You won’t locate his portrait on our foreign money anymore and his signature isn’t penned at the structure, yet former statesman Albert Gallatin (1761-1849) contributed immeasurably to the formation of the US. Gallatin used to be the 1st president of the council of recent York college and his identify lives on at NYU’s Gallatin tuition of Individualized learn, so it truly is with delight that manhattan college Press and the Swiss Confederation submit this new biography of Gallatin.

Gallatin’s tale is the other of the vintage American immigrant story. Born in Geneva, the made from an previous and noble family members and hugely informed within the ecu culture, Gallatin made contributions to the USA all through his profession that a ways outweighed any gain he procured for himself. He acquired his first flavor of politics as a Pennsylvania country consultant and went directly to serve within the U.S. Senate and apartment of Representatives. Gallatin turned the Secretary of Treasury in Jefferson’s management and, regardless of being of the other political social gathering to Alexander Hamilton, Gallatin totally revered his predecessor’s financial politics. Gallatin undertook a unique diplomatic venture for President Madison, which ended the struggle of 1812 with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent and gave the us its real independence. Gallatin endured in international relations as minister to France and to nice Britain, the place he skillfully mixed his American adventure and eu historical past. within the early 1830s, on the age of seventy, he retired from politics and started a brand new occupation in long island urban as a banker, public determine, and highbrow. He helped determine ny collage and the yankee Ethnological Society, turned a professional in local American ethnology and linguistics, and served as president of the New-York ancient Society. Gallatin died at age 88 and is buried in Trinity churchyard at Broadway and Wall Street.

In our personal day, as we glance at reforming our economic climate and search to reinforce America’s international snapshot, it really is worth resurrecting Albert Gallatin’s undying contributions to the us, at domestic and in another country. Nicholas Dungan’s compelling biography reinserts this forgotten Founding Father into the old canon and divulges the transatlantic dimensions of early American history.

Co-published with the Swiss Confederation, Federal division of overseas Affairs.