Gallatin, (Abraham Alphonse) Albert (1761–1849)

Swiss-born US political leader and diplomat. He served in the US House of Representatives 1795–1801 and was secretary of the treasury 1801–13 during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. He negotiated the treaty ending the Anglo-American War of 1812–14 and served as US minister to France 1815–22 and to England 1826–27.

Gallatin was born in Geneva, but emigrated to the USA in 1780. He was elected to the Senate 1793, but was deprived of his seat on the ground of ineligibility. However, he served in the Pennsylvania state legislature 1790–94. A critic of the Federalists, he helped establish the fiscal power of the US House of Representatives. After the end of his political career he was president of the new National Bank in New York 1831–39, and studied American Indian ethnology.