The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-07-31
s9gGtsre1I1
ALBERT eALLATIN,
me Great financial Statesman Of the Jehernen-
ian RepablIcbn Parry.

Iuo lhtoly puwlhfA|tI' W. IA IN 4,fr1f
Of the two great |eEsqmep,
John Adams and 1..ls AmiIton,
ID now supple saisd sliS Iesseis ara
other wyiliAs Stlaipp
nsnts. M hAit gR slRe
anti-Fed ell|N hk slREA awe,
accOmpllsS ea
pion thaiwas a AIbSsf llatih. Ed8 The
student Of Ameiicnll slea isw pameH
are invested with mote dbsthntial dig
nity than that Of Che foremost Demo-
cratic fnancEer, and although he has
kept q less tenacious hold on public re-
nnembrance than some Of his contempor-
aries, It is worth noting that he once en-
joyed exceptional favor among the mas.
ses Of the people. There is no doubt
that Albert Gallatin, had he been elligi'
BILE under the Constitution, would have
received the nomination for President
from those who represented Jeffersonian
principles. But he was an alien by birth,
like Alexander Hamilton and Alexan.
der James Dallas, and it is curious fact
that all three should have occupied the
position ofSecretary of the Treasury and
should have left behind them reputa-
tion for conspicuous ability in that most
delicate and onerous department of the
Government. Young Hamilton was but
q boy when he came from the island Of
Jamaica, and obtained most of the in
struction he was ever to derive, from pro-
fessional tutors at Kings new Columbia
College, in the city Of New York. Mr..
Dallas also came to Philadelphia from
Jamaica, but he had been previously ed.
ucated, married and admitted to the Bar
in England. At the age Of eighteen Mr..
Gallatin having received university ed
ucation, left his native city of Geneva,
and reaching New England in 1779, en-
tered the Continental army, and served
on the Maine frontier. Four years af-
terward, when the war was over, we
find him teaching French in Harvard
College, and little later meet him in
Virginia, when he is offered the land of
fee agency by Gen. Washington, which,
however, he declines. He decided, final
ly, to settle in Western Pennsylvia, and
bought farm in Fayette county, on the
Monongshela river. Here, although his
command of the English was still imper-
feet, he rapidly gained the respect and
confidence of his fellow. citizens, and
during large part of the next fifteen
years was employed in legislative func'
tions, having attained by 1900 the posi-
ton of uudisputed leader of the Jeffer'
sonian party in the House of Represen.
tatiVes. With the accession of his chief
to Office, he became, as we have said,
Secretary Of the Treasury, and during
quarter of century was called upon by
successive administrations to discharge
the most important executive and diplo-
matte duties.
In the letter addressed to Louis F. De.
iesdernier, and preserved in the Maine
Historical Society publications, Mr.. Gal
latin gives q sketch of his early life dur.
ing the years 1888 to 1898. After leaving
Harvard College he went to Virginia,
where he stayed, he tells US, till the
spring of 1884. Thence he went to the
western territory, sometimes called the
Ohio country, and remained there two
years, locating and directing the surveys
of a quantity of land for himself, a Mr..
Savary and others. In 1885, being then
25 years old, he received from Geneva
his small patrimony, and by the advice
of Patrick Henry, purchased planta'
ton of about 400 acres, on which he liv
ed until he went to Washington. II
was bad farmer" he said, "and have
been unfortunate in some mercantile
pursuits l had embraced. l have just
managed to live independent, and am
neither richer nor poorer than / was IL
years ago." The fact is, Mr.. Gallatin
was not we'll calculated to make money
--he cared but little about it, for his per-
sonsl wants were small, and his mind
pursued other objects with more pleasure
than mere business. Most of his time,
indeed, was passed in reading. His first
marriage was in 1889, but he ha6 e
misfortune to lose his wife six monuns
afterward. The same year he was chos-
On member Of the convention which
formed the Constitution of Pennsylva-
mia, and in the two succeeding years he
was elected to the Legislature. Mr.. Gal.
latin does not mention in this letter, that
In 1898 he had been made United States
Senator, and had taken seat, though at
khn o,,1 ~ trrn troA,nkha hn AaoloraA
Ineligible, on the ground that he had
not been citizen of the United States
the requisite nine years. Gallatin's me-
diatory attitude toward the whisky in
gurrection, which broke out in western
Pennsylvania, was instrumental in ef-
feoing peaceful accommodation be-
tween the Government and the people.
The letter from which we have quoted,
however, does not mention this Circum-
stance, or the fact that, by way Of recog-
nising this service, he was elected to the
House OF Representatives as Peoples
candidate, From the first he took high
rank IN that body among the champions
of the most advanced Democratic ideas,
and the sympathizers with the French
republic, a. opposed to the conservative,
apgliCiEing tendencies of the Fsderalists
then In power He was not man to be
scared by Names and on one occasion
went 40 far as to charge Washington and
Jay with ipuGsillanimOusly surTendeTing
che honor Of theiF country. As this
speech came from q man whose accent
betrayed his foreign birth, and whose
youth Indicated that he could not have
arrived in this country much before the.
close 9fthe war, it natEally exaspeFated
the Federalists, one Of whom remarked
that "hs could not feel thankful 10 the
gentleman for coming all the way from
Gcnsys 70 accuse Americans OF pusRllsn-
imity.ns We may note, also, that It was
on ~, Gallstin's motion the Committee
on WaYs and Means was first organized
as 4 standing committee Of the House, in
1895. 4, Meanwhile Mr., Gsllatin maITjed
O second time, in 1893, and By. bis wife,
very Amjabls Fph }ljan and lovely person, hs bad
issy Z Q 4f..GgY iiS.a13I Lf ~ % y,QY5