Albert Gallatin
acquainted with the Indian tribes in different sections of the
country.[23] The replies to these various queries were few in number,
but the practical plan, adhered to in substance, has resulted in the
collection by the Smithsonian Institution of a very large number of
Indian vocabularies.[24]
This class of investigation, in its ample scope for original research
and the ascertainment of principles by analysis and analogic expression,
was peculiarly agreeable to Mr. Gallatin. His friend, du Ponceau,[25]
who served in the American war as the secretary of Steuben, and was now
established in Philadelphia, was likewise deeply engaged in philologic
studies; in 1819 he had published a memoir of the construction of the
languages of the North American Indians, which he followed later with
other papers of a similar nature, among which were a "Grammar of the
Languages of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians," and a memoir on the
grammatical system of the languages of the Indian tribes of North
America, a learned and highly instructive paper, which took the Volney
prize at Paris.
In 1836 Mr. Gallatin's original paper, contributed to Balbi, amplified
by subsequent acquisitions, was published by the American Antiquarian
Society of Worcester, in the first volume of its Transactions. It was
entitled "A Synopsis of the Indian Tribes, within the United States east
of the Rocky Mountains, and in the British and Russian Possessions in
North America." This elaborate inquiry, the foundation of the science in
America, was intended originally to embrace all the tribes north of the
Mexican semi-civilized nations. From the want of material, however, it
was confined at the southward to the territory of the United States, and
eastward of the Rocky Mountains. It included eighty-one tribes, divided
into twenty-eight families, and was accompanied by a colored map, with
tribal indications. The result of the investigation Mr. Gallatin held to
be proof that all the languages, not only of our own Indian tribes, but
of the nations inhabiting America from the Arctic Ocean to Cape Horn,
have a distinct character common to all. This paper attracted great
attention in Europe. It was reviewed by the Count de Circourt, whose
interest in the subject was heightened by personal acquaintance with the
author. John C. Calhoun, acknowledging receipt of a copy of the
Synopsis, said in striking phrase 'that he had long thought that the
analogy of languages is destined to recover much of the lost history of
nations just as geology has of the globe we inhabit.'
In 1838, Congress having accepted the trust of John Smithson of
L100,000, and pledged the faith of the United States for its purposes,
Mr. Forsyth, the secretary of state, addressed Mr. Gallatin, at the
request of the President, requesting his views as to its proper
employment; but Mr. Gallatin does not appear to have answered the
communication. The programme of the Smithsonian Institution, inclosed to
the board of regents in its first report, stated its object to be the
increase and diffusion of knowledge, and bears marks of the general
views which Mr. Gallatin had for many years urged on public attention.
The first of the Smithsonian "Contributions to Knowledge" was the memoir
of Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, by Squier and Davis.
Before its publication was undertaken, however, it was submitted to the
Ethnological Society. Mr. Gallatin returned it, with the approval of the
society, and some words of commendation of his own addressed to
Professor Henry, the learned superintendent of the Smithsonian
Institution.
The period of temporary political repose, which followed the peace of
Vienna and the establishment of the balance of power by the allied
sovereigns, was an era in human knowledge. Science made rapid progress,
and in its turn showed the broad and liberal influence of the great
revolution. In 1842 societies were founded in Paris and London to
promote the study of ethnology. Mr. Gallatin would not be behindhand in
this important work for which America offered a virgin field. Drawing
about him a number of gentlemen of similar tastes with his own, he
founded in New York, in 1842, the American Ethnological Society. Among
his associates were Dr. Robinson, the famous explorer of Palestine,
Schoolcraft, Bartlett, and Professor Turner, noted for their researches
in the history and languages of the Indian races. Messrs. Atwater,
Bradford, Hawks, Gibbs, Mayer, Dr. Morton, Pickering, Stephens, Ewbank,
and Squier were also, either in the beginning or soon after, members of
this select and learned institution, of which Mr. Gallatin was the
central figure. One of its members said in 1871, 'Mr. Gallatin's house
was the true seat of the society, and Mr. Gallatin himself its
controlling spirit. His name gave it character, and from his purse
mainly was defrayed the cost of the two volumes of the "Transactions"
which constitute about the only claim the society possesses to the
respect of the scientific world.' To the first of these volumes,
published in 1845, Mr. Gallatin contributed an "Essay on the
semi-civilized nations of Mexico and Central America, embracing
elaborate notes on their languages, numeration, calendars, history, and
chronology, and an inquiry into the probable origin of their
semi-civilization." In this he included all existing certain knowledge
of the languages, history, astronomy, and progress in art of these
peoples. A copy of this work he sent to General Scott, then in the city
of Mexico after his triumphant campaign, inclosing a memorandum which he
urged the general to hand to civilians attached to the army. This was a
request to purchase books, copies of documents, printed grammars, and
vocabularies of the Mexican languages, and he authorized the general to
spend four hundred dollars in this purpose on his account. In the second
volume, published in 1848, he printed the result of his continued
investigations on the subject which first interested him, as an
introduction to a republication of a work by Mr. Hale on the "Indians of
Northwest America." This consisted of geographical notices, an account
of Indian means of subsistence, the ancient semi-civilization of the
Northwest, Indian philology, and analogic comparisons with the Chinese
and Polynesian languages. These papers Mr. Gallatin modestly described
to Chevalier as the 'fruits of his leisure,' and to Sismondi he wrote
that he had not the requisite talent for success in literature or
science. They nevertheless entitle him to the honorable name of the
Father of American Ethnography.
In 1837 Mr. Wheaton, the American minister at Berlin, requested Mr.
Gallatin to put the Baron von Humboldt in possession of authentic data
concerning the production of gold in the United States. Humboldt had
visited the Oural and Siberian regions in 1829, at the request of the
Emperor of Russia, to make investigations as to their production of the
precious metals. Mr. Gallatin was the only authority in the United
States on the subject. Later von Humboldt wrote to Mr. Gallatin of the
interest felt abroad, and by himself, in the gold of the mountains of
Virginia and Tennessee, a country which rivaled on a small scale the
Dorado of Siberia. The treasures of the Pacific coast were not yet
dreamed of.
Mr. Gallatin perfectly understood the range of his own powers. He said
of himself:--
"If I have met with any success, either in public bodies, as an
executive officer, or in foreign negotiations, it has been
exclusively through a patient and most thorough investigation of
all the attainable facts, and a cautious application of these to
the questions under discussion.... Long habit has given me great
facility in collating, digesting, and extracting complex documents,
but I am not hasty in drawing inferences; the arrangement of the
facts and arguments is always to me a considerable labor, and
though aiming at nothing more than perspicuity and brevity, I am a
very slow writer."
Mr. Gallatin's manuscripts and drafts show long and minute labor in
their well considered and abundant alterations. Referring on one
occasion to his habit of reasoning, Mr. Gallatin remarked, that of all
processes that of analogy is the most dangerous, yet that which he
habitually used; that it required the greatest possible number of facts.
This is the foundation of philology, and his understanding of its method
and its dangers is the reason of his success in this branch of science.
The difficulty experienced in establishing any literary or scientific
institutions in New York was very great. An effort made in 1830, which
Mr. Gallatin favored, to establish a literary periodical failed, not on
account of the pecuniary difficulties, but from the impossibility of
uniting a sufficient number of able cooeperators. But Mr. Gallatin's
interest in literature was not as great as in science.[26]
In 1841 a national institution for the promotion of science was
organized at Washington. The cooeperation of Mr. Gallatin was invited,
but the society had a short existence. In 1843 Mr. Gallatin was chosen
president of the New York Historical Society. His inaugural address is
an epitome of political wisdom. Pronounced at any crisis of our history,
it would have become a text for the student. In this sketch he analyzed
the causes which contributed to form our national character and to
establish a government founded on justice and on equal rights. He showed
how, united by a common and imminent danger, the thirteen States
succeeded in asserting and obtaining independence without the aid of a
central and efficient government, and the difficulties which were
encountered when a voluntary surrender of a part of their immense
sovereignty became necessary as a condition of national existence. He
said that the doctrine that all powers should emanate from the people is
not a question of expediency.
In this address he summed up the reasons why Washington exercised such a
beneficial influence upon the destinies of his country. In a
confidential letter to his wife in 1797, he expressed an opinion that
the father of his country was not a good-natured and amiable man, but
time had mellowed these recollections and softened the asperity of this
judgment. Washington had not, he said (in 1843), 'an extraordinary
amount of acquired knowledge; he was neither a classical scholar nor a
man of science, nor was he endowed with the powers of eloquence, nor
with other qualities more strong than solid, which might be mentioned;
but he had a profound and almost innate sense of justice, on all public
occasions a perfect control of his strong passions,[27] above all a most
complete and extraordinary self-abnegation. Personal consequences and
considerations were not even thought of, they never crossed his mind,
they were altogether obliterated.' Mr. Gallatin held that "the Americans
had a right to be proud of Washington, because he was selected and
maintained during his whole career by the people--never could he have
been thus chosen and constantly supported had he not been the type and
representative of the American people."
The commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the foundation of the
New York Historical Society, November, 1844, was an occasion of unusual
interest. John Romeyn Brodhead, who had just returned from the Hague
with the treasures of New Netherland history gathered during his
mission, was the orator of the day. The venerable John Quincy Adams, Mr.
Gallatin's old associate at Ghent, was present. After the address, which
was delivered at the Church of the Messiah on Broadway, the society and
its guests crossed the street to the New York Hotel, where a banquet
awaited them. Mr. Gallatin retired early, leaving the chair to the first