UNITED STATES SENATE
The death of the grandfather of Mr. Gallatin, and soon after of his
aunt, strongly tempted him to make a journey to Geneva in the summer of
1793. The political condition of Europe at that time was of thrilling
interest. On January 21 the head of Louis XVI. fell under the
guillotine, to which Marie Antoinette soon followed him. The armies of
the coalition were closing in upon France. Of the political necessity
for these state executions there has always been and will always be
different judgments. That of Mr. Gallatin is of peculiar value. It is
found expressed in intimate frankness in a letter to his friend
Badollet, written at Philadelphia, February 1, 1794.
"France at present offers a spectacle unheard of at any other
period. Enthusiasm there produces an energy equally terrible and
sublime. All those virtues which depend upon social or family
affections, all those amiable weaknesses, which our natural
feelings teach us to love or respect, have disappeared before the
stronger, the only, at present, powerful passion, the _Amor
Patriæ_. I must confess my soul is not enough steeled, not
sometimes to shrink at the dreadful executions which have restored
at least apparent internal tranquillity to that republic. Yet upon
the whole, as long as the combined despots press upon every
frontier, and employ every engine to destroy and distress the
interior parts, I think they, and they alone, are answerable for
every act of severity or injustice, for every excess, nay for every
crime, which either of the contending parties in France may have
committed."
Within a few years the publication of the correspondence of De Fersen,
the agent of the king and queen, has supplied the proof of the charge
that they were in secret correspondence with the allied sovereigns to
introduce foreign troops upon the soil of France,--a crime which no
people has ever condoned.
The French Revolution, which from its beginning in 1789 reacted upon the
United States with fully the force that the American Revolution exerted
upon France, had become an important factor in American politics. The
intemperance of Genet, the minister of the French Convention to the
United States on the one hand, and the breaches of neutrality by England
on the other, were dividing the American people into English and French
parties. The Federalists sympathized with the English, the late enemies,
and the Republicans with the French, the late allies, of the United
States.
Mr. Gallatin had about made up his mind to visit Europe, when an
unexpected political honor changed his plans. The Pennsylvania
legislature elected him a senator of the United States on joint ballot,
a distinction the more singular in that the legislature was Federalist
and Mr. Gallatin was a representative of a Republican district, and
strong in that faith. Moreover, he was not a candidate either of his own
motion or by that of his friends, but, on the contrary, had doubts as to
his eligibility because of insufficient residence. This objection, which
he himself stated in caucus, was disregarded, and on February 28, 1793,
by a vote of 45 to 37, he was chosen senator. Mr. Gallatin had just
completed his thirty-second year, and now a happy marriage came
opportunely to stimulate his ambition and smooth his path to other
honors.
Among the friends made at Philadelphia was Alexander J. Dallas, a
gentleman two years Gallatin's senior, whose career, in some respects,
resembled his own. He was born in Jamaica, of Scotch parents; had been
thoroughly educated at Edinburgh and Westminster, and, coming to the
United States in 1783, had settled in Philadelphia. He now held the post
of secretary of state for Pennsylvania. Mr. Gallatin's constant
committee service brought him into close relations with the secretary,
and the foundation was laid of a lasting political friendship and social
intimacy. In the recess of the legislature, Mr. Gallatin joined Mr.
Dallas and his wife in an excursion to the northward. Mr. Gallatin's
health had suffered from close confinement and too strict attention to
business, and he needed recreation and diversion. In the course of the
journey the party was joined by some ladies, friends of Mrs. Dallas,
among whom was Miss Hannah Nicholson. The excursion lasted nearly four
weeks. The result was that Mr. Gallatin returned to Philadelphia the
accepted suitor of this young lady. He describes her in a letter to
Badollet as "a girl about twenty-five years old, who is neither handsome
nor rich, but sensible, well-informed, good-natured, and belonging to a
respectable and very amiable family." Nor was he mistaken in his
choice,--a more charming nature, a more perfect, well-rounded character
than hers is rarely found. They were married on November 11, 1793. She
was his faithful companion throughout his long and honorable career, and
death separated them but by a few months. This alliance greatly widened
his political connection.
Commodore James Nicholson, his wife's father, famous in the naval annals
of the United States as the captain of the Trumbull, the first of
American frigates, at the time resided in New York, and was one of the
acknowledged leaders of the Republican party in the city. His two
brothers--Samuel and John--were captains in the naval service. His two
elder daughters were married to influential gentlemen;--Catharine to
Colonel Few, senator from Georgia; Frances, to Joshua Seney, member of
Congress from Maryland; Maria later (1809) married John Montgomery, who
had been member of Congress from Maryland, and was afterwards mayor of
Baltimore. A son, James Witter Nicholson, then a youth of twenty-one,
was, in 1795, associated with Mr. Gallatin in his Western Company, and,
removing to Fayette, made his home in what was later and is now known as
New Geneva. Here, in connection with Mr. Gallatin and the brothers
Kramer, Germans, he established extensive glass works, which proved
profitable.
* * * * *
Mr. Gallatin's election to the United States Senate did not disqualify
him for his unfinished legislative term, and, on his return to
Philadelphia, he was again plunged in his manifold duties. The few days
which intervened between his marriage and the meeting of Congress--a
short honeymoon--were spent under the roof of Commodore Nicholson in New
York.
On February 28, 1793, the Vice-President laid before the Senate a
certificate from the legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to
the election of Albert Gallatin as senator of the United States. Mr.
Gallatin took his seat December 2, 1793. The business of the session was
opened by the presentation of a petition signed by nineteen individuals
of Yorktown, Pennsylvania, stating that Mr. Gallatin had not been nine
years a citizen of the United States. This petition had been handed to
Robert Morris, Mr. Gallatin's colleague for Pennsylvania, by a member of
the legislature for the county of York, but he had declined to present
it, and declared to Mr. Gallatin his intention to be perfectly neutral
on the occasion--at least so Mr. Gallatin wrote to his wife the next
day; but Morris did not hold fast to this resolution, as the votes in
the sequel show. The petition was ordered to lie upon the table. On
December 11 Messrs. Rutherford, Cabot, Ellsworth, Livermore, and
Mitchell were appointed a committee to consider the petition. These
gentlemen, Gallatin wrote, were undoubtedly "the worst for him that
could have been chosen, and did not seem to him to be favorably
disposed." He himself considered the legal point involved as a nice and
difficult one, and likely to be decided by a party vote. The fourth
article of the Constitution of the first Confederation of the United
States reads as follows:--
"The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and
intercourse among the people of the different States in this Union,
the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, vagabonds,
and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all
privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several States."
Article 1, section 3, of the new Constitution declares:--
"No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the
age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that
State for which he shall be chosen."
Mr. Gallatin landed in Massachusetts in July, 1780, while still a minor.
His residence, therefore, which had been uninterrupted, extended over
thirteen years. He took the oath of citizenship and allegiance to
Virginia in October, 1785, since which, until his election in 1793, nine
years, the period called for by the United States Constitution, had not
elapsed. On the one hand, his actual residence exceeded the required
period of citizenship; on the other, his legal and technical residence
as a citizen was insufficient. In point of fact, his intention to become
a citizen dated from the summer of 1783.
To take from the case the air of party proscription, which it was
beginning to assume, the Senate discharged its special committee, and
raised a general committee on elections to consider this and other
cases. On February 10, 1794, the report of this committee was submitted,
and a day was set for a hearing by the Senate, with open doors. On that
day Mr. Gallatin exhibited a written statement of facts, agreed to
between himself and the petitioners, and the case was left to the Senate
on its merits. On the 28th a test vote was taken upon a motion to the
effect that "Albert Gallatin, returned to this House as a member for the
State of Pennsylvania, is duly qualified for and elected to a seat in
the Senate of the United States," and it was decided in the
negative--yeas, 12; nays, 14.[2]
Motion being made that the election of Albert Gallatin to be a senator
of the United States was void,--he not having been a citizen of the
United States for the term of years required as a qualification to be a
senator of the United States,--it was further moved to divide the
question at the word "void;" and the question being then taken on the
first paragraph, it passed in the affirmative--yeas, 14; nays, 12. The
yeas and nays were required, and the Senate divided as before. The
resolution was then put and adopted by the same vote. Thus Mr. Gallatin,
thirteen years a resident of the country, a large land-holder in
Virginia, and for several terms a member of the Pennsylvania
legislature, was excluded from a seat in the Senate of the United
States.
Mr. Gallatin conducted his case with great dignity. On being asked
whether he had any testimony to produce, he replied, in writing, that
there was not sufficient matter charged in the petition and proved by
the testimony to vacate his seat, and declined to go to the expense of
collecting evidence until that preliminary question was settled.
Short as the period was during which Mr. Gallatin held his seat, it was
long enough for him seriously to annoy the Federal leaders. Indeed, it
is questionable whether, if he had delayed his embarrassing motion, a
majority of the Senate could have been secured against him. Certain it
is that the Committee on Elections, appointed on December 11, did not
send in its report until the day after Mr. Gallatin moved his
resolution, calling upon the secretary of the treasury for an elaborate
statement of the debt on January 1, 1794, under distinct heads,
including the balances to creditor States, a statement of loans,
domestic and foreign, contracted from the beginning of the government,
statements of exports and imports; finally for a summary statement of
the receipts and expenditures to the last day of December, 1790,
_distinguishing the moneys received under each branch of the revenue and
the moneys expended under each of the appropriations, and stating the
balances of each branch of the revenue remaining unexpended on that
day_, and also calling for similar and separate statements for the years
1791, 1792, 1793. This resolution, introduced on January 8, was laid
over. On the 20th it was adopted. It was not until February 10 that a
reply from the secretary of the treasury was received by the Senate, and
on the 11th submitted to Gallatin, Ellsworth, and Taylor for
consideration and report. In this letter (February 6, 1794) Hamilton
stated the difficulty of supplying the precise information called for,
with the clerical forces of the department, the interruption it would
cause in the daily routine of the service, and deprecated the practice
of such unexpected demands.
With this response of the secretary the inquiry fell to the ground, but
it was neither forgotten nor forgiven by his adherents, and Mr. Gallatin
paid the penalty on at least one occasion. This was years later, when he
himself was secretary of the treasury. On March 2, 1803, the day before
the adjournment of Congress, Mr. Griswold, Federalist from Connecticut,
attacked the correctness of the accounts of the sinking fund, and
demanded an answer to a resolution of the House on the management of
this bureau. Had such been his desire, Mr. Gallatin was foreclosed from
Hamilton's excuse. On the night of the 3d he sent in an elaborate
statement which set accusation at rest and criticism at defiance.
Mr. Gallatin's short stay in the Senate revealed to the Federalists the
character of the man, who, disdaining the lesser flight, checked only at
the highest game. He accepted his exclusion with perfect philosophy.
Soon after the session opened he said, "My feelings cannot be much hurt
by an unfavorable decision, since having been elected is an equal proof
of the confidence the legislature of Pennsylvania reposed in me, and not
being qualified, if it is so decided, cannot be imputed to me as a
fault." His exclusion was by no means a disadvantage to him. It made
common cause of the honor of Pennsylvania and his own; it endeared him
to the Republicans of his State as a martyr to their principles. It
"secured him," to use his own words, "many staunch" friends throughout
the Union, and extended his reputation, hitherto local and confined,
over the entire land; more than all, it led him to the true field of
political contest--the House of Representatives of the people of the
United States.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 2: The yeas and nays being required by one fifth of the
senators present, there were: _Affirmative_.--Bradley, Brown, Burr,
Butler, Edwards, Gunn, Jackson, Langdon, Martin, Monroe, Robinson,
Taylor; 12.
_Negative_.--Bradford, Cabot, Ellsworth, Foster, Frelinghuysen, Hawkins,
Izard, King, Livermore, Mitchell, Morris, Potts, Strong, Vining; 14.]