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The Founding Economists: Alexander Hamilton and Albert Gallatin

Table of Contents

The Secretaries and their Critics
Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury
The Whiskey Rebellion
Gallatin in Congress
Gallatin as Secretary of the Treasury
Differences and Similarities
National Development
Taxes and Debt
The Bank of the United States
Renewal of the Bank of the United States
Manufacturing, Tariff and Trade
The Embargo
Military Expenditures
Democracy

The Secretaries and their Critics

Alexander Hamilton’s image has long appeared on the $10 bill. Albert Gallatin’s image appeared on briefly on the $500 bill during the Civil War before quickly disappearing from America’s currency. Although his 13-year stint as secretary of the Treasury was the longest in the nation’s history, Gallatin generally has disappeared from public view as well. Gallatin doesn’t generate much historical notice – even from biographers of his rival Hamilton. In recounting Gallatin’s role in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, distinguished historian Ron Chernow dismissed Gallatin: “A tall, skinny man with a narrow face and hooked nose, Gallatin was a notoriously slovenly character.”

Gallatin was worse abused by Abigail Adams who described him as “that specious, subtle, spare Cassius, that imported foreigner.” If the second First Lady had her way, Gallatin would have been deported under the Alien and Sedition Acts – which some thought had been designed specially to get rid of the troublesome Swiss-American. As for Hamilton, Abigail complained “that man would become a second Bonaparty if he was possessed of equal power!" She wrote her husband in late 1796: “I have often said to you, H. is a man ambitious as Julius Caesar. A subtle intriguer, his abilities would make him dangerous if he was to espouse a wrong side. His thirst for fame is insatiable. I have ever kept my Eye upon him.” After news of Hamilton’s affair with Maria Reynolds became public in 1797, Abigail wrote her husban