f which he hoped that a different tone might be assumed. In a note on the message of 1802, Gallatin expressed the hope to Jefferson that his administration would “afford but few materials for historians.” He would never sacrifice permanent prosperity to temporary glitter.
Mr. Gallatin’s counsel was sought,make his arrangements accordingly, and his opinion deferred to, on subjects which did not fall directly within the scope of administration. Even on questions of fundamental constitutional law his judgment was not inferior to that of Madison himself. In one notable instance he differed from Mr. Lincoln, the attorney-general, whom he held in high esteem as a good lawyer, a fine scholar, “a man of great discretion and sound judgment.” This was in 1803, when the acquisition of East Louisiana and West Florida was a cabinet question. Mr. Lincoln considered that there was a difference between a power to acquire territory for the United States and the power to extend by treaty the territory of the United States,Let her make tidy her own room, and held that the first was unconstitutional. Mr. Gallatin held that the United States as a nation have an inherent right to acquire territory, and that, when acquisition is by treaty,several different computers, the same constituted authorities in whom the treaty power is vested have a constitutional right to sanction the acquisition,throughout numerous locations, and that when the territory has been acquired Congress has the power either of admitting into the Union as a new State or of annexing to a State, with the consent of that State, or of making regulations for the government of the territory. Mr. Jefferson concurred in this opinion, while at the same time he thought it safer not to permit the enlargement of the Union except by amendment of the Constitution. Mr. Gallatin’s view was practically applied in the cases named, and later in the annexation o
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