Washington sentinel. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1856, 1855-07-19
TO OUR EXCHANGES.

We solicit the attention of all our exchanges
TO the subjoined remarks Public Buildings,
and ask for expression of opinion to the res
ervaton of the Presidential grounds from further
encroachment.
We had hoped that the opinion Of the Admin
stratiop adverse to the erection of further
buildings on it. We know it in part, and
we still believe that it is with great reluctance
the President has ordered the commencement OF
an addition to the Treasury building. If sup
ported by public opinion, as we have no doubt he
would be, the President we believe, would gladly
leave the matter for special consideration BY the
next Congress As this matter must be attended
to now, or the evil be consummated, We hope
every paper will give an expression Of opinion.
We have seen with regret partisan attacks on
the President for delay, but in single paper
only. The motive urged to give employment TO
men, though. not without weight, should not
counterbalance the greater evil of running these
beautiful grounds. We feel assured that in de-
laying the matter, and calling to it the especial
consideration Of Congress, the Executive will be
doing an act for which he will receive very gene
raj thanks now and the perpetual gratitude Of
posterity.
Public Buildings-Public Grounds.
There three cardinal points necessary to be
considered in the erection of public buildings,
viz lst, fre-proof character; ID, convenient
arrangement with abundant room; and, Sd,
mutual proximity of the departments
The buildings now occupied by the State, War,
Navy, and Interior departments, possess none Of
these indispensable requisites but on the contrary
by their absence, are constantly exposed to the
most serious dangers and inconvenience.
The first great serious defect of the existing
buildings, is their combustble character, keeping
in perpetual jeopardy documents of the highest
value and vast importance, the loss Of which
would be deplorable and irreparable. The loss
of the public archives in these departments,
would leave such great gaps in history,
would deprive the government of such indspen-
sable information, in relation to our domestic,
and particularly our foreign concerns, as would
expose to the most serious losses, annoyances
and inconvenience. Secretary of State
stripped of the archives of his department.
would, in his intercourse with foreign nations,
be placed in a situation alike so disadvantage
perpexing, and Notifying, that posterity would,
with great justice, brand US with reckless dsre-
gard of the muniments of our history, our rights,
and our glory: while we were wasting millions
upon matters which could readily be deferred,
and while we are actually paying in premiums
for the pririlege of redeeming small portion of
the national debt, in anticipation Of its maturity,
larger than would be necessary to provide
appropriate accommodations for the archives and
offices of government. With the means in hand
and no reasonable excuse for delay, if nothing
more than security were obtained by appropriate
buildings, it should suffice peremptorily and
promptly to secure their erection.
The records of folly, in confdng valuable
documents to combustible buildings, are suff-
GENTLY long and sad, of the destruction of docu-
ments, for the recovery Of which, mankind would
cheerfully pay a thousand times the additional
cost which would have been requisite to render
their repositories safe.
But there are other and pressing reasons to
urge the immediate construction of these build
ings. The business of the departments has so
greatly augmented; the documents, models, in
struments, cases, &C., have multiplied, that all
is confusion and constraint. There being no
room for appropriate arrangement of the hume
responsibility; and it NAV be safely asserted as
fact, that if a record were made of the losses Of
books and documents, they could not be re-
placed by an amount that would erect n suitable
BUILDING
There is also the essential element of mutual
proximity for although there are six depart
ments including the Attorney Generals Office,
vat hair dptsa ,nsa HI
tercourse constant, that il would be as conve-
nient TO dismember department itself as TO sepa-
rate the departments one from the other. The
insessant intercourse going requires imPera-
lively, for the proper facility of business the
closest contiguity; and this can be best attained
consistently with the strctest and truest economy
and securing al the same time the finest archi-
lecture as one large building be erected at
proporionable less cost than could several smaller
ones Of equal aggregate accommodation. As an
architectural opnament, large building is
worth dozen small ones, and will admit of supe-
rior arrangements. The annoyances Of delay
which every member Of Congress, and indeed
every one having much business with the de-
partments, must have experienced, from inability
ofinstant intercourse, must have impressed them
with the Importance of contiguity II, for in
stance, the Pension Office were at point distant
is the Patent office, the delay and confusion
would be very great. A senator would 90 to the
Pension Office on business; in very many, pro.
baby in most cases. immediate resort is neces-
sary to the Surgeon Generals or TO the Second
Auditors Office; messenger is dispatched dis
lance, going and returning, Of some fifteen
squares, during which time the senator must
wait; the messenger, unless he waits for written
instructions, takes verbal communication, liable
half the time TO be misstated or msapprehcnded
Meantime, the messenger has hardly left, when
another senator or representative comes in; he
must wait until the messenger returns and goes
again, unless another messenger be dispatched,
in which case, as remarked by distinguished
senator, this segregating the departments would
give occasion for a corps Of messengers larger
than both Houses Of Congress, and then very