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CHAPTER two related to the number and pay of the House of Representatives; the other ten were pronounced by Liver1789. more to be "of no more value than a pinch of snuff, since they went to secure rights never in danger." Yet it was only these ten, being in the nature of a bill of rights, which, in the course of the next two years, received the sanction of a sufficient number of the state Legislatures to make them a part of the Constitution.

The importance of immediate legislation on the subject of the public lands was strongly urged by Scott; but nothing more was done at present than to pass an act for the government of the Territory northwest of the Ohio, by which the famous ordinance of 1787 was recognized and confirmed, but with such alterations as to make it conformable with the powers vested by the new Constitution in the president and Senate.

The important subject of the national debt was deferred till the next session, the Secretary of the Treasury being directed to prepare a report or plan for its liquidation. For the present, Congress contented itself with providing for the payment of its own members, and passing an appropriation act fixing the salaries of the officers it had created.

The salary of the President was established at $25,000, exclusive of the use of a furnished house, provided at the public expense. It was stated in the debate that under the old system the household expenses of the presidents of Congress, paid by the public, had varied from $8000 to $13,000 annually. The salary of the Vice-president, though not without some opposition, was fixed at $5000, an amount by no means corresponding to Adams's expectations, nor adequate to the scale of expenses which he had adopted. Washington caused the expenses of his household to be graduated in accordance with the

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salary allowed, so as to carry out the proposition of his CHAPTER inaugural speech, to receive only the payment of his expenses.

The Secretaries of State and the Treasury were allowed $3500 each; the Secretary of War, $3000; the Controller and the Treasurer, $2000 each; the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, the Auditor, the Register, and the Post-master General, $1500 each; head Clerks, $600 to $800; inferior Clerks, $500; the Governor of the Northwestern Territory, $2000.

The Chief Justice was allowed $4000, the other justices of the Supreme Court, $3500; the Attorney General, $1500. The salaries of the District Judges varied from $1800 to $800. The District Attorneys, Marshals, and Clerks, as well as the officers of the Customs, were for the most part paid by fees, producing salaries in some districts out of all proportion to the importance of the office or the general scale of compensation, an anomaly not yet entirely done away with. The Deputy Post-masters were paid by a certain per centage on the amount of their receipts.

The pay of senators and representatives was fixed at six dollars for every day's attendance, and the same for every twenty miles "of the estimated distance by the most usual road" from the member's place of residence to the seat of Congress. The Speaker of the House of Representatives was to be allowed double attendance. The Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate were to have as salary $1500 each, besides clerk hire, and an additional allowance of two dollars per day during the session. A proposition to allow the senators, out of respect to their superior dignity, a higher rate of pay than the representatives, was voted down in the House; but the Senate strenuously insisted upon it, and finally, by way

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CHAPTER of compromise, and to prevent the loss of the bill, a proI. vision was assented to by the House, that after the 4th 1789. of March, 1795, the daily allowance to senators should

be seven dollars; but this discrimination never actually went into effect. All these salaries, except those of president and vice-president, have since been increased, some few of them more than doubled. Even now, however, few reach, and none exceed, $6000 yearly, while the general rate of increase hardly corresponds with the increase in the expenses of living. .

The New England members were strong advocates for low salaries. Ames thought that, taking the salaries paid by the states as a guide, $1500 would be enough for judges of the Supreme Court, and would, so far, at least, as the New England states were concerned, command the best abilities. Sedgwick labored very hard to fix the pay of the members at five dollars a day, which he thought amply sufficient. The Southern representatives, accustomed to a less simple style of living, and an economy less strict, favored salaries on a more liberal scale. Page was alarmed at "this rage for reducing salaries. It was supposed by many to be Republican; but he entertained a different opinion. No man ought to be called into the service of his country and receive less than will defray the expenses he incurs in performing his duty. The effect of these low salaries would be to fill the public offices with inferior men, or to throw the management of public affairs exclusively into the hands of aspiring nabobs, who would lay the foundations of aristocracy, and reduce their equals to the capacity of menial servants or slaves."

As chairman of a committee to prepare an estimate of the net produce of the impost, and of the supplies necessary for the present year, Gerry reported that, in

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cluding the unpaid interest on the foreign and domestic CHAPTER debt, and the over-due installments of the foreign debt, the amount needed for the service of the current year 1789. was $15,442,000, while the net produce of the impost and tonnage duties for the four months and a half during which they would be collected was estimated at $607,000, hardly equal to the current expenses, without any regard to the public debt. The Secretary of the Treasury presented an estimate of current expenses, amounting to $723,000, including about $200,000 of arrearages due from the late government. The bill, as passed, appropriated $216,000 for the expenses of the civil list under the late and present governments; $137,000 for the War Department; $96,000 for invalid pensions; and $190,000 for unpaid warrants of the late Board of Treasury: in all, $639,000. A previous act had appropriated $20,000 for the expenses of commissioners to negotiate with the Indians. The interest on the Dutch debt for this and the following year had been already provided for by the Continental Congress out of the proceeds of the last Dutch loan. This was the only part of the public debt on which the interest had continued to be regularly paid.

Of all the questions discussed at this session, none produced so much excitement as one started toward the close of it, respecting the permanent seat of the federal government. This question, first raised some nine years before, in consequence of the unfortunate mutiny which had occasioned the removal of the Continental Congress from Philadelphia, had been several times settled and unsettled in that body, had been evaded by the Federal Convention, and now remained for Congress to dispose of. To retain the seat of government at New York, where the Continental Congress had finally established itself,

CHAPTER after vibrating for a year or two between Annapolis and I. Trenton, would best suit the Eastern States. Pennsyl 1789. vania was very anxious to win the seat of government

back to Philadelphia or its neighborhood. Maryland and Virginia were equally desirous to fix it on the Potomac, and in this they were supported by the more Southern states.

The New England members, doubtful of the result, proposed a postponement to the next session; but the Pennsylvanians and Virginians, fearing lest the claim of New York might grow strong by delay, prevailed to have the subject entered on at once. Thereupon the more Northern members came to an understanding with the Pennsylvanians, and resolutions were agreed to for fixing the permanent seat of government on the Susquehanna, New York to remain the temporary capital until the necessary buildings could be erected. The Susquehanna had been preferred to the Delaware in hopes to conciliate the South; but the Southern members, especially the Virginians, were very much dissatisfied. The Potomac, they insisted, was far to be preferred to the Susquehanna, whether as respected communication with the ocean or with the region west of the Alleganies. Even the moderate Madison declared that, had this day's proceedings been foreseen, Virginia would never have ratified the Constitution. In spite, however, of all opposition, a bill passed the House authorizing the president to appoint commissioners with authority to fix the particular site. on the Susquehanna; also to purchase the necessary lands, and to erect the buildings, a loan being authorized for these purposes to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars. This bill came back from the Senate, just before the close of the session, so altered as to substitute for the site on the Susquehanna a district of ten miles