Albert Gallatin

by John Austin Stevens

Albert Gallatin, by John Austin Stevens, is a biography of the Geneva-born financier who became the longest-serving Secretary of the Treasury in American history, published in 1884 in the American Statesmen series. Stevens follows Gallatin from his arrival in the United States as a young man through the Pennsylvania legislature, the Senate, the Whiskey Insurrection, and his years in Congress as the Republican leader on finance, then to the Treasury under Jefferson and Madison, where he reduced the national debt while the Louisiana Purchase was paid for. Later chapters cover the negotiation of the Treaty of Ghent, his missions to France and England, and his retirement among New York's learned societies. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first chapter is free.