Standard Library Edition
AMERICAN STATESMEN
EDITED BY
JOHN T. MORSE, JR.
IN THIRTY-TWO VOLUMES VOL. XIII.
THE JEFFERSONIAN DEMOCRACY
ALBERT GALLATIN
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American Statesmen
STANDARD LIBRARY EDITION
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HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
American Statesmen
ALBERT GALLATIN
BY
JOHN AUSTIN STEVENS
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
Copyright, 1883 and 1898
BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO.
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PREFACE
Every generation demands that history shall be rewritten. This is notalone because it requires that the work should be adapted to its ownpoint of view, but because it is instinctively seeking those lines whichconnect the problems and lessons of the past with its own questions andcircumstances. If it were not for the existence of lines of this kind,history might be entertaining, but would have little real value. Themore numerous they are between the present and any earlier period, themore valuable is, for us, the history of that period. Suchconsiderations establish an especial interest just at present in thelife of Gallatin.
The Monroe Doctrine has recently been the pivot of Americanstatesmanship. With that doctrine Mr. Gallatin had much to do, both asminister to France and envoy to Great Britain. Indeed, in 1818, someyears before the declaration of that doctrine, when the Spanish coloniesof South America were in revolt, he declared that the United Stateswould not even aid France in a mediation. Later, in May, 1823, sixmonths before the famous[Pg vi] message of President Monroe, Mr. Gallatin hadalready uttered its idea; when about leaving Paris, on his return fromthe French mission, he said to Chateaubriand, the French minister offoreign affairs (May 13, 1823): “The United States would undoubtedlypreserve their neutrality, provided it were respected, and avoid anyinterference with the politics of Europe.... On the other hand, theywould not suffer others to interfere against the emancipation ofAmerica.” With characteristic vanity Canning said that it was he himselfwho “called the new world into existence to redress the balance of theold.” Yet precisely this had already for a long while been a cardinalpoint of the policy of the United States. So early as 1808, Jefferson,alluding to the disturbed condition of the Spanish colonies, said: “Weconsider their interest and ours as the same, and that the object ofboth must be to excl