GALSWORTHY
GAMBON
but was not qualified by sufficiently long
residence in America. He was sent to
Congress in 1795, and became Secretary to
the Treasury in 1801. This office he held
until 1813, and his mastery of finance was
of great service to the States. From 1815
to 1823 he was minister to France at
Paris, and in 1826-27 he was envoy extra
ordinary to Great Britain. In later years
he devoted himself to history, ethnology,
and education, and helped to found the
New York University. His biographer,
J. A. Stevens (in the " American Statesmen
Series, 1884), remarks that his aim was
to have " a foundation free from the
influence of clergy." He, in fact, soon
resigned from the Council, because " a
certain portion of the clergy had obtained
control." His son, James Gallatin, makes
it clear in his diary (A Great Peacemaker,
1914) that Albert Gallatin adopted in his
youth the Deism of Voltaire, who had
been a warm friend f his grandmother.
Count Gallatin (who edits the Diary) says
the same in his Preface. Gallatin was an
idealistic statesman as well as an able
financier. He worked for peace and
attacked slavery. D. Aug. 12, 1849.
GALSWORTHY, John, writer. B. 1867. Ed. Harrow and Oxford. Mr. Galsworthy does not encourage biographers, but he was called to the Bar in 1890 and turned to letters (Jocelyn) eight years afterwards. To date he has written a score of novels and ten plays, and is a great force for progressive ideas. His Rationalism is best seen in his Moods, Songs, and Doggerels (1911). The opening poem, " A Dream," is dimly Theistic. " My faith but shadows that required of men."
GALTON, Sir Francis, D.Sc., D.C.L., F.R.S., founder of Eugenics. B. Feb. 16, 1822, grandson of Erasmus Darwin. Ed. Birmingham (King Edward s School), London (King s College), and Cambridge (Trinity College). His father, a Quaker, having left him a fortune, he gave himself to travel and sport, with an increasing 277
interest in science. In 1863 he became
general secretary of the British Association.
His studies in heredity began in 1865, and
four years later he published his Hereditary
Genius. In 1884 he founded an anthro-
pometric laboratory. For the science of
Eugenics (a name invented by him) he
founded a research fellowship and a
scholarship at University College, and left
45,000 to found a chair. He was knighted
in 1909, and he held medals from the
English and French Geographical Societies,
the Huxley medal, the Darwin medal, the
Darwin-Wallace medal, etc. Professor K.
Pearson says in his Life and Letters of F.
Gallon (i, 207): "There is little doubt
that from this period [1846] he ceased to
be an orthodox Christian in the customary
sense." Galton himself says, more can
didly, in a letter to Darwin : " Your book
drove away the constraint of my old
superstition, as if it had been a nightmare "
(p. 207). D. Jan. 17, 1911.
GAMBETTA, Leon Michel, French statesman. B. Apr. 3, 1838. He was admitted to the Paris Bar in 1859, and it was not long before he made himself conspicuous as a Rationalist politician. He made drastic attacks, in court, on the reactionary second Empire, and, entering Parliament, led the Deputies of the Left. In 1870 he was Minister of the Interior in the Provisional Government, and in 1871 he founded La Republique Franqaise. During the seventies he was the most powerful opponent of the Royalist-Clerical reaction, and their political intrigues brought out his famous war-cry : " Le clericalisme voila 1 ennemi." He was President of the Chambre in 1879 ; Pre mier in 1881. The modern Republic, and French Rationalism, owe an incalculable debt to his energy and oratory. D, Dec. 31, 1882.
GAMBON, Ferdinand Charles, French politician. B. Mar. 19, 1820. A lawyer, and editor of the Journal des Ecoles, he entered Parliament in 1848 as an ardent
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