BOOK II.

THE LEGISLATURE. 1789-1801.

The Federal Constitution of 1787, accepted only a few years later by all

parties and by the whole people as the last word of political wisdom,

was at its birth greatly admired by no one. The public mind was divided

between two classes of axioms and theories, each embodying sound

reasoning and honest conviction, but resting at bottom upon divergent

habits of life and forms of industry. Among the commercial and

professional citizens of the sea-board towns a strong government was

thought necessary to protect their trade and their peace; but there was

a wide latitude of opinion in regard to the degree of strength required

for their purpose, and while a few of the ablest and most determined

leaders would have frankly accepted the whole theory of the English

constitution and as much of its machinery as possible, the mass even of

their own followers instinctively preferred a federative and democratic

system. Among the agricultural and scattered population of the country,

where the necessity of police and authority was little felt, and where a

strong government was an object of terror and hatred, the more ignorant

and the more violent class might perhaps honestly deny the necessity for

any national government at all; with the great majority, however, it was

somewhat unwillingly conceded that national government was a necessary

evil, and that some concessions of power must be made to it; their

object was to reduce these concessions to the lowest possible point. No

one can doubt where Mr. Gallatin's sympathies would lie as between the

two great social and political theories. The reaction against strong

governments and their corruptions had a great part in that general

feeling of restlessness and revolt which drew him from the centre of

civilization to its outskirts. There could be no question of the "awful

squinting towards monarchy" in portions of the proposed constitution,

more especially in the office of President, and no one pretended that

the instrument as it stood contained sufficient safeguards against abuse

of public or of private liberties. It could expect little real sympathy

among the western counties of Pennsylvania.

Nevertheless, in the convention, which was immediately called to ratify

the Constitution on the part of the State, there was a majority in its

favor of nearly two to one; a majority so large and so earnest that

extremely little respect was paid to the minority and its modest

proposals of amendments, the vote of ratification being at last carried

against a helpless opposition by a species of force. Of this convention

Mr. Gallatin was not a member; but when the action of other States, and

notably of Massachusetts, Virginia, and New York, in recommending

amendments at the moment of ratification, gave to the opposition new

hopes of yet carrying some of their points, the party made a last effort

in Pennsylvania, which resulted in calling a conference at Harrisburg on

the 3d September, 1788. There thirty-three gentlemen assembled, of whom

Mr. Gallatin was one; Blair McClanachan was chosen chairman; "free

discussion and mature deliberation" followed, and a report, or

declaration of opinion, was formally adopted. Two drafts of this

document are among Mr. Gallatin's papers, both written in his own hand,

one of them, much amended and interlined, obviously a first sketch, used

probably in committee as the ground-work of the adopted instrument. It

is only a natural inference that he was the draughtsman.

There can be no doubt that Mr. Gallatin was one of those persons who

thought the new Constitution went much too far. He would, doubtless,

have preferred that all the great departments--executive, legislative,

and judicial--should have been more closely restricted in their exercise

of power, and, indeed, he would probably have thought it better still

that the President should be reduced to a cipher, the legislature

limited to functions little more than executive, and the judiciary

restricted to admiralty and inter-state jurisdiction, with no other

court than the Supreme Court, and without appellate jurisdiction other

than by writ of error from the State courts. This would best have

suited his early theories and prejudices. This rough draft, therefore,

has some interest as showing how far he was disposed to carry his

opposition to the Constitution, and it seems to show that he was

inclined to go considerable lengths. The resolutions as there drafted

read as follows:

"1st. Resolved, that in order to prevent a dissolution of the Union, and

to secure our liberties and those of our posterity, it is necessary that

a revision of the Federal Constitution be obtained in the most speedy

manner.

"2d. That the safest manner to obtain such a revision will be, in

conformity to the request of the State of New York, to use our endeavors

to have a convention called as soon as possible;

"Resolved, therefore, that the Assembly of this State be petitioned to

take the earliest opportunity to make an application for that purpose to

the new Congress.

"3d. That in order that the friends to amendments of the Federal

Constitution who are inhabitants of this State may act in concert, it is

necessary, and it is hereby recommended to the several counties in the

State, to appoint committees, who may correspond one with the other and

with such similar committees as may be formed in other States.

"4th. That the friends to amendments to the Federal Constitution in the

several States be invited to meet in a general conference, to be held at

______, on ______, and that______members be elected by this conference,

who, or any______of them, shall meet at said place and time, in order to

devise, in concert with such other delegates from the several States as

may come under similar appointments, on such amendments to the Federal

Constitution as to them may seem most necessary, and on the most likely

way to carry them into effect."

But it seems that the tendency of opinion in the meeting was towards a

less energetic policy. The first resolution was transformed into a shape

which falls little short of tameness, and has none of the simple

directness of Gallatin's style and thought:

"1st. Resolved, that it be recommended to the people of this State to

acquiesce in the organization of the said government. But although we

thus accord in its organization, we by no means lose sight of the grand

object of obtaining very considerable amendments and alterations which

we consider essential to preserve the peace and harmony of the Union and

those invaluable privileges for which so much blood and treasure have

been recently expended.

"2d. Resolved, that it is necessary to obtain a speedy revision of said

Constitution by a general convention.

"3d. Resolved that, therefore, in order to effect this desirable end, a

petition be presented to the Legislature of the State requesting that

honorable body to take the earliest opportunity to make application for

that purpose to the new Congress."

Thus it appears that if Mr. Gallatin went to this conference with the

object indicated in his first draft, he abandoned the scheme of a

national organization for a reform of the Constitution, and greatly

modified his attitude towards the Constitution itself before the

conference adjourned. The petition, with which the report closed,

recommended twelve amendments, drawn from among those previously

recommended by Massachusetts, Virginia, New York, and other States, and

containing little more than repetitions of language already familiar.

How far Mr. Gallatin led or resisted this acquiescent policy is unknown;

at all events, it was the policy henceforth adopted by the opposition,

which readily accepted Mr. Madison's very mild amendments and rapidly

transformed itself into a party organization with hands stretched out to

seize for itself these dangerous governmental powers. But Mr. Gallatin

never changed his opinion that the President was too powerful; even in

his most mature age he would probably have preferred a system more

nearly resembling some of the present colonial governments of Great

Britain.

In the course of the next year the Legislature of Pennsylvania summoned

a convention to revise the State constitution. There was perhaps some

ground for doubting the legality of this step, for the existing

constitution of 1776 gave to the Council of Censors the power to devise

and propose amendments and to call a convention, and the Assembly had

properly nothing to do with the subject. Mr. Gallatin held strong

opinions upon the impropriety of obtaining the desired amendments by a

process which was itself unconstitutional, and he even attempted to

organize an opposition in the western counties, and to persuade the

voters of each election district to adopt resolutions denouncing the

proceeding as unconstitutional, unnecessary, and highly improper, and

refusing to elect delegates. Early in October, 1789, he wrote to this

effect to the leading politicians of Washington and Alleghany Counties,

and, among the rest, to Alexander Addison, who was a candidate for the

convention, and whom he urged to withdraw. A part of this letter, dated

October 7, ran as follows:

"Alterations in government are always dangerous, and no legislator ever

did think of putting, in such an easy manner, the power in a mere

majority to introduce them whenever they pleased. Such a doctrine once

admitted would enable not only the Legislature but a majority of the

more popular house, were two established, to make another appeal to the

people on the first occasion, and instead of establishing on solid

foundations a new government, would open the door to perpetual changes

and destroy that stability so essential to the welfare of a nation; as

no constitution acquires the permanent affection of the people but in

proportion to its duration and age. Finally, those changes would, sooner

or later, conclude in an appeal to arms,--the true meaning of those

words so popular and so dangerous, _An appeal to the People_."

Mr. Gallatin's opposition came too late. His correspondents wrote back

to the effect that combined action was impossible, and a few days later

he was himself chosen a delegate from Fayette County to this same

convention which he had felt himself bound in conscience to oppose. This

was in accordance with all his future political practice, for Mr.

Gallatin very rarely persisted in following his own judgment after it

had been overruled, but in this instance his course was perhaps

decisively affected by the sudden death of his wife, which occurred at

this moment and made any escape from his habitual mode of life seem a

relief and an object of desire.

The convention sat from November 24, 1789, till February 26, 1790, and

was Gallatin's apprenticeship in the public service. Among his papers

are a number of memoranda, some of them indicating much elaboration, of

speeches made or intended to be made in this body; one is an argument in

favor of enlarging the number of Representatives in the House; another,

against James Ross's plan of choosing Senators by electors; another, on

the liberty of the press, with "quotations from Roman code, supplied by

Duponceau." There is further a memorandum of his motion in regard to the

right of suffrage, by virtue of which every "freeman who has attained

the age of twenty-one years and been a resident and inhabitant during

one year next before the days of election;" every naturalized

freeholder, every naturalized citizen who had been assessed for State or

county taxes for two years before election day, or who had resided ten

years successively in the State, should be entitled to the suffrage,

paupers and vagabonds only being excluded. Gallatin seems also to have

been interested, both at this time and subsequently, in an attempt to

lessen the difficulties growing from the separation of law and equity.

On this subject he wrote early to John Marshall for advice, and although

the reply has no very wide popular interest, yet, in the absence of any

collection of Marshall's writings, this letter may claim a place here,

illustrating, as it does, not only the views of the future chief

justice, but the interests and situation of Mr. Gallatin:

JOHN MARSHALL TO GALLATIN.

RICHMOND, January 3, 1790.

DEAR SIR,--I have received yours of the 23d of December, and wish it was

in my power to answer satisfactorily your questions concerning our

judiciary system, but I was myself in the army during that period

concerning the transactions of which you inquire, and have not since

informed myself of the reasons which governed in making those changes

which took place before the establishment of that system which I found

on my coming to the bar. Under the colonial establishment the judges of

common law were also judges of chancery; at the Revolution these powers

were placed in different persons. I have not understood that there was

any considerable opposition to this division of jurisdiction. Some of

the reasons leading to it, I presume, were that the same person could

not appropriate a sufficiency of time to each court to perform the

public business with requisite despatch; that the principles of

adjudication being different in the two courts, it was scarcely to be

expected that eminence in each could be attained by the same man; that

there was an apparent absurdity in seeing the same men revise in the

characters of chancellors the judgments they had themselves rendered as

common-law judges. There are, however, many who think that the chancery

and common-law jurisdiction ought to be united in the same persons. They

are actually united in our inferior courts; and I have never heard it

suggested that this union is otherwise inconvenient than as it produces

delay to the chancery docket. I never heard it proposed to give the

judges of the general court chancery jurisdiction. When the district

system was introduced in '82, it was designed to give the district

judges the powers of chancellors, but the act did not then pass, though

the part concerning the court of chancery formed no objection to the

bill. When again introduced it assumed a different form, nor has the

idea ever been revived.

The first act constituting a high court of chancery annexed a jury for

the trial of all important facts in the cause. To this, I presume, we

were led by that strong partiality which the citizens of America have

for that mode of trial. It was soon parted with, and the facts submitted

to the judge, with a power to direct an issue wherever the fact was

doubtful. In most chancery cases the law and fact are so blended

together that if a jury was impanelled of course the whole must be

submitted to them, or every case must assume the form of a special

verdict, which would produce inconvenience and delay.

The delays of the court of chancery have been immense, and those delays

are inseparable from the court if the practice of England be observed.

But that practice is not necessary. 'Tis greatly abridged in Virginia by

an Act passed in 1787, and great advantages result from the reform.

There have been instances of suits depending for twenty years, but under

our present regulations a decision would be had in that court as soon as

any other in which there were an equal number of weighty causes. The

parties may almost immediately set about collecting their proofs, and

so soon as they have collected them they may set the cause on the court

docket for a hearing.

It has never been proposed to blend the principles of common law and

chancery so as for each to operate at the same time in the same cause;

and I own it would seem to me to be very difficult to effect such a

scheme, but at the same time it must be admitted that could it be

effected it would save considerable sums of money to the litigant

parties.

I enclose you a copy of the act you request. I most sincerely condole

with you on your heavy loss. Time only, aided by the efforts of

philosophy, can restore you to yourself.

I am, dear sir, with much esteem, your obedient servant,

J. MARSHALL.

In a letter written in 1838, when the constitution was revised, Mr.

Gallatin gave an account of the convention of 1789, which was, he said,

"the first public body to which I was elected, and I took but a

subordinate share in its debates. It was one of the ablest bodies of

which I was a member and with which I was acquainted. Indeed, could I

except two names, Madison and Marshall, I would say that it embraced as

much talent and knowledge as any Congress from 1795 to 1812, beyond

which my personal knowledge does not extend. But the distinguishing

feature of the convention was that, owing perhaps to more favorable

times, it was less affected by party feelings than any other public body

that I have known. The points of difference were almost exclusively on

general and abstract propositions; there was less prejudice and more

sincerity in the discussions than usual, and throughout a desire to

conciliate opposite opinions by mutual concessions. The consequence was

that, though not formally submitted to the ratification of the people,

no public act was ever more universally approved than the constitution

of Pennsylvania at the time when it was promulgated."[9]

The next year, in October, 1790, Mr. Gallatin was elected to the State

Legislature, to which he was re-elected in 1791 and 1792. In 1790 there

was a contest, and he had a majority of about two-thirds of the votes.

Afterwards he was returned without opposition.

The details of State politics are not a subject of great interest to the

general public, even in their freshest condition, and the local politics

of Pennsylvania in 1790 are no exception to this law. They are here of

importance only so far as they are a part of Mr. Gallatin's life, and

the medium through which he rose to notice. He has left a memorandum,

which is complete in itself, in regard to his three years' service in

the State Legislature:

"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. The great reforms of the penal code,

which, to the lasting honor of Pennsylvania, originated in that State,

had already been carried into effect, principally under the auspices of

William Bradford. Not being a professional lawyer, I was conscious of my

incapacity for digesting any practicable and useful improvement in our

civil jurisprudence. I proposed that the subject should be referred to a

commission, and Judge Wilson was accordingly appointed for that purpose.

He did nothing, and the plan died away. It would have been better to

appoint the chief justice and the attorney-general of the State (McKean

and Bradford), and, in the first instance at least, to have confined

them to a revision of the statute law, whether colonial, State, or

British, still in force.

[Sidenote: 1790-1793]

"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 1790-1791

(presented by Gurney, chairman) 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 the following, made by a committee on the 22d March, 1793:

"That they ... are of opinion that slavery is inconsistent with every

principle of humanity, justice, and right, and repugnant to the spirit

and express letter of the constitution of this Commonwealth; therefore

submit the following resolution, viz.:

"Resolved, that slavery be abolished in this Commonwealth, and that a

committee be appointed to bring in a bill for that purpose."

A certificate dated "Philadelphia, 3d month, 25th, 1793," signed by

James Pemberton, President, records that Albert Gallatin "is a member of

the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the abolition of slavery, the

relief of free negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and for improving the

condition of the African race."

[Sidenote: 1791.]

Party spirit was not violent in Pennsylvania during these few years of

Washington's first Administration. As yet Mr. Madison was a good

Federalist; Mr. Jefferson, as Secretary of State, was the champion of

his country against Genet and French aggression; Governor Mifflin was

elected without opposition from the Republican interest; Alexander J.

Dallas was appointed by him Secretary of State for Pennsylvania; and

Albert Gallatin was elected Senator by a Federalist Legislature.

Gallatin, who at every period of his life required the spur of sincere

conviction to act a partisan part, found in this condition of things

precisely the atmosphere most agreeable to his tastes; but there was one

political issue which had already risen, and which, while tending to

hasten the rapid growth of parties, threatened also to wreck his entire

career. This was the excise.

So far as Mr. Gallatin himself was concerned, the tax on whiskey-stills

could hardly have been a matter of serious importance, and he must have

seen that as a political issue it was not less dangerous to his own

party than to the Administration; but he was the representative of a

remote border county, beyond the mountains, where the excise was really

oppressive and worked injustice, and where the spirit of liberty ran

high. Opposition to the tax was a simple matter to Republicans

elsewhere; they had merely to vote and to argue, and make what political

advantage they might from this unpopular measure into which the

Administration was dragged in attempting to follow out the policy of Mr.

Hamilton; but the case was very different with Mr. Gallatin. He had not

only to lead the attack on Mr. Hamilton, but to restrain his own

followers from fatal blunders to which they were only too well disposed;

over these followers, at least outside his own county, he had absolutely

no authority and very little influence. From the first it became a mere

question of policy how far he could go with his western friends. The

answer was simple, and left a very narrow margin of uncertainty: Mr.

Gallatin, like any other political leader, could go to the limits of the

law in opposition to the tax, and no further. His political existence

depended on his nerve in applying this rule at the moment of exigency.

The excise on domestic spirits was a part of Mr. Hamilton's broad

financial scheme, and the necessary consequence of the assumption of the

State debts. To this whole scheme, and to all Mr. Hamilton's measures,

the Republican party, and Gallatin among them, were strongly opposed. In

the original opposition, however, Gallatin had no public share; he began

to take a part only when his position as a Representative required him

to do so.

The very first legislative paper which he is believed to have drafted is

a series of resolutions on the excise, introduced into the Pennsylvania

Legislature, by Francis Gurney, on the 14th January, 1791, and intended

to affect the bill then before Congress. These resolutions were very

strong, and intimated a distinct opinion that the excise bill, as it

stood, was "subversive of the peace, liberty, and rights of the

citizen," and "exhibited the singular spectacle of a nation resolutely

opposing the oppression of others in order to enslave itself." Strong as

they were, however, the House of Representatives adopted them by a vote

of 40 to 16.

The reasons of the peculiar hostility of the western counties to the

whiskey tax are clearly given in the petition which Gallatin drafted in

1792 for presentation to Congress on the part of the inhabitants of that

country:

"Our peculiar situation renders this duty still more unequal and

oppressive to us. Distant from a permanent market and separate from the

eastern coast by mountains, which render the communication difficult and

almost impracticable, we have no means of bringing the produce of our

lands to sale either in grain or in meal. We are therefore distillers

through necessity, not choice, that we may comprehend the greatest value

in the smallest size and weight. The inhabitants of the eastern side of

the mountains can dispose of their grain without the additional labor of

distillation at a higher price than we can after we have bestowed that

labor upon it. Yet with this additional labor we must also pay a high

duty, from which they are exempted, because we have no means of selling

our surplus produce but in a distilled state.

[Sidenote: 1792.]

"Another circumstance which renders this duty ruinous to us is our

scarcity of cash. Our commerce is not, as on the eastern coast, carried

on so much by absolute sale as by barter, and we believe it to be a fact

that there is not among us a quantity of circulating cash sufficient for

the payment of this duty alone. We are not accustomed to complain

without reason; we have punctually and cheerfully paid former taxes on

our estates and possessions because they were proportioned to our real

wealth. We believe this to be founded on no such equitable principles,

and are persuaded that your honorable House will find on investigation

that its amount, if duly collected, will be four times as large as any

taxes which we have hitherto paid on the whole of our lands and other

property."

The excise law was passed in 1791, and in that year a public meeting was

held in the town of Washington, and adopted resolutions, one of which

brought the remonstrants to the extreme verge of lawful opposition. They

agreed to hold no communication with, and to treat with contempt, such

men as accepted offices under the law. Mr. Gallatin was not present at

this meeting, which was held while he was attending to his duties as a

member of the State Legislature.

Few of his letters at this period have been preserved, and of these none

have any public interest. During the session of 1792 the following

extracts from letters to Badollet are all that have the smallest

political importance:

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

PHILADELPHIA, 7th January, 1792

... We have yet done nothing very material, and Congress do not seem to

be over-anxious to shorten their sitting, if at least we can form any

judgment from the slowness of their proceedings. As to that part of

their laws which concerns us more immediately,--I mean the excise and

the expected amendments,--all the papers relative to it, petitions, &c.,

have been referred to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Hamilton, by

the House of Representatives. That officer has not yet reported, nor can

we guess at what will probably be the outlines of his report, although I

am apt to think the amendments he will propose will fall short of our

wishes and expectations. As to a repeal, it is altogether out of the

question.

But the event which now mostly engrosses the public attention, and

almost exclusively claims ours, is the fatal defeat of St. Clair's army.

Our frontiers are naked; the Indians must be encouraged by their

success; the preparations of the United States must take some time

before they are completed, and our present protection must rest chiefly

on the security we may derive from the season of the year and on the

exertions of the people and of the State government....

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

PHILADELPHIA, February 22, 1792.

DEAR FRIEND,--...You must observe, on the whole, that for this year

past we have not gone backwards, as we had the five preceding, and that

being the most difficult part of anything we might undertake, we may

hope that, better taught by experience, we will in future be more

successful. It is true the part of the country where we have fixed our

residence does not afford much room for the exercise of the talents we

may possess; but, on the other hand, we enjoy the advantage in our

poverty not to be trampled upon or even hurt by the ostentatious display

of wealth. The American seaports exhibit now such a scene of speculation

and excessive fortunes, acquired not by the most deserving members of

the community, as must make any person who has yet some principles left,

and is not altogether corrupted or dazzled by the prospect, desirous of

withdrawing himself from these parts, and happy to think he has a

retreat, be it ever so poor, that he may call his own. Do not think,

however, from what I now say that I am dissatisfied at my being here; I

should not wish to reside at Philadelphia, but feel very happy to stay

in it a few months in the station I am now in, and nothing would be

wanted to render this kind of life perfectly satisfactory to me except

seeing you happy, and finding a home and a family of my own when I

return to Fayette....

As to ourselves we have yet done but little, and have a great deal to

do. We will this session pay the principal of all our debts, and remain

rich enough to go on three or four years without taxes. We have a plan

before us, which I brought forward, to establish a school and library in

each county; each county to receive £1000 for buildings and beginning a

library, and from £75 to £150 a year, according to its size, to pay at

least in part a teacher of the English language and one of the elements

of mathematics, geography, and history. I do not know whether it will

succeed; it is meant as a preparatory step to township schools, which we

are not yet rich enough to establish. I had the plan by me, but your

letter, in which you mention the want of more rational teachers, &c.,

spurred me in attempting to carry it this session. I have also brought

forward a new plan of county taxation, but am not very satisfied with it

myself. We are trying to get the land office open upon generous terms to

actual settlers; if we succeed, we will have a settlement at Presqu'

Isle, on Lake Erie, within two years, if the Indians permit us. But the

illiberality of some members of the lower counties throws every possible

objection and delay in the way of anything which may be of advantage to

the western country. Some, however, now join us for fear that the other

States should become more populous, and of course have a larger

representation in Congress than Pennsylvania. We have thrown out a

chancery bill a few days ago, and are now attempting to engraft in our

common law the beneficial alterations adopted by the courts of equity in

England, without their delays, proceedings and double jurisdiction, so

as to have but one code. But I much doubt our ability to carry it into

execution; the thing is difficult in itself, and our lawyers either

unwilling or not capable to give us the requisite assistance....

* * * * *

Modifications of the excise law were made on the recommendation of Mr.

Hamilton, but without pacifying the opposition, and on the 21st August,

1792, another meeting was held, this time at Pittsburg, and of this

meeting John Canon was chairman and Albert Gallatin clerk. Among those

present were David Bradford, James Marshall, John Smilie, and John

Badollet. The meeting appointed David Bradford, James Marshall, Albert

Gallatin, and others to draw up a remonstrance to Congress. They

appointed also a committee of correspondence, and closed by reiterating

the resolution adopted by the Washington meeting of 1791. This

resolution is as follows:

"Whereas, some men may be found among us so far lost to every sense of

virtue and feeling for the distresses of this country as to accept

offices for the collection of the duty,

"Resolved, therefore, that in future we will consider such persons as

unworthy of our friendship, have no intercourse or dealings with them,

withdraw from them every assistance and withhold all the comforts of

life which depend upon those duties that as men and fellow-citizens we

owe to each other, and upon all occasions treat them with that contempt

they deserve, and that it be and it is hereby most earnestly recommended

to the people at large to follow the same line of conduct towards them."

To these resolutions Mr. Gallatin's name is appended as clerk of the

meeting. It is needless to say that he considered them unwise, and that

they were adopted against his judgment; but he did not attempt to throw

off his responsibility for them on that score. In his speech on the

insurrection, delivered in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in

January, 1795, he took quite a different ground. "I was," said he, "one

of the persons who composed the Pittsburg meeting, and I gave my assent

to the resolutions. It might perhaps be said that the principle of those

resolutions was not new, as it was at least partially adopted on a

former period by a respectable society in this city,--a society that was

established during the late war in order to obtain a change of the

former constitution of Pennsylvania, and whose members, if I am

accurately informed, agreed to accept no offices under the then existing

government, and to dissuade others from accepting them. I might say that

those resolutions did not originate at Pittsburg, as they were almost a

transcript of the resolutions adopted at Washington the preceding year;

and I might even add that they were not introduced by me at the meeting.

But I wish not to exculpate myself where I feel I have been to blame.

The sentiments thus expressed were not illegal or criminal; yet I will

freely acknowledge that they were violent, intemperate, and

reprehensible. For by attempting to render the office contemptible, they

tended to diminish that respect for the execution of the laws which is

essential to the maintenance of a free government; but whilst I feel

regret at the remembrance, though no hesitation in this open confession

of that _my only political sin_, let me add that the blame ought to fall

where it is deserved," that is to say, on the individuals who composed

the meeting, not on the people at large.

Who, then, was the person who introduced these violent resolutions? This

is nowhere told, either by Gallatin, Findley, or Brackenridge in their

several accounts of the troubles. Perhaps a guess may be hazarded that

David Bradford had something to do with them. Bradford was a lawyer

with political aspirations, and had seized on the excise agitation as a

means of riding into power; as will be seen, he was jealous of

Gallatin,--a jealousy requited by contempt. He was this year returned by

Washington County as a member of the House of Representatives of the

State, and went up to Philadelphia with other delegates.

GALLATIN TO THOMAS CLARE.

PHILADELPHIA, December 18, 1792.

DEAR SIR,--We arrived here, Bradford, Smilie, Torrence, Jackson, and

myself, the first Sunday of this month, all in good health, and have

found our friends as kind and even our opponents as polite as ever, so

that the apprehensions of some of our fearful friends to the westward

who, from the President's proclamation and other circumstances, thought

it was almost dangerous for us to be here, were altogether groundless.

True it is that our meeting at Pittsburg hurt our general interest

throughout the State, and has rather defeated the object we had in view,

to wit, to obtain a repeal of the excise law, as that law is now more

popular than it was before our proceedings were known. To everybody I

say what I think on the subject, to wit, that our resolutions were

perhaps too violent, and undoubtedly highly impolitic, but in my opinion

contained nothing illegal. Indeed, it seems that last opinion generally

prevails, and no bills having been even found at York against the

members of the committee must convince everybody that our measures were

innocent, and that the great noise that was made about them was chiefly,

if not merely, to carry on electioneering plans. In this, however, the

views of the high-fliers have been so completely defeated, and the

election of Smilie has disappointed them to such a degree, that I

believe they rather choose to be silent on the subject, and are now very

willing to give us districts for the next election. I must add that the

conduct of Clymer has rendered him obnoxious to many of his own friends

and ridiculous to everybody. He has published a very foolish piece on

the occasion, to which Wm. Findley has answered under the signature of

Monongahela; as the pieces were published before my coming to town, I

have not got the newspapers in which they were published, but I suppose

they have been reprinted in the Pittsburg Gazette....

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

PHILADELPHIA, December 18 1792.

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I found on my arrival here a letter from Geneva, dated

the last spring, which announced to me the death of my grandfather,

which has happened more than one year ago, and which was followed a

short time after by that of my aunt,--his only daughter. My grandmother,

worn out by age and disorders, had, happily perhaps for herself, fell in

a state of insensibility bordering upon childhood, which rendered those

losses less painful to her and my presence altogether useless to her, as

she would not be able to derive much comfort from it and had preserved

but very faint ideas of me. Yet it may perhaps be necessary that in

order finally to settle my business I should go over there, but I have

resolved not to go the ensuing summer, so that I will have time to speak

to you more largely on the subject. My grandfather has left but a small

landed estate, much encumbered with debts. That and the settlement of

what may be my share of the West India inheritance of my Amsterdam

relation would be the reasons that might oblige me to go; the pleasure

to see once more my respectable mother would perhaps be sufficient to

induce me to take that trip, was it not that I think she would grieve

more at seeing me setting off again for this country than she possibly

can now at my absence....

[Sidenote: 1793.]

We have not yet done any business here; we are generally blamed, by even

our friends, for the violence of our resolutions at Pittsburg, and they

have undoubtedly tended to render the excise law more popular than it

was before. It is not perhaps a bad sign on the whole in a free country

that the laws should be so much respected as to render even the

appearance of an illegal opposition to a bad law obnoxious to the people

at large, although I am still fully convinced that there was nothing

illegal in our measures, and that the whole that can be said of them is

that they were violent and impolitic. Two bills have been found in the

federal court against Alexander Beer and ---- Carr, of the town of

Washington, as connected with the riot there. I believe them to be

innocent, and I think the precedent a very dangerous one to drag people

at such a distance in order to be tried on governmental prosecutions. I

wish, therefore, they may keep out of the way and not be found when the

marshal will go to serve the writ; but, at all events, I hope the people

will not suffer themselves to be so far governed by their passions as to

offer any insult to the officer, as nothing could be more hurtful to our

cause, and indeed to the cause of liberty in general. It must also be

remembered that he is a man who did not accept the office with a view of

hurting our western country, but that mere accident obliges him to go

there in the discharge of the duties of his office....

GALLATIN TO THOMAS CLARE.

PHILADELPHIA, March 9, 1793.

MY DEAR SIR,--...I have attended but very little to the land or other

business I was intrusted with, owing to the great attention I have been

obliged to pay, much against my inclination you may easily guess, to our

business both in the House and in committees, owing to the very great

indolence of most of our members this year. I have not, however,

neglected your bill for Dublin, which I got at par. We have now got to

work in earnest, and I believe three weeks will finish the whole of our

business, but I will be obliged to stay some time longer in order to

complete the private business of other people. You will see by the

enclosed papers that the whole world is in a flame,--England ready to

make war against France, Ireland ready to assert her own rights, &c. As

to our private news, I can tell you that three commissioners are

appointed to treat with the Indians,--General Lincoln, Tim. Pickering,

and Beverly Randolph; what they can possibly do nobody pretends to say,

but every person seems tired of Indian wars; about twelve hundred

thousand dollars a year might be better employed; but I do not like the

idea of a disgraceful peace.

You will see by the papers that I am elected one of the Senators to

represent this State in the Senate of the United States, an appointment

which has exceedingly mortified the high-fliers, but which,

notwithstanding its importance, I sincerely wish had not taken place for

more reasons than I can write at present, but Gappen may give you some

details relative to that point until I have the pleasure to see you

myself. It will be enough to say that none of my friends wished it, and

that they at last consented to take me up because it was nearly

impossible to carry any other person of truly Republican principles. The

votes were, for myself, 45; for Henry Miller, of York, 35; for General

Irvine, 1; and for General St. Clair, 1; absent members, 5.

... Congress died away last Sunday; our friends will have a majority of

ten or fifteen votes in the next, so that if the Indian war is at an

end, I am not without hopes to see the excise law repealed.... Poor

Bradford makes but a poor figure in our Legislature. Tenth-rate lawyers

are the most unfit people to send there. He has done nothing but

drafting a fee bill, which is not worth a farthing as far as I am able

to judge....

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

PHILADELPHIA, 9th March, 1793.

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I thank you for your letter, which has pleased me

exceedingly, on account both of the sentiments it contains and of the

situation of mind it seems to show you are in. May you long remain so,

and enjoy that happiness which depends more upon ourselves than we are

commonly aware of. I wrote you, I believe, that I had some thoughts of

going to Geneva this summer, in order to try to settle finally my

business there; but I can assure you nothing was more remote from my

mind than finally to fix there. Your supposing that if a change of

government was to take place there I might be of use, shows your good

opinion of me, but not your knowledge of men; for you may rely upon it

that opportunity and circumstances will have more influence towards

giving weight to a man, and of course rendering him useful, than his

talents alone; and, granting I have some in politics, I think at Geneva

they would be of no use, as prejudices would there strongly operate

against me. A complete revolution, however, has taken place there.

Hardly had the Swiss troops left Geneva, in conformity with the

agreement made with France, when the looks, the discourse, and the

rising commotions of the mass of the people began to foretell a storm.

The magistrates for once were wise enough to avert it by yielding before

it was too late. An almost unanimous vote of the three councils has

extended the right of citizenship to every native, and has given a

representation to the people, who are now acting under the name of

Genevan Assembly. I believe that fear of the people joining France has

been the real motive which has induced their proud aristocracy at last

to bend their necks.

I have found myself, however, obliged to lay aside my plan of an

European trip. The two Houses of Assembly having at last agreed to

choose a Senator of the United States by joint vote, I have been elected

from necessity rather than from the wishes of our friends, and although

there is yet a doubt whether I will take my seat there, I cannot run the

risk of being absent at the next meeting of Congress.... Your Bradford

is an empty drum, as ignorant, indolent, and insignificant as he is

haughty and pompous. I do not think he'll wish himself to come another

year, for his vanity must be mortified on account of the poor figure he

has been cutting here....

We have before us a militia law, a fee bill, a law to reduce the price

of improved lands, a new system of county taxation, where I have

introduced trustees yearly elected, one to each township, without whose

consent no tax is to be raised, nor any above one per cent. on the value

of lands, &c., which I hope, if carried, will, by uniting the people,

tend to crush the aristocracy of every petty town in the State; also, a

plan for schools, &c....

GALLATIN TO THOMAS CLARE.

PHILADELPHIA, 3d May, 1793.

... You must have heard that I cannot go home this summer; the reason is

that Mr. Nicholson, the comptroller-general, having been impeached by

the House for misdemeanor in office, it was thought proper to appoint a

committee of three members to investigate all his official accounts and

transactions during the recess, and to report to the House at their next

meeting, which will be the 27th of August I am one of the committee, and

the business we are to report on is so complex and extensive, that it

will take us the whole of the recess to do it even in an imperfect

manner.

* * * * *

As these letters show, Mr. Gallatin left the western country at the

beginning of December, 1792, passed his winter in Philadelphia, laboring

over legislation of an almost entirely non-partisan character, and was

still detained in Philadelphia by public business during the summer of

1793. From the time of his leaving home, in December, 1792, till the

time of his next return there, in May, 1794, his mind was occupied in

matters much more attractive than the tax on whiskey ever could have

been.

In fact, his opposition to the excise and his strong republican

sympathies did not prevent his election to the Senate of the United

States by a Federalist Legislature, notwithstanding the feet that he did

not seek the post and his closer friends did not seek it for him. At the

caucus held to select a candidate for Senator, when his name was

proposed, he made a short speech to the effect that there were many

other persons more proper to fill the office, and indeed that it was a

question whether he was eligible, owing to the doubt whether he had been

nine years a citizen. His reasons for not wishing the election are

nowhere given, but doubtless one of the strongest was that the

distinction was invidious and that it was likely to make him more

enemies than friends. His objection as to citizenship was overruled by

the caucus at its next meeting. He was accordingly chosen Senator on the

28th February, under circumstances peculiarly honorable to him, by a

vote of 45 to 37; yet one member of his party--a member, too, from the

county of Washington--refused to support him, and threw away his vote on

General Irvine. This was David Bradford, who from the beginning of Mr.

Gallatin's political career was uniformly, openly, and personally

hostile to him, from motives, as the latter believed, of mere envy and

vanity; such at least is the statement made by Mr. Gallatin himself in

a note written on the margin of p. 104 in Brackenridge's "Incidents of

the Insurrection."

Other matters, however, soon began to engage Mr. Gallatin's thoughts,

and made even the Senatorship and politics less interesting than

heretofore. Immediately after the Legislature adjourned he joined his

friends Mr. and Mrs. Dallas on an excursion to Albany.

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

PHILADELPHIA, 30th July, 1793.

... And so you have a _woman-like_ curiosity to know what took me to

Albany. Instinct (I beg your pardon) dictated that expression to you,

for there was a woman in the way, or rather she fell in the way. I went

merely upon an excursion of pleasure, in order to get a little diversion

and to recover my health, which so long confinement and so strict an

attention to business had rather impaired. Dallas, his wife and another

friend, and myself went together to Passyack Falls, in New Jersey, to

New York, and thence by water up to Albany, looked at the Mohock Falls,

and returned, highly delighted with our journey, which took us near four

weeks. I recovered my health, and have not felt myself better these many

years. But at New York I got acquainted with some ladies, friends of

Mrs. Dallas, who were prevailed upon to go along with us to Albany; and

amongst them there was one who made such an impression on me that after

my arrival here I could not stay long without returning to New York,

from whence I have been back only a few days. I believe the business to

be fixed, and (but for some reasons this must remain a secret to anybody

but Savary, Clare, and yourself) I know you will be happy in hearing

that I am contracted with 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, who, I believe,

are satisfied with the intended match. However, for some reasons of

convenience, it will not take place till next winter....

* * * * *

The young lady in question was Hannah Nicholson, and the characteristic

self-restraint of Mr. Gallatin's language in describing her to his

friend is in striking contrast with the warmth of affection which he

then felt, and ever retained, towards one whose affection and devotion

to him during more than half a century were unbounded. Of Mr. Gallatin's

domestic life from this time forward little need be said. His temper,

his tastes, and his moral convictions combined to make him thoroughly

dependent on his wife and his children. He was never happy when

separated from them, and he received from them in return an unlimited

and unqualified regard.

Hannah Nicholson was the daughter of Commodore James Nicholson, born in

1737 at Chester Town, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, of a respectable

family in that province. He chose to follow the sea for a profession,

and did so with enough success to cause Congress in 1775, at the

outbreak of the Revolutionary war, to place him at the head of the list

of captains. In 1778 he took command of the Trumbull, a frigate of

thirty-two guns, and fought in her an action with the British

ship-of-war Wyatt, which, next to that of Paul Jones with the Serapis,

is supposed to have been the most desperate of the war. After a three

hours' engagement both ships were obliged to draw off and make port as

best they could. On a subsequent cruise Commodore Nicholson had another

engagement of the same severe character, which ended in the approach of

a second English cruiser, and after the loss of three lieutenants and a

third of her crew the Trumbull was towed a prize into New York harbor

without a mast standing. In 1793, Commodore Nicholson was living in New

York, a respectable, somewhat choleric, retired naval captain, with a

large family, and in good circumstances. He had two brothers, Samuel and

John, both captains in the naval service during the Revolution. Samuel

was a lieutenant with Paul Jones on the Bon Homme Richard, and died at

the head of the service in 1811; he had four sons in the navy, and his

brother John had three. Eighteen members of this family have served in

the navy of the United States, three of whom actually wore broad

pennants, and a fourth died just as he was appointed to one.[10] One

brother, Joseph, resided in Baltimore, and among his children was Joseph

H. Nicholson, of whom more will be said hereafter.

Commodore Nicholson married Frances Witter, of New York, and their

second child, Hannah, was born there on the 11th September, 1766. The

next daughter was Catherine, who married Colonel Few, the first Senator

from Georgia. A third, Frances, married Joshua Seney, a member of

Congress from Maryland. Maria, the youngest, in 1793 an attractive and

ambitious girl, ultimately married John Montgomery, a member of Congress

from Maryland and mayor of Baltimore. Thus Mr. Gallatin's marriage

prodigiously increased his political connection. Commodore Nicholson was

an active Republican politician in the city of New York, and his house

was a headquarters for the men of his way of thinking. The young ladies'

letters are full of allusions to the New York society of that day, and

to calls from Aaron Burr, the Livingstons, the Clintons, and many

others, accompanied by allusions anything but friendly to Alexander

Hamilton. Another man still more famous in some respects was a frequent

visitor at their house. It is now almost forgotten that Thomas Paine,

down to the time of his departure for Europe in 1787, was a fashionable

member of society, admired and courted as the greatest literary genius

of his day. His aberrations had not then entirely sunk him in public

esteem. Here is a little autograph, found among the papers of Mrs.

Gallatin; its address is to

Miss Hannah Nicholson

at

The Lord knows where.

You Mrs. Hannah, if you don't come home, I'll come and fetch you.

T. PAINE.

But both Mrs. Nicholson and the Commodore were religious people, in the

American sense as well as in the broader meaning of the term. They were

actively as well as passively religious, and their relations with

Paine, after his return to America in 1802, were those of compassion

only, for his intemperate and offensive habits, as well as his avowed

opinions, made intimacy impossible. When confined to his bed with his

last illness he sent for Mrs. Few, who came to see him, and when they

parted she spoke some words of comfort and religious hope. Poor Paine

only turned his face to the wall and kept silence.

When Mr. Gallatin came into the family Paine was in Europe. Party spirit

had not yet been strained to fury by the French excesses and by Jay's

treaty. In this short interval fortune smiled on the young man as it

never had smiled before. He had at length and literally found his way

out of the woods in which he had buried himself with so much care; he

was popular; a United States Senator at the age of thirty-three; adopted

into a new family that received him with unreserved cordiality and

attached him by connection and interest to the active intellectual

movement of a great city. Revelling in these new sensations, he thought

little about Geneva or about Fayette, and let his correspondence, except

with Miss Nicholson, more than ever take care of itself.

The meeting of the Pennsylvania Legislature, of which he was still a

member, recalled him to business; but his story may now be best gathered

from his letters to his future wife:

GALLATIN TO MISS NICHOLSON.

PHILADELPHIA, 25th July, 1793.

... For four years I have led a life very different indeed from what I

was wont to follow. Looking with equal indifference upon every pleasure

of life, upon every object that can render life worth enjoying, and, of

course, upon every woman, lost in a total apathy for everything which

related to myself, alive only to politics (for an active mind must exert

itself in some shape or another), I had become perfectly careless of my

own business or my private fortune.... Of course I led the most active

life as a public man, the most indolent as an individual.

27th August, 1793.

... And yet you think that I can improve you. Except some information

upon a few useful subjects which you have not perhaps turned your

attention to, I will be but a poor instructor. Women are said generally

to receive from a familiar intercourse with men several advantages, one

of the most conspicuous of which I have often heard asserted to be the

acquirement of a greater knowledge of the world, in which they are

supposed to live less than our bustling sex. There, however, I am but a

child, and will have to receive instruction from you, for most of my

life has been spent very far indeed from anything like the polite part

of the world. I had but left college when I left Geneva, and the

greatest part of the time I have spent in America has been very far from

society, at least from that society I would have relished. Thence,

although I feel no embarrassment with men, I never yet was able to

divest myself of that anti-Chesterfieldan awkwardness in mixed companies

which will forever prevent a man from becoming a party in the societies

where he mixes. It is true the four last years, on account of my

residence in Philadelphia, I might have improved, but I felt no wish of

doing it; so that whilst I will teach you either history, French, or

anything else I can teach or you wish to learn, I will have to receive

far more important instructions from you. You must polish my manners,

teach me how to talk to people I do not know, and how to render myself

agreeable to strangers,--I was going to say, to ladies,--but as I

pleased you without any instructions, I have become very vain on that

head....

25th August, 1793.

[Sidenote 1793]

... Well, my charming patriot, why do you write me about politics?... I

believe that, except a very few intemperate, unthinking, or wicked men,

no American wishes to see his country involved in war. As to myself, I

think every war except a defensive one to be unjustifiable. We are not

attacked by any nation, and unless we were actually so, or had

undeniable proofs that we should be in a very short time, we should be

guilty of a political and moral crime were we to commence a war or to

behave so as to justify any nation in attacking us. As to the present

cause of France, although I think that they have been guilty of many

excesses, that they have many men amongst them who are greedy of power

for themselves and not of liberty for the nation, and that in their

present temper they are not likely to have a very good government within

any short time, yet I firmly believe their cause to be that of mankind

against tyrants, and, at all events, that no foreign nation has a right

to dictate a government to them. So far I think we are interested in

their success; and as to our political situation, they are certainly the

only real allies we have yet had. I wish Great Britain and Spain may

both change their conduct towards us and show that they mean to be our

friends, but till then no event could be more unfavorable to our

national independence than the annihilation of the power of France or

her becoming dependent upon either of those two powers. Yet, considering

our not being attacked and our weakness in anything but self-defence, I

conceive we should be satisfied with a strict adherence to all our

treaties whether with France or with other powers. That is certainly the

object of the President, and the only difficulty that has arisen between

him and Mr. Genet is upon the construction of some articles of the

treaty with France. So far as I am able to judge, it seems to me that

the interpretation given by the President is the right one, and I guess

that although Mr. Genet is a man of abilities and of firmness, he is not

endowed with that prudence and command of his temper which might have

enabled him to change the opinion of our Executive in those points where

they might be in the wrong. I have, however, strong reasons to believe

that Messrs. Jay and King were misinformed in the point on which they

gave their certificate. Upon the whole, I think that unless France or

England attack us we shall have no war, and of either of them doing it I

have no apprehension.... Please to remember that my politics are only

for you. Except in my public character I do not like to speak on the

subject, although I believe you will agree with me that I need not be

ashamed of my sentiments; but moderation is not fashionable just now....

This city is now violently alarmed, more indeed than they should, on

account of some putrid fevers which have made their appearance in Water

Street. I mention this because I suppose you will read it in the

newspapers, and I want to inform you that I live in the most healthy

part of the city, and the most distant from the infection.

29th August, 1793.

... The alarm is greater than I could have conceived it to be, and

although there is surely so far this foundation for it, that a very

malignant and, to all appearances, infectious fever has carried away

about forty persons in a week, yet, when we consider the great

population of this city and that the disease is yet local, I believe

that with proper care it might be checked, whilst, on the other hand,

the fears of people will undoubtedly tend to spread it. Our Legislature

are very much alarmed. I believe that if it was not for the

comptroller's impeachment they would adjourn at once; and as it is, they

may possibly remove to Germantown....

2d September, 1793.

[Sidenote 1793]

I feel, my beloved friend, very much depressed this evening. My worthy

friend Dr. Hutchinson lies now dangerously ill with the malignant fever

that prevails here, and it is said the crisis of this night must decide

his fate. He was the boldest physician in this city, and from his

unremitted attention to the duties of his profession, both as physician

of the port and as practitioner, he has caught the infection, and such

is the nature of that fatal disorder that his best friends, except his

family and the necessary attendants, cannot go near him. His death would

be a grievous stroke to his family, who are supported altogether by his

industry, to his friends, to whom he was endeared by every social

virtue, and, indeed, to his country, who had not a better nor more

active friend. From his extensive information I had many times derived

the greatest assistance, and his principles, his integrity, and the

warmth of his affection for me had attached me to him more than to any

other man in Philadelphia.... The disorder, although it has not yet

attacked those who use proper cautions, is rather increasing in the

poorer class of people, who are obliged to follow their daily industry

in every part of the town, who are less cautious and perhaps less

cleanly than others, and who cannot use bark, wine, and other

preventives, whose price is above their faculties. The corporation have,

however, taken precautions to prevent their spreading the disorder and

to provide for their being properly attended. Hamilton's house at Bush

Hill is converted into an hospital for that purpose. The members of the

Legislature are so much alarmed and so unfit to attend to business that

I believe it is not improbable they will adjourn this week, and the time

of the election being so very near, they will, I guess, adjourn _sine

die_. If that happens, my intention is to go immediately to New York....

I will not dissemble that, although I feel it was of some importance

that some public business should have been finished whilst I was in the

Legislature (I write to you what I would say to no other person), and

although it is not impossible that by using proper exertions the

Assembly might have been prevented from breaking up, I have felt more

alarmed than I thought myself liable to, as much indeed as most of my

fellow-members, and have not attempted anything to inspire the members

with a courage I did not feel myself. Can you guess at the reason? Yet I

trust that if I thought it an absolute _duty_ to stay I should not

suffer even love to get the better of _that_. Indeed, I know you would

not like me the better for making myself unworthy of you, and if there

is any hesitation or any division upon the subject, I think, unless some

new argument prevails with me, that I will vote against the adjournment,

but if everybody agrees it is best to go, I will throw no objection in

the way. So much for my fortitude, which you see is not greater than it

ought to be....

4th September, 1793.

[Sidenote 1793]

... Yesterday I was appointed a member of a committee to confer with a

committee of the Senate upon the expediency of an adjournment, so that I

had to take an active part upon that very subject which of all I wished

to be decided by others. Will it please you to hear that I urged every

reason against an adjournment that I could think of? If that does not

afford you much satisfaction, it will perhaps relieve you to know that

at the same time I was almost wishing that my arguments might have no

effect. Whether it arose from that cause or not I do not know, but my

eloquence was thrown away upon the Senate, and they immediately after

resolved that they would adjourn to-day.

Of that resolution, however, we have in our house taken no notice; but

this afternoon the Senate have resolved that they would not try the

comptroller's impeachment this session, and as they are the only judges

of that point, inasmuch as we cannot oblige them to fix any earlier

period, and as that was the only business of sufficient importance to

detain us, I rather believe that our house will agree to adjourn

to-morrow, as the whole blame of it, if any, will fall upon the Senate.

If that takes place, you will easily believe that I do not mean to stay

long here.... I feel much happier than I did two days ago. Dr.

Hutchinson is much better, though not yet out of danger.[11] ... The

symptoms of the raging fever are said to be milder than at first.

Several have escaped or are in a fair way of recovering who had been

attacked, although there was no instance a few days ago of any person

once infected being saved. The number of sick and that of deaths are

still considerable, but although the first has not diminished, the last,

I believe, has; and there is less alarm amongst the citizens than there

was a few days ago....

GALLATIN TO BADOLLET.

PHILADELPHIA, 1st February, 1794.

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I was deprived of the pleasure of writing you sooner by

Major Heaton not calling on me, nor giving me notice of the time of his

departure; I hope, however, that notwithstanding your complaints, you

know me too well to have ascribed my silence to forgetfulness or want of

friendship; but, without any further apologies, let me proceed to

answering your letter, which, by the by, is the only one I have received

of you since I let you know, in last August, that I was in expectation

of getting married after a while. Now for my history since that time.

The dreadful calamity which has afflicted this city had spread such an

alarm at the time when the Assembly met, that our August session was a

mere scene of confusion, and we adjourned the 6th of September. The next

day I set off for New York, according to contract; it was agreed that I

should go and spend a week there, and from thence go to Fayette County,

where I was to remain till December, and then upon my return here we

were to fix the time of our union. As I expected to be only a week

absent, I left all my papers, clothes, patents, money, &c., in

Philadelphia; but on my arrival at New York, and after I had been there

a few days, the disorder increased to such a degree in Philadelphia, it

became so difficult to leave that city if you were once in it, and the

terrors were so much greater at a distance, that I was easily prevailed

upon not to return here, although I was wishing to go nevertheless to

Fayette, which I could have done, as I had left my horse in Bucks

County. Three weeks, however, elapsed without my perceiving time was

running away, and I was in earnest preparing to set off, when I fell

sick, a violent headache, fever, &c.; the symptoms would have put me on

the list of the yellow fever sick had I been in Philadelphia, and

although I had been absent three weeks from thence, the alarm had

increased so much at New York, that it was thought that, if the people

knew of my disorder, they might insist on my being carried to a

temporary hospital erected on one of the islands of the harbor, which

was far from being a comfortable place. Under those circumstances

Commodore Nicholson (at present my father-in-law) would have me to be

removed to his house, where I was most tenderly attended and nursed, and

very soon recovered. It was then too late to think of going home before

the meeting of Congress, and being under the same roof we agreed to

complete our union, and were accordingly married on the 11th of

November. And now I suppose you want to know what kind of a wife I have

got. Having been married near three months, my description will not be

as romantic as it would have been last fall; but I do not know but what

it may still be partial, if we feel so in favor of those we love. Her

person is, in my opinion, far less attractive than either her mind or

her heart, and yet I do not wish her to have any other but that she has

got, for I think I can read in her face the expression of her soul; and

as to her shape and size you know my taste, and she is exactly formed on

that scale. She was twenty-six when I married her. She is possessed of

the most gentle disposition, and has an excellent heart. Her

understanding is good; she is as well informed as most young ladies; she

is perfectly simple and unaffected; she loves me, and she is a pretty

good democrat (and so, by the by, are all her relations). But, then, is

there no reverse to that medal? Yes, indeed, one, and a pretty sad one.

She is what you will call a city belle. She never in her life lived out

of a city, and there she has always lived in a sphere where she has

contracted or should have contracted habits not very well adapted to a

country life, and specially to a Fayette County life. This I knew before

marriage, and my situation she also knew. Nevertheless, we have

concluded that we would be happier united than separated, and this

spring you will see us in Fayette, where you will be able to judge for

yourself. As to fortune, she is, by her grandfather's will, entitled to

one-sixth part of his estate at her mother's death (and what that is I

do not know); but at present she receives only three hundred pounds, New

York money. To return, I attended Congress at their meeting, and upon

Mr. and Mrs. Dallas's invitation I brought Mrs. Gallatin to this place

about the latter end of December, and have remained at their house ever

since. I believe I wrote you, at the time of my being elected a Senator,

that the election would probably be disputed. This has, agreeable to my

expectation, taken place, which arises from my having expressed doubts,

prior to my election, whether I had been a citizen nine years. The point

as a legal one is a nice and difficult one, and I believe it will be

decided as party may happen to carry. On that ground it is likely I may

lose my seat, as in Senate the majority is against us in general.

I believe I have told you now everything of any importance relative to

myself. By the enclosed you will see that your brother is safe at

Jeremie, which is now in the possession of the British. Who has been

right or in the wrong in the lamentable scene of Hispaniola nobody can

tell; but to view the subject independent of the motives and conduct of

the agent who may have brought on the present crisis, I see nothing but

the natural consequence of slavery. For the whites to expect mercy

either from mulattoes or negroes is absurd, and whilst we may pity the

misfortune of the present generation of the whites of that island, in

which, undoubtedly, many innocent victims have been involved, can we

help acknowledging that calamity to be the just punishment of the crimes

of so many generations of slave-traders and slave-holders? As to our

general politics, I send you, by Jackson, the correspondence between our

government and the French and British ministers, which will give you a

better idea of our situation in regard to those two countries than

either newspapers or anything I could write. The Spanish correspondence

and that relative to the Algerian business were communicated by the

President "in confidence," and therefore are not printed. If there be

another campaign, as there is little doubt of at present, our situation

next summer will be truly critical. 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.

* * * * *

The above letter to Badollet runs somewhat in advance of the story,

which is resumed in the letters to his wife. After their marriage on the

11th November, he remained with her till the close of the month, when he

was obliged to take his seat in the Senate.

GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.

PHILADELPHIA, 2d December, 1793.

I have just time to let you know that I arrived safe to this place;

indeed, it is not an hour since I am landed, and we must meet an hour

hence....

3d December, 1793.

... We made a house the first day we met, and have had this day the

President's speech. The very day we met, a petition was sent to our

house signed by nineteen individuals of Yorktown objecting to my

election, and stating that I have not been nine years a citizen of the

United States. It lies on the table, and has not yet been taken up. Mr.

Morris told me it was first given to him by a member of the Legislature

for the county of York, but that he declined presenting it, and that he

meant to be perfectly neutral on the occasion....

6th December, 1793.

... Till now we have had nothing to do but reading long correspondences

and no real business to apply to. Whilst I am on that subject I must add

that from all the correspondence of the French minister, I am fully

confirmed in the opinion I had formed, that he is a man totally unfit

for the place he fills. His abilities are but slender; he possesses some

declamatory powers, but not the least shadow of judgment. Violent and

self-conceited, he has hurted the cause of his country here more than

all her enemies could have done. I think that the convention will recall

him agreeable to the request of the President, and that if they do not

he will be sent away.... I met here with my friend Smilie and some more,

who brought me letters from my, shall I say from our, home. They do not

know what has become of me, are afraid I have died of the yellow fever,

scold me in case I am alive for having neglected to write, and tell me

that neither my barn, my meadow, nor my house are finished. I write back

and insist on this last at least being finished this winter....

11th December, 1793.

... The situation of America (I know my love is not indifferent to her

country's fate) is the most critical she has experienced since the

conclusion of the war that secured her independence. On the one hand,

the steps taken by the Executive to obtain the recall of Genet, the

intemperance of that minister, and the difficulty of forming any

rational conjecture of the part the national convention may take, give

us sufficient grounds of alarms, whilst, on the other, the declared

intentions (declared to us officially) of Great Britain to break through

every rule of neutrality and to take our vessels, laden with provisions,

the hostility of the Indians and of the Algerines, and our own weakness

render it equally difficult to bear so many insults with temper and to

save the dignity of the nation. I guess the first step must be to

establish some kind of naval force, but I have as yet formed no fixed

opinion of my own, nor do I know what is the general intention....

15th December, 1793.

I was indeed sadly disappointed, my dearest love, on receiving your

letter of the 12th. Whether it was wiser or not that you should not come

here till after the decision of my election I will not pretend to say.

To myself that decision will not be very material. As I used no intrigue

in order to be elected, as I was indeed so rather against my own

inclination, and as I was undoubtedly fairly elected, since the members

voted _viva voce_, I will be liable to none of those reflections which

sometimes fall upon a man whose election is set aside, and 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.... I hope that a decision

will take place this week, and if it does, I will go to New York next

Saturday, and once more enjoy the society of my Hannah, either there or

here. I think the probability is that it will be there, as the committee

(to wit: Livermore, Cabot, Mitchell, Ellsworth, and Rutherford) are

undoubtedly the worst for me that could have been chosen, and they do

not seem to me to be favorably disposed; this, however, between you and

me, as I should not be hasty in forming a judgment, or at least in

communicating it.... I am happy to see that you are a tolerable

democrat, and, at the same time, a moderate one. I trust that our

parties at this critical juncture will as far as possible forget old

animosities, and show at least to the foreign powers who hate us that we

will be unanimous whenever the protection and defence of our country

require it. None but such as are entirely blinded by self-interest or

their passions, and such as wish us to be only an appendage of some

foreign power, can try to increase our weakness by dividing us. I hope

that the public measures will show firmness tempered with moderation,

but if France is annihilated, as seems to be the desire of the combined

powers, sad indeed will the consequences be for America. They talk of

fortifying some of the principal seaports and of building a few

frigates. Both measures may probably be adopted....

18th December, 1793.

... I really enjoy no kind of pleasure in this city, and if the

committee delay their report much longer I believe I may be tempted to

run away and let them decide just as they please. I know, or rather I

have the best grounds to believe, that they mean to report unanimously

against me, and if their report, as it is most likely, is adopted by the

Senate, what will my girl say to my dividing our winter into three

parts?--the best, the longest, and the most agreeable part to be spent

in New York; a fortnight in Philadelphia, with our friends Mr. and Mrs.

Dallas, and by myself, four weeks to go, stay, and return from

Fayette.... You must be sensible, my dearest friend, that it will also

be necessary for me this winter to take such arrangements as will enable

me to follow some kind of business besides attending my farm. What that

will be I cannot yet tell, but it either will be in some mercantile

line, but to a very limited and moderate extent, or in some land

speculation, those being indeed the two only kinds of business I do

understand. As I mentioned that it would be only to a limited amount

that I would follow any kind of mercantile business, I think I will have

a portion of time left, which I may devote possibly to the study of law,

the principles of which I am already acquainted with, and in which some

people try to persuade me I could succeed. My only apprehension is that

I am too old, at least my memory is far from being equal to what it was

ten years ago. Upon the whole I do not know but what, although perhaps

less pleasing, it may not turn out to be more advantageous for me (and

of course for my love) to be obliged to abandon those political pursuits

in which I trust I have been more useful to the public than to

myself....

20th December, 1793.

... This committee business is protracted farther than I had expected,

and had I nothing but a personal concern in it, I would really leave

them to themselves; but as the question seems to be whether Pennsylvania

will have one or two Senators (for there is no law to fill the vacancy

if I am declared ineligible), and as I owe some regard to the proof of

confidence given to me by the Legislature, I am obliged to appear as a

party and to support what I conceive to be right as well as I can. I was

in hopes they would have reported to-day; now I doubt whether they will

do it before Tuesday or Thursday next.... 11 o'clock. Notwithstanding

what I wrote you this morning, it is not impossible that I may get off

to-morrow for New York, in which case I mean that we should return

together on Monday evening to this place, as I could not be absent any

longer time. The reason of this change of opinion since this morning is

that by the turn which this business takes in the committee, it will not

come, I believe, to a conclusion for a fortnight or three weeks, and to

be so long absent is too much....

* * * * *

Mr. Gallatin was a member of the Senate only a few weeks, from December

2, 1793, till February 28, 1794, during which time he was, of course,

principally occupied with the matter of his own election. There was,

however, one point to which he paid immediate attention. Being above all

things a practical business man, he had very strict ideas as to the

manner in which business should be performed, and the Department of the

Treasury was, therefore, in his eyes the most important point to watch.

That Department, organized a few years before by Mr. Hamilton, had not

yet quite succeeded in finding its permanent place in the political

system, owing perhaps partially to the fact that Mr. Hamilton may have,

in this respect as in others, adopted in advance some theoretical views

drawn from the working of the British system, but also owing to the fact

that there had not yet been time to learn the most convenient rules for

governing the relations of the Departments to the Legislature. Even the

law requiring an annual report from the Secretary of the Treasury was

not enacted till the year 1800. In the interval Congress knew of the

proceedings of the Treasury only what the Secretary from time to time

might please to tell them, or what they themselves might please to call

for. The Department was organized on the assumption that Congress would

require no more than what the Secretary would naturally and of his own

accord supply; any unusual call for additional information deranged the

whole machinery of the Treasury and called forth the most energetic

complaints of its officers.[12] Such calls, too, were always somewhat

invidious and implied a reflection on the Department; they were

therefore not likely to proceed from the friends of the government, and

the opposition was not strong in financial ability. The appearance of

Mr. Gallatin in the Senate, with already a high reputation as a

financier, boded ill for the comfort of the Treasury, and it is

difficult to see how a leader of the opposition under the circumstances

could possibly have performed his duty without giving trouble. One of

Mr. Gallatin's financial axioms was that the Treasury should be made to

account specifically for every appropriation; a rule undoubtedly

correct, but very difficult to apply. On the 8th of January, 1794, he

moved in the Senate that the Secretary of the Treasury be called upon

for certain elaborate statements: 1st, a statement of the domestic debt

under six specific heads; 2d, of the redeemed domestic debt under

specific heads; 3d, of the foreign debt in a like manner; 4th, a

specific account of application of foreign loans in like manner; and

finally a summary statement, for each year since 1789, of actual

receipts and expenditures, distinguishing the receipts according to the

branch of revenue, and the expenditures according to the specific

appropriations, and stating the balances remaining unexpended either in

the Treasury or in the hands of its agents.

[Sidenote: 1794.]

This was a searching inquiry, and one that might give some trouble,

unless the books of the Treasury were kept in precisely such a manner as

to supply the information at once; probably, too, a portion of the

knowledge might have been obtained from previous statements already

supplied; but the demand was, from the legislative point of view, not

unreasonable, and the resolutions were accordingly adopted, without a

division, on the 20th January.

The exclusion of Mr. Gallatin from the Senate on the 28th February put

an end to his inquiries, and the only answer he ever got to them came in

the shape of an indirect allusion contained in a letter from Secretary

Hamilton to the Senate on another subject, dated 22d February, 1794.

This letter, which seems never to have been printed, offers an example

in some respects so amusing and in some so striking of the political

ideas of that day, and of the species of discipline in which Mr.

Hamilton trained his majority in Congress, that it must be introduced as

an essential element in any account of Mr. Gallatin's political

education.[13]

"The occupations necessarily and permanently incident to the office [of

Secretary of the Treasury]," said Mr. Hamilton, "are at least sufficient

fully to occupy the time and faculties of one man. The burden is

seriously increased by the numerous private cases, remnants of the late

war, which every session are objects of particular reference by the two

Houses of Congress. These accumulated occupations, again, have been

interrupted in their due course by unexpected, desultory, and

distressing calls for lengthy and complicated statements, sometimes with

a view to general information, sometimes for the explanation of points

which certain leading facts, witnessed by the provisions of the laws and

by information previously communicated, might have explained without

those statements, or which were of a nature that did not seem to have

demanded a laborious, critical, and suspicious investigation, unless the

officer was understood to have forfeited his title to a reasonable and

common degree of confidence.... I will only add that the consciousness

of devoting myself to the public service to the utmost extent of my

faculties, and to the injury of my health, is a tranquillizing

consolation of which I cannot be deprived by any supposition to the

contrary."

A country which can read expressions like this with feelings only of

surprise or amusement must have greatly changed its character. Only in a

simple and uncorrupted stage of society would such a letter be possible,

and the time has long passed when a Secretary of the Treasury, in reply

to a request for financial details, would venture to say in an official

communication to the Senate of the United States: "The consciousness of

devoting myself to the public service to the utmost extent of my

faculties, and to the injury of my health, is a tranquillizing

consolation of which I cannot be deprived by any supposition to the

contrary." Nevertheless, this was all the information which Mr. Gallatin

obtained as to the condition of the Treasury in response to his

inquiries, and he resigned himself the more readily to accepting

assurances of the Secretary's injured health as an equivalent for a

statement of receipts and expenditures, for the reason that the Senate,

on this strong hint from the Treasury, proceeded at once to cut short

the thread of his own official existence.

The doubt which Mr. Gallatin had expressed in caucus as to his

eligibility to the Senate was highly indiscreet; had he held his tongue,

the idea could hardly have occurred to any one, for he was completely

identified with America, and he had been a resident since a time

antecedent to both the Federal Constitutions; but Article I. Sect. 3, of

the new Constitution declared that, "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 had

come to America, as a minor, in May, 1780, before the adoption of the

old Articles of Confederation which created citizenship of the United

States. That citizenship was first defined by the fourth of these

Articles of Confederation adopted in March, 1781, according to which

"the free inhabitants," not therefore the citizens merely, "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." Mr. Gallatin had certainly been an inhabitant of

Massachusetts from July, 1780.

Moreover, the fact of Mr. Gallatin's citizenship was established by the

oath which he had taken as a citizen of Virginia, in October, 1785.

Whatever doubt might attach to his previous citizenship, this act had

certainly conferred on him _all_ the privileges of free citizens in the

several States, and without the most incontrovertible evidence it was

not to be assumed that the new Constitution, subsequently adopted, was

intended to violate this compact by depriving him, and through him his

State, of any portion of those privileges. Equity rather required that

the clause of the Constitution which prescribed nine years' citizenship

should be interpreted as prospective, and as intended to refer only to

persons naturalized subsequently to the adoption of the Constitution. If

it were objected that such an interpretation, applied to the Presidency,

would have made any foreigner naturalized in 1788 immediately eligible

to the chief magistracy of the Union, a result quite opposed to the

constitutional doctrine in regard to foreign-born citizens, a mere

reference to Article II., Section 1, showed that this was actually the

fact: "No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the

United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be

eligible to the office of President." There never was a doubt that Mr.

Gallatin was eligible to the Presidency. That a reasonable

interpretation of Article I., Section 3, must have made him equally

eligible to the Senate is also evident from the fact that a strict

interpretation of that clause, if attempted in 1789 when Congress first

met, must have either admitted him or vacated the seat of every other

Senator, seeing that technically no human being had been a citizen of

the United States for nine years; national citizenship had existed in

law only since and by virtue of the adoption of the Articles of

Confederation in 1781, before which time State citizenship was the only

defined political status.

Opposed to this view stood the letter of the Constitution. We now know,

too, through Mr. Madison's Notes, that when the question of eligibility

to the House of Representatives came before the Convention on August 13,

1788, both Mr. Hamilton and Gouverneur Morris tried to obtain an express

admission of the self-evident rights of actual citizens. For unknown

reasons Mr. Morris's motion was defeated by a vote of 6 States to 5.

Failing here, he seems to have succeeded in regard to the Presidency by

inserting his proviso in committee, and no one in the Convention

subsequently raised even a question against its propriety. Of course the

Senate was at liberty now to put its own interpretation on this obvious

inconsistency, and the Senate was so divided that one member might have

given Mr. Gallatin his seat. The vote was 14 to 12, with Vice-President

John Adams in his favor had there been a tie. There was no tie, and Mr.

Gallatin was thrown out. He always believed that his opponents made a

political blunder, and that the result was beneficial to himself and

injurious to them.

GALLATIN TO THOMAS CLARE.

PHILADELPHIA, 5th March, 1794.

... I have nothing else to say in addition to what I wrote you by my

last but what Mr. Badollet can tell you. He will inform you of what

passed on the subject of my seat in the Senate, and that I have lost it

by a majority of 14 to 12. One vote more would have secured it, as the

Vice-President would have voted in my favor; but heaven and earth were

moved in order to gain that point by the party who were determined to

preserve their influence and majority in the Senate. The whole will soon

be published, and I will send it to you. As far as relates to myself I

have rather gained credit than otherwise, and I have likewise secured

many staunch friends throughout the Union. All my friends wish me to

come to the Assembly next year....

* * * * *

After this rebuff, Mr. Gallatin, being thrown entirely out of politics

for the time, began to pay a little more attention to his private

affairs. He could not at this season of the year set out for Fayette,

and accordingly returned to New York, where he left his wife with her

family, while he himself went back to Philadelphia to make the necessary

preparations for their western journey and future residence. Here he

sold a portion of his western lands to Robert Morris, who was then, like

the rest of the world, speculating in every species of dangerous

venture. Like everything else connected with land, the transaction was

an unlucky one for Mr. Gallatin.

GALLATIN TO HIS WIFE.

PHILADELPHIA, 7th April, 1794.

We arrived here, my dearest friend, on Saturday last.... No news here.

You will see by the newspapers the motion of Mr. Clark to stop all

intercourse with Great Britain. I believe it is likely to be supported

by our friends. Dayton is quite warm. The other day, when it was

observed in Congress by Tracy that every person who would vote for this

motion of sequestering the British debts must be an enemy to morality

and common honesty, 'I might,' replied Dayton,--'I might with equal

propriety call every person who will refuse to vote for that motion a

slave of Great Britain and an enemy to his country; but if it is the

intention of those gentlemen to submit to every insult and patiently to

bear every indignity, I wish (pointing to the eastern members, with

whom he used to vote),--_I wish to separate myself from the herd_.'

The majority of the Assembly of Pennsylvania had several votes, previous

to the election of a Senator in my place, to agree upon the man.

Sitgreaves, a certain Coleman, of Lancaster County, a fool and a tool,

and James Ross, were proposed and balloted for. Ross had but seven

votes, on account of his being a western man and a man of talents, who

upon great many questions would judge for himself. They divided almost

equally between Sitgreaves and Coleman, and at last agreed to take up

Coleman, in order to please the counties of Lancaster and York. Our

friends, who were the minority, had no meeting, and waited to see what

would be the decision of the other party, in hopes that they might

divide amongst themselves. As soon as they saw Coleman taken up they

united in favor of Ross as the best man they had any chance of carrying,

and they were joined by a sufficient number of the disappointed ones of

the other party to be able to carry him at the first vote. As he comes

chiefly upon our interest, I hope he will behave tolerably well, and,

upon the whole, although it puts any chance of my being again elected a

member of that body beyond possibility itself, I am better pleased with

the fate of the election than most of our adversaries....

PHILADELPHIA, 19th April, 1794.

... I have concluded this day with Mr. Robert Morris, who, in fact, is

the only man who buys. I give him the whole of my claims, but without

warranting any title, for £4000, Pennsylvania currency, one-third

payable this summer, one-third in one year, and one-third in two years.

That sum therefore, my dearest, together with our farm and five or six

hundred pounds cash, makes the whole of our little fortune. Laid out in

cultivated lands in our neighborhood it will provide us amply with all

the necessaries of life, to which you may add that, as property is

gradually increasing in value there, should in future any circumstances

induce us to change our place of abode, we may always sell to

advantage....

* * * * *

Early in May Mr. and Mrs. Gallatin set out for Fayette. His mind was at

this time much occupied with his private affairs and private anxieties.

His sale of lands to Robert Morris had, as he hoped, relieved him of a

serious burden; but he was again trying the experiment of taking an

Eastern wife to a frontier home, and he was again driven by the

necessities and responsibilities of a family to devise some occupation

that would secure him an income. The farm on George's Creek was no doubt

security against positive want, but in itself or in its surroundings

offered little prospect of a fortune for him, and still less for his

children.

He had barely reached home, and his wife had not yet time to set her

house in order and to get the first idea of her future duties in this

wholly strange condition of life, when a new complication threatened

them with dangers greater than any which their imaginations could have

reasonably painted. They suddenly found themselves in the midst of

violent political disturbance, organized insurrection and war, an army

on either side.