man, and correct, these salaries, if raised five times as high as they now are, will be infinitely too low. Mr. EUSTIS.-It is due to myself and to the House, to do away the imputation of the gentleman last up. I never said that these salaries were incompetent, because they were not accompanied with a peerage or a pension. But I predicated their incompetency on the fact that they were barely adequate to defray the necessary expenses of living. I said, secondly, that the compensations were barely such as enabled the Executive to obtain men of talents; and I said, further, that they were lower than those granted by any other Government on earth; because other Governments had other means of remunerating their officers than this Government possesses. This is a fact known to the honorable gentleman and to every man in the nation. It is known that, under monarchies, there is first a splendid establishment provided for the officers while in place, and afterwards other remuneration. No; I do not desire in this country to see either monarchy, peerage, or pensions; and without pretending to any particular knowledge of the sentiments of the gentleman's constituents, I may say that mine are as averse as his can be to anything that wears the appearance of monarchy, and as unwilling to give away a shilling of the public treasure unnecessarily. But I do know, at the same time, that they feel a pride in paying for public services. They know, from fatal experience, from having paid their own officers too low, the necessity of an adequate compensation. In my part of the Union, there exists the same jealousy over the public expenditure; it is salutary, and I rejoice to see it. But, like the liberty of the press, to which we are indebted for the security of our rights, it may be carried too far. We are not able, if the ideas of the gentleman prevail, to ascertain what will be the effects. For, if we suffer a dereliction of the Government by men of talents and virtue, we cannot calculate the evil. It is such an evil that no price can be too great to avert it.

Mr. SANDFORD asked a moment's indulgence. He was opposed to the recommitment, because the object of the gentleman who introduced the motion was to give a limitation to the bill, as though it were not, without such limitation, subject to the control of Congress. The fact was, that Congress could at any time increase or diminish these salaries. Though in favor of them as they at present were, if good reasons should at any time be offered for their diminution, he should vote for a repeal of this act, though he was ready to declare that he did not expect such reasons could be offered. Why, then, limit the bill, when its sole effect would be waste of time in renewing this discussion at a subsequent day? As to the argument derived from lowness of State compensations, Mr. S. said, no comparison could be drawn between the duties of the State and Federal offi

cers.

He added that not a murmur of discontent among the people on this point had reached his ears. He was ready, therefore, with the gentleman from Pennsylvania, to vote according to the dictates of his conscience.

NOVEMBER, 1803.

Mr. MITCHILL observed, that he had almost laid himself under an injunction to remain silent during the whole of this debate about salaries. But as the subject had not as yet been displayed by any of the gentlemen who had spoken upon it in the manner that it appeared to him most worthy of being stated to the House, he should, before the question was called, briefly offer his sentiments. I am opposed, said Mr. M., to high salaries and extravagant allowances of all sorts to men in office. But I am at the same time desirous that the citizens who are called from private life to stations of eminent honor and confidence, should have a sufficient compensation.. A man who harters away the sweets of domestic enjoyment for the toil and envy incidental to most of the offices provided for in the bill, ought to receive from those whom he serves something more than merely his daily bread.

I must own I am not one of those who can, with the calculating powers which some gentlemen possess, exactly adopt the pecuniary reward to these great and responsible offices. I cannot put integrity, talents, and industry, in one scale of the balance, and throw dollars and cents into the other, until it descends to an equipoise. It surpasses my skill to weigh the rare endowments of the head, and the excellent qualities of the heart, which mingle in the character of an officer of State, against the copper, the silver, or even the gold, of which our coin is made. When I attempt to reduce patriotism, honesty, and intelligence, to a price, and to cypher out, by rules of arithmetic, what they are worth in money, I abandon the task as above my powers. And I am not ashamed to confess my inability to appraise the inestimable, I will say incalculable, value of genius, capacity, and virtue, in any denomination of paper current among men. I cannot gauge the human understanding, nor take the dimensions of moral fitness, with such exactness as to satisfy me in giving my vote, that the sums in the bill are exactly what they ought to be, without varying, in any degree, from the true amount of compensation. Employments of high trust and dignity have no tariff or market price to rate them. There is a something in a great and noble mind, that is far above comparison, or equivalent with anything the Mint affords.

But although the task just mentioned surpasses my ability, I do not quit in despair the subject out of which it grows. The problem by which professional men and official men ought to be paid, can be solved only by the aid of political arithmetic; or it can be made to approximate near enough to certainty to answer all the purposes of ordinary conduct. If a boy is destined to a profession, he is an object of expense through the whole course of his scholastic, collegiate, and professional studies. Whether he receives premiums, earns diplomas, or private license to practise, he is a constant drain upon the purse of his father. This expenditure must be made, although under the most favorable circumstances of health, capacity, and diligence, in the pupil. If he is idle, sickly, and perverse, the cost is usually greater.

Frequently a young man after acquiring a profession cannot gain a living by it, but must be maintained out of other funds than those which the exercise of his profession can raise. Now, in the progress of such a person's life, every dollar laid out upon him is to be considered as so much capital consolidated in his person. This capital is exposed to great risk, and without insurance. For the whole adventure is hazarded upon the life and health of the individual. A young man, therefore, upon whose education five thousand dollars have been expended, ought not only to support himself by the profession he has learned, but to reimburse with interest the capital which has been laid out upon him. This reimbursement ought to take place within the few years to which his life may be calculated to reach-for if he dies, there is a total loss of principal, interest, and prospects. But, in the case of lengthened days, a professional man ought to do more than pay his board and recover his capital in a moderate period of time. He ought to accumulate enough to maintain a family, to pay his assessments, and have a decent surplus for old age, and for descendants. All this a man who has undergone an expensive preparation for a profession ought to be able to do before his activity fails him, by the observance of industry and economy. If he does not do this, he has but a poor bargain of his profession. I believe, Mr. Speaker, that all professions are full of such hard bargains. The lottery of a profession has many blanks to a prize, and the prizes which are within the wheel are for the principal part of but moderate value. Though a few draw rich prizes, by far the majority are allotted blanks, or small prizes. This is so much the case that it has been questioned whether the profession of the law, deemed the most lucrative, upon the great scale actually supports itself. I think, therefore, that the individual practisers may grow very wealthy in a profession, yet professional talents are upon the average not compensated to their full amount in money. The reason is obvious, as man devoting himself to a profession expects honor and reputation from his calling-he courts the smiles of fame, and listens to the echoes of renown; and if he has a mind of that happy constitution which seeks its due proportion of glory, while it provides against want and accidents by an efficient system of ways and means, his reward is rich and ample. It is true he commutes pelf for celebrity; in leaving off a part of the selfishness of his nature, he becomes more a citizen of the world; and though he disposes of less property by his testament, he leaves to his family the precious inheritance of a great and a good name. Generally speaking, then, men who betake themselves to professions run an extraordinary risk for their profits, and these profits, after all, are not received in cash alone, but in a compound ratio of money and fame. It follows from this view of the subject, and it is indisputably the just one, that professional men, as such, receive a smaller return of profit on their professional stock or capital vested in their persons than any other species of adventurers in trade on equal capital and hazard.

H. OF R.

Suppose then, sir, a professional man becomes an official character. Does he acquire a pecuniary" reward equal to the amount that might be found due to him by a calculation on the principles which have been laid down? Certainly not. Speaking in gross, such official men as are contemplated in the bill now depending are not so well paid as professional men are. If the latter are underrated in their compensations, the same a fortiori must happen to the former. Take the career of one of these officers about whom there has been so much discussion among us. He possesses little or no chance of obtaining one of these distinguished appointments before the sun of his life has passed its zenith, and he is declining in the afternoon of age. Time must first have furrowed his face with wrinkles, and planted gray hairs on his temples under this preparatory course; and with such preliminary steps for preferment, what chance has the successful competitor to hold his possession long? Though his constitution should remain vigorous; though he should have husbanded his powers by temperance; though, like an evergreen tree, he shall have carried his juvenile verdure far into the winter of years; the incumbent on one of these benefices deceives himself if he calculates upon a protracted tenure. Though he should be favored with health, and have both the will and capacity to perform the duties of his station, he must expect, at the close of every lustrum or sooner, that a harsh decree from the mouth of political expediency will supersede his commission and oust him from his place. In the meantime the constant wear and tear of his animated machinery is going on, and he quits his office with a diminished ability to betake himself once more to the employment he may have relinquished.

It will be perhaps demanded, how the officer is to be made whole under all these casualties? I reply that his worldly reward is partly of an honorary and partly of a pecuniary kind. In some places of eminent trust and delicate responsibility, the virtue which is necessary to their execution is its own reward. Those emotions of laudable ambition which agitate the breast of man, and fill it with the desire of excellence, are in a great degree settled, I may say paid, by the very enjoyment and gratification they afford. The towering distinction, the elevated rank, and the farsounding title of the statesman, who has reached these grades of promotion, are justly considered as making an essential and important part of what he ought to receive from the public. Nothing can afford the good and faithful servant so much delight as the approbation, the respect, and the confidence of his Sovereign. These are the most tasteful cordials in the cup of life. The accents of commendation and praise are so acceptable, that even the vicious part of public men procure them by venal means to be uttered in their ears. The godlike soul exults when the public voice concurs with the sentiment of self-approbation which it feels. But as men holding offices cannot sustain life by mere applauses, whether real or fictitious, and must be nourished and cher

ished by substantial fare, like their fellow-citizens, there must be some rule by which the amount of their salaries may be ascertained. I repeat, sir, that Congress should be moderate in all their allowances of this kind; and in order to calculate the amount of wages to be paid to the public servants, the market price of the articles they must purchase should be attended to. An examination of the leading objects of expense will enable a tolerable estimate to be made. The amount of salary should be such, (at least I am willing to consider it so) as to furnish payments for the rent of a decent house; for the food and drink of a middling family; for fuel, and for clothing, in the style of frugal gentility; for the hire of needful domestics; for taxes and other contingencies; for occasional charities, and the encouragement of good works. I would make an allowance for a horse or two, in a city almost destitute of lamps and pavements, to carry the officer from his dwelling, in such a sparse settlement, a mile or two to his place of business. To render him more capable of performing his serious functions, his mind will require seasonable amusement and recreation. He must also provide for the wants and education of his children; and after all these disbursements, he ought to be able, with prudence and economy, to lay up a little surplusage for future use.

If these several articles are charged at the existing rate, they will pretty nearly balance the sums with which it is proposed to pay the officers named in the bill. It may possibly be found, by a very nice scrutiny, that they are one or two dollars higher, or two or three hundred dollars lower than the exact state of the times require. This I am not disposed to investigate with fractional minuteness. The salaries have been proved by several years experience to suit their purposes tolerably well. There is no need whatever to raise them, and I think there would be an impropriety in lowering them at this time.

Before he resumed his seat, Mr. M. said he would offer a few further observations on salaries. In free, and especially in republican Governments, there might be danger of reducing them too low. As a republican, he would concisely advert to the operation of very low salaries upon the country at large. By such a regulation, which might be mistakenly termed by some an economical one, all persons not possessing large hereditary or acquired estates, would be excluded from offices. There would thereby be created a moneyed aristocracy of the most odious and alarming kind. It had been long remarked, that the most stern integrity, and the most useful talents, emerged from the middle or humbler walks of society. He wished that compensations might be such as to promote the evolution of genius and virtue, and bring them from their modest or sequestered abodes into action; and, in this way, well directed talents would continue to rule this land of freedom, as they always had done and of right ought to do. He thought there was a medium between too much and too little, which it was desirable to hit. This was to allow manly merit to come orth, though not attended with the recommenda

NOVEMBER, 1803.

tions of wealth. This was to apportion salaries to services in the way the bill proposed, neither with profusion on the one part, nor parsimony on the other.

Mr. BEDINGER said his only objection was to that part of the bill which prevented an inquiry into the just apportionment of the several salaries allowed. He was in favor of the general principle of the bill, though from the circumstance he had stated, he should be obliged to vote against it. The question was then taken on recommitting the bill, and lost.

Mr. GODDARD.-I am sensible. Mr. Speaker, that to oppose the passage of a bill, the object of which is to give an increased compensation to men who may be personally respected, is, at any time, an invidious task. Opposition to the passage of the bill now on your table, is rendered peculiarly unpleasant from the severe reprehension which gentlemen meet with, who take the liberty to state their sentiments against its provisions; and, although I think the salaries proposed to be. given by this bill are too high, yet I do not know but I should have contented myself with a silent vote on the subject, had it not been for the very singular amendment which, on the motion of an honorable gentleman from Massachusetts, (Mr. EUSTIS,) has been introduced into the bill, and the notice which that and another honorable gentleman (Mr. RANDOLPH) have seen fit to take of the few hasty remarks which, on a former day, I had the honor of submitting to the House. Notwithstanding the remarks which have fallen from gentlemen respecting that amendment. I still think that, with gentlemen at least with whom I have the honor generally to concur in opinion, it may form a solid objection against the passage of the bill, whatever may be their sentiments respecting its general provisions. By the terms of that amendment, the salaries are to be paid to the several officers therein named, "as established by the act of the 2d of March, 1799." Now, sir, for what purpose is this amendment introduced? Not to have any effect upon the bill itself; for it can have no beneficial effect; and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. EUSTIS) has told us that it is not for the purpose of casting any imputation or reproach upon those who passed the act of March, 1799, but simply for the purpose of recording a fact, and promulgating it to the people of the United States. But will the gentleman from Massachusetts permit me to ask whether, if he and his political friends had been in power at the time when the temporary act of March, 1799, passed, this amendment would ever have appeared in the bill? Would there, in that case, have been such solicitude to record this fact? If not, why introduce it now? The gentleman says, to serve as the proclamation which he says I some days past proposed as a substitute for this amendment; and the gentleman is good enough to give me leave to carry it home for the benefit of my constituents in Connecticut.

Another gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. VARNUM) has added that when the act of 2d of March, 1799, was revived and continued in force