The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1896-02-27
NEED OF REPORT.
Funerals of Statesmen-A Good Place
to Retrench in Government Expen-
ditureS.
fChariotte News. |

liable contribution TO the annals OF
Congress, which has not attracted the
attention TO which it is entitled. II
was the text Of speech which the Sen
ator delivered on the exhIlaratlng
subject of Senatorial funerals-a sub
ject, truly, of great interest IN the alb
stract form in which it was presented,
whatever the public may think of fun
erals in the concrete. Senator PETER
showed that Senatorial funerals in the
early days of our country were very
modest affairs, and cost little or moth
ing But by gradual stages they grew
into some things more than modest
tribute of Congress to the memory
of its dead, until their cost became
enormous, and the expense of burying
a dead statesman in the present day
assumes threatening aspect TO our
embarrassed finances.
There were Congressional funerals
in the early days of the republic that
cost the country not cent, so TO
speak There were funerals, even at
a later day, when the Congressional
delegation that performed the last sad
rites over stricken associate was con-
tent to dispense with champagne and
the country $3.50. The general pull
lie does not understand that the aver
age Congressional funeral IS the occa-
sion Of a sort of merry making under
the guise of paying serious tribute TO
the memory of the dead. Perhaps
the smaller portion of the American
taxpayers know what a grand affair
a Congressional funeral really is. TO
all such the arguments of Senator PEI
fer are lost
Prior to I847, forty-eight Senators
had died, and in only eleven cases
did their deaths occasion any outlay
from the Senate contingent fund.
PETER cites numerous cases, and
quotes from official records the cost
involved in consgnlng TO their last
resting place, statesmen who served in
both branches of Congress. He calls
attention to cheap funerals and ex-
pensive funerals, cheese and cracker
funerals, and the deductions he draws
present a serious problem for the con
slderation of living statesmen.
John &. Calhoun was buried al a
cost of s3,447.o2. The funeral ex
penses # Stephen A. Douglas did
not come out of the government funds;
neither did those of William p. Fes-
sender. The cost of burying Charles
Sumner was S4,6S7.90. Andrew
Jackson was buried at private expense.
The funeral of Oliver p Morton Co.,
the government $3.50. 80; that of Ma;t
Carpenter, S3,oI2.54, and that of Ben
Hill, of Georgia, sSo4.5o. The Sen
ate appropriated sI,SIo.94 to bury
James B. Beck, of Kentucky. The
funeral expenses of Senator Plumh, of
Kansas, footed up Ss,oS2.S4, and OF
Senator Vance, of North Carolina,
S4,43S.66.
Senator PETER, in his quest for fun
eral statistics as TO cost, was restricted
by incomplete records from delving
correspondingly deep into House fun
erals, of which Clerk X :rr could only
furnish the record of his four years
service. If these are any criterion OF
the expenses of House funerals for the
period of antedating this term, the in
ference TO be drawn from it that the
luxury conslgning Representatives
to their last place o: repose is small
er tax on the people than that Of Sen
atorial funerals.
The highest figure reached in that
term was in the case of Representa-
tive Chapman, whose burial cost the
country 2,3oS.4o, which is closely
pressed by the case of Hon. J. w.
Kendall, which cost s2,156.56. Most
of the twentyone funerals from the
House cost above $1,000 To bury
Representative Spinola cost SI,Io3o.42
The lowest figure reached was in
the case of Representative James
Phelan, which was charged up at
s545.so.
Mr.. PETER incidentally calls atten-
ton to the expenses attending the i'll
ness and burial of President Garfield
They footed up a grand total of $780,
1851. But Mr.. PETER says: "The
amount might have been much larger
and the people would have approved
it had all the charges Of persons who
were specially benefited by the dis
bursements appeared to be reason
able" The largest individual amounts
in this sorrowful case went to the sur
geons. DR.. Bliss received Sc, 500, DR..
Agnew $1,000, DR.. Hamilton S 900,
Drs. Reyburn and Boynton each
$4,000, and DR.. Susan A. Edison
s3,ooo-altogether S27,5oo.
Senator PETER shows that funeral
expenses are on the increase. Alto.
gether seventy-three Senators have
died at an aggregated cost of $780,.
234.So. The first twenty-five Sena-
tors to die were buried at private ex.
pense. From 1896 to IS47 the aver
age cost attending a Senatorial funer.
al was 81, SoS.4o, and from 1869 tc
1924 it rose to S2,754.22. The last
ten Senatorial funerals cost the country
an average Of s4,54s.o2. The funer-
ais of "deceasedi Senator'S" says Mr.
PETER, during the last ten years, from
1885 to 1894, inclusive, cost s., 900.
60 more than one half of the entire
expense of all such o occasions during
the whole period of the Sena,e's ex
istence, and SAL 1870 more than all
the rest from 1884, to 1890 inclusive
a period of nine,y-hve years. In other
words, of the seventy three burial:
from the Senate the last thirteen Cost