Meet Our Town’s Namesake...
Albert Gallatin Gallatin, Missouri, takes its name from one of the early financial giants in American history. Born in Switzerland, his full name was Abraham Alphonse Albert Gallatini. He graduated from the University at Geneva at age 18 in 1779. He came to the United States to offer his services to General Washington and the cause of human liberty. Gallatin served as commander of Fort Machias in what is now the State of Maine. When Gallatin first entered the federal service in 1795 as a congressman from Pennsylvania, the federal debt was pegged at $78.7 million and rising. It was his contention that the debt would have held firm had not the Washington and Adams administrations paid nearly $10 million in tribute and ransom to four Mediterranean pirate states. He encouraged the Jefferson Administration to stop paying pirates and helped direct the U.S. Navy to
PIRATES
hunt them down. Even allowing for the Louisiana and Florida purchases, which
Albert Gallatini was a Jeffersonian financier and diplomat. His 12 years as Secretary of the U.S. Treasury is a length of service still unsurpassed. His name was given to a river, a mountain range, counties in three states, and to communities in Missouri and Tennessee
amounted to $15 million, President Thomas Jefferson and his Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, reduced the federal debt by nearly half by 1810. Gallatin's treasury system proved practical and successful and was essentially unchanged for nearly 100 years. On Ocober 1, 1894, the system was changed (...and the author of that change was Alexander Monroe Dockery of Gallatin, MO).
A special strike of a bronze medallion honoring Albert Gallatin (1968 Medal JK-AC-112)
Secretary Gallatin promoted economy in government expenses and made the country prosperous until the War of 1812. The Treaty of Ghent, ending that war, is considered largely Gallatin's personal triumph. For 7 years Gallatin served as U.S. Minister to France and also made diplomatic missions to the Netherlands and Great Britain. Albert Gallatin, who declined to accept nomination for Vice President in 1824, is the only man ever to serve in the treasury post under two presidents. The county seat of Daviess County chose to honor Albert Gallatin when it officially incorporated as a city in 1858. Today Gallatin’s statue stands before the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, D.C. His farm located at Friendship Hill, PA, became a national park with local officials from here Albert Gallatin is memorialized by this statue outside the Treasury Building in Washington, D.C.
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participating in the opening ceremonies held there in 1992.
HISTORIC DAVIESS COUNTY
A tribute to Albert Gallatin at Friendship Hill, a national historic park in southwest Pennsylvania ©2020. All Rights Reserved. Gallatin Publishing Company
