As he was the first person appointed to that office, after the institution of the Mint under the present federal government of the Union, the duties that devolved upon him, in conducting it, were arduous and complicated. He directed the construction of the machinery; made arrangements for providing the necessary apparatus; and, in daily visits to the Mint, whenever his health permitted, personally superintended, with the most sedulous fidelity, not only the general economy of the institution, but its operations in the various departments;—duties, which his love of system and order, his extensive knowledge, and his practical skill in mechanicks, eminently qualified him to perform with peculiar correctness. At those times when he was prevented, by indisposition, from attending at the Mint in person, reports were made to him by the proper officers, either verbally or in writing, of the state of the institution and the progress of its business; and those officers received from him, on such occasions[occasions], the instructions requisite for their several departments.
In conducting the affairs of the Mint, Dr. Rittenhouse was seconded by capable and trusty officers; among whom was Mr. Voight, the Chief Coiner, with whose ingenuity and skill, as an operative mechanic, he was well acquainted, having long before employed him in that capacity, while he was engaged in constructing one of his Orreries and carrying on other branches of his professional business. Dr. Nicholas Way, a physician of some eminence, officiated at the same time as Treasurer of the Mint; and that respectable co-adjutor of the then Head of this important institution in the national economy, has borne testimony to his scrupulous attention to the public interests, in its direction:—“I have been informed by his colleague in office, Dr. Way,”—says Dr. Benjamin Rush,[[269]] who succeeded that gentleman in the Treasurership of the Mint,—“that, in several instances, he,” (speaking of the Director) “paid for work done at the Mint out of his salary,[[270]] where he thought the charges for it would be deemed extravagant by the United States.[[271]]
When Dr. Rittenhouse resigned the Directorship of the Mint, in June 1792, he was succeeded in that office by Henry William De Saussure, Esq. of South Carolina, a gentleman of distinguished talents and respectability. But Mr. De Saussure did not long hold the appointment: Some invidious and illiberal, as well as ill-founded insinuations, were soon cast upon the establishment and the manner in which it was conducted, by certain persons in the government, who had very early evinced an hostility to the institution itself; and it is not improbable, that some of this description were also influenced in their inimical views towards it, by personal considerations. Mr. De Saussure, disgusted with such unworthy conduct, retired from the Directorship, after having held that office only a few months; during which short period, he executed his trust in such a manner, as to obtain the approbation of President Washington, and entitle him to the public esteem.
The following letter, which was addressed by Mr. De Saussure to the editors of the Charleston City Gazette, and published in that paper, soon after his resignation, will serve to elucidate this subject: as a vindication of that gentleman, and also of his predecessor, from the injurious aspersions so unjustly thrown out against the institution of the Mint by its enemies, that publication is entitled to a place in the Memoirs of Rittenhouse; it shall now close the narrative of Dr. Rittenhouse’s connexion with the Mint.
“Messrs. Freneau and Payne,
“I was filled with no less indignation than surprise, on reading the debates in the house of representatives of the United States, on Tuesday the 19th of January, respecting the Mint, to find that a good deal of censure had been thrown out by some of the members against the management of that establishment, in such general and indiscriminating terms as might be deemed to implicate me, during the short time I was in the Directorship.
“Several members spoke in hasty and unguarded terms; and one member, whose name the printer had not given, passed all the bounds of moderation. He is represented as having said, “that the institution is a bad one, and is badly conducted: it had been most scandalously carried on, and with very little advantage to the public. If the institution is not better carried on than it has been, it ought to be thrown aside.”—If I could tamely endure these imputations, which in their generality may be supposed to reach me, I should be unworthy the esteem of my fellow-citizens.
“It ought, perhaps, to be sufficient for me to produce to the public eye the entire approbation which the President of the United States was pleased to express of my conduct, when quitting the office of the Director. I laid before him a full and exact state of the situation of the Mint, and of the coinage prior to, and during my being in office. His approbation is contained in a letter which he wrote me at the moment of my leaving Philadelphia,—dated the 1st of Nov. 1795; from which these words are an extract—“I cannot, at this moment of your departure, but express my regret, that it was not accordant with your views to remain in the Directorship of the Mint: Permit me to add thereto, that your conduct therein gave entire satisfaction; and to wish you a pleasant voyage, and a happy meeting with your friends in South Carolina.”
“To those who know the President of the United States well,—who know the caution with which he is accustomed to speak, and that he possesses the talent of correctly estimating, as well as vigorously overcoming, the difficulties which present themselves in every circumstance of business,—this would rescue any character from the unqualified censure of the members of the house of representatives. But I will go further, and will shew the grounds on which the President formed his judgment, so that every man may form his own opinion.”
The Writer then proceeds with some details, respecting the condition of the Mint on his coming into office, and at the time he left it; in the course of which he states some difficulties, and unavoidable obstructions to the progress of the coinage, which existed in the time of his predecessor, and some of which could not be obviated while he remained in the direction: and to this statement he annexes a table, exhibiting an account of the gold and silver coinage at the Mint, from its establishment to the close of October, 1795; at the foot of which he remarks, that “there never was any period at which the Mint was supplied with bullion, in a state for coinage, sufficient to keep it regularly and fully employed for any considerable time; except,” continues the writer, “near the close of my direction; to wit, from the 1st to the 24th of October.” Mr. De Saussure thus concludes his very satisfactory letter on this subject: