in the
Indiana Territory, where Gallatin had obtained for him an appointment in
the land office; Dumont was in England. Of Gallatin's family few
remained. But he received the honors due to him as a Genevan who had
shed a lustre on his native city. On his way to England, where he had
made an appointment with his colleagues to attempt a commercial treaty
with Great Britain, he stopped at Paris. Here he saw Napoleon, returned
from Elba, his star in full blaze before its final extinction. Here he
heard in April (1815) of his appointment by Madison as minister to
France. His colleagues also had been honored by similar advancements.
Adams was transferred from Russia to England. Bayard was named minister
to Russia, but illness prevented his taking possession of his post.

In April, Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Clay opened negotiations with Lord
Castlereagh in London, where they were quickly joined by Adams. Lord
Castlereagh bore no malice against Mr. Gallatin for the treaty. On the
contrary, he wrote of it to Lord Liverpool as "a most auspicious and
seasonable event," and wished him joy at "being released from the
millstone of an American war." With Lord Castlereagh Mr. Gallatin
arranged in the course of the summer a convention regulating commercial
intercourse between the United States and Great Britain, the only truly
valuable part of which was that which abolished all discriminating
duties. Mr. Gallatin considered this concession as an evidence of
friendly disposition, and rightly judged that British antipathy and
prejudice were modified, and that in the future friendly relations would
be preserved and a rupture avoided. Beyond this, there was little
gained. The old irritating questions of impressment and blockade and the
exclusion of the United States from the West Indies trade remained.

In July Mr. Gallatin parted from Mr. Baring and his London friends on
his homeward journey. From New York, on September 4, he wrote Madison,
thanking him for the appointment of minister to France as an "evidence
of undiminished attachment and of public satisfaction for his services;"
but he still held his acceptance in abeyance. To Jefferson, two days
later, he had also the satisfaction to say with justice, that the
character of the United States stood as "high as ever it did on the
European continents, and higher than ever it did in Great Britain;" and
that the United States was considered "as the nation designed to check
the naval despotism o