Albert Gallatin
seasonable event," and wished him joy at "being released from the
millstone of an American war." With Lord Castlereagh Mr. Gallatin
arranged in the course of the summer a convention regulating commercial
intercourse between the United States and Great Britain, the only truly
valuable part of which was that which abolished all discriminating
duties. Mr. Gallatin considered this concession as an evidence of
friendly disposition, and rightly judged that British antipathy and
prejudice were modified, and that in the future friendly relations would
be preserved and a rupture avoided. Beyond this, there was little
gained. The old irritating questions of impressment and blockade and the
exclusion of the United States from the West Indies trade remained.
In July Mr. Gallatin parted from Mr. Baring and his London friends on
his homeward journey. From New York, on September 4, he wrote Madison,
thanking him for the appointment of minister to France as an "evidence
of undiminished attachment and of public satisfaction for his services;"
but he still held his acceptance in abeyance. To Jefferson, two days
later, he had also the satisfaction to say with justice, that the
character of the United States stood as "high as ever it did on the
European continents, and higher than ever it did in Great Britain;" and
that the United States was considered "as the nation designed to check
the naval despotism of England." To Jefferson he naturally spoke of that
France from which they had drawn some of their inspirations and their
doctrines.
He thus describes the condition of the people:--
"The revolution (the political change of 1789) has not, however,
been altogether useless. There is a visible improvement in the
agriculture of the country and the situation of the peasantry. The
new generation belonging to that class, freed from the petty
despotism of nobles and priests, and made more easy in their
circumstances by the abolition of tithes, and the equalization of
taxes, have acquired an independent spirit, and are far superior to
their fathers in intellect and information; they are not
republicans and are still too much dazzled by military glory; but I
think that no monarch or ex-nobles can hereafter oppress them long
with impunity."
And again, "Exhausted, degraded, and oppressed as France now is, I do
not despair of her ultimate success in establishing her independence and
a free form of government." But it was not till half a century later
that Gambetta, the Mirabeau of the Republic, led France to the full
possession of her material forces, and reestablished in their original
vigor the principles of 1789. That Gallatin was not blinded by
democratic prejudices appears in the letter he wrote to Lafayette after
Napoleon's abdication, in which he said: "My attachment to the form of
government under which I was born and have ever lived never made me
desirous that it should, by way of experiment, be applied to countries
which might be better fitted for a limited monarchy."
_Minister to France_
Strange as it appears, there is no doubt that Mr. Gallatin was at this
time heartily weary of political life, and seriously contemplated a
permanent retirement to the banks of the Monongahela. He naturally
enough declined a nomination to Congress, which was tendered him by the
Philadelphia district. His tastes were not for the violence and
turbulence of the popular house.
Madison left him full time to decide whether he could arrange his
private affairs so as to accept the mission to Paris. In November he
positively declined. He considered the compensation as incompetent to
the support of a minister in the style in which he was expected to live.
His private income was at this time about twenty-five hundred dollars a
year. Monroe pressed him earnestly not to quit the public service, but
the year closed and Mr. Gallatin had not made up his mind. In the
situation of France, which he considered "would under her present
dynasty be for some years a vassal of her great rival," he did not
consider the mission important, and his private fortune was limited to a
narrow competence. "I do not wish," he wrote to Monroe, "to accumulate
any property. I will not do my family the injury of impairing the little
I have. My health is frail; they may soon lose me, and I will not leave
them dependent on the bounty of others." But being again earnestly
pressed, he on January 2, 1816, accepted the appointment. To Jefferson
he wrote that he would not conceal 'that he did not feel yet old enough
nor had philosophy enough to go into retirement and abstract himself
wholly from public affairs.'
In April, Madison notified Mr. Gallatin of Dallas's probable retirement
from the Treasury, and offered him the post if he cared to return to it.
He was perfectly aware of his supreme fitness for the direction of the
Treasury, and he declined with reluctance, because he was disturbed by
the suspension of specie payments. Remembering Madison's weakness in
1812 on the subject of the renewal of the bank charter, which Gallatin
considered necessary in the situation of the finances, he could hardly
have felt a desire to return to the cabinet in that or indeed in any
other capacity. He was perfectly conscious that as leader of the House
of Representatives, as secretary of the treasury, and as negotiator of
the Ghent treaty, he had brought into the triumvirate all its practical
statesmanship. His short career abroad had opened to him a new source of
intellectual pleasure. He had earned a right to some hours of ease.
Diplomacy at that period, when communication was uncertain and
difficult, was perforce less restricted than in these latter days, when
ambassadors are little more than foreign clerks of the State Department
without even the freedom of a chief of bureau. Gallatin felt entirely at
home, and was happy in this peculiar sphere. There was no time in his
life when he would not have gladly surrendered all political power for
the enjoyment of intellectual ease, the pursuit of science, and the
atmosphere of society of the higher order of culture in whatever field.
And Paris was then, as it is still, the centre of intellectual and
social civilization.
Jefferson rejoiced in Gallatin's appointment to France, and rightly
judged that he would be of great service there. Of Louis XVIII.,
however, Jefferson had a poor opinion. He thought him 'a fool and a
bigot, but, bating a little duplicity, honest and meaning well.'
Jefferson could give Gallatin no letters. He had 'no acquaintances left
in France; some were guillotined, some fled, some died, some are exiled,
and he knew of nobody left but Lafayette.' With Destutt de Tracy, an
intimate friend of Lafayette, Jefferson was in correspondence. Indeed,
he was engaged on the translation of Tracy's work on political economy,
the best, in Jefferson's opinion, that had ever appeared.[21]
Gallatin reached Paris with his family on July 9, 1816, and had an
interview with the Duc de Richelieu, the minister of Louis XVIII., two
days later. The conversation turned upon the sympathy for Bonaparte in
the United States, which Richelieu could not understand; but Gallatin
explained that it was not extended to him as the despot of France, but
as the most formidable enemy of England. Richelieu warned him of the
prejudices which might be aroused against the reigning family 'by
ex-kings and other emigrants of the same description' who had lately
removed to the United States. This was an allusion to Jerome, who had
fled from the throne of Westphalia to the banks of the Delaware. The
king gave Gallatin an audience on the 11th, when he presented his
credentials. His reception both by his majesty and the princes was, he
wrote to Monroe, "what is called gracious." Louis the Eighteenth was a
Bourbon to the ends of his fingers. He had the _bonhommie_ dashed with
malice which characterized the race. None could better appreciate than
he the vein of good-natured satire, the acquired tone of French society,
which was to Mr. Gallatin a natural gift. Mr. Gallatin was not only
kindly but familiarly received at court; and at the _petits soupers_,
which were the delight of the epicurean king, his majesty on more than
one occasion shelled the crawfish for the youthful daughter of the
republican ambassador. An anecdote is preserved of the king's courteous
malice. To a compliment paid Mr. Gallatin on his French, the king added,
"but I think my English is better than yours."
Gallatin's first negotiations were to obtain indemnity for the captures
under the Berlin and Milan decrees; but although the Duc de Richelieu
never for a moment hinted that the government of the Restoration was not
responsible for the acts of Napoleon, yet he stated that the mass of
injuries for which compensation was demanded by other governments was so
great that indemnity must be limited to the most flagrant cases. They
would pay for vessels burnt at sea, but would go no farther. In spite of
Mr. Gallatin's persistency no advance was made in the negotiation. A
minor matter gave him some annoyance. On July 4, 1816, at a public
dinner, the postmaster at Baltimore proposed a toast which, by its
disrespect, gave umbrage to the king. Hyde de Neuville, the French
minister to the United States, demanded the dismissal of the offender.
If our institutions and habits as well as public opinion had not
forbidden compliance with this request, the dictatorial tone of De
Neuville was sufficient bar. Richelieu could not be made to understand
the reason for the refusal, and while disclaiming any idea of using
force, said that the government would show its dissatisfaction in its
own way. This seemed to intimate an indefinite postponement of a
consideration of American demands, and would have rendered Mr.
Gallatin's further residence useless as well as unpleasant; but French
dignity got the better of what Gallatin termed, "the sickly
sentimentality which existed on the subject of personal abuse of the
king," and the insignificant incident was not allowed to interfere with
friendly intercourse.
In 1817 Mr. Gallatin was engaged not only in advising Mr. Adams at
London upon the points of a commercial treaty with Great Britain, but
also, together with Mr. William Eustis, minister to the Netherlands, in
a negotiation with that government.
The commission met at the Hague, Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Van der Kemp
representing Holland. The subjects were the treaty of 1782 between the
States-general of the Netherlands and the United States, the repeal of
discriminating duties, and the participation of the United States in the
trade with the Dutch East Indies. The basis of a treaty could not be
agreed upon, and the whole matter was referred back to the two
governments, the American commissioners recommending to the President a
repeal of duties discriminating against vessels of the Netherlands,
which would no doubt prevent future exaction of extra tonnage duties
imposed on American vessels by that government. These negotiations
occupied the late summer months. At the end of September Mr. Gallatin
was again at his post in Paris.
In June, 1818, Mr. Richard Rush, who owed his introduction into public
life to Mr. Gallatin, was appointed minister to England, Adams returning
to the United States to take the portfolio of State in President
Monroe's cabinet. Gallatin was joined to Rush, for the conduct of
negotiations with Great Britain, rendered necessary by the approaching
expiration of the commercial convention of July 3, 1815, which had been
limited to four years. The general field of disputed points was again
entered. It included the questions of impressment, the fisheries, the
boundaries, and indemnity for slaves. The commissioners were supported