Swiss immigrant held the keys to US Treasury
The life of a Swiss who made his mark on the United States while serving as Secretary of the Treasury has been retold in a biography just published.
Albert Gallatin emigrated to the US aged 19 in 1780 and went from being a representative for backcountry farmers to serving under President Thomas Jefferson. His lifestory is the subject of a work by Benedikt von Tscharner.
The US Congress recently paid tribute to Gallatin, passing a bill calling for recognition of his role as a “visionary” planner of roads and canals that helped build up infrastructure in America. The resolution was put forward on the 200th anniversary of the publication of his grand designs.
According to von Tscharner, Gallatin trained in Geneva under Horace Bénédict de Saussure, a man of science, and as was typical of the Enlightenment period, held a strong interest in nature.
“This could also have convinced him to head for the American continent with its wild reputation,” the former Swiss ambassador and current president of the Foundation for the History of Swiss Abroad, told swissinfo.
“There are some signs that Gallatin perhaps thought that there was a lack of opportunities in Geneva. This small republic was going through a difficult time and had yet to formally join the Swiss confederation.
“But his main motivation was his age and his desire to discover [other places].”
Pioneer to politician
Gallatin left Geneva without telling his family and settled in the backcountry of Pennsylvania, where his political career soon took off.
“The most interesting time of his life was in fact his transition from being a pioneer and a farmer like many others, to a career as a politician and member of the American government,” von Tscharner said.
“He had suddenly found himself acting as a farmers’ representative and discovered that he wasn’t bad as a politician.
“He was plunged into a field that he had not planned on entering. But once it was set in motion, his political career moved very quickly, first as an anti-centralist opposition parliamentarian.”
Gallatin acted as the spokesman of a group that was opposed to a strong central state and high taxes. After Thomas Jefferson’s victory in the 1800 presidential elections, Gallatin was named Secretary of the Treasury, having become the financial specialist of his party.
Visionary
“There was a difference in temperament between Jefferson and Gallatin. The American president was an aristocrat from Virginia and a great landowner who possessed a sort of agrarian romanticism,” von Tscharner told swissinfo.
“Gallatin was much more visionary. He was a New Yorker who was close to financial circles, banks and investors. An immigrant who was the incarnation of modern America. He was aware of its great industrial future and his policies reflected the needs of an industrial country.
“He could be considered a liberal, but also a promoter of an active state, as was shown in the example of his Report on Roads and Canals, a vast public programme for infrastructure.”
During his time in government, he introduced a series of rules enforcing discipline and restraint in public spending, and along with Alexander Hamilton, was a significant Secretary of the Treasury who early on marked American policy.
“The United States was lucky to have this extremely gifted and creative pair,” von Tscharner commented. “They laid down the foundations for efficient management of public funds, at a time when the country was based on a structure that was quite weak.”
To end the war with Britain in 1812, Gallatin was also charged with negotiating the treaty of Ghent that was signed in 1814. The president then called on him to be the American ambassador to Paris and then to London.
Unique
“If he had been born in the United States, Gallatin could have become president because he was an extraordinary leader at the same time as being a great nationalist,” said Herbert London, former dean at the Gallatin School at New York University.
London, the current head of the Hudson Institute think-tank in Washington, elaborated: “He saw the United States as a great power on the North American continent that had to extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific, maintain its independence, avoid becoming entangled in Europe’s alliances and wars, promote free trade and protect its own interests on the American continent.”
Brian Reedy, a historian at the Friendship Hill National Historic Site, Gallatin’s home, added: “The uniqueness of Gallatin is that in being born outside the United States he had a larger vision of America than his fellow citizens and considered the interests of the entire country.”
International figure
Gallatin remained active in retirement, founding a university and researching the language of Native American tribes.
Von Tscharner said he was compelled to write Gallatin’s biography because he was such an important Swiss figure in history.
“There are very few people who have emigrated from Switzerland and also had an impact in political terms. That’s rather rare.
“He practised a whole series of professions. He was a farmer, politician, financer, diplomat and scientist. He moved with ease in all sort of circles in the United States and in Europe.
“He was an international man.”
swissinfo
1761: Born in Geneva.
1780: Secret departure for America
1784: Establishes the Friendship Hill plantation, founds the town of New Geneva and starts up several businesses
1789: Deputy to the constitutional convention of the state of Pennsylvania
1795-1801: Member of the House of Representatives
1801-1813: Secretary to the US Treasury
1814: Negotiator and signatory of the Ghent peace treaty between London and Washington
1816-1827: Ambassador of the United States in France, and then in Britain
1831: Co-founder of New York University
1842: Co-founder of the American society of ethnology
1849: Dies on Long Island
Albert Gallatin made his mark on his adopted country in numerous ways. A mountain range was named after him, as well as counties in Montana, Kentucky and Illinois, and towns in Missouri and Tennessee… and an airport.
He was the longest serving Secretary of the US Treasury, in the position under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The only statue inside the Treasury building is that of Gallatin.
The highest distinction that a US civil servant can receive is the Albert Gallatin Prize.
Albert Gallatin (1761-1849), Geneva’s American Statesman, is published by Penthes, under the Museum of the Swiss Abroad.
Benedikt von Tscharner, who studied law at Basel University, is a former ambassador for Switzerland to Brussels, Vienna and Paris.
He is currently the chairman of the Foundation for the History of the Swiss Abroad in Geneva.
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