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Albert Gallatin's Views on
The Constitution & The Bill of Rights

Young America Experiments with Democracy

A product of the American Revolution, the Articles of Confederation were the first attempt to provide the states with an alliance against the threat of other countries. It gave us the necessary government to survive the war but was failing by the mid 1780s. The Articles placed the power with the state governments creating, in essence, thirteen individual countries instead of one united nation. Alarm over Shay's Rebellion, a tax revolt in western Massachusetts in 1786-87, would help bring about the Philadelphia Convention.

The Philadelphia Convention began in the spring of 1787 when delegates from twelve of the thirteen states met to revise the Articles of Confederation. Over a period of five months these notable gentlemen debated and created a new framework of government, that become known as the Constitution of the United States. This Constitution provided for a strong central government containing three branches: a bicameral legislation (House of Representatives and Senate), an executive (the President), and a judicial (the Supreme Court). With this centralization of authority, the states could surely say they were united; for they now had the power to create armies and navies, pay their debts, and band together for mutual defense. The Constitution was signed in September of 1787 and officially adopted in 1788.

However not everyone supported this position. A growing faction of prominent citizens in America were concerned and fearful of a strong central government; a government that might take away their personal rights and liberties. Known as Anti-Federalists, these men met and debated on how to improve the Constitution to allow for more individual rights. The authors of the Constitution had provided a system of amendments to allow for additions and modifications as the country grew and situations changed. This system of amendments would be put to use very quickly. The result of the Anti-Federalists efforts was the creation of a series of amendments known as the Bill of Rights.

Enter Albert Gallatin

In August of 1788, Gallatin attended his first political meeting held in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. The topic to be discussed was the election of county representatives to the Harrisburg Meeting. Pennsylvania was predominately Anti-federalist and had fought hard to prevent the Constitution's adoption. However, once it was adopted, the Anti-federalists planned to create amendments to make the federal document less "objectionable." Gallatin, fond of frontier democracy, quickly took up the Anti-federalist banner and was selected as one of the Fayette County representatives to go to Harrisburg.

Gallatin showed his writing skills in Harrisburg, creating several proposals and resolutions. His greatest ability, though, was as an orator. In one speech he admitted to the fact that the Articles of Confederation were weak, especially in granting power to the legislature; but on the other hand, the Constitution was no better. Gallatin saw the document as being dangerous due to loosely worded provisions which could be abused by the executive or the legislature. He and his fellow delegates put together proposals that were forwarded to the Federal Congress. These Pennsylvania proposals along with several other states were given to Congressman James Madison. Madison combined the proposals into twelve amendments for ratification. Ten were adopted and became known as the Bill of Rights.

Gallatin Makes Use of the Bill of Rights

Albert Gallatin became painfully aware of the Constitution during his short stint as a U.S. Senator. Failing to meet the nine year citizenship requirement to hold that office, Gallatin returned to his frontier home to resume the life of a country gentleman. Western Pennsylvania, at that time, was embroiled in the Whiskey Rebellion and Gallatin could not sit idly by watching his neighbors sink deeper into trouble. Under the First Amendment, the citizenry has the right to peacefully assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. As part of the moderate faction of rebels, Gallatin took full advantage of this amendment trying to prevent violence and get the excise tax repealed. He attended most every meeting and served as secretary at all but a few. Unfortunately, President George Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton did not see the good intent behind the moderates' actions to quell the rebellion. The aggravated President invoked the Second Amendment when he federalized the militia and sent a 13,000 man army west to break up the rebellion.

After the Whiskey Rebellion, Gallatin was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. During his three terms, Gallatin assumed the role of party leader in the House which made him the target of Federalist's rhetoric. The Federalists looked upon Gallatin and all of foreign birth living in the United States as enemies to the country. America in 1798 conducted an unofficial war with France known as the Quasi-War. To protect the country, Congress passed a series of laws called the Alien & Sedition Acts.. These raised the standards for foreigners to become citizens and empowered the President to evict foreigners and arrest citizens for misconduct or dangerous behavior. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison thought that several of the acts were aimed specifically at Gallatin. While the acts were being debated, Gallatin spoke out against them declaring them unconstitutional. The Federalist majority amended the rules in the House for speaking on a question to further hinder Gallatin. This was one battle Gallatin was going to lose. Fortunately the acts had a time limit of two years of enforcement and Gallatin bided his time. The election of 1798 would bring more Democratic-Republicans to the Congress and the Federalist Party would slowly fade away.

Gallatin's Legacy

Although Albert Gallatin was originally opposed to the United States Constitution, he used its very principals to help create and support the addition of the Bill of Rights to protect individual freedoms. Had it not been for men like Gallatin who saw the weaknesses in this great document, our very rights would be much different today. The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights continue to provide the basic freedoms of our democracy and a strong foundation for this country's future.