CHAPTER more than $1800. Though considered at first as an IV. inferior office, not entitling the holder to a seat in the 1792 cabinet, the extent to which its patronage has reached has since made the station of postmaster general, in the eyes of politicians at least, one of the most important posts in the government. Perhaps it was a perception of the influence thus to be exerted that made Jefferson so urgent with the president that the general superintendence of the post-office should be annexed to his department rather than to Hamilton's; a request which he backed with the suggestion that the treasury department possessed already such an influence as to swallow up the whole executive powers, and to threaten to overshadow even the office of president.

A resolution of the first Congress had authorized the president to engage artists and procure apparatus as preliminary steps toward the establishment of a mint. By an act of the present session the mint was formally established, the officers to be a Director-an appointment presently bestowed on the ingenious Rittenhousean Assayer, Chief Coiner, Engraver, and Treasurer, with salaries from $2000 to $1200 each. The president was authorized to procure, at the seat of government, buildings suitable for the purpose. All bullion brought to the mint was to be coined gratuitously; but when coin was delivered in exchange on the spot, one half of one per cent. was to be deducted. The provisions of the ordinance of the Continental Congress on the subject of coins were re-enacted. These coins were the eagle, half eagle, and quarter eagle, in gold; the dollar, half dollar, quarter dollar, dime, and half dime, in silver; the cent and half cent in copper. The ratio of gold to silver, that of one to fifteen, established by this act, being a decided under-valuation of gold, long prevented the gold coinage

from getting into circulation.

The weight of the eagle CHAPTER

was to be 270 grains, that of the dollar 416 grains.

JV

The alloy in gold coins, a mixture of silver and copper, 1792 was to be one part in twelve; that of the silver coins, 179 parts in 1485, or about one in eight and three tenths. To obviate the inconvenience growing out of the copper coins emitted by the states, and which would not pass except in the states emitting them, an immediate coinage of a hundred and fifty tons of copper was ordered by a separate act.

Touching the device to be placed on these coins a curious debate arose, sufficiently characteristic, as tending to show upon what small matters the jealousy of the republican or opposition party was ready to fasten; but indicative also of a state of mind very widely diffused throughout the country As the bill came from the Senate, where it originated, on one side of the gold and silver coins was to be the eagle-adopted by the Continental Congress, and still continued as the national emblem or seal with the legend, "United States of America." To this there was no objection. In accordance with a usage sufficiently common, from the days of the earliest known coinage, the Senate's bill proposed for the reverse "an impression or representation of the head of the President of the United States for the time being," with his name and order of succession in the presidency, and the date of the coinage. This proposal seemed to some, like the president's speeches to Congress, his levees, and the proposition formerly made to give him the title of Highness, a very alarming step toward monarchy. Key, of Maryland, moved to substitute for the president's head "an emblematical figure of Liberty," a motion seconded by Page, who suggested that, how much soever the people might be pleased with having on their

IV.

CHAPTER Coins the head of the great man now president, they might have less occasion to be satisfied with some of his 1792. successors. The head of the president would be viewed as the stamp of royalty on our coins, would wound the feelings of many friends, and gratify our enemies.

The importance attached to this matter was ridiculed by Livermore, who declared himself utterly unable to comprehend how the head of the president on the coin could endanger the liberties of the country. Smith, of South Carolina, thought it strange that the passage of the bill was to be risked on so trivial a circumstance, and especially that the objection should come from such admirers of the new French Constitution as the gentlemen making it professed to be, since that Constitution expressly provided for placing the head of the chief magistrate on the coin. Key's motion, however, was carried on a division, twenty-six to twenty-two. The bill com ing up on its third reading, Gerry moved to reinstate the clause struck out, except the words "for the time being," so as to make it applicable to Washington alone; but Sedgwick pronounced the point of too little consequence to be debated, and the bill was passed as amended, and sent back to the Senate. They very soon returned it with a refusal to concur, whereupon Livermore moved to recede. The present occasion, he thought, offered the best opportunity to do honor to the man whom all loved, instead of which it was proposed to insult him. At the same time that a project was on foot—he alluded to a proposal lately made to Congress by an Italian artist, and patronized by several Southern members-to erect a monument in honor of the president at an expense of a quarter million of dollars, why object to an honor more effectual, without any expense, or the shadow of flattery, and every way safe and satisfactory? It was

IV

proposed to substitute "an emblematica. figure of Liber- CHAPTER ty," but how agree upon that emblem? Liberty, in his, idea of it, was that which arose from law and justice, and 1792 which secured every man in his individual and social rights. Others, perhaps, had in their minds something little better than the liberty of savages, the relinquishment of all law that contradicted or thwarted their passions and desires. Some gentlemen might think a bear broke loose from his chains a fit emblem of liberty; others might prefer a different device. He could hardly conceive of any adapted to the case of these states, which justly boasted of having always been free. He thought the head of the President of the United States quite as good an emblem of liberty as any other.

Mercer, of Maryland, replied with a good deal of asperity. There was a rule in the British House of Commons that the name of the king should never be mentioned in any debate, and he thought that some such rule might be advantageously adopted by this house. It would be no honor to the president to pay him a compliment which might be shared by persons no better than Nero, Caligula, or Heliogabalus. Seney, one of Mercer's colleagues, reflected severely on the Senate for having rejected the amendment without taking time to deliberate on the reasons in its favor. Giles thought this proposition to place the president's head on the coin, very much of a piece with the first act of the Senate. "It had a very near affinity to titles, that darling child of the other branch of the Legislature, put out at nurse for the present, but intended to be recognized hereafter with all due form." Benson ridiculed the idea of the people being enslaved by their presidents, or, what was still less likely, by the president's image on the coin. Page, in reply, was very sorry that some men ridiculed republican

CHAPTER caution.

It was the duty of members to watch over the IV. liberties of the country, and they ought not to be treated 1792 with levity for doing so. It was as a watchman for

liberty that he warned his constituents of the danger of
imitating the almost idolatrous practice of monarchies
as to the honor paid to kings, by impressing their images
and names on the current coin. He wished to add as
few incentives as possible to competition for the presi-
dent's place. He warned the country against the cabals,
the corruption, and animosities which might be excited
by the intrigues of ambitious men, animated by the hope
of handing down their names to the latest ages on the
medals of their country. An honor so indiscriminate
was unworthy of the president's acceptance. To limit
it to the present chief magistrate would be less objec
tionable, but the Senate knew that the president's deli-
cacy would not permit him to sign such a bill, which
might, indeed, blast his reputation, and therefore they
had extended the compliment to all his successors.
was a friend of the president, and had shown it on proper
occasions. The country was under obligations to him;
but lovers of liberty and friends to the rights of man
would be cautious of the ways in which they expressed
their sense of that obligation.

He

The House insisted on their amendment, and the Senate yielded. It was some time, however, before the artists could come to an agreement as to the proper emblematical figure; and Boudinot, at the next session, attempted, though without success, to substitute in place of it the head of Columbus.

Some allusions, in the course of this debate, to the new French Constitution, in which the incongruous attempt had been made to combine an hereditary chief magistrate with a form of government in all other respecta