Albert GALLATIN, Congress, PA (1761-1849)

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.

Bibliography

Gallatin, 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 Gallatin's Vision of Democratic Stability: An Interpretive Profile. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present