Tuesday, December 23.
Mausoleum to Washington.
Mr. H. Lee moved the going into a Committee of the Whole on the bill for erecting a mausoleum to George Washington.
On this question the House divided—yeas 42, nays 34.
Mr. Morris took the chair, and read the bill by paragraphs.
Mr. H. Lee said the merits of the bill had been so often discussed, and the subject was so delicate, that he would not again offer his sentiments generally on it. As it was the opinion of several members, that the dimensions of the mausoleum should not be fixed in the law, but that they should be governed by the sum appropriated, he moved to strike out "100 feet at the base and of proportionate dimensions."
The motion was agreed to.
Mr. H. Lee then moved an amendment confining the ground on which the mausoleum should be erected to public property.
Mr. Harper opposed the amendment, which was lost, only 31 members rising in favor of it.
Mr. H. Lee then moved to fill the blank, fixing the sum to be appropriated for erecting the mausoleum, with $200,000.
Mr. Smilie said he hoped the House would not with its eyes open go into a measure that might involve incalculable expense. It was proposed to appropriate $200,000. This was probably but a small part of what would be ultimately required; and when the thing was once begun, it must be completed, cost what it would. If the architect would give security for accomplishing the work for $200,000 he would not be so much opposed to it. But, as it stood, he was opposed to it, as a useless expenditure of public money.
Mr. Harper said the old story was again rung in their ears. An object, in itself highly important, was proposed, and, forsooth, because it cost some money, on the ground of economy it must be rejected.
He would ask the gentleman just up whether he knew any thing about the expense of a mausoleum? And yet not professing to be informed, professing indeed to know little, he had put his vague conjectures in the room of estimates formed with deliberation by artists of the first eminence. These clamorous objections were well understood. Their sole object was ad captandum vulgus; to create alarm about what was termed useless expense. They were intended for nothing else.
To satisfy the solicitude of gentlemen an artist of talents universally acknowledged had been desired to furnish an estimate; which estimate stated that a pyramid of 100 feet base would cost $67,000. This was the estimate of an artist of such accuracy that in the greatest work ever undertaken in America, and the greatest, perhaps, of its kind, ever undertaken in the world, (he alluded to the water works of Philadelphia,) the expense actually incurred had fallen short of the estimate. The same accuracy had characterized his plan and execution of the Bank of Pennsylvania, which was probably the greatest work of the kind executed in this country. And yet the gentleman from Pennsylvania will place his vague doubts, and (Mr. Harper begged pardon for the expression) his total want of knowledge against the calculations of a man of practical science.
The gentleman had asked whether any one could be found, who would be responsible for the execution of the work for the proposed sum. Mr. Harper said, if it were proper for a member of that House to say so, he would undertake himself to erect a mausoleum of 150 feet base, and 150 feet high, for $200,000; and for the performance of his engagement he could give the most unquestionable security, such as every member of that House would approve. He further believed that the artist before alluded to, if required, would give the necessary security. The accuracy of the estimate had been tested by every circumstance that the nature of the case admitted. The same course had been pursued, in this case, that every reasonable man was accustomed to take in his own private concerns. Every such individual, who designed building a house obtained first an estimate from a skilful workman, which satisfied him. If men acted not in this way, there could be no progress in human improvements.
After this information, furnished by such an artist, gentlemen ought to be satisfied without opposing to it their own crude conceptions; and Mr. Harper said he hoped they would cease to talk on a subject on which they were so ignorant, until they became better informed.
Mr. Macon did not see the subject in the same light with the gentleman from South Carolina. He was disposed to pay the greatest respect to his talents, but he could not give up his own opinion. The estimates made by the artist amounted to $140,000; yet the gentleman from Virginia required $200,000. Does not this show that the gentlemen themselves have not confided in the estimate of the artist?
Mr. H. Lee explained, and said that he thought the most proper plan for adoption was that of Mr. West; pursuing that plan, $200,000 might be required, as there would be interior arrangements to make, additional to those contemplated by the estimate.
Mr. Macon said he thought $140,000 would be sufficient. He knew not how to reconcile the difference between the estimate made in Philadelphia and that made in Washington; the first was only $67,000; which was a sum much below any calculated here. He did not pretend to any information on this subject, and the various modifications the bill had undergone, convinced him that no member was well acquainted with it. The estimates differed materially from each other. They could not therefore all be correct. He could not, from these considerations, feel confidence in the estimates of the gentleman from South Carolina, or the other gentleman; for if they really possessed correct information, how came they so radically to differ; and the committee itself to propose so many alterations in the original bill?
Mr. Smilie replied to Mr. Harper. The object of his remarks was, to show that Mr. H. possessed as little information on the subject as himself.
Mr. Rutledge.—The substance of what the gentleman says, is that he wants to do nothing. He had long thought so, and he was now confirmed in his opinion. When the man, whose loss the world deplored, departed from us, we were all shrouded with sorrow; the mournful event awakened our deepest regrets; and resolutions expressive of the national affliction at his death, and commemorative of his services, were unanimously passed by both Houses of Congress. Those resolutions were not carried into immediate effect, owing to the disagreement of the two branches of the Legislature. Now, when we propose to carry them into effect, objections are started to every measure offered; objections that rise eternally in our horizon; which, whenever we pursue, fly from our reach, and which, always moving in a circle, we can never overtake.
Gentlemen tell us they are unaccustomed to spend public money without estimates. To satisfy the vigilance of their economy we obtain them. They then tell us they are inaccurate; their objection arises from a want of detail; they wish a minute statement of each separate charge. Again, we consent to gratify their wishes, anxious for their sanction to our measures, that they may express the unanimous sentiment of Congress. We produce an estimate as minute as was ever furnished by an artist on any occasion. The total amount of estimated expense is $140,000, and to avoid the necessity of calling on Congress again, the gentleman from Virginia asks for $200,000.
Still, after all our trouble and solicitude to satisfy the scruples of gentlemen, they continue to urge objections. One gentleman says the estimate made at Philadelphia differs from that made here; another gentleman will not confide in any estimate, and another wants security.
Does it become the dignity of the House thus to be occupied with trifling objections on such a subject; and, in the spirit of bargaining, to waste its time in saving a few dollars?
Many gentlemen, anxious for this measure, had agreed to postpone the consideration of it, hoping thereby to accommodate other gentlemen in their views, and expecting ultimately a unanimous vote. But he now abandoned it. He saw no period to objections. Much time had already been idly wasted. They had delayed too long to do what ought to have been done at once. Let us then take the question at once, and get rid of it, though a veto should be passed upon the bill.
The question was then taken on filling up the blank with $200,000, and carried—yeas 41, nays 38.
Mr. Dent moved to amend the section appropriating the sum, by substituting the word "for," in the room of the word "towards," which would fix the whole sum to be appropriated, instead of leaving it uncertain. Agreed to.
The committee then rose and reported the bill as amended. On the question to agree to the $200,000 appropriated, the House divided—yeas 41, nays 38.
The Speaker then put the question on engrossing the bill for a third reading.
Mr. Claiborne was opposed to the engrossing of the bill. He hoped no gentleman would ascribe his opposition to a want of respect to the memory of our great patriot. His respect for this illustrious character had been almost coeval with his life, and would follow him to his grave.
He was opposed to a mausoleum, because it would not be so respectful to the memory of Washington, as the equestrian statue directed by the old Congress, who had directed the battle during our Revolutionary struggle, and for whose character he felt the highest veneration. The present Government could not refuse to carry into effect this act of the old Congress, without a violation of moral principle. He preferred a statue to a mausoleum, because the former, from representing the form and the features, would inspire the beholder with more lively emotions than a mass of stones formed into a pyramid.
Were the expense of a statue greater than that of a mausoleum, he would, notwithstanding, prefer it; but he believed the reverse would be the fact. He not only wished a statue raised, but also was in favor of an immediate appropriation for depositing the remains of our departed friend within these very walls, in such a manner as would not disgrace them.
Mr. Champlin had heretofore voted from a spirit of conciliation. He was now not a little surprised to find the gentlemen from Tennessee and South Carolina (Mr. Claiborne and Mr. Alston) opposed to a mausoleum, though their names appeared, from an inspection of the journals of last session, among those who were then in favor of it.
He considered a mausoleum as preferable to a statue, because the first was calculated to celebrate all the virtues of the statesman, as well as the hero, while the latter would be limited to his military exploits.
Great opposition had been made to the erection of a mausoleum, with the professed view of avoiding expense, and I admit generally that economy ought to be observed, in the expenditure of public money. But on an occasion highly interesting to the feelings, and deeply involving the character of the nation, even the appearance of parsimony should be carefully avoided. It is necessary to consider the nature and magnitude of the object for which money is required. It is not asked for, in the present instance, to commemorate a man distinguished only on the field of battle. It is not wanted to gratify family pride, or to raise a monument of despotic power and slavish submission. It is to be furnished by a great and free people, to record, in a manner worthy of themselves, their gratitude for the important services rendered to them by one of their fellow-citizens; the fruits of which I cannot but hope will be enjoyed and recognized by future generations. We are called upon by the public voice to erect a monument suited to the character of Washington, who has been emphatically styled, the man of the age, and whose virtues may, by the record we shall make of them, become the property of distant ages.
These virtues will doubtless be the theme of some able biographer, and it is wished that posterity may not search in vain for some striking evidence of our acknowledgment of them. It is indeed of infinite importance to civil society, that the memory of that great man should be perpetuated by every means in our power. We may thus sow the seeds of virtue, honor, and patriotism, in our country. He will be held up a model, to which the finger of wisdom will constantly point, to which the attention of youth will be irresistibly drawn, and the mind of every man aspiring to pre-eminence among a free people, will be riveted. The proposed mausoleum would be a structure well calculated to resist the ravages of time. As to the hand of man, at least of civilized man, we need not guard against it. The depository of the ashes of Washington will never be assailed by it. It may indeed be attacked by the ruthless hand of some invading barbarian. But its only security against such an attack must be derived from the courage and fortitude of the people of the United States. And I trust they will never tamely yield up the land of their forefathers.
Mr. Bird was against the bill, because it proposed the erection of a mausoleum, which would not be equal to the object for which it was raised without the expenditure of a vast sum of money; whereas a statue could be made, somewhat correspondent to the occasion, for a moderate sum. It was in vain for gentlemen to talk about a structure commensurate to the object. Such a thing was impossible. He moved the recommitment of the bill to a Committee of the whole House.
The question being put, the House divided—ayes 39, noes 39; and it passed in the negative by the casting vote of the Speaker.
Mr. Shepard said, I will do as much as any man to honor the memory of Washington. I have fought and bled with him several times. I have always supported and will continue to support him. But on the score of expense, I think we are going too far. I will go so far as to have his remains placed decently within these walls. Further I will not go; for I do not think we have a right to throw away the public money.
Mr. Macon delivered his reasons against a mausoleum, and in favor of an equestrian statue; and among other remarks, said, the idea that a mausoleum would be equal to the character of Washington, was preposterous. Few individuals in the world were capable of drawing his character. In a few words, he would say that no character that had ever lived was equal to him, and it was his firm belief, that the world would never see his equal.
Mr. Brown thought General Washington the best man that had ever lived; and he was surprised at the ideas of gentlemen on the ground of expense. If the mausoleum were agreed to, it would not cost each person in the United States four cents; and if the equestrian statue were also made, (which he hoped would also be done, for the sake of general accommodation,) it would not cost more than two cents. It seemed to him that some gentlemen were averse to doing any thing, though they did not wish the people to think so.
Mr. Alston would not have risen, had he not been marked by the gentleman from Rhode Island as an object of inconsistency.
Mr. Champlin explained by saying he did not mean to censure the gentleman for his change of opinion, for which he doubtless had good reasons.
Mr. Alston.—Let the measures of Congress be reviewed, and it would appear, that the House itself and the gentleman from Rhode Island had been as inconsistent as himself. He would appeal to the gentleman whether it was more honorable to desert his duty and fly a vote, than to act as he had done?
Mr. Huger said it was unnecessary at this time to take into view the old arguments that had been urged. The proposition of the gentleman from Tennessee, for an equestrian statue, was the only one he should notice. So impressed was he with the inadequacy of a common statue to express the gratitude of America, that he would rather have nothing done, than to have what was done in this backhanded way.
He was disposed to treat with respect the acts of the old Congress. But the act, to which the gentleman from Tennessee had alluded, and which he wished this House exclusively to carry into effect, was passed in reference to the military exploits of Gen. Washington, because, at the time it was passed, his life had been most characterized by them. Since that period circumstances had changed. If we are bound by the acts of the old Congress, are we not equally bound by those of the last session? If you adopt the ideas of the gentleman, do you not hold out the Commander-in-chief of the American Army as deserving a splendid monument, and the father of the constitution and other great civil acts as deserving nothing?
Without any concert whatever, a remarkable concurrence had taken place between West, Trumbull, and other respectable artists, who all gave an unequivocal preference to a mausoleum; which, in his opinion, would be far less expensive than a statue. The expense of the latter, as would appear from an estimate in the office of the Secretary of State, could not be less than forty thousand guineas, deliverable at Paris; and when the additional charges of transportation, insurance, and other incidental expenses, were considered, he was persuaded it could not be completed for less than two or three hundred thousand dollars.
Mr. J. C. Smith considered the Government as pledged to do that which they had promised, and which the national feeling required.
Mr. Randolph must consider the present as a tedious and useless debate. The gentleman had declared the Government to be pledged. To whom were they pledged, and for what? It was to the relics of the deceased; to have them placed within these walls. For this, there were the strongest reasons, as such a measure would be agreeable to the venerable lady to whom he had been united. If then they were so pledged, why violate this pledge, by referring the business to the Secretary of State, of the Treasury, of War, and of the Navy; though what connection there was between the office of the Secretary of the Navy and the performance of the trust, he could not tell?
One consideration with him was insuperable. The departure from the original plan tended, unjustly, and most cruelly, (however pure the intention,) to violate the feelings of a lady, so much troubled already.
Mr. J. C. Smith said it had been declared by some gentlemen that the reputation of Washington might be safely confided to the record of history. Was it the opinion of those gentlemen that the record was to be found in the charge of murder against that illustrious character? Was it to be found in the patriotic effusions of men who had pronounced all expressions of national gratitude a mockery of woe, and had declared that it was high time for those who were the sincere apostles of liberty to be done with such foolery; or was it to be found in the denunciations of a printer, supported by a State that perpetually boasted its regard to Republicanism?
Mr. Harper could not but regret that a gentleman, who possessed so lively a regret for the venerable lady alluded to, should have exhibited in this discussion so glaring a contrast between his professions and his actions, by introducing that lady into the debate, and indelicately expressing her wishes, in reference to the place where the relics of her deceased partner should be deposited. Was it conceivable that to her the place could be of any importance? Or was it possible that this House could be enslaved by the trifling circumstance of the locus in quo, or that the paltry consideration attending an action of trespass could be gravely introduced into such a debate. All that this venerable lady says amounts to this, that, accustomed from the example of her deceased friend to obey the national wishes, she submitted to that disposition of his remains that Congress may make. Shall we, then, in violation of the plain meaning of her words, enter into whispers of hearsay respecting wishes, which, from his knowledge of her good sense, he was persuaded had never been uttered?
Mr. Randolph rose to explain. He had neither said, nor intended to say, that he possessed any knowledge beside that which appeared on the journals; and from that knowledge he was justified in saying that Mrs. Washington's compliance, as expressed by her, was not with any public will that might be expressed, but with that will which had been already expressed. Whatever insinuations the gentleman from South Carolina may mean to convey, his feelings of respect for every woman were sacred; nor were they limited to that sex alone. He was not disposed on this occasion to take the advice of the gentleman, who judging me by his own heart, said Mr. R., may imagine me capable of disrespect to the sex.
Mr. Harper wished the gentleman would avoid any further interruption, and reserve his remarks until he was done. He did not know, nor was he concerned to inquire into the motives of the gentleman from Virginia. Such inquiry would, of all others, be the least profitable or interesting, either to the House or to himself. Neither had he any idea of giving advice which that gentleman would follow. He well knew that it was the most hopeless of all things to give advice to one whose own sense of propriety did not tell him what was right. Those, who were incapable of receiving lessons from their own minds or feelings, were not likely to receive them from any other quarter.
The feelings ascribed to Mrs. Washington were unfounded. The lady was incapable of entering into trifling disputes about place or time, such as the House had this day witnessed.
The arguments, by which the superiority of a statue to a mausoleum was attempted to be established, were fallacious. The form and features of our illustrious friend would be preserved without the erection of any statue by us. Pictures by celebrated artists were every where multiplied and caught at with avidity; and the sculptor and the painter will be employed unceasingly to keep pace with the increasing demand. Likenesses may be found every where, and as perfect on the other side of the Atlantic as on this.
A mausoleum would last for ages, and would present the same imperishable appearance two thousand years hence, that it would now. Whereas a statue would only remain until some civil convulsion, or foreign invasion, or flagitious conqueror, or lawless mob, should dash it into atoms; or till some invading barbarian should transport it as a trophy of his guilt to a foreign shore.
I have beheld, said Mr. H., a monument erected to a man, once considered as the patron of America, defaced, mutilated, its head broken off, prostrated with the ground. A statue, erected by the Legislature of Virginia to perpetuate the virtues of a man to future ages, had been destroyed.
Besides, a statue was minute, trivial, and perishable. It was a monument erected to all that crowd of estimable but subordinate personages, that soar in a region, elevated indeed above common character, but which was infinitely below that occupied by Washington.
The greatest honor which this country ever has received, the greatest honor which it ever could receive, was derived from numbering with its sons the immortal Washington.
Shall then a mistaken spirit of economy, and a still more mistaken jealousy arrest us? Honor him, it is true, we cannot. The world has charged itself with that task. Posterity, as long as the world shall endure, will celebrate his virtues and his talents; those virtues and talents of which every ingredient of their happiness will be a perpetual evidence. But though we cannot honor him, we may dishonor ourselves; though we cannot increase the lustre of his fame, we may show our own meanness, cowardice, spite, and malice; and show an astonished world that we are deplorably unworthy of the high honor conferred by Nature in giving us a Washington.
I am, said Mr. H., awfully impressed by the subject. I sink under the sublimity that surrounds it. No words can reach it; mine are totally inadequate; to the feelings of the House then it must be submitted: they, after anticipating all that genius or eloquence can say, will still far surpass their boldest effusions.
Mr. Randolph was very unfortunately situated, as he was compelled to rise, not in his own defence, but in defence of the calumniated reputation of that State which he revered, since from it he derived his birth.
I will not, said Mr. R., enter into an elucidation of the motives of the gentleman from South Carolina, which have produced so much asperity, and such a virulence of rancor against the State of Virgina, but will confine myself to the question on engrossing the bill.
The gentleman has talked to us about his disregard for the locus in quo. Mr. R. said he cared as little for the quo modo, as the gentleman did for the locus in quo.
He had further told us that a statue might be overthrown by a licentious mob; and that this had actually been the case in the State of Virginia. But, why had it been so? Because that statue had been erected in the life-time of the person it celebrated; because it had been erected under the Colonial Government; and because, like every other fetter of tyranny, it was broken by the Revolutionary spirit that established our liberties.
But, says the gentleman, statues are raised for subordinate men, for this admiral or that general, who may deserve well of their country, but who do not merit the highest distinctions of national gratitude. If this measure of raising a mausoleum is to be only a cover for obtaining statues for temporary and secondary and trifling characters, it may have a very alarming influence upon us.
It is not easy, for a man of even less sensibility than myself, to hear in silence the State in which I was born, and one of whose Representatives I am, calumniated in the manner in which it had been that day, by the gentlemen from Connecticut and South Carolina. In defence of that State, actuated by a love to it, and not from any respect to its detractors; not to repel any imputation of meanness, of cowardice, of malice, which the gentleman from South Carolina has called ours, (meaning, I suppose, his own,) I will inform him, and the gentleman from Connecticut, that that State was the first to celebrate the fame of the Hero of America, by erecting a statue to him in the Capitol at Richmond.
The gentleman from Connecticut objects to a confidence in the record of the historian. Does the gentleman wish to suppress the history of the political events of 1776? Or does he believe that these events will be handed down in association with the bloody buoy, and Porcupine's works? Perhaps he has formed from his own mind a proper selection for our children, and is against the press handing down any thing else?
Mr. H. said, that the gentleman from Virginia had misstated what he had said. He had cast no reflection on the State of Virginia; but had barely stated two instances of statues overthrown and destroyed, to illustrate their frailty.
During the preceding debate, Mr. Claiborne stated that the committee to whom this subject had been committed, had obtained several estimates; among which was one in writing, by Dr. Thornton, which states with confidence that the expense of an equestrian statue would not exceed from eight thousand to fifteen thousand pounds currency.
After some remarks from Mr. Shepard and Mr. Lyon, the yeas and nays were taken on engrossing the bill, and were—yeas 44, nays 40, as follows:
Yeas.—George Baer, Bailey Bartlett, John Brown, Christopher G. Champlin, William Cooper, William Craik, Franklin Davenport, John Dennis, George Dent, Joseph Dickson, William Edmond, Thomas Evans, Abiel Foster, Jonathan Freeman, Henry Glenn, Samuel Goode, Chauncey Goodrich, Elizur Goodrich, Roger Griswold, William Barry Grove, Robert Goodloe Harper, Archibald Henderson, William H. Hill, Benjamin Huger, James H. Imlay, John Wilkes Kittera, Henry Lee, Lewis R. Morris, Abraham Nott, Harrison G. Otis, Thomas Pinckney, Jonas Platt, Leven Powell, John Read, Nathan Read, John Rutledge, jr., John C. Smith, Samuel Tenney, George Thatcher, John Chew Thomas, Richard Thomas, Peleg Wadsworth, Lemuel Williams, and Henry Woods.
Nays.—Willis Alston, Theodorus Bailey, John Bird, Phanuel Bishop, Robert Brown, Gabriel Christie, Matthew Clay, William Charles Cole Claiborne, John Condit, John Davenport, Thomas T. Davis, John Dawson, Joseph Eggleston, Lucas Elmendorph, Edwin Gray, Andrew Gregg, John A. Hanna, Joseph Heister, David Holmes, George Jackson, Aaron Kitchell, Michael Leib, Matthew Lyon, James Linn, Nathaniel Macon, Peter Muhlenberg, John Randolph, William Shepard, John Smilie, John Smith, Richard Dobbs Spaight, Richard Stanford, Thomas Sumter, Benjamin Taliaferro, John Thompson, Abram Trigg, John Trigg, Lyttleton W. Tazewell, Philip Van Cortlandt, and Joseph B. Varnum.
The third reading of the bill was fixed for Thursday week; when the House adjourned to Tuesday, the thirtieth.