Gallatin, Albert (1761–1849) banker and politician Born into a prominent Swiss family in Geneva in 1761, Gallatin attended the prestigious Academy of Geneva, where he displayed considerable academic promise. Against his family’s wishes | G Gallatin Albert 1761-1849 banker and politician Born into a prominent Swiss family in Geneva in 1761 Gallatin attended the prestigious Academy of Geneva where he displayed considerable academic promise. Against his family s wishes he immigrated to the United States in 1780 after refusing a commission in the Hessian army. After arriving in Boston he began various business ventures most of which were not successful. As a result he also lectured in French at Harvard College in order to help support himself. He took the oath of allegiance in Virginia in 1785 and then moved to Pennsylvania where his political career began. Gallatin was elected to the state legislature in 1790 from a constituency in western Pennsylvania and then to the . Senate in 1793 but was rejected by that body because his citizenship was in doubt. He left the Senate after only three months in office and after infuriating Alexander HAMILTON secretary of the Treasury by asking him for an itemized statement of the national debt as of January 1 1794. In the same year his constituents led the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania over the matter of a tax on spirits produced in the area. In 1795 he returned to Congress as a member of the House of Representatives which then was meeting in Philadelphia. He became a member of the Standing Committee of Business one of that body s first finance committees. After the hotly contested presidential election of 1800 new president Thomas Jefferson appointed Gallatin secretary of the Treasury. In the same year Gallatin produced a famous tract entitled Views of the Public Debt Receipts Expenditures of the United States a report critical of . financial policy over the previous decade. He took office pledging to reduce the national debt and actually did so reducing federal indebtedness by almost 14 million. He produced a plan to pay down the federal debt by 1817 but the Louisiana Purchase and the War of 1812 intervened. In 1813 he was part of the delegation that .
