[26] Gallatin to his wife, Jan. 15, 1801, Adams: Gallatin, 253.
[27] Wharton: Social Life, 72.
[28] Hunt, 12.
[29] See Merry to Hammond, Dec. 7, 1803, as quoted in Adams: U.S. ii, 362.
Public men seldom brought their wives to Washington because of the absence of decent accommodations. (Mrs. Smith to Mrs. Kirkpatrick, Dec. 6, 1805, Hunt, 48.)
"I do not perceive how the members of Congress can possibly secure lodgings, unless they will consent to live like scholars in a college or monks in a monastery, crowded ten or twenty in a house; and utterly excluded from society." (Wolcott to his wife, July 4, 1800, Gibbs, ii, 377.)
[30] Plumer to Thompson, March 19,1804, Plumer MSS. Lib. Cong. And see Annals, 8th Cong. 1st Sess. 282-88. The debate is instructive. The bill was lost by 9 yeas to 19 nays.
[31] Hildreth: History of the United States, v, 516-17.
[32] Plumer to Lowndes, Dec. 30, 1805, Plumer, 337.
[33] Channing: History of the United States, iv, 245.