Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/241

 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