Thursday, January 29, 2015 | 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM
If one thinks of Albert Gallatin at all, it may be with the vague sense that he had something to do with finance, and this is true. Thirteen years as the nation’s longest-serving Secretary of the Treasury is certainly not an insignificant achievement. Yet Gallatin's service to the country is far longer and broader than just his time at the Treasury.
Join us on the anniversary of Gallatin’s birth to meet the man himself through the historical interpretation of Ron Duquette. Ron has presented Gallatin in Washington, New York and Philadelphia, as well as at the Swiss Consulate-General and at Gallatin's estate, Friendship Hill. His particular timeframe for Gallatin is as the man who has just returned from negotiating the end of the War of 1812 with England sometime in 1815. He has seen the promise of the Jefferson "Revolution" spoiled to some extent by the on-going grind of the wars between France and the various coalitions created to stop Napoleon. Yet he has also been able to bring the national debt under some measure of control, has been instrumental in financing the addition of the Louisiana Territory without "breaking the bank," and has had a hand in the exploratory expedition of Lewis and Clark to that vast land. Gallatin is unlike many of his contemporaries in that he is a true "nationalist" – one whose vision for America is for the entirety of the nation, not merely a state or region. Because he was a Swiss immigrant, he had no ties to a specific political entity, and that allowed him to develop a truly national perspective.