On the question, that the House do agree to the second part of the said motion, in the words following:
"And their wish that the wisdom and magnanimity displayed in the formation and acceptance of the constitution, may be rewarded by the most perfect attainment of its object, the permanent happiness of so great a people:"
It was resolved in the affirmative—yeas 35, nays 16.
Ordered, That Mr. Tucker, Mr. Madison, Mr. Mercer, Mr. Vining, and Mr. Page, be appointed a committee to wait on the President of the United States, with the said resolution.
Saturday, March 24.
Establishment of a Mint.
The House resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House on the bill sent from the Senate, entitled, "An act establishing a Mint, and regulating the coins of the United States." The following amendment being under consideration, viz:
"In the tenth section, strike out the words, 'Or representation of the head of the President of the United States for the time being, with an inscription, which shall express the initial or first letter of his Christian or first name, and his surname at length, the succession of the Presidency numerically,' and, in lieu thereof, insert, 'Emblematic of Liberty,' with an inscription of the word Liberty."
Mr. Page, in support of this motion said, that it had been a practice in monarchies to exhibit the figures or heads of their kings upon their coins, either to hand down, in the ignorant ages in which this practice was introduced, a kind of chronological account of their kings, or to show to whom the coin belonged. We have all read, that the Jews paid tribute to the Romans, by means of a coin on which was the head of their Cæsar. Now as we have no occasion for this aid to history, nor any pretence to call the money of the United States the money of our Presidents, there can be no sort of necessity for adopting the idea of the Senate. I second the motion, therefore, for the amendment proposed; and the more readily because I am certain it will be more agreeable to the citizens of the United States, to see the head of Liberty on their coin, than the heads of Presidents. However well pleased they might be with the head of the great man now their President, they may have no great reason to be pleased with some of his successors; as to him, they have his busts, his pictures every where; historians are daily celebrating his fame, and Congress have voted him a monument. A further compliment they need not pay him, especially when it may be said, that no Republic has paid such a compliment to its Chief Magistrate; and when indeed it would be viewed by the world as a stamp of royalty on our coins: would wound the feelings of many friends, and gratify our enemies.
Mr. Williamson seconded the motion also, and affirmed that the Romans did not put the heads of their Consuls on their money; that Julius Cæsar wished to have his on the Roman coin, but only ventured to cause the figure of an elephant to be impressed thereon; that by a pun on the Carthaginian name of that animal, which sounded like the name of Cæsar, he might be said to be on the coin. He thought the amendment consistent with Republican principles, and therefore approved of it.