Albert Gallatin
total amount received from this source before the year 1800 being
slightly over one hundred thousand dollars. In May, 1800, sales of the
same lands were authorized at public vendue at not less than two dollars
per acre; four land offices were established in the territory; surveyors
were appointed, and a register of the land office was made a permanent
official. In March, 1803, an act was passed to regulate the sale of the
United States lands south of the Tennessee River, two land offices were
established and public sale provided for at the same price set in the
act of 1800. In March, 1804, the Indiana lands lying north of the Ohio
and east of the Mississippi were brought within similar regulations, and
an act was passed concerning the country acquired under Spanish and
British grants. In the same month Louisiana was erected into two
territories. The sums received from the sales during the first term of
Jefferson's administration amounted to little more than one million of
dollars. In January, 1805, the territory of Indiana was divided into two
separate governments; that one which was set off received the name of
Michigan, and in 1808, its territory was brought under the regulations
of the land office.
The sums received from the sales in the second term of Jefferson's
administration reached nearly two and one half millions of dollars, and
in Madison's first term, nearly three millions of dollars. From first to
last Mr. Gallatin never lost sight of the subject, though occasion did
not serve for more than organization of the system which, in the four
years ending 1836, yielded nearly fifty million dollars, and paid more
than one third of the entire expenses of the government. To John W.
Eppes[18] Mr. Gallatin wrote in the crisis of 1813, "The public lands
constitute the only great national resource exclusive of loans and
taxes. They have already been mentioned as a fund for the ultimate
extinguishment of the public debt." The land offices were then in full
operation.
In 1810 Mr. Gallatin prepared an "Introduction to the collection of
laws, treaties, and other documents respecting the public lands," which
was published pursuant to an act of Congress passed in April of that
year.
_Free Trade_
While Mr. Gallatin differed from his early Republican associates in many
of their theories of administration, he was a firm believer in the best
of their principles, namely, the wisdom of giving free scope to the
development of national resources with the least possible interference
on the part of government. One of his purposes in his persistent desire
for economy in expenditure was to reduce the tariff upon foreign
importations to the lowest practicable limit. He was the earliest public
advocate in America of the principles of free trade, and an experience
of sixty years confirmed him in his convictions.
The extinguishment of the debt rendered a great reduction in the revenue
possible. On the other hand, it brought the friends of a low tariff face
to face with the problem of internal improvements. As the election of
1832 drew near, the advocates of the two systems ranged themselves in
two great parties precisely as to-day: the advocates of the protective
or American system with internal improvements as an outlet for
accumulations of revenue on the one side; on the other the advocates of
free trade. Between his desire for the advantages of the one with its
attendant disadvantages of government interference in its prosecution,
and the freedom of commerce from undue restrictions, Mr. Gallatin did
not hesitate. He threw the whole force of his experience and character
into the free trade cause, and became the leader of its friends.
On September 30, 1831, a convention of the advocates of free trade,
without distinction of party, met at the Musical Fund Hall in
Philadelphia. Two hundred and twelve delegates appeared. Among them were
Theodore Sedgwick, George Peabody, and John L. Gardner from
Massachusetts; Preserved Fish, John Constable, John A. Stevens, Jonathan
Goodhue, James Boorman, Jacob Lorillard, and Albert Gallatin from New
York; C. C. Biddle, George Emlen, Isaac W. Norris from Pennsylvania;
Langdon Cheves, Henry Middleton, Joseph W. Allston, and William C.
Preston from South Carolina; and men of equal distinction, bankers,
merchants, statesmen, and political economists from other States. Of
this convention Mr. Gallatin was the soul. He opened its business by
stating the objects of the meeting, and nominated the Hon. Philip P.
Barbour of Virginia for president. A general committee of two from each
State was appointed, which recommended an address to the people of the
United States and a memorial to Congress. The address to the people
closed with a declaration that the near extinguishment of the national
debt, which would be discharged by the available funds of the government
on January 1, 1833, suggested that the moment was propitious for the
establishment of the principles of free trade. Thus the people of the
United States, who had successfully asserted the doctrines of free
government, might add to its claims upon the gratitude of the world by
being the first also to proclaim the theory of a free and unrestricted
commerce, the genuine "American system." Mr. Gallatin was the chairman
of the committee of fourteen, one from each State represented in the
convention, to prepare the memorial which was presented in their behalf
to Congress, the conclusions of which, presented with his consummate
ability, demonstrated with mathematical precision that a duty of
twenty-five per cent. was sufficient for all the legitimate purposes of
government. Here he found himself in direct opposition to Mr. Clay,
whose political existence was staked upon the opposite theory. Mr. Clay
answered in a great speech in the Senate in February, 1832, and forgot
himself in personal denunciation of Mr. Gallatin as a foreigner with
European interests at heart, and of utopian ideas; for this he expressed
his regret to Mr. Gallatin in an interview arranged by mutual friends at
a much later period. Mr. Gallatin's views were accepted as the policy of
the country, and after some shifting of parties, in which friends and
foes changed ground in subordination to other political exigencies, they
prevailed in the tariff of 1846, the best arranged and most reasonable
which the United States has yet seen.
It is certain that Mr. Gallatin was opposed to "protective" revenue. His
preference was for an "even" duty on all imports. This is not the place
for an economic discussion. The true policy of the United States is
probably between the extremes of protection and free trade. The nature
of our population has been changed by the enormous immigration of the
last fifty years. Moreover, instead of an absolute freedom from debt the
nation has had to endure the legacy of debt left by the Civil War, to
meet which a development of all its resources of manufacture as well as
of agriculture is required.
_Administration_
To arrive at a correct estimate of Mr. Gallatin's administration of the
Treasury Department, a cursory review of the establishment as he
received it from the hands of Mr. Wolcott is necessary. This review is
confined to administration in its limited sense, namely, the direction
of its clerical management under the provisions of statute law. The
organization of the department as originated by Hamilton and established
by the act of September 2, 1789, provided for a secretary of the
treasury as head of the department, whose general duty should be to
supervise the fiscal affairs of the country, and particularly to suggest
and prepare plans for the improvement and support of the public credit;
and, under his direction and supervision, a comptroller to adjust and
preserve accounts; an auditor to receive, examine, and rectify accounts;
a treasurer to receive, keep, and disburse moneys on warrants signed and
countersigned; a register to keep the accounts of receipts and
expenditures; and an assistant to the secretary of the treasury to fill
any vacancy from absence or other temporary cause. In addition to the
departments of State, Treasury, and War, a fourth, that of the Navy, was
established April 30, 1798. The three departments were brought into
relation with that of the Treasury by an act passed July 16, 1798,
supplementary to that organizing the Treasury, and which provided, 1st,
for the appointment of an accountant in each department, who was
required to report to the accounting officer of the Treasury; 2d, that
the Treasurer of the United States should only disburse by warrants on
the Treasury, countersigned by the accountant of the Treasury; 3d, that
all purchases for supplies for military or naval service should be
subject to the inspection and revision of the officers of the Treasury.
Mr. Jefferson, after his usual fashion of economy in the wrong
direction, proposed to Mr. Gallatin "to amalgamate the comptroller and
auditor into one, and reduce the register to a clerk of accounts: so
that the organization should consist, as it should at first, of a keeper
of money, a keeper of accounts, and the head of the department." But in
the Treasury Department there was no extravagance during Gallatin's
administration, and the shifting of responsibility would bring no saving
of salaries.
In May, 1800, an act was passed making it "the duty of the secretary of
the treasury to digest, prepare, and lay before Congress at the
commencement of every session a report on the subject of finances,
containing estimates of the public revenue and expenditures, and plans
for improving and increasing the revenue from time to time, for the
purpose of giving information to Congress in adopting modes for raising
the money requisite to meet the expenditures." Hamilton had never sent
in any other than a statement of expenditure for the past fiscal year,
together with the estimate of the accountant of the Treasury for the
proximate wants of the departments of government. Mr. Gallatin
incorporated in his annual report a balance sheet in accordance with the
ordinary forms of book-keeping familiar to every accountant and
indispensable in every business establishment, and such as is presented
to the public in the monthly and annual statements of the Treasury
Department at this day.
The statutes show no legislation during Mr. Gallatin's period of
administration, and to its close he was in continual struggle to force
upon Congress and the departments an accord with his pet plan of minute
specific appropriation of the sums estimated for and expended by each.
Mr. Madison heartily agreed with Mr. Gallatin on this subject, and on
taking office placed the relations of the State Department upon the
desired footing. But the heads of the Army and Navy were never willing
to consent to the strict limitation which Mr. Gallatin would have
imposed on their expenditures. In his notes to Jefferson for the draft
of his first message in 1801, Mr. Gallatin said that the most important
reform he could suggest was that of 'specific appropriations,' and he
inclosed an outline of a form to be enforced in detail. In January,
1802, he sent to Joseph H. Nicholson a series of inquiries to be
addressed to himself by a special committee on the subject, with regard
to the mode by which money was drawn from the Treasury and the situation
of accounts between that department and those of the Army and Navy. To
these questions he sent in to the House an elaborate reply, which he
intended to be the basis of legislation. Strict appropriation was the
ideal at which he aimed, and this word was so often on his tongue or in
his messages that it could not be mentioned without a suggestion of his
personality. He carried the same nicety of detail into his domestic