t at this
period, and when the excitement of the winter was over he fell into a
state of almost morbid melancholy. To his friend Badollet he wrote from
Philadelphia, early in March, that life in Fayette County had no more
charms for him, and that he would gladly leave America. But his lands
were unsalable at any price, and he saw no means of support at Geneva.
Some one has said, with a profound knowledge of human nature, that no
man is sure of happiness who has not the capacity for continuous labor
of a disagreeable kind. The occasional glimpses into Mr. Gallatin's
inner nature, which his correspondence affords, show that up to this
period he was not supposed by his friends or by himself to have this
capacity. In the letter which his guardian wrote to him after his flight
from home, he was reproached with his "natural indolence." His good
friend, Mademoiselle Pictet, accused him of being hard to please, and
disposed to _ennui_; and again, as late as 1787, repeats to him, in a
tone of sorrow, the reports brought to her of his "continuance in his
old habit of indolence," his indifference to society, his neglect of
his dress, and general indifference to everything but study and reading,
tastes which, she added, he might as well have cultivated at Geneva as
in the new world; and he himself, in the letter to Badollet just
mentioned, considers that his habits and his laziness would prove
insuperable bars to his success in any profession in Europe. In
estimation of this self-condemnation, it must be borne in mind that the
Genevans were intellectual Spartans. Gallatin must be measured by that
high standard. But if the charge of indolence could have ever justly
lain against Gallatin,--a charge which his intellectual vigor at
twenty-seven seems to challenge,--it certainly could never have been
sustained after he fairly entered on his political and public career. In
October, 1790, he was elected by a two thirds majority to represent
Fayette County in the legislature of the State of Pennsylvania; James
Findley was his colleague, John Smilie being advanced to the state
Senate. Mr. Gallatin was reelected to the Assembly in 1791 and 1792,
without opposition.

Among his papers there is a memorandum of his legislative service during
these three years, and a manuscript volume of extracts from the Journals
of the House, from January 14, 1791, to December 17, 1794. They form
part of the extensive mass of documents and letters which were co