Gallatin, Albert

Autor: Gallatin, Albert
Rok: 1761-1849
Oblast působnosti: politici, diplomaté, etnologové, lingvisté

Biogr./Hist. údaje: Švýcarsko-americký politik, diplomat, etnolog a lingvista.
Zdroj: Autoritní databáze Národní knihovny ČR

Abraham Alfonse Albert Gallatin (January 29, 1761 – August 12, 1849) was a Swiss-American politician, diplomat, ethnologist and linguist. He served as a Congressman, Senator, United States Ambassador and was the longest-serving United States Secretary of the Treasury. In 1831, he founded the University of the City of New York, now New York University.Born in Geneva in present-day Switzerland, Gallatin immigrated to America in the 1780s, ultimately settling in Pennsylvania. He was politically active against the Federalist Party program, and was elected to the United States Senate in 1793. However, he was removed from office by a 14–12 party-line vote after a protest raised by his opponents suggested he did not meet the required nine years of citizenship.Two years later, he was elected to the House of Representatives and served in the fourth through sixth Congresses. He was an important member of the new Democratic-Republican Party, its chief spokesman on financial matters, and led opposition to many of the policy proposals of Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. He also helped found the House Committee on Finance (later the Ways and Means Committee) and often engineered withholding of finances by the House as a method of overriding executive actions to which he objected.Gallatin's mastery of public finance, an ability rare among members of the Jeffersonian party, led to his automatic choice as Secretary of the Treasury by Thomas Jefferson despite Federalist attacks that he was a "foreigner" with a French accent. He was secretary from 1801 until February 1814 under presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, the longest tenure of this office in American history.Declining another term at the Treasury, from 1816 to 1823 Gallatin served as United States Minister to France, struggling with scant success to improve relations with the government during the Bourbon Restoration.Gallatin returned to America and in the election of 1824 was nominated for Vice President by the Democratic-Republican Congressional caucus that had chosen William H. Crawford as its Presidential candidate. Gallatin never wanted the role and was humiliated when he was forced to withdraw from the race because he lacked popular support.In 1826 and 1827, he served as United States Minister to Great Britain and negotiated several useful agreements, such as a ten-year extension of the joint occupation of Oregon.Gallatin then settled in New York City, where he helped found New York University in 1831, in order to offer university education to the working and merchant classes as well as the wealthy. He became president of the National Bank in New York City from 1831 until 1839.His last great endeavor was founding the American Ethnological Society in 1842 and serving as its president until 1848. With his studies of the languages of Native Americans, he has been called "the father of American ethnology."At his death in 1849, Gallatin was the last surviving member of the Jefferson Cabinet and the last surviving Senator from the 18th century.