for payment, would the bearer take certificates as specie? No; verily. Besides, the certificates were all under interest already, and it was highly unjust that other paper should be issued on their credit which bore a premium, and operated as a further tax on the country.

Tuesday, 18. This day the bank bill was taken up again. I feel much reluctance to minute anything on this subject. I never saw the spirit of speculation display itself in stronger colors. Indeed, the guise of regard for the interest of the public was not preserved. Two millions of specie is to be subscribed by the public. This is to be the basis of the bank; and the other subscribers, who are to draw dividends according to their subscriptions, are to pay three fourths in certificates. King evidently wanted, by a side wind, to exclude the public from any dividend, under an idea which he strongly inculcated, that the subscription of the public was to be over and above the capital-ten millions of the bank; and was to be considered as deposit. A position which resolves itself into this: That the public should find the specie to support the bank, whilst the speculators, who subscribe almost wholly in certificates, receive the profits of the dividends.

January 19. This day the bank bill passed all through. The last clause was caviled at. I supported it, on the principle that any law containing a grant of any kind, should be irrepealable. Laws touching the regulation of morals, manners, or property, are all made on the principle of experiment, and accommodation to time and place; but when legislators make grants, the deed should remain inviolate. Three opinions prevailed in Senate respecting this bill; or rather, I should say, three motives of action. The most✔ prevalent seemed to be, to accommodate it to the views of the stockholders, who may subscribe. The Potomac interest seemed to regard it as a machine, which, in the hands of the Philadelphians, might retard the removal of Congress. The direction of it was their object. I really wished to make it as subserviant to the ✔ public interest as possible. Though all professed this, yet I thought few gave themselves any trouble to promote it. I cannot help adding a sincere wish, that the integrity of the directors may make amends for the want of it in many of the legislators who enacted it. For in the hands of bad men, it may be made a most mischievous engine. But, indeed, so may even the best of human institutions.

January 20. The business of this day was the third reading of the bank bill. The same questions were agitated over again, but without heat. It was moved to reduce the limitation to ten years. I at one time thought this long enough, but I conversed on the

subject with every moneyed man I could find, and they uniformly declared that they would not subscribe on so short a period; and the consequence would be that they would all join in supporting the old banks and bearing down the national one. I sincerely wish to derive a benefit to the public from the bank; and considering that the public are, in this respect, in the hands of the moneyed interest, I thought it best to agree to such bargain as we could make, and accordingly voted against this, viz., the motion to limit the term of the bank to the year 1801, instead of 1811. Accident threw me in company with these men, but I abhor their design of destroying the bank altogether. Mr. Morris came very late this day, indeed not until all the business was over, but he desired leave to have his vote inserted on the minutes, which was granted to him.

Dinner with the President.

Dined with the President this day. Sundry gentlemen met me at the door, and though I rather declined, they pushed me forward. After I had made my bows, and was inclining toward a vacant seat, the President, who rose to receive me, edged about on the sofa, as he sat down, and said, here is room; but I had put myself in motion for another vacant seat. A true courtier would have changed, but I am not one, and sat on the opposite settee or sofa with some New England men. At dinner, after my second plate had been taken away, the President offered to help me to part of a dish which stood before him. Was ever anything so unlucky. I had just before declined being helped to anything more, with some expression that denoted my having made up my dinner. Had, of course, for the sake of consistency, to thank him negatively. But when the dessert came, and he was distributing a pudding, he gave me a look of interrogation, and I returned the thanks positive. He soon after asked me to drink a glass of wine with him. This was readily accorded to, and what was remarkable, I did not observe him drink with any other person during dinner. But I think this must have been owing to my inattention.

Giles, the new member from Virginia, sat next me but one. I saw a speech of his in the papers, which read very well, and they say he delivers himself handsomely. I was, therefore, very attentive to him. But the frothy manners of Virginia were ever uppermost. Canvass back ducks, ham, and chickens, old Madeira, the glories of the ancient dominion, all amazingly fine, were his constant themes. Boasted of personal prowess, more manual exercise than any man in New England; fast, but fine, living in his country, wine or cherry bounce from twelve o'clock to night, every day. . .

Declared for the assumption and excise, &c. He is but a young man, and seems as if he always would be so.

But, after this digression, let me turn to the unexpected incident of dining with the President, and to his marked attention to me. He knows the weight of political odium under which I labor. He knows that my uniform opposition to funding systems, (at least, to ours,) assumptions, high compensations, and expensive arrangements have drawn on me the resentment of all the speculators, public creditors, expectants of office, and courtiers in the State. There is another point which, I presume, he does not know, viz: That I will receive no support from the republican or opposition party, there is not a man of them who is not aiming at a six dollar prize, and my place is the best chance in the wheel. But he knows enough to satisfy him that I will be no Senator after the 3d of March, and to the score of his good nature must I place these extra attentions. Be it so. It is, at least, one amiable trait in his character.

The Appearance of the President.

for

I have, however, now seen him for the last time, perhaps. Let me take a review of him as he really is. In stature, about six feet, with an unexceptionable make, but lax appearance. His frame would seem to want filling up. His motions, rather slow than lively, though he showed no signs of having suffered either by gout or rheumatism. His complexion, pale-now, almost cadaverous. His voice, hollow and indistinct, owing, as I believe, to artificial teeth before in his upper jaw, which occasioned a flatness of

The rest of this description wanting.

Friday, January 21. This was a day of no great business in the Senate. Colonel Gunn, of Georgia, wanted copies of the secret journal. Much talk passed about his application. He was, however, gratified. In fact, we have never kept our journal agreeable to the constitution. All the executive part has been kept secret without any vote for it. A committee is, however, appointed, and the matter will hereafter be under better regulation.

We received some lengthy communications from Captain O'Brien and the prisoners at Algiers. A committee of the Senate some time ago recommended a war with them. War is often entered into to answer domestic, not foreign, purposes. I fear such was the design of the present report. It was even talked how many ships should be fitted out, and of what force. But O'Brien seems to show plainly that a peace may be obtained on easy terms by furnishing them with naval stores. We have it plainly also from his letters that the French, Danes, and, above all, the British have done us all

the injury in their power with the Algerines. In fact, all who are at peace with them are decidedly against us, and have done us all the disservice they could. The former report was re-committed, and these papers referred to them.

Mr. Morris came late, and left us soon. We adjourned at about half after two o'clock. George Robinson, one of the clerks of the Treasury, returned from New York, where he had been sent by the Secretary. Among his letters he pointed to a packet, and said it contained ninety thousand dollars. How can I help believing that speculation was the object of his journey.

Saturday, 22. The Speaker of the House of Representatives (of Pennsylvania) called on me yesterday, asked me to go and visit with him this day. I agreed, and called at his house about ten. He was, however, gone. His House sat this day, and this will be his excuse. I went to the Chamber of the State Representatives. The resolutions against the excise were the order of the day, and were passed by a great majority. The arguments were not important, nor striking. Some ill-nature was expressed by Mr. Finley, against a Mr. Evans. I feel sincere pleasure that so much independence has been manifested by the yeomanry of Pennsylvania. Indeed I am fully satisfied that if a spirit of this kind was not manifested from some quarter or another, our liberties would soon be swallowed up. I trifled away the rest of the day. Much as was said in the Chamber of Representatives, they seem totally ignorant of the principle that seems to actuate the adherents of Hamilton. Taxes originally flowed from necessity. Ways and means follow unavoidable expense. Here the system seems reversed. The ways and means are obvious to every reader of a register of European taxes. We have lands, slaves, and cattle, and every article of European or Asiatic convenience or luxury is used among us. The difficulty is to find plausible pretext for extending the arm of taxation, and ways and means to consume the collected treasures; and the reigning party seem to consider themselves as wanting in duty, if the fiscal rentroll should fall short of the royal revenues of England.

Sunday, 23. I had firmly devoted this day to my family, in the way of writing letters, but just as I had adopted the resolution, a message was brought me from Governor Langdon, to go with him to meeting. This I could not refuse. Before I was half dressed, I received a polite note from Mr. Morris, to be one of his friends at a family dinner, and this I could not refuse; and before I had quite dressed, Langdon called on me. We attended at Arch Street

Meeting.

Dined with Mr. Morris. The company, Judge Wilson, Governor St. Clair, General Butler. General Irwin was expected, but did not come. We were sociable, and I sat later than I usually do.

Monday, 24th January. This day voluminous communications were introduced by Secretary Lear. A volume of a letter from Doctor O'Fallon to the President, avowing the raising a vast body of men in the Kentucky country to force a settlement in the Yazoo country; the state of Indian affairs, both in the southern and government northwest of the Ohio; the translation of all which was a want of more troops.

The Ten Miles Square.

But the most singular of all was a proclamation for running lines of experiment for the ten miles square. The message accompanying the proclamation calls for an amendatory law, permitting the President to locate lower down, and to lay half of the square in Virginia. This seems like unsettling the whole affair. I really am surprised at the conduct of the President. To bring it back, at any rate, before Congress is certainly the most imprudent of all acts. To take on him to fix the spot by his own authority, when he might have placed the three commissioners in the post of responsibility, was a thoughtless act. I really think it not improbable that opposition may find a nest to lay her eggs in, from the unexpected manner of treating this subject. The general sense of Congress certainly was that the commissioners should fix on the spot, and it may be a query whether the words of the law will warrant a different construction. The commissioners now are only agents of demarcation, mere surveyors to run four lines of fixed courses and distances.

Sold my stock: six per cent.'s at seventeen shillings four; deferred and three per cent.'s at nine.

Mr. Brown, of Northampton, called on me, and told me that Muhlenberg was very busy in giving oyster suppers, &c., and seemed to think that I should go more among the members, &c. I find that I will offend him and some others if I do not. But it is a vile commerce, and I detest this beast worshipping. How melancholy a thing is it that the liberties of men should be in the hands of such creatures-I cannot call them men. But Brown seemed to think that Muhlenberg had made an impression on the Governor or some of them. Be it so.

I went and called on a number of the members of Assembly, and Senators-all seemed fair and smooth. Some of them, indeed, said expressly that they would support me at the ensuing election, be