Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1822-02-19

10 call upon me, and happy to invite to
my house every member of the Senate,
whether he had or had not paid me
visit, who would give me the honor of
his company, | yet always respected the
motives of those who declined paying me
any visit, or even frequenting my house
at all. | exacted nothing from them,
which they might think incompatible
with their dignity. presumed they
would exact nothing from me, not with
in the line of my official duty. l soon
learnt, that, if should make it rule to
pay the first visit to every Senator at each
session, the same compliment would be
clalmed, if not by all, at least by large
proportion of The members of the House
oil Representatives and could find no
republican principle which would, to my
own mind, justify me in refusing 10 the
members of one house that which l
should yield as due to the members OK
another. AT the commencement OF each
session. have visited the presiding mem
Der OF each House, not from sense Of
obligation, but Of propriety. l have not
felt it my duty to pay first visits to any
individual member OF either House 3; nor
has it entered my imagination, that a first
visit was due from any member of either
House to me.
If there is body of men upon earth,
! for whom, more than for any other,
ought to cherish every feeling OF attach
ment supcradded TO every sentiment of
reverence, ii is the Senate of the United
States. lis Importance and dignity, as
one OF the branches of the legislature, as
one OF the component parts OF the Su-
preme executive, and as the tribunal es
official honor and virtue, cannot be more
highly estimated by any man than by me-
| My father had the honor oil being its first
presiding officer. had, for five years
that Of being one Of its members; and
through every successive administration
OF this government, from the establish
ment OF the national constitution to this
time, | have received frequent tokens of
| us confidence, which can never be OBJ
! liberated from my memory, and claiming
all my gratitude. For every individual
member of the body, 1 feel all the re-
spect due to his puhiic character; and
there Is not one member towards whom
! entertain a sentiment other than that of
regard and esteem. If, therefore, the
principle upon which have omitted to
pay them first visits of form, should al
timate.y fail Of meeting their approba~
lion, it will be serious cause ofregret to
me; but, at all events, hope they will
impute it TO any other cause than inten-
| tional disrespeet to them.
| take this occasion of observing, that
with my appreciation and advice, my wife
has acted upon the same principle with
regard to the ladies connected with menu
! bers OF the Senate or House Of Repre-
senta,ives, who have visited this place
during the sessions of Congress, that J.
have pursued in relation to The members
themselves. She has paid no first visits
TO ladies with whom she had not the adj
vantage of being acquainted. She has
received with pleasure, and returned the
visits Of all ladies who have called up
on her, whether connected with members
OF Congress or otherwise. She has visit
ed her friends on the usual footing OF
private citizens, without pretension to
claim, and without being sensible of any
obligation to pay, any first visit. She
would have paid, with much pleasure,
this compliment to the ladies of men,
bers Of Congress, had i. been proper, in
her opinion, to conGne it to them. But
she was aware that many other ladies,
equally strangers to her, and, though not
immediately allied to members OF Con-
,ress, of character and standing in socie-
| " equally respectable, occasionally came
TO spend some time in the city; aud
knowing it to be impossible that she
should visit them all, she declined the
inylduous task of discriminating whom
she should and whom she should not first
visit. II, in observing this rule, she las
deviated from the practice Of some other
| aides, in situations similar to her own,
she has conformed to that which she
constantly observed when she was her.
self the vile Of Senator at the seat OF
government. She then always called
upon the ladies ofthc Heads of Depart
ments when she came to Washington,
and always understood ii to be the COM
mon practice. She lays no claim how
ever, % the same attention from any other
lady; and, having no pretension to visits
Of etiquette herself, thinks herself amen
able to none from others. She has in.
vlted to her house, without waiting for
formal visits, every lady of member of
Congress, to whom she had not reason
to believe such an invitation would be
unweleome; and, while feeling it as a