Mr. Gallatin's manuscripts and drafts show long and minute labor in their well considered and abundant alterations. Referring on one occasion to his habit of reasoning, Mr. Gallatin remarked, that of all processes that of analogy is the most dangerous, yet that which he habitually used; that it required the greatest possible number of facts. This is the foundation of philology, and his understanding of its method and its dangers is the reason of his success in this branch of science. The difficulty experienced in establishing any literary or scientific institutions in New York was very great. An effort made in 1830, which Mr. Gallatin favored, to establish a literary periodical failed, not on account of the pecuniary difficulties, but from the impossibility of uniting a sufficient number of able cooeperators. But Mr. Gallatin's interest in literature was not as great as in science.[26] In 1841 a national institution for the promotion of science was organized at Washington. The cooeperation of Mr. Gallatin was invited, but the society had a short existence. In 1843 Mr. Gallatin was chosen president of the New York Historical Society. His inaugural address is an epitome of political wisdom. Pronounced at any crisis of our history, it would have become a text for the student. In this sketch he analyzed the causes which contributed to form our national character and to establish a government founded on justice and on equal rights. He showed how, united by a common and imminent danger, the thirteen States succeeded in asserting and obtaining independence without the aid of a central and efficient government, and the difficulties which were encountered when a voluntary surrender of a part of their immense sovereignty became necessary as a condition of national existence. He said that the doctrine that all powers should emanate from the people is not a question of expediency.