fferson
fully reciprocated this regard. From Monticello he wrote to Gallatin in
1823: "A visit from you to this place would indeed be a day of jubilee,
but your age and distance forbid the hope. Be this as it will, I shall
love you forever, and rejoice in your rejoicings and sympathize in your
ails. God bless and have you ever in His holy keeping." Nor does Mr.
Gallatin seem to have allowed any feeling of disappointment or
dissatisfaction at Mr. Madison's weakness to disturb their kindly
relations. Their letters close with the reciprocal assurance of
affection as well as of esteem.

CHAPTER VIII

IN DIPLOMACY

_The Treaty of Ghent_

On May 9, 1813, the ship Neptune sailed from New Castle on the Delaware,
having on board Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard, ministers of the
United States, with their four secretaries, of whom were Mr. Gallatin's
son James, and George M. Dallas, son of his old Pennsylvania friend.
They were accompanied to sea by a revenue cutter. Off Cape Henlopen they
were overhauled by the British frigate on the station, and their
passport was countersigned by the English captain. On June 20 they
reached the mouth of the river Gotha. Here the vessel lay at quarantine
for forty-eight hours, during which the gentlemen paid a flying visit to
Gottenburg. At dusk, on the 24th, the Neptune anchored in Copenhagen
inner roads, the scene of Nelson's attack in 1801. Mr. Gallatin's brief
memoranda of his voyage contain some crisp expressions. He found
"despotism and no oppression. Poverty and no discontent. Civility and no
servile obsequiousness amongst the people. Decency and sobriety."

St. Petersburg was reached on July 21. Here Gallatin and Bayard found
John Quincy Adams, then minister to Russia. He was one of the three
commissioners appointed to treat for peace under the mediation which the
Emperor Alexander had offered to the United States. Bayard and Adams
were Federalists. To the moderate counsels of the former Jefferson owed
his peaceable election. Gallatin and Adams had the advantage of thorough
acquaintance with European politics. To Gallatin the study of history
was a passion. He was familiar with the facts and traditions of
diplomacy. He knew the purpose, the tenor, and the result of every
treaty made for centuries between the great powers; even their dates
were at ready command in his wonderful memory. But, excepting the few
Frenchmen of distinction who in the exile which political revul