Gallatin suggested a weekly general conference of the President and the secretaries at what is now styled a cabinet meeting, and private conferences of the President with each of the secretaries once or twice a week on certain days and at fixed hours. The business to come before the House was also to be considered, and the policy to be pursued determined upon. Unfortunately in this case again Jeffersonian theory did not accord with Jeffersonian practice. Even erratic Randolph complained of the want of system at these cabinet meetings, where each was at liberty to do and say as he chose; a severe trial, this, to Gallatin. In 1845 Mr. Gallatin wrote to Edward Coles that it was “quite unusual to submit to the cabinet the manner in which the land or naval forces authorized by Congress, and for which appropriations had been made, should be employed,” and added that on no occasion, in or out of cabinet, was he ever consulted on those subjects prior to the year 1812.
In the difficulty which arose with the Barbary powers Mr. Gallatin earnestly urged the payment of an annuity to Tripoli, if necessary for peace. He considered it a mere matter of calculation whether the purchase of peace was not cheaper than the expense of a war. This policy was to be continued for eight years, at the end of which he hoped that a different tone might be assumed. In a note on the message of 1802, Gallatin expressed the hope to Jefferson that his administration would “afford but few materials for historians.” He would never sacrifice permanent prosperity to temporary glitter.
Mr. Gallatin's counsel was sought, and his opinion deferred to, on subjects which did not fall directly within the scope of administration. Even on questions of fundamental constitutional law his judgment was not inferior to that of Madison himself. In one notable instance he differed from Mr. Lincoln, the attorney-general, whom he held in high esteem as a good lawyer, a fine scholar, “a man of great discretion and sound judgment.” This was in 1803, when the acquisition of East Louisiana and West Florida was a cabinet question. Mr. Lincoln considered that there was a difference between a power to acquire territory for the United States and the power to extend by treaty the territory of the United States, and held that the first was unconstitutional. Mr. Gallatin held that the United States as a nation have an inherent right to acquire territory, and that, when acquisition is by treaty, the same constituted authorities in whom the treaty power is vested have a constitutional right to sanction the acquisition, and that when the territory has been acquired Congress has the power either of admitting into the Union as a new State or of annexing to a State, with the consent of that State, or of making regulations for the government of the territory. Mr. Jefferson concurred in this opinion, while at the same time he thought it safer not to permit the enlargement of the Union except by amendment of the Constitution. Mr. Gallatin's view was practically applied in the cases named, and later in the annexation of Texas, although he disapproved of the latter as contrary to good faith and the law of nations. He advised Jefferson, also, not to lay the treaty by which Louisiana was acquired before the House until after its ratification by the Senate, taking the ground that until then it was not a treaty, and urging that great care should be taken to do nothing which might be represented as containing any idea of encroachment on the rights of the Senate. He personally interested himself in the arrangements for taking possession of New Orleans, and, considering the expense as trifling compared with the object, urged the dispatch of an imposing force of not less than fifteen thousand men, which would add to the opinion entertained abroad of our power, resources, and energy; five thousand of these to be active troops; ten thousand an enrolled reserve. The acquisition of Louisiana was the grand popular feature of the foreign policy of the first term of Jefferson's administration. The internal management left much to be desired.
While his general views were exalted, and his principles would stand the nicest examination in their application, Mr. Jefferson was not fortunate in his choice of methods or men. It is not enough for an administration to be pure; it should be above suspicion. This his was not. Time has not washed out the stain of his intimacy with William Duane, the editor of the infamous “Aurora.” Citizen Duane, as he styled himself in the first days of the administration, quarreled with Gallatin because he would not apply the official guillotine, and thereafter pursued him with uncompromising hostility. Of favoritism in appointments Mr. Gallatin could not be accused. During his twelve years in the Treasury he procured places for but two friends; one was given an obscure clerkship in the department; the other, John Badollet, was made register in the land office at Vincennes, against whom Gallatin said in the application for appointment which he reluctantly made, there was but one objection, “that of being his personal and college friend.”
The dispositions for the sale of lands in the western territory, the extinguishment of titles, and the surveys fell under Mr. Gallatin's general supervision, and were the objects of his particular care. So also was the establishment of the authority of the United States in the Louisiana territory. In the course of these arrangements he was brought into contact with Mr. Pierre Chôteau of St. Louis, who controlled the Indian trade of a vast territory. The foundation of an intimate acquaintance was then laid. The influence of this remarkable man over the Western Indians and the extent of his trading operations with them was great, and has never since been equaled. About this period Mr. John Jacob Astor informed the government that he had an opportunity, of which he intended to take advantage, to purchase one half of the interest of the Canadian Fur Company, which, notwithstanding the treaty of 1794, engrossed the trade by way of Michilimackinac with our own Indians. Before that period this lucrative traffic had been exclusively in British hands, and the hostility of the Indian tribes rendered any interference in it by Americans dangerous to life and property, and their participation since had been merely nominal. Jefferson's cabinet received the proposal with satisfaction, but, in their strict interpretation of the Constitution, could find no way of giving any aid to the scheme beyond the official promise of protection, which it fell to Mr. Gallatin to draft. Mr. Jefferson wrote to Mr. Astor a letter to the same effect. Mr. Astor, however, was not deterred from his enterprise, but, under the charter of the American Fur Company granted by the State of New York, extended his project to the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains, and made of it an immense business, employing several vessels at the mouth of the Columbia River and a large land party beyond the Rocky Mountains. He finally founded the establishment of Astoria. This settlement fell into the hands of the British during the war of 1812. Mr. Astor sought to persuade the American government to permit him to renew the establishment at its close, only asking a flag and a lieutenant's command, but Mr. Madison would not commit himself to the plan.
Among Mr. Jefferson's pet schemes was that of a substitution of gunboats for fortifications, and for supporting the authority of the laws within harbors. The mind of Mr. Jefferson had no doubt been favorably disposed to this mode of offensive defense by the experience of Lafayette at Annapolis, in his southern expedition in the spring of 1781, when his entire flotilla, ammunition of war, and even the city of Annapolis, were saved from destruction by two improvised gunboats, which, armed with mortars and hot shot, drove the British blockading vessels out of the harbor. Jefferson first suggested the scheme in his annual message of 1804, and Gallatin did not interfere; but when, in 1807, the President insisted, in a special message, on the building of two hundred vessels of this class, Mr. Gallatin objected, because of the expense in construction and maintenance, and secondly, of their infallible decay. Mr. Jefferson persisted, and Mr. Gallatin's judgment was vindicated by the result. Two years later, of one hundred and seventy-six gunboats constructed, only twenty-four were in actual service. In his letter of criticism, Mr. Gallatin gave as his opinion, that “it would be an economical measure for every naval nation to burn their navy at the end of a war and to build a new one when again at war, if it was not that time was necessary to build ships of war.” The principle was the same as to gunboats, and the objection of time necessary for building did not exist.
This year he also laid before the President a memorandum of preparatory measures for defense against Great Britain, from whom an attack was expected by land and sea, and a second plan for offensive operations on the northern frontier, which is complete in its geographical and topographical information, and its estimate of resources in men, material, and money. At the same time he urged upon Mr. Jefferson to moderate the tone of his message, so as not to widen the breach by hurting the pride of Great Britain.
In connection with the land system, Mr. Jefferson favored, and Mr. Gallatin devised, an extensive plan of internal improvements. The route of the Cumberland road from the Potomac to the Ohio was reported to Congress in 1807; a coast survey was ordered in the same year. The first superintendent was Hassler, a Swiss, whom Mr. Gallatin brought to the notice of Mr. Jefferson. In 1808 a general plan of improvement was submitted to the Senate. This included canals parallel with the seacoast, making a continuous line of inland navigation from the Hudson to Cape Fear; a great turnpike from Maine to Georgia; the improvement of the Susquehanna, Potomac, James, and Santee rivers to serve the slope from the Alleghanies to the Atlantic; of the Alleghany, Monongahela, and Kanawha, to serve the country westward to the Mississippi, the head waters of these rivers to be connected by four roads across the Appalachian range; a canal at the falls of the Ohio; a connection of the Hudson with Lake Champlain, and of the same river with Lake Ontario at Oswego; and a canal around Niagara Falls. The entire expense he estimated at $20,000,000, to be met by an appropriation of $2,000,000 a year for ten years; the stock created for turnpikes and canals to be a permanent fund for repairs and improvements.
A national university for education in the higher sciences was also recommended by Jefferson in his message of 1806, but Mr. Gallatin had little faith in the popularity of this scheme. After the convulsion of 1794 in Geneva, Gallatin's old college mate, D'Yvernois, conceived the plan of transporting the entire University of Geneva to the United States, and wrote on the subject to Jefferson and Adams; but his idea was based on the supposition that fifteen thousand dollars' income could be had from the United States in support of the institution, which was, of course, at the time impracticable. Jefferson believed that these plans of national improvement could be carried into effect only by an amendment to the Constitution; but Mr. Gallatin, as in the bank question, was disturbed by no such scruples, and he recommended Mr. Jefferson to strike from his message the words “general welfare,” as questionable in their nature, and because the proposition seemed to acknowledge that the words are susceptible of a very dangerous meaning.
To a permanent embargo act Mr. Gallatin was from the beginning opposed. He recognized the mischief of government prohibitions, and thought that statesmen might well hesitate before they took the hazard of regulating the concerns of individuals. The sequel proved the correctness of this judgment. But Mr. Jefferson could not bring his mind to any more decisive measure, indeed, it may justly be said, to any measure whatever. Taking advantage of Mr. Madison's election to the presidency, he simply withdrew from the triumvirate, and, passing over the subject in silence in his last message, he ignominiously left to Mr. Madison and Mr. Gallatin the entire responsibility which the threatening state of the foreign relations of the country imposed on the Republican party.