the gun-boats were in some respects positively
mischievous, in others of very little use, and they were easily
destroyed by the enemy whenever found. At the end of the war
such of them as were not already captured, burned, wrecked, or
decayed were quietly broken up or sold. 2
Friends and enemies have long since agreed that Mr. Jeffer-
son's gun-boats were a grievous mistake. How decidedly Mr.
Gallatin remonstrated against the development given to this
policy, may be seen in the letter of which a portion has been
quoted. He strongly urged that no more gun-boats should be
built till they were wanted, and he begged Mr. Jefferson to let
Congress decide whether they were wanted or not. Mr. Jeffer-
son did not take the advice, and, as usual, Mr. Gallatin was the
one to suffer for the mistakes of his chief; the gun-boats lasted
long enough to give him great trouble and to be one of the
principal means of bankrupting the Treasury even before the
war; unfortunately, he had exhausted his strength in com-
plaints of the Navy Department; he had spoken again and
again in language which for him was without an example; in
the present instance he had Mr. Jefferson himself for his strongest
opponent, and there was nothing to be done but to submit.
With this exception, one merely of detail and judgment, Mr.
Gallatin seems to have cordially supported the comprehensive
scheme which the Administration of Mr. Jefferson pointed out
to Congress as the goal of its long pilgrimage. Six years of
frugality and patience had, as it conceived, fixed beyond question
the republicanism of national character, established a political
system purely American, and sealed this result by reducing the
national debt until its ultimate extinction was in full view. To
fix the future course of the republican system thus established
1 State Papers, xiv. 194.
2 Under the Act of Congress of February 27, 1815.
1807. THE TEEASUKY. 1801-1813. 355
was a matter of not less importance, was perhaps a matter of
much greater difficulty, than the task already accomplished. To
make one comprehensive, permanent provision for the moral
and economical development of the people, to mark out the path
of progress with precision and to enter upon it at least so far as
to make subsequent advance easy and certain, this was the high-
est statesmanship, the broadest practical philanthropy. For this
result Mr. Gallatin, in the ripened wisdom of his full manhood,
might fairly say that his life had been well spent.
For a time he saw the prize within his grasp ; then almost
in an instant it was dashed away, and the whole fabric he had so
laboriously constructed fell in ruins before his eyes. That such a
disaster should have overwhelmed him at last was neither his
fault nor that of Mr. Jefferson; it was the result of forces which
neither he nor any other man or combination of men, neither his
policy nor any other policy or resource of human wisdom, could
control. In the midst of the great crash with which the whole
structure of Mr, Jefferson's Administration toppled over and
broke to pieces in its last days, there is ample room to criticise
and condemn the theories on which he acted and the measures
which he used, but few critics would now be bold enough to say
that any policy or any measure could have prevented that disaster.
The story is soon told. Mr, Monroe and Mr. William Pink-
ney, appointed as a special commission to negotiate with the
government of Great Britain, began their labors in July, 1806.
They were fortunate enough to find the British government in
friendly hands, for they happened to fall upon the short adminis-
tration of Mr. Fox, With much difficulty they negotiated a treaty
which was signed on the last day of the year. This treaty was
doubtless a bad treaty ; not so bad as that of Mr. Jay, but still
very unsatisfactory, and, what was worse, the British government,
by a formal -note appended to it, reserved the right to render it
entirely nugatory if the United States did not satisfy Great
Britain that she would resist the maritime decrees of France.
Whether, under these circumstances, the treaty was worth accept-
ing, is doubtful ; whether Mr. Jefferson erred in insisting upon
modifications of it, may be a question. Certain it is that the Ad-
ministration concurred in sending it back to England for essential
356 LITE OF ALBEET GALL AT IN. 1807.
changes, and that Mr. Jefferson, undaunted by his previous fail-
ure to influence France by fear of his alliance with England,
now expected to control England by fear of his alliance with
France. " It is all-important that we should stand on terms of
the strictest cordiality" with France, he wrote to Paris in an-
nouncing his treatment of the British treaty ; but this cordiality
was to go no further than friendly favors. " I verily believe/'
he wrote at the same time, 1 " that it will ever be in pur power to
keep so even a stand between England and France as to inspire
a wish in neither to throw us into the scale of his adversary. 77
Never did a man deceive himself more miserably, for even while
he wrote these lines the government of England was reverting
to its policy of crushing the commercial growth of America.
Mr. Fox was dead; a new Administration had come into power,
strongly retrograde in policy, and with George Canning for
its soul. Whatever the errors or faults of Mr. Canning may
have been, timidity was not one of them, and the diplomatic
ingenuity of Mr. Jefferson, with its feeble attempts to play off
France against England and England against France, was the
last policy he was likely to respect. Even the American who
reads the history of the year 1807, seeing the brutal directness
with which Mr. Canning kicked Mr. Jefferson's diplomacy out
of his path, cannot but feel a certain respect for the Englishman
mingled with wrath at his insolent sarcasm. From the moment
Mr. Canning and his party assumed power, the fate of Mr. Jef-
ferson^ Administration was sealed ; nothing he could do or could
have done could avert it ; England was determined to recover
her commerce and to take back her seamen, and America could
not retain either by any means whatever ; she had no alternative
but submission or war, and either submission or war was equally
fatal to Mr. Jefferson 7 s Administration. Mr. Canning cared
little which course she took, but he believed she would submit.
The first intimation of the new state of affairs came in an
unexpected and almost accidental shape. , The winter of 1806-7
had passed, and, so far as Congress was concerned, it had passed
without serious conflicts. Burr's wild expedition had startled
1 To Tench Coxe, 27th March, 1807.
1807. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 357
and excited the country, but this episode had no special connec-
tion with anything actual ; it was rather a sporadic exhibition of
the personal peculiarities of Mr. Burr and his lurid imagination.
Congress adjourned on the 3d March, 1807 ; as the summer ad-
vanced, Mr. Gallatin went with his family to New York ; on the
25th June he was suddenly summoned back to Washington by
a brief note from Mr. Jefferson announcing the capture of the
American frigate Chesapeake by the British ship-of-war Leopard.
The story of this famous event, which more than any other
single cause tended to exasperate national jealousies and to make
England and America permanently hostile, is told in every Amer-
ican school history, and will probably be familiar to every school-
boy in the United States for generations yet to come. Even time
is slow in erasing the memory of these national humiliations, and
the singular spectacle has been long presented of a great nation
preserving the living memory of a wrong that the offending
nation hardly noticed at the time and almost immediately forgot.
The reason was that in this instance the wrong was a cruel and
cynical commentary on all the mistakes of our national policy ;
it gave the sentence of death to the favorite dogmas and doctrines
of the American Administration, and it was a practical demon-
stration of their absurdity, the more mortifying because of its
incontestable completeness.
Mr. Gallatin hastened to Washington, sickened by anxiety and
responsibility ; his state of mind and that of his political friends
may be shown by a few extracts from his papers:
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE,
WASHINGTON, 10th July, 1807.
... I am afraid that in common with many more your feel-
ings prevent your taking a correct view of our political situation.
To spurn at negotiation and to tremble for the fate of New York
are not very consistent. But every person not blinded by passion
and totally ignorant of the laws and usages of civilized nations
knows that, whenever injuries are received from subordinate
officers, satisfaction is demanded from the government itself before
reprisals are made ; and that time to receive our property from
358 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1807.
abroad and to secure our harbors as well as we can is of impor-
tance to us, can any one doubt in New York ? It is our duty to
ask for reparation, to avert war if it can be done honorably, and
in the mean while not to lose an instant in preparing for war.
On the last point I doubt, between ourselves, whether everything
shall be done which ought to be done. And for that reason alone
I wish that Congress may be called somewhat earlier than is now
intended. The President wishes the call for the last of October.
I had at first proposed the middle, but from various circumstances
I now want an immediate call. The principal objection will not
be openly avowed, but it is the unhealthiness of this city. I am
glad to see the spirit of the people, but I place but a moderate
degree of confidence on those first declarations in which many
act from the first impulse of their feelings^ more from sympathy
or fear, and only a few from a calm view of the subject. I think
that I have taken such a view, probed the extent of the dangers
and evils of a war, and, though fully aware of both, will perhaps
persevere longer under privations and evils than many others.
Our commerce will be destroyed and our revenue nearly annihi-
lated. That we must encounter ; but our resources in money and
men will be sufficient considerably to distress the enemy and to
defend ourselves- everywhere but at sea. I have, in a national
point of view, but one subject of considerable uneasiness, and
that i& New York, which is now entirely defenceless, and from its
situation- nearly indefensible. This last idea I keep altogether to
myself. I think that I increased my sickness by intensity of
thinking and not sleeping at nights. I certainly grew better as
soon as my plans were digested, and, except as to New York, I feel
now very easy, provided that our resources shall be applied with
ability and in the proper direction. In the mean while the ships
on our coast may accelerate hostilities. This we will try to avoid,
and so will Mr. Erskine, who, having neither orders nor advice
from his government on this subject, cannot be very easy and will
not be very influential. (Admiral Berkeley's order is, very curi-
ously, drawn and dated as far back as 1st June.) But I think
that these hostilities will be confined to blockade and captures till
they receive new instructions, and that New York has no imme-
diate danger to apprehend. At all events, against such a force it
1807. THE TKEASUEY. 1801-1813. 359
may be defended. The difficulty is in case a fleet of ten ships of
the line shall attack it. ...
14th July, 1807.
... Of our public affairs I have nothing new to say. It is
probable that the attack on our frigate was not directly author-
ized by the British government; it is certain that the subsequent
acts of the commodore in the vicinity of Norfolk were without
any order even from his admiral. But from the character and
former orders of the last-mentioned (Berkeley) it is probable
that, considering the proclamation as hostile, he will order all
merchant vessels on our coast to be taken and the Chesapeake
to be blockaded. They will not venture on any hostilities on
shore until they receive orders from Great Britain; for their
naval arrogance induces them to make unfounded distinctions
between what is legal on land or on water even within our
jurisdiction, and they have not really sense or knowledge enough
to feel that their present conduct within the Chesapeake is as
much an actual invasion as if an army was actually landed.
Upon the whole, you will, I am persuaded, have time to do
whatever is practicable for the defence of New York. I have
seen Mr. Erskine, whom I treated with more civility than cor-
diality ; but I could not help it. I believe that he is much
embarrassed between what is right and his fear of the naval
officers and of his own government.
NATHANIEL MACON TO GALLATIN.
BUCK SPRING, 12th July, 1807.
SIR, The attack of the British on the Chesapeake and their
subsequent conduct near Norfolk has much irritated every one
here, and all are anxious to learn what the President intends to
do. From the tenor of his proclamation I suppose he intends-
to have a representation made to the British government, and r
in case that does not produce the desired effect, to order our
ministers home, and in the mean time to have all the prepara-
tions for war he can ready. I also suppose from the proclama-
tion that Congress will not be called until he hears from London,
unless there should be a change in the state of affairs. . . .
360 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1807.
If war must be, we ought to prosecute it with the same zeal
that we have endeavored to preserve peace, and by great exer-
tions convince the enemy that it is not from fear or cowardice
that we dread it. But peace, if we can have it, is always best
for us, and if the Executive can get justice done and preserve
it, that Executive will deserve the thanks of every democrat
in the Union.
JOSEPH H. NICHOLSON TO GALLATIN.
CHESTERFIELD, 14th July, 1807.
DEAR SIR, . . . We are looking with great anxiety towards
Washington for the measures to be adopted by the government.
For myself I consider a war inevitable, and almost wish for it.
An unqualified submission to Britain would not be more de-
grading than forbearance now. The Ministry may probably,
and I think will, disavow the late act of their officer ; but there
are insults and injuries for which neither an individual nor a
nation can accept an apology. I had hoped, therefore, that Mr.
Erskine would have been ordered home and our own envoys
recalled. Nothing is now left to negotiate on. No man ever
saved his honor who opened a negotiation for it. It is no sub-
ject of barter. If Tarquin had begged pardon of Collatinus
for ravishing his wife, I think it would not have been granted.
At all events we cannot, or at least ought not, negotiate till our
seamen are restored. In 1764, when France took possession of
Turk's Island, her minister at the Court of London proposed to
negotiate for some claims that his master had upon it. George
Grenville told him, " We will not hear you ; we will listen
to nothing while the island is in your possession. Restore it,
and we will then hear what you have to say." It was instanta-
neously given up. I wish Mr. Jefferson would read the history
of that transaction, and also Lord Chatham's celebrated speech
on the business of Falkland Islands. Each furnishes an ad-
mirable lesson for the present moment. But one feeling per-
vades the nation. All distinctions of federalism and democracy
are vanished. The people are ready to submit to any deprivation,
and if we withdraw ourselves within our own shell, and turn
1807. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 361
loose some thousands of privateers, we shall obtain in a little
time an absolute renunciation of the right of search for the
purposes of impressment. A parley will prove fatal, for the
merchants will begin to calculate. They rule us, and we should
take them before their resentment is superseded by considerations
of profit and loss. I trust in God the Revenge is going out to
bring Monroe and Pinkney home.
GALLATIN TO JOSEPH H. NICHOLSON.
WASHINGTON, 17th July, 1807.
DEAR SIR, . . . With you I believe that war is inevitable,
and there can be but one opinion on the question whether the
claims of the parties prior to the attack on the Chesapeake should
be a subject of discussion. There were but two courses to be
taken : either to consider the attack as war and retaliate accord-
ingly, or, on the supposition that that act might be that of an
unauthorized officer, to ask simply, and without discussion, dis-
avowal, satisfaction, and security against a recurrence of outrages.
The result will in my opinion be the same, for Great Britain will
not, I am confident, give either satisfaction or security ; but the
latter mode, which, as you may have perceived by the President's
proclamation and his answer to military corps, has been adopted,
was recommended not only by the nature of our Constitution,
which does not make the President arbiter of war, but also by
the practice of civilized nations ; and the cases of Turk's Island,
Falkland Islands, Nootka Sound, etc., are in point in that re-
spect. Add to this that the dissatisfaction caused by that course
operates only against the Administration, and that the other will
produce an unanimity in support of the war which would not
otherwise have existed. It will also make our cause completely
popular with the Baltic powers, and may create new enemies to
Britain in that quarter. Finally, four months were of importance
to us, both by diminishing the losses of our merchants and for
preparations of defence and attack.
I will, however, acknowledge that on that particular point I
have not bestowed much thought ; for, having considered from
the first moment war was a necessary result, and the preliminaries
362 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1807.
appearing to me but matters of form, my faculties have been ex-
clusively applied to the preparations necessary to meet the times ;
and although I am not very sanguine as to the brilliancy of our
exploits, the field where we can act without a navy being very
limited, and perfectly aware that a war in a great degree passive
and consisting of privations will become very irksome to the
people, I feel no apprehension of the immediate result. We will
be poorer both as a nation and as a government ; our debt and
taxes will increase, and our progress in every respect be inter-
rupted. But all those evils are not only not to be put in com-
petition with the independence and honor of the nation, they
are, moreover, temporary, and very few years of peace will ob-
literate their effects. Nor do I know whether the awakening of
nobler feelings and habits than avarice and luxury might not be
necessary to prevent our degenerating, like the Hollanders, into
a nation of mere calculators. In fact, the greatest mischiefs which
I apprehend from the war are the necessary increase of Execu-
tive power and influence, the speculation of contractors and
jobbers, and the introduction of permanent military and naval
establishments. . . .
NATHANIEL MACON TO GALLATIN.
ROCK SPRING, 2d August, 1807.
. . . Peace is everything to us, especially in this part of the
Union. Here the three last crops have been uncommonly short,
and the last the shortest of the three. These bad crops have
compelled many, who were both careful and industrious, to go
in debt for bread and to leave their merchant account unpaid.
If the Executive shall put a satisfactory end to the fracas with
Great Britain, it will add as much to his reputation as the pur-
chase of Louisiana. But if this cannot be done, we must try
which can do the other the most harm.
I suppose while I am thinking what effect the war may have
on my neighbors and countrymen, you are engaged in calculating
its effects on the payment of the national debt.
I still wish peace, but if this be denied to us I am for strong
measures a ainst the enemy.
1807. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 363
Until it was quite certain whether the attack on the Chesa-
peake was an authorized act, government could only prepare
for war. Mr. Jefferson called upon his Cabinet for written
opinions, and Mr. Gallatin prepared an elaborate paper con-
taining a general view of the defensive and offensive measures
which war would require. 1 This done, and temporary arrange-
ments made, the Cabinet again separated, and Mr. Gallatin
returned to New York.
Congress was called for the 26th October, 1807, and the Ad-
ministration came together a few weeks earlier to prepare for the
meeting. When Mr. Jefferson sent as- usual the draft of his
message for revision, Mr. Gallatin found that it was drawn up
" rather in the shape of a manifesto issued against Great Britain
on the eve of a war, than such as the existing, undecided state
of affairs seems to require/ 7 He remonstrated in a letter, too
long to quote, but of much historical interest. 2 The conclusion
was that " in every view of the subject I feel strongly impressed
with the propriety of preparing to the utmost for war and carry-
ing it with vigor if it cannot be ultimately avoided, but in the
mean while persevering in that caution of language and action
which may give us some more time and is best calculated to
preserve the remaining chance of peace, and most consistent
with the general system of your Administration." Mr. Jeffer-
son at once acceded to this view.
GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.
WASHINGTON, 30th October, 1807.
. . . Yarnum has, much against my wishes, removed Randolph
from the Ways and Means and appointed Campbell, of Ten-
nessee. It was improper as related to the public business, and
will give me additional labor. Vanzandt has missed the clerk-
ship of the House, and lost his place, from Mr. Randolph's
declaration that he had listened to and reported secret debates.
The punishment, considering its consequences on his future
prospects, is rather hard. (The President's speech was origi-
1 See Writings, vol. i. p. 341. 2 Ibid., p. 358, 21st October, 1807.
364 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1807.
nally more warlike than was necessary, but I succeeded in getting
it neutralized; this between us; but it was lucky; for) Congress
is certainly peaceably disposed. . . .
The British government, however, had no intention of making
a war out of the Chesapeake affair. With much dexterity Mr.
Canning used this accident for his own purposes. He applied
the curb and spur at the same moment with marvellous audacity ;
disavowing the acts of the British naval officers, he evaded the
demand of our government for satisfaction, and, while thus show-
ing how sternly he meant to repress what he chose to consider
our insolence, he sent Mr. Rose to Washington to amuse Mr.
Jefferson with negotiations, while at the same time he himself
carried out his fixed policy, with which the affair of the Chesa-
peake had no other than a general and accidental connection.
Contemptuously refusing to renew negotiations over Mr. Mon-
roe's treaty, at the very moment of Mr. Rose's departure to
Washington he issued his famous orders in council of JSTo-
vember 11, 1807, by which the chief part of the trade of
America with the continent of Europe was, with one stroke of
the pen, suppressed.
As there was no pretence of law or principle under which
this act could be justified, Mr. Canning put it upon the ground
of retaliation for the equally outrageous decrees of France ; but
in fact he cared very little what ground it was placed upon.
The act was in its nature one of war, and, as a war measure for
the protection of British commercial shipping rapidly disap-
pearing before French regulations and American competition,
this act was no more violent than any other act of war. Its
true foundation was a not unwarranted contempt for American
national character. As Lord Sidmouth, who disapproved the
orders in council, wrote in 1807 : " It is in vain to speculate on
the result when we have to bear with a country in which there
is little authority in the rulers, and as little public spirit and
virtue in the people. America is no longer a bugbear ; there is
no terror in her threats." l America had her redress if she chose
1 Diary and Correspondence of Lord Colchester, ii. 132.
1807. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 365
to take it ; if she did not choose to take it, as Mr. Canning would
probably have argued, it could only be because, after all, it was
against her interest to do so, which to Mr. Canning was the
demonstration of his own problem. 1
1 The actual author of the orders in council of November 11, 1807, was
Spencer Perceval, then Attorney-General. The objects he had in view are
very clearly given in a letter written by him towards the end of that month
to Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House of Commons, afterwards
Lord Colchester :
SPENCER PERCEVAL TO SPEAKER ABBOT.
. . . The business of recasting the law of trade and navigation, as far as
belligerent principles are concerned, for the whole world, has occupied me
very unremittingly for a long time ; and the subject is so extensive, and the
combinations so various, that, even supposing our principles to be right, I
cannot hope that the execution of the principle must not in many respects
be defective ; and I have no doubt we shall have to watch it with new
provisions and regulations for some time.
The short principle is that trade in British produce and manufactures, and
trade either from a British port or with a British destination, is to be pro-
tected as much as possible. For this purpose all the countries where French
influence prevails to exclude the British flag shall have no trade but to or
from this country or from its allies. All other countries, the few that
remain strictly neutral (with the exception of the colonial trade, which
backwards and forwards direct they may carry on), cannot trade but through
this being done as an ally with any of the countries connected with France.
If, therefore, we can accomplish our purposes, it will come to this, that
either those countries will have no trade, or they must be content to accept
it through us.
This is a formidable and tremendous state of the world ; but all the part
of it which is particularly harassing to English interests was existing
through the new severity with which Buonaparte's decrees of exclusion
against our trade were called into action.
Our proceeding does not aggravate our distress from it. If he can keep
out our trade he will, and he would do so if he could, independent of our
orders. Our orders only add this circumstance : they say to the enemy, if
you will not have our trade, as far as we can help it you shall have none.
And as to so much of any trade as you can carry on yourselves, or others
carry on with you through us, if you admit it you shall pay for it. The
only trade, cheap and untaxed, which you shall have shall be either direct
from us, in our own produce and manufactures, or from our allies, whose
increased prosperity will be an advantage to us. ...
Diary and Correspondence of Lord Colchester, vol. ii. p. 134. See also
the Life of Spencer Perceval, by Spencer Walpole, vol. i. p. 263 if., for the
further history and Cabinet discussions of this subject.
366 LIFE OF ALBERT GALL AT IK 1807.
The certain news of the orders in council of November 11
reached Washington on December 18, together with threatening
news from France. A Cabinet council was instantly held, and
the confidential friends of the Administration consulted. The
situation was clear. In the face of the orders in council our
commerce must be kept at home, at least until further measures
could be taken. Whether as a war or as a peace measure, an
embargo was inevitable, and, unwilling as all parties were to be
driven into it, there was no alternative. A much more difficult
question was whether the embargo should be made a temporary
measure; in other words, whether war, after a certain date,
should be the policy of the government.
Mr. Gallatin's opinions on these points are fortunately pre-
served. He wrote to Mr. Jefferson, apparently after a Cabinet
council, on the 18th December as follows:
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 18th December, 1807.
DEAR SIR, Reflecting on the proposed embargo and all its
bearings, I think it essential that foreign vessels may be ex-
cepted so far at least as to be permitted to depart in ballast
or with such cargoes as they may have on board at this moment.
They are so few as to be no object to us, and we may thereby
prevent a similar detention of our vessels abroad, or at least
a pretence for it. Such a seizure of our property and seamen
in foreign ports would be far greater than any possible loss
at sea for six months to come. I wish to know the name of
the member to whom Mr. Rodney sent the sketch of a reso-
lution, in order to mention the subject to him, and also, if you
approve, that you would suggest it to such as you may see.
I also think that an embargo for a limited time will at this
moment be preferable in itself, and less objectionable in Con-
gress. In every point of view, privations, sufferings, reve-
nue, effect on the enemy, politics at home, &c., I prefer war to
a permanent embargo. Governmental prohibitions do always
more mischief than had been calculated; and it is not with-
out much hesitation that a statesman should hazard to regu-
1S07. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 367
late the concerns of individuals as if he could do it better than
themselves.
The measure being of a doubtful policy, and hastily adopted
on the first view of our foreign intelligence, I think that we had
better recommend it with modifications, and at first for such a
limited time as will afford us all time for reconsideration, and,
if we think proper, for an alteration in our course without
appearing to retract. As to the hope that it may have an effect
on the negotiation with Mr. Rose, or induce England to treat us
better, I think it entirely groundless.
Respectfully, your obedient servant.
Mr. Jefferson wrote back approving the first suggestion, and it
was inserted in the bill, but on the other point Mr. Gallatin was
overruled. Mr. Jefferson and most of the Southern leaders of
his party had a strong faith in the efficacy of commercial regula-
tions ; they believed that as the commerce of America was very
valuable to England and France, therefore England and France
might be forced to do our will by depriving them of that com-
merce; and perhaps they were in the right, within certain limits,
for, other agencies being disregarded and the influences of com-
merce being left to act through periods of years, nations will ulti-
mately be controlled by them ; England herself was ultimately
compelled by the policy of commercial restrictions to revoke her
orders in council, but only after five years of experiment and too
late to prevent war.
Meanwhile, the effect of a permanent embargo was to carry
out by the machinery of the United States government precisely
the policy which Mr. Canning had adopted for his own. Ameri-
can shipping ceased to exist; American commerce was annihi-
lated ; American seamen were forced to seek employment under
the British flag, and British ships and British commerce alone
occupied the ocean. The strangest and saddest spectacle of all
was to see Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Gallatin, after seven years of
patient labor in constructing their political system, forced to turn
their backs. upon that future which only a few weeks before had
been so brilliant, and, with infinitely more labor and trouble than
they had used in building their edifice up, now toil to pull it down.
368 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1808.
Mr. Gal latin had no faith in the embargo as a measure of
constraint upon the belligerent powers; he characterized as
" utterly groundless' 7 the idea that it would have any effect on
negotiation or induce England to treat us better; but he ac-
cepted it as the policy fixed by his party and by Congress, for
the adoption of which Congress was primarily responsible, and
for the execution of which he had himself to answer; he ac-
cepted it also as the only apparent alternative to war, but not
as a permanent alternative.
Mr. Jefferson went much farther. Without at this time avow-
ing a belief that the embargo would force England and France
to recede, he was warm in the determination that its power
should be tried. "I place immense value in the experiment
being fully made how far an embargo may be an effectual
weapon in future as on this occasion," he wrote to Mr. Gal-
latin. 1 Elsewhere he repeated the same earnest wish to test
the powers of this " engine for national purposes," as he called
it. He was restive and even intolerant of opposition on this
subject. The embargo as a coercive measure against England
and France was in fact the only policy upon which a fair
degree of unanimity in the party was attainable, or which
their political education had prescribed. No spectacle could
be more lamentable and ludicrous than the Congressional
proceedings of this session; under the relentless grasp of Mr.
Canning, the American Congress threw itself into contortions
such as could not but be in the highest degree amusing to
him, and when watched as a mere spectacle of powerless rage
may have been even instructive. There was but one respectable
policy, war, immediate and irrespective of cost or risk ; but
of war all parties stood in dread, and as between England and
France it was difficult to choose an opponent. Even for war
some preparation was necessary, but when Congress attempted
to consider preparations, some members wished for militia, some
for regular troops, some for a navy, some for fortifications, some
for gun-boats, and there were convincing reasons to prove that
each of these resources was useless by itself, and that taken
1 On the 15th May, 1808.
1808. THE TEEASUKY. 1801-1813. 369
together they were not onjbr far beyond the national means, but
quite opposed to American theories. Nevertheless, a good deal
of money was appropriated in an unsystematic manner among
these various objects, and Mr. Gallatin's surplus soon began to
dwindle away.
On the embargo alone some degree of unanimity could be
attained. The omnipotent influence with which Mr. Jefferson
had begun his Administration, although steadily diminishing
with the advent of a new generation and the apparent accom-
plishment of the great objects for which the party had been
educated, was still capable of revival in its full strength to give
effect to the -old party dogma of commercial regulations. Every
one was earnestly impressed with what Mr. Jefferson called "our
extreme anxiety to give a full effect to the important experiment
of the embargo at any expense within the bounds of reason."
The first embargo law of December 22, 1807, was a mere tem-
porary measure of precaution ; in order to carry out the policy
with effect, a completer system had to be framed, and Mr. Galla-
tin was obliged himself to draft the bill which was to beggar the
Treasury ; but no ordinary grant of powers would answer a pur-
pose which consisted in stopping the whole action and industry
of all the great cities and much of the rural population ; thus
the astonishing spectacle was presented of Mr. Jefferson, Mr.
Madison, and Mr. Gallatin, the apostles of strict construction,
of narrow grants, the men who of all others were the incarna-
tion of that theory which represented mankind as too much
governed, and who, according to Mr. Jefferson, would have had
government occupy itself exclusively with foreign affairs and
leave the individual absolutely alone to manage his own concerns
in his own way, of these men demanding, obtaining, and using
powers practically unlimited so far as private property was con-
cerned ; powers in comparison with which the alien and sedition
laws were narrow and jealous in their grants ; powers which
placed the fortunes of at least half the community directly
under their control; which made them no more nor less than
despots ; which gave Mr. Jefferson the right to say : " we may
fairly require positive proof that the individual of a town tainted
with a general spirit of disobedience has never said or done any-
24
370 LIFE OF ALBEKT GAL LA TIN. 1808.
thing himself to countenance that spirit ;" l and which dictated
his letter to the Governor of Massachusetts, then among the
proudest, the wealthiest, and the most populous States in the
Union, that the President had permitted her to have sixty thou-
sand barrels of flour ; that this was enough, and she must have
no more. 2
Congress conferred on the President the enormous grants of
power which he asked for, and Mr. Gallatin proceeded to execute
the law ; the result was what he had predicted when he said that
government prohibitions do always more harm than was calcu-
lated. The law was first evaded, then resisted ; then came the
ominous demand for troops, gun-boats, and frigates to use against
our own citizens, and to be used by Mr. Gallatin, who, of all
men, held military force so applied in horror; then came the
announcement of insurrection, in August, from the Governor of
New York, an insurrection which became chronic along the
northern frontier, from Passaniaquoddy to Niagara. All along
the coast the United States navy was spread out to destroy that
commerce which it had been built to protect, and the officers of
our ships of war, frantic to revenge upon the British cruisers
their disgrace in the Chesapeake, were compelled to assist these
very cruisers to plunder their own countrymen.
The struggle between government and citizens was violent and
prolonged. Mr. Gallatin's letters at this time to Mr. Jefferson
are curious reading. He set himself with his usual determination
to the task of carrying out his duty ; his agents and instruments
broke down in every direction ; his annoyances were innumerable
and his efforts only partially successful. The powers he had de-
manded and received, immense as they were, proved insufficient,
and he demanded more. Already in July, 1808, he had reached
this point. On the 29th of that month he wrote to Mr. Jeffer-
son from New York : " I am perfectly satisfied that if the em-
bargo must be persisted in any longer, two principles must
necessarily be adopted in order to make it sufficient : 1st. That
not a single vessel shall be permitted to move without the special
1 To Gallatin, 13th November, 1808. Jefferson's Writings, v. 385.
2 To Governor Sullivan, 12th August, 1808. Jefferson's Writings, v. 340.
1808. THE TKEASUEY. 1801-1813. 371
permission of the Executive. 2d. That the collectors be invested
with the general power of seizing property anywhere, and taking
the rudders or otherwise effectually preventing the departure of
any vessel in harbor, though ostensibly intended to remain there ;
and that without being liable to personal suits. I am sensible that
such arbitrary powers are equally dangerous and odious. But
a restrictive measure of the nature of the embargo applied to a
nation under such circumstances as the United States cannot be
enforced without the assistance of means as strong as the measure
itself. To that legal authority to prevent, seize, and detain, must
be added a sufficient physical force to carry it into effect ; and,
although I believe that in our seaports little difficulty would be
encountered, we must have a little army along the lakes and
British lines generally. With that result we should not perhaps
be much astonished, for the Federalists having at least prevented
the embargo from becoming a measure generally popular, and
the people being distracted by the complexity of the subject,
orders of council, decrees, embargoes, and wanting a single
object which might rouse their patriotism and unite their pas-
sions and affections, selfishness has assumed the reins in several
quarters, and the people are now there altogether against the
law. In such quarters the same thing happens which has taken
place everywhere else, and even under the strongest govern-
ments, under similar circumstances. The navy of Great Britain
is hardly sufficient to prevent smuggling, and you recollect,
doubtless, the army of employees and the sanguinary code of
France, hardly adequate to guard their land frontiers.
" That in the present situation of the world every effort should
be attempted to preserve the peace of. this nation cannot be
doubted. But if the criminal party rage of Federalists and
Tories shall have so far succeeded as to defeat our endeavors to
obtain that object by the only measure that could possibly have
effected it, we must submit and prepare for war. I am so much
overwhelmed even here with business and interruptions that I
have not time to write correctly or even with sufficient perspicuity;
but you will guess at my meaning where it is not sufficiently clear.
I mean generally to express an opinion founded on the experience
of this summer, that Congress must either invest the Executive
372 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1808.
with the most arbitrary powers and sufficient force to carry the
embargo into effect, or give it up altogether. And in this last
case I must confess that, unless a change takes place in the
measures of the European powers, I see no alternative but war.
But with whom ? This is a tremendous question if tested only
by policy, and so extraordinary in our situation that it is equally
difficult to decide it on the ground of justice, the only one by
which I wish the United States to be governed. At all events,
I think it the duty of the Executive to contemplate that result
as probable, and to be prepared accordingly."
There can be no more painful task to a man of high principles
than to do what Mr. Gallatin was now doing. Not only was
he obliged to abandon the fruit of his long labors, and to see
even those results that had seemed already gained suddenly cast
in doubt, but he was obliged to do this himself by means which
he abhorred, and which he did not hesitate to characterize, even
to Mr. Jefferson, as " equally dangerous and odious/ 7 " most
arbitrary powers," such as his whole life had offered one long
protest against. On this score he had no defence against the
ferocity of party assaults ; he disdained to attempt a defence ;
all that could reasonably be said was true, and he felt the con-
sequences more keenly than any one ; he uttered no complaints,
but accepted the responsibility and kept silence. Others were less
discreet.
A. J. DALLAS TO GALLATIN.'
30th July, 1808.
. . . The Spanish affairs have an obvious effect upon our
political and territorial position. I do not know the measures
or the designs of the government, and of course I cannot say
what ought to be done as to foreign nations. As to ourselves, I
will candidly tell you that almost everything that is done seems
to excite disgust. I lament the state of things, but I verily
believe one year more of writing, speaking, and appointing
would render Mr. Jefferson a more odious President, even to
the Democrats, than John Adams. My only hope is that Mr.
Madison's election may not be affected, nor his administration
perplexed, in consequence of the growing dissatisfaction among
1808. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 373
the reputable members of the Republican party. But I have
abandoned politics, and hasten to assure you of the constant love
and esteem of all my family for all yours.
ROBERT SMITH TO GALLATIN.
BALTIMORE, August 1, 1808.
DEAR SIR, Your favor of the 29th, with the enclosures, I
have received. The letters of General Dearborn and Lincoln
I have forwarded to the President. The requisite orders will
go without delay to the commanders of the Chesapeake, the
Wasp, and the Argus, Most fervently ought we to pray to
be relieved from the various embarrassments of this said em-
bargo. Upon it there will in some of the States, in the course
of the next two months, assuredly be engendered monsters.
Would that we could be placed upon proper ground for calling
in this mischief-making busybody.
Even in his own family Mr. Gallatin maintained perfect
silence on this point. The use of arbitrary, odious, and dan-
gerous means having been decided upon by his party and by
Congress, and he being the instrument to employ these means,
he did employ them as conscientiously as he had formerly op-
posed them, not because they were his own choice, but because
he could see no alternative. Not even war was clearly open to
him, for it was impossible to say which of the two belligerents
he ought to make responsible for the situation. How obnoxious
the embargo was to him can only be seen in his allusions to its
effects : " From present appearances/ 7 he wrote to his wife on
June 29, 1808, "the Federalists will turn us out by 4th March
next;' 7 and on the 8th July, "As to my Presidential fears, they
arise from the pressure of the embargo and divisions of the
Republicans. I think that Vermont is lost ; New Hampshire
is in a bad neighborhood, and Pennsylvania is extremely doubt-
ful. But I would not even suggest such ideas so that they
should go abroad." But he suggested them to the President on
the 6th August : " I deeply regret to see my incessant efforts in
every direction to carry the law into effect defeated in so many
37 i LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIIST. 1808.
quarters, and that we will probably produce, at least on the
British, but an inconsiderable effect by a measure which at the
same time threatens to destroy the Republican interest. For
there is almost an equal chance that if propositions from Great
Britain, or other events, do not put it in our power to raise the
embargo before the 1st of October, we will lose the Presidential
election. I think that at this moment the Western States, Vir-
ginia, South Carolina, and perhaps Georgia, are the only sound
States, and that we will have a doubtful contest in every other.
The consciousness of having done what was right in itself is
doubtless sufficient; but for the inefficacy of the measure on
the lakes and to the northward there is no consolation; and that
circumstance is the strongest argument that can be brought against
the measure itself."
These fears proved ungrounded ; Mr. Madison was elected by
a large majority,, and only the New England States reverted to
opposition ; but New England was on the verge of adopting the
ground taken by Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison ten years
before, and declaring the embargo, as they had declared the
sedition law, unconstitutional, null, and void. Mr. Canning
treated the embargo with sarcastic and patronizing contempt as
a foolish policy, which he regretted because it was very incon-
venient to the Americans. As an " engine for national purposes"
it had utterly failed, but no one was agreed what to do next.
GALLATIET TO HIS WIFE.
WASHINGTON, July, 1808.
I enclose a National Intelligencer, one paragraph of which,
together with the Bayonne decree, contains the substance of the
intelligence. The last we have not officially. I think the aspect
of affairs unfavorable. England seems to rely on our own di-
visions and on the aggressions of France as sufficient to force us
into a change of measures, perhaps war with France, without any
previous reparation or relaxation on her part. Of the real
views of the French Emperor nothing more is known than what
appears on the face of his decrees and in his acts; and these
manifest, in my opinion, either a deep resentment because we
1303. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 375
would not make war against England, or a wish to seek a
quarrel with us. Between the two our situation is extremely
critical, and I believe that poor, limited human wisdom can
do and will do but little to extricate us. Yet I do not feel de-
spondent, for so long as we adhere strictly to justice towards all,
I have a perfect reliance on the continued protection of that
Providence which has raised us and blessed us as a nation.
But we have been too happy and too prosperous, and we con-
sider as great misfortunes some privations and a share in the
general calamities of the world. Compared with other nations,
our share is indeed very small. . . .
GALLATIN TO JOSEPH H. NICHOLSON.
WASHINGTON, 18th October, 1808.
. . . Your political questions are of no easy solution. We
cannot yet conjecture whether the belligerent powers will alter
their orders and decrees, and if they do not, what is to be done ?
I am as much at a loss what answer to make as yourself. The
embargo, having been adopted, ought, if there was virtue enough
in the Eastern people, to be continued. But without the support
and the full support of the people, such a strong coercive meas-
ure cannot be fairly executed. If the embargo is taken off, I
do not perceive yet any medium between absolute subjection or
war. Perhaps, however, some substitute may be devised. A
non-importation act is the only one which has been suggested ;
and that would not answer entirely the object which had been
intended by the embargo, which was to avoid war without sub-
mitting to the decrees of either nation. . . .
GALLATIN TO CHARLES PINCKNEY, GOVERNOR OP SOUTH CAROLINA.
24th October, 1808.
. . . On the subject of the embargo, and particularly of what
you should communicate to the Legislature, I must refer you to
the President, who can alone judge of the propriety and extent
of communications prior to the meeting of Congress. As an
individual, but this is conjecture and not fact, I believe that the
376 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1803.
British ministry is either unwilling, if they can avoid it, to re-
peal their orders in any event whatever, or that they wait for the
result of their intrigues and of the exertions of their friends
here, with hopes of producing irresistible dissatisfaction to the
embargo, and a change of measures and of men. I trust that if
this be their object they will be disappointed, and of the steadi-
ness and patriotism of South Carolina I never entertained any
doubt. On an alteration in the measures of the French Emperor
I place no more confidence, perhaps even less, than on Great
Britain. The only difference in his favor, and it arises probably
from inability alone, is that he interferes not with our domestic
concerns. But let those nations pursue what course they please,
I feel a perfect confidence that America will never adopt a
policy which would render her subservient to either, and that,
after twenty-five years of peace and unparalleled prosperity, she
will meet with fortitude the crisis, be it what it will, which may
result from the difficult situation in which she is for the first time
placed since the treaty of 1783.
Mr. Gallatin, to judge from these last words, which he repeated
in " Campbell's Report," seems to have considered the situation
as infinitely more difficult than it had been in 1798 or in 1794.
In one respect at least he was certainly right. Mr. Jefferson's
hope of having to swallow less foreign insolence than his prede-
cessors was by this time thoroughly dispelled. There seems to
have been no form of insult, simple or aggravated, which Mr.
Jefferson and his Administration did not swallow ; between the
exquisitely exasperating satire of Mr. Canning and the peremp-
tory brutality of Bonaparte, he was absolutely extinguished ; he
abandoned his hope of balancing one belligerent against another,
and his expectation of guiding them by their interests ; he aban-
doned even the embargo; he laid down the sceptre of party
leadership ; he had no longer a party ; Virginia herself ceased
to be guided by his opinion ; his most intimate friend, Mr. Wilson
Cary Nicholas, favored war ; Mr. William B. Giles was of the
same mode of thinking; Mr. Jefferson, overwhelmed by all
these difficulties, longed for the moment of his retreat : " Never
did a prisoner, released from his chains, feel such relief as I shall
1808. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 377
on shaking off the shackles of power." 1 So cowed was he as
to do what no President had ever done before, or has ever done
since, and what no President has a constitutional right to do :
he abdicated the duties of his office, and no entreaty could
induce him to resume them. So soon as the election was decided,
he hastened to throw upon his successor the burden of respon-
sibility and withdrew himself from all but the formalities of
administration : " I have thought it right," he wrote on De-
cember 27, 1808, "to take no part myself in proposing measures,
the execution of which will devolve on my successor. I am there-
fore chiefly an unmeddling listener to what others say." 2 " Our
situation is truly difficult. We have been pressed by the bel-
ligerents to the very wall, and all further retreat is impracticable."
The duty of providing a policy fell of necessity upon Mr.
Madison and Mr. Gallatin, although they could not act effectively
without the President's power. Under these circumstances, on
the 7th November, 1808, Congress met. The President's mes-
sage, in conformity with his determination to decline any ex-*
pression of opinion, 3 proposed nothing in regard to the embargo,
and this silence necessarily threw the party into still greater dis-
order, until Mr. Madison and Mr. Gallatin were driven to make
a combined attempt to recall Mr. Jefferson to his duties.
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY, 15th November, 1808.
DEAR SIR, Both Mr. Madison and myself concur in opinion
that, considering the temper of the Legislature, or rather of its
members, it would be eligible to point out to them some precise
and distinct course.
As to what that should be we may not all perfectly agree, and
perhaps the knowledge of the various feelings of the members
and of the apparent public opinion may on consideration induce
1 To Dupont de Nemours, 2d March, 1809. Writings, v. 432.
2 To Dr. Logan. Jefferson's Writings, v. 404. Letter to Lieutenant-
Governor Lincoln, 13th November, 1808, v. 387.
8 Letter to Mr. Gallatin of October 30, 1808. Gallatin's Writings, vol. i.
p. 420.
378 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALL A TIN. 1808.
a revision of our own. I feel myself nearly as undetermined
between enforcing the embargo or war as I was on our last
meetings. But I think that w must (or rather you must) de-
cide the question absolutely, so that we may point out a decisive
course either way to our friends. Mr. Madison, being unwell,
proposed that I should call on you and suggest our wish that we
might with the other gentlemen be called by you on that subject.
Should you think that course proper, the sooner the better. The
current business has prevented my waiting on you personally in
the course of the morning.
Mr. Jefferson, however, as appears from his letter to Dr.
Logan of December 27, quoted above, persisted in declining
responsibility. Mr. Madison and Mr. Gallatin were obliged to
follow another course. Mr. Gallatin drafted a report for the
Committee of Foreign Relations, which was, on the 22d Novem-
ber, 1808, presented to the House by Mr. G. W. Campbell for the
committee, and which has been always known under the name
of Campbell's Report. This paper is probably the best state-
ment ever made of the American argument against the British
government and the orders in council ; it certainly disposed of
the pretence that those orders were justifiable either on the ground
of retaliation upon France or on that of American acquiescence
in French infractions of international law ; but its chief object
was to unite the Republican party on common ground and to
serve as the foundation of a policy ; for this purpose it concluded
by recommending the adoption of three resolutions, the first of
which pledged the nation not to submit to the edicts of Great
Britain and France; the second pledged them to exclude the
commerce and productions of those countries from our ports;
and the third, to take immediate measures to put the United
States in a better condition of defence. These resolutions were
debated nearly a month, and finally adopted by large majorities.
In the mean time Mr. Gallatin asked for the extension which
he needed of powers to carry out the embargo law, and the force
to back these powers. A bill to that effect was soon reported,
and was rapidly passed, a bill famous in history as the Enforce-
ment Act. It was a terrible measure, and in comparison with
1808. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 379
its sweeping grants of arbitrary power, all previous enactments
of the United States Congress sank into comparative insignifi-
cance. How it could be defended under any conceivable theory
of the Republican party, and how it could receive the support
of any Republican whose memory extended ten years back, are
questions which would be difficult to answer if the Annals of
Congress were not at hand to explain. The two parties had
completely changed their position, and while the Republicans
stood on the ground once occupied by the Federalists, the Fede-
ralists were seeking safety under the States' rights doctrines for-
merly avowed by the Virginia and Kentucky Republicans.
As a result of eight years 7 conscientious and painful eifort, the
situation was calculated to sober and sadden the most sanguine
Democrat. The idea was at last impressed with unmistakable
emphasis upon every honest and reflecting mind in the Republi-
can party that the failures of the past were not due to the faults
of the past only, and that circumstances must by their nature be
stronger and more permanent than men. Brought at last face to
face with this new political fact which gave the lie to all his
theories and hopes, even the sanguine and supple Jefferson felt
the solid earth reel under him, 1 and his courage fled; it was
long before he recovered his old confidence, and he never could
speak of the embargo and the last year of his Presidency without
showing traces of the mental shock he had suffered.
Mr. Gallatin was made of different stuff. In his youth
almost as sanguine as Mr. Jefferson, he knew better how to
accept defeat and adapt himself to circumstances, how to abandon
theory and to move with his generation; but it needed all and
more than all the toughness of Mr. Gallatin's character to
support his courage in this emergency. He knew, quite as well
as John Randolph or as any Federalist, how far he had drifted
from his true course, and how arbitrary, odious, and danger-
ous was the course he had to pursue; but he at least now
learned to recognize in the fullest extent the omnipotence of
circumstance. He had no longer a principle to guide him.
Except, somewhere far in the background, a general theory
1 Letter to Cabell, 2d February, 1816. Writings, vi. 540.
380 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIK 1808.
that peace was better than war, not a shred was left of Ke-
publican principles. Facts, not theories, were all that sur-
vived in the wreck of Mr. Jefferson's Administration, and the
solitary fact which asserted itself prominently above all others,
was that the United States could only be likened to an unfortu-
nate rat worried by two terrier bull-dogs ; whether it fought or
whether it fled, its destiny was to be eaten up. The only choice
was one of evils; that of the manner of extinction. The country
had selected the manner of its own free will, not under any
urgency from Mr. Gallatin ; but when it was tried, it was found
to be suicide by suffocation. New England, hostile to the gov-
ernment, and dependent more immediately on commerce than
her neighbors, resisted, revolted, and gasped convulsively for life
and air. Her struggle saved her ; necessity taught new modes
of existence and made her at length almost independent of the
sea, Virginia, however, friendly to the government and herself
responsible for the choice, submitted with hardly a murmur, and
never recovered from the shock ; her ruin was accelerated with
frightful rapidity because she made no struggle for life.
Mr. Gallatin saw the situation as clearly as most men of his
time, and at this moment, when New England was struggling
most wildly, he was obliged to say whether in his opinion the
policy of government should be changed or not. How slowly
and doubtfully he came to his decision has been seen in his
letters, and was inevitable from his character. As he said on
December 18, 1807, to Mr. Jefferson, he preferred war in every
point of view to a permanent embargo ; but the embargo had
been adopted as a policy ; it had been maintained at a fearful
cost; the injury it could inflict was for the most part accom-
plished ; the difficulties of enforcing it were overcome ; its effect
on England was only beginning to be felt ; so far as New Eng-
land was concerned, the danger was less imminent than it ap-
peared to be, and the task of carrying that part of the country
into armed rebellion was by no means an easy one ; to abandon
the embargo now was to exhibit the government in the light of
a vacillating and feeble guide, to destroy all popular faith in its
wisdom and courage, to shake the supports and undermine the
authority of the new Administration, and to encourage every
1808. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 381
element of faction. Abroad the effect of this feebleness would
be fatal. In the face of opponents like Canning and Bonaparte,
weakness of will was the only unpardonable and irrevocable
crime.
Another motive which probably decided Mr. Madison and
Mr. Gallatin was one they could not use for an argument. Mr.
Erskine, the British minister at Washington, was a young man
of liberal politics and with an American wife ; he was" honestly
anxious to restore friendly relations between the two govern-
ments, and he was stimulated by the idea of winning distinction.
It appears from his letters that as early as the end of November,
1808, the moment the election was fairly decided and Mr. Jef-
ferson had in effect surrendered the Presidency to Mr. Madison,
the idea had begun to work in his mind that the time for
attempting a reconciliation had come. What Mr. Canning had
refused to concede to Mr. Jefferson, the friend of France, he
might be willing to offer to Mr. Madison, whose sympathies
were rather English than French. Mr. Erskine lost no time in
sounding the members of the new Administration, and he found
them one and all disposed to encourage him. He talked long
and earnestly with Mr. Gallatin, " whose character/ 7 he wrote to
Mr. Canning on December 4, 1808, "must be well known to
you to be held in the greatest respect in this country for his un-
rivalled talents as a financier and a statesman." Mr. Gallatin
flattered and encouraged him. "At the close of my interview
with Mr. Gallatin, he said, in a familiar way, 'You see, sir,
we could settle a treaty in my private room in two hours which
might perhaps be found to be as lasting as if it was bound up
in all the formalities of a regular system/ " He hinted to Mr.
Gallatin his theory that Mr. Jefferson had acted with partiality
to France, at which Mr. Gallatin " seemed to check himself/ 7
and turned the conversation immediately upon the character of
Mr. Madison, saying " that he could not be accused of having
such a bias towards France," whereat the young diplomatist,
instead of inferring that Mr. Gallatin saw through him and all
his little motives and meant to let them work undisturbed, drew
only the inference that Mr. Gallatin thought as he did about
Mr. Jefferson, but dared not say so.
382 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1808.
Acting under these impressions, Mr. Erskine early in Decem-
ber, 1808, wrote a series of despatches to Mr. Canning, sug-
gesting that this favorable moment should be used. While
waiting for the necessary instructions, he continued his friendly
relations with the Cabinet, and the Cabinet, not a little pleased
at discovering at length one example of a friendly Englishman,
cultivated these relations with cordiality.
The policy adopted by Mr. Madison and Mr. Gallatin is to
be found in scattered pieces of evidence. Mr. Gallatin's letter
of 15th November, 1808, to Mr. Jefferson seems to prove that
he was still on that day not quite decided ; but his annual
report, dated December 10, which was clearly intended to
supply to some extent the want of distinctness in the Presi-
dent's message, shows that in the interval the course had
been marked out which the new Administration meant to
pursue.
This report began, as usual, with a sketch of the financial
situation. The receipts of the Treasury during the year ending
September 30, 1808, had been $17,952,000, a sum greater than
the receipts of any preceding year, but principally consisting of
revenue accrued during 1807. On January 1, 1809, the Treas-
ury would have a sum of $16,000,000 on hand, of which Mr.
Gallatin estimated that the expenses of 1809 would consume
$13,000,000, leaving a surplus of only $3,000,000 to be dis-
posed of.
Thus the government could look forward with confidence to
the 1st January, 1810, and if extraordinary preparations for
war were necessary, it could, by stopping the redemption of
debt, provide some $5,000,000 additional for the year without
recurring to loans.
After thus describing the resources of the government, the
Secretary proceeded to discuss its probable expenses under the
four contingencies among which he supposed the choice of Con-
gress to lie. Two of these were merely forms of submission to
Great Britain and France, and, as in this case resistance would
not be contemplated, no provision beyond an immediate reduc-
tion of expenses was required. The other two were forms of
resistance ; embargo, or war.
1808. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 383
The embargo considered as a temporary measure, which would
ultimately be superseded by war, was, financially, to be consid-
ered as a war measure, and preparations made accordingly;
while if the embargo were adopted as a permanent system,
coterminous with the belligerent edicts, it was a peace measure,
and needed no other provision than economy at least for the
next two years.
War must be carried on principally by loans, and the embargo
had produced a situation most favorable for effecting loans. No
internal taxes of any description need be imposed. All that
the Treasury required, besides economy, was to double the
import duties; to limit the system of drawbacks; either to
repeal or to complete the partial non-intercourse law, and to
reform the system of accountability in the Army and Navy
Departments.
The report was decidedly warlike; clearly, if war was to
come, Mr. Gallatin wished it to be begun within another year.
His policy, therefore, is evident; he would have had Congress
take a strong tone ; continue the embargo for a given time until
the results of Mr. Erskine's representations should be known ;
and let it be clearly understood that the embargo was to give
place to war. He would have had Congress apply six or eight
millions to the purchase of arms and stores, to the building of
forts or of ships, and to the organization of the militia; and
with a firm party behind him and such measures of preparation,
he would have spoken to Mr. Canning and to Napoleon with as
much authority as it was in his power to command. He would
boldly have retaliated upon both.
This was the plan adopted for the new Administration and
earnestly pressed by the Secretary of the Treasury whom the
President elect then looked upon as his future Secretary of State.
Mr. Jefferson's theory that his successor was responsible for the
government after his election was decided, utterly untenable
and mischievous as it was, compelled Mr. Madison to act
through Mr. Gallatin. The whole future of his Administration
turned on his success in holding the party together on this line
of policy, and Mr. Gallatin labored night and day to effect this
object.
384 LIFE OF ALBEET GAL LA TIN. 1808.
MACON TO JOSEPH H. NICHOLSON.
WASHINGTON, December 4, 1808.
. . . The war men in the House of Representatives are, I con-
ceive, gaming strength, and I should not be much surprised if
we should be at war with both Great Britain and France before
the 4th of March. Gallatin is most decidedly for war, and I
think that the Vice-President and W. C. Nicholas are of the
same opinion. It is said that the President gives no opinion as
to the measures that ought to be adopted. It is not known
whether he be for war or peace. It is reported that Mr. Madi-
son is for the plan which I have submitted, with the addition of
high protecting duties to encourage the manufacturers of the
United States. I am as much against war as Gallatin is in favor
of it. Thus I have continued in Congress till there is not
one of my old fellow-laborers that agrees with me in opinion.
I do not know what plan Randolph will pursue. He is against
continuing the embargo. I wish he would lay some plan
before the House. It grieves me to the heart to be compelled
from a sense of right and duty to oppose him. I am not
consulted, as you seem to suppose, about anything, nor do I con-
sult any one. I am about as much out of fashion as our grand-
mothers 7 ruffle cuffs, and I do not believe that I shall be in
fashion as soon as they will.
GALLATIN TO JOSEPH H. NICHOLSON.
WASHINGTON, 29th December, 1808.
Never was I so overwhelmed with public business. That
would be nothing if we went right. But a great confusion and
perplexity reign in Congress. Mr. Madison is, as I always
knew him, slow in taking his ground, but firm when the storm
arises. What I had foreseen has taken place. A majority will
not adhere to the embargo much longer, and if war be not
speedily determined on, submission will soon ensue. This en-
tirely between us. When will you be here ? We expect you,
and the sooner the better. Exclusively of the pleasure we always
1809. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 385
have in seeing you, rely upon it that your presence will at this
crisis be useful. I actually want time to give you more details,
but I will only state that it is intended by the Essex Junto to
prevail on the Massachusetts Legislature, who meet in two
or three weeks, to call a convention of the five New England
States, to which they will try to add New York; and that some-
thing must be done to anticipate and defeat that nefarious plan.
Mr. Jefferson's private letters tell the story of Mr. Madison's
failure to control his party, and of the collapse of his war policy.
On the 19th January, 1809, he wrote to Thomas Lomax i 1 " I
think Congress, although they have not passed any bill indicative
of their intentions, except the new embargo law, have evidently
made up their minds to let that continue only till their meeting
in May, and then to issue letters of marque and reprisal against
such powers as shall not then have repealed their illegal decrees.
Some circumstances have taken place which render it very possi-
ble that Great Britain may revoke her orders of council. This
will be known before May." Two days later, Mr. Jefferson
wrote to Mr. Leiper : 2 " The House of Representatives passed
last night a bill for the meeting of Congress on the 22d of May.
This substantially decides the course they mean to pursue, that
is, to let the embargo continue till then, when it will cease, and
letters of marque and reprisal be issued against such nations as
shall not then have repealed their obnoxious edicts. The great
majority seem to have made up their minds on this, while there
is considerable diversity of opinion on the details of preparation,
to wit : naval force, volunteers, army, non-intercourse, &c." But
on the 7th February Mr. Jefferson wrote : 3 " I thought Congress
had taken their ground firmly for continuing their embargo till
June, and then war. But a sudden and unaccountable revolution
of opinion took place the last week, chiefly among the New Eng-
land and New York members, and in a kind of panic they voted
the 4th of March for removing the embargo, and by such a ma-
jority as gave all reason to believe they would not agree either to
1 Jefferson MSS. 2 Jefferson's Writings, v. 417.
s To T. M. Kandolph. Writings, v. 424.
25
386 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1809.
war or non-intercourse. This, too, was after we had become satis-
fied that the Essex Junto had found their expectation desperate
of inducing the people there to either separation or forcible oppo-
sition. The majority of Congress, however, has now rallied to
removing the embargo on the 4th of March, non-intercourse with
France and Great Britain, trade everywhere else, and continuing
war preparations." The defeat of the Administration on the
crucial point of fixing the 1st June, 1809, for removing the em-
bargo, took place on February 2, by a vote of 73 to 40. The
substitution of March 4 was carried on February 3, by a vote
of 70, no ayes and noes having been taken on either side. The
new Administration had already met with a serious if not fatal
check. As Mr. Gal latin said in a note to Mr. Jefferson of Feb-
ruary 4, the day after the disaster: "As far as my information
goes, everything grows more quiet in Massachusetts and Maine.
All would be well if our friends remained firm here."
The votes of February 2 and February 4, 1809, carried a
deeper significance to Mr. Gallatin than to any one else, for they
did not stand alone. Congress had already shown that it meant
to accept his control no longer, and this was no mere panic and
no result of New England defection. He had at last to meet
the experience of defeat where he had supposed himself strongest.
As has been seen, the administration of naval affairs had always
been repugnant to Mr. Gallatin's wishes; the time when he
had opposed a moderate navy had long passed, and, as Sec-
retary of the Treasury, he had never wished to diminish the
efficiency or lessen the force of the few frigates we had ; but
he conceived that the management of the Department under
Mr. Robert Smith was wasteful and inefficient. Very large
sums of money had been spent, for which there was little to
show except one hundred and seventy gun-boats, which had cost
on an average $9000 each to build and would cost $11,500
a year in actual service. At the beginning of the session it
had been distinctly intimated by the Executive that no present
increase of force was required; but suddenly, on the 4th Jan-
uary, 1809, the Senate adopted a bill which directed that all
the frigates and other armed vessels of the United States, in-
cluding the gun-boats, should be immediately fitted out, officered,
1809. THE TKEASTJKY. 1801-1813. 387
manned, and employed. The law was mandatory ; it required
the immediate employment of some six thousand seamen and
the appropriation of some six million dollars, and this excessive
expenditure on the part of the navy was not accompanied by
any corresponding measures for shore armaments and defences.
If war did not take place the expense was entirely lost. Had
these six millions been expended in buying arms, constructing
fortifications and putting them in readiness for war, or in organ-
izing and arming the militia, or in building frigates and ships
of the line, the government would have had something to show
for them ; but to waste the small national treasure before war
began; to support thousands of seamen in absolute idleness,
with almost a certainty that the moment a British frigate came
within sight they would have to run ashore for safety, seemed
insane extravagance. Yet when the Senate's amendment came
before the House it was adopted on the 10th January by a vote
of 64 to 59, in the teeth of Mr. Gallatin's warm remonstrances.
Among his papers is the following curious analysis of this vote.
THE NAVY COALITION OF 1809.
By whom were sacrificed
Forty Republican members, nine Republican States,
The Republican cause itself, and the people of the United States,
To a system of
Favoritism, extravagance, parade, and folly.
1. Smith Faction, or Ruling Party.
File Leader, W. C. Nicholas, E. W. ; Assistants, Dawson, J. G-.
Jackson, McCreery, Montgomery, Newton . ... 6
2. Federalists, Old and New.
Dana, Elliot, Goldsborough, Harris, Kay, Lewis, Livermore,
Lyon, Masters, Mosely, Pitkin, Russel, Sloan, Stedman,
Sturges, Van Dyke, Yan Rensselaer 17
3. quids. 27 *
Cook, Findley, Gardner, Van Horn 4
4. New York Malcontents.
Mumford, Swart, Thompson, Van Cortland, Wilson, Riker . 6
33
388
LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN.
1809.
5. Scared Yankees.
Bacon, Barker, Durell, Illsley, Storer .
6. Republicans.
Virginia.
N. York.
N. England.
N. Jersey.
Basset.
Blake.
Cutts.
Helms.
Clay.
Clopton.
Gholson.
Humphreys.
Kirkpatrick.
Van Allan.
Deane.
Fisk.
Green.
Lambert.
Newbold.
Holmes.
Smith.
Verplanck.
Seaver.
Smith.
Wilbour.
Other States.
Kenan.
N. Moore.
Smelt.
Troup.
Jones
7. Sui Gkeneris.
Friendly only
25
1
64
*27
37
The meaning of all this confusion was soon made clear to
Gallatin. A web of curious intrigue spun itself over the chair
which Mr. Madison now left empty in the Department of
State ; there was no agreement upon the person who was to fill
it, and who. would, perhaps, be made thereby the most promi-
nent candidate for succession to the throne itself. Not until
his inauguration approached did Mr. Madison distinctly give
it to be understood that he intended to make Mr. Gallatin his
Secretary of State. This intention roused vehement opposition
among Senators. Leib and the Aurora influence were of course
hostile to Gallatin, and Leib now found a formidable ally
in William B. Giles, Senator from Virginia. Giles made no
concealment of his opposition. " From the first," wrote Mr.
Wilson Gary Nicholas, " Mr. Giles declared his determination
to vote against Gallatin. I repeatedly urged and entreated him
not to do it; for several days it was a subject of discussion
between us. There was no way which our long and intimate
friendship would justify, consistent with my respect for him, in
v/hich I did not assail him. To all my arguments he replied
that his duty to his country was to him paramount to every
other consideration, and that he could not justify to himself
1809. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 389
permitting Gallatin to be Secretary of State if his vote would
prevent it." " The objection to him that I understood had the
most weight, and that was most pressed in conversation, was
that he was a foreigner. I thought it was too late to make that
objection. He had for eight years been in an office of equal
dignity and of greater trust and importance."
But Leib and Giles, separate or combined, were not strong
enough to effect this object ; they needed more powerful allies,
and they found such in the Navy influence, represented in the
Senate chiefly by General Smith, Senator from Maryland, brother
of the Secretary of the Navy, and brother-in-law of Wilson
Gary Nicholas. General Smith joined the opposition to Gal-
latin. An eifort appears to have been made to buy off the
vote of General Smith ; it is said that he was willing to com-
promise if his brother were transferred to Mr. Gallatin's place
in the Treasury, and that Mr. Madison acquiesced in this ar-
rangement, but Gallatin dryly remarked that he could not
undertake to carry on both Departments at once, and requested
Mr. Madison to leave him where he was. Mr. Madison then
yielded, and Robert Smith was appointed Secretary of State.
Mr. J. Q. Adams, who at just this moment was rejected as
minister to Russia by the same combination, has left an unpub-
lished account of this affair :
MADISON AND GALLATIN. 1809,
" In the very last days of his [Jefferson's] Administration there
appeared in the Republican portion of the Senate a disposition
to control him in the exercise of his power. This was the more
remarkable, because until then nothing of that character had
appeared in the proceedings of the Senate during his Adminis-
tration. The experience of Mr. Burr and of John Randolph had
given a warning which had quieted the aspirings of others, and,
with the exception of an ineffectual effort to reject the nomina-
tion of John Armstrong as minister to France, there was scarcely
an attempt made in the Senate for seven years to oppose any-
thing that he desired. But in the summer of 1808, after the
peace of Tilsit, the Emperor Alexander of Russia had caused it
390 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1809.
to be signified to Mr. Jefferson that an exchange of ministers
plenipotentiary between him and the United States would be
very agreeable to him, and that he waited only for the appoint-
ment of one from the United States to appoint one in return.
Mr. Jefferson accordingly appointed an old friend and pupil of
his, Mr. William Short, during the recess of the Senate, and
Mr. Short, being furnished with his commission, credentials,
and instructions, proceeded on his mission as far as Paris.
Towards the close of the session of Congress he nominated Mr.
Short to the Senate, by whom the nomination was rejected.
This event occasioned no small surprise. It indicated the termi-
nation of that individual personal influence which Mr. Jefferson
had erected on the party division of Whig and Tory. It was
also the precursor of a far more extensive scheme of operations
which was to commence, and actually did commence, with the
Administration of Mr. Madison.
" He had wished and intended to appoint Mr. Gallatin, who
had been Secretary of the Treasury during the whole of Mr.
Jefferson's Administration, to succeed himself in the Depart-
ment of State, and Mr. Robert Smith, who had been Secretary
of the Navy, he proposed to transfer to the Treasury Depart-
ment. He was not permitted to make this arrangement. Mr.
Robert Smith had a brother in the Senate. It was the wish of
the individuals who had effected the rejection of Mr. Short that
Mr. Robert Smith should be Secretary of State, and Mr. Madi-
son was given explicitly to understand that if He should nominate
Mr. Gallatin he would be rejected by the Senate.
"Mr. Robert Smith was appointed. This dictation to Mr.
Madison, effected by a very small knot of association in the
Senate, operating by influence over that body chiefly when in
secret session, bears a strong resemblance to that which was ex-
ercised over the same body in 1798 and 1799, with this differ-
ence, that the prime agents of the faction were not then members
of the body, and now they were.
" In both instances it was directly contrary to the spirit of the
Constitution, and was followed by unfortunate consequences.
In the first it terminated by the overthrow of the Administra-
tion and by a general exclusion from public life of nearly every
1809. THE TKEASTJKY. 1801-1813. 391
man concerned in it. In the second its effect was to place in
the Department of State, at a most critical period of foreign
affairs and against the will of the President, a person incom-
petent, to the exclusion of a man eminently qualified for the
office. Had Mr. Gallatin been then appointed Secretary of
State, it is highly probable that the war with Great Britain
would not have taken place. As Providence shapes all for the
best, that war was the means of introducing great improvements
in the practice of the government and of redeeming the national
character from some unjust reproaches, and of strongly cement-
ing the Union. But if the people of the United States could
have realized that a little cluster of Senators, by caballing in
secret session, would place a sleepy Palinurus at the helm even
in the fury of the tempest, they must almost have believed in
predestination to expect that their vessel of state would escape
shipwreck. This same Senatorial faction continued to harass
and perplex the Administration of Mr. Madison during the war
with Great Britain, till it became perceptible to the people, and
the prime movers losing their popularity were compelled to
retire from the Senate. They left behind them, however, prac-
tices in the Senate and a disposition in that body to usurp
unconstitutional control, which have already effected much evil
and threaten much more."
Thus the Administration of Mr. Jefferson, whose advent had
been hailed eight years before by a majority of the nation as
the harbinger of a new era on earth ; the Administration which,
alone among all that had preceded or were to follow it, was
freighted with hopes and aspirations and with a sincere popular
faith that could never be revived, and a freshness, almost a sim-
plicity of thought that must always give to its history a certain
indefinable popular charm like old-fashioned music; this Ad-
ministration, into which Mr. Gallatin had woven the very web
of his life, now expired, and its old champion, John Randolph,
was left to chant a palinode over its grave: "Never has there
been any Administration which went out of office and left the
nation in a state so deplorable and calamitous."
Under such conditions, with such followers and such advisers,
392 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1809.
Mr. Madison patched up his broken Cabinet and his shattered
policy ; broken before it was complete, and shattered before it
was launched. He had to save what he could, and by rallying
all his strength in Congress he succeeded in preserving a tolerable
appearance of energy towards the belligerent nations ; but in fact
the war-policy was defeated, and a small knot of men in the
Senate were more powerful than the President himself. The
Cabinet was an element not of strength but of weakness, for
whatever might be Mr. Smith's disposition he could not but
become the representative of the group in the Senate which had
forced him into prominence. Under such circumstances, until
then without a parallel in our history, government, in the sense
hitherto understood, became impossible.
Had Mr. Gallatin followed his own impulses, he would now
have resigned his seat in the Cabinet and returned to his old
place in Congress. That course, as the event proved, would
have been the wisest for him, but his ultimate decision to
remain in the Treasury was nevertheless correct. He had at
least an even chance of regaining his ground and carrying out
those ideas to which. his life had been devoted; the belligerents
might return to reason; the war in Europe could not last for-
ever ; the country might unite in support of a practicable policy ;
at all events there was no immediate danger that the govern-
ment would go to pieces, and heroic remedies were not to be
used but as a last resort. So far as Mr. Madison was concerned,
the question was not whether he was to be deserted, but in
what capacity Mr. Gallatin could render him the most efficient
support.
Suddenly the skies seemed to clear, and the new Administra-
tion for a brief moment flattered itself that its difficulties were
at an end. Mr. Erskine received the reply of Mr. Canning
to his letters of December 3 and 4, and this reply declared in
substance that if the United States would of her own accord
abandon the colonial trade and allow the British fleet to enforce
that abandonment, England would withdraw her orders in
council. This was, it is true, a matter of course. Mr. Can-
ning's object in imposing the orders in council, though nominally
retaliatory upon France, had been really to counteract Napo-
1809. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 393
leon's Continental policy and to save British shipping and com-
merce from American competition, and his condition of withdraw-
ing the orders could only be that America should abandon her
shipping and employ British ships of war in destroying her own
trade. Mr. Erskine, however, conceived that a loose interpreta-
tion might be put on these conditions. After communicating
their substance to the Secretary of State and receiving the reply
that they were inadmissible, he " considered that it would be in
vain to lay before the government of the United States the des-
patch in question, which I was at liberty to have done in extenso
had I thought proper." l He therefore set aside his instructions
and proceeded to act in what he conceived to be their spirit. A
hint thrown out by Mr. Gallatin that the substitution of non-
intercourse for embargo had so altered the situation as to put
England in a more favorable position with reference to France,
served as the ground for Mr. Erskine's propositions; but these
propositions, in fact, rested on no solid ground whatever, for in
them Mr. Erskine entirely omitted all reference to an abandon-
ment of the colonial trade, and while the American government
professed its readiness to abandon that trade so far as it was
direct from the West Indies to Europe, this was all the founda-
tion Mr. Erskine had for considering as fulfilled that condition
of his instructions by which America was to abjure all colonial
trade, direct and indirect, and allow the British fleet to enforce
this abjuration.
On this slender basis, and without communicating his authority,
Mr. Erskine, early in April, 1809, made a provisional arrange-
ment with the Secretary of State by which the outrage on the
Chesapeake was atoned for, and the orders in council with-
drawn. The President instantly issued a proclamation bearing
date the 19th April, 1809, declaring the trade with Great Britain
renewed. Great was the joy throughout America; so great as
for the moment almost to obliterate party distinctions. When
Congress met on May 22, for that session which had been called
to provide for war, all was peace and harmony ; John Randolph
was loudest in singing praises of the new President, and no
1 Erskine to Robert Smith, 14th August, 1809.
394 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1809.
one ventured to gainsay him. The Federalists exulted in the
demonstration of their political creed that Mr. Jefferson had been
the wicked author of all mischief, and that the British govern-
ment was all that was moderate, just, and injured.
The feelings of Mr. Canning on receiving the news were not
of the same nature. The absurd and ridiculous side of things
was commonly uppermost in his mind, and in the whole course of
his stormy career there was probably no one event more utterly
absurd than this. His policy in regard to the United States was
simple even to crudeness ; he meant that her neutral commerce,
gained from England and France, should be taken away, and
that, if possible, she should not be allowed to fight for it. In
carrying out this policy he never wavered, and he was completely
successful ; even an American can now admire the clearness and
energy of his course, though perhaps it has been a costly one in
its legacy of hate. That one of his subordinates should under-
take to break down his policy and give back to the United
States her commerce, and that the United States should run
wild with delight at this evidence of Mr. Canning's defeat and
the success of her own miserable embargo, was an event in which
the ludicrous predominated over the tragic. Mr. Canning made
very short work of poor Mr. Ersjdne ; he instantly recalled that
gentleman and disavowed his arrangement ; but in order to pre-
vent war he announced that a new minister would be immedi-
ately sent out. Even this civility, however, was conceded with
very little pretence of a disposition to conciliate, and the minister
chosen for the purpose was calculated rather to inspire terror
than good-will. Mr. Rose had at least borne an exterior of
civility, and had affected a decent though patronizing benevo-
lence. Mr. Jackson made no such pretensions. His feelings
and the object of his mission were odious enough at the time,
and, now that his private correspondence has been published/ it
can hardly be said that, however insolent the American govern-
ment may have thought him, he was in the least degree more
insolent than his chief intended him to be.
1 Bath Archives. Diaries and Letters of Sir George Jackson. See, among
other instances, Second Series, i. 109.
1809. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 395
The news of Mr. Canning's disavowal reached America in
July, and spread consternation and despair. Mr. Gallatin found
himself involved in a sort of controversy with Mr. Erskine,
resulting from the publication of Erskine's despatches in Eng-
land, and, although he extricated himself with skill, the result
could at best be only an escape. The non-intercourse had to be
renewed by proclamation, and the Administration could only
look about and ask itself in blank dismay what it could do next.
GALLATIN TO JOSEPH H. NICHOLSON.
WASHINGTON, 20th April, 1809.
DEAR SIR, I do not perceive, unless the President shall
otherwise direct, anything that can now prevent my leaving this
on Sunday for Baltimore. I fear that Mrs. Gallatin will not go ;
she is afraid to leave the children, who have all had slight indis-
positions. Yet she would, I think, be the better for a friendly
visit to Mrs. Nicholson and croaking with you. As you belong
to that tribe, I presume that, although you found fault yesterday
with Mr. Madison because he did not make peace, you will now
blame him for his anxiety to accommodate on any terms. Be
that as it may, I hope that you will get 1 dollar and -ffa for
your wheat. And still you may say that you expected two
dollars. Present my 'best respects to Mrs. Nicholson.
Yours truly.
Eustis may have his faults, but I will be disappointed if he is
not honorable and disinterested.
GALLATIN TO JOHN MONTGOMERY.
WASHINGTON, 27th July, 1809.
. . . The late news from England has deranged our plans,
public and private. I was obliged to give up my trip to Belair,
have also postponed our Virginia journey, and have written to
Mr. Madison that I thought it necessary that he should return
here immediately. We have not yet received any letters from
Mr. Pinckney nor any other official information on the subject.
396 LIFE OF ALBERT GALL A TIN. 1809.
Even Mr. Erskine, who is, however, expected every moment, has
not written. I will not waste time in conjectures respecting the
true cause of the conduct of the British government, nor can we,
until we are better informed, lay any permanent plan of conduct
for ourselves. I will only observe that we are not so well pre-
pared for resistance as we were one year ago. All or almost all
our mercantile wealth was safe at home, our resources entire, and
our finances sufficient to carry us through during the first year
of the contest. Our property is now all afloat; England relieved
by our relaxations might stand two years of privations with ease;
we have wasted our resources without any national utility ; and,
our Treasury being exhausted, we must begin our plan of resist-
ance with considerable and therefore unpopular loans. All these
considerations are, however, for Congress ; and at this moment
the first question is, what ought the Executive to do ? It ap-
pears to me from the laws and the President's proclamation, that
as he had no authority but that of proclaiming a certain fact on
which alone rested the restoration of intercourse, and that fact
not having taken place, the prohibitions of the Non-Intercourse
Act necessarily revive in relation to England, and that a procla-
mation to that effect should be the first act of the Executive.
If we do not adopt that mode, our intercourse with England must
continue until the meeting of Congress, whilst her orders remain
unrepealed and our intercourse with France is interdicted by our
own laws. This would be so unequal, so partial to England and
contrary to every principle of justice, policy, and national honor,
that I hope the Attorney-General will accede to my construction
and the President act accordingly.
The next question for the Executive is how we shall treat Mr.
Jackson; whether and how we will treat with him. That must,
it is true, depend in part on what he may have to say. But I
have no confidence in Canning & Co., and if we are too weak or
too prudent to resist England in the direct and proper manner,
I hope at least that we will not make a single voluntary conces-
sion inconsistent with our rights and interest. If Mr. Jackson
has any compromise to offer which would not be burthened with
such, I will be very agreeably disappointed. But, judging by
what is said to have been the substance of Mr. Erskine's instruc-
1809. THE TEEASURY. 1801-1813. 397
tions, what can we expect but dishonorable and inadmissible pro-
posals ? He is probably sent out, like Mr. Rose, to amuse and to
divide, and we will, I trust, by coming at once to the point, bring
his negotiation to an immediate close. . . .
One may reasonably doubt whether during the entire history
of the United States government the difficulties of administra-
tion have ever been so great as during the years 1809-11. Peace
usually allows great latitude of action and of opinion without
endangering the national existence. War at least compels some
kind of unity ; the path of government is then clear. Even in
1814 and in 1861 the country responded to a call ; but in 1809
and 1810 the situation was one of utter helplessness. The ses-
sion of 1808-9 had proved two facts: one, that the nation would
not stand the embargo ; the other, that it could not be brought
to the point of Avar. So far as Mr. Madison and his Admin-
istration are concerned, it is safe to say that they would at any
time have accepted any policy, short of self-degradation, which
would have united the country behind them. As for Mr. Gal-
latin, he had yielded to the embargo because it had the sup-
port of a great majority of Congress ; he had done his utmost
to support the only logical consequence of the embargo, which
was war. Congress had rejected both embargo and war, and
had in complete helplessness fallen back on a system of non-
intercourse which had most of the evils of embargo, much of
the expense of war, and all the practical disgrace of submission.
He could do nothing else than make the best of this also. The
country had lost its headway and was thoroughly at the mercy
of events.
When studied as a mere matter of political philosophy, it is
clear enough that this painful period of paralysis was an inev-
itable stage in the national development. The party which had
come into power in 1801 held theories inconsistent with thorough
nationality, and, as a consequence, with a firm foreign policy.
The terrible treatment which the government received, while in
its hands, from the great military powers of Europe came upon
the Republican party before it had outgrown its theories, and
necessarily disorganized that party, leaving the old States-rights,
398 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1809.
anti-nationalizing element where it stood, and forcing the more
malleable element forward into a situation inconsistent with the
party tenets. Another result was to give the mere camp-fol-
lowers and mercenaries of both parties an almost unlimited power
of mischief. Finally, the Federalist opposition, affected in the
same manner by the same causes, also rapidly resolved itself into
three similar elements, one of which seriously meditated treason,
while the more liberal one maintained a national character. It
was clear, therefore, or rather it is now clear, that until the sen-
timent of nationality became strong enough to override resistance
and to carry the Administration on its shoulders, no effective
direction could be given to government.
That Mr. Gallatin consciously and decidedly followed either
direction, it would be a mistake to suppose. He too, like his
party, was torn by conflicting influences. A man already fifty
years old, whose life has been earnestly and arduously devoted
to certain well-defined objects that have always in his eyes stood
for moral principles, cannot throw those objects away without
feeling that his life goes with them. So long as a reasonable
hope was left of attaining the results he had aimed at, or of
preventing the dangers he dreaded, it was natural that Mr.
Gallatin should cling to it and fight for it; but, on the other
hand, he was a man of very sound understanding, and little, if
at all, affected by mere local prejudices ; his ideal government
was one which should be free from corruption and violence;
which should interfere little with the individual ; which should
have neither debt, nor army, nor navy, nor taxes, beyond what
its simplest wants required ; and which should wish " to become
a happy, and not a powerful, nation, or at least no way powerful
except for self-defence." On this side he was in sympathy with
all moderate and sensible men in both parties, and was more
naturally impelled to act with them than with his old allies,
who were chiefly jealous of national power because it diminished
the sovereignty of Virginia or South Carolina.
To one standing, therefore, as Mr. Gallatin was now standing,
on the verge of several years' inaction, out of which the nation
could rescue itself only by a slow process of growth, the ends to
be attained and the dangers to be feared would arrange them-
1809. THE TEEASUKY. 1801-1813. 399
selves almost axiomatically. War was out of the question, not
only because both parties had united against it, but because the
Treasury was very rapidly losing its war fund and would soon
be unable to promise resources. If peace, therefore, were to be
preserved, the policy of commercial restrictions was the only
form of protest practicable, and it must again become the task
of diplomacy to re-establish the old Jefferson ian " balance" be-
tween the belligerents. In other words, diplomacy had become
more important than finance.
Candid criticism certainly tends to show that the only national
policy which had a chance of success was also the only one
which had not a chance of adoption. A sudden, concentrated,
and determined attack upon Bonaparte would, in all human
probability, have been successful; the Emperor would have
given way, and in this case England must also have receded ;
but this would have been a mere repetition of the Federalist
policy of 1798, and the Republican party had no fancy for
Federalist precedents. The behavior of Canning had roused so
bitter a feeling as to paralyze measures against Bonaparte, while
the Republican party was as little competent to imitate the dash
and stubborn intensity of the Federalists as the calm tempera-
ment of Mr. Madison to lash itself into the fiery impetuosity of
John Adams. Nothing remained but to settle the nature and
extent of the mild protest which was to be maintained against
the armed violence of the two belligerents, and, now that the
doors of the State Department were closed in Mr. Gal latin's
face, his only hope was to create a new financial system that
would serve to meet the wants of the new political situation as
Congress might ultimately give it shape. Throwing behind
him, therefore, all his old hopes and ambitions, all schemes for
discharging debt and creating canals, roads, and universities, he
turned his energies to the single point of defending the Treasury
and resisting follies. He regarded the habit of borrowing money
with horror ; this was a resource to be reserved for war, when
national life depended upon it ; until that time came he insisted
that the expenditure should not exceed the revenue. The ex-
perience of only last winter had shown how readily Congress
wasted its resources : although Mr. Gallatin had succeeded in
400 LIFE OF ALBERT GALL A TIN. 1809.
partially checking the navy appropriations, nearly three millions
were voted, and two and a half millions were actually spent on
the navy in 1809, without increasing its force or effecting the
smallest good; and meanwhile the surplus upon which Mr.
Gallatin had relied to carry on the first year of war was rapidly
vanishing, while the militia were not organized, the forts were
not completed, arms were not on hand, and military roads were
wholly wanting.
To raise by taxation, so long as peace lasted, all the money
to be spent by Congress, was the rule which Mr. Gallatin was
now struggling to enforce. If Congress appropriated money,
Congress must lay taxes. To maintain this ground required
a firm, almost a rough hand, and unless both the Cabinet and
the Senate were ready to support the Secretary of the Treasury
in his effort, his position was untenable, and resignation must
follow of course.
The question whether the Cabinet and Senate would support
Mr. Gallatin was, therefore, the necessary point to decide in
advance. In the Cabinet, Mr. Robert Smith was the dangerous
element. In the Senate, General Samuel Smith and his friend
Mr. Giles were the chief disturbing forces, since without them
the fulminations of Leib and the Aurora offered, after all, no
very serious danger. Unfortunately, a circumstance had now oc-
curred which seriously embittered the relations between Mr. Gal-
latin and the Smiths. The failure and disappearance of the navy
agent at Leghorn disclosed a somewhat loose 'way of managing
business in the Navy Department, which had bought exchange
on Leghorn, largely in bills on Samuel Smith and his relations,
in excess of its wants, while at the same time it had neglected to
make its naval officers draw on Leghorn, so that they had drawn
on London at considerable extra expense. Thus, at the close of
the Tripoli war a large balance had remained in the hands of the
navy agent at Leghorn, which was partly sent back in specie to
America by a ship of war, and partly carried off by the navy
agent to Paris, where he was arrested by the interposition of our
minister, General Armstrong, and compelled to disgorge. In all
this there was enough to irritate Mr. Gallatin, who had for eight
years endured, with such patience as he could command, the loose
1809. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 401
and extravagant habits of the Navy Department, and who was
now making a new effort to enforce a thorough system of ac-
countability in that department. But there appeared at first
sight to be something still more objectionable in this transaction.
Mr. Robert Smith, as Secretary of the Navy, had bought bills
of exchange to the amount of a quarter of a million dollars, within
two years, from his brother General Smith and his connections,
and on the face of the accounts it appeared that these were to
some extent accommodation bills ; in other words, that the gov-
ernment money had been by collusion left in the hands of Gen-
eral Smith's firm until it suited their convenience to remit it
to Leghorn. The effect of this operation was to give the firm
of Smith & Buchanan the use of public money without obliging
them to make the same immediate provision for honoring their
bills as would in other cases have been necessary ; to give them
also the almost exclusive privilege of selling bills on Leghorn,
and to throw upon the public the risk arising from protested
bills. This affair came to the knowledge of Mr. Gallatin at
the time when General Smith was, with the aid of Mr. Giles
and Dr. Leib, forcing Mr. Robert Smith upon Mr. Madison
as Secretary of State, and in conjunction with his brother-in-
law, Mr. Wilson Gary Nicholas, overthrowing Mr. Gallatin's
plans of public expenditure. He was very indignant, and ex-
pressed his opinions to his friend Joseph H. Nicholson, who
made no secret of the story and used it to prevent the re-election
of General Smith to the Senate. In the extra session in June,
1809, John Randolph, at the urgent request of Judge Nicholson,
procured the appointment of an investigating committee, which
published the facts. Mr. Gallatin was called upon for a report,
which he made in February, 1811. General Smith on his side
made a statement which certainly relieved him to a considerable
extent from the weight of some of the most doubtful parts of the
transaction. Mr. Gallatin had nothing to do with Judge Nichol-
son's proceeding, and gave it no encouragement, but his feeling
in regard to the scandal was very strong, and after the attacks
made upon the Smiths, both by the investigating committee of
the House and by the Baltimore press, the following exchange
of letters occurred:
26
402 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1809.
GENERAL SAMUEL SMITH TO GALLATIN.
BALTIMORE, 2Gth June, 1809.
SIR, I do myself the honor to enclose two papers for your
perusal. The editors of the Federal Republican make use of
your name to bolster them up in the nefarious charge they have
made against me, in the following manner, to wit : " Mr. Galla-
tin, we understand, spoke of this transaction in terms of great
indignation." I will not believe that any of that indignation
could have been directed at me. I believe it impossible that any
man who has the least pretensions to character would commit an
act so base as that charged on me, to wit : " to secure a debt
which I considered bad by transferring the same to the Navy
Department, and thus involving the United States in the loss."
Some time after my house drew the last bill (for I was at Wash-
ington), an evil report had been sent from Leghorn relative to
Degen, Purviance & Co., in consequence whereof Mr. Oliver
(who had a ship ready to sail to their address) sent an agent, who,
finding the house in as good credit as any in that city, did put
the cargo under their care. I thought the house superior to any
in Leghorn.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
S. SMITH.
GALLATIN TO GENERAL SMITH.
TREASURY DEPARTMENT, 29th June, 1809.
Sm, I received the day before yesterday your letter of 26th
inst., enclosing two Baltimore papers.
I have no other knowledge of the circumstances connected
with the naval agency of Degen and Purviance than what is
derived from their account as stated by the accountant of the
Navy Department. The transaction, such as it appears there,
is, under all its aspects, the most extraordinary that has fallen
within my knowledge since I have been in this Department. It
has certainly left very unfavorable impressions on my mind, and
these have on one occasion been communicated verbally to a
friend. Yet I hardly need say that I never supposed that the
1809. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 403
bills had been sold to government for the purpose " of securing
a debt which you then considered bad, and of thus throwing the
loss on the United States." But I did believe that you had
drawn without having previously placed sufficient funds in the
hands of Degen and Purviance, and that they had accepted your
bilLs and passed the amount to the credit of the United States,
without having at the time in their hands sufficient funds be-
longing to you. That this was my impression you will perceive
by the enclosed extract of a letter to Mr. Armstrong ; and Mr.
Purviance's statement, which you enclosed to me, shows that I
was not mistaken. I do not intend to comment on this and
other circumstances of the case. Taking them altogether, I
have believed that, if we failed in our endeavors to recover the
money from Degen and from Mr. Purviance, we might have
recourse against the drawers of the bills.
I am, sir,
Such a letter was not calculated to conciliate the Smiths, and
appears to have received no reply. General Smith ultimately
secured his re-election to the Senate. As the case stood, there-
fore, Mr. Gallatin could count with absolute certainty upon the
determined personal hostility of General Smith, Mr. Giles, and
Dr. Leib, backed by the vigorous tactics of Duane and the
Aurora, and he had to decide the very serious question whether
he should remain in the Cabinet in the face of so alarming a party
defection, or whether he should give way to it and retire. On the
llth May, 1809, he wrote to Judge Nicholson that the ensuing
session would decide this point. Judge Nicholson replied in his
own impetuous style: "Your retiring from office is a subject
upon which I do not like to reflect, because I believe that .you
will be a great public loss. It will be a loss that Mr. Madison
will feel immediately, but the public will not perceive it in its
full extent for some years. When the government gets entirely
in the possession of those men who are resolved to seize it, and
their selfish and mercenary motives and conduct are hereafter
exposed/ as they must be, the public will then perceive how
important it would have been to retain a man who was at once
capable and honest. But I think, were I in your situation, I
404 LIFE OF ALBEET GAL LATIN. 1809.
should not continue in the present state of the Cabinet, and I
should tell Mr. Madison that it was impossible to serve with
Mr. Smith after a development of the late transaction. The
most perverse man must acknowledge the absolute dishonesty
that is apparent on the face of it. I have never believed that
you took as strong ground in the Cabinet as you ought to do,
and it is time that you should do more than content yourself
with a bare expression of opinion. I should say that Mr.
Smith or myself must go out, and Mr. Madison ought to know
you too well to believe that this contained anything of a threat.
If you are disposed to continue in the Treasury, the Department
of State might certainly be filled with an abler and a better
man. Our love to Mrs. Gallatin. Tell her I agree with her
that vice and corruption do rule everywhere, and it arises entirely
from the ill-timed modesty of virtue."
This last paragraph is in reply to the concluding paragraph
of Mr. Gallatin's letter: "Mrs. Gallatin says that vice and
intrigue are all-powerful here and there [in Baltimore]. I tell
her that virtue is its own reward, and she insists that that
language is mere affectation."
What Mr. Gallatin's frame of mind now was may be seen
from a letter to his old friend Badollet, whom he had sent out
to the land-office at Vmcennes, in the Indiana Territory, and
who, discovering that vice and intrigue ruled even there, was
carrying on a fierce and passionate struggle with General W. H.
Harrison, the governor, to prevent the introduction of negro
slavery.
GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.
WASHINGTON, 12th May, 1809.
I have received your letter of 7th March, and am as desirous
as yourself of a refreshing interview. The summer session has
prevented my going to Fayette this spring, but I must go there
either in August or September. I cannot yet determine the pre-
cise week or month, and will not be able to stay more than four
or five days r unless I return at that time with my family for the
purpose of permanently residing there, which is not impossible,
though not yet decided on. The decision, not to induce you into
1809. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 405
mistake, rests entirely with myself. Will it be prudent for you
to incur the expense and trouble of so long a journey merely in
order to see me ? It was with regret that I saw you go to Vin-
cennes ; for I apprehended the climate, and I hated the distance.
But there was no option. The Ohio representative claimed for
residents there the exclusive right of filling the Federal offices
in that State, and it was your express opinion that you could not
subsist in Greene County. The same obstacles seem to oppose a
change. I see no prospect of your being transferred to a nearer
district, and you Avill find the same difficulty in supporting your
family in case you should return to Pennsylvania. Still, I not
only feel your situation, but I think that your happiness in the
eve of life will in part depend on our spending it in the same
vicinity. I know that it will be the case with me. If you can
perceive any means in which I can assist to attain that object,
state it fully and in all its details; that we may attempt what-
ever is practicable, but nothing rashly. What would your
little property in Indiana sell for ? What would be the ex-
penses of bringing your family up the river? What are the
precise ages and capacities of your children ? I do not know
what you can do yourself without an office, but I will not pre-
judge, and I earnestly wish that we may discover some means
of reunion.
As to your squabbles and disappointment, they are matters of
course. At what time or in what country did you ever hear
that men assumed the privilege of being more honest than the
mass of the society in which they lived, without being hated and
persecuted ? unless they chose to remain in perfect obscurity and
to let others and the world take their own course, and in that
case they can never have been heard of. All we can do here is
to fulfil our duty, without looking at the consequences so far as
relates to ourselves. If the love and esteem of others or general
popularity follow, so much the better. But it is with these as
with all other temporal blessings, such as wealth, health, &c.,
not to be despised, to be honestly attempted, but never to be
considered as under our control or as objects to which a single
particle of integrity, a single feeling of conscience should be
sacrificed. I need not add that I preach better than I practise.
406 LIFE OF ALBEKT GAL LA TIN. 1809.
But I may add that you practise better than I do, your conir
plaining of the result only excepted. The purity with which
you shall have exercised the duties of land-officer may be felt
and continue to operate after you have ceased to act. And if
you have had a share in preventing the establishment of slavery
in Indiana, you will have done more good, to that part of the
country at least, than commonly falls to the share of man. Be
that feeling your reward. When you are tired of struggling
with vice and selfishness, rest yourself, mind your own busi-
ness, and fight them only when they come directly in your
way.
Give my best and affectionate love to your worthy wife, who
has been your greatest comfort in this world, and on whose
judgment you may rely with great safety in any plan you may
form.
Ever yours.
Mr. Gallatin did not follow the advice of Judge Nicholson.
After the summer session of this year was over, the sudden dis-
avowal by the British government of Mr. Erskine's arrange-
ment threw pressing burdens upon his shoulders. In reply to
his summons to Washington, Mr. Madison wrote from Mont-
pelier that he did not think his presence there necessary. On the
9th August the President's proclamation was issued, accompanied
by a circular from the Treasury reviving the Non-Importation
Act, and the country settled back to its old condition of chronic
complaint and discomfort. Nothing more could be done till the
arrival of the new British envoy, Mr. Jackson, and the meeting
of Congress, nor could energetic action be expected even then.
After the proclamation was issued, Mr. and Mrs. Gallatin
went into Virginia to visit the Madisons, and the whole party,
towards the end of August, arrived at Monticello. While there,
Mr. Gallatin opened his mind fully to his friends, and the trium-
virate deliberated solemnly upon the situation. What passed
can only be inferred from the two following letters. No decisive
action was taken or asked. Mr. Gallatin went no further than
to explain his difficulties, leaving Mr. Madison to act as lie
pleased.
1809. THE TBEASUEY. 1801-1813. 4Q7
JEFFERSON TO GALLATIN.
MONTICELLO, October 11, 1809.
DEAR SIK, . . . I have reflected much and painfully on the
change of dispositions which has taken place among the members
of the Cabinet since the new arrangement, as you stated to me in
the moment of our separation. It would be indeed a great public
calamity were it to fix you in the purpose which you seemed to
think possible. I consider the fortunes of our Republic as de-
pending in an eminent degree on the extinction of the public
debt before we engage in any war ; because that done we shall
have revenue enough to improve our country in peace and defend
it in war without recurring either to new taxes or loans. But if
the debt should once more be swelled to a formidable size, its
entire discharge will be despaired of, and we shall be committed
to the English career of debt, corruption, and rottenness, closing
with revolution. The discharge of the debt, therefore, is vital
to the destinies of our government, and it hangs on Mr. Madi-
son and yourself alone. We will never see another President
and Secretary of the Treasury making all other objects subordi-
nate to this. Were either of you to be lost to the public, that
great hope is lost. I had always cherished the idea that you
would fix on that object the measure of your fame and of the
gratitude which our country will owe you. Nor can I yield up
this prospect to the secondary considerations which assail your
tranquillity. For sure I am, they never can produce any other
serious effect. Your value is too justly estimated by our fellow-
citizens at large, as well as their functionaries, to admit any re-
missness in their support of you. My opinion always was that
none of us ever occupied stronger ground in the esteem of Con-
gress than yourself, and I am satisfied there is no one who does
not feel your aid to be still as important for the future as it has
been for the past. You have nothing, therefore, to apprehend in
the dispositions of Congress, and still less of the President, who
above all men is the most interested and affectionately disposed
to support you. I hope, then, you will abandon entirely the idea
you expressed to me, and that you will consider the eight years to
come as essential to your political career. I should certainly con-
408 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1809.
sider any earlier day of your retirement as the most inauspicious
day our new government has ever seen. In addition to the com-
mon interest in this question, I feel, particularly for myself, the
considerations of gratitude which I personally owe you for your
valuable aid during my administration of public affairs, a just
sense of the large portion of the public approbation which was
earned by your labors and belongs to you, and the sincere friend-
ship and attachment which grew out of our joint exertions to
promote the common good, and of which I pray you now to
accept the most cordial and respectful assurances.
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
WASHINGTON, November 8, 1809.
DEAK SIR, I perused your affectionate letter of the llth
ult. with lively sensations of pleasure, excited by that additional
evidence of your continued kindness and partiality. To have
acquired and preserved your friendship and confidence is more
than sufficient to console me for some late personal mortifications,
though I will not affect to conceal that these, coming from an
unexpected quarter, and being as I thought unmerited, wounded
my feelings more deeply than I had at first been aware of.
[Had I listened only to those feelings, I would have resigned
and probably taken this winter a seat in Congress, which as a
personal object would have been much more pleasing than my
present situation, and also better calculated to regain the ground
which to my surprise I found I had lost at least in one of the
branches of the Legislature. After mature consideration I
relinquished the idea, at least for that time, in a great degree
on account of my personal attachment to Mr. Madison, which
is of old standing, I am sure reciprocal, and strengthened from
greater intimacy ; and also because I mistrusted my own
judgment, and doubted whether I was not more useful where
I was than I could be as a member of Congress. All this
passed in my mind before the last session ; and the communi-
cation which I made to you at Monticello arose from subsequent
circumstances.] l
1 The passages in brackets were omitted in the final draft.
1809. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 409
Yet I can assure you that I will not listen to those feelings
in forming a final determination on the subject on which I con-
versed with you at Monticello. The gratitude and duty I owe
to the country which has received me and honored me beyond
my deserts, the deep interest I feel in its future welfare and
prosperity, the confidence placed by Mr. Madison in me, my
personal and sincere attachment for him, the desire of honorably
acquiring some share of reputation, every public and private
motive would induce me not to abandon my post, if I am per-
mitted to retain it, and if my remaining in office can be of
public utility. But in both respects I have strong apprehensions,
to which I alluded in our conversation. It has seemed to me
from various circumstances that those who thought they had
injured were disposed to destroy, and that they were sufficiently
skilful and formidable to effect their object. As I may not,
however, perhaps see their actions with an unprejudiced eye,
nothing but irresistible evidence both of the intention and
success will make me yield to that consideration. But if that
ground which you have so forcibly presented to my view is
deserted ; if those principles which we have uniformly asserted
and which were successfully supported during your Adminis-
tration are no longer adhered to, you must agree with me that
to continue in the Treasury would be neither useful to the public
or honorable to myself.
The reduction of the public debt was certainly the principal
object in bringing me into office, and our success in that respect
has been due both to the joint and continued efforts of the sev-
eral branches of government and to the prosperous situation of
the country. I am sensible that the work cannot progress under
adverse circumstances. If the United States shall be forced into
a state of actual war, all the resources of the country must be
called forth to make it efficient, and new loans will undoubtedly
be wanted. But whilst peace is preserved the revenue will, at
all events, be sufficient to pay the interest and to defray neces-
sary expenses. I do not ask that in the present situation of our
foreign relations the debt be reduced, but only that it shall not
be increased so long as we are not at war. I do not pretend to
step out of my own sphere and to control the internal manage-
410 LIFE OF ALBEET GALL ATI N. 1809.
meDt of other Departments. But it seems to me that, as Secre-
tary of the Treasury, I may ask that whilst peace continues the
aggregate of expenditure of those Departments be kept within
bounds, such as will preserve the equilibrium between the
national revenue and expenditure without recurrence to loans.
I cannot, my dear sir, consent to act the part of a mere financier,
to become a contriver of taxes, a dealer of loans, a seeker of
resources for the purpose of supporting useless baubles, of in-
creasing the number of idle and dissipated members of the com-
munity, of fattening contractors, pursers, and agents, and of
introducing in all its ramifications that system of patronage,
corruption, and rottenness which you so justly execrate. I
thought I owed it to candor and friendship to communicate as I
did to Mr. Madison and to yourself my fears of a tendency in
that direction, arising from the quarter and causes which I
pointed out, and the effect such a result must have on my con-
duct. I earnestly wish that my apprehensions may have been
groundless, and it is a question which facts and particularly the
approaching session of Congress will decide. No efforts shall
be wanted on my part in support of our old principles. But,
whatever the result may be, I never can forget either your
eminent services to the United States, nor how much I owe to
you for having permitted me to take a subordinate part in your
labors.
Mr. Jefferson's letter was obviously written not merely to
encourage Mr. Gallatin, but to be shown to members of Con-
gress. From it one would suppose that Mr. Gallatin had in
the moment of departure merely suggested the possibility of
his retirement; from Mr. Gallatin's reply, which has no such
semi-official reticence, the real import of the conversation, and
the fact that it was addressed to Mr. Madison, are made
evident.
"Those who thought they had injured were disposed to
destroy, and were sufficiently skilful and formidable to effect
their object." Mr. Gallatin's life for the next four years was
little more than a commentary on this paragraph. There has,
perhaps, never in our history been a personal contest more
1809. THE TKEASURY. 1801-1813. 411
determined, more ferocious, more mischievous than this between
Mr. Gallatin, with the Executive behind him, and the knot of
his enemies who controlled the Senate ; it is not too much to
say that to this struggle, complicating itself with the rising
spirit of young nationality, we owe the war of 1812, and some
of the most imminent perils the nation ever incurred. It was
not unlike the great contest of ten years before between John
Adams and a similar group of Senators; it went through a
similar phase, and in each case the result was dependent on the
question of war or peace. There are few more interesting con-
trasts of character in our history than that between the New
England President, with his intense personality and his over-
powering bursts of passion, confronting his enemies with a will
that could not control or even mask its features, and "the
Genevan," as the Aurora called him, calm, reticent, wary, never
vehement, full of resource, ignoring enmity, hating strife. Per-
haps a combination of two such characters, if they could have
been made to work in harmony, might have proved too much
even for the Senate ; and, if so, a problem in American history
might have been solved, for, as it was, the Senate succeeded in
overthrowing both.
As Mr. Gallatin had predicted, the mission of Mr. Jackson
proved to be merely one more insult, and our government very
soon put an end to its relations with him and sent him away;
but, in doing so, Mr. Madison expressly declared the undimin-
islied desire of the United States to establish friendly relations
with Great Britain, so that the only eifect of this episode was to
procure one year more of delay ; precisely the object which Mr.
Canning had in view. As the country now stood, Mr. Can-
ning's policy had been completely successful ; he had taken
away the neutral commerce of the United States, and the United
States had submitted to his will ; he had taken away her sea-
men, and she forced her seamen to go. Just at this moment
Mr. Canning himself was thrown out of office ; his dictatorial
temper met more resistance from his colleagues than from Amer-
ica, and he found himself a private man, with a duel on his
hands, at the instant when his administration of foreign affairs
was most triumphant. His successor was the Marquess Welles-
412 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1809.
ley, whose reputation for courtesy and liberality was high, and
therefore inspired the United States with a hope of justice, for
even Mr. Madison, as his letters show, could never quite per-
suade himself that the British government meant what its acts
proclaimed.
The dismissal of Mr. Jackson immediately preceded the meet-
ing of Congress; the interval was hardly sufficient to supply time
for elaborating a new policy. The President's message, sent in
on the 29th November, 1809, was very non-committal on the
subject of further legislation, and only expressed two opinions as
to its character; he was confident that it would be worthy of the
nation, and that it would be stamped with unanimity. What
ground Mr. Madison had for this confidence, nowhere appears ;
and if he was honest in expressing this as an opinion rather than
as a hope, he was very little aware of the condition of Congress;
even Mr. Jeiferson never was more mistaken.
As usual, the task of creating and carrying through Congress
the Executive policy fell upon Mr. Gallatin, and as usual,
bowing to the necessities of the situation, he set himself to
invent some scheme that would have a chance of uniting a
majority in its support and of giving government solid ground
to stand upon. The task was more than difficult, it was im-
possible. Since the war-policy broke down and the embargo
was abandoned, no solid ground was left; Mr. Gallatin, how-
ever, had this riddle to solve, and his solution was not wanting
in ingenuity.
His report, sent in on December 8, 1809, for the first time
announced a deficit. " The expenses of government, exclusively
of the payments on account of the principal of the debt, have
exceeded the actual receipts into the Treasury by a sum of near
$1,300,000." This was a part of the price of the embargo.
For the next year authority for a loan of $4,000,000 would be
required in case the military and naval expenditure were as large
as in 1809 ; if Congress should resolve 011 a permanent increase
in the military and naval establishments, additional duties would
be requisite ; if not, a continuation of the Mediterranean Fund
would be sufficient.
But the essence of the report lay in its last paragraph. " What-
1809. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 413
ever may be the decision of Congress in other respects, there is a
subject which seems to require immediate attention. The pro-
visions adopted for the purpose of carrying into effect the non-
intercourse with England and France, particularly as modified
by the act of last session, under an expectation that the orders
of council of Great Britain had been revoked, are inefficient and
altogether, inapplicable to existing circumstances. It will be
sufficient to observe that exportation by land is not forbidden,
and that no bonds being required from vessels ostensibly em-
ployed in the coasting-trade, nor any authority vested by law
which will justify detention, those vessels daily sail for British
ports without any other remedy but the precarious mode of in-
stituting prosecutions against the apparent owners. It is un-
necessary and it would be painful to dwell on all the effects of
those violations of the laws. But without any allusion to tho
efficiency or political object of any system, and merely with a
view to its execution, it is incumbent to state that from the ex-
perience of the last two years a perfect conviction arises that
either the system of restriction, partially abandoned, must be re-
instated in all its parts and with all the provisions necessary
for its strict and complete execution, or that all the restrictions,
so far at least as they affect the commerce and navigation of the
citizens of the United States, ought to be removed."
This report, as already said, was sent to Congress on the 8th
December, 1809. On the 19th December, Mr. Macon, from the
Committee on Foreign Relations, reported a bill which was under-
stood to come from the Treasury Department, and which ex-
plained the somewhat obscure suggestion in the last lines of the
report. This bill, commonly known as Macon's bill, No. 1,
contained twelve sections. The 1st and 2d excluded English
and French ships of war from our harbors ; the 3d excluded
English and French merchant vessels from our harbors; the
4th restricted all importations of English and French goods
to vessels owned wholly by United States citizens; the 5th,
6th, 7th, and 8th restricted these importations to such as came
directly from England and France; the 9th authorized the Presi-
dent to remove these restrictions whenever either England or
France should remove theirs; the llth repealed the old non-
414 LIFE OP ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1810.
intercourse, and the 12th limited the duration of the act to the
4th March, 1810.
The bill was in short a Navigation Act of the most severe
kind, and met the orders in council and the French edicts on
their own ground. The Federalists at once pointed out that the
measure was a violent one ; that it would be immediately met by
Great Britain with retaliatory measures, and that the result must
amount to a new embargo or to war. To this the supporters of
the bill replied that government contemplated such retaliation ;
that it was intended to throw the burden upon England and
compel her to carry it ; that Congress had tried an embargo, tli3
principle of which was non-exportation ; that it had tried non-
intercourse, the principle of which was non-importation; and
now, since both these had failed, it must try a navigation law
that could only be countervailed by restrictive measures to be
carried out by England herself.
The fact soon appeared that this bill was a very difficult one
for its opponents to deal with ; it did in fact strike out the only
policy, short of war, which was likely to bring England to terms,
and which, according to Mr. Huskisson's assertion some years
later, 1 she has always found herself powerless to meet. The
opponents of the bill at once showed their embarrassment in a
manner which is always proof of weakness ; they adopted in the
same breath two contradictory arguments; the bill was too strong,
and it was too weak. For the Federalists it was too strong; they
wished frankly to take sides with England.' For Duane and
Leib it was too weak, a mean submission, a futile and disgrace-
ful measure ; not that they wished war, for they did not as yet
venture to take that ground ; not that they suggested any practi-
cal measure that would stand a moment's criticism ; but that they
were decidedly opposed to this special plan. So far as war was
concerned, the President was still in advance of Congress, for
not only was Macon's bill a stronger measure than the majority
relished, but the President was calling upon Congress to fill up
the army and the navy, and Mr. Gallatin was steadily pressing
for war taxes.
i Speech of 12th May, 1826.
1810. THE TKEASURY. 1801-1813. 415
After more than a month of debate, Macon's bill passed the
House by 73 to 52, and went up to the Senate, where it was con-
signed to the tender mercies of General Smith and Mr. Giles.
On the motion of General Smith, February 21, 1810, all the
clauses except the 1st, 2d, and 12th were struck out by a vote
of 16 to 11. The Senate debates are not reported, but General
Smith subsequently made a speech on the bill, which he printed,
and in which he took the ground that the measure was feeble,
and that it was so strong as to justify England in confiscating
all our trade. This was the ground also taken by the Aurora.
General Smith proposed to arm our merchant vessels and furnish
them convoy, a measure over and over again rejected. By a vote
of 17 to 15 the Senate ultimately adhered to its amendments and
killed the bill, Gallatin's personal enemies deciding the result.
Throughout all this transaction the Secretary of State had
acted a curious part. Silent or assenting in the Cabinet, where,
notwithstanding rumors to the. contrary, there was always ap-
parent cordiality, Mr. Smith's conversation out-of-doors, and
especially with opponents of the Administration, was very free
in condemnation of the whole policy which he officially repre-
sented. 1 No one, indeed, either in or out of the Cabinet, pre-
tended an enthusiastic admiration of Macon's bill ; Mr. Madison,
Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Macon himself, only regarded it as "better
than nothing," and " nothing" was the alternative. Congress
had put the country into a position equally humiliating, ridicu-
lous, and unprofitable ; it had for two sessions refused to follow
the Administration and had refused to impose any policy of its
own. The influence of General Smith, solitary and unsupported
except by Leib and the Aurora faction, now barred the path of
legislation and held Congress down to its contemptible and
crouching attitude of impotent gesticulation and rant. The
Secretary of State was a party to his brother's acts, and although
too dull a man to have any distinct scheme of his own or any
depth of intrigue; although obliged to let the President write
his official papers and Mr. Gallatin control both his foreign and
his domestic policy, he nevertheless used the liberty thus obtained
1 See Mr. Madison's " Memorandum." Writings, ii. 495-506.
416 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1810.
to talk with unreserved freedom both to Federalists and discon-
tented Republicans about the characters of his associates and the
contents of his despatches.
Thus the policy of a Navigation Act was defeated, and another
year was lost. Only at the very close of the session, when it
became apparent that something must be done, Mr. Macon got
his bill No. 2 before the House. This was on April 7, and on
the 10th he wrote to Nicholson : " I am at a loss to guess what we
shall do on the subject of foreign relations. The bill in the en-
closed paper, called Macon's No. 2, is not really Macon's, though
he reports it as chairman. It is in truth Taylor's. This I only
mention to you because when it comes to be debated I shall not
act the part of a father but of a step-father." After a violent
struggle between the two Houses, a bill was at length passed, on
May 1, 1810, which has strong claims to be considered the most
disgraceful act on the American statute-book. It surrendered all
resistance to the British and French orders and edicts; it repealed
the non-importation law ; it left our shipping unprotected to the
operation of foreign municipal laws ; it offered not even a pro-
test against violence and robbery such as few powerful nations
had ever endured except at the edge of the sword ; and its only
proposition towards these two foreign nations, each of which had
exhausted upon us every form of insult and robbery, was an
offer that if either would repeal its edicts, the United States
would prohibit trade with the other.
The imagination can scarcely conceive of any act more undig-
nified, more cowardly, or, as it proved, more mischievous ; but
in the utter paralysis into which these party quarrels had now
brought Congress, this was all the legislation that could be
got, although, in justice to Congress, it is but fair to add that
even this was universally contemned. The Administration had
nothing to do but to execute it, and to make what it could of the
policy it established.
In the contest upon Macon's bill, Mr. Gallatin had the Presi-
dent's full support and co-operation. But in another and to him
a much more serious struggle he stood quite alone, and all he
could obtain from the President was that the Executive influence
should not be thrown against him. The charter of the United
1810. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 417
States Bank was about to expire. In the present condition of
the country, with war always in prospect and public and private
finances seriously disordered, the bank was an institution almost
if not quite indispensable to the Treasury. To abolish it was to
create artificially and unnecessarily a very serious financial em-
barrassment at the moment when the national existence might
turn on financial steadiness. To create a new system that would
answer the same purposes would be the work of years, and would
require the most careful experiments. The subject had been re-
ferred to Mr. Gallatin by the Senate, and he had at the close of
the last session sent in a report representing in strong language
the advantages derived from the bank. He now drew up a bill
by which the existing charter was to be considerably modified ;
the capital raised to thirty millions, three-fifths of which was to
be lent to the government ; branch banks to be established in
each State, and half the directors appointed by the State ; with
various other provisions intended to secure the utmost possible
advantage to the government. Parties at once divided on this
question as on the foreign intercourse question, but with a
change of sides. The Federalists favored, the old Republicans
resisted, the bank, and General Smith resisted Mr. Gallatin.
During this session, however, little more was done than to in-
troduce the bills ; the matter was then thrown aside until next
year.
These subjects, and a hasty report on domestic manufactures,
occupied the session almost exclusively, so far as Mr. Gallatin
was concerned. When Congress rose, on the 1st May, 1810,
every one was obliged to concede that a more futile session had
never been held, and the Aurora fulminated against Mr. Galla-
tin as the cause of all its shortcomings. More and more the
different elements of personal discontent made common cause
against the Secretary of the Treasury, and before the end of
the year 1810 the Aurora and its allies opened a determined
assault upon him with the avowed intention of driving him
from office.
It was in reference to these attacks, which incessantly recurred
to the old stories of 1806, that Mr. Jefferson wrote to Mr. Gal-
latin as follows :
27
418 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1810.
JEFFERSON TO GALLATIN.
16 August, 1810.
I have seen with infinite grief the set which is made at you
in the public papers, and with the more as my name has been so
much used in it. I hope we both know one another too well to
receive impression from circumstances of this kind. A twelve
years' intimate and friendly intercourse must be better evidence
to each of the dispositions of the other than the letters of foreign
ministers to their courts, or tortured inferences from facts true
or false. I have too thorough a conviction of your cordial good-
will towards me, and too strong a sense of the faithful and able
assistance I received from you, to relinquish them on any evidence
but of my own senses. With entire confidence in your assurance
of these truths I shall add those only of my constant aftection
and high respect.
" The letters of foreign ministers to their courts" were Mr.
Erskine's despatches of December, 1808, to Mr. Canning, which
had been printed in England, and, on reaching America, com-
pelled Mr. Gallatin very reluctantly to make a public denial of
their accuracy. 1 They represented Mr. Gallatin as acquiescing in
the belief that Mr. Jefferson was under French influence. Mr.
Gallatin, with the aid of Mr. Madison, drew up a paper correcting
Mr. Erskine's errors, and of course stimulating the attacks of the
Aurora. To Mr. Jefferson's letter Gallatin replied :
GALLATIN TO JEFFERSON.
10th September, 1810.
I need not say how much shocked I was by Mr. Erskine's
despatch. However reluctant to a newspaper publication and
to a denial on matters of fact, I could not permit my name to
be ever hereafter quoted in support of the vile charges of foreign
partialities ascribed to you, and I knew that in that respect my
disavowal would be decisive, for, if my testimony was believed,
they did not exist, and if disbelieved, no faith could be placed
1 See Writings, vol. i. p. 475.
1810. THE TEE ASTIR Y. 1801-1813. 419
in whatever I might be supposed to have said to Erskine.
Although I never for a moment supposed that either his letter
or any newspaper attack could, after so long and intimate ac-
quaintance, create a doubt in your mind of the sincerity and
warmth of my sentiments towards you, or alter your friend-
ship for me, the assurance was highly acceptable and gratefully
received. The newspaper publications to which you allude,
I have heard of, but not seen, having not received the papers
south of this place [New York] during my stay here. But I
had anticipated that from various quarters a combined and malig-
nant attack would be made whenever a favorable opportunity
offered itself. Of the true causes and real authors I will say
nothing. And however painful the circumstance and injurious
the effect, the esteem of those who know me and the consciousness
of having exclusively devoted my faculties to the public good,
and of having severely performed public duties without regard
to personal consequences, will, I hope, support me against evils
for which there is no other remedy. Yet that a diminution of
public confidence should lessen my usefulness will be a subject
of deep regret.
Meanwhile, the situation of affairs abroad was more and more
becoming the measure of American politics, and the question of
war or peace was more and more clearly defined as the turning-
point of Mr. Gallatin's life. The exhaustion of the Treasury
was alone, for him, a sufficient argument against war. He began
to believe, and he was right in believing, that the worst had
now passed ; that, as America could hardly suffer more humilia-
tion than she had already borne, her objects could perhaps be
attained by peaceful methods ; and almost mechanically, as the
government became impressed with this conviction, the oppo-
sition, so far as it was personal, tended to the opposite side, and
advocated war. There was no other ground to stand upon,
unless they went frankly over to the Federalists, which was
rapidly becoming inevitable if they continued their old tactics.
Curiously enough, the feeble and disgraceful law of May 1,
1810, known as Macon's law, had a more immediate effect on
the situation abroad than any of the stronger measures which
420 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1810.
had been tried. Ever since the repeal of the embargo on March
4, 1809, England had been the favored nation ; our people, in
fact, gave her our commerce on her own terms, and were glad
to do so. Macon's law did away with even the pretence of
resistance to her authority on the ocean. Disgraceful as such a
result doubtless was to the honor and dignity of the United
States, it was in its eifects on France a very vigorous engine, for
it was nothing more nor less than taking active part with Eng-
land against her; and inasmuch as Bonaparte had within his
limited range shown, if possible, somewhat more disposition to
rob us, and a still greater latitude of personal insult, than had
been displayed even by Mr. Canning, this result might fairly
be viewed with indifference, or perhaps with some slight satis-
faction, by the people of the United States. Upon the Emperor
it acted, as with a man of his temper was not unnatural, in a
most decided manner; he was furious ; he seized all the American
property he could get within his clutches; he stormed at the
American minister, and heaped outrage upon insult ; but the fatal
arrow could not be shaken out ; random as the shot had been, it
struck a vital spot, and Bonaparte had to submit. The change
which he was thus forced to make illustrates his character.
When the Act of May 1, 1810, commonly known as Macon's
Act, reached Paris, General Armstrong communicated it inof-
ficially to the minister of foreign affairs, Champagny, Duke de
Cadore, who laid it before the Emperor. According to all ordi-
nary theories, the Act of May 1, by which the non-intercourse was
repealed, would work against France and against France alone ;
by it America abandoned even the pretence of resisting the abso-
lute domination of England on the seas, and accepted whatever
commercial law she chose to impose. The Emperor, moreover,
had no means of counteracting or punishing it. He had already
resorted to the strongest measure at his command, and seized all
the American vessels he could lay his hands on. These were now
waiting condemnation. The next step was war, which would,
of course, operate only to the advantage of England. For once
Bonaparte was obliged to retrace his steps, or at least affect to do so.
On the 5th August, therefore, the Duke de Cadore wrote to
General Armstrong a letter, in which, with the usual effrontery
1810. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 421
of the imperial government, he took the ground that the Act of
May 1 was a concession to France, and that France recognized
its obligations. "The Emperor loves the Americans;" the
Emperor revoked his decrees of Berlin and Milan, which, after
the 1st November next, would cease to have effect, it being
understood that, in consequence of this declaration, the English
should revoke their orders in council and renounce their new
principles of blockade, or that America should carry out the
terms of the Act and cause her rights to be respected.
This letter was curious in many ways, but it is to be observed
more particularly that while Macon's law required either bel-
ligerent to " so revoke or modify her edicts as that they shall
cease to violate the neutral commerce of the United States," the
Emperor as a matter of fact revoked only the Berlin and Milan
decrees, and said nothing of others still more offensive, especially
the Rambouillet decree, then only four months old, under which
he now held and meant to continue holding possession of all the
American property in France, a decree unknown to Congress
when the law of May 1 was passed.
Then came the Emperor's master-stroke, which was to punish
the Americans for blundering into success. Long unknown to
our government, it was only revealed by accident to Mr. Gallatin
when minister to France in 1821, after Napoleon and his decrees
had been forgotten by all but the unhappy merchants whom he
had plundered. At that time the Duke de Bassano, Napoleon's
Minister of State, had been allowed by the government of
Louis XVIII. to return to Paris. He had preserved a register
of the various acts and decrees of Napoleon, and was more in-
timate with their nature and bearing than any one even in the
government of that time. To him the claimants sometimes
applied for copies of documents to support their memorials, and
he furnished them. On one occasion they sought the text of an
order by which the proceeds of certain cargoes sequestered at
Antwerp were transferred to the Treasury. The Duke furnished
what he supposed to be the paper, and it was brought to Mr.
Gallatin. The following extract from his despatch of 15th
September, 1821, to the Department of State explains what this
paper was, and what his sensations were in regard to it.
422 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1810.
*' The enclosed copy of a decree dated at Trianon on the 5th
of August, 1810, which has never been published nor, to my
knowledge, communicated to our ministers or government, was
obtained through a private channel. ... It bears date the same
day on which it was officially communicated to our minister that
the Berlin and Milan decrees would be revoked on the first day
of the ensuing November, and no one can suppose that if it had
been communicated or published at the same time, the United
States would, with respect to the promised revocation of the
Berlin and Milan decrees, have taken that ground which ulti-
mately led to the war with Great Britain. It is indeed unneces-
sary to comment on such a glaring act of combined injustice, bad
faith, and meanness, as the enactment and concealment of that
decree exhibits."
The text of this decree which proved how " His Majesty loves
the Americans. Their prosperity and their commerce are within
the scope of his policy ;" and which was written with the same
pen on the same day as that celebrated declaration of Napoleonic
affection, the full text of this decree may be seen attached to
Mr. Gallatin's despatch. 1 Under the pretext of reprisals for
American confiscations which had never in fact been made, 2 it
confiscated into the imperial treasury, without trial or delay, all
American property in France, both that which had been already
sequestered and sold, subject to final judgment, and that which
was still in the form of merchandise or ships brought into France
previous to the 1st May, 1810, the date of Macon's Act. And
it further provided that until November 1, when the Berlin and
Milan decrees were to be conditionally revoked, American ships
should be allowed to enter French ports, but not to unload,
and presumably not to depart, without a permission from the
Emperor.
When Mr. Gallatin, at sixty years of age, used language so
strong as that just quoted and characterized an act as one of com-
bined injustice, bad faith, and meanness, the world may very
reasonably conclude that he was unusually moved. On another
occasion he called it "a mean and perfidious act." There was
1 Writings, vol. ii. p. 198. 2 Ibid., p. 279.
1810. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 423
good reason why he should have been deeply exasperated at the
discovery, for of that meanness and perfidy he was a principal
victim.
What share Mr. Gallatin now had in deciding the action of
the President is unknown. In the absence of evidence to the
contrary it is to be presumed that he at least acquiesced in the
decision of the Cabinet, yet not only is it clear that the letter of
Champagny of August 5 was not a compliance with the terms
of Macon's Act ; did not revoke or modify Napoleon's edicts so
as that " they shall cease to violate the neutral commerce of the
United States/' and, therefore, that the President had no legal
power to act as though it did ; but it is clear, from Secretary
Smith's letter on the subject to General Armstrong, dated Novem-
ber 2, 1810, that the President was aware of the fact and escaped
it only by strange subterfuge. Already on the 5th July Mr.
Smith had instructed General Armstrong that "a satisfactory
provision for restoring the property lately surprised and seized
by the order or at the instance of the French government must
be combined with a repeal of the French edicts, with a view to
a non-intercourse with Great Britain, such a provision being an
indispensable evidence of the just purpose of France toward the
United States." Yet, on the 2d November, writing to General
Armstrong that the President had issued his proclamation against
England on the strength of the French revocation of the Berlin
and Milan decrees alone, Mr. Smith could only justify this evi-
dent abandonment of his former and correct ground by adding :
" You will, however, let the French government understand that
this has been done on the ground that the repeal of these decrees
does involve an extinguishment of all the edicts of France
actually violating our neutral rights. . . . It is to be remarked,
moreover, that in issuing the Proclamation it has been presumed
that the requisition contained in that letter [of July 5], on the
subject of the sequestered property, will have been satisfied ;" and
the writer goes on to show on what evidence this presumption
rested.
That is to say, President Madison did an act which he recog-
nized as one of doubtful propriety, on the ground of two assump-
tions of fact, neither of which had the smallest foundation.
424 LIFE Or ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1810.
These objections and criticisms were made at the time, and they
were semi-officially answered by Joel Barlow in the National
Intelligencer of July 9, 1811, by drawing a distinction between
"belligerent maritime edicts violating our neutral rights, and
edicts authorizing other depredations on the property of our
citizens." The Berlin and Milan decrees, it appears, were mari-
time; the Rambouillet decree was municipal, not a violation
of our neutral rights contemplated by Macon's Act. Similar
British depredations had been disregarded in accepting Erskine's
arrangement.
If this were the case in November, Mr. Madison would have
done better not to have said in July that a revocation of the
Rambouillet decree was an indispensable evidence of the Empe-
ror's intentions, and also that he assumed, on the part of the
French government, an extinguishment of all its edicts and a
restoration of the sequestered property as the ground of his
proclamation. Moreover, if this were the case, it is not quite
plain why Mr. Gallatin should have declared in 1821 that a
knowledge of the secret Trianon decree would have prevented
Mr. Madison from issuing that proclamation. The Trianon
decree was merely the authority for acts which were notorious.
Although there is not a shadow of evidence to show what
Mr. Gallatin's opinions on this question were, yet the result
of the decision was so important in its ultimate bearings upon
his fortune that the subject could not be left unmentioned. In
Mr. Madison's private letters of this time there is a disposition
clearly evident to subordinate all other considerations to the
object of bringing England to terms, and this doubtless was
the tendency of public feeling. Acting on this principle, the
Administration decided that Champagny's announcement of the
intended revocation of the Berlin and Milan decrees was a suf-
ficient fulfilment of the terms of Maeon's Act, and accordingly,
on the 1st November, issued the proclamation to that effect.
Simultaneously Mr. Gallatin issued a circular to the collectors
announcing that after the 2d February, 1811, all intercourse
with Great Britain and her dependencies would cease.
In this there was nothing unfair to England. Napoleon had
in appearance been compelled to give way, and the United States
I
1810. THE TKEASUEY. 1801-1813. 425
had a perfect right to make the most of her success. If in doing
so she submitted to more robbery, this was no more than she
had done when she had attempted similar arrangements with
England ; it was less than she had done every day for nearly
twenty years, in submitting to the impressments of her seamen
for the benefit of the British navy. Nevertheless, the ground on
which she stood was very weak as regarded argument, for there
could be no reasonable doubt then, any more than there was ten
years later, that Bonaparte had acted a " mean and perfidious"
part, and yet she called upon England to act as though it were
an honest one. England rightly enough replied that Napoleon
was attempting another fraud to which England would not be a
party ; thus the situation was rendered more critical than ever,
and Napoleon, by a course of conduct which was precisely what
Mr. Gallatin described it in 1821, plunged the United States
into a war with England on ground that, so far as France was
concerned, would not bear examination.
Though there is reason to regret that Mr. Madison should
have made himself so eagerly the dupe of Napoleon, and though
there seems to be something surprising in the irritation of Mr.
Gallatin on discovering only one among the many instruments
of the Emperor's duplicity, the good faith of the American gov-
ernment cannot fairly be called in question. The situation of
the United States as regarded England was intolerable, and
Mr. Madison snatched at any fair expedient to escape it. Eng-
land alleged that the Berlin and Milan decrees were the cause
of her orders in council. The United States, by a lucky stroke
of legislation, compelled Napoleon to promise revocation of those
decrees on a certain day, and then turned that promise against
England. England refused belief in it, which was reasonable
enough, but in reality had those decrees been the only cause of
the orders in council, the alleged revocation would have afforded
ample excuse for England's concession. On both sides the diplo-
matic veil was transparent. Napoleon, in fact, had not revoked
his decrees, as he unblushingly avowed within the next year,
while England cared nothing for those decrees, except so far as
they were mere municipal regulations ; so far as they violated
international law on the ocean they were, indeed, quite ineffect-
426 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1811.
ive. England's real object was to maintain her clutch on
American shipping and sailors.
Such was the situation of affairs when Congress met on the
3d December, 1810. One more step had been taken, but no
man could certainly say whether it was towards a solution.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gallatin was burdened with an undertaking
that plunged him deeper into the miserable complications of
political warfare, disorganizing his followers and his friends,
stimulating personal hostilities, and yet leaving him no choice
of action. The question of the bank charter was to be decided
this winter before the Congress expired on the 4th March, 1811.
As a matter of public welfare, more especially in the situation
the country now occupied, Mr. Gallatin was obliged to do his
utmost to prevent the destruction of the bank. It was no mere
matter of party or of personal feeling ; the bank at that moment
was essential to public safety ; to lose it might be a question of
national life.
Every argument which Mr. Gallatin could use was put to the
service of the bill. He Avas its open and earnest advocate both
in his special reports and in his conversation, yet even the ma-
lignity of the Aurora and the less bitter but perhaps more dan-
gerous hostility of the Richmond Enquirer failed to find in them
a single expression that could be made to rouse personal irritation
or popular feeling. He conducted his case with all his usual
temper, tact, and persistence ; it is due also to his opponents in
Congress to say that they avoided personal attacks upon him, at
least for the most part, and left vituperation to the press. Not
the less, however, was it distinctly understood that the bank was
the test of Mr. Gallatin's power ; that its overthrow was one and
the most important step towards driving him from office ; and
that nothing less than the overshadowing growth of his influence
could possibly make the continued existence of the bank even a
subject of discussion in the Republican party.
The debate in the House was long and able, but when a vote
was reached on January 24, 1811, the numbers stood 65 to 64 in
favor of indefinite postponement. Many of Mr. Gallatin's best
friends voted with the majority ; the Federalists in a mass voted
on his side ; his personal enemies turned the scale. Whatever
1811. THE TREASUKY. 1801-1813. 427
Mr. Gallatin's feelings were at this defeat, he made no display of
them even to his intimates. On the 28th January, Mr. Macon
wrote to Judge Nicholson : " I was at Gallatin's yesterday ; all
well. He is, I fear, rather mortified at the indefinite postpone-
ment of the bill to renew the charter of the Bank of the United
States. I am really sorry that my best judgment compelled me
on that question to vote agreeable to what I believe to be the
anxious wish of the invisibles. Mr. Madison was at the last
session, I am informed, in favor of the renewal ; that he con-
sidered it, according as my informant gave his words, res adjudi-
cata. What cause has produced the change in his mind I have
not heard. I have also been told that Mr. Giles was of the same
opinion then and that he also has changed. These are natural
rights, and ought to be exercised whenever the mind is convinced
that opinions are founded in error; but when great men, or
rather men in high, responsible stations, change their deliberate
opinions it seems to me that they in some way or other ought
to give the reason of the change. I incline to think that Mr.
Madison's opinion last winter had a good deal of weight, and it
is presumed it may have been the means of inducing a few
members to take pretty strong hold of the constitutional side of
the question. Now that he has changed, they are thrown with
Gallatin on the Federal side of the question. I also incline to
think that his present opinion has had some weight in the late
decision."
Mr. Macon was probably mistaken in thinking that the Presi-
dent had changed his position ; the letter is curious as showing
what confusion Mr. Madison's course created, but the story itself
was apparently a mere rumor set afloat by the enemies of the
bank, those " invisibles," as the Smith faction were significantly
called by Mr. Macon and his friends, and whose alliance with the
Aurora was now complete. A few days later, on the 9th Feb-
ruary, Mr. Macon wrote : " It seems to me not very improbable
that Mr. Madison's Administration may end something like Mr.
Adams's. He may endeavor to go on with the government with
men in whom he has not perfect confidence, until they break him
down, and then, as John did, turn them out after he has suffered
all that they can do to injure him. It is true, if he means ever
428 LIFE OF ALBEKT G ALL ATIN. 1811.
to turn out, he has now delayed it almost too long, because the
senatorial elections are over, while these people retained their
influence, if they can be said to have a fixed influence in the
nation."
Meanwhile the debate on the bank charter had begun in the
Senate, and a curious debate it was. Mr. William H. Crawford,
of Georgia, appeared as Mr. Gallatin's champion, and supported
the charter with such energy, courage, and ability as earned Mr.
Gallatin's lasting gratitude, and made Mr. Crawford the repre-
sentative of the Administration in the Senate, and the favorite
candidate of the Jeffersonian triumvirate for succession to the
Presidency. Mr. Giles, on the other hand, spoke judicially.
The Legislature of Virginia, like the Legislatures of Pennsyl-
vania and Kentucky, had instructed their Senators to vote against
the charter. Mr. Giles declared himself a representative of the
people of the United States, not a mere agent of the Virginia
Legislature, and his speech was an elaborate effort at candid
investigation, unaffected, as he averred, by his personal senti-
ments towards the Secretary of the Treasury. But he, too, at
last concluded that the bank was a British institution, which had
not prevented the orders in council or the attack on the Chesa-
peake, and therefore should be suppressed. He admitted that
the time was inauspicious for putting an end to the establishment,
but the danger from British influence was greater than the dan-
ger from financial confusion. Henry Clay, the young Senator
from Kentucky, followed and ridiculed the ponderous Mr. Giles,
who had " certainly demonstrated to the satisfaction of all who
heard him, both that it was constitutional and unconstitutional,
highly proper and improper, to prolong the charter of the bank."
Mr. Clay was not disposed to enlist with Mr. Giles in factious
opposition to the government, but he was still less disposed to
join Mr. Crawford in its support ; he hotly denied the constitu-
tionality of the charter, and, like Mr. Giles, he declared that the
bank was responsible for not preventing impressments and orders
in council. Then General Smith, in % speech covering two days,
proved that the whole theory of the usefulness of a national
bank was a delusion ; that State institutions were better deposi-
taries of the public money ; that the Secretary of the Treasury
1811.
THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813.
429
was quite mistaken in all his statements about the convenience
of the bank, even in regard to remittances, and knew nothing
about foreign exchange; that no possible trouble could arise
from abolishing the bank; and that the constitutional objection
was final.
On the 20th February, 1811, the Senate reached a vote. It
was 17 to 17, and the Vice-President, George Clinton, whose
personal hostility to the President was notorious, decided the
question in the negative. Among the votes which then settled
the fate of the bank, and incidentally the fate of Mr. Gallatin,
were those of Joseph Anderson, of Tennessee, Henry Clay, of
Kentucky, William B. Giles, of Virginia, Michael Leib, of
Pennsylvania, and Samuel Smith, of Maryland. Readers who
are curious in matters of biography will naturally ask how the
opinions of these men stood the test of time. Less than four
years later, after Mr, Gallatin had been fairly driven from the
Treasury, his most intimate friend, Alexander J. Dallas, was
called to fill the place. Government was bankrupt, the currency
in frightful disorder, and loans impracticable. Mr. Dallas, as
his last resource, insisted upon a bank, and he got it. Michael
Leib was then no longer in the Senate ; his political career had
come to an untimely end. Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General,
and one of the factious number, had exhausted President Mad-
ison's patience by appointing Leib postmaster at Philadelphia,
and had lost his office in consequence ; Leib was removed, and
disappeared into political obscurity. Giles was consistent in
opposing the bank, and in 1816, so soon as his senatorial term
expired, he too subsided into obscurity, from which he only
rescued himself by his success in using the same tactics against
John Quincy Adams that he had used against Albert Gallatin.
Anderson, Clay, and Smith have left their names recorded among
the supporters of the new charter.
Thus, in the face of difficulties and dangers such as might
well have appalled the wisest head and the stoutest heart, the
Legislature deprived the Executive of the only efficient financial
agent it had ever had. What the financial consequences of
destroying the bank actually were will be seen presently ; it is
enough to say that Congress acted in this instance with a degree
430 LIFE OF ALBEKT GAL LATIN. 1811.
of factious incompetence that cost the nation infinite loss and
trouble, and was not far from imperilling its existence. No one
knew better than Mr. Giles, General Smith, and George Clinton
that whatever the objections to a bank might be, this was no
time to destroy it, and even Henry Clay, with all his youthful
self-confidence, had intelligence enough to make him inexcusable
in refusing to prolong, if only for a very few years, the existence
of an agent which the Treasury considered indispensable, in the
face of a war which he was, against the will of the Administra-
tion, forcing upon its hands.
John Randolph was one of those who saw most clearly through
the intrigues that beset the government. Never strong in com-
mon sense, Randolph's mind was yielding more and more to
those aberrations which marked his later years. Though all
intimacy of relation between the two men had long ceased,
Randolph had yet preserved as much respect for Gallatin as
his universal misanthropy permitted, while at the same time
his contempt for "the invisibles" was unbounded. Whatever
mistakes Randolph made, he at least never descended so low as
to make the Aurora his ally. On the 14th February he wrote
to Judge Nicholson : " Giles made this morning the most unin-
telligible speech on the subject of the Bank of the United States
that I ever heard. He spoke upwards of two hours ; seemed
never to understand himself (except upon one commonplace
topic of British influence), and consequently excited in his
hearers no other sentiment but pity or disgust. But I shall
not be surprised to see him puffed in all the newspapers of a
certain faction. The Senate have rejected the nomination of
Alex. Wolcott to the bench of the Supreme Court 24 to 9.
The President is said to have felt great mortification at this
result. The truth seems to be that he is President dejure only.
Who exercises the office de facto I know not, but it seems agreed
on all hands that ' there is something behind the throne greater
than the throne itself.' I cannot help differing with you re-
specting [Gallatinjs resignation. If his principal will not sup-
port him by his influence against the cabal in the ministry itself,
as well as out of it, a sense of self-respect, it would seem to me,
ought to impel him to retire from a situation where, with a
1811. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 431
tremendous responsibility, he is utterly destitute of power. Our
Cabinet presents a novel spectacle in the political world; divided
against itself, and the most deadly animosity raging between its
principal members, what can come of it but confusion, mischief,
and ruin? Macon is quite out of heart. I am almost indifferent
to any possible result. Is this wisdom or apathy ? I fear the
latter."
A few hours later he added : " Since I wrote to you to-night,
Stanford has shown me the last Aurora, a paper that I never
read, but I could not refrain, at his instance, from casting my
eyes over some paragraphs relating to the Secretary of the
Treasury. Surely, under such circumstances, Mr. G. can no
longer hesitate how to act. It appears to me that only one
course is left to him, to go immediately to the P., and to de-
mand either the dismissal of Mr. [Smith] or his own. !STo man
can doubt by whom this machinery is put in motion. There is
no longer room to feign ignorance or to temporize. It is un-
necessary to say to you that I am not through you addressing
myself to another. My knowledge of the interest which you
take not merely in the welfare of Mr. G., but in that of the
State, induces me to express myself to you on this subject. I
wish you would come up here. There are more things in this
world of intrigue than you wot of, and I should like to com-
mune with you upon some of them."
Again, on February 17, Randolph wrote: "I am not con-
vinced by your representations respecting [Gallatin], although
they are not without weight. Surely it would not be difficult to
point out to the President the impossibility of conducting the
affairs of the government with such a counteraction in the very
Cabinet itself, without assuming anything like a disposition to
dictate. Things as they are cannot go on much longer. The
Administration are now in fact aground at the pitch of high
tide, and a spring tide too. Nothing, then, remains but to
lighten the ship, which a dead calm has hitherto kept from
going to pieces. If the cabal succeed in their present projects,
and I see nothing but promptitude and decision that can pre-
vent it, the nation is undone. The state of affairs for some time
past has been highly favorable to their views, which at this
432 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1811.
moment are more flattering than ever. I am satisfied that
Mr. G., by a timely resistance to their schemes, might have
defeated them and rendered the whole cabal as impotent as
nature would seem to have intended them to be, for in point of
ability (capacity for intrigue excepted) they are utterly contempt-
ible and insignificant."
Randolph did not know that even as early as the autumn of
1809 Mr. Gallatin had strained his influence to the utmost to
offer " timely resistance to their schemes ;" and even Randolph,
on reflection, doubted " whether Madison will be able to meet
the shock of the Aurora, Whig, Enquirer, Boston Patriot, &c.,
&c. ; and it is highly probable that, beaten in detail by the
superior activity and vigor of the Smiths, he may sink ulti-
mately into their arms, and unquestionably will, in that case,
receive the law from them."
In all this confusion one thing was clear, Mr. Gallatin's
usefulness was exhausted. There are moments in politics when
great results can be reached only by small men, a maxim
which, however paradoxical, may easily be verified. Especially
in a democracy the people are apt to become impatient of rule,
and will at times obstinately refuse to move at the call of a
leader, when, if left to themselves, they will blunder through all
obstacles, blindly enough, it is true, but effectually. Mr. Gallatin
was now an impediment to government, even though it was
conceded that the Treasury could not go on without him ; that
the party contained no man who could fill his place ; that if he
retired, confusion must ensue. To Mr. Madison the loss would
of course be extremely embarrassing ; for ten years Gallatin had
taken from the President's shoulders the main burden of internal
administration and a large part of the responsibilities of foreign
relations; his immense knowledge, his long practical experience,
his tact, his fertility of resource, his patience, his courage, his
unselfishness, his personal attachment, his retentive memory,
even his reticence, were each and all impossible to replace. The
material from which Mr. Madison would have to draw was, in
comparison, ridiculously unequal to the draft. For ten years
the triumvirate had looked about them to find allies and succes-
sors ; John Randolph had failed them from sheer inability to
1811. THE TREASUEY. 1801-1813. 433
follow any straight course; John Breckenridge, of Kentucky,
had died at the outset of his career ; Monroe had not developed
great powers, and had repeatedly disappointed their expecta-
tions, yet Monroe was still the best they had; William H.
Crawford was a crude Georgian, with abilities not yet tried in
administration ; as for Giles, General Smith, and the other minor
luminaries of the old party, their relations with Mr. Madison
were hardly better than Randolph's. Whom, then, could he put
in the Treasury ? What dozen men in the party could pretend
to make good to him the loss of his old companion? How
could the Administration stand without him ?
All this was urged at the time, and was obvious enough to the
great body of Republicans in Congress; and yet, granting all
this, it was answered that Mr. Gallatin had better retire. Un-
doubtedly the business of the Treasury would break down ; that
is to say, the public interests would for a time be ignorantly,
wastefully, and perhaps corruptly managed; undoubtedly Mr.
Madison would be left in a most unpleasant situation, and would
find his personal difficulties vastly increased ; Congress and the
press would precipitate themselves upon him instead of upon
Mr. Gallatin, and he would inevitably be swept away by the
torrent. This, however, would be only temporary; the evil
would cure itself; faction would produce force to oppose it, and
a generation of younger men would invent its own processes to
solve its own problems.
Mr. Gallatin saw the situation as clearly as any disinterested
spectator could have done, and fully accepted it. At the close
of the bank struggle he recognized that he was defeated and that
his power for good was gone. It was at once rumored that he
would resign. Judge Nicholson wrote on the 6th March, two
days after the session ended : " Randolph is here, and told me
that a friend mentioned to him that you would probably resign
in September, as it would take you till that time to arrange the
matters in the Treasury. He did not say in express terms, but
I collected that he alluded to Crawford, and I fear that the joint
remonstrances of his friends here have not had their due weight
with Mr. M."
The following letter, printed from a first draft without date,
28
434 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1811.
was probably written at this time, and delivered on the adjourn-
ment of Congress, March 4, or immediately afterwards :
GALLATIN TO MADISON.
[March 4, 1811. ?]
DEAR SIR, I have long and seriously reflected on the pres-
ent state of things and on my personal situation. This has for
some time been sufficiently unpleasant, and nothing but a sense
of public duty and attachment to yourself could have induced
me to retain it to this day. But I am convinced that in neither
respect can I be any longer useful under existing circumstances.
In a government organized like that of the United States, a
government not too strong for effecting its principal object, the
protection of national rights against foreign aggressions, and par-
ticularly under circumstances as adverse and embarrassing as
those under which the United States are now placed, it appears
to me that not only capacity and talents in the Administration,
but also a perfect, heartfelt cordiality amongst its members, are
essentially necessary to command the public confidence and to
produce the requisite union of views and action between the
several branches of government. In at least one of those points
your present Administration is defective, and the effects, already
sensibly felt, become every day more extensive and fatal. New
subdivisions and personal factions equally hostile to yourself and
the general welfare daily acquire additional strength. Measures
of vital importance have been and are defeated ; every operation,
even of the most simple and ordinary nature, is prevented or im-
peded ; the embarrassments of government, great as from foreign
causes they already are, are unnecessarily increased ; public con-
fidence in the public councils and in the Executive is impaired,
and every day seems to increase every one of those evils. Such
state of things cannot last; a radical and speedy remedy has
become absolutely necessary. What that ought to be, what
change would best promote the success of your Administration
and the welfare of the United States, is not for me to say. I
can only judge for myself, and I clearly perceive that my con-
tinuing a member of the present Administration is no longer of
1811. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 435
any public utility, invigorates the opposition against yourself, and
must necessarily be attended with an increased loss of reputation
by myself. Under those impressions, not without reluctance and
after having perhaps hesitated too long in hopes of a favorable
change, I beg leave to tender you my resignation, to take place
at such day within a reasonable time as you will think most con-
sistent with the public service. I hope that I hardly need add
any expressions of my respect and sincere personal attachment
to you, of the regret I will feel on leaving you at this critical
time, and the grateful sense I ever will retain of your kindness
to me.
This letter, backed by the remonstrances of Crawford and
others, produced a Cabinet crisis. Mr. Madison declined to ac-
cept it, and appears either to have returned it to Mr. Gallatin
or to have burned it, for it is not to be found among his papers.
He then took a step necessary in any event ; he dismissed his
Secretary of State, and authorized Mr. Gallatin to sound James
Monroe, then Governor of Virginia, as to his willingness to
enter the Cabinet. Mr. Gallatin applied to Richard Brent, a
Senator from Virginia, who appears to have written to Mr.
Monroe somewhere about the 7th March, but who did not re-
ceive a reply till the 22d.* A portion of this reply is worth
quoting.
" You intimate," said Mr. Monroe, " that the situation of the
country is such as to leave me no alternative. I am aware that
our public affairs are far from being in a tranquil and secure
state. I may add that there is much reason to fear that a crisis
is approaching of a very dangerous tendency ; one which menaces
the overthrow of the whole Republican party. Is the Adminis-
tration impressed with this sentiment and prepared to act on it?
Are things in such a state as to allow the Administration to take
the whole subject into consideration and to provide for the safety
of the country and of free government by such measures as cir-
cumstances may require and a comprehensive view of them sug-
gest? Or are we pledged by what is already done to remain
1 See G-allatin's Writings, vol. i. p. 496.
436 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1811.
spectators of the interior movement in the expectation of some
change abroad, as the ground on which we are to act ? I have
no doubt, from my knowledge of the President and Mr. Gallatin,
with the former of whom I have been long and intimately con-
nected in friendship, and for both of whom in great and leading
points of character I have the highest consideration and respect,
that if I came into the government the utmost cordiality would
subsist between us, and that any opinions which I might enter-
tain and express respecting our public affairs would receive, so
far as circumstances would permit, all the attention to which
they might be entitled. But if our course is fixed and the des-
tiny of our country dependent on arrangements already made,
on measures already taken, I do not perceive how it would be
possible for me to render any service at this time in the general
government."
Mr. Monroe received the desired assurances, and assumed the
new office on the 1st April, 1811. Mr. Robert Smith went out,
and issued a manifesto against the government, in which, among
numerous ill-digested and incongruous subjects of complaint,
there were one or two which showed how serious a misfortune
his incompetence had been. A newspaper war ensued, and
curious readers may find in the National Intelligencer all the
literature of the Smith controversy which they will need to
satisfy their doubts. Mr. Smith had much the same fate as
Colonel Pickering ten years before; he found that even his
friends showed a certain unwillingness to fight his battles. Be-
fore the end of the summer it had become evident that Mr.
Smith was reduced to insignificance, and it hardly needed the
mild severity of Mr. Madison or the newspaper rhetoric of Joel
Barlow to accomplish this ; Mr. Smith's own clerk was equal to
the task. 1
The change in the State Department was a great relief to the
President, and perhaps he may have asked the question why he
had ever allowed himself to be dragooned into the fatal appoint-
1 See, for another account of the struggle between Gallatin and the Smiths,
the " Kecollections of the Civil History of the War of 1812, by Joseph
Gales;" a series of papers printed in the National Intelligencer, numbered
from I. to IX., and published between June 9 and September 12, 1857.
1811.
THE TREASUEY. 1801-1813.
437
ment of Mr. Smith ; but Monroe came too late to save Gallatin.
To him the change brought only an increase of annoyance.
Although, as between Mr. Madison and Mr. Smith in the
controversy about the removal, the name of Gallatin was not
mentioned, the public well knew that the dismissal of Mr. Smith
was the work of the Secretary of the Treasury, and the chorus
of newspapers, led by the Aurora, joined in a cry of savage
hostility against him. His course in regard to the bank had
necessarily thrown a considerable portion of the press and the
party into antagonism ; Pennsylvania had long since abandoned
him; Virginia now threw him over. The confidence of Mr.
Madison and his own supereminent qualities alone sustained
him. All this was notorious, and was little calculated to diminish
the zeal of personal enmity. Duane's attacks were in themselves
not formidable; his long articles of financial and political criti-
cism were impressive only to the very ignorant ; his colossal and
audacious untruthfulness was evident to any intelligent reader,
and had been evident ever since the Aurora had begun its exisir-
ence ; but nevertheless their effect was serious from the fact that
they operated in a way perhaps not intended or fully under-
stood by Duane himself. In discussing the next Presidential
election, for example, the Aurora said: 1 "We are at present
led into these considerations in consequence of the assertions of
certain adherents of Mr. Gallatin, namely, ' that this gentleman
-possesses more talents than all the other officers in the Adminis-
tration put together, including Mr. Madison himself; that Mr.
Madison could not stand, nor the executive functions of the
government be performed, without him.' This is verbatim the
language that is held forth at present. Now, what do these as-
sertions amount to ? Why, clearly, that Mr. Gallatin is, to all
intents and purposes, the President, and even more than Presi-
dent of the United States." " This comes from the particular
friends of the Secretary of the Treasury, can it be true ? It is
a fact that the people of the United States, in nominally electing
Mr. Madison President, have in reality placed Mr. Gallatin in
that high station. ... It is said Mr. Gallatin aspires to the
1 8th April, 1811.
438 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIN. 1811.
Presidency himself, but that we do not believe; no man knows
better the impracticability of such a desire than himself; but if
those assertions of Mr. Gallatin's friends are true, it cannot be
so much an object to him, since the salary is very little compared
with the profits to be made by the Treasury." Then comes the
inevitable " extract of a letter from a gentleman of high stand-
ing" in New York to Dr. Leib : " The events at Washington
have not at all surprised me ; nay, they were such as I had been
looking for for some time, knowing the ascendency which Galla-
tin had acquired over the mind of Mr. Madison, and knowing
too the secret and invisible agency which was operating to pro-
duce it and to keep this crafty Genevan in place." Under the
form of an allegory the same idea is intensified r 1 " He was a
man of singular sagacity and penetration ; he could read the
very thoughts of men in their faces and develop their designs ;
a man of few words; made no promises but to real favorites
that would help him out at a dead lift, and ever sought to
enhance his own interest, power, and aggrandizement by the
most insatiate avarice on the very vitals of the unsuspecting
nation."
The charges of embezzlement and wholesale speculation in
public lands, of immense wealth and limitless corruption, were
probably harmless; they affected only the groundlings; but th.e
insidious elevation of Mr. Gallatin, the displaying him as an irre-
sistible magician whose touch was superhuman ; the ascribing to
him every power and every act that emanated from government,
and the concentration upon him of the whole blaze of attack,
destroyed his usefulness by indirection. No man can afford to
stand in this attitude; it creates jealousies, estranges precisely the
men of force and character who value their own independence,
exposes to the attacks and obstructions of those who wish to be
known by the greatness of their enmities, and in a manner stifles
direct and warm co-operation. In such cases every newspaper,
every Congressman, and every small politician thinks it necessary
to protest that he is not under the alleged influence ; that he is
not afraid to oppose it ; and that he holds a position of judicial
1 3d September, 1811.
1811. THE TREASUKY. 1801-1813. 439
neutrality. The Virginians thought it a matter of regret that
Mr. Gallatin had not retired with Mr. Smith. Gallatin was for-
tunate if the men who disavowed him in public did not offer
him an additional insult by assuring him in secret of their
friendship.
" These repeated attacks are enough to beat down even you,"
wrote Judge Nicholson. And Mr. Dallas, in a letter dated 21st
April, 1811, added : " If Mr. Jefferson and his powerful friends
at Washington, in the year 1805, had not given their countenance
to the proscriptions of the Aurora, the evils of the present time
would not have happened. I do not say this by way of reproach,
but to point out the true cause why no man of real character and
capacity in the Republican party of Pennsylvania has the power
to render any political service to the Administration. It rests
with Duane and Binns to knock down and set up whom they
delight to destroy or to honor. In the present conflict, so far as
you are personally concerned, I see with pride and pleasure that
the influence of Duane is at an end."
Even Mr. Jefferson was now obliged to choose sides. It is,
perhaps, useless to expect that a public or private man will
deal harshly with followers and flatterers; Duane had served
Jefferson well, and Jefferson clung to him as to a wayward
child; but now that Mr. Gallatin had at last forced the issue,
Mr. Jefferson came to the President's support, and, stimulated
by the blunt response of Wirt and the Richmond Republi-
cans that Duane might go to the Smiths for money but would
not get it from them, he wrote Duane a letter to say, with a
degree of tenderness that seems to the cold critic not a little
amusing, that the Aurora had gone too far and was to be read
out of the party. This was well enough ; but the curb, as Mr.
Dallas very properly said, should have been applied five years
before; the harm was done, and it made very little differ-
ence whether the Aurora were in opposition or not; perhaps,
indeed, it was already more dangerous in friendship than in
enmity.
Mr. Gallatin himself was far from exulting over the fall of
Robert Smith. There was something humiliating in the mere
thought that he should have been pitted against so unsub-
440 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1811.
stantial an opponent : there was a loss of power, an exhaustion
of reserved force in the very effort he had been obliged to make.
His success, if it were success, deprived him of freedom of action,
tied him beyond redemption to the chariot of government, and
took away his last means of escape from the humiliations his
enemies might inflict. As he wrote to Judge Nicholson on the
30th May, a few weeks after the Cabinet crisis: "Notwith-
standing the change, I feel no satisfaction in my present situation,
and the less so because that circumstance has made me a slave.
Perhaps for that reason I feel an ineffable thirst for retirement
and obscurity." Further Cabinet changes were imminent. Dr.
Eustis, who had succeeded General Dearborn as Secretary of
War, was unequal to the growing responsibilities of the office.
Among prominent Republicans the only conspicuous candidate
for the place was General Armstrong, just returned from France,
one of the Clinton family, whom Mr. Gallatin always disliked,
and who cordially returned the sentiment. There could be no
real harmony between Mr. Gallatin and General Armstrong.
Meanwhile, Justice Chase of the Supreme Courl was dead, and
the Attorney-General, Rodney, wished to be appointed to the
bench. Mr. Madison passed him over to appoint Gabriel Duval,
of Maryland ; he resigned, and William Pinkney, recently min-
ister to England, took the post of Attorney-General. The fol-
lowing letters of Mr. Dallas show the discontent aroused by
these changes :
A. J. DALLAS TO GALLATIN.
24th June, 1811.
DEAR SIR, I do not know the arrangements to fill the
vacancy occasioned by the death of Judge Chase. I do not wish
to suggest any name from personal feelings. But perhaps it
may be useful that you should know that Mr. Ingersoll would
accept the appointment, as far as I can infer from his con-
versations during the vacancy occasioned by Judge Cushing's
death.
Do you not think Pennsylvania entitled to some notice?
Everybody else seems to think so.
1811. THE TKEASURY. 1801-1813. 441
A. J. DALLAS TO GALLATIN.
Private and confidential : if such a thing can be.
24th July, 1811.
DEAR SIK, I wrote to you respecting the vacancy on the
bench of the Supreme Court. I have, perhaps, no right to
expect an answer in these times. But reports are so strange
upon the succession to Judge Chase that I beg you explicitly to
understand the sense of the Pennsylvania profession, Federal,
Republican, Quid, and Quadroon. We do not think that the
successor named in the public prints is qualified in any respect
for the station. I care not who is appointed, provided he is fit
in talents, in experience, and in manners; but, for Heaven's
sake, do not make a man a judge merely to get rid of him as a
statesman.
Poor Pennsylvania ! Except yourself, who has been distin-
guished by Federal favor ? Local offices must have local occu-
pants ; but from the commencement of the Federal government,
and particularly from the commencement of the Republican
Administration, what citizen of Pennsylvania has been invited by
the Executive to share in Federal honors ? There are the excep-
tions of Judge Wilson and Mr. Bradford, appointed by Presi-
dent Washington ; but they are merely exceptions to my remark.
Look at the judiciary establishment ! There are seven judges.
Four reside on the south of the Potomac. Two reside in Vir-
ginia. The Attorney-General resides in Delaware. For the
whole region beyond the Potomac, north-east, there are two
judges. The report states that another judge is to be taken
from Delaware, and an Attorney-General from Maryland !
I am cordially attached to the whole Administration. Of you
personally I only think and speak as of a brother. But really,
knowing that no confidence has ever been placed in me upon
political subjects, and not knowing where your confidence is now
placed, I do not understand your measures, nor am I acquainted
with your friends. It is not the puff of a toast nor the flattery
of a newspaper squib that can maintain the Republican cause or
vindicate the Administration from reproach. A free press is an
442 LIFE OF ALBERT GAL LATIN. 1811.
excellent thing, but a newspaper government is the most execrable
of all things. The use of the press is to give information ; its
abuse is to impose the law upon private feeling and public senti-
ment. Do, therefore, think less of the denunciations of Duane
and of the blandishments of Binns, and let your friends know
that you act right, in order that they may think so. 1
This letter I have a strong inclination to address to Mrs.
Gallatin ; for as men have ceased to keep secrets, I hope it will
cease to be a wonder that a lady should keep them. But I will
content myself with requesting you to tell her that if there is a
1 Mr. J. Q. Adams, in the year 1820, commented upon Pennsylvania
politics in his Diary (vol. v. p. 112): " -Pennsylvania has been for about
twenty years governed by two newspapers in succession ; one, the Aurora,
edited by Duane, an Irishman, and the other, the Democratic Press, edited
by John Binns, an Englishman. Duane had been expelled from British
India for sedition, and Binns had been tried in England for high treason.
They are both men of considerable talents and profligate principles, always
for sale to the highest bidder, and always insupportable burdens, by their
insatiable rapacity, to the parties they support. With the triumph of Jef-
ferson in 1801, Duane, who had contributed to it, came in for his share, and
more than his share, of emolument and patronage. With his printing
establishment at Philadelphia he connected one in this city ; obtained by
extortion almost the whole of the public printing, but, being prodigal and
reckless, never could emerge from poverty, and, always wanting more, soon
encroached upon the powers of indulgence to his cravings which the heads
of Departments possessed, and quarrelled both with Mr. Madison and Mr.
Gallatin for stajnng his hand from public plunder. In Pennsylvania, too,
he contributed to bring in McKean, and then labored for years to run
him down ; contributed to bring in Snyder, and soon turned against him.
Binns in the mean time had come, after his trial, as a fugitive from Eng-
land, and had commenced editor of a newspaper. Duane had been made
by Mr. Madison a colonel in the army ; and as Gibbon the captain of
Hampshire militia says he was useful to Gibbon the historian of the
Roman Empire, so Duane the colonel was a useful auxiliary to Duane the
printer, for fleecing the public by palming upon the army at extravagant
prices a worthless compilation upon military discipline that he had pub-
lished. But, before the war with England was half over, Duane had so
disgusted the army and disgraced himself that he was obliged to resign
his commission, and has been these seven years a public defaulter in his
accounts to the amount of between four and five thousand dollars, for
which he is now under prosecution. Snyder, assailed by Duane, was de-
fended by Binns, who turned the battery against him, and finally ran down
the Aurora so that it lost all influence upon public affairs."
1811. THE TEEASURY. 1801-1813. 443
special session of Congress, Mrs. Dallas and M. . . . will visit
Washington.
Had Mr. Gallatin controlled the action of the Executive, he
would long since have thrown Duane into % open opposition,
where he would have been harmless. Duane was simply a
blackguard, of a type better understood now than then. That
he had good qualities is evident from the descendants he left
behind him, but these qualities had not been trained to ex-
cellence. The only way to deal with him was the direct way,
and the only argument he would listen to was the coarse argu-
ment of the truth. From the first, however, both Mr. Jefferson
and Mr. Madison sacrificed their Secretary of the Treasury to
this profligate adventurer, whom they conciliated, flattered, per-
suaded, argued with, and supported by public and private aid.
On this subject Mr. Gallatin never opened his lips ; the letter
of Mr. Dallas, quoted above, shows that even to him, his oldest
and most intimate political friend, he never mentioned it. He
even submitted to bear, without reply, the sharp criticisms of
Mr. Dallas on his own silence, and reflections manifestly unjust.
That the manner of Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison towards
Duane cut deeply into the susceptibilities of Mr. Gallatin is
certain; but, with the exception of one single expression, he
never by word or sign intimated his sense of the indignity he
felt himself to be receiving at their hands. His loyalty to his
chiefs was too entire to be shaken for so mean a cause.
With this wound incessantly smarting at his heart; with all his
great schemes and brilliant hopes of administrative success shat-
tered into fragments; with a majority of bitter personal enemies in
the Senate eager to obstruct every inch of his path ; with a great
part of his administrative machinery snatched out of his hands,
and utter financial confusion around him ; with a war against
the richest and most powerful nation in the world staring him
in the face, and almost certain domestic treason behind ; with his
own expedients invariably defeated, and with the most contempt-
ible and shifting experiments in politics forced into his hands,
Mr. Gallatin was now called upon to take up his burden again
and march. He could not escape. Mr. Madison's friendship.
444 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1811.
when forced to the final test, proved true, and Gallatin was
fettered by his own act.
Of his whole public life, the next year, which should be the
most important, is the most obscure. He wrote none but public
letters. He never recurred to the time with pleasure, and he
left no notes or memoranda to explain his course. Much,
therefore, must be left to inference, something may be drawn
from scattered hints, and most must depend on the well-known
traits of his character and his habits of thought.
The last Congress had, before adjournment, sanctioned the
President's course in reviving the non-intercourse with England
on the strength of the supposed revocation of the Berlin and
Milan decrees by Napoleon. The Administration party, in
doing this, took the ground that the act was the necessary result
of a contract with France already carried into effect by her.
Thus the United States took one more step towards war with
England by precluding herself from acting in any other direc-
tion than as the Emperor wished ; even the most flagrant decep-
tion on his part could not shake the compact so far as America
was concerned. For the wholesale robbery committed on Amer-
ican property in Europe by the Emperor's order, the United
States mildly asked compensation. At about the same time
Russia, then on the friendliest terms with France, directed her
minister at Paris to intercede in favor of a similar claim on the
part of Denmark. To Count Romanzoff's representation Bona-
parte only replied : " Give them a very civil answer : that I will
examine the claim, et cetera ; mais on ne paye jamais ces choses-
l, n'est-ce pas ?" l The American claim had small chance of
success, but perhaps all that, under the circumstances, it deserved.
On the other hand, all the events of the summer tended to war
with England. Mr. Foster, the new British minister, instead
of lessening the conditions of repeal of the orders in council,
increased them. The British Court of Admiralty resumed its
sweeping condemnations. The affair of the Chesapeake was at
last settled by Mr. Foster, but the British sloop-of-war Little
Belt was fired upon and nearly sunk by the United States frigate
1 Gallatin 's Writings, ii. 490.
1811. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 445
President ; and, what was of far more consequence than all this,
the people of the United States, more especially in the south and
west, and the younger generation, which cared little for old Jef-
fersonian principles, were at last in advance of their government
and ready for war. Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Langdon
Cheves, William Lowndes, Felix Grundy, the leaders of the new
sect, were none of them more than thirty-five years of age at
this time, or about the age at which Mr. Gallatin had entered
Congress more than fifteen years before.
The President and his Cabinet did not want war, but, if the
people demanded it, they were not disposed to resist. Mr.
Madison would not allow his Administration to fall behind the
public feeling in its assertion and maintenance of national dig-
nity; nevertheless, Mr. Madison seems at this moment to have
had only a very vague conception of what he himself did want.
Although he had a superfluity of only too good causes for war
with Great Britain, he allowed himself to be hoodwinked by
France into an untenable statement of his case against the Brit-
ish government. He then called Congress together on the 4th
November, which was hardly a peace measure. Possibly he
underestimated the temper of that body, for his message, sent
in on the 5th November, 1811, though high in tone, did not
recommend war; it recommended that "a system of more ample
provisions for maintaining" national rights should be provided ;
it recommended Congress to put the country " into an armor
and an attitude demanded by the crisis," namely, the filling
up the regular army, providing an auxiliary force, volunteer
corps and militia detachments, and organizing the militia ; but
government had urged nearly all this for years past. Yet on
the 15th November, only ten days later, Mr. Madison fully
understood the situation, for he wrote to Europe that, as be-
tween submission and hostilities, Congress favored the latter,
though it would probably defer action till the spring.
Mr. Gallatin's report, which was sent in on the 25th No-
vember, was equally cautious. For the past year the Treasury
showed a surplus of over $5,000,000, owing to the large impor-
tations under the system of open trade previous to February,
1810; but for the next year the estimated expense of increased
446 LIFE OF ALBEET GALLATIK 1811.
armaments and the diminished receipts under the non-intercourse
with England would cause a deficit of over one million dollars
and necessitate a loan.
The public debt of the United States extinguished between
the 1st April, 1801, and the 31st December, 1811, amounted to
the sum of $46,022,810, and there remained on the 1st January,
1812, $45,154,189 of funded debt, bearing an annual interest of
$2,222,481. This represents all that was directly accomplished
by Mr. Gallatin towards his great object of the extinction of debt.
This result had been accompanied by the abandonment of the
internal taxes and the salt tax, but also by the imposition of the
2J per cent, ad valorem duties known as the Mediterranean
Fund. " It therefore proves decisively," said the report, " the
ability of the United States with their ordinary revenue to dis-
charge in ten years of peace a debt of forty-two millions of dol-
lars ; a fact which considerably lessens the weight of the most
formidable objection to which that revenue, depending almost
solely on commerce, appears to be liable. In time of peace it is
almost sufficient to defray the expenses of a war ; in time of war
it is hardly competent to support the expenses of a peace estab-
lishment. Sinking at once under adverse circumstances from
fifteen to six or eight millions of dollars, it is only by a perse-
vering application of the surplus which it aifords in years of
prosperity to the discharge of the debt, that a total change in the
system of taxation, or a perpetual accumulation of debt, can be
avoided."
The report went on to discuss the provision to be made for
ensuing years. The present revenue, under existing circumstances,
was estimated at $6,600,000 ; the expenditure at $9,200,000.
To provide for the deficiency an addition of fifty per cent, to the
existing duties on imports would be required, and was preferable
to any internal tax. " The same amount of revenue would be
necessary, and, with the aid of loans, would, it is believed,
be sufficient in case of war." By inadvertence, Mr. Gallatin
made here an important omission. He was speaking only of
" fixed revenue," sufficient to defray the ordinary expenses of
government; and, as he was afterwards obliged to explain,
this expression was wrongly applied to the case of war. He
1811.
THE TBEASURY. 1801-1813.
447
omitted to add that with each loan, provision to meet its interest
must be made by increasing taxation ; this fact had already been
pointed out in the financial paragraph of the President's message,
quoted in a previous part of the report, but the oversight gave
rise to subsequent sharp attacks upon the Secretary.
He then came to the question of loans, and expressed the
opinion that in case of war " the United States must rely solely
on their own resources. These have their natural bounds, but
are believed to be fully adequate to the support of all the national
force that can be usefully and efficiently employed ;" but it was
to be understood that if the United States wished to borrow
money it must pay for it : ' It may be expected that legal in-
terest will not be sufficient to obtain the sums required. In that
case the most simple and direct is also the cheapest and safest
mode. It appears much more eligible to pay at once the differ-
ence, either by a premium in lands or by allowing a higher rate
of interest, than to increase the amount of stock created, or to
attempt any operation which might injuriously affect the circu-
lating medium of the country ;" and he proceeded to show that
" even" if forty millions were borrowed, the difference between
paying eight and six per cent, would be only $800,000 a year
until the principal was reimbursed.
These were the chief points of the report, and taken with the
tone of the message they indicate clearly enough that the Ad-
ministration, now as heretofore, whatever the private feelings of
its members might be, was prepared to accept any distinct policy
which Congress might lay down-. One of the main grounds of.
attack upon Mr. Gallatin was that he had habitually alarmed
the public with the poverty of the Treasury, and by doing so
had checked energetic measures of defence. The charge was so
far true that Mr. Gallatin had never concealed or attempted to
color the accounts of the Treasury. On this occasion he prob-
ably aimed, as was always his habit, at furnishing Congress with
as favorable an estimate as the truth would permit, with a view
to obtaining united and cordial co-operation between the Execu-
tive and Congress. His only mistake was in accepting the esti-
mates of war expenditure then current. He himself could not
wish for war, and still hoped to avoid it ; he knew that the Treas-
448 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1811.
ury, in its present situation, could not stand the burden, but he
had suffered too much from the charge of attempting to direct
legislation, to allow of his again exposing himself to it without
necessity.
The President and the Secretary of the Treasury were there-
fore in perfect accord ; they did not recommend war, but they
recommended immediate and energetic preparation. The Presi-
dent advised Congress to provide troops ; the Secretary recom-
mended increased taxes and a loan of $1,200,000, to pay these
troops and support them. This was the extent of their recom-
mendations, and it remained for Congress to act.
Congress did indeed act; within a very short time it was
clear that Mr. Madison had no control over its proceedings.
To Mr. Gallatin the action of Congress was merely a sign
that, as his influence in the Senate had long since vanished, his
influence in the House had now followed it, and that for the
future he could expect no friendly co-operation from the Legis-
lature. At first, indeed, the proceedings of both bodies were in
outward accord with the Executive recommendations ; the reports
of committees, and the House bill introduced in pursuance of
them, were such as Mr. Madison had suggested ; the only war-
like measure proposed was that of permitting merchant vessels
to arm. The Senate, however, very soon returned to its old
tactics. Mr. Madison, as was well understood, asked only for
an army of ten thousand men, and his recommendations were
referred to a committee, of which Mr. Giles was the chairman,
who immediately reported a bill for raising twenty-five thousand
men, and in a speech on the 17th December fairly took the
ground that his principal motive was to annoy the Secretary
of the Treasury. Mr. Giles declared himself a friend of peace ;
no man more deprecated war ; but " if war should now come, it
would be in consequence of the fatal rejection of the proposed
measures of preparation for war." The only reason for reject-
ing them he averred to be " the decrepit state of the Treasury
and the financial fame of the gentleman at the head of that
Department." He launched into a bitter attack upon Mr.
Gallatin, thoroughly in the spirit of Duane and the Aurora.
Considering that he was playing with such tremendous interests,
1811. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 449
and that the national existence, to say nothing of private life
and fortune, was dancing on the edge of this precipice of war
at the mercy of Mr. Giles's personal malignity towards Mr.
Gallatin, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Monroe, there is actually some-
thing dramatic and almost classic in the taunts he now flung
out. "Until now the honorable Secretary has had no scope
for the demonstration of his splendid financial talents." " If,
then, reliance can be placed upon his splendid financial talents,
only give them scope for action; apply them to the national
ability and will." " All the measures which have dishonored
the nation during the last three years are in a great degree
attributable to the indisposition of the late and present Admin-
istration to press on the Treasury Department and to disturb
the popularity and repose of the gentleman at the head of
it." In order to give sufficient occupation to the splendid finan-
cial talents of the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Giles had done
all that was in his power to do; he had thwarted every plan of
policy ; wasted every dollar of money ; struck from the hands
of government every resource and every financial instrument he
could lay hold on ; and all this was not enough. The Secretary
still had reputation ; he had popularity ; he had, if not repose,
at least dignity. The Senator from Virginia was equal to the
occasion ; there are few oratorical taunts on record which echo
more harshly than this, that as yet " the Secretary has had no
scope for the demonstration of his splendid financial talents ;"
war alone could do those talents justice, and war the Secretary
should have.
Mr. Giles carried his bill through the Senate; Clay and
Lowndes carried it through the House. The war spirit mean-
while was rapidly rising ; resolutions poured in from the State
Legislatures; Congress hurried into further measures. What
Mr. Madison thought of these is shown in a letter of his to Mr.
Jefferson, dated February 7, 1812 : " The newspapers give you a
sufficient insight into the measures of Congress. With a view to
enable the Executive to step at once into Canada, they have pro-
vided, after two months' delay, for a regular force, requiring
twelve to raise it, on terms not likely to raise it at all for that
object. The mixture of good and bad, avowed and disguised
29
450 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1811.
motives accounting for these things, is curious enough, but not
to be explained in the compass of a letter."
Although Mr. Gallatin had lost his old control in the House,
he still preserved his influence with the Committee of Ways and
Means and its chairman, Ezekiel Bacon, of Massachusetts. To
this committee the annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury
was referred, and when it became clear that war was really immi-
nent, the committee, early in December, requested Mr. Gallatin
to appear before them to discuss the question of war taxes.
Mr. Gallatin at once complied, and gave his opinions explicitly
and emphatically : " I do not," said he, " feel myself particularly
responsible for the nation being in the position in which it now
finds itself; it might perhaps have been avoided by a somewhat
different course of measures, or the ultimate issue longer deferred.
But, placed as it is, I see not how we can now recede from our
position with honor or safety. We must now go on and main-
tain that position with all the available means we can bring to
bear on the enemy whom we have selected, and we should in my
judgment resort immediately to a system of taxation commensu-
rate with the objects stated in my annual report and by the
President in his message at the opening of the session." 1 Very
soon afterwards, on December 9, the committee, through its
chairman, wrote Mr. Gallatin a letter asking for a written state-
ment of his views, and a month later Mr. Gallatin sent in a
paper, which was to all intents and purposes a war budget.
This was .a remarkable for Mr. Gallatin's calm temper,
almost a defiant document, written, said Mr. Bacon, " to the
great disobligement, as we had reason to know, of some of his
strong political friends at that time," and intended to force
Congress into an honest performance of its financial duties.
This intent was marked by a defence of his own course which
could not but read as a severe criticism of the course pursued
by Congress.
" It was stated," said Mr. Gallatin, " in the annual report of
December 10, 1808, that 'no internal taxes, either direct or in-
1 Letter of Ezekiel Baccn, dated 24th October, 1845, published in the
New York Courier and Enquirer.
1812. THE TREASURY. 1801-1813. 451
direct, were contemplated even in the case of hostilities carried
against the two great belligerent powers ;' an assertion which
renders it necessary to show that the prospect then held out was
not deceptive, and why it has not been realized.
" The balance in the Treasury amounted at that time to near
fourteen millions of dollars ; but aware that that surplus would
in a short time be expended, and having stated that the revenue
was daily decreasing, it was in the same report proposed f that
all the existing duties should be doubled on importations subse-
quent to the 1st day of January, 1809.' ... If the measure
then submitted had been adopted, we should, after making a
large deduction for any supposed diminution of consumption
arising from the proposed increase, have had at this time about
twenty millions of dollars on hand, a sum greater than the net
amount of the proposed internal taxes for four years.
" In proportion as the ability to borrow is diminished, the
necessity of resorting to taxation is increased. It is therefore
also proper to observe that at that time the subject of the re-
newal of the charter of the Bank of the United States had been
referred by the Senate to the Secretary of the Treasury, nor had
any symptom appeared from which its absolute dissolution, with-
out any substitute, could have then been anticipated. The re-
newal in some shape and on a more extensive scale was confidently
relied on ; and accordingly, in the report made during the same
session to the Senate, the propriety of increasing the capital of
the bank to thirty millions of dollars was submitted, with the
condition that that institution should, if required, be obliged to
lend one-half of its capital to the United States. The amount
thus loaned might without any inconvenience have been in-
creased to twenty millions. And with twenty millions of
dollars in hand, and loans being secured for twenty millions
more, without, any increase of the stock of the public debt at
market, internal taxation would have been unnecessary for at
least four years of war, nor any other ' resource been wanted
than an additional annual loan of five millions, a sum suffi-
ciently moderate to be obtained from individuals and on favor-
able terms."
Leaving Congress to reflect at its leisure upon the criticisms
452 LIFE OF ALBERT GALLATIN. 1812.
implied in these remarks, the Secretary went on to lay down
the rules now made necessary by the refusal to follow his pre-
vious advice. After doubling the imposts and reimposing the
duty on salt, he could promise a net revenue of only 6,000,000
for war times. The committee assumed that annual loans of
$10,000,000 would be required during the war, which left an
annual deficiency, to be provided for by taxation, amounting to
$5,000,000, calculated to cover the interest of the first two loans
only, after which additional taxes must be imposed to provide
for the interest of future loans.
Five millions a year, therefore, must be raised by internal
taxes, and Mr. Gallatin proposed to obtain three millions by a
direct tax and two millions by excise, stamps, licenses, and duties
on refined sugar and carriages. A few remarks on loans and
Treasury notes closed the letter.
This communication startled the House, and even produced
an excitement of no ordinary nature. Congress suddenly awoke
to the fact that the Secretary was in earnest, and that, if war
came, Congress must learn to take advice. The faction that
followed Mr. Giles and General Smith were not quick in learn-
ing this lesson, and fairly raved against the Secretary. What
so exasperated them may be gathered best from a speech by Mr.
Wright, of Maryland, one of the most extreme of the Smith
connection. On March 2, 1812, he spoke thus:
" Sir, at the last session, when the question for rechartering
the odious British bank was before us, we had to encounter the
influence of the Secretary of the Treasury. . . . Now at this
session he has told us that, if we had a national bank, we should
have no occasion to resort to internal taxes ; thereby calling the
American people to review the conduct of their representatives
in not continuing that bank, and thereby to fix the odium of
these odious taxes on the National Legislature. Now a system
of taxes is presented truly odious, in my opinion, to the people,
to disgust them with their representatives and to chill the war
spirit. Yet it is, under Treasury influence, to be impressed on
the Committee of Ways and Means, and through them on the
House. Sir, I, as a representative of the people, feel it my duty
to resist it with all my energies. . . . Sir, is there anything of
1812. THE TKEASUKY. 1801-1813. 453
originality in his system ? No ! It is treading in the muddy
footsteps of his official predecessors in attempting to strap round
the necks of the people this odious system of taxation, adopted
by them, for which they have been condemned by the people
and dismissed from power. . . . And now, sir, with the view
of destroying this Administration ; with this sentence of a dis-
missal of our predecessors in office before our eyes, a sentence
not only sanctioned, but executed by ourselves, we are to be
pressed into a system known to be odious in the sight of the
people, and which, on its first presentation in a letter from the
Secretary of the Treasury to the Committee of Ways and Means,
and by them submitted to us, produced such an excitement in
the House."
The " invisibles," however, were not the only class of men
upon whom the war-budget fell with startling effect. Mr.
Gallatin's old friends with whom he had acted in 1792, when
at the unlucky Pittsburg meeting they had united in declaring
" that internal taxes upon consumption, from their very nature,
never can effectually be carried into operation without vesting
the officers appointed to collect them with powers most danger-
ous to the civil rights of freemen, and must in the end destroy
the liberties of every country in which they are introduced ;"
men like William Findley, his old colleague, were so deeply
shocked at the reintroduction of the excise that they would not
vote even for the printing of this letter. They looked upon
Mr. Gal latin as guilty of flagrant inconsistency. They did not
stop to reflect that, if inconsistency there were, it dated as far
back as 1796, when, in his "Sketch of the Finances," Mr. Gal-
latin had taken essentially the same view of the excise as now; 1
and again in 1801, when he had refused to recommend the repeal
of the internal taxes.
It was assumed that the Secretary of the Treasury could
discover unknown resources; the Aurora dreamed of endless
wealth in the national lands ; but in point of fact this letter of
Mr. Gallatin's erred only in calling for too little. He began
by accepting the committee's estimate that loans to the extent
1 See Writings, vol. iii. pp. 90, 91.
454 LIFE OF ALBEKT GALLATIN. 1812.
of $50,000,000 would carry on a four years' war. The war
lasted two years and a half, and raised the national debt from
$45,000,000 to $123,000,000, or at the rate of somewhat more
than $30,000,000 a year, nearly three times the estimate. Had
Mr. Gallatin foreseen anything like the truth in regard to the
coming contest, his demand for resources would have appeared
absurd, and he would have lost whatever influence he still had.
For once, however, Gallatin was master of the situation. He
could not force his enemies to vote for the taxes, but he could
force them to vote for or against, and either alternative was
equally unpleasant to them. The honest supporters of war
found little difficulty in following Mr. Gallatin's lead, but the
mere trimmers, and the men who supported a war policy be-
cause the Administration opposed it, were greatly disturbed.
Mr. Bacon brought in a report with a long line of resolutions,
and seriously proceeded to force them through the House.
Nothing, one would think, could have given Mr. Gallatin
keener entertainment than to see how his enemies acted under
this first turn of the screw which they themselves had set in
motion. It was a sign that government was again at work,
and that the long period of chaos was coming to an end ; but
the struggle to escape was desperate, and it was partially suc-
cessful. At first, indeed, Mr. Gallatin carried his point. On
the 4th resolution, for a tax of twenty cents a bushel on salt, the
House rebelled, and refused the rate by a vote of 60 to 57, but
the next day the whip was freely applied, and Mr. Wright and
his friends were overthrown by a vote
