“I feel not, however, any apprehension that France intends seriously to raise objections to the execution of the treaty,” Albert Gallatin wrote to President Thomas Jefferson on Aug. 31, 1803. “Unless intoxicated by the hope of laying England prostrate, or allured by some offer from Spain to give a better price for Louisiana than we have done, it is impossible that Bonaparte should not consider his bargain as so much obtained for nothing; for, however valuable to us, it must be evident to him that, pending the war, he could not occupy Louisiana, & that the war would place it very soon in other hands.”
Since March 1801, Gallatin had served as secretary of the treasury, a position he held for nearly 13 years—the longest tenure in the U.S. Department of Treasury’s history. He was one of the most brilliant and successful treasurers as well.
