Chapter X: Society--Literature--Science (1)

Mr. Gallatin's land speculations were not profitable. His plan of Swiss colonization did not result in any pecuniary advantage to himself. His little patrimony, received in 1786, he invested in a plantation of about five hundred acres on the Monongahela. Twelve years later, in 1798, he was neither richer nor poorer than at the time of his investment. The entire amount of claims which he held with Savary he sold in 1794, without warranty of title, to Robert Morris, then the great speculator in western lands, for four thousand dollars, Pennsylvania currency. This sum, his little farm, and five or six hundred pounds cash were then his entire fortune. In 1794, the revolution in Switzerland having driven out numbers of his compatriots, he formed a plan of association consisting of one hundred and fifty shares of eight hundred dollars each, of which the Genevans in Philadelphia, Odier, Fazzi, the two Cazenove, Cheriot, Bourdillon, Duby, Couronne, Badollet, and himself took twenty-five each. Twenty-five were offered to Americans, which were nearly all taken up, and one hundred were sent to Geneva, Switzerland, to D'Yvernois and his friends. The project was to purchase land, and Mr. Gallatin had decided upon a location in the northeast part of Pennsylvania, or in New York, on the border. In the summer Gallatin made a journey through New York to examine lands with the idea of occupation. In July, 1795, he made a settlement with Mr. Morris, taking his notes for three thousand five hundred dollars. Balancing his accounts, Mr. Gallatin then found himself worth seven thousand dollars, in addition to which he had about twenty-five thousand acres of waste lands and the notes of Mr. Morris. In 1798 Mr. Morris failed, and, under the harsh operations of the old law, was sent to jail. Mr. Gallatin never recovered the three thousand dollars owed to him in the final balance of his real estate operations.

After Mr. Gallatin left the Treasury he located patents for seventeen hundred acres of Virginia military lands in the State of Ohio, on warrants purchased in 1784. In 1815 he valued his entire estate, exclusive of his farm on the Monongahela, at less than twelve thousand dollars. Forty years later he complained of his investment as a troublesome and unproductive property, which had plagued him all his life. Besides the purchase of lands, Mr. Gallatin invested part of his little capital in building houses on his farm, and in the country store which Badollet managed. The one yielded no return, and the sum put in the other was lost through the incompetency of his honest but inexperienced friend. His wife brought him a small property, but at no time in his life was he possessed of more than a modest competency. But he had never any discontent with his fortune nor any desire to be rich.

Mrs. Gallatin, who had always until her marriage lived in cities, was entirely unfit for frontier life. In these days of railroads it is not easy to measure the isolation of their country home. Pittsburgh was nearly five days' journey from Philadelphia, and the crossing of the Alleghanies took a day and a half more. Before his marriage Mr. Gallatin had seen very little of society. Though in early manhood he felt no embarrassment among men, he said 'that he never yet was able to divest himself of an anti-Chesterfieldian awkwardness in mixed companies.' He did not take advantage of his residence in Philadelphia to accustom himself to the ways of the world. There he lived in lodgings and met the leading public characters of both parties. But when he took his seat in the cabinet, he found it necessary to enter upon housekeeping and to take a prominent part in society, for which his wife was admirably suited, both by temperament and education. Washington Irving wrote of her in November, 1812, that she was 'the most stylish woman in the drawing-room that session, and that she dressed with more splendor than any other of the noblesse;' and again the same year compared her with the wife of the President, whose courtly manners and consummate tact and grace are a tradition of the republican court. "Tell your good lady," mother Irving wrote to James Renwick, "that Mrs. Madison has been much indisposed, and at last Wednesday's evening drawing-room Mrs. Gallatin presided in her place. I was not present, but those who were assure me that she filled Mrs. Madison's chair to a miracle." This is in the sense of dignity, for Mrs. Gallatin was of small stature.

Mr. Gallatin's house shared the fate of the public buildings and was burned by the British when Washington was captured in 1814. He was then abroad on the peace mission. On his return from France Mr. Gallatin made one more attempt to realize his early idea of a country home, and with his family went in the summer of 1823 to Friendship Hill. Here an Irish carpenter built for him a house which he humorously described as being in the 'Hyberno-teutonic style,--the outside, with its port-hole-looking windows, having the appearance of Irish barracks, while the inside ornaments were similar to those of a Dutch tavern, and in singular contrast to the French marble chimney-pieces, paper, mirrors, and billiard-table.' In the summer Friendship Hill was an agreeable residence, but Mr. Gallatin found it in winter too isolated even for his taste.

One exciting circumstance enlivened the spring of 1825. This was the passage of Lafayette, the guest of the nation, through western Pennsylvania on his famous tour. Mr. Gallatin welcomed him in an address before the court-house of Uniontown, the capital of Fayette County, on May 26. In his speech Mr. Gallatin reviewed the condition of the liberal cause in Europe, and the emancipation of Greece, then agitating both continents. In this all scholars as well as all liberals were of one mind and heart. After the proceedings Lafayette drove with Mr. Gallatin to Friendship Hill, where he passed the night; crowds of people pouring down the valley from the mountain roads to see the adopted son of the United States, the friend of Washington, the liberator of France. The intimacy between these two great men, who had alike devoted the flower of their youth to the interests of civilization and the foundation of the new republic, was never broken.

Mr. Gallatin passed only one winter at New Geneva. On his return from his last mission to England he settled permanently in New York, and in 1828 took a house at No. 113 Bleecker Street, then in the suburbs of the city. He wrote to Badollet in March, 1829, that "it was an ill-contrived plan to think that the banks of the Monongahela, where he was perfectly satisfied to live and die in retirement, could be borne by the female part of his family, or by children brought up at Washington and Paris." The population of New York has always been migratory, and Mr. Gallatin was no exception to the rule. In the ten years which followed his first location he changed his residence on four May days, finally settling at No. 57 Bleecker Street, nearly opposite to Crosby Street. His life in New York is a complete period in his intellectual as in his physical existence, and the most interesting of his career. His last twenty years were in great measure devoted to scientific studies.

The National Bank, over which he presided for the first ten years, took but a small part of his time. The remainder was given up to study and conversation, an art in which he had no superior in this country and probably none abroad. Soon after his arrival in New York, Mr. Gallatin was chosen a member of "The Club," an association famous in its day. As no correct account of this social organization has ever appeared, the letter of invitation to Mr. Gallatin is of some interest. It was written by Dr. John Augustine Smith, on November 2, 1829. An extract gives the origin of the club.

"Nearly two years ago some of the literary gentlemen of the city,
feeling severely the almost total want of intercourse among
themselves, determined to establish an association which should
bring them more frequently into contact. Accordingly they founded
the 'Club' as it is commonly called, and which I believe I
mentioned to you when I had the pleasure of seeing you in Bond
Street. Into this 'Club' twelve persons only are admitted, and
there are at present three gentlemen of the Bar, Chancellor Kent,
Messrs. Johnston and Jay, three professors of Columbia College,
Messrs. McVickar, Moore, and Renwick, the Rev. Drs. Wainwright and
Mathews, the former of the Episcopal Church, the latter of the
Presbyterian Church, two merchants, Messrs. Brevoort and Goodhue,
and I have the honor to represent the medical faculty. Our twelfth
associate was Mr. Morse, of the National Academy of Design, of
which he was president, and his departure for Europe has caused a
vacancy. For agreeableness of conversation there is nothing in New
York at all comparable to our institution. We meet once a week; no
officers, no formalities; invitations, when in case of intelligent
and distinguished strangers, and after a plain and light repast,
retire about eleven o'clock."

At this club Mr. Gallatin, with his wonderful conversational powers, became at once the centre of interest. The club met at the houses of members in the winter evenings. There was always a supper, but the rule was absolute that there should be only one hot dish served, a regulation which the ladies endeavored to evade when the turn of their husbands arrived to supply the feast. Among the later members were Professor Anderson, John A. Stevens, Mr. Gallatin's countryman De Rham, John Wells, Samuel Ward, Gulian C. Verplanck, and Charles King. No literary symposium in America was ever more delightful, more instructive, than these meetings. On these occasions Mr. Gallatin led the conversation, which usually covered a wide field. His memory was marvelous, and his personal acquaintance with the great men who were developed by the French Revolution, emperors and princes, heroes, statesmen, and men of science, gave to the easy flow of his speech the zest of anecdote and the spice of epigram. Once heard he was never forgotten. And this rare faculty he preserved undiminished to the close of his life. Washington Irving, himself the most genial of men, and the most graceful of talkers, wrote of him, after meeting him at dinner, in 1841: "Mr. Gallatin was in fine spirits and full of conversation. He is upwards of eighty, yet has all the activity and clearness of mind and gayety of spirits of a young man. How delightful it is to see such intellectual and joyous old age: to see life running out clear and sparkling to the last drop! With such a blessed temperament one would be content to linger and spin out the last thread of existence."

At the close of the year 1829 Mr. Gallatin attempted to carry out his old and favorite plan of the "establishment of a general system of rational and practical education fitted for all, and gratuitously open to all." The want of an institution for education, combining the advantages of a European university with the recent improvements in instruction, was seriously felt. New York, already a great city, and rapidly growing, offered the most promising field for the national university on a broad and liberal foundation correspondent to the spirit of the age. The difficulty of obtaining competent teachers of even the lower branches of knowledge in the public schools, the system of which was in its infancy, was great. Persons could be found with learning enough, but they were generally deficient in the art of teaching. Governor Throop noticed this deficiency in his message of January, 1830, without, however, the recommendation of any remedy by legislation. The existing colleges could not supply the want. At this period religious prejudice controlled the actions of men in every walk of life; for the old colonial jealousies of Episcopalian and Presbyterian survived the Revolution. The religious distrust of scientific investigation was also at its height. Columbia College, the successor of old King's College, was governed in the Episcopalian interest. Private zeal could alone be relied upon to establish the new enterprise on a foundation free from the influence of clergy; an indispensable condition of success. These were the views of Mr. Jefferson in 1807. These were the views of Mr. Gallatin. In response to his request abundant subscriptions in money and material were at once forthcoming.

The project of a national university at New York was received by the literary institutions of the United States with great enthusiasm. In October, 1830, a convention of more than a hundred literary and scientific gentlemen, delegates from different parts of the country, and of the highest distinction, was held in the common-council chamber. The outcome of their deliberations was the foundation of the New York University. Mr. Gallatin was the president of the first council, but his connection with the institution was of short continuance. The reasons for his withdrawal were set forth in a letter to his old friend, John Badollet, written February 7, 1833. Beginning with an expression of his desire to devote what remained of his life "to the establishment in this immense and growing city (New York) of a general system of rational and practical education fitted for all and gratuitously opened to all," he said, "but finding that the object was no longer the same, that a certain portion of the clergy had obtained the control, and that their object, though laudable, was special and quite distinct from mine, I resigned at the end of one year rather than to struggle, probably in vain for what was nearly unattainable." The history of the university through its precarious existence of half a century amply justifies Mr. Gallatin's previsions and retirement. Instead of an American Sorbonne, of which he dreamed, it has never been more than a local institution, struggling to hold a place in a crowded field.

Mr. Gallatin followed the evolutions of French politics with interest. His friend Lafayette, who, during the Empire, lived in almost enforced retirement at his estate of La Grange, was a voluntary exile from the court of Charles X., whose autocratic principles and aggressive course were rapidly driving France into fresh revolution. In July, 1830, the crisis was precipitated by the royal decrees published in the "Moniteur." Lafayette, who was on his estate, hurried instantly to Paris, where he became a rallying point, and himself signed the note to the king, announcing that he had ceased to reign. In September following it fell to him to write to Mr. Gallatin on the occasion of the marriage of Gallatin's daughter. In this union Lafayette had a triple interest. Besides his personal attachment for Mr. Gallatin, each of the young couple was descended from one of his old companions-in-arms. The groom, Mr. Byam Kerby Stevens, was a son of Colonel Ebenezer Stevens, of the continental service, who was Lafayette's chief of artillery in his expedition against Arnold in Virginia, in the spring of 1781; the bride, Frances Gallatin, was, on the mother's side, the granddaughter of Commodore James Nicholson, who commanded the gunboats which, improvised by Colonel Stevens, drove out the British vessels from Annapolis Bay and opened the route to the blockaded American flotilla.[22]

"PARIS, _September_ 8, 1830.

"MY DEAR FRIEND:--A long time has elapsed since I had the pleasure
to hear from you. I need not, I hope, add, that my affectionate
feelings have been continually with you, especially in what related
to my young friend whose change of name has more deeply interested
every member, and in a very particular manner, the younger part of
the family. Let me hear of you all, and receive my tender regards
and wishes, with those of my children and grandchildren.
LAFAYETTE."

Both of the young people had the honor of Lafayette's acquaintance,--Mr. Stevens during a visit to Paris, and Miss Gallatin during her father's residence there as minister, when she was much admired, and was, in the words of Madame Bonaparte (Miss Patterson), 'a beauty.' In this letter Lafayette gives a picturesque account of the three days' fighting at the barricades, and of the departure of the ex-king and the royal army, accompanied by "some twenty thousand Parisians, in coaches, hacks, and omnibus.... The royal party, after returning the jewels of the crown, went slowly to Cherbourg with their own escort, under the protection of three commissioners, and were there permitted quietly to embark for England."

In 1834 Mr. Gallatin's sympathies were greatly excited by the arrival at New York of a number of Poles, many of them educated men, and among them Etsko, a nephew of Kosciusko. A public committee was raised, called the Polish committee, of which Mr. Gallatin was chosen chairman. Besides superintending the collection of funds, he arranged and carried out in the minutest details a plan to quarter the exiles upon the inhabitants. A list of names ending in _ski_ still remains among his papers; to each was assigned a number, and they were allotted by streets and numbers,--number 182, one Szelesegynski, was taken by Mr. Gallatin himself, to look after horses. These unfortunate men were then distributed through the country, as occupations could be found. In October Mr. Gallatin's notes show that all had been provided for except fourteen boys, for whom a subscription was taken up. A tract of land in Illinois was assigned by Congress to these political exiles.

Mr. Gallatin's first acquaintance with the American Indian was made at Machias. In the neighborhood of this frontier town, across the Canadian border, there were still remnants of the Abenaki and Etchemin tribes. They were French in sympathy, and all converts to the Roman Catholic faith. Mr. Lesdernier, with whom Gallatin lodged, had influence over them from the trade he established with them in furs, and as their religious purveyor. He had paid a visit to Boston at the time the French fleet was there in 1781, and brought home a Capuchin priest for their service. To the young Genevan, brought up in the restrictions of European civilization, the history of the savage was a favorite study. In the winter evenings, in the quiet of the log hut, with the aid of one familiar with the customs and traditions of the race, the foundations were laid of a permanent interest in this almost untrodden branch of human science. The Canadian Indians, however, hemmed in by French and English settlements, were semi-civilized. The Miamis and Shawnees, who ranged the valley of the Ohio, were the tribes nearest to Gallatin's home on the Monongahela. These, though for a long time under the influence of the French, retained their original wildness, and were, during the first years of his residence, the dread of the frontier.

The interest aroused in the mind of Mr. Gallatin by personal observation was quickened by his intimacy with Jefferson, whose "Notes on Virginia," published in 1801, contained the first attempt at a classification and enumeration of American tribes. The earlier work of Colden was confined to the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. The arrangement of the Louisiana territory, ceded by France, brought Mr. Gallatin into contact with Pierre Louis Chouteau, and an intimacy formed with John Jacob Astor, who was largely concerned in the fur trade of the Northwest, widened the field of interest, which included the geography of the interior and the customs of its inhabitants. Mr. Gallatin's examination of the subject was general, however, and did not take a practical scientific turn until the year 1823, when, at the request of Baron Alexander von Humboldt, he set forth the results of his studies in the form of a Synopsis of the Indian tribes. This essay, communicated by Humboldt to the Italian geographer Balbi, then engaged upon his "Atlas Ethnographique du Globe,"--a classification by languages of ancient and modern peoples,--was quoted by him in his volume introductory to that remarkable work published in 1826, in a manner to attract the attention of the scientific world. Vater, in his "Mithridates," first attempted a classification of the languages of the globe, but the work of Mr. Gallatin, though confined in subject, was original in its conception and treatment. In the winter of 1825-26 a large gathering of southern Indians at Washington enabled him to obtain good vocabularies of several of the tribes. Uniting these to those already acquired, he published a table of all the existing tribes, and at the same time, at his instance, the War Department circulated through its posts a vocabulary containing six hundred words of verbal forms and of selected sentences, and a series of grammatical queries, to which answers were invited. He also opened an elaborate correspondence with such persons as were best acquainted with the Indian tribes in different sections of the country.[23] The replies to these various queries were few in number, but the practical plan, adhered to in substance, has resulted in the collection by the Smithsonian Institution of a very large number of Indian vocabularies.[24]

This class of investigation, in its ample scope for original research and the ascertainment of principles by analysis and analogic expression, was peculiarly agreeable to Mr. Gallatin. His friend, du Ponceau,[25] who served in the American war as the secretary of Steuben, and was now established in Philadelphia, was likewise deeply engaged in philologic studies; in 1819 he had published a memoir of the construction of the languages of the North American Indians, which he followed later with other papers of a similar nature, among which were a "Grammar of the Languages of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians," and a memoir on the grammatical system of the languages of the Indian tribes of North America, a learned and highly instructive paper, which took the Volney prize at Paris.

In 1836 Mr. Gallatin's original paper, contributed to Balbi, amplified by subsequent acquisitions, was published by the American Antiquarian Society of Worcester, in the first volume of its Transactions. It was entitled "A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, within the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, and in the British and Russian Possessions in North America." This elaborate inquiry, the foundation of the science in America, was intended originally to embrace all the tribes north of the Mexican semi-civilized nations. From the want of material, however, it was confined at the southward to the territory of the United States, and eastward of the Rocky Mountains. It included eighty-one tribes, divided into twenty-eight families, and was accompanied by a colored map, with tribal indications. The result of the investigation Mr. Gallatin held to be proof that all the languages, not only of our own Indian tribes, but of the nations inhabiting America from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn, have a distinct character common to all. This paper attracted great attention in Europe. It was reviewed by the Count de Circourt, whose interest in the subject was heightened by personal acquaintance with the author. John C. Calhoun, acknowledging receipt of a copy of the Synopsis, said in striking phrase 'that he had long thought that the analogy of languages is destined to recover much of the lost history of nations just as geology has of the globe we inhabit.'

In 1838, Congress having accepted the trust of John Smithson of £100,000, and pledged the faith of the United States for its purposes, Mr. Forsyth, the secretary of state, addressed Mr. Gallatin, at the request of the President, requesting his views as to its proper employment; but Mr. Gallatin does not appear to have answered the communication. The programme of the Smithsonian Institution, inclosed to the board of regents in its first report, stated its object to be the increase and diffusion of knowledge, and bears marks of the general views which Mr. Gallatin had for many years urged on public attention. The first of the Smithsonian "Contributions to Knowledge" was the memoir of Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, by Squier and Davis. Before its publication was undertaken, however, it was submitted to the Ethnological Society. Mr. Gallatin returned it, with the approval of the society, and some words of commendation of his own addressed to Professor Henry, the learned superintendent of the Smithsonian Institution.

The period of temporary political repose, which followed the peace of Vienna and the establishment of the balance of power by the allied sovereigns, was an era in human knowledge. Science made rapid progress, and in its turn showed the broad and liberal influence of the great revolution. In 1842 societies were founded in Paris and London to promote the study of ethnology. Mr. Gallatin would not be behindhand in this important work for which America offered a virgin field. Drawing about him a number of gentlemen of similar tastes with his own, he founded in New York, in 1842, the American Ethnological Society. Among his associates were Dr. Robinson, the famous explorer of Palestine, Schoolcraft, Bartlett, and Professor Turner, noted for their researches in the history and languages of the Indian races. Messrs. Atwater, Bradford, Hawks, Gibbs, Mayer, Dr. Morton, Pickering, Stephens, Ewbank, and Squier were also, either in the beginning or soon after, members of this select and learned institution, of which Mr. Gallatin was the central figure. One of its members said in 1871, 'Mr. Gallatin's house was the true seat of the society, and Mr. Gallatin himself its controlling spirit. His name gave it character, and from his purse mainly was defrayed the cost of the two volumes of the "Transactions" which constitute about the only claim the society possesses to the respect of the scientific world.' To the first of these volumes, published in 1845, Mr. Gallatin contributed an "Essay on the semi-civilized nations of Mexico and Central America, embracing elaborate notes on their languages, numeration, calendars, history, and chronology, and an inquiry into the probable origin of their semi-civilization." In this he included all existing certain knowledge of the languages, history, astronomy, and progress in art of these peoples. A copy of this work he sent to General Scott, then in the city of Mexico after his triumphant campaign, inclosing a memorandum which he urged the general to hand to civilians attached to the army. This was a request to purchase books, copies of documents, printed grammars, and vocabularies of the Mexican languages, and he authorized the general to spend four hundred dollars in this purpose on his account. In the second volume, published in 1848, he printed the result of his continued investigations on the subject which first interested him, as an introduction to a republication of a work by Mr. Hale on the "Indians of Northwest America." This consisted of geographical notices, an account of Indian means of subsistence, the ancient semi-civilization of the Northwest, Indian philology, and analogic comparisons with the Chinese and Polynesian languages. These papers Mr. Gallatin modestly described to Chevalier as the 'fruits of his leisure,' and to Sismondi he wrote that he had not the requisite talent for success in literature or science. They nevertheless entitle him to the honorable name of the Father of American Ethnography.

In 1837 Mr. Wheaton, the American minister at Berlin, requested Mr. Gallatin to put the Baron von Humboldt in possession of authentic data concerning the production of gold in the United States. Humboldt had visited the Oural and Siberian regions in 1829, at the request of the Emperor of Russia, to make investigations as to their production of the precious metals. Mr. Gallatin was the only authority in the United States on the subject. Later von Humboldt wrote to Mr. Gallatin of the interest felt abroad, and by himself, in the gold of the mountains of Virginia and Tennessee, a country which rivaled on a small scale the Dorado of Siberia. The treasures of the Pacific coast were not yet dreamed of.

Mr. Gallatin perfectly understood the range of his own powers. He said of himself:--

"If I have met with any success, either in public bodies, as an
executive officer, or in foreign negotiations, it has been
exclusively through a patient and most thorough investigation of
all the attainable facts, and a cautious application of these to
the questions under discussion.... Long habit has given me great
facility in collating, digesting, and extracting complex documents,
but I am not hasty in drawing inferences; the arrangement of the
facts and arguments is always to me a considerable labor, and
though aiming at nothing more than perspicuity and brevity, I am a
very slow writer."

Mr. Gallatin's manuscripts and drafts show long and minute labor in their well considered and abundant alterations. Referring on one occasion to his habit of reasoning, Mr. Gallatin remarked, that of all processes that of analogy is the most dangerous, yet that which he habitually used; that it required the greatest possible number of facts. This is the foundation of philology, and his understanding of its method and its dangers is the reason of his success in this branch of science.

The difficulty experienced in establishing any literary or scientific institutions in New York was very great. An effort made in 1830, which Mr. Gallatin favored, to establish a literary periodical failed, not on account of the pecuniary difficulties, but from the impossibility of uniting a sufficient number of able coöperators. But Mr. Gallatin's interest in literature was not as great as in science.[26]

In 1841 a national institution for the promotion of science was organized at Washington. The coöperation of Mr. Gallatin was invited, but the society had a short existence. In 1843 Mr. Gallatin was chosen president of the New York Historical Society. His inaugural address is an epitome of political wisdom. Pronounced at any crisis of our history, it would have become a text for the student. In this sketch he analyzed the causes which contributed to form our national character and to establish a government founded on justice and on equal rights. He showed how, united by a common and imminent danger, the thirteen States succeeded in asserting and obtaining independence without the aid of a central and efficient government, and the difficulties which were encountered when a voluntary surrender of a part of their immense sovereignty became necessary as a condition of national existence. He said that the doctrine that all powers should emanate from the people is not a question of expediency.

In this address he summed up the reasons why Washington exercised such a beneficial influence upon the destinies of his country. In a confidential letter to his wife in 1797, he expressed an opinion that the father of his country was not a good-natured and amiable man, but time had mellowed these recollections and softened the asperity of this judgment. Washington had not, he said (in 1843), 'an extraordinary amount of acquired knowledge; he was neither a classical scholar nor a man of science, nor was he endowed with the powers of eloquence, nor with other qualities more strong than solid, which might be mentioned; but he had a profound and almost innate sense of justice, on all public occasions a perfect control of his strong passions,[27] above all a most complete and extraordinary self-abnegation. Personal consequences and considerations were not even thought of, they never crossed his mind, they were altogether obliterated.' Mr. Gallatin held that "the Americans had a right to be proud of Washington, because he was selected and maintained during his whole career by the people--never could he have been thus chosen and constantly supported had he not been the type and representative of the American people."

The commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the foundation of the New York Historical Society, November, 1844, was an occasion of unusual interest. John Romeyn Brodhead, who had just returned from the Hague with the treasures of New Netherland history gathered during his mission, was the orator of the day. The venerable John Quincy Adams, Mr. Gallatin's old associate at Ghent, was present. After the address, which was delivered at the Church of the Messiah on Broadway, the society and its guests crossed the street to the New York Hotel, where a banquet awaited them. Mr. Gallatin retired early, leaving the chair to the first vice-president, Mr. Wm. Beach Lawrence. After he had left the room, Mr. Adams, speaking to a toast to the archæologists of America, said: "Mr. Gallatin, in sending to me the invitations of the society, added the expression of his desire 'to shake hands with me once more in this world.'" Mr. Adams could not but respond to his request. In his remarks he said:

"I have lived long, sir, in this world, and I have been connected
with all sorts of men, of all sects and descriptions. I have been
in the public service for a great part of my life, and filled
various offices of trust, in conjunction with that venerable
gentleman, Albert Gallatin. I have known him half a century. In
many things we differed; on many questions of public interest and
policy we were divided, and in the history of parties in this
country there is no man from whom I have so widely differed as from
him. But in other things we have harmonized; and now there is no
man with whom I more thoroughly agree on all points than I do with
him. But one word more let me say, before I leave you and him,
birds of passage as we are, bound to a warmer and more congenial
clime,--that among all public men with whom I have been associated
in the course of my political life, whether agreeing or differing
in opinion from him, I have always found him to be an honest and
honorable man."

In the road to harmony Mr. Adams had to do the traveling. Mr. Gallatin never changed his political opinions. The political career of the two men offered this singular contrast: Adams, dissatisfied with his party, passed into opposition; Gallatin, though at variance with the policy of the administration of which he made a part, held his fealty, and confined himself to the operations of his own bureau.

For a period far beyond the allotted years of man Mr. Gallatin retained the elasticity of his physical nature as well as his mental perspicacity. In middle age he was slight of figure, his height about five feet ten inches, his form compact and of nervous vigor. His complexion was Italian;[28] his expression keen; his nose long, prominent; his mouth small, fine cut, and mobile; his eyes hazel, and penetrative; his skull a model for the sculptor. Thus he appears in the portrait painted by Gilbert Stuart about the time that he took charge of the Treasury Department; he was then about forty years of age. In the fine portrait by William H. Powell, taken from life in 1843, and preserved in the gallery of the New York Historical Society, these characteristics appear in stronger outline. Monsieur de Bacourt,[29] the literary executor of Talleyrand, who was the French Ambassador to the United States in 1840, paid a visit to Mr. Gallatin in that year, and describes him as a "beau vieillard de quatre-vingt ans," who has fully preserved his faculties. Bacourt alludes to his remarkable face, with its clear, fine cut features, and his "physiognomie pleine de finesse;" and dwells also upon the ease and charm of his conversation.

As his life slowly drew to its close, one after another of the few of his old friends who remained dropped from the road. Early in 1848 Adams fell in harness, on the floor of the House of Representatives; Lord Ashburton died in May. Finally, nearest, dearest of all, the companion of his triumphs and disappointments, the sharer of his honors and his joys, his wife, was taken from him by the relentless hand. The summer of 1849 found him crushed by this last affliction, and awaiting his own summons of release. He was taken to Mount Bonaparte, the country-seat of his son-in-law, at Astoria on Long Island, where he died in his daughter's arms on Sunday, August 12, 1849. The funeral services were held in Trinity Church on the Tuesday following, and his body was laid to rest in the Nicholson vault,[30] in the old graveyard adjoining. The elegant monument erected during his lifetime is one of the attractive features of this venerable cemetery, in whose dust mingle the remains of the temple of no more elevated spirit than his own. The season was a terrible one--the cholera was raging, the city was deserted. In the general calamity private sorrow disappeared, or the occasion would have been marked by a demonstration of public grief and of public honor. As the tidings went from city to city, and country to country, the friends of science, of that universal wisdom which knows neither language nor race, paused in their investigations to pay respectful homage to his character, his intellect, and to that without which either or both in combination are inadequate to success--his labor in the field.

On October 2, 1849, at the first meeting of the Historical Society after the death of Mr. Gallatin, Mr. Luther Bradish, the presiding officer, spoke of him in impressive words, as the last link connecting the present with the past. He dwelt upon the peculiar pleasure with which the presence of Mr. Gallatin was always hailed, and the peculiar interest it gave to the proceedings of the society, and many an eye was dimmed, as he recalled the venerable form, the beautifully classic head, the countenance ever beaming with intelligence, and summed up the long and useful career of the departed sage in these impressive words:--

"The name of Albert Gallatin is emphatically a name of history. Few
men have lived in any age whose biographies have been so intimately
connected with the history of their country. Living in one of the
most interesting periods of the world, a period of great events, of
the discussion of great principles and the settlement of great
interests, almost the whole of his long and active life was passed
in public service amidst those events and in those discussions....
For nearly half a century he was almost constantly employed in the
public service; almost every department of that service has
received the benefit of his extraordinary talents and his varied
and extensive and accurate knowledge. Whether in legislation, in
finance, or in diplomacy, he has been equally distinguished in all.
In all or in either he has had few equals and still fewer
superiors."

To Jeremy Bentham Mr. Gallatin acknowledged himself indebted, as his master in the art of legislation; but from whatever ground he drew his maxims of government, they were reduced to harmony in the crucible of his own intelligence by the processes of that brain which Spurzheim pronounced capital,[31] and Dumont held to be the best head in America. In that massive and profound structure lay faculties of organization and administration which mark the Latin and Italian mind in its highest form of intellectual development.

His moral excellence was no less conspicuous than his intellectual power. He had a profound sense of justice, a love of liberty, and an unfaltering belief in the capacity of the human race for self-rule. Versed in the learning of centuries, and familiar with every experiment of government, he was full of the liberal spirit of his age. To a higher degree than any American, native or foreign born, unless Franklin, with whose broad nature he had many traits in common, Albert Gallatin deserves the proud title, aimed at by many, reached by few, of Citizen of the World.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 22: An account of this expedition may be found in the publications of the Maryland Historical Society.]

[Footnote 23:

WASHINGTON, 29_th May_, 1826.

SIR,--Mr. Stewart communicated to me your answer of 4th April last to the letter which, at my request, he had addressed to you; and I return you my thanks for your kind offer to forward the object in view,--one which is not, however, of a private nature but connected with what is intended to be a National work; and I have delayed writing in order to be able to send at the same time the papers herewith transmitted.

It is at my suggestion that the Secretary of War has, with the approbation of the President, taken measures to collect comparative vocabularies of all the languages and dialects of the Indian tribes still existing within the United States. The circular is addressed to all the Indian superintendents and agents, and to the missionaries with whom the Department corresponds. But they have no agent with the Nottoways, and we are fortunate that you should have been disposed to lend your aid on this occasion.

It is the intention of government that the result of these researches should be published, giving due credit to every individual who shall have assisted in a work that has been long expected from us, and which will be equally honorable to the persons concerned and to the country. It had been my intention to contribute my share in its further progress: this my approaching departure for Europe forbids. The inclosed papers, attending to the Notes and to the circular, are so full that I need not add any further explanation, and have only to request that you will have the goodness to transmit whatever vocabulary and other information you may obtain to Colonel Tho. L. McKinney, Office of Indian Affairs, under cover directed to the Secretary of War. Mr. McKinney will also be happy to answer any queries on the subject you may have to propose.

I have the honor to be respectfully, sir, Your most obedient servant, ALBERT GALLATIN

Mr. James Rochelle, Jerusalem, Southampton County, Virginia. _Communicated by J. H. Rochelle, Jerusalem, Virginia._]

[Footnote 24: Among the most distinguished of those who have followed the pathway indicated by Mr. Gallatin was the late George Gibbs, an indefatigable student and an admirable ethnologist. His Chinook jargon was published by the Smithsonian Institution.]

[Footnote 25: Mr. du Ponceau became president of the learned societies of Pennsylvania: the Historical Society and the American Philosophical Society.]

[Footnote 26: His favorite novel was _The Antiquary_, which he read once a year. Novels, he said, should be read, the last chapter first, in order that appreciation of the style should not be lost in the interest excited by the story.]

[Footnote 27: Mr. Gallatin's assertion, which corresponded with that of Jefferson, that Washington had naturally strong passions, but had attained complete mastery over them, is quoted by the Earl of Stanhope (Lord Mahon) in his famous eulogy of Washington's attributes.]

[Footnote 28: The Gallatins claim to descend from one Callatinus, a Roman Consul.]

[Footnote 29: _Souvenirs d'un Diplomate._ Paris, 1882.]

[Footnote 30: This was the vault of the Witter family, a daughter of which Commodore Nicholson married.]

[Footnote 31: "In my youth the fashion was to decide in conformity with Lavater's precepts; then came Camper's facial angle, which gave a decided superiority to the white man and monkey; and both have been superseded by the bumps of the skull. This criterion is that which suits me best, for Spurzheim declared I had a _capital_ head, which he might without flattery say to everybody." _Gallatin to Lewis T. Cist of Cincinnati, November_ 21, 1837.]

INDEX

Adams, Henry, calls treaty of Ghent the work of Gallatin, 324.

Adams, John, announces election of Gallatin as senator, 60;
convenes Congress to consider relations with France, 132;
his message, 133; replies coolly to resolution of House, 136, 137;
remarks of McClanachan to, 138;
his message in 1797, 139;
visited by House to present answer, 140;
wishes to establish new foreign missions, 141;
informs Congress of French outrages, 147;
and of preparations for war, 147;
sends in X Y Z dispatches, 149;
sends message on French relations, 152, 153;
urges preparation for war, 155;
thanks House for support, 155;
delighted with support of Congress in 1799, 158;
congratulates Congress on settlement at Washington, 162;
supported for President by New England, 163;
in election of 1800, 165;
attributes distresses of Confederation to financial ignorance, 174;
his breach with Hamilton, 177.

Adams, John Quincy, on results of Gallatin's proposed appointment as
secretary of state, 295;
meets Gallatin and Bayard at St. Petersburg, 302;
his training, comparison with Gallatin, 302, 303;
given new commission, 312;
differs with Clay over fisheries and Mississippi navigation, 323;
appointed minister to England, 326;
advised by Gallatin concerning commercial treaty, 333;
appointed secretary of state, 334;
informed by Gallatin of disadvantages of a war with Spain, 336, 337;
his arguments in Apollon case disregarded by Gallatin, 338;
his indignation, 338;
writes opinion of Gallatin in his diary, 333, 339;
described by Gallatin to Badollet, 339, 356;
his pugnacity complained of by Crawford, 339;
negotiates treaty with De Neuville, 340;
comments of Gallatin upon, 340;
appoints Rush secretary of treasury, 342;
offers mission to England to Gallatin, 342, 343;
promises Gallatin _carte blanche_, but gives him full instructions, 343;
his instructions to Rush printed, 345;
warns Gallatin to yield nothing, 346;
congratulates Gallatin on his success, 348;
candidate for presidency, 356;
elected by House of Representatives, 358;
at meeting of New York Historical Society, 384;
Gallatin's friendly greeting to, 384;
eulogizes Gallatin, 384, 385;
his changing party compared with Gallatin's steadiness, 385;
death, 386.

Adams, William, on English peace commission, 316.

Addington, Henry, on Clay's tone as diplomat, 345.

Adet, P. A., French minister, imperils sympathy for France by impudence
to Washington, 128;
condemned by Federalists, 134;
recommends tricolor, 153.

Aix-la-Chapelle, Congress of, 337.

Alexander, Emperor of Russia, authorizes renewal of mediation, 308;
fails to inform Romanzoff of Castlereagh's refusal, 311, 312;
vain efforts of Crawford to secure interview with, 315;
promises Lafayette to use influence in behalf of United States, 315;
has interview with Gallatin, 315;
informs Gallatin that he can do nothing more, 316.

Algiers, treaty with, 117, 118.

Alien Bill, debate and passage in House, 152;
petitions against, in Congress, 157.

Allegheny County, its part in Whiskey Insurrection, 49, 68, 78, 96;
elects Gallatin to Congress, 93, 127.

Allègre, Sophie, marries Gallatin, her character and death, 30.

Allègre, William, father-in-law of Gallatin, 30.

Allen, ----, in debate on French relations, 136;
attacks Gallatin as a French agent, 150.

Allston, Joseph W., at free trade convention, 1831, 241.

American Ethnological Society, founded by Gallatin, 379;
its transactions, 379, 380.

Ames, Fisher, leading orator of Federalists, 99;
his speech on the Jay treaty, 120, 121;
reports answer to President's Message, 128;
defends it against Giles, 129;
leaves Congress, his oratory, 133.

Anderson, Professor, member of "The Club," 367.

Anti-Federalists, call convention to organize in favor of amending
Constitution, 37;
adopt resolutions to organize throughout the State, 39, 40;
recommend amendments by petition, 40.

Apollon, seizure of, explained by Gallatin and Adams, 338.

Army, reduction of, advocated by Gallatin, 108, 123, 129, 130, 186, 188;
his course defended, 216.

Arnold, Benedict, effect of his treason, 12;
campaign of Lafayette against, 371.

Ashburton, Lord. See Baring, Alexander.

Astor, John Jacob, assists Gallatin to float loan, 214;
wishes destruction of United States Bank, 259;
subscribes capital of bank on condition that Gallatin manage its
affairs, 269;
his fur enterprise, 287;
offered protection by Jefferson, 288;
his settlement at Astoria, 288;
unable to persuade Madison to support him, 288.

Astoria, foundation and history of, 288.

Atwater, ----, member of Ethnological Society, 379.

Bache, Franklin, educated at Geneva, 4;
attacks Washington as a defaulter, in "Aurora," 104.

Bache, Richard, letter to, furnished by Franklin to Gallatin, 11.

Bacourt, M. de, describes Gallatin in old age, 386.

Badollet, Jean, college friend of Gallatin, 5;
Arcadian schemes of, 9;
letter of Gallatin to, 9;
letters of Serre to, on life in Maine, 15, 25;
informs Gallatin of troubles in Geneva, 25;
at Gallatin's invitation, joins him in America, 25, 26;
established at Greensburg, 27;
letter of Gallatin to, 43;
with Gallatin at anti-excise convention, 52;
advised by Gallatin to avoid United States marshal, 55;
letter of Gallatin to, on French Revolution, 56;
letter of Gallatin to, on his wife, 59;
instructed by Gallatin to secure reëlection of unseated members of
legislature, 95;
given an office by Gallatin, 287, 326;
remark of Gallatin to, 299;
letter of Gallatin to, on J. Q. Adams, 339;
takes shares in Gallatin's land scheme, 361;
manages store for Gallatin, 362;
letters of Gallatin to, 365, 370.

Balbi, quotes Gallatin in his Atlas, 374.

Baldwin, Abraham, on committee on finance, 106.

Bank of North America, established by Morris, 172, 248;
its purpose, 248;
organization, 248, 249;
difficulties of starting, 249, 260;
its services, 249;
jealousy of Pennsylvania toward, 250.

Bank of United States, established by Hamilton, 175, 250, 251;
its organization, 251, 252;
borrowed from, by Gallatin, 204;
petitions for a re-charter, 252;
Gallatin's report in favor of, 252-254;
a re-charter refused, 231, 254;
its value, 255;
opinion of Gallatin on, 255;
controls state banks, 259;
desire of Astor to crush, 259;
remits specie to foreign stockholders, 260;
its dissolution causes panic, 262, 263;
reincorporation proposed, 265;
vetoed, then approved, by Madison, 265;
its subsequent history, 266;
helps resumption of specie payments, 267;
presidency of, declined by Gallatin, 268;
deposits removed from, by Taney, 269;
accepts charter from Pennsylvania, 271;
its subsequent career, 271;
fails in 1839, 276;
weakness of Madison in 1812 in allowing its dissolution, 296.

Bank, National, of New York, connection of Gallatin with, 269-277.

Banks, state, difficulty of controlling their issues, 256;
their evil effects, 257;
status in 1811, 258;
increase after termination of Bank of United States, 261, 262;
suspend payment in 1815, 262;
agree to resume, 267;
supported by second Bank of United States, 267;
Gallatin's "Considerations on," etc., 268;
connection of Gallatin with, 269-277;
speculation craze of, in 1836, 271, 272;
suspend payment in 1837, 272;
conventions of, to prepare for resumption, 273-275;
aided by Treasury, 275; "Suggestions" of Gallatin, 277.

Barbour, Philip P., presides over free trade convention in 1831, 241.

Baring, Alexander, explains to Gallatin British reasons for refusing
Russian mediation, 306, 307;
reply of Gallatin, 309;
urges Gallatin to visit England, 311;
requested by Gallatin to send passports, 313;
his mission to America, 349, 350;
his manner of negotiation with Webster, 350;
visits Gallatin, 350;
comparison with Gallatin, 350;
his death, 386.

Barings, connection with Louisiana purchase, 193, 195;
competition of Bank of United States with, 271;
letter of Gallatin to, 305.

Barras, Comte, encouraged by Napoleon's success to bold measures against United States, 132.

Bartlett, John Russell, gives anecdotes of Gallatin, 13, 22.

Bartlett, ----, member of Ethnological Society, 379.

Bathurst, Lord, promises to appoint peace commissioners, 314;
reopens negotiations, 319;
insists on possession of part of Maine, 321.

Bayard, James A., elected to Congress, 132;
on legislative encroachments on executive, 143;
on resolution to furnish foreign correspondence, 156;
defends Sedition Law by a clever amendment, 159;
moves committee to arrange for balloting in 1800, 166;
accompanies Gallatin as peace commissioner, 301, 302;
willing to accept an informal renunciation of impressment, 305;
goes to Amsterdam, 312;
on new commission to treat directly, 312;
visits London, 313;
asks Monroe for authority to negotiate anywhere, 314;
appointed minister to Russia, 326.

Baylies, ----, his report on Western territory complained of by England, 345.

Bentham, Jeremy, works translated by Dumont, 5;
influences Gallatin, 388.

Bentson, ----, on Astor's hostility to United States Bank, 259.

Berlin and Milan decrees, negotiations for compensation for seizures under, 333.

Biddle, C. C., at free trade convention in 1831, 241.

Biddle, Nicholas, in panic of 1837, 275.

Blount, William, on committee on finance, 107;
impeached, 138.

Bonaparte, Jerome, his flight to America, 332.

Bonaparte, Napoleon, his precocity compared to that of Gallatin, 32;
effect of his Italian successes on French policy, 132, 139;
adopts conciliatory tone, 160;
issues Milan decree, 229;
seen by Gallatin during Hundred Days, 326;
American sympathy for, explained by Gallatin, 331.

Boorman, James, at free trade convention in 1831, 241.

Borgo, Pozzo di, compared to Gallatin, 32.

Boston, visit of Gallatin to, 12-14, 17;
Puritanical society in, 13;
prejudice against French, 13;
Gallatin's opinion of, 18;
protests against Jay treaty, 103.

Botts, John M., letter of Gallatin to, on bank, 256.

Boundary, northeast, in treaty of Ghent, 321, 322;
discussed in 1826, 343;
referred to arbitration, 347;
argument concerning, prepared by Gallatin, 349;
decision of King of Netherlands rejected by United States, 349;
documents concerning, published by Gallatin, 349;
settled by Ashburton treaty, 350.

Bourdillon, ----, takes share in Gallatin's land scheme, 361.

Bourne, Shearjashub, on committee on finance, 106.

Brackenridge, Judge H. H., on Gallatin's part in anti-excise agitation,
50;
in Washington County, advises moderation, 69;
an authority for history of insurrection, 71;
his character and policy, 71;
leads Pittsburgh committee to urge moderation upon rioters, 72;
describes Bradford's behavior, 72;
his estimate of numbers under arms, 72;
compares excitement with that in 1765 and 1775, 74;
at Parkinson's Ferry meeting, 78;
supports Gallatin's efforts to prevent rebellion, 80, 82;
on committee to confer with United States commissioners, 81;
describes Gallatin's speech, 82;
claims credit for preventing civil war, 84;
on threats of secession, 86;
defeated by Gallatin for Congress, 93.

Bradford, David, represents Washington County in anti-excise
proceedings, 51;
elected to legislature, 54;
low opinion of Gallatin concerning, 54;
tries to shirk responsibility, 69;
then determines on extreme measures, robs mail, 69;
calls for armed resistance, 70;
unable to countermand order, 70;
assumes office of major-general, 72;
his harangue to the insurgents, 73;
at meeting at Parkinson's Ferry, 78;
advocates armed resistance, 79;
on committee on resolutions, 80;
named to confer with United States commissioners, 81;
urges rejection of their terms, 81, 82;
excepted from amnesty, flies from the country, 84, 85.

Bradford, James, in anti-excise convention, 52.

Bradford, ----, member of Ethnological Society, 379.