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GALLATIN, Albert, a Representative and Senator-elect from Pennsylvania; born in Geneva,
Switzerland, January 29, 1761; was graduated from the University of Geneva in 1779; immigrated to
the United States and settled in Boston, Mass., in 1780; served in the Revolutionary Army; instructor
of French in Harvard University in 1782; moved to Virginia in 1785 and settled in Fayette County
(now in Pennsylvania); his estate becoming a portion of Pennsylvania, he was made a member of the
Pennsylvania constitutional convention in 1789; member, State house of representatives 1790-1792;
elected to the United States Senate and took the oath of office on December 2, 1793, but a petition
filed with the Senate on the same date alleged that Gallatin failed to satisfy the Constitutional citizenship
requirement; on February 28, 1794, the Senate determined that Gallatin did not meet the citizenship
requirement, and declared his election void; elected as a Republican to the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth
Congresses (March 4, 1795-March 3, 1801); was not a candidate for renomination in 1800;
appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Thomas Jefferson in 1801; reappointed by
President James Madison, and served from 1801 to 1814; appointed one of the commissioners to
negotiate the Treaty of Ghent in 1814; one of the commissioners who negotiated a commercial
convention with Great Britain in 1816; appointed United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary to France by President Madison 1815-1823; Minister Plenipotentiary to Great Britain
1826-1827; returned to New York City and became president of the National Bank of New York;
died in Astoria, N.Y., August 12, 1849; interment in Nicholson Vault, Trinity Churchyard, New York
City.
BibliographyGallatin, Albert. Selected Writings of Albert
Gallatin. Edited by E. James Ferguson. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967; Walters,
Raymond, Jr. Albert Gallatin: Jeffersonian Financier and Diplomat. New York:
Macmillan, 1957; Kuppenheimer, L. B. Albert Gallatins Vision of Democratic Stability:
An Interpretive Profile. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996.
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