The Litchfield County post., 1828-02-14

~ A
J. q. Adams. from eBth Feb. lsIs, TO 10th
june, lsI5, outfit, $4,000; return. se.es0
salary. SR0.5lS; contingencies. SS,OO5 Ca
total, Ss4,6OI." Making grand total Of sIO4,
SO4 IS.
hope the gentleman will not deny this
statement. do not complain that every one
should make his own living as he can; but
do not consider it disgraceful 20 observe some
thing like economy. do not know how to
account for this statement-perhaps the gen
teman can explain il for me.
Mr.. Whipple-If gentlemen wish to push
their inquiries into the Departments they will
have my aid. | never have refused, nsr shall
probably ever refuse to inquire into any al
legged misuse of power. have not belief that
the most rigid investigation will touch, in the
most remote degree, the integrity of the Ad
ministratiOn; but should it result in that, let
the administration. fall. Errors slight and tri-
vial, may exist it would he singular if they
did not exist Errors Of Judgment may be
supposed; but who then shall decide, under
all the circumstances, whether the judge or
the judged are, orhave been right Within
Constitutional limits.this House is the inquest
Of the nation; and if gentlemen suppose the
existence of NAL ADMINISTRATIONS let themtake
the responsibility of openly Substantiating the
fact, and they will then acquire a just and
lasting fame with the American people; hut,
sir, to insinuate and shrink from responsibility
to traduce our rulers by indirection, has not.
nor ever shall he, my course.
Mr.. Dwight said. he would occupy the
attention of the House but for very brief
space he knew their impotence. and the
lateness of the hour. and should not have ris-'
Gu at all but in consequence Of the very ex
hVyfh he tln-
man from Virginia. MI Floyd from doe
ument which he now held in his hand. Now
sir, (said Mr.. Dwight) draw from the evd-
,ence land have no doubt the house will do
SOY a conclusion directly to the reverse ofthat
of the gentleman from Virginia. He has sta
ted that large and unusual allowances were
made te,and accepted by the chief magistrate
for representing this Government abroad.
Since the gentleman sat down he had run his
eye over the paper alluded to, and could as
sure the House that the document out of
which the charge was made, contained in it.
self a most ample refutation Ofthe charge. By
a comparison of the payments to Mr.. Adams
with those made to many, and he believed all
OUT Ministers in Europe, it would appear that
SO tar from the allowances being unusual, they
have in no instance, exceeded and IN many,
have fallen short of allowances under similar
circumstances, and for a proportionate length
of time to our other ministers under different
administrators. How Indeed could it be 9TH
erwise The House would reecollect that
the salaries of Public Ministers. like all other
salaries, had been long since regulated by a
law in Congress, and the discretion vested by
that law in the President in regard to the
outfit was expressly limited to a sum not ex
ceeding years salary. The charge, then.
touches not only the person who is supposed
to have received, but the disbursing officers of
Mr. Madison's Government, under whose Ad-
ADMINISTRATION the money must have been paid
out, and he appealed to the candor of the
gentleman to correct an error SO injurious to
all effected by it.
He would ask the attention ofthe House
few moments TO the grounds of the compari-
son he had alluded to.
1t will be perceived by the Documents,
that
Mr.. Barlow received, for little more than
year and half in France, $33. 5000
Mr.. Monroe, for years, at England, France
and Spain, $3.50
Mr.. Gallatin, for about 6 years in France &
at Client, 94,112
Mr.. Pinckney, at Great Britain, Russia,
and the Two Sicilies, about seven years,
1O9,O61
Mr.. Adams, at Russia, Client. and Great
Britain, from 1903 to 1917, about years, re-
ceived, 1895
This calculation excludes Mr.. Adams mis-
sion to Prussia in 1901. for which he received
S5,1l9, an amount which would increase the
aggregate sum paid to him. much less than
the mission increased the time occupied, and
the moneys disbursed in the public service.
The allowances to our Foreign Ministers may
appear to some gentlemen TO be too be large,
but they ought in vindication of the policy c
the law, under which those allowances are
made, to recollect that it IS service of the
highest confidence, requiring the most distn-
gushed talent Of our country. and that the
courts in Europe to which they are now sent,
have none of the REPUBLICAN simplicity and
economy Of our own. Their allowances to
their ministers are in all instances greater.and
in some, treble and quadruple ours. 1t had be-
come proyerbal that no minister of ours was
able to live in Europe, without trenching on
his own funds. The account. then. though
Sarge. is not one of moneys paid to enrich the
indt> idual, but of moneys expended by him
in the public service, and he was persua-
ded that not dollar of il has remained in his
private Golfers.
The gentleman from Ohio, MIR. Wright.
had alluded to, but had not specified, a mis-
take in the document. 1t was the cOmputa-
ton of the time at Russia. extending it to g.