The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Eighteenth Congress, First Session, [Volume 2] Page: 1,781
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1781
HISTORY OF CONGRESS.
1782
March, 1824.
General Appropriation Bill.
H. of R,
from the Clerk's table—members voted in the
dark—and might be voting away the public money
■without knowing it, for the want of distinctly
hearing the resolutions read at the Clerk's table.
Government would yet have to abandon it, and
build a plain square room, where members could
hear what each other said. He, therefore, thought
that the style of this Hall ought to be no guide in
erecting our public buildings; and he hoped never
to see it followed. He called, for the yeas and
nays on agreeing to the appropriation.
Mr. Kremer, of Pennsylvania, said he had no
interest in this portico, and he could not vote in
favor of it. He was one of those who went upon
the old Republican principles; he had started in
'98 on those principles, and he meant to adhere to
them. He could not see any valuable end to be
answered by adding another portico to the Presi-
dent's house, unless, indeed, it was to make a
monument of what the gentleman called " simple
grandeur." Perhaps the gentleman might think
this Hall, too, was a monument of "simple gran-
deur"—but, for his part, Mr. K. said, he thought
it was a monument of pride and extravagance,
and not of old Republican principles. He could
not undertake to answer the gentleman's fine
speech; to him, a great part of it was unintelligible;
and, in reply to some quotations he had made in
it, from a dead language, he should answer in his
own mother German tongue: IcJi habe es niclit
verstanden.* He did not believe that any man had
a right to entail debt upon posterity. Congress,
to be sure, had the power to do so, but they could
not do it on any moral principle. And, before
"we set about making monuments of" simple gran-
deur" we had better be sure that we have the
money to make them in our pocket. He did not
think Congress had a right even to put up a neces-
sary building, till we were able to pay for it—[a
laugh, and a call to order.] As to this portico, it
was, in his opinion, as unnecessary as a fifth wheel
to a wagon. The gentleman, to be sure, had made
a long speech about it, and it might be oratory,
for aught he knew, but it certainly had nothing
of solid reasoning it.
Mr. HogebooiM, of New York, rose for the
purpose of obtaining information from the Chair-
man of the Committee on the Public Buildings,
(Mr. Cushman,) whether much expense had al-
ready been incurred in preparing materials for the
proposed portico. He did not consider the build-
ing of this portico as a matter very necessary, but
if much expense had been gone into to provide for
it, it might, perhaps be better to go on with it; if
not, he thought the money might be much better
applied to repairing the injuries in the wall which
surrounds the enclosure of the President's house,
and in smoothing away some of the precipices in
the bank within it, which are now so unsightly.
Mr. Sharpe, of New York, made a farther,in-
quiry about some stone which were dressed, and
lay in front of the Capitol.
Mr. Cushman explained.
When the question was taken on the appropri-
* I did'nt understand the gentleman.
ation, and decided in the negative—yeas 65, nays
115, as follows:
Yeas—Messrs. Abbot, Alexander of Virginia, Alli-
son, Archer, J. S. Barbour, -Bartlett,. Breck, Brent,
Brown, Burton, Cambreleng, Campbell of South Gai-
olina, Cobb, Cook, Crowninshield, Cushman, Durfee,
Dwinell, Dwight, Ellis, Farrelly, Forsyth, Fuller, Gov
van, Gurley, Hamilton, Hay ward, Kent, Lincoln,
Longfellow, McDuffie, McKee, McKim,, McLane of
Delaware, Markley.Martindale, Mercer, Miller, Moore
of Alabama, Morgan, Nelson, Newton, Plumer of
New Hampshire, Poinsett, Reed, Reynolds, Rives,
Rose, Saunders, Sharpe, Stoddard, Strong, Taylor,
Ten Eyck, Tod, Tracy, Tucker of Virginia, Vance of
North Carolina, Van Rensselaer, Wayne, Whipple,
Whitman, Wood, and Wright.
Nats—Messrs. Alexander of Tennessee, Allen of
Tennessee, Baylies, Barber of Connecticut, P. P. Bar-
bour, Bassett, Beecher, Blair, Buchanan, Buck, Buck-
ner, Burleigh, Cady, Campbell of Ohio, Carter, Gary,
Clark, Cocke, Collins, Condict, Conner, Crafts, Craig,
Culpeper, Cuthbert, Day, Edwards of Pennsylvania,
Edwards of North Carolina, Findlay, Floyd, Foot of
Connecticut, Foote of New York, Frost, Garrison,
Gatlin, Gazlay, Gist, Hall, Harris, Hayden, Henry,
Herrick, Hogeboom, Hooks, Houston, Ingham, Isacks,
Jennings, J. T. Johnson, F. Johnson, Kidder, Kremer,
Lathrop, Lawrence, Leftwich, Letcher, Litchfield,
Livermore, Livingston, Long, McArthur, McCoy, Mc-
Kean, McLean of Ohio, Mangum, Marvin, Matlack,
Matson, Metcalfe, Mitchell of Pennsylvania, Moore of
Kentucky, O'Brien, Owen, Patterson of Pennsylvania,
Patterson of Ohio, Plumer of Pennsylvania, Prince,
Randolph, Rankin, Richards, Rich, Rogers, Ross, Sand-
ford, Scott, Sibley, Sloane, Arthur Smith, Alexander
Smyth, William Smith, Spaight, Standefer, A. Ste-
venson, J. Stevenson, Swan, Thompson of Georgia,
Thompson of Kentucky, Tomlinson, Trimble, Tucker
of South Carolina, Tyson, Udree, Vance of Ohio,
Vinton, Webster, Whittlesey, White, WicklifFe, Wil-
liams of New York, Williams of Virginia* Williams of
North Carolina, James Wilson, Henry Wilson, Wil-
son of South Carolina, Wilson of Ohio.
On the item of appropriation for public walks
in front of the lots and ground belonging to the
United States, in the city of Washington, $5,000,
a debate arose of a somewhat desultory character.
Mr. Cocke, of Tennessee, said, that when he
looked at the appropriations proposed, and heard
the gentlemen from Maine support them by telling
us that we have an overflowing Treasury, it put
him in mind of a boy who had received front his
papa a supply of pocket money; he thinks it will
never be gone, and is engaged only m contriving
ways in which he cap spend it. We have, to be
sure, said Mr. C., got some money now in the
Treasury; but do we forget that whatever we for-
bear spending out of it will go toward defraying
our public debt? or do not gentlemen remember
that, next year, there will be twenty-six millions
of that debt to be paid 1 If we squander away
our. resources as soon as they come into the Trea-
sury, we shall bequeath to our posterity a large
debt, which ought to have been paid by ourselves,
and which we ought to be paying, now, in a time
of profound peace. To give away our money, to
make foot-paths for the people of Washington, is
not the way to do this, nor are these fine gravel
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Gales and Seaton. The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Eighteenth Congress, First Session, [Volume 2], book, 1856; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30369/m1/45/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.