One curious law which made an indelible impression upon the youthful
Gallatin concerned the discharge of debts: the children of any bankrupt
were barred from public office as long as the father's debts were not
satisfied. Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws called this regulation
"admirable" because "it has this effect: it creates confidence in the mer-
chants, in the magistrates, and in the city itself. The credit of the indi-
vidual still has all the weight of the public credit." ⁶

The spirit of frugality and plain living likewise tinctured the intellec-
tual life of Geneva. Gallatin later recalled having been surrounded from
his earliest days by "a most favorable influence . . . not light, frivolous,
or insipid, but generally serious and instructive," from which he "derived
more benefit" than from formal education. "A far greater number of well
educated and informed men were found in that small spot than in al-
most every other town of Europe which was not the metropolis of an
extensive country." ⁷

A cosmopolitan air stirred through the narrow, crooked streets of the
old city. From Germany and other lands to the north came numbers of
nobles and princes to complete their educations; from England came
many young lords and gentlemen; from America such prominent South
Carolinians as William Smith and Henry Laurens, such well connected
Pennsylvanians as the Penn brothers, the grandson of Benjamin Franklin,
and the sons of Robert Morris. Most of these foreign gentlemen studied
with the private tutors and attended the riding and jousting academies
for which Geneva had become celebrated.

During Albert Gallatin's boyhood, the city played host to one of the
most renowned men of letters. In 1754, François Marie Arouet, known to
the world as Voltaire, had taken refuge at Geneva. He was fresh from a
quarrel with his patron, Frederick of Prussia, and Louis XV had denied
him the hospitality of Paris. By shrewdly lending and investing his
money, Voltaire was able to afford two estates in the neighborhood, a
house and garden at Pregny, close by the estate of Albert's grandparents,
and a chiâteau at Ferney, three miles outside of Geneva, just across the
border in France. Here he was able to live like a great lord, entertaining
royalty and persons of wit and learning from all over Europe, maintaining
a private theater for the performance of plays of his own writing.
Albert's grandmother, Mme. Gallatin-Vaudenet, visited Voltaire fre-
quently and exchanged witty letters on such matters of mutual interest as
the grapes and figs they were raising. During a scarcity of wheat in
1771, her husband Abraham Gallatin, in his role of custodian of the
Geneva granary, assigned a quota of flour and corn to Voltaire for the
sustenance of his colony. And Albert's mother, young and pretty, at-

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