In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

[ 135 ] [ 8 ] Searching for Stability, 1823–1829 The Gallatins arrived in New York on June 23, 1823, in the midst of a heat wave at least as exhausting as the one Gallatin had known on his very first visit to the city in the summer of 1783, some forty years before . They went to stay with Hannah’s mother, Mrs. Nicholson—Hannah’s father had died while they were in Paris—at her house on the corner of Tenth Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan; and they rested there for a month. In July, Gallatin went to Washington, DC, with James. He determined that he could not afford to return to France the following spring, as had been his plan, and he informed John Quincy Adams of that during his trip. The America where the Gallatins intended to remain had changed beyond recognition since the War of 1812. Expansion was the buzzword. Monroe had been reelected president and would remain in office until March 1825. During his two terms, five states were admitted to the Union: Mississippi and Alabama, part of the territory covered by the Yazoo Compromise that Gallatin had negotiated when secretary of the Treasury; Illinois; and famously Missouri, once the Missouri Compromise was reached, which also brought statehood to Maine and thus maintained the balance between slave states and free. Louisiana had already been made a state while Madison was president. Florida was acquired as a territory via the Adams-Onís treaty, though it did not become a state for another twenty years. In foreign affairs, Monroe recognized during his second term of office the Latin American republics of Colombia (which included the territories that are now Panama, Ecuador, and Venezuela), Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, the Federation of Central American States, and Peru. At the end of 1823, he promulgated the Monroe Doctrine, which barred European powers from intervening in the affairs of the American hemisphere. The doctrine had originally been suggested as a joint Anglo-American initiative by the British foreign secretary, Canning. In reaction, John Quincy Adams argued that the United States should act independently of Britain in the American hemisphere. The United States proceeded to proclaim the doctrine alone. Searching for Stability, 1823–1829 [ 136 ] Gallatin, who agreed that the European powers should not interfere in Latin America, was nonetheless concerned that such unilateral action by the United States would find little favor with the British. It is often thought that the Monroe Doctrine was a mere statement of principle. In fact the Monroe Doctrine envisaged the use of American armed force to protect its interests in the Western Hemisphere (reinforced by the interventionist Roosevelt Corollary eighty years later). During the second half of 1823, as these developments evolved in Washington , Gallatin returned to Friendship Hill. Never was his investment in western Pennsylvania worthwhile in the slightest, except for whatever residual Rousseauian satisfaction he might have derived from it. Now sixtytwo years old, Gallatin had owned the property since 1786, for almost forty years. When he arrived back in Fayette County, Gallatin was not happy with what he found. He wrote to his daughter, Frances, Notwithstanding all my exertions, you will find it hard enough when you come next spring to accommodate yourself to the privations and wildness of the country. Our house has been built by a new Irish carpenter, who was always head over heels and added much to the disorder inseparable from building. Being unacquainted with the Grecian architecture, he adopted an Hyberno-teutonic style, so that the outside of the house, with its port-hole-looking windows, has the appearance of Irish barracks, whilst the inside ornaments are similar to those of a Dutch tavern, and I must acknowledge that these form a singular contrast with the French marble chimney-pieces, paper, and mirrors. On one side of that mass of stones which Lucien calls “le château,” and in full view as you approach it, is a wing consisting of the gable-end of a log house, with its chimney in front, and I could not pull it down, as it is the kitchen and dining-room where are daily fed two masons and plasterers, two attendants, two stonequarriers, two painters, a carpenter (besides three who board themselves), Lucien, Albert’s black Peter, and Mr, Madame, Mesdemoiselles et les petits Buffle. The grounds are overgrown with elders, iron-weeds, stinking weeds, laurel , several varieties of briers, impenetrable thickets of brush, vines, and underwood, amongst which are discovered vestiges...

Share