Albert Gallatin
Philadelphia, early in March, that life in Fayette County had no more
charms for him, and that he would gladly leave America. But his lands
were unsalable at any price, and he saw no means of support at Geneva.
Some one has said, with a profound knowledge of human nature, that no
man is sure of happiness who has not the capacity for continuous labor
of a disagreeable kind. The occasional glimpses into Mr. Gallatin's
inner nature, which his correspondence affords, show that up to this
period he was not supposed by his friends or by himself to have this
capacity. In the letter which his guardian wrote to him after his flight
from home, he was reproached with his "natural indolence." His good
friend, Mademoiselle Pictet, accused him of being hard to please, and
disposed to _ennui_; and again, as late as 1787, repeats to him, in a
tone of sorrow, the reports brought to her of his "continuance in his
old habit of indolence," his indifference to society, his neglect of
his dress, and general indifference to everything but study and reading,
tastes which, she added, he might as well have cultivated at Geneva as
in the new world; and he himself, in the letter to Badollet just
mentioned, considers that his habits and his laziness would prove
insuperable bars to his success in any profession in Europe. In
estimation of this self-condemnation, it must be borne in mind that the
Genevans were intellectual Spartans. Gallatin must be measured by that
high standard. But if the charge of indolence could have ever justly
lain against Gallatin,--a charge which his intellectual vigor at
twenty-seven seems to challenge,--it certainly could never have been
sustained after he fairly entered on his political and public career. In
October, 1790, he was elected by a two thirds majority to represent
Fayette County in the legislature of the State of Pennsylvania; James
Findley was his colleague, John Smilie being advanced to the state
Senate. Mr. Gallatin was reelected to the Assembly in 1791 and 1792,
without opposition.
Among his papers there is a memorandum of his legislative service during
these three years, and a manuscript volume of extracts from the Journals
of the House, from January 14, 1791, to December 17, 1794. They form
part of the extensive mass of documents and letters which were collected
and partially arranged by himself, with a view to posthumous
publication. Here is an extract from the memorandum:--
"I acquired an extraordinary influence in that body [the
Pennsylvania House of Representatives]; the more remarkable as I
was always in a party minority. I was indebted for it to my great
industry and to the facility with which I could understand and
carry on the current business. The laboring oar was left almost
exclusively to me. In the session of 1791-1792, I was put on
thirty-five committees, prepared all their reports, and drew all
their bills. Absorbed by those details, my attention was turned
exclusively to administrative laws, and not to legislation properly
so called.... I failed, though the bill I had introduced passed the
House, in my efforts to lay the foundation for a better system of
education. Primary education was almost universal in Pennsylvania,
but very bad, and the bulk of schoolmasters incompetent, miserably
paid, and held in no consideration. It appeared to me that in order
to create a sufficient number of competent teachers, and to raise
the standard of general education, intermediate academical
education was an indispensable preliminary step, and the object of
the bill was to establish in each county an academy, allowing to
each out of the treasury a sum equal to that raised by taxation in
the county for its support. But there was at that time in
Pennsylvania a Quaker and a German opposition to every plan of
general education.
"The spirit of internal improvements had not yet been awakened.
Still, the first turnpike-road in the United States was that from
Philadelphia to Lancaster, which met with considerable opposition.
This, as well as every temporary improvement in our communications
(roads and rivers) and preliminary surveys, met, of course, with my
warm support. But it was in the fiscal department that I was
particularly employed, and the circumstances of the times favored
the restoration of the finances of the State.
"The report of the Committee of Ways and Means of the session
1790-91 was entirely prepared by me, known to be so, and laid the
foundation of my reputation. I was quite astonished at the general
encomiums bestowed upon it, and was not at all aware that I had
done so well. It was perspicuous and comprehensive; but I am
confident that its true merit, and that which gained me the general
confidence, was its being founded in strict justice, without the
slightest regard to party feelings or popular prejudices. The
principles assumed, and which were carried into effect, were the
immediate reimbursement and extinction of the state paper-money,
the immediate payment in specie of all the current expenses, or
warrants on the treasury (the postponement and uncertainty of which
had given rise to shameful and corrupt speculations), and provision
for discharging without defalcation every debt and engagement
previously recognized by the State. In conformity with this, the
State paid to its creditors the difference between the nominal
amount of the state debt assumed by the United States and the rate
at which it was funded by the act of Congress.
"The proceeds of the public lands, together with the arrears, were
the fund which not only discharged all the public debts, but left a
large surplus. The apprehension that this would be squandered by
the legislature was the principal inducement for chartering the
Bank of Pennsylvania, with a capital of two millions of dollars, of
which the State subscribed one half. This, and similar subsequent
investments, enabled Pennsylvania to defray, out of the dividends,
all the expenses of government without any direct tax during the
forty ensuing years, and till the adoption of the system of
internal improvement, which required new resources.
"It was my constant assiduity to business, and the assistance
derived from it by many members, which enabled the Republican party
in the legislature, then a minority on a joint ballot, to elect me,
and no other but me of that party, senator of the United States."
Among the reports enumerated by Mr. Gallatin, as those of which he was
the author, is one made by a committee on March 22, 1793, that they ...
are of opinion slavery is inconsistent with every principle of humanity,
justice, and right, and repugnant to the spirit and express letter of
the Constitution of the Commonwealth. Added to this was a resolution for
its abolition in the Commonwealth.
The seat of government was changed from New York to Philadelphia in
1790, and the first Congress assembled there in the early days of
December for its final session. Philadelphia was in glee over the
transfer of the departments. The convention which framed the new state
Constitution met here in the fall, and the legislature was also holding
its sessions. The atmosphere was political. The national and local
representatives met each other at all times and in all places, and the
public affairs were the chief topic in and out of doors. In this busy
whirl Gallatin made many friends, but Philadelphia was no more to his
taste as a residence than Boston. He was disgusted with the
ostentatious display of wealth, the result not of industry but of
speculation, and not in the hands of the most deserving members of the
community. Later he became more reconciled to the tone of Pennsylvania
society, comparing it with that of New York; he was especially pleased
with its democratic spirit, and the absence of _family influence_. "In
Pennsylvania," he says, "not only we have neither Livingstons, nor
Rensselaers, but from the suburbs of Philadelphia to the banks of the
Ohio I do not know a single family that has any extensive influence. An
equal distribution of property has rendered every individual
independent, and there is amongst us true and real equality. In a word,
as I am lazy, I like a country where living is cheap; and as I am poor,
I like a country where no person is very rich."
Hamilton's excise bill was a bone of contention in the national and
state legislatures throughout the winter. Direct taxation upon anything
was unpopular, that on distilled spirits the most distasteful to
Pennsylvania, where whiskey stills were numerous in the Alleghanies. To
the bill introduced into Congress a reply was immediately made January
14, 1791, by the Pennsylvania Assembly in a series of resolutions which
are supposed to have been drafted by Mr. Gallatin, and to have been the
first legislative paper from his pen. They distinctly charged that the
obnoxious bill was "subversive of the peace, liberty, and rights of the
citizen."
Tax by excise has always been offensive to the American people, as it
was to their ancestors across the sea. It was characterized by the first
Continental Congress of 1774 as "the horror of all free States."
Notwithstanding their warmth, these resolutions passed the Assembly by a
vote of 40 to 16. The course of this excitement must be followed; as it
swept Mr. Gallatin in its mad current, and but for his self-control,
courage, and adroitness would have wrecked him on the breakers at the
outset of his political voyage. The excise law passed Congress on March
3, 1791. On June 22 the state legislature, by a vote of 36 to 11,
requested their senators and representatives in Congress to oppose every
part of the bill which "shall militate against the rights and liberties
of the people."
The western counties of Pennsylvania--Westmoreland, Fayette, Washington,
and Allegheny--lie around the head-waters of the Ohio in a radius of
more than a hundred miles. At this time they contained a population of
about seventy thousand souls. Pittsburgh, the seat of justice, had about
twelve hundred inhabitants. The Alleghany Mountains separate this wild
region from the eastern section of the State. There were few roads of
any kind, and these lay through woods. The mountain passes could be
traveled only on foot or horseback. The only trade with the East was by
pack-horses, while communication with the South was cut off by hostile
Indian tribes who held the banks of the Ohio. This isolation from the
older, denser, and more civilized settlements bred in the people a
spirit of self-reliance and independence. They were in great part
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, a religious and warlike race to whom the
hatred of an exciseman was a tradition of their forefathers. Having no
market for their grain, they were compelled to preserve it by converting
it into whiskey. The still was the necessary appendage of every farm.
The tax was light, but payable in money, of which there was little or
none. Its imposition, therefore, coupled with the declaration of its
oppressive nature by the Pennsylvania legislature, excited a spirit of
determined opposition near akin to revolution.
Unpopular in all the western part of the State, Hamilton's bill was
especially odious to the people of Washington County. The first meeting
in opposition to it was held at Red Stone Old Fort or Brownsville, the
site of one of those ancient remains of the mound-builders which abound
in the western valleys. It was easily reached by Braddock's Road, the