Albert Gallatin picture: Source unknown

1761 – 1849

A stark choice between doing what was expected of him and following his ideals of liberty faced Albert Gallatin when he was not yet twenty.

He chose the second.

Gallatin, a member of a well-known Genevan family, turned down a commission in the army of the Landgrave of Hess, whose troops were fighting in America as mercenaries on the British side, saying he would "never serve a tyrant."

Instead, he slipped away and took passage for America, for him "the freest country of the universe."

Between his arrival in 1780 and his death 69 years later, aged 88, he had helped found the settlment of New Geneva, put the US finances in order, been instrumental in arranging the Louisiana purchase and had a river named after him. He had been ambassador in St Petersburg, Paris and London, but had turned down an invitation to stand for the vice-presidency. He was the first rector of New York University and founder of the American Ethnological Society.

Whether in his groundbreaking accounting methods as Treasury Secretary, or his meticulous scholarship in studying the languages and customs of Native Americans, he left a legacy which is remembered to this day.