UALLATIN
GALLATIN
Hessian regiment serving in tiie Britisli army,
and iu 1780 emigrated to America, landed at Cape
Ann and travelled on horseback to Boston. Slass.
He went to Maine as a trader, joined an expedi-
tion to repel a British invasion, and commanded
a fort at Machias,
besides furnishing
funds to equip Amer-
ican troops. He
tlien tauglit the
French language in
Boston and at Har-
vard college, 1782-83.
He went to New
York and Philadel-
phia after the war
had closed, and was
induced to invest
his savings in wild
c/f^t^fccSO:^ la"'l« '^ ^-e^tern '^ Virginia. In order
to make his investments profitable he located in Fayette county in 1784, where he was a county trader. He became largely interested in the pur- chase and sale of land claims, and made his win- ter head(juarters at Richmond, where he was a representative for Fayette county in the ratifica- tion convention of September, 1787. His home becoming a part of Pennsylvania, he was a mem- ber of the state constitutional convention at Pliiladelphia in 1789, and in 1790-91 he repre- sented Fayette county in the Pennsylvania legis- lature. He was elected U.S. senator in 1793, but after a service of two months, he was declared ineligible, not having taken the oath of allegiance to the United States until October, 1785. He was largely instrumental in securing a peaceful settlement of the insurrectionary movements in western Pennsylvania in 1794. The same year he was elected a representative to the state legisla- tiu-e and also to the 4th U.S. congress. He be- came a leader of the opposition party, established the committee on ways and means, and favored internal improvements. He was i-e-elected to the 5th and 6th congresses, serving, 1795-1801. Upon the accession of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency he was appointed secretary of the treasury and was reappointed by President Madi- son. He directed the financial policy of the government for twelve years, reducing the ]iub- lic debt from .586,712,633.25 in 1803 to 845,209,- 737.90 in 1813. President Madison in 1811 offered him the portfolio of state which he declined, and in 1813 sent him with James A. Bayard of Dela- ware to St. Petersburg as envoy extraordinary to negotiate with Great Britain under the mediation of Russia, which mission, however, proved futile. He was continued as a commissioner, and in 1814 ■with Adams, Clay, Russell and Bayard signed the
treaty of Ghent which has been stated by Mr.
Gallatin's biographers to have been his special
work, entitling him to a place among the great
diplomatists of American liLstory. In 1815 he
was appointed by President Madison U.S. minis-
ter to France and he assumed the duties of th©
position in January, 1816, after having attended
the commercial convention held in London in
1815. He assisted Minister Adams in the prepa-
ration of a commercial treaty with England, and
Minister Eustis in negotiating a treaty with the
Netherlands in 1817. He returned to America in
1823, declined a seat in Monroe's cabinet as secre-
tary of the navy the same year and the candidacy
for Vice-President on the Jackson ticket of 1824.
He was sent by President Adams to England in
1826 as envoy extraordinary, and while in London
he obtained full indemnitj' from Great Britain for
injuries sustained by American citizens by reason
of the violation of the treaty of Ghent. On his
return to the United States in 1828 he settled in
New York city where he was president of the
National bank of New York, controlled by John
Jacob Astor, 1831-39. He was a founder of the
University of the city of New York, a member of
its council, 1830-31, and first president of its coun-
cil in 1831. The same year he was a member of
the free-trade convention lield in Philadelphia
and prepared the memorial submitted to congress.
In 1839, on belialf of the United States, he pre-
pared the argument submitted to the king of the
Netherlands, acting as umpire in the Maine
boundary question with Great Britain. In 1844
he presided in New York city at a meeting called
to oppose the annexation of Texas, which he pro-
nounced to be a direct and undisguised ursurpa-
tion of power and a violation of the constitution.
He introduced Swiss artisans In the manufacture
of glass in western Pennsylvania, the pioneer in
that industry in the United States. He was the
first president of the American ethnological so-
ciety, established in 1842, and president of the
New York Iiistorical society, 1843-49. He was
married iu November, 1793, to Hannah, daughter
