Historical Biography PDF EPUB

Albert Gallatin

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First published: 1883
Pages: 306

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About this book

Stevens opens in Geneva, where a patrician family and a taste for republican ideas sent nineteen-year-old Albert Gallatin to America in 1780. The chapters follow him from a frontier settlement in western Pennsylvania to the state legislature, then to a Senate seat the chamber voided in 1794 because he had not been a citizen long enough. He argued for moderation during the Whiskey Insurrection, pressed the House into creating a standing Ways and Means Committee to watch the Treasury, and then ran that department under Jefferson and Madison for nearly thirteen years, still the longest any secretary has served. Diplomacy follows: the peace at Ghent, then ministries to France and Britain. A closing chapter turns to society, letters, and science. Stevens argues in his preface that Gallatin's fame had thinned to mere tradition, and that the record deserved better.

About the author

John Austin Stevens

John Austin Stevens (1827-1910) began as a bank cashier, built a trading business with Cuba, and served as an officer of the New York Chamber of Commerce, where during the Civil War he helped the Lincoln administration raise regiments and arrange financing.

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