White House History #10 The Gold Spoon Speech of 1840

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Above: A Whig campaign broadside entitled “An Epitome of the Life of William Henry Harrison.” Lithographby Benjamin Owen Taylor (1840). Opposite: Portraits (details) of the 1840 presidential candidates, Martin vanBuren by George P. A . Healy (1858) and William Henry Harrison by James Reid Lambdin (1835).

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L ike Herbert Hoover, almost a centurylater, President Martin Van Buren faced a nationaldepression soon after taking office. They were called“panics” in those days, to describe the fear that sentpeople running on banks they had come rightly tobelieve stood on flimsy pillars of paper. The destruc-tion of the Bank of the United States by the Jackson-ians, with Van Buren an eager participant, shifted thefinancial center of the country from Philadelphia toNew York but deprived the economy of central gov-ernance and gave rise to risky private banks, fromwhich rivers of paper money flowed, with little backing.

The Panic of 1837, more widespread than the ear-lier one in 1819 that had ended James Monroe’s Eraof Good Feelings, caused profound suffering in theagricultural West, as it was then known, and the

South. The Jacksonian Democrats had ridden highsince the election of 1828; now the Whigs had theiropportunity. From the Northwest they drew for a sec-ond time that region’s great hero, William HenryHarrison. He was a public figure somewhat in theAndrew Jackson mold, only genteel and less contro-versial, a man approaching 70, with his noble deedswell in the past. Harrison’s name had been enrolledin the history books early in the century during theIndian war against Tecumseh and the Prophet. Harri-son, hero of the Battle of Tippecanoe,1 became theWhig candidate.2

The presidential campaign of 1840 was heatedand, to an extent, hilarious. At that time it was stillconsidered improper to campaign for oneself, soapart from a speech at his state capitol Harrisonremained for the most part at home in North Bend,

About the Gold Spoon OrationWilliam Seale

The Death of Locofocoism.This lithograph by David Clay-pool Johnston (1840) celebratesthe defeat of the loco-focos, orDemocrats, by portraying aMidas-like figure near death.The Devil in the window isplotting to lock the locofocoout of Hell. The dying figure issurrounded by several promi-nent Democrats including(from left to right): AndrewJackson (in women’s clothing),Francis Preston Blair (also seeillustration on page 9), LeviWoodbury, Martin Van Buren,Thomas Hart Benton, AmosKendall, and John Calhoun(holding a bottle of “Calhoun’slocofoco life preserver.”) Atleft, through an open door, astreet musician and a girl witha broom chant Harrison cam-paign slogans.

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Ohio. Otherwise, no presidential campaign had everbeen like this, and it would prove to be a harbingerof campaigns to come. The Whigs put on an organ-ized program of promotion that cast a broad net.When the Democrats sniffed that Harrison was ahick, the Whigs took it for a theme and gloried in it, proclaiming Harrison a plain sort of fellow at heart, a“hard cider man” (no fine spirits or wines) who livedin a log cabin (not true). The electorate drank it inand delighted in the campaign stunts. Whig support-ers put on a thousand fancy acts to draw the public.

For example, a large party of Kentucky folk rolled alarge paper ball all the way from their hometown toBaltimore, singing:

What has caused this great commotion, motionOur country through?It is the ball rolling on

For Tippecanoe and Tyler tooAnd with them we’ll beat the little

Van, Van, VanVan is a used-up man!


Loco Foco Expresses, Arriving at Washington, lithograph with watercolor, by H. R. Robinson (1838). PresidentVan Buren (left) is seen greeting two defeated political allies after a landslide Whig victory in the New Yorkstate elections. Incumbent New York governor William L. Macey (center) asks for a position, perhaps the“Office of Collector.” Representative Churchill C. Cambreleng is wiping his eyes, while a servant at the door isasking (in a Dutch accent) why the president has admitted the “rum-looking Covey.” A portrait of Francis Preston Blair hangs on the wall.

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1. William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, led an expedition of 300 regulars and 650 militia against the Shawnee confederacy, led by the Prophetand his brother Tecumseh. Early in the morning of November 7, 1811, camped on Tippecanoe Creek in northern Indiana, they were surprised by the Shawnee, butrallied under Harrison’s command and triumphed. Harrison gained the nickname “Old Tippecanoe.”

2. Harrison was formally nominated at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in December 1839. Henry Clay had been the favorite, but his confrontations with the Anti-Masonicelement quickly pushed him back. After continual balloting, Harrison won the nomination by a great majority. His running mate was John Tyler of Virginia, whohad come to the convention an ardent Clay supporter. Harrison had run for the presidency one time before, on the Whig ticket against the Jacksonian Van Buren in1836.

Log cabins rose where cabins had not been, asscenes for subscription banquets and balls. Campaigncoffers filled, as merrymakers danced reels andswilled hard cider. Large campaign paintings of Har-rison showed him the youthful military hero ofNorthwest legend, not the man of 67 who easilyremembered the American Revolution.

The public took to the Harrison idea in a big way,while President Van Buren, crushed by the nationalpanic, for which he was able to offer little relief, sim-ply had no response to his critics. Other issues of hisadministration subsided before the mighty visage ofthe panic. Van Buren’s name was carved in blame onthe terrible event.

In the early spring of the campaign year, perhapsthe most devastating spear was thrown at Van Burennot wholly in scorn, but with laughter, by a little-known congressman named Charles Ogle. It is Ogle’sgreat joke, phrased as an oration before the Congress,that is republished in this issue of White House His-tory, for the first time in its entirety since it rolled offthe presses 160 years ago and made Charles Ogle acelebrity.

Van Buren, a self-made man well-known for hispersonal refinement and taste, had been sufferingcriticism for being a dandy who did not understandthe problems of the average American. Many a presi-dent has felt the same barb, but Martin Van Buren’svery being seemed to support the charge. His Man-hattan tailor dressed him in the latest styles. A finehorseman, he rode spirited mounts, and his carriagewith its soft satin lining, “V.B.” imperiouslyengraved on its silver buckles, was positively regal.In his years in Washington during Jackson’s adminis-tration as secretary of state and vice president, thewidower had lived in notable comfort, part of thetime occupying the beautiful Decatur House, formerhome of the tragic commodore.

Van Buren’s White House was a magnificentplace; not that he did a lot to the house, but his man-ner of living there was very formal and elegant andrather lived up to the improvements made by AndrewJackson. To his table he brought the best wines; inparlors, newly centrally heated on his orders, guests

About the Gold Spoon Oration 9

Above: An 1840 Harrison campaign banner.

Right: A caricature of Francis Preston Blair, 1838.Blair, editor of the Globe and Van Buren supporter,was described by Ogle as “great exemplar of loco-foco beauty” who was managed by Van Buren “as a

showman does his puppet, and he runs or walks,leaps or jumps, as he is directed.” Ogle refered to

the Globe as Van Buren’s “Official Organ.”

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sat on fashionable ban-quettes he introduced tothe more somber furniturealready there. Sometimesthe White House windowsglowed with lamp- andcandlelight until 2:00 a.m.,and the lineup of widowsinterested in the presidentwas legendary. PresidentVan Buren was uncom-fortable at the big publicreceptions,3 so he seemedsnobbish: and presidentscan’t appear snobs, norcan their families. VanBuren was not helped inthis particular by hisdaughter-in-law AngelicaSingleton Van Buren whostood on a dais to receivethe public, surrounded by her women friends alldressed in white, suggesting a charming custom ofyoung Queen Victoria. It was the wrong house forthat.

With the financial picture gloomy everywhere,people began to take notice of the apparent high lifeat the White House. Fashionably dressed New York-ers poured from the trains into rented carriages toattend the president’s late parties.4 Guest lists weremixed with locals and politicians. Whig Congress-man Landaff Watson Andrews, from Kentucky,attended one of the dinners. The story was widelytold that he picked up a “golden spoon” from thetable and said, “Mr. Van Buren, if you will let metake this spoon to Kentucky and show it to my con-stituents, I will promise not to make use of any otherargument against you: this will be enough.”5

The story spread into the press. CongressmanCharles Ogle of Pennsylvania demanded to respondto it on the floor of the House of Representatives,

and the House sat as acommittee to hearhim. As the tall, ratherstriking Ogle, beganto speak, Congress-man Andrews inter-rupted to deny that hehad ever said such athing to the presidentand to claim he hadnever seen any goldspoons at the WhiteHouse. Undaunted,Ogle kept the floorand, turning his pierc-ing black eyes andthundering voice tohis colleagues and apacked gallery, beganan oration that musthave lasted a greater

part of the day. He was a small-town lawyer andwell-liked militia general. No stranger to the stump,he soon captivated his audience and kept it roaringwith laughter.

Ogle and many of his Whig colleagues had beenannoyed by the civil and diplomatic bill sent by theexecutive. It was a long and complicated series ofunrelated requests for money that was an ordeal forCongress to untangle. The bill had much in it that theWhigs disliked. Ogle addressed one part in particular,which called for an appropriation of $3,665 “foralterations and repairs of the President’s house, andfor the purchase of furniture, trees, shrubs, and compost, and for superintendence of the President’sgrounds.” Upon this he based the “Gold Spoon Oration” that, for awhile at least, made him a famousman.6

Ogle did his homework. A smart, indeed learnedman who read Greek and Latin with ease, the con-gressman did not hesitate invading the complexities


3. The public receptions of Van Buren’s period, which attracted about 5,000 people, were New Year’s, January 8 (anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans), and theFourth of July.

4. The traveling Chevalier De Bacourt, visiting Washington in Van Buren’s time, was told by his footman, who had been told by the White House chef (probablymeaning Joseph Boulanger) that people were demanding dinner invitations from him and threatening that if denied, they would not vote for Van Buren in theupcoming election. The chevalier found the White House a “pretty palace, surrounded by an iron fence.” Of Van Buren: “I scarcely recognized him, he had grownso fat. He wore a plain black coat and gray trousers and boots.” Chevalier De Bacourt, Souvenirs of a Diplomat, translated ed. (New York: Lippincott, 1885), pp.78, 66.

5. Congressman Landaff Watson Andrews vociferously denied this story in the Congressional Globe, April 14, 1840, but it was too delicious to dismiss.

6. A battle took place on the floor of the House over the White House part of the bill in the middle of March 1840.

Title page of Ogle’s oration as printed in the Congressional Record. It was also widely distributed as a pamphlet.

THE WHITE HOUSE

of public records. Where better to start than house-hold accounts, in stirring the old coals of kinglinessand monarchial affectation, which had haunted thepresidency since Washington’s time? In the office ofthe commissioner of public buildings, WilliamNoland, he went through the receipts and bills of theWhite House. In his oration he traced the purchasesof furniture, tableware, and gardening supplies. Thehistorian today journeys over the same papers, nowdarkened with age, all written out in ink, some ondecorative letterhead of long ago.7 One can onlyimagine the loyal Noland’s reaction to Ogle’s scruti-ny of the plain pine boxes of folded papers, all boundup in red ribbon by subject, as files were kept then.

Ogle’s “Gold Spoon Oration,” or “Address,” is amirror of politics and democratic attitudes in theUnited States at the time. In tone and language itsprings from the works of the humorists of the day,who were developing an American humor that wouldculminate later in Mark Twain. One is reminded ofSeba Smith’s Down East dialogues, put in the mouthof his character Jack Downing. James Russell Low-ell’s Hosea Biglow is akin to the character Oglemakes of himself in his oration. There is a touch ofthe more bawdy humorists of the Southwest at thetime, such as Johnson J. Hooper and Thomas BangsThorpe; the flavor of Davy Crockett’s stories is there,too. Scholars familiar with the “Gold Spoon Oration”puzzle why, although often quoted, it has not madeits way in full into anthologies of American humor. Itis a classic political oration, not dissimilar to thoseascribed to Sam Houston and Thomas Hart Benton inthe same period. Perhaps its length has kept it in hid-ing. Certainly the original, diminutive typeface andits cumbersome variations within the text make it dif-ficult to follow in the original. White House Historyhas corrected that.

The oration went to press immediately and wasdistributed as a string-bound pamphlet in tens ofthousands. It found its way to the newspaper officesacross the nation, and into many hands otherwise.8Not until the Civil War era did Ogle’s ringing wordsfade at last away from the White House. Until then it

was common for newsmen to refer to the Blue Roomas “Ogle’s Elliptical Saloon.” The oration gave a lan-guage for political mockery of the White House, untilthe issue of a president’s being nondemocratic or“kinglike” no longer meant much.

Van Buren, though a toughened politician, wasnaturally unable to overlook being the butt of popularmerriment. He pressed William Noland to do some-thing to help redeem him. The commissioner finallyissued this statement: “I . . . certify that no goldknives or forks or spoons of any description havebeen purchased for the President’s house since Mr.Van Buren became the Chief Magistrate of theNation.”9

William Henry Harrison carried the Whigs to victory. He journeyed to Washington in triumph,embarking first up the Ohio River by steamboat, thenon the National Road in a caravan of coaches, and,for the last 60 miles of the journey, aboard the steamcars. On the way he was feted in log cabins, crownedby white-clad maidens singing, and presented withglasses of cider. He was always affable and presi-dential, dressed in a blue suit with gilt buttons, a full,crimson-lined blue cloak, with his hair brushed for-ward à la Titus. After a few days rest in Washingtonat the National Hotel, he took a trip down into Vir-ginia to his birthplace, the fine old brick mansionknown as Berkeley. No one seemed to mind that itwas not a log cabin.

The day he went to live in the White House, Harrison delivered the longest Inaugural Address inhistory, his frail frame fighting the bitter cold. VanBuren vacated the White House on foot, walkingwith some other men to the Capitol for the inaugura-tion, then walking on to a friend’s house to watchfrom a window the jubilation that accompanied Har-rison’s progress down Pennsylvania Avenue. It tookCongress only a few days to appropriate for Presi-dent Harrison the household money it had denied toVan Buren, upping the figure to $6,000. A monthlater “Old Tippecanoe” lay in state in the same houseOgle had so vividly anathematized, the first presidentto die in office. n

About the Gold Spoon Oration 11

7. Alysha E. Black, “Making the Most of the Archives: Finding White House Documentary Sources at the National Archives,” White House History, no. 9 (Spring2001): 4–13.

8. In the Jeffersonian, Richmond, Virginia, the oration was branded “infamous lies” and Ogle a “Whig scullion.”

9. William Noland, statement, June 12, 1840, Papers of the Commissioner of Public Buildings, Record Group 42, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

And who pray is Martin Van BurenWhat wonders did he ever do?Was he in the battle of Orleans,

Meigs, Thames or Old Tippecanoe?Song of the Jackson Men

T he presidential election of 1840, bit-terly fought between the incumbent JacksonianDemocrat Martin Van Buren and his Whig chal-lenger William Henry Harrison, was among themost flamboyant and acrimonious campaigns inAmerican political history. In many respects itwas the defining election that introduced theatri-cal drama and established political procedure forgenerations to follow.It was the first presidential contest to witnesscandidates personally appealing to the electoratefor their votes. That milestone occurred on June 6, 1840, when 67-year-old Harrison stood beforea crowd of 25,000 in Columbus, Ohio, and deliv-ered the first presidential campaign speech everuttered by a candidate.The 1840 election witnessed the formation ofthe first national party platform, for which theDemocrats laid down nine planks, including anexplicit rejection of abolitionism. Political theaterwas propelled to new heights when an estimated

75,000 Harrison supporters proudly marchedthrough the streets of Baltimore. Picnics and bar-becues, time-honored political vehicles, wereenlarged on a grand scale to attract the throngs ofvoters.This election was the first to give voice topolitical songs and slogans—the sound bites ofthe 19th century. For the first time a flood ofcampaign memorabilia including badges, tokens,lithographs, jewelry, and assorted trinkets werecirculated for political support. More than any-thing else however, the election of 1840 was allabout perception, not substance.President Martin Van Buren, son of a tavernkeeper and farmer, obtained his early educationfrom village schools in New York. As a youngman he developed a successful law practice repre-senting small farmers and merchants againstwealthy landowners. Liberal politics attractedhim to the Jacksonian principles of equality forthe workingman. Secretary of state in AndrewJackson’s cabinet, he was once referred to by thepresident as “a true man in whom there is noguile.” This stood in appalling contrast to VanBuren’s shrewd abilities of “noncommittalism,”justly earning him his reputation as “the Red Foxof Kinderhook” or “the Little Magician.”1 VanBuren acknowledged being Jackson’s politicalprotégé in his 1836 Inaugural Address, proclaim-ing his intentions to “tread in the footsteps of myillustrious predecessor.” Within weeks of assum-ing office the Van Buren administration wasstruck with the Panic of 1837, which overshad-owed the entire term.

Mudslinging Log Cabin Style

Imagery from the Election of1840: Myth and Reality

Clifford Krainik

A campaign textile from the election of 1840 picturing a log cabin and a barrel of hard ciderabove an image of William Henry Harrison. WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION (WHITE HOUSE COLLECTION)

During the election of 1840, Van Buren’sopponents characterized him as seen in theaccompanying transcript of Charles Ogle’s “GoldSpoon Oration.” Whig candidate William HenryHarrison swept the election of 1840 after a cam-paign extolling his humble “log cabin” origins. Inreality, Harrison was born at Berkeley, a magnifi-cent Georgian mansion overlooking the JamesRiver in Virginia. In fact, it was the work forceof 200 slaves needed to run the estate who werehoused in log cabins. Harrison had establishedhis reputation as a war hero by defeating ChiefTecumseh and his confederacy at the 1811 Battleof Tippecanoe and again in the Battle of theThames during the War of 1812. In the latter,Tecumseh was killed, and his Native Americanalliance in the Northwest Territory was destroyed.Harrison was first nominated for the presiden-cy in 1835. He lost the election to Van Buren, butdefeated him four years later. Harrison’s politicaltriumph was a combination of the response tohard times that befell the nation during VanBuren’s administration and the ability of theWhigs to shamelessly promote their candidate.In the opening salvo of mudslinging during thecampaign of 1840 the Democrats took a misstepby referring to Harrison as a has-been who wouldbe content to retire to a log cabin and comforthimself with hard cider (the ever-present drink ofthe frontier). In a brilliant turnaround, the Whigsseized upon the imagery of the common man.The log cabin became the badge of honor appear-ing on the mastheads of campaign newspapers,political cartoons and prints, china and glassware,hats, banners, tokens, and medals. The Whigs didthe better job of promoting their candidate: only18 of the 153 political badges and medals relatingto the 1840 presidential election in the DeWittCollection of Presidential Americana promote thecandidacy of Martin Van Buren.The majority of the Harrison campaign tokensfeature the profile portrait of the candidate in mil-itary uniform, the unmistakable design of a logcabin, and references to Tippecanoe and hard

cider.2 Log cabin raising became a popular pro-motional activity; the most celebrated was the 50by 100 foot log cabin erected on Broadway inNew York City. Large numbers of barrels filledwith hard cider were generously distributed atevery Whig function. Harrison’s supporters alsocoined the first political slogan—“Tippecanoe andTyler Too” and the derisive jingle “Van, Van is aused-up man.” Music played a role in the elec-tion of 1840 with the publication of songs set tofamiliar tunes such as “The Harrison and LogCabin Song Book,” “Log Cabin and Hard CiderMelodies,” and “Tippecanoe Song Book.”3 VanBuren’s supporters failed to make their entry ontothe music charts.While promoting their candidate as a man ofthe people, the Whigs created a contrasting imagefor the incumbent president. Whigs in Congressrefused Van Buren an appropriation of $3,665 toperform repairs to the White House, accusing himof eating off golden plates, drinking the finestFrench wines, and transforming the White Houseinto a palace more fitting for royalty than a ser-vant of the people. They went on to charge himwith perfuming his whiskers and wearing a corset.A record 80 percent of the electorate voted inthe election of 1840, giving Harrison a close popular win (53 percent to 47 percent) and anoverwhelming victory of 234 to 60 votes in theelectoral college. The vast voter turnout was duein part, no doubt, to the style and intensity of theelectioneering. Personalities aside, the economywas the real issue of the election of 1840. Thelegacy of the Harrison campaign was the lessonsit provided for future national candidates, inwhich an emphasis on popular symbols andimagery would take apparent priority over ideasof substance. The great mythology of the electionfor 1840 stems from the creation of images contrary to reality. For the first time in history,slogan writers and songsters, lithographers, andmakers of political memorabilia played an essen-tial role in electing the president of the UnitedStates.


1. James C. Curtis, The Fox at Bay: Martin Van Buren and the Presidency, 1837–1841 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1970).

2. Edmund B. Sullivan, American Political Badges and Medalets 1789–1892, rev. ed. (Lawrence, Massachusetts: Quarterman Publications, 1981) 55–89.

3. “Getting the Message Out! National Political Campaign Materials, 1840–1860–Campaign Songbooks.” Internet political research project sponsored bythe Institute for Museum and Library Service, provided by Northern Illinois University Libraries. (http://dig.lib.niu.edu/message/songs.html)

CHARLES OGLE (1798–1841) of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, was born into a family of distinguished statesmen and destined for a life in politics. Both hisfather and nephew were representatives to Congress. Ogle served three termsin the House; initially an anti-Masonic candidate, he became a Whig in 1837 and was chairof the powerful House Committee of Roads and Canals. The apogee of his political careeroccurred in the House on April 14, 1840, when he delivered the “Gold Spoon Oration”—an exhaustive and scathing indictment of Martin Van Buren’s expenditures for furnishingthe White House.


WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON (1773–1841) swept the election of 1840 portrayed as a man of the people. His campaign was filled with exuberance, imagery, and music, revo-lutionizing the way American presidential campaigns were waged. The first presi-dent to be photographed while in office, Harrison’s daguerreotype likeness was taken at the Capitolon Inauguration Day, March 4, 1841, but the whereabouts of the photograph is unknown.

Daguerreotype (probably a copy of an oil painting) by Southworth and Hawes, c. 1850. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of I.N.P. Stokes, Edward S. Hawes, A lice Mary Hawes, and Marion Augusta Hawes

MARTIN VAN BUREN (1782–1862) was born in Kinderhook, New York. Son of atavern keeper, he shrewdly navigated his way through local and state politicsto emerge as Andrew Jackson’s valued adviser. Standing 5 feet, 6 inches tall,plump, and always fastidiously attired, the astute politician was proclaimed “the LittleMagician.” His critics scorned his lavish life in the White House during the campaignof 1840. He lived on to run for president again, travel the world, and write the first presidential memoir.

Daguerreotype portrait, c. 1845, photographer unknown. Chicago Historical Society

Imagery from the Election of 1840 17

The east front of the United States Capitol as it would have appeared during the election of1840 (six years before this view was taken). Boston architect Charles Bulfinch designedthis first Capitol dome, a low bowl-like wooden structure covered with copper. It wascompleted in 1824, during James Monroe’s administration.

Daguerreotype by John Plumbe Jr., 1846. Library of Congress


LEWIS CASS (1782–1866) of Michigan, soldier and statesman, served as Andrew Jackson’s secretary of war and later envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to France.In 1840 he published a collection of essays describing his experiences entitled, France,Its King, Court, and Government. Ogle quoted from Cass’s work in his “Gold Spoon Oration.”

Daguerreotype, c. 1855, photographer unknown. Chicago Historical Society

A gilded mantel clockdepicting Minerva anda gilded beechwoodpier table are amongthe objects that CharlesOgle described as giving a “regal magnificence” to the White House. Purchased by PresidentJames Monroe in 1817and pictured here in theEntrance Hall in 1999,they remain in use in the White House collection today.

Photo by bruce White for the Whitehouse historical association

In his “survey” of the “sumptuous” and“dazzling” rooms of President Martin Van Buren’s“palace,” Congressman Charles Ogle first visited theEast Room. Unfinished since 1817, the East Roomhad been completed for President Andrew Jackson in1829, with the new furnishings—including wall-paper, draperies, carpeting, lighting fixtures, andsome furniture—purchased from Philadelphia suppli-er Louis Veron. Ogle quoted a newspaper description of the room

(United States Telegraph, December 1829) to showhow “brilliant and princely” it had become (page46–47 of speech). Two references in the article repre-sent 1829 East Room objects supplied by Veron thathave survived in the White House: “Under eachchandelier is placed a round table of beautiful work-manship, with Italian black and gold [marble] slabs,”and “Each pier is filled with a beautiful pier table,richly bronzed and gilt, corresponding with the roundtables.” The surviving pieces—three center tables intwo sizes and one of four pier tables—bear the paperlabel of the noted Philadelphia cabinetmaker Antho-ny Gabriel Quervelle. These mahogany masterpiecesare important examples of his robust empire stylecraftsmanship, although some of the gilded orbronzed ornamentation that might have attractedOgle’s contempt has been removed, probably in thelater 19th century. Ogle queried whether “all this glittering display

of costly finery” was too suggestive of governmentsin which such furnishings “confer not only the meansof luxurious enjoyment, but of ‘civil superiority.’”He failed to mention, however, that Congress had

approved funds to finish the room in 1826 underPresident John Quincy Adams, monies that appear to have been spent on other repairs. Whether or not an Adams refurbishing of the vast East Room mighthave been simpler than Jackson’s, for Ogle’s purposes the decoration of the room by the Democ-rats was decidedly too “gorgeous” and happily forhim, vulnerable to political censure.In the 1829 newspaper description of the East

Room that Ogle quoted, the seat furniture is men-tioned only briefly: “The sofas and chairs are cov-ered with blue damask satin” (page 47). As part ofPresident James Monroe’s refurnishing of the house,William King Jr., a cabinetmaker in Georgetown, hadprovided a suite of 24 armchairs and four sofas forthe unfinished East Room in 1818. Solid and well-made of mahogany, they may have been inspired bythe gilded French suite by the noted Parisian cabinet-maker Pierre-Antoine Bellangé that had arrived inthe President’s House for Monroe in 1817. Finallygiven a show fabric in the 1829 completion of theroom, they seem not to have attracted Ogle’s specialattention. The suite remained in use until the roomwas refurbished in 1873; some of it, including thechair illustrated, was acquired by John T. Ford, thetheatrical entrepreneur who had earlier run Ford’sTheater in Washington, and descended in his family.Two additional chairs have been returned to theWhite House, one of which descended from WilliamJ. MacPherson, a Boston interior decorator in chargeof the 1873 redecoration.As the “Blue Elliptical Saloon,” the oval room on

the state floor was outfitted first with its name-defin-

White House Collection

Those Princely Objects inCharles Ogle’s Speech

William G. Allman

ing blue fabrics in 1837 for President Van Buren.When seeking out “some of the articles with which ithad been furnished before Mr. Van Buren became itsoccupant” (page 50), Ogle eyed a gilded bronze man-tel clock that had been acquired by President Monroein 1817. He described it thoroughly by translating theentry on the original French bill:

1 superb FRENCH GILT mantel time-piece,representing Minerva leaning on her buckler, onthe face of which the clock is placed; the wholestanding on a square bronze pedestal, adornedon three sides with military trophies in bas-relief. The entire work is bronzed, elegantlycarved, and richly gilded.

The case was made by the noted Parisian bronze-smith Pierre-Philippe Thomire, whose shop, employ-ing nearly 800 craftsmen, worked for all the majorEuropean courts in the Louis XVI and Napoleonicperiods. The movement is by Louis Moinet Sr., andthe dial is marked with the names of both the bronzi-er and clocksmith. Monroe’s agents in France, Rus-sell & La Farge, reported that they had “great diffi-culty in getting Pendules [clocks] without Nudities,and were . . . forced to take the two models we havebought on that account.”1 This clock stands today onthe Monroe pier table in the Entrance Hall. The second of President Monroe’s “Pendules

without Nudities” was described by Ogle as “theheavy gilt bronze mantel time-piece, representing

24 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (NUMBER 10)

Among the furnishings Ogle listed in the East Roomare: mahogany tables by Anthony Gabriel Quervelleof Philadelphia—one of three center tables placedunder the chandeliers and one of four pier tablesplaced between the windows; and a mahogany arm-chair, one of a suite of 24 chairs and 4 sofas made byWilliam King.

Photos by bruce White for the White house historical association

1. Russell to Monroe, May 25, 1818, in House Report 79, 18th Congress., 2d session, 1824–25, 262.

27 pieces of the Bellangé suite. He cited the fourtabourets, or X-shaped stools, crediting them with aroyal function and quoting the specifications for theirfinishing and upholstery from the 1817 bill (page52). Making fun of them, he asked if the peoplewould not object to “dressing up these tabby-cats innew damask silk frocks” (page 53). Although none ofthe four tabourets have been located since their dis-posal with much of the Bellangé suite at an 1860White House auction, eight other pieces have beenreturned to the Blue Room since 1961: four arm-chairs, two side chairs, one bergère, and one sofa. With the boldest upper-case letters Ogle wrote of

the special fault he found with the dining table in VanBuren’s White House: “There is a feast of gold forthe eye that would have satiated King Midas himself.. . . It required the enormous sum of ELEVENTHOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONEDOLLARS AND THIRTY-TWO CENTS OF THEPEOPLE’S CASH TO BUY THE TABLE ‘FURNI-TURE.’ . . . Every dollar of that large sum . . . withthe exception of $1,125, was expended since the daysof the plain, frugal, economical, republican, retrench-ing reformation of Jackson and Van Buren com-menced” (page 66). The gold on the table, however,was principally the Monroe plateau and accompany-ing baskets, stands, and vases, which, at least forOgle’s purposes, had cost the comparatively inconse-quential sum of $1,125 in 1817.The gilded silver dessert flatware that Jackson had

bought in 1833 was actually a fairly small part of the$9,000 spent by him on silver and services of chinaand glass. As Ogle recorded it: “The gilt dessert set iscomposed of TABLE SPOONS, SWEETMEATSPOONS, TEA OR COFFEE SPOONS, KNIVES,FORKS, &c. &c., one hundred and forty pieces”(page 66). This, along with 338 pieces of silver, allhandsome French empire ware of the period1809–19, was acquired secondhand from the estate ofthe former Russian minister to the United States, theBaron de Tuyll (Major General Baron FeodorVasil’evich Teil’-fan-Serooskerken) at a cost of$4,308.82. Among the gilded silver flatware remain-ing in the White House today are 18 dessert spoonsand one sugar or sweetmeat spoon by François-Dominique Naudin, who was also the maker of thesilver soup ladles and gravy spoons, all extant. Anadditional 27 spoons by Pierre-Joseph Dehanne may

be part of the de Tuyll set. None of the 36 gildeddessert forks or 60 silver dinner forks have survived;they were possibly among the flatware melted downin 1894 to make new gilded dinner and breakfastforks still in use today.While attacking the gilded tableware, Ogle did

admit that the dessert flatware was not pure gold,although that hardly lessened his disdain that evengold-plated ware appeared on Van Buren’s table:

It may be proper to remark that pure gold isgenerally considered too ductile and soft tomanufacture into knives, forks, and other uten-sils, which require some degree of firmness orwant of pliability. The gilt or gold service,therefore, used in the palaces of kings and at thecastles of wealthy noblemen in Europe, is com-posed of a slight substratum of silver, thicklyplated or overlaid with pure gold. And hence, Ipresume, the gilt service of the President wasmanufactured after the same manner. No honestdemocrat, however, by taking up the variousarticles of which it consists, would be led todoubt a moment that they are made of gold,without any alloy. They may be pure gold,though I am inclined to believe otherwise, inas-much as they were procured from one of thegreat nobles of the Russian Empire (page 66).

In trying to counter Ogle’s suggestions of ostenta-tious and wasteful display, William Noland, the com-missioner of public buildings, called on Robert Key-worth, “a respectable gold and silver smith of theCity [of Washington]”2 to certify that the dessert flat-ware was not solid gold. A craftsman and merchantoccasionally patronized by the White House between1837 and 1850, Keyworth himself is cited in Ogle’sspeech (page 76). For having repaired silver decanterlabels in 1837, he was drawn into Ogle’s biting com-ment: “Martin Van Buren must suppose, forsooth,that the farmers, mechanics, and laborers of the Unit-ed States are so very stupid, or so very good-natured,that they will without murmur consent to be taxedwith the price of his LIQUOR STAND, and for SIL-VER and GOLD CHAINS to hang labels around thenecks of his ‘foreign barrel shape flute decanters’”(page 79). Although the decanter labels have not sur-vived, Keyworth is represented in the White House

Those Princely Objects in Charles Ogle’s Speech 29

2. Noland to Hon. Walter Coles, June 25, 1840, National Archives, RG 42, Office of Public Buildings, Letters Received, vol. 30, no. 3002.

today by a partial silver tea service—cream pitcher,waste bowl, and sugar tongs. Its acquisition undocu-mented, it may have been acquired in the Van Burenadministration but more likely a decade later, around1850.

Although focusing on the gilded tableware, Oglealso cited the silverware in Jackson’s 1833 de Tuyllacquisition: “The silver plate consists of SOUPTUREENS, SAUCE BOATS, PLATES, diversesgrandeurs, BOTTLE STANDS, SOUP LADLES, &c.&c. &c., three hundred and thirty-eight pieces” (page66). A high proportion of the holloware—61 of 69pieces—has survived in the White House, includingboth tureens and all six of the oval dishes or platters(Plats ovale des diverses grandeurs) that Ogle incom-pletely identified with only the last two French wordsfor “different sizes.” These pieces, as well as mus-tard, salt, and cruet stands, vegetable dishes, and athree-piece coffee set, are the work of Martin-Guil-laume Biennais, who, operating a Paris shop thatemployed up to 600 workers, was Napoleon’s

favorite silver producer. Among the flatware listedwith the silver, the soup and gravy spoons and 21 of36 tablespoons, all by François-Dominique Naudin,have survived, but none of the dinner knives, tableforks, or skewers. Half of 36 dessert knives with sil-ver blades have survived. The latter is the only sur-viving flatware made by Biennais; its inclusion withthe gilded silver on the contemporary English trans-lation of the invoice suggests the knives were gildedwhen received, although they were not listed as suchon the original. As a concluding slap about the tableware, Ogle

remarked (page 67), “I do not know that the rich goldand silver service is shown on all occasions; proba-bly it is only when the elite are invited.”

After criticizing the more than $10,000 worth oftableware acquired by Jackson and Van Buren, Oglevisited the “the only piece of table ‘furniture’ whichhas not been purchased since the democratic days ofretrenchment and reform”—the Monroe “‘Sourtout,’or bronze gilded Plateau . . . with the richly-gilded

30 WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (NUMBER 10)

“A pretty formidable article of dinner furniture” was how Ogle described the bronze gilded plateau made inParis about 1817 and shown in the State Dining Room in 2000. The centerpiece is accompanied by three baskets with figures of the Three Graces and stands with ornamental sphinx figures. Its mirrored floor reflectsthe gallery of fruit and vines and the classical female figures holding candles. Fully set up it extends 14H feet.In Van Buren’s day it would have been decorated with wax flowers and candles.

Photo by bruce White for the White house historical association

baskets, tripods, and Etruscan vases which accompa-ny it, [that] cost in Paris 6,000 francs, or $1,125”(page 66). Describing the ensemble thoroughly byparaphrasing the detailed 1817 invoice, Ogle seemedless concerned about its original cost than the factthat “some four of five months after Mr.Van Burentook possession of the palace, he paid seventy-fivedollars of the People’s cash to Mr. ZachariahNicholas for dressing up the Plateau, and it nowlooks quite new.” Still gracing the State DiningRoom table during receptions, the plateau—madeand marked by the large Parisian bronze-making firmof Denière et Matelin, c. 1817—was called by Ogle“a pretty formidable article of dinner furniture.”Finally directing “your attention for a few min-

utes to the magnificent set of Table Glass,” Oglementioned in some detail a set purchased by Presi-dent Jackson in 1830 and 1833, totaling $2,375, butthen reproduced fully a bill for only $220 worth ofglass actually acquired by Van Buren (page 68–69).He criticized that 1837 bill for including green fingerbowls for Van Buren’s “soft, white, lily fingers” andcut-glass wine coolers that he called “foreign”although the bill does not document a non-Americansource, only that the supplier, James P. Drummond ofNew York, was an importer and dealer. The winecoolers in fact were probably supplemental to theJackson service first purchased in 1830 from thenoted Pittsburgh glasshouse, Bakewell, Page &Bakewell. Two examples of wineglass coolers or rin-sers of the Jackson pattern survive, possibly fromamong the six dozen acquired from Drummond in1837 or from an additional dozen acquired in 1846.Thirty-five pieces of the Jackson service or itsreorders survive in the White House, mostly servingpieces such as decanters, water bottles, compotes,and celery glasses. The single surviving cordial glassis shown here in one of the wineglass coolers. Noneof the green finger bowls remain.

OBJECTS ILLUSTRATED

MANTEL CLOCK (p. 22), gilded bronze/ brass spring-drivenmovement, c. 1817, Paris, case by Thomire & Co., movement byLouis Moinet Sr. (1768–1853). U.S. Government purchase, 1817.

PIER TABLE (p. 22), gilded beechwood, marble, and mirrorglass, c. 1817, Paris, Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (1758–1827). U.S.Government purchase, 1817.

CENTER TABLE (p. 24), one of set of three, mahogany andmarble, c. 1829, Philadelphia, Anthony Gabriel Quervelle(1789–1856). U.S. Government purchase, 1829.

PIER TABLE (p. 24), mahogany, marble, and mirror glass, c.1829, Philadelphia, Anthony Gabriel Quervelle (1789–1856).U.S. Government purchase, 1829.

ARMCHAIR (p. 24), mahogany, 1818, Georgetown, D.C.,William King Jr. (1771–1854). Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John FordSollers Sr., 1986.

VASES (p. 26), pair, porcelain, c. 1817, France. U.S. Govern-ment purchase. 1817.

MANTEL CLOCK (p. 26), gilded bronze/ brass spring-drivenmovement, c. 1817, Paris, case by Denière et Matelin (partner-ship c. 1797–1820), works by unitdintified clocksmith. U.S. government purchase, 1817.

ARMCHAIR (fauteuil) (p. 26), gilded beechwood, c. 1817, Paris,Pierre-Antoine Bellangé (1758–1827). Gift of Catherine Bohlen,1961.

CANDELABRUM (detail) (p. 27), one of a pair, gilded bronze,c. 1817, Paris. U.S. Government purchase, 1817.

BUST (p. 27), marble, after Giuseppe Cerrachi (1751–1801),modeled c. 1790–94, carved c. 1815, Italy. U.S. Government pur-chase, 1817.

SUGAR OR SWEETMEAT SPOON (p. 28), gilded silver,1809–19, Paris, François-Dominique Naudin. U.S. Governmentpurchase, 1833.

DESSERT SPOONS (p. 28), gilded silver, 1809–19, Paris,François-Dominique Naudin. U.S. Government purchase, 1833.

JACKSON STATE SERVICE (selections) (p. 28), cut andengraved glass, first order 1829–30, Pittsburgh, Bakewell, Page& Bakewell. U.S. Government purchase, 1830 and later. celeryglasses, 1830 or 1842; wineglass cooler, 1837 or 1846; cordialglass, 1830 or 1833.

PARTIAL TEA SERVICE (waste bowl, cream pitcher, tongs) (p. 28), silver, c. 1835–51, Washington, D.C., Robert Keyworth(1795–1856). U.S. Government purchase, c. 1837–51.

SERVICE (selections) (p. 28), silver, 1809–19, Paris, Martin-Guillaume Biennais (1764–1843). U.S. Government purchase,1833.

PLATEAU (p. 30), gilded bronze and mirror, c. 1817, Paris,Denière et Matelin. U.S. Government purchase, 1817.

Those Princely Objects in Charles Ogle’s Speech 31

A three-page letter written by Martha Custis Peter to her granddaughter “Markie” (pictured top right, Carte-de-visite c.1869), describes the arrival of President-elect William Henry Harrison in Georgetown prior to his Inauguration in Febru-ary 1841. The original letter is self-folded into an envelope postmarked “Georgetown, D.C.” The letter remains in theCollection of Tudor Place (pictured opposite c. 1873–74, detail).

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF TUDOR PLACE ARCHIVES

The following text is from a letter in theCollection of Tudor Place Historic House andGarden in Georgetown, D.C., and it describes thearrival of President-elect William Henry Harrisonto the capital. It was written by Martha Peter, aprominent citizen of the area, who was well posi-tioned to comment upon such a momentous event.Martha Custis Peter was born at Mount Ver-

non, Virginia, in 1777, the second of four childrenof John Parke Custis (Martha Washington’s sonby her first marriage to Daniel Parke Custis) andEleanor Calvert Custis. In 1795 she married awealthy landowner, Thomas Peter. With a legacybequeathed by George Washington to Martha, thePeters purchased 8H acres of property in George-town Heights. The Peters asked their friend Dr.William Thornton, architect of the first UnitedStates Capitol, to design a home suitable for theirgrowing family. Delayed by the War of 1812, theneoclassical house known as Tudor Place wascompleted in 1816.When she wrote this letter in 1841, Martha

Peter was a widow. Her two sons, John ParkeCustis and George Washington Peter, were mar-ried and settled in Maryland. The eldest of herthree daughters, Columbia, had died suddenly in1820. Her second daughter, America, was livingin Buffalo, New York, with her family. Her third

daughter, Britannia, lived at home at Tudor Place;it was she who would later inherit the house andgrounds. Mrs. Peter’s letter is to her granddaughter,

Martha Custis Williams (1827–99), called“Markie” by her family, the eldest child of America Peter Williams and Captain William G. Williams. Written while Capt. Williams was in charge of harbor improvements on Lake Erie,the letter was sent to Markie in Buffalo. WhenAmerica died in 1842, Capt. Williams brought hisdaughters, Markie, Columbia, and Kate, and hisyoungest son, Orton, back to Georgetown to beraised by their mother’s family. Tudor Placebecame their home.

Tudor Place Feby 131841

I was much gratified my Dear Martha by thereceipt of the joint letter of you, & your Mother,which came to hand yesterday. your hand writingis much improved, & I hope you will take greatpains to acquire A neat style of writing, as it isvery pleasing to see A young Lady neat in everything that she does—I am pleased to find thatyour time is so occupied with study, & hope youwill receive great advantage from it. The districthas been quite alive for the last week with the

President-elect Harrison Arrives in Triumph

Wendy Kail

A Letter from Home

Martha Custis Peter toMartha Custis Williams

Tudor Place February 13, 1841


President Elect—he arrived from Baltimore lastMonday, & altho we had A most terrible day—very cold & snowing all day—yet the Multitudeturned out to receive him at the depo, & the poorold Man walked from there to the City Hall with-out his Coat—Genl Vanness1—whose Carriage isalways at hand to serve A President. offered hisCarriage & 4 to take him but he prefered towalk—not expecting such A day, the arrange-ments by the City Committee was, that the com-pany should walk & I suppose he determined thathe would do as others did—on Thursday hereceived the Ladies of Washington at the CityHall & yesterday he came to George Town, &received all who wished to be introduced at theColumbia Bank2 –where A handsome Collationwas prepared to refresh him after his fatigue—ABarouche & 4 gray Horses—received him at theBridge with the Citizens & the College Boys—&Children from other schools—an Arch wasthrown from Edward Linthicum Corner3 to theopposite Corner—ornamented with evergreen &Flowers, & A hand-Flag—several Flags werehung out—from different Houses—your UncleCalvert Stuart4 came here the day before, &wished to see Genl Harrison—Darling5 & myselfdid not wish to pay our respects at this time, aswe prefered doing so, on the 4 of March RobertDick6 came up— & said he called to see if wewished to go to see the Parade—your Uncle Washn,7Uncle Calvert, & Mr. Dick were our escorts.Darling stoped at Edward Linthicums hard

ware store, with Mr. Dick & your Uncle W—butCalvert wished to go to the Bank, to see all thatwas to be seen—I told him I would go with him,but not to be introduced. we waited to see the pro-cession come up—& had A full view of the Lion.he is quite A genteel good Looking old Man, whoappears to have Health, Strength, & energyenough for the duties he is about to undertake. &

much more honest countenance than Martin. thegreatest cordiality exists between the two greatMen—Martin, called on the General, the Generalreturned his visit—the General dined with Martinyesterday, so to day Martin dines with the Generalat Gadsbys where he is staying. Kings are permit-ted to dine with Kings I suppose. The old manmade A speech at the Bank that delighted hishearers, & we are in great hopes that the districtwill improve during his administration. I wroteyour Mother that your Aunt Jane8 had anotherson—he is to be called James Henderson9 shesays he is A very fine Child, brown hair, fair skin& bright Eyes—give Mr. Bun10 A kiss for hisGrandmother, & she is much pleased that he hasbecome so accomplished. I conclude I shall soonhear his taking Likenesses. give my love to yourMother & tell her she has never given any direc-tion respecting the $50—I wrote her Your UncleWashn had placed in my hand for her—We sawyour Aunt Dick yesterday, she with your otherfriends always request to be affectionatelyremembered to you, your Mother & family. youare much more gay, in Buffalo than we are in thedistrict. No parties in G- Town, except sociablesamong A sett of young Ladies, not of our sett. &few in Washington, that we are acquainted with—we were at Mrs. Meads—& that is the only nightwe have been out—give our love to Lum,11 & tellher whenever she is disposed to write she must doso, as we shall be very happy to pay the postageof her Letters. I will write to your Mother nextweek—your Dr Aunt Britt unites with me in loveto you, your Mother, & the several members ofyour family present our respects to all enquiringFriends.that health & happiness may attend you throughLife my Dear Child, is the earnest prayer of your

ever affectionate GrandmotherM P

1. General John Peter van Ness (1770–1846) was the first president of the National Metropolitan Bank. He was mayor of the City of Washington from 1830to 1834.

2. The Bank of Columbia stood on Bridge (M) Street. 3. Edward M. Linthicum’s hardware store was located on the corner of High Street and Bridge Street (Wisconsin Avenue and M Street). 4. Charles Calvert Stuart (b. 1794) was Martha Peter’s half-brother. 5. “Darling” was probably Martha Peter’s youngest child, Britannia Wellington Peter (1815–1911), who resided with her at Tudor Place.6. Robert Dick (1800–70) was the son of Thomas Peter’s sister, Margaret Peter Dick, and Thomas Dick of Bladensburg, Maryland. 7. George Washington Peter (1801–77) was Martha and Thomas Peter’s son.8. Aunt Jane was Elizabeth Jane Henderson Peter (b.1812), the wife of Thomas and Martha Peter’s son John Parke Custis Peter (1799–1848). 9. James Henderson Peter (1841–60). 10. “Mr. Bun” (or “Bunny”) was William Orton Williams (1839–63), Markie’s youngest brother. “His taking Likenesses” refers to portrait painting.11. Columbia Wingfield Williams (1828–86), Markie’s sister, was called “Lum” by family members.

SPEECH OF MR. OGLE,OF PENNSYLVANIA,

ON

The Regal Splendor ofthe

President’s Palace.

DELIVERED IN

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

APRIL 14, 1840.

This is a transcription, with endnotes added, of the full 32 pages printed in the CongressionalRecord. Neither spelling nor punctuation has been changed from the original, although obvious

errors in punctuation have been corrected silently. Transcribed January 2001.

THE HOUSE being in Committee of the Whole on the bill making appropri-ations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Government for the year1840, MR. OGLE, of Pennsylvania, moved to amend the bill by striking out the

following clause: “For alterations and repairs of the President’s house and furniture,for purchasing trees, shrubs, and compost, and for superintendence of the grounds,three thousand six hundred and sixty-five dollars.”1

MR. OGLE said: Mr. Chairman, I consider this a very important item in the bill—not as to the amount, but as to the principles involved in it. I doubt much the policy of thisGovernment in granting the Chief Magistrate emoluments or revenues of any kind, overand above the fixed salary paid to that officer out of the Treasury of the United States.Although most of our former Presidents were in the enjoyment of some of these adventi-tious revenues, I am well aware that none of them retired from office with an over-abun-dant fortune; for, sir, no former Chief Magistrate ever acted upon the principle notoriouslyadopted by the present incumbent, of spending the money of the People with a lavish hand,and, at the same time, saving his own with sordid parsimony. The President, withoutincluding many valuable incidental emoluments, (whereof I will speak before I conclude,)receives more than quadruple the sum paid to the head of either of the Departments, whilethe current private disbursements of the incumbent of that high station are certainly notgreater than the expenditures of one of his Secretaries. Is there a gentleman on this floorwho does not believe that the present Chief Magistrate “lays up,” yearly from $15,000 to$20,000, and all hard money at that?

But, Mr. Chairman, I object to this appropriation on higher grounds. I resist the prin-ciple on which it is demanded as anti-democratic—as running counter in its tendency tothe plain, simple, and frugal notions of our republican People. And I put it to you, sir, andto the free citizens of this country, whose servant the President is, to say whether, in addi-tion to the large sum of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS which he is entitledto receive for a single term of four years, they are disposed to maintain, for his privateaccommodation, A ROYAL ESTABLISHMENT at the cost of the nation?Will they longerfeel inclined to support their chief servant in a PALACE as splendid as that of the Caesars,and as richly adorned as the proudest Asiatic mansion? Have the People chosen that ser-vant to superintend the great and diversified interests of the nation; or will they consentthat his time shall be occupied with the vanities, luxuries, and pleasures of life? Do theydemand that his talents and all the energies of his mind shall be devoted to the dischargeof the proper duties of his stewardship, or will they agree that he shall lapse into the samesloth and effeminacy which distinguish the dwellers in other palaces? Have the affairs ofthe People been so advantageously managed that the servant specially appointed to takecharge over them may, without detriment to the Commonwealth, sink into the “levity ofmanners,” and abandon the care of the public service, to “eat, drink, and be merry?”

Although I have a peculiar “disenchantment,” to discuss on this floor topics which havean appearance of involving personal rather than political considerations, still I am con-strained by a sense of duty to offer some remarks in relation to the incidental revenues—the


annual profits and expenditures of the President of the United States—the magnificentsplendor of his palace, and the pompous ceremonials that “hold sway” at his republicancourt, and which are by many well-meaning people imagined to be equally indispensable“to preserve the dignity”of a Democratic Chief Magistrate as of the despot on the throne.I feel inclined, however, to examine these subjects with all “decency and respect” for the“high office” now filled by Martin Van Buren and I trust with a proper disposition “not tospeak evil of the ruler of my people.” But, sir, I am not ignorant that, in pursuing thecourse which I have marked out, it will become necessary to tread upon grounds that informer ages of the world were deemed, and in all despotic Governments of the presenttime are still considered, “too delicate and sacred to be profaned” by the tongue of a plaincitizen or subject. Who does not remember that the good Queen Elizabeth hesitated not toenjoin upon her Parliaments that it was improper “to deal, to judge, or to meddle with hermajesty’s “prerogative royal?” And history fully informs us that all such impertinent inter-meddlers were disposed of in the most summary manner. I well know, therefore, that Ishall awaken and rouse into action the base and malignant passions of the fierceCerberuses which guard the portals, and the well-fed placemen and officeholders, thefawning sycophants, and other abettors of high prerogative, that environ the person of theroyal incumbent of the Presidential palace, with the vain hope that they can parry the well-directed arrows of republican archers. Growl, and snarl, and snap as these guardianExecutive curs may, I shall nevertheless indulge myself on the topics indicated with a pret-ty liberal range of remark. I will not, assuredly, be restrained from the fullest exercise ofthe freedom of speech by the licentious course of the accredited “organ” of Martin VanBuren. I refer to the “Globe”—a newspaper which receives its pabulum not “from thecrumbs which fall from the rich man’s table,” but from enormous largesses and profitablecontracts, voted for its sustenance from the treasury of the people—a paper that holds itsexistence by the sole tenure of Martin Van Buren’s sovereign good pleasure, and whichpromulges daily, through its broad pages, not the thoughts and motives of the miserablescavenger whose name it ostensibly wears, but the wishes and designs of his despoticmaster—a paper, sir, that is published “BY AUTHORITY.” 2 What honest man has readwithout feelings of burning indignation, in the recent lucubrations of this “OfficialOrgan,” the foul, not to say beastly, assaults against the character and patriotism of thevenerable and heroic defender of the violated honor and invaded rights of his country?Who has not been fired with anger at beholding in Martin Van Buren’s organ the false andmalignant representations of the hero of Tippecanoe—as a “superannuated old woman”—a “pitiable dotard”—a “granny”—a “red petticoat general”—as the “hero of fortydefeats”—as delivering “inaugural addresses to pigs and poultry”—as “shut up in an ironcage, and compelled to wear an iron mask, and drink hard cider!”3 “No other person (saysthe Globe of April 13, 1840,) is permitted to come near him but an old servant waiter, whobrings his meals, and performs THE NECESSARY DUTIES OF THE CAGE. None of thedomestic animals are allowed to come near the cage; and a favorite dog, WHO RANAWAY WITH HIM IN ALL HIS BATTLES, having been observed to bark very signifi-

Speech of Mr. Ogle of Pennsylvania onThe Regal Splendor of the President’s Palace 37

cantly, after an interview with his master, was forthwith knocked in the head and throwninto the Ohio.”

I ask you, Mr. Chairman, whether Martin Van Buren manifests a “decent respect” forthe opinions and intelligence of the American People, when he vilifies, through the agencyof his official organ, an old soldier, who, to rescue “thousands of women and childrenfrom the scalping knife of the ruthless savage,” freely abandoned all the endearments ofhome and family, endured the icy and piercing blasts of northwestern winters, wadingthrough the deep and cold waters and black swamps of Michigan and upper Canada, sus-taining, at times, an almost famished nature upon “raw beef, without salt,” and often per-illing life on the field of battle? Poor simple-minded old veteran, he was, no doubt, fool-ish enough to believe that, having given the best energies of his body and mind in youth,manhood, and mature age, to serve and defend the honor, the rights, the property, and thelives of his fellow-citizens, he would at least, in common courtesy, be entitled to theirrespect, if not their love and gratitude. He doubtless supposed, that, at all events, his feel-ings would have been spared the brutal assaults of the official organ of an individual who,in those soul-trying times, was acting in unison with the “Peace Party,” in opposition tothe virtuous James Madison—that good democratic President who, in a special messageto Congress, had patriotically recommended an appeal to the valor of the nation as theonly proper course to maintain the honor of its flag. If cruel treatment like this is deemeda suitable reward for the soldier’s toils and dangers, where, hereafter, let me inquire, shallhe find incentive to cheer and fire his heart in the hour of danger and on the “field of bat-tle?” Sir, I know the generous feelings of your bosom revolt at the thought; that you areready to exclaim, forbid it Justice, forbid it Gratitude; and that you are prepared to exhortthe noble-minded youth of the country to resent the insult, and sustain the hard-earnedfame and laurels of the brave and successful commander of the American armies—a com-mander who, according to the testimony of Col. Richard M. Johnson, “was oftener inaction than any other general, and never sustained a defeat.”4 And seeing that gallant andvictorious general maligned and libelled day by day in the “official organ” of Martin VanBuren as a “red petticoat hero” and “superannuated dotard,” I feel impelled by a strongsense of duty to cast aside every sentiment of mere delicacy and to “cry aloud and sparenot” the abettor, the encourager, and the responsible accessary of those base libels. I shalltherefore claim the right to discuss the political principles, the public conduct and behav-ior of Martin Van Buren, with that perfect freedom which should characterize the inde-pendent representative of a plain, honest, and brave constituency. Where I discover mean-ness, I will expose it to the contempt and loathing of honorable men; where I encounteraudacity, I shall maul its brazen head, and level it in the dust; and where I detect corrup-tion, I shall run my spear into its putrescent carcass, up to the very hilt.

Let me now, Mr. Chairman, turn your attention to the amendment under consideration.It proposes to strike out of the bill the sum of $3,665, intended for alterations and repairsof the President’s house, and for the purchase of furniture, trees, shrubs, and compost, andfor superintendence of the President’s grounds. The “site” of the Presidential palace is


perhaps not less conspicuous than the King’s house in many of the royal capitals ofEurope. It is situate at the intersection of four spacious avenues, which radiate from thispoint as centre. The “palace-pile” is one-hundred and seventy feet front, and eighty-sixdeep, and stands about the centre of a plat of ground containing twenty acres, the wholewhereof is surrounded by firmly built stone walls and lanceolated iron railing, with impos-ing portal abutments and well barred iron gates. The main entrance front faces north, uponLafayette square, and the garden front to the south opens to an extensive view of the riverPotomac. As the palace is very accurately described by Mr. Elliott, in his “Picture ofWashington,” I will read a portion of that description.5

“It is built of white freestone, with Ionic pilasters, comprehending two lofty stories of rooms, crownedwith a stone balustrade. The north front is ornamented with a lofty portico, of four Ionic columns in front, andprojecting with three columns. The outer intercolumniation is for carriages to drive into, and place companyunder shelter; the middle space is the entrance for those visiters who come on foot; the steps from both leadto a broad platform in front of the door of entrance. The garden front is varied by having a rusticated base-ment story under the Ionic ordonnance, and by a semicircular projecting colonnade of six columns, with twoflights of steps leading from the ground to the level of the principal story.”

Previous to its destruction by the British army, on the 24th of August, 1814, there hadbeen expended in building the palace the sum of three hundred and thirty-three thousandtwo hundred and seven dollars; and since that period the further sum of three hundred andone thousand four hundred and ninety-six dollars and twenty-five cents, in rebuilding theinterior, and in erecting the two splendid porticoes; making together the large amount of$634,703.25 laid out on the palace structure alone, to say nothing about the very liberalsums that have been expended from time to time on the furniture, on alterations andrepairs, on the garden, grounds, stone walls, iron fencing, and for the “stalls” for the Royalstabled steeds. It may be proper further to state that all the disbursements for iron fenc-ing, for stabling, and for the superb porticoes and splendid Ionic pilasters, at the north andsouth fronts of the palace, have been incurred since the Administration of John QuincyAdams went out of power—the porticoes alone costing the sum of $24,769.25.6 Greatimprovements have been made within a few years past in the PRESIDENT’S GARDEN.It is situated, as before remarked, on the south side of the palace, and is believed to cor-respond in its general arrangements with the style and fashion of some of the most cele-brated royal gardens in England. It has a choice collection of both native plants andexotics, many of the latter having been gathered from almost every clime. Ornamentaltrees and beautiful shrubs have been “selected with great care” from the most celebratedspecimens, and are now growing luxuriantly. The orangery, though not as yet on a veryextensive scale, is fast improving. Rich and charming shrubbery and parterres “greet theeye” in every direction. Nor should I omit mention that, in addition to the numerous fam-ilies of the tulip, the lily, the pink, the rose, and many thousand other sweet flowers andshrubs, which all the lovers of beneficent Nature admire, the garden contains someexceedingly rare botanical and medicinal specimens; and, for the “benefit of the infirm,”I will give both the “polite” and the “vulgar” names of a few of them:Gerardia Flava, False Fox Glove.


Solidago Lanceolata, Golden Mad.Orontium Aquaticum, Golden Club.Circaea Canadensis, Enchanter’s Nightshade.Dracocephalum Virginianum, Dragon’s Head.Saururus Cernuus, Lizard’s Tail.Prenanthes Serpentaria, Lion’s Foot.Ophioglossum Vulgatum, Adder’s Tongue.Mimulus Alatus, Monkey Flower.Clematis Odorata, Virgin’s Bower.Viola Primulifolia, Heart’s Ease.Impatiens Maculata, Touch-me-not.7

But, sir, besides those rare, and, no doubt, very valuable plants, &c. there are someother varieties that are cultivated pretty extensively in the President’s garden, whichaddress themselves for admiration more immediately to the palate than to the eye of thebeholder—such as fine Neshanock potatoes, honest drumhead and early York cabbages,white and red sugar and pickle beets, marrowfat peas, carrots, parsnips, &c. &c. withabundance of the fragaria Virginiana, or strawberry, the dewberry, raspberry, &c., &c. Inshort, sir, the President’s garden, in all its arrangements and beauties, its trees, shrubs,vines, plants, flowers, and esculents, is in perfect keeping with the sumptuous and mag-nificent palace. I may add that we have been informed, by an official report communicat-ed to Congress in December last, that, during the past season, “the public grounds at theCapitol and the PRESIDENT’S MANSION have been faithfully attended to by the PUB-LIC GARDENER AND THE HANDS UNDER HIM. The trees have been skilfullypruned and trained;many choice ornamental trees and shrubs have been planted; and theplats, borders, and gravel walks have been kept in SUPERIOR ORDER.” The reportmight also have stated, with perfect truth, that men had been hired by the Government,and paid out of the public Treasury, to pick up falling leaves, and pluck up by the rootsthe xanthium spinosum and rumex acetosella, or, according to vulgar “lingo,” burdock andsheep sorrel.

As the President’s garden is enclosed by a high stone wall, and as the gates are gen-erally secured with locks, very few persons, I have been informed, visit it, except by spe-cial invitation, or in company with the President or some member of his household.8 Thisexclusion, however, does not extend to Members of Congress, some of whom, (and moreespecially such as are favorites,) every alternate season, that is, during every long session,frequently take a stroll through the garden and adjacent grounds. The present session ismy fourth at Washington, and I have been in the garden twice; but on both occasions, we(another member was in company) were compelled, on reaching the western end of thegarden, to clamber over the stone wall, finding the gates locked.

In regard to the progressive improvement of the grounds and garden of the President,various suggestions have recently been made, and particularly by individuals whose tasteand nice discrimination (in matters of luxury and refinement) have been greatly improvedby a visit to the magnificent gardens at the palace of Versailles, and to some of the richand sumptuous parks and gardens belonging to the Crown of England. It is supposed bythose persons that the President’s grounds would present a more complete and finished


appearance by erecting Parian marble balustrades on either side of the main gravel walks;by building some twenty or thirty miniature temples and pavilions at regular intervalsalong and adjacent to the southern outer-wall; by constructing five or six artificial lakesand fountains to pour their silver waters through the mouths of “huge river gods and sea-horses,” with double the number of jets d’eau to fill the atmosphere with spray and vapor.To these improvements might well be added two or three hundred pieces of the first classof Italian statuary—such, for instance, as Saturn, Jupiter, Juno, Mercury, Diana, Neptunus,Aeolus, Apollo, Venus de Medicis, the Loves and Graces, the Naiades, and Dryades, JollyBacchus and the Bacchantes, Vulcan and his Cyclops, Hercules, Pan, Plutus, Midas, andthe Dragon that guarded the Golden Apples in the garden of the Hesperides.

There is only one other ornament which may with great propriety be procured, inas-much as it would serve to illustrate and perpetuate in a suitable form the truth of a veryimportant historical event, and that ornament should be a bronze colossal equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson with the little Kinderhook magician mounted on beside him.9This statue I would have conspicuously placed upon the stone balustrade which crownsthe palace. Before the administration of J. Q. Adams, the appropriations for improving thePresident’s grounds had been very trifling. During his term, however, two considerablesums were voted by Congress for that purpose. The first of these grants was five thousanddollars by the act of the 25th of February, 1825, for levelling, grading, and improving thePresident’s square. The second grant was five thousand eight hundred and sixty five dol-lars by the act of the 22d May, 1826 for finishing the fences, graduating and improvingthe public grounds. Prior to the disbursement of these appropriations, the grounds pre-sented a rude, uneven, and shapeless appearance; not a few of the pristine sandy knollsand small hollows still remained. The fencing, too, was quite imperfect; but, by the exer-cise of a commendable economy in the expenditure of the sums just mentioned, and bythe application of the money in the most beneficial manner to accomplish the objects con-templated by the laws, the grounds of the President were brought into fine condition, thefences were put in excellent order, the “high” hills were made plain, and the “deep” val-leys were made smooth, and the entire grounds, by the close of Mr. Adams’s Presidency,wore a style and finish quite acceptable to the taste and judgment of our plain, republicanfarmers. But a new order of things was soon destined to take place. You, sir, and I, and alarge majority of the American people, about the time whereof I have been speaking, wereincautiously led to believe that Mr. Adams was a lavish spendthrift, and that his adminis-tration was not only wastefully extravagant, but that it was rapidly verging the very con-fines of monarchy, in the magnificent decorations of the Presidential palace, and by thestudied introduction of court ceremonials. You doubtless well remember the voluminousreports and the indignant denunciations on the fruitful themes of extravagance and aris-tocracy that were spread before the country by the renowned champions of economy inboth Houses of Congress during the never-to-be-forgotten winter of 1827–’8.10 You, sir,cannot fail, too, to recollect the lugubrious homilies which were then addressed to allpious and devout Christians in relation to the purchase by President Adams of a billiard


table, billiard balls, cues and chessmen. All these solemn exhortations were but the har-bingers of the memorable era of reform then about overtaking the Administration in itssupposed headlong departure from the pure precepts of the frugal, simple, democraticdays of the fathers of the republic. The pruning hook of retrenchmentwas about being ush-ered in to lop off all superfluous expenditure as “skilfully” as the same useful implementat this day prunes the redundant branches from the trees in the palace garden. The hicko-ry broom was also to be introduced in order to scrub away the filthy cobwebs of aristoc-racy then believed to be in the process of weaving within the very precincts of the palaceitself.11 The Augean stable was likewise to be cleansed by the reformers—a mightywork—and which in days of yore required the labors of Hercules—and no marvel—forhistory informs us that three thousand oxen had been confined in its stalls many years.

Well, the reformers attained to the full enjoyment of the powers of the Government inMarch, 1829; and here, Mr. Chairman, I almost feel inclined to resume my chair a fewmoments until we may all contemplate in silent admiration the strange results of that mostunique system of reformation which had the omnific words “RETRENCHMENT ANDREFORM,” inscribed on its flaunting banner.12 A reformation that has faithfully preservedin encouraging “retrenchment” until it has reduced the annual expenditures of theGovernment from the enormously prodigal amount of thirteen millions down to the tri-fling sum of thirty-nine million dollars. A reformation which has also exercised the wittyfaculties of its friends that they have given birth to a very useful (but hitherto occult) arith-metical rule, by which they are enabled to demonstrate, in a manner entirely satisfactoryto themselves, this odd proposition: that fewer units are contained in the number 39 thanin the number 13! And the foregoing result is reached with greater mathematical preci-sion than the sophomore, by the aid of “the black board,” can wade through the protract-ed series of ratiocination in the “Pons Asinorum.” Ever since 1829, this singular doctrineof “Retrenchment and Reform,” agreeably to the new arithmetical rule, has been the orderof the day, and the stern principles of a most rigid economy in every branch of the publicservice have been rigorously enforced—according to the new rule.

But, sir, the subject of “reform” is of a character too grave to be treated in this way. Itwould appear that it had never occurred to the reformers, that having come into powerthrough the “hue and cry” of extravagance, it was their highest duty, in conducting theaffairs of the Government, to square their practices in accordance with the doctrines theyhad so boisterously advocated. On the contrary, they seem to have forgotten all that hadever been promised on the subject of Retrenchment and Reform, for, in almost everydepartment of the Administration, the expenditures have been increased two, and in someof them four fold. This has been the case in an eminent degree in regard to the expensesfor the improvement of the President’s ground; you will be pleased to bear in mind that inthe year 1826 the sum of $5,865 had been appropriated for finishing the fences, graduat-ing and improving the public grounds, and that they had thus been placed in good condi-tion immediately prior to the advent of the Retrenchment Administration. Now, a gentle-man without experience in the practices of these reformers, would be disposed to believe


that they had not the boldness or the audacity to demand money to perfect a work whichhad already been finished in a plain substantial manner. Hold, Mr. Tyro,13 until you havefirst obtained a matriculation in the doctrines of “Retrenchment and Reform” as under-stood by the present Administration. In the mean time be good enough to turn to booksof United States statutes for the last eleven years, and you will there discover not less thanten several acts of Congress, appropriating large sums of money to improve thePresident’s grounds, &c. I will now present the committee with a list of those laws:

ACT OF 3D MARCH, 1829.For work to be done on or about the President’s House and enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .c$ 6,361.86

ACT OF 2D MARCH, 1831.For alterations and repairs of the President’s house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .cccc500.00For painting the President’s house, inside and out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .gg3,482.00For planting trees and improving grounds, including gardener’s salary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .gg4,000.00

ACT OF 2D MARCH, 1833.For alterations and repairs to the President’s house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .cccc500.00For planting trees and improving grounds, including the gardener’s salary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .gg4,660.00For pedestal, wall-coping, railing, and foot-way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .c10,000.00For constructing reservoirs and fountains at President’s house and public offices, and

enclosing and planting fountain square . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .sss6,723.00ACT OF 30TH JUNE, 1834.

For alterations and repairs at the President’s house, flooring the terraces, and erecting stables gg6,670.00For gardener’s salary, and for laborers employed upon the grounds and walks at the

President’s house, and for planting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .gg2,850.00For paving foot-ways at the north front of the President’s house, and making a gravel

carriage-way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$13,744.00ACT OF 3RD MARCH, 1835.

For alterations and repairs of the President’s house, and for gardener’s salary, and for keeping the grounds and walks in order, including the cost of trees and shrubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$4,200.00

ACT OF 4TH JULY, 1836.For alterations and repairs of the President’s house, for gardener’s salary, and for keeping

the grounds and walks in order, including the cost of trees and shrubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$3,460.00For constructing dwarf wall and fence between the Executive buildings and the President’s

house . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$1,165.50ACT OF 3D MARCH, 1837.

For alterations and repairs to the President’s house, and for superintendence of the grounds .$$7,300.00For constructing a dwarf wall and fence from the southwest corner of the President’s house .$$1,300.00

ACT OF 6TH APRIL, 1838.For alterations and repairs of the President’s house, and superintendence of the grounds . . . .$$4,815.00

ACT OF 7TH JULY, 1838.For laborers, and horse and cart and driver employed at the President’s square . . . . . . . . . . . .$$2,015.00

ACT OF 3D MARCH, 1839.For alterations and repairs of the President’s house, and furniture, and for superintendence

of the grounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$3,465.00For completing the special repairs heretofore proposed in the President’s house, including a

deficiency in a former appropriation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$1,511.22$88,722.58

Here we have, sir, the enormous amount of $88,722.58, squandered by these glorious


retrenching reformers in erecting stables, building dwarf walls and coping, constructingfountains, paving footways, planting, transplanting, pruning, and dressing horse chestnuts,lindens, Norway spruce, and Balm of Gilead; hauling and depositing rich soil for top-dressing flower beds and borders, training and irrigating honey suckles, trumpet creepers,primroses, lady slippers, and dandelions, cultivating sweet scented grass, and preparingbeautiful bouquets for the palace saloons. The President’s grounds contain about twentyacres. Our pseudo reformers have, therefore, expended on what they are pleased to call“improvements,” an average of $4,436.10 per acre, or $8,065.68 per annum, since thenewly invented arithmetical rule of retrenchment and reform has been put into successfuloperation. And yet they have the effrontery to demand an additional appropriation of$3,665 by the bill now under consideration. Some of the improvements or alterationsintroduced by the reformers are of a character truly novel. You will remember that, by theact of the 25th of February, 1825, the sum of $5,000 was appropriated for “levelling,”grading, &c., the President’s square, and that the Administration of that day took meas-ures to carry into effect the intention of Congress, by digging down the knolls, and by fill-ing up the hollows, and in this manner levelling or making plain and flat the surface of theground. But after all, Mr. Chairman, “variety is the very spice of life,” and so thought ourreformers. The survey of smooth lawns and gentling sloping meads, covered with richcoats of white and red clover and luxuriant orchard grass, made no delightful impressionon their eyes. No, sir; mere meadows are too common to gratify the refined taste of anexquisite with “sweet sandy whiskers.” He must have undulations, “beautiful mounds,and other contrivances,” to ravish his exalted and ethereal soul. Hence, the reformers haveconstructed a number of clever sized hills, every pair of which, it is said, was designed toresemble and assume the form of AN AMAZON’S BOSOM, with a miniature knoll orhillock on its apex, to denote the n—ple. Thousands of the People’s dollars have beenthrown away on these silly fancies, which are better adapted to please the sickly andvicious taste of palace dandies, than to gratify the simple eye of plain, republican freemen.

Although, from the earliest feudal times, all kingly establishments have been distin-guished for the extent and magnificence of their stalls for the “royal steeds,” yet, until theaccession of our reformers to the administration of the Government, stabling formed noappurtenance to the Presidential palace. But the predecessor of the present incumbent,with some other singular notions, had an ardent love for the horse race. His fleet coursers,consequently, must be provided for; stalls must be prepared, where they might be fed,lodged, sumptuously clothed, and waited upon by palace grooms appointed to that serv-ice. He “assumed the responsibility,” issued the necessary orders, and extensive structures,externally beautiful and internally commodious, were forthwith erected.14 Mind, Mr.Chairman, this expenditure was incurred without any authority in law. But the old chiefdid not mistake his power and influence over the minds of his party in Congress, for sub-sequently (30th of June, 1834,) he procured the passage of a law appropriating the sum of$6,670 “for alterations and repairs of the President’s House, flooring the terraces, andERECTING STABLES!” The money was, to be sure, granted for the purpose of erecting


stables, not to pay for stabling already erected. But no matter, it was applied to the latterobject. The particular phraseology of the act had the effect (whether intended to answerthat object or not) to keep the People ignorant of this petty exercise of arbitrary power.The introduction of the phrase “alterations and repairs of the President’s House” wouldnot have hindered the Executive, according to the ingenious mode of “constructing simi-lar expressions in other acts of Congress, from applying the whole appropriation to thestables alone. For instance, by the act of the 3d of March, 1839, the sum of $3,465 wasappropriated for “alterations and repairs of the President’s House, and furniture, and forsuperintendence of the grounds.” Now, to exhibit the ingenious construction given to thelanguage of the law just quoted by that officer of the President who has charge over thisimportant branch of the public service, I will present two or three vouchers for money dis-bursed by him in pursuance of that law:

“WASHINGTON, JUNE 14, 1839.Major Noland,15 Bought of Wm. Buist16

March 22d and 28th: To 4 dozen of large DAILY ROSES, at $1.50 each . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$72.00June 7th: To 2 VEREENAS, 75 cents each; 1 PETUNIA, 75 cents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$$2.25

$74.25June 15, 1839. Received payment in full. WM. BUIST

[Endorsed] “Alterations and repairs of the President’s House &c., $74.25. Wm. Buist’s receipt for SHRUBBERY, June 15, 1839. No. 3.”

“Commissioner of Public Buildings, To P. Casey, Dr.To 24 loads of MANURE delivered at the PRESIDENT’S GARDEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$15.00May 7. Certified by John Ousley.17

May 8, 1839. Received payment. P. CASEY.”[Endorsed] “Alterations and repairs of the President’s House, $15. P. Casey’s receipt for manure, May 11,1839. No. 22”

“Commissioner of Public Buildings, To sundry persons on account of MANURE.To Wm. Fitzgerald, 49 loads, at 37H cents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$18.37H

Thomas Grady, 95 loads, at do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35.62H

James Lee, 2 loads, at do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..75Wm. Brown, 43 loads, at do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16.12H

Michael Dooley, brooms 4, at 50 cents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.00$72.87H

I certify the above account to be correct. JAMES MAHER.”18

[Endorsed.] “Alterations and repairs of the President’s House, &c., $72.87H. Sundries for compost, July 1,1839. No. 6.”

Here, you will observe, Mr. Chairman, Congress made an appropriation for “repairs” ofthe President’s House, and the money has been applied to purchase manure to fertilize hispotato and cabbage beds. Congress made an appropriation for superintendence of thegrounds, and the money has been expended, not in overseeing the grounds, but in the pur-chase of large daily roses, verbenas, and petunias. Self-respect forbids me to denounce, insuitable terms, these petty acts of meanness and palpable breaches of official duty. Be


assured, however, that the officer who is not faithful over small things will not be faithfulover greater things. And now, Mr. Chairman, having taken a promenade through thePresident’s garden and grounds, let us enter his palace, and survey its spacious courts, itsgorgeous banqueting halls, its sumptuous drawing rooms, its glittering and dazzlingsaloons, with all their magnificient and sumptuous array of gold and silver, crimson andorange, blue and violet, screens of Ionic columns, marble mantels, with Italian black andgold fronts, gilt eagle cornices, rich cut glass and gilt chandeliers, suspended by beautifulGrecian chains, gilt eagle-head candelabras, French bronze gilt lamps with crystal globes,bronze and gilt French bracket lights, gilt-framed mirrors of prodigious size, large Italianslab mantel glasses, French gilt bronze mantel time-pieces, mahogany gilt-mounted androse-wood piano fortes, gilt-mounted bureaus, superb mahogany wardrobes, mahoganygilt bronze-mounted secretaries, damask, satin, and double silk window curtains, withgilded eagles, stars, and ornamental rays, royal Wilton and imperial Brussels and Saxoncarpets, gilt and satin settees, sofas, bergères, divans, tabourets and French comfortables,elegant mahogany gilt eagle-mounted French bedsteads, gilt plateaus, gaudy artificialflowers, rich blue and gold bonbons, tambours, compotiers, ice-cream vases, splendidFrench China vases, olive boats, octagon bowls, silver tureens, boats, and baskets, of veryrich work, golden goblets, table spoons, knives and forks, &c.

Sir, I shall detain you no longer with this enumeration of rich wares, for I am sure yourpatience would be severely tried were I to name even the tenth part of the curious, themagnificent, and the costly articles of luxury, of pride, and of show gathered into thepalace by the various caterers who have been engaged in that most important branch ofthe public service. But I cannot forbear, Mr. Chairman, to read you a description of thegreat banqueting hall, commonly called the “East Room,” taken from the United StatesTelegraph, (the Court journal of the day,) December, 1829. This room had been furnished,for the first time about that period, by the predecessor of the present incumbent. It is 80feet long, by 40 wide, and 22 feet high, and finished with handsome stucco cornice. Nowlet us hear the description:

“The paper is of a fine lemon color, with a rich cloth border; four new mantels have also been placed inthe room, of black marble, with Italian black and gold fronts; each fireplace has a handsome grate fixed; therewere, however, in the house before new bronzed and steel fenders, and sets of brass fire irons, and chimneyhooks have been added; each mantel is finished with a mirror, the plates of which measure 100 by 58 inches,framed in a very beautiful style; and a pair of rich ten light lamps, bronzed and gilt, with a row of drops aroundthe fountain, and a pair of French China vases, richly gilt and painted, with glass shades and flowers. Thereare three very splendid gilt chandeliers, each for eighteen candles, the style of which is entirely new; the colorof the glass and cutting perhaps exceed any thing of the kind ever seen. A small bronzed and gilt work, cor-responding with the mantel lamps, the niches and recesses of which are supplied with eight French bronzedand gilt bracket lights, each for five candles. The carpet, which contains near 500 yards, is of fine Brussels,of fawn, blue, and yellow, with a red border. Under each chandelier is placed a round table of beautiful work-manship, with Italian black and gold slabs; on the centre table is placed a beautiful thin light lamp, supportedby female figures; on the end tables are gilt astral lamps. Each pier is filled with a beautiful pier table, richlybronzed and gilt, corresponding with the round tables, each table having a lamp and a pair of French Chinavases with flowers and shades agreeing with those on the mantels. The curtains are of blue and yellow moreen,with a gilded eagle, represented as holding up the drapery, which extends over the piers. On the cornice is a


line of gilded stars, and over the semicircle of the door, besides large gilded and ornamented rays, are 24 gild-ed stars, emblematic of the States, and corresponding with those on the cornice.19 The stars have a very fineeffect. The sofas and chairs are covered with blue damask satin. All the furniture corresponds in color andstyle.”

The Court Journal awards great merit for the taste displayed in the selection and dis-position of the various articles, which, observes the Telegraph, “it is understood, hasreceived the entire approbation of the President.” After hearing this description, who candeny that this room, intended for the comfort of our democratic Chief Magistrate, isadorned with regal splendor far above any of the grand saloons at Buckingham Palace,Carlton House, or Windsor Castle? I ask you, sir, whether in furnishing the East Roomwith all its gilded eagles, gilded stars, gilded rays, golden slabs, gorgeous drapery, anddazzling foreign ornaments, a due regard has been paid “to the simplicity and purity of ourinstitutions,” or to the frugal, plain, unostentatious, and republican character of our peo-ple, who are represented in it? On the contrary, does not all this glittering display of costly finery, this blinding our eyes with the blaze of royal magnificence, approximate tooclosely the pride, pomp, and grandeur of those Governments in which stars and gartersand shining coronets confer not only the means of luxurious enjoyment but of “civil supe-riority?” I cannot but admire and wonder at the great number of lamps, candles, and brack-et lights, deemed necessary to illuminate a single room in the President’s palace. Let ussee:

4 “pair of rich ten light” mantel lamps, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 803 “very splendid gilt” chandeliers, each for eighteen candles, . . . . . . . . . . . . 548 “French bronzed and gilt bracket lights, each for five candles,” . . . . . . . . . 401 “beautiful thin light lamp, supported by female figures,” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 “gilt astral lamps on the end tables,” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 “lamps on pier tables,” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

180

Here, Mr. Chairman, our democratic President shines with the overpowering lustre ofone hundred and eighty lights. Had you the eyes of the fabled Argus, he would blind themall. It really appears as if he had intended not only to bedizen the vision of his democrat-ic friends, but to rival, by the effulgent beams of his palace, the “glorious king of day”himself. Brilliant and princely, however, as the East Room had been fitted up by the latePresident, it was destined to have its colors brightened, and its powers of attractionincreased, by the exquisite taste of its present occupant—for, in an official report made inDecember last, the following important and gratifying information is communicated toCongress:

“The East Room in the President’s mansion has been greatly improved, by being newly painted and paperedwith a rich, chaste, beautiful paper.”

The former paper was a “fine lemon color,” “with a rich cloth border,” but Mr. VanBuren had doubtless been apprized, either by one of his sons, who at the time was on mostfamiliar intercourse with, if not a resident at, the Court of St. James, or, perhaps, by a more


formal communication through the Lord High Chamberlain of her Majesty’s Household,that wall-paper of the “lemon color” had, during the progress of the last year, becomeunfashionable, and had not for several months been generally admitted as suitable for theparlors of the first grade of noblemen, much less for the royal banqueting saloons. Hence,Mr. Van Buren, as every person of rank and fashion, and more especially as every gentle-man born was, by the rigid laws of fashionable life, bound to do, issued his royal mandateon the first day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine,that the “paper of the lemon color, with a rich cloth border,” should be forthwith taken offthe broad walls of the Eastern room, and that “a rich, chaste, and beautiful paper” shouldbe substituted in its stead. That the first clause of this royal ordinance was faithfully exe-cuted, will distinctly appear from the following voucher:

“President’s House, to Henry Snowden, Dr.“To taking off the paper of the East Room, as per agreement with C. F. Wood, sixteen dollars, . . . $16.00“July 1, 1839. Received payment of Wm. Noland, Esq. HENRY SNOWDEN, his x mark.

“Witness, J. B. Rooker.”“Certified by Charles F. Wood”Endorsed—“Completing special repairs of the President’s House, &c. $16. Henry Snowden’s receipt forwork on the East Room of the President’s House, July 1, 1839. No.1.”

An official voucher now in my hands will also show that sixty pieces of paper, at $5each, making $300, were purchased from S. P. Franklin on the 20th August, 1839, for theEast Room, and that the further sum of $30 was paid to that gentleman for hanging thesame. And thus, sir, it is made manifest that not less than three hundred and forty-six dol-lars of the money of your constituents and of my constituents have been expended duringlast summer for the gratification of a womanish but costly whim, in substituting “a rich,chaste, and beautiful” silver paper, with golden borders, for the unfashionable “lemoncolor, with a rich cloth border.” But as a suitable recompense for this profligate waste ofthe public funds, the “hard-handed democracy” of the country have been officiallyadvised that “the East Room in the President’s mansion has been greatly improved.” Theymust therefore be content.

Mr. Chairman, there is a notable historical incident associated with this East Room, towhich I may with propriety recur whilst we are within the room itself, and before we passthrough the massive japanned doors into the magnificent Elliptical Saloon, where I nextpropose to conduct you. That historical event refers to the celebrated “East Room Letter,”addressed to the editor of the “Richmond Enquirer,” and dated at Washington January 1,1827.20 Here is the letter:

“This being the day on which the president’s house is thrown open to all visitors, I went, among others,to pay my respects to him, or rather, I should fairly confess, I went to see the EAST ROOM, for the furnish-ing of which we had voted twenty-five thousand dollars at the last session of Congress. I was anxious to seehow that amount of furniture could be stowed away in a single room, and my curiosity was fully satisfied. Itwas truly a gorgeous sight to behold, but had too much the look of regal magnificence to be perfectly agree-able to my old republican feelings.”19


To establish the falsity of this celebrated letter, I will refer you to extracts from twodistinguished public journals, one of them the “official organ” of General Jackson’sAdministration, and the other at that period in full communion with “the party:”

“It is well known that, through Mr. Adam’s aristocratic pride, this elegant room (i.e. the East Room) inthe President’s House, was left UNFURNISHED.”—U.S. Telegraph, Aug. 1, 1829.”

“The New York Courier and Enquirer” of November, 1829, states as follows:

“The coalition papers tell us that the East Room is going to be furnished. This, at the best, is bad author-ity; but, if it be true, we are happy to hear it. The manner in which Mr. Clay’s President kept the East Roomwas disrespectful to the office of President of the United States. Instead of its looking neat and clean, and tidy,and being decently furnished as the mansion of the President of a great republic ought to be, it was full of cob-webs, a few old chairs, lumbering benches, broken glass, and looked exactly like one of the apartments ofWindsor Castle, Holyrood Palace, or the Tower of London, those appendages to kings and monarchs. The headof a republic ought to give an example of the thriftiness and virtuous habits of the people who put him there.EVERY PLAIN REPUBLICAN, when visiting Washington, will now find a chair to sit down upon in the‘East Room.’ They wont be kept standing upon their legs, as they do before kings and emperors, and as prac-ticed by Mr. Clay’s President, till they are so tired as scarcely to know whether they have any legs to standupon. Unless general Jackson put GOOD, SOUND, SUBSTANTIAL FURNITURE into the ‘East Room,’ the‘REFORM’ is not complete in that quarter, and the People wont forgive him for neglecting it.”

What a strange commentary do the gorgeous and dazzling garnishments of the “EastRoom” afford in regard to the remarks of the “Courier and Enquirer,” which have justbeen read by the Clerk. “EVERY PLAIN REPUBLICAN,” forsooth, “when visitingWashington, will now find A CHAIR to sit down upon in the ‘East Room.’” Ay, Sir,EVERY PLAIN REPUBLICAN will now find a set of chairs in that splendid and royalsaloon, which took the round sum of SIX HUNDRED DOLLARS of the PEOPLE’SCASH to pay for. Is not that “sitting down” with a vengeance? “Mr. CLAY’S President(Mr. ADAMS) through aristocratic pride,”kept the East Room “full of cobwebs, a few oldchairs, lumbering benches, and broken glass.” On the other hand, Martin Van Buren—plain, republican-hard-handed-democratic-locofoco-Martin Van Buren21— has it now gar-nished with gold framed mirrors “as big as a barn-door,” to behold his plain republicanself in. What need he care if those mirrors have taken TWENTY FOUR HUNDREDDOLLARS OF THE PEOPLE’S CASH to pay for them? Is not such democracy a bur-lesque on common sense and common decency? But, Mr. Chairman, I am not done withthe “celebrated East Room letter.” That letter was not only false, but was, immediatelyafter its publication, known throughout the whole country to have been a sheer fabrica-tion, “from beginning to end.” For the sake of the author’s reputation, it therefore becamenecessary that his name should be withheld from the People. The editor of the RichmondEnquirer, instead of exposing the base coiner of falsehood, maintained the deep silence ofthe grave in regard to the writer of the letter during a period of almost four months; and itwas not until after repeated goadings that he became restive and sore, and began to man-ifest a proper disposition to clear his own skirts of the forgery. He accordingly announcedin the Richmond Enquirer of the 27th of April, 1827, in reply to an article in some othernewspaper on the subject of the letter, that “the account to which the writer refers respect-


ing the EAST ROOM was forwarded to us, as it purports, by one of the most intelligentand distinguished members of Congress.” This “most intelligent and distinguished mem-ber of Congress” turned out to be THOMAS HART BENTON, who subsequently becamemore distinguished as the author of the “Gold Humbug.”22 I said that his “East Room let-ter” was false throughout, and that it was made up of the whole piece of cloth: for itappears, at the very time (1st January 1827) that letter was written, describing the furni-ture of the East Room as gorgeous to a degree of “regal magnificence,” the room had nofurniture, excepting “a few old chairs, lumbering benches, broken glass,” and diverse fra-ternities of cobwebs. Sir, I go for these old reminiscences, and I hold that, when “one ofthe most intelligent and distinguished members of Congress” will deliberately sit down inhis chair and fabricate for publication a wilful lie, for the purpose of deceiving the People,he ought ever to be kept in fresh remembrance. His title should be branded deeply on hisforehead, as ever was the letter R on felon’s cheek. Sir, Thomas H. Benton begot thatfalsehood—it was proved upon him; and though other matters on account of youthfulindiscretion may be forgiven and forgotten, this base coinage he brought to his own door,and is and will be remembered by the People of the United States.23

Having paid our respects to the “East Room,” let us, Mr. Chairman, take of view ofwhat is, at the present day, called the “BLUE ELLIPTICAL SALOON,” though in formertimes it was known as the “Green Circular Parlor.”24 This apartment is nearly oval in form,and is forty feet long by thirty wide. In its beautiful shape, rich French furniture, showydrapery, costly gilded ornaments, and general arrangements, the “Blue Elliptical Saloon”has frequently been pronounced, in the judgment of the best connoisseurs, the choicestroom of the palace. It is believed to have been prepared and furnished very much after thestyle of the most brilliant drawing-rooms at the Tuilleries, Fontainbleau, Neuilly, and St.Cloud. To give you, sir, a proper idea of the “regal magnificence” of this saloon at thisday, I will first enumerate some of the articles with which it had been furnished before Mr.Van Buren became its occupant, and shall then show that he expended, in “improving” thefurniture of that room, during the first ten months of his presidency, the sum of $1,805.55of the PEOPLE’S CASH. SIR, NOT OF HIS OWN. The “Blue Elliptical Saloon,” amongthe other furniture, had the following:

1 superb FRENCH GILT mantel time-piece, representing Minerva leaning on her buckler, on the face ofwhich the clock is placed; the whole standing on a square bronze pedestal, adorned on three sides withmilitary trophies in bas-relief. The entire work is bronzed, elegantly carved, and richly gilded.

2 large GILT FRAMED MIRRORS.3 splended GILT EAGLE CORNICES.1 large glass and GILT chandelier of 30 lights, ornamented with female figures and a bust of Diana; the

branches being embellished with a head of Minerva.1 pair elegant bronzed and heavy gilt mantel branches, garnished with ivy leaves and female figures carry-

ing trumpets. 4 BRONZE AND GILT CANDELABRAS, supported by a figure standing on a round pedestal and bearing

a palm-tree, with five lights.1 pair of bronze and gilt andirons, with eagles in antique colors.1 set of splended PORCELAIN VASES, decorated with the rich landscape of Passey, embracing the man-

sion of Dr. Franklin, when he resided in France.


1 bust of Washington.1 GILT CONSUL TABLE, with marble top.3 sets of DOUBLE SILK window curtains.24 elegant GILT and SATIN CHAIRS.4 Do. do. SETTEES FOR RECESSES.2 Do. do. SOFAS and PILLOWS.2 Do. do. FIRE SCREENS.1 large elliptical French carpet.

This carpet was very elegant, and cost 9,059 francs. It was of the most brilliant anddazzling colors; had a splendidly embroidered work in the centre, representing a BaldEagle, “large as life,” with a scroll in his beak, inscribed with “E pluribus unum,” and withthe usual accompaniment of arrows in his talons; while the flag of America, emblazonedby the stars and stripes, waved over his head.

I said, sir, I would show that Mr. Van Buren had expended $1,805.55, within tenmonths after he had gone into possession, in making improvements in the “Blue EllipticalSaloon.” I prove this expenditure by an original voucher, which I hold in my hand, datedDecember 12, 1837, containing the bill and receipt of Messrs. Patton & Co., New York,for materials, &c., furnished to improve the President’s house. The entire bill, as receipt-ed, is $4,316.18; of that amount $1,805.55 was for articles, &c. for this room, viz:

“3 windows,” (curtains) , . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,307.50SATIN MEDALLION, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .176.37Silk cord, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24.66Plain satin, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38.12Galloon, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74.50SILK TASSELS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42.00Gimp, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54.65Repairing and covering 14 chairs, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.00Repairing and covering 2 sofas, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 24.00

Do. do. 4 TABOURETS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 8.00Do. do. 2 screens, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00Do. do. 5 FOOTSTOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25Do. do. 4 SETS PILLOWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00Do. do. Music stool, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.50

$1,805.55

Mr. Chairman, how do you relish the notion of voting away the HARD CASH of yourconstituents, of your farmers, mechanics, and poor laborers, for SILK TASSELS, GAL-LOON, GIMP, and SATIN MEDALLION, to beautify and adorn the “BLUE ELLIPTI-CAL SALOON? Suppose after you shall have turned to the charming prairies of Illinois,some plain, honest, republican “Sucker” should inquire what use a real genuine hard-handed locofoco democrat like Van Buren can have for silk covered pillows, footstoolsand TABOURETS in the “Blue Elliptical Saloon?” How would you reply to that hon-est Sucker’s interrogatory? Would’nt you acknowledge yourself fairly stumped? But sup-pose he would ask what sort of animals these TABOURETS or TABBY-CATS, are? I willendeavor to tell him, for I have lately given some little attention to this curious departmentof natural history. The TABOURET is an article of furniture, which in Europe or Asia, is


only to be met with in the richest saloons of monarchs. It is a convex seat without armsor back, and in form bearing a close resemblance to a Turkish standard or moon in her firstquarter; is composed of GILT WOOD, cushioned and stuffed with very fine black horsehair, covered with crimson damask, figured satin, and garnished with silk lace, GOLDFRINGE TASSELS, TUFTS, and STARS. It is supported by an X. Even before the daysof the Crusades, THE HONORS OF THE TABOURET were held in the highest esteem.This honor consisted in the distinguished privilege of sitting upon a TABOURET IN THEROYAL PRESENCE. By long and well-established court ceremonial law in many monar-chies, no individual in the kingdom is entitled to enjoy this high distinction, on grand galadays, save a DUTCHESS OF THE BLOOD ROYAL. In confirmation of what I have stat-ed in regard to the importance ascribed to the “honors of the tabouret,” I will read a sen-tence or two from a recent and very interesting work by Governor Cass, our distinguishedminister at the Court of St. Cloud.25 The book is entitled “France, its King, Court, andGovernment.” I read from page 84, London edition.

“Under the ancient regime, the right to have both folding-doors thrown open, OR TO SIT UPON ATABOURET WHICH IS A CUSHIONED STOOL, WAS ONE OF THE GREATEST HONORS A SUBJECTCOULD ASPIRE TO, AND EXCITED MORE SENSATION THAT MANY A POLITICAL EVENTAFFECTING THE PROSPERITY OF THE KINGDOM. On particular days, the King dined in public, whenthe principal personages of the court and the kingdom were seen standing at his chair, holding plates and tow-els under their arms and in their hands,” &c.

Mr. Chairman, I hesitate not to say that, if you inquire minutely into the history anduses of the tabouret, you cannot fail to discover that it has ever been regarded as amongthe indispensable regalia of a monarch, and is by many considered almost as essential tokingly paraphernalia as the royal jewels, the sceptre, the diadem, or even the crown itself.The four tabourets in the “Blue Elliptical Saloon” of the President’s palace were procuredfrom France, and cost 939 francs 8 centimes. Here, sir, is the bill transmitted to this coun-try with the tabourets:

“Detail d’un Tabouret en X .”Le bois dore 125.00H Etoffe a dessin at 35.00 217.502 Bordure trois pouces at 6.00 212.00do 18 lignes at 3.00 6.00O Pieces surfait at 2.50 1.651 Toile d’Embourrure at .75 ..757 lbs. Crin noir d’En chantillon at 2.20 215.40L Toile douce at 1.80 1.101M Cordonet en soie at .75 1.401M Fesarde 4 lignes at 1.00 1.851M Franges en soie at 15.00 28.12Facon et menues fournitures 24.00

234.77Les 4 tabourets en X 939.08

Now, sir, I should like to hear the honest opinions, not only of the plain, republican“Suckers,” but also of the “Hoosiers,” of the “Wolverines,” and of the “Buckeyes,” about


these tabby-cats. Wont they think “them animals rather dangerous critters” to be keptsnugly seated within the “Blue Elliptical Saloon”? Wont they object against Mr. VanBuren paying away THEIR CASH for the purpose of dressing up these tabby-cats in newdamask silk frocks? But I would also very much desire to learn of the views of these plainrepublican “Suckers” in regard to three new window curtains, bought by our democraticPresident for the “Blue Elliptical Saloon.” You will see by “the bill” that the $1,307.50 ofthe people’s cash was paid for these three curtains—making just $435.83 apiece. I am dis-posed to believe that the plain, republican “Suckers”will think $435.83 is a little too muchmoney to be laid out for “fixing”one window curtain. Why, sir, that sum would build threeor four comfortable “Log Cabins,” and finish them off completely, with puncheon floors,clap-board roofs, cobs ribs, eave-bearers, butting-poles, weight-poles, and ridge-poles,and including cat and clay chimneys into the bargain, and would also leave a few dollarsbeside to treat the folks who came to the “raisin” with as much HARD-CIDER as they canstow away under the belts of their linsey-woolsey hunting-shirts.

But, sir, what will those plain, republican “Suckers” say when I suggest that Mr. VanBuren doubtless, in the opinion of the “importers of French silks,” made money, or, tospeak with more propriety, saved cash to the people by the purchase of these three win-dow curtains at $1,307.50?—for the curtains, which now hang at the seven windows ofthe “East Room” required exactly $3,875.35 of the PEOPLE’S MONEY, or the moderatesum of $553.62 for each curtain. Do I startle your “old republican feelings?” Mr.Chairman, it rejoices my heart to behold that honest frown of disapprobation resting onyour brow at the recital of this prodigal and lavish waste of the money of your con-stituents. As I like always to be armed with the proof of every important fact which Idesire to bring before the country, I will present you, sir, the bill of items for the curtainsin the East Room. They were purchased from the firm of L. Veron & Co. in Philadelphia.Here is the bill:

216 yards long silk fringe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $410.4044 `` heavy cord silk fringe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121.00414 `` cotton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.72210 `` embroidered eagle muslin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352.80120 `` satin border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 492.00196 `` yellow silk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607.60132 `` blue silk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 377.52167 `` white silk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517.64Mr. Nolen’s bill for GILT RAYS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00A. Lejamber’s bill of ORNAMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255.75Putting up the curtains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274.36

3,495.85Profit 10 per centum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349.50Expenses of the upholsterers in Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00Cost of the East Room curtains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I$3,875.35

I have no doubt that the more rich and fashionable portion of Mr. Van Buren’s friendswill urge in his defence that the curtains purchased for the “Blue Elliptical Saloon” are


very cheap; that they are composed of the richest materials, and are in perfect harmonywith all the gorgeous arrangements in this magnificent saloon. Whereas the curtains whichwere there at the retirement of General Jackson were merely crimson damask double silks,that had been brought from Mr. Perdreauville for the trifling sum of four hundred and fiftydollars, and were not deemed by fashionable gentlemen and ladies sufficiently splendid tosuit the other drapery of the saloon. Whether this defence will be considered as good for$1,307.50 of the People’s cash, I leave the People themselves to determine.

We shall now, Mr. Chairman, take our leave of the “Blue Elliptical Saloon;” but beforewe pass out of the door, turn your eyes, and take a moment’s survey of the “tout ensem-ble,” not omitting the highly polished and beautiful marble mantel, with its superb but fan-tastic ornaments, and tell me whether this sumptuously garnished saloon bears the char-acteristics of an apartment intended for the accommodation of the CHIEF SERVANT of aplain, economical, hardy, and republican people? Or whether it does not more resemblethe Audience Room of a Monarch, in which he receives his sleek and ribband-bedeckedcourtiers, as they present themselves with their humblest genuflexions and prostrations,crouching like fawning spaniels to the hand which has it in its power to throw them abone?

On each side of the “Blue Elliptical Saloon” and communicating therewith by verylarge, smoothly varnished doors, is a parallelogram drawing-room, of 36 by 22 feet. Theseapartments are called the “green” and “yellow” drawing-rooms,26 and, by some, are sup-posed to rival the “Saloon” in the splendor and richness of their drapery and other deco-rations, and with it form a suit of rooms that many of the inferior Monarchs of Europewould feel proud to possess. These three parlors were formerly used for the reception ofcompany on a stated day (Wednesday) in every week, when the palace doors were thrownwide open for all the citizens of the Republic who were disposed to enter and pay theirrespects to the Chief Magistrate of the nation. But the good old usages and liberal prac-tices of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, are no longer of authority at the palace; econo-my, not of the People’s cash but of the President’s, is now in that quarter the order of theday. Hence, instead of those old and well-appointed “weekly” visits and greetings, whenall the people were at liberty to partake of the good cheer of the President’s House, therehas been substituted one cold, stiff, formal, and ceremonious assembly on the first day ofevery year. At this annual levee, notwithstanding its pomp and pageantry, no expensewhatsoever is incurred by the President personally. No fruits, cake, wine, coffee, hardcider, or other refreshments of any kind are tendered to his guests. Indeed, it would mili-tate against all the rules of court etiquette now established at the palace to permit “vulgareating and drinking” on this GRAND GALA DAY. The only entertainment there servedup consists in profound bows, stately promenades, formal civilities, ardent expressions ofadmiration for the pageant passing before your eyes, with anxious inquiries about theweather—all these good things go to make up what the fashionable people there assem-bled call “feast of reason and the flow of soul.”This admirable course levies no unwillingcontributions on the “private funds” of the President, and, in that respect, squares with his


economical notions to a T. The Marine Band, however, is always ordered from the NavyYard, and stationed in the spacious front hall, from whence they swell the rich saloons ofthe palace with “Hail to the Chief,” “Wha’ll be King but Charlie,” and other kindred airs,which ravish with delight the ears of warriors who have never smelt powder. As thePeople’s cash, and not his own, pays for all the services of the “Marine Band,” its employ-ment at the palace does not conflict with the peculiar views of the President in regard tothe obvious difference between public and private economy.

Mr. Chairman, a plain, sober-minded republican can have no love for the splendors ofa monarch’s court, much less can he admire the apish mimicry of royal ceremonies dis-played with so much ostentation at the annual levee of the President. A plain republicanbeholds nothing in all those vain formalities which fairly and truly represents the hardyand simple character of the American people. British noblemen would doubtless lookwith gratification at the gorgeous pageant of foreign ambassadors, with their attachesbedecked in all their dazzling but grotesque national court costumes. Lordly aristocratswould take great delight in surveying the bright array of stars and ribbands, jewels andbadges of honor, gold buttons and epaulets, that on those occasions cause the rich saloonsof the President’s palace to shine with redoubled brightness. They, too, would no doubtmuch admire the long lines of black and gilded coaches which fill the wide carriage-waysleading from the Ionic portico of the palace to the right and left huge iron portals whichface the great avenue. But, sir, these gilded carriages, richly eaparisoned [caparisoned]horses, gaudy hammer-cloths, footmen in gold and crimson liveries, all the blaze ofequipage, and all the trappings of royalty, have no attractions for the eyes of plain, repub-lican freemen. They know full well that all this finery was purchased of the coachmaker,the painter, the carver, the gilder, the harness-maker, and the tailor; and that the little-souled mortal who thus rages to outshine all others in externals—who would monopolizenot only the luxuries of a palace, but all notice, all respect, and all consideration—wouldalso desire to wear a glittering coronet, and “to lord it over his species.” Our plain, repub-lican citizens are too intelligent to look with approbation at a royal pageant that offendsthem with its glare; and they possess too much of the spirit of '76 not to despise the littlearistocrat, who seems to think that the entire universe was made for him, and such as he,“to take their pastime in;” and who, by his imperious look, insolently asks—

“Have poor men souls? Are their bodies thenOf the same flesh and blood as gentlemen?”

At these “annual State levees,” the great doors of the “East Room,” “Blue EllipticalSaloon,” “Green Drawing Room,” and “Yellow Drawing Room,” are thrown open at 12o’clock “precisely” to the anxious feet of gaily apparelled noblemen, honorable men, gen-tlemen, and ladies, of all the nations and kingdoms of the earth, many of whom appearambitiously intent upon securing an early recognition from the head of the mansion. ThePresident, at the “same instant of time,” assumes his station about four feet within the“Blue Elliptical Saloon,” and facing the door which looks out upon the spacious front hall,


but is separated from it, as before remarked, by a screen of Ionic columns. He is supportedon the right and left by the Marshal of the District of Columbia, and by one of the highofficers of the Government. The Marine Band having been assigned their position at theeastern end of the hall, with all their fine instruments in full tune, “at the same identicalmoment,” strike up one of our most admired “national airs;” and forthwith a current of lifeflows in at the wide-spread outer door of the palace, and glides with the smoothness ofmusic through the spacious hall, by the Ionic screen, into the royal presence. Here (todrop for a moment my liquid figure) each and every individual is presented and receivedwith a gentle shake of the hand, and is greeted with that “smile eternal” which plays overthe soft features of Mr. Van Buren, save when he calls to mind how confoundedly “OldTip.” chased, caught, and licked Proctor and Tecumseh. Immediately after the introduc-tion or recognition, the current sets toward the “East Room,” and thus this stream of liv-ing men and women continues to flow, and flow, and flow for about the space of threehours—the “DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT” being the only orb around which all thispomp, pride, and parade revolve. To him all these lesser planets turn, “as the sunflowerturns” to the sun, and feel their gorgeous colors brightened when a ray of favor or a “royalsmile” falls upon them. But, amid this gorgeous pageant, I would ask, Mr. Chairman,where are the sympathies that beat in unison with the honest pulsations of the tenants oflog cabins? What is there in this glare of rubies and diamonds, and gaudy court costumes,that can recall to the mind of an observer the unequal lot of the poor daily laborer, whosetask is never fully ended until the sun retires behind the Western mountains? Can a singlethought for the troubles and toils and cares of honest poverty abide one moment in anassembly like this—an assembly which the popular climate would chill into icy stiffness?The gales from the log cabins would come over it like the chilling blasts from the frozenregions of the poles where the “genial beams of solar influence” cannot penetrate.

During the administration of John Q. Adams, I had frequently heard this gentlemanmuch censured for the introduction of Court ceremonials at the palace; but, from fullinquiry and investigation, I am satisfied that those charges were founded in error. The veryfirst royal or court ordinance in relation to the proper ceremonies to be observed at thePresident’s levees which I have been able to discover was proclaimed during the next yearafter General Jackson had succeeded to the Presidency. It was in the form of an “order”issued by the Marshal of the District of Columbia. I will send it to the Clerk’s table, sir,and have it read, for the benefit and admiration of all pure, hard-handed, locofoco democrats:

“THE PRESIDENT’S DRAWING-ROOM.—Wishing to preserve order, and afford every convenience inmy power to the fellow-citizens of the President of the United States who may wish to visit his drawing-roomsor levees, I deem it proper to promulgate the following regulations, to be observed on these occasions:

“Police officers will be stationed at the gates and front door of the Executive Mansion, to preserve order andenforce the following regulations:

“1. All carriages will enter by the eastern and depart by the western gate.


“2. None will be suffered to remain in the yard; when called for, they will enter the eastern gate, and if,on their arrival at the front door, their drivers and employers are not READY to depart, they will immediate-ly drive out of the yard, and remain until again called for by the POLICE OFFICERS.

“3. No boys will be admitted unless specially introduced by their parents.“TENCH RINGGOLD,

Marshal of the District of Columbia.”“January 21, 1830.

This ORDER, I presume, sir, is the germ of all the Court formalities that now obtainat the palace. But these Court ceremonies are offensive to the taste and feelings of plainrepublicans—they answer no good end; and I trust the day is not far remote when thePresident of the United States will discover that to obtain and retain the respect of theAmerican People it will be necessary to DESERVE it; and especially that to secure theirrespect it will not be necessary TO PRACTICE THE AIRS AND ADOPT THE FORMSWHICH PREVAIL AT THE BRITISH COURT.

Let us return, Mr. Chairman, to the “locus in quo,” or rather “locus criminis”— theplace where this crime (against the simplicity of republican manners) has been commit-ted—the Green and Yellow Drawing-rooms. I have too wide a field, as yet, before me toconsume much of the time of this committee in attempting to describe the gorgeous splen-dor of the window curtains and other drapery; the dazzling magnificence of the large gild-ed mirrors, mantel glasses, chandeliers, candelabras, French bracket lights, and mantelornaments; the smooth and beautiful Italian slab centre tables; the rich and luxuriousdamask satin-covered chairs, bergerès, sofas, French comfortables, Turkish ottomans anddivans, and brilliant imperial carpets, and other shining garnishments with which thesesuperb drawing-rooms are adorned. It may be sufficient to say that the lustre and eleganceof their interior would no doubt dazzle, if they did not blind, the eyes of Slamm, Bang,and Ming, the celebrated locofoco rulers of Tammany Hall.27 The Green and YellowDrawing-rooms have been greatly beautified and improved since the retirement of Gen.Jackson. I find amongst the vouchers of the Treasury Department a bill of C. Alexander,for materials, &c. for the President’s House, from the 11th of March 1837, till the 16th ofMay 1837, $1,037.35; part of this amount, viz: $355.68I was for the Green Drawing-room. The latter sum, amongst other charges, includes one item for thirty pieces of SIL-VER PAPER, $120, and one other item for 96 yards of green silk, $108.

But, sir, without stopping to inquire how vastly that silver paper and green silk musthave improved the Green Drawing-room, I will proceed to read two other bills for moresubstantial, and not less ornamental improvements.

“The United States to P. Valderon, for President’s House.

1 DIVAN and CUSHION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$100Received payment of T. L. Smith, September 30, 1837 P. VALDERON.

(Voucher No. 37.)“The President’s House Dr. to A. LEJAMBER

6 FRENCH COMFORTABLES, made of extra materials, and extra covers. . . . . . . . . $160


4 boxes, at $2.50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Received payment in full. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $170

A. LEJAMBER.”(Voucher No. 8, embraced in abstract No. 1, of payments made by T. L. Smith, agent for purchasing furniture for President’s House from April 15, 1837, to May 16, 1838.)”

In the ninth century, the immortal Alfred sat on a three-legged stool and “swayed hissceptre o’er the English realm;” but Mr. Van Buren “in this our day,” is not content witha seat of such homely and rude construction. He must have “Turkish divans” and “Frenchcomfortables.” Thousands of the People’s dollars have been lavishly expended for—

Gilt and damask satin covered Settees,Gilt and damask satin covered Sofas,Gilt and damask satin covered Bergères,Gilt and damask satin covered Fauteails,Gilt and damask satin covered Chairs,Gilt and damask satin covered Ottomans,Gilt and damask satin covered Tabourets,Gilt and damask satin covered Music-stools,Gilt and damask satin covered Foot-stools,Gilt and damask satin covered Pillows.

Still, Mr, Van Buren was not content; he longed for the “Turkish divan” and the“French comfortable.” A good locofoco democrat, methinks, might have been pretty wellsatisfied with a crimson damask sofa and a pillow of soft down encased in a silk cover.And a bulky alderman, it is said, after enjoying his turtle soup, can snore away his sixhours, at perfect peace with all mankind, by placing his corporation within the generousdimensions of a bergère. But neither the crimson damask sofa and soft down, silk coveredpillow, nor the capacious bergère would content Mr. Van Buren. What was to be done?The ottoman has no back whereon a hard-handed democrat, wearied with the cares ofState, can lean, and the tabouret is part and parcel of the Court regalia, and may be soiledby too frequent use; the music-stool and the foot-stool, albeit covered with damask satin,are too low for a favorable disposal of the extremities. What could be done, sir, in this direemergency, but to pay down $270 of the People’s cash that Mr. Van Buren may enjoy theluxuries of the Turkish “divan” and the “French comfortable, made of extra materials?”And as these fine articles were doubtless bought “dog cheap,” and especially “as everydog has his day,” in these “DOG days,” no good locofoco can ungenerously withhold fromhis hard-handed democratic friend the delights of a daily “lounge” on a “COMFORT-ABLE.” But I opine, Mr. Chairman, that although many of these honest locofocos wouldbe pleased to see AMERICAN COMFORTABLES introduced at the palace, they willhardly admit the propriety of the true representative of the real hard-handed democracysending the cash of the People across the wide Atlantic for the purchase of “FRENCHcomfortables,” at a time, too, when thousands of AMERICAN cabinet-makers and uphol-sterers, who are quite as ingenious and quite as handy, in their respective crafts, as the arti-sans of Paris and Lyons, are out of employment, for the want of a market for their beautiful fabrics.


I will not detain you, sir, longer in the Green and Yellow Drawing-rooms than just todirect your eye in retiring from the latter, first to the elegant mahogany gilt-mounted pianoforte, and then to the heavy gilt bronze mantel time-piece, representing Hannibal, the cel-ebrated Carthaginian General at the battle of Cannae.

There are no other apartments on the first floor of the palace excepting the “COURTLEVEE, OR BANQUETING ROOM,” and the family dining room, with sundry storerooms, and PLATE and CHINA closets between them. I shall call your attention, Mr.Chairman, to the “COURT BANQUETING ROOM,” but not until we shall first step tothe left of the great entrance hall, that we may ascend the grand staircase covered with arich Brussels carpet, in order to take a very cursory view of the interior arrangements onthe second story of the palace. The apartment in this story which has been most admiredis denominated the “Ladies’ Circular Parlor,” corresponding in form, lustre, and elegance,with the “Blue Elliptical Saloon” on the first story. This beautiful “parlor” was fitted upin handsome style by Mr. Adams, and was occupied by that President’s family, during histerm of office, as their company receiving room. Soon after Mr. Van Buren came intopower, the “Ladies’ Circular Parlor,” as well as every other apartment in the palace, wasordained to accept a splendid outfit at the hands of the gilder, the painter, the carver, theupholsterer, and the importer of gold and silver paper, royal Wilton and imperial Saxoncarpets, gilt rays, stars, fringe, tassels, Fanny Kemble green glass finger cups, fancy toiletsets, and other lovely foreign ornaments. I discover, by a voucher now in my hand, thatMr. Van Buren, on the 12th day of December, 1837, paid $1,041 of the People’s cash forthe embellishment of the “Ladies’ Circular Parlor.” This sum of $1,041 is one of thecharges in the large bill ($4,316.08) of Messrs. Patten & Co. New York, and to which Ibefore referred. I will at this favorable time present some other charges included in the billof Messrs. Patten & Co. What do you think, Mr. Chairman, of the following specimensof locofoco democracy?

For President’s Chamber. —Making curtains and ORNAMENTS . . . . . . . $57.50SILK TASSELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.00

For President’s Parlor. — Satin Medallion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68.00Satin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.62Galloon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.49Cord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.52SILK TASSELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50Rosettes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00Gimp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.40

For Ladies’ Room. — Making curtains and ORNAMENTS . . . . . . . 51.00TASSELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.00Crimson Taffeta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$124.00TASSELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.00

For Bedroom No. 1. — Making curtains and ORNAMENTS . . . . . . . 57.50SILK TASSELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.00

For Room No. 4. — Making curtains and ORNAMENTS . . . . . . . 35.50SILK TASSELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.00

For Room No. 6. — Making curtains and ORNAMENTS . . . . . . . 37.75SILK TASSELS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.00


For Room No. 8. — Making curtains and ORNAMENTS . . . . . . . .53.25Tassels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18.00

For Bell Pulls. — Silk Cord . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59.63TASSELS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42.00ROSETTES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5.00

I am disposed to believe, Mr. Chairman, that the present occupant of the palace is nota “real genuine” locofoco, hard-handed democrat. He can’t have the “right stripe.” Youmay depend upon it something must be out of gear. Why, sir, he loves tassels, rosettes, andgirlish finery almost as much as a real “Bank Whig” loves “hard cider.” By the act of the3rd of March, 1837, Congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars “for furniture of thePresident’s House;” I quote the language of the law, “for ‘FURNITURE’ of the President’sHouse. Now, I find the entire bill of Messrs. Patten & Co. included in the “Abstract ofpayments made by Thomas L. Smith, agent for purchasing furniture for the President’sHouse from 15th April, 1837, to 16thMay, 1838.” I would, therefore, respectfully inquirewhether “silk tassels and rosettes” are considered household furniture, in the legitimatedemocratic meaning of the word? I ask, sir, whether “silk tassels and rosettes” can bedemocratically inventoried as part and parcel of the household furniture of a hard-handedlocofoco? Are “silk tassels and rosettes” hereinafter to be written down, deemed andtaken in the same category with frying pans, oaken chests, chaff-bags, and crout tubs? Aswell might the honest citizen of Tulpehacken valley, who garnishes his 8 by 10 lookingglass with a string of blue-jay, yellow-hammer, whitaker, and mocking-bird eggs, callthose speckled eggs household furniture, and formally bequeath them, when he is aboutto take leave of plantations and speckled eggs, by his will, written or nuncupative. Sir,this would be too bad for a Christian country. But this is not at all, for in the same“Abstract” of payments made by T. L. Smith, the following bill is also included:

“WASHINGTON, AUGUST 23, 1837.The United States Government for the President’s House

To Augt. F. Cammeyer, Dr.453 Broadway, New York

For GOLD LEAF, GILDING MATERIALS, labor, and expenses to the President’s House $2,000.00August 25, received payment in full of T. L. Smith

AUGT. F. CAMMEYER.”

Do you suppose, Mr. Chairman, that a plain, unsophisticated locofoco can stand this?Will he agree that Martin Van Buren acted fairly by paying out money which had beenappropriated by law for “FURNITURE for the President’s House,” in buying GOLDLEAF and GILDING MATERIALS, and afterwards “whipping the Devil round thestump” by calling GOLD LEAF and GILDING materials household furniture? No, sir, hewill not. The genuine locofoco is too honest for that. Some of them may, perhaps, be per-suaded to admit that “silk tassels and rosettes” are part and parcel of an orthodox sched-ule of democratic household furniture, but I aver that the application of red hot pincers,racks, gibbets, bowstrings, chains, and molten lead, cannot induce one of them to


acknowledge that GOLD LEAF and GILDING MATERIALS may be legitimately insert-ed in the same schedule.

But the “end is not yet.” I have before me, Mr. Chairman, the original bill (dulyreceipted) of C. H. & J. F. White for sundry “FRENCH BEDSTEADS,” “Marble-topWash-stands,” “Dining-room” “Commode with statuary Marble top,” “DressingBureaus,” and other upholstery, bought August 10, 1837, for the sum of $1,599.50 of thePeople’s cash. These articles may be denominated “house-hold furniture” in the properand true understanding of the terms. But, sir, I protest against expending the money of myconstituents for elegant FRENCH BEDSTEADS. Must the AMERICAN oak and hicko-ry, and cherry, and walnut, and maple, that admits of the “smoothest stain,” stand neg-lected in the forests, for the GILT ROSEWOOD, sandal, ebony, box, and mahogany ofFrance, and the far off “Isles of the sea?” Shall the People’s money be shipped “acrossthe ocean” by the People’s chief servant to support FOREIGN MECHANICS, whilstOUR OWN “CUNNING WORKMEN” almost perish for lack of bread? Shall that “breadbe withheld from the mouth of honest labor” at home, but lavished upon the subjects ofkings abroad? Why was Mr. Van Buren so anxious to possess an elegant FRENCH BED-STEAD? Does he desire to have the trimmings of a “CROWN BED” also? Besides the“Ladies’ Circular Parlor,” there are twelve commodious apartments on the second story ofthe palace—one of which is occupied by the president as an “office.”The term “office,”however, has been proscribed by the “COURT CIRCLES” as a vulgar noun, and hence the“office” room is designated at the palace by the higher sounding and tinkling name of“THE PRESIDENT’S AUDIENCE CHAMBER.” Hard by the “President’s AudienceChamber,” is the “ANTE-ROOM,” into which all visitors are conducted by a richly attiredEnglish palace servant to wait until the Democratic President shall signify his pleasurethat they may be introduced into “the presence.” I have heard a gentleman complain thatthe “Ante-Room” had not been provided with a large mirror, by the aid of which fashion-able ladies might properly adjust their “bonnets and curls;” and before which, I presume,spruce courtiers who visit the palace could “practice in making up their face for the day.”In relation to this subject, I cannot forbear to call your attention, Mr. Chairman, to a shortpassage in the 57th No. of the book, London edition, of the writings of the distinguishedArchbishop Erasmus. He is giving “directions to a young man how to conduct himself at‘Court.’”

“As you are now going to live at Court,” (says Erasmus,) “I advise you in the first place, never to reposethe smallest confidence in any man there who professes himself your friend, though he may smile upon you,and embrace you, and promise you; ay, and confirm his promise with an oath. Believe no man there a sincerefriend to you; and do you take care to be a sincere friend to no man. Nevertheless, YOU MUST PRETENDTO LOVE ALL YOU SEE, and show the utmost suavity of manners and attentions to every individual. Theseattentions cost you not a farthing; therefore, you may be as lavish of them as you please. Pay your salutationswith the softest smiles on your countenance, shake hands with the appearance of most ardent cordiality, bowand give way to all, stand cap in hand, address every body by their titles of honor, praise without bounds, andpromise most liberally.

“I would have you every morning before you go to the LEVEE, practice, in making up your face for theday, at your looking-glass at home, that it may be ready to assume any part in the farce, and that no glimpse


of your real thoughts and feelings may appear.You must study your gestures carefully at home, that in the act-ing of the day your countenance, person, and conversation may all correspond, and assist each other in keep-ing up your character at the court masquerade.

“These are the elements of the courtier’s philosophy, in learning which, no man can be an apt scholarunless he first of all divests himself of all sense of shame, and, leaving his natural face at home, puts on avizor, and wears it constantly too. In the next place, get scent of the various cabal and parties of the Court;but be not in a hurry to attach yourself to any of them till you have duly reconnoitred. When you have foundout who is the King’s favorite you have your cue; mind to keep on the safe side of the vessel. If the King’sfavorite be a downright fool, you must not scruple to flatter him so long as he is in favor with the god of youridolatry.

“The god himself, to be sure, will require the main efforts of your skill. As often as you happen to be inTHE PRESENCE, you must exhibit a face of apparently honest delight, as if you were transported with theprivilege of being so near the ROYAL PERSON. When once you have observed what he likes and dislikes,your business is done.”

Erasmus proceeds to counsel his Court pupil, “to pay more court to ENEMIESTHAN FRIENDS, THAT HE MAY TURN THEIR HEARTS, AND BRING THEM OVERTO HIS SIDE.”

The Archbishop, Sir, was deeply read in the books of Courts, of human nature, andthe world, and drew his picture “from the life.” And I appeal to the honorable gentlemenwho represent the “Palmetto State”28 on this floor, to say, whether the present incumbentof the palace is not the very character which Erasmus ironically counsels his student tobecome. Let those gentlemen reperuse the paragraphs which have just been read and thenlet them burnish up their reminiscences of General Jackson’s administration, and they can-not fail to recall to mind the name of his distinguished “Court favorite,” whose will wasomnipotent, even to “the dissolution of a cabinet.”And they will also doubtless remem-ber the smooth, nimble courtier, who,

“Instead of mounting barbed steedTo fright the souls of fearful adversaries,”

capered in the palace saloons; and, after he had his CUE, roused the vengeance of “thegod of his (pretended) idolatry” against the then Vice President of the United States, andthen hied away “to carry party considerations, to urge party merits, and to solicit partyfavors, at the foot of the British throne;” and who has, since that period, paid “more courtto ENEMIES than friends, and thus turned their hearts and BROUGHT THEM OVER TOHIS SIDE.”

I have also heard some persons affirm, in regard to the “Ante-Room,” that it had nota sufficient number of chairs to accommodate the visitors there at times kept in waiting.I am satisfied, however, that the President cannot be aware of the fact, or he would haveordered for this room a dozen or two silk damasks, or bamboo canes from the other apart-ments of the palace, from whence their removal would hardly have been recognised.

Democratic Presidents, Mr. Chairman, sometimes get tired of their furniture. Somechange, perhaps, has taken place in the fashion and then, forthwith, it becomes “old anddecayed” furniture, and they send it off to auction and sell it for a whistle. At least six dif-ferent sales of “old”or unfashionable furniture have been held within the last seven years,viz:


5th December, 1833. Gross proceeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $636.937th `` `` `` `` . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 3,831.2323d `` 1834 `` `` . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53.551st `` 1835 `` `` . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.5010th March 1835 `` `` . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.0023d November, 1837. `` `` . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,078.71

5,990.92Commissions and expenses 310.52Nett proceeds of sales $5,680.40

After all, sir, it may be better occasionally to dispose of the surplus furniture of thepalace, otherwise its rich saloons would soon resemble an auctioneer’s room atBishopsgate, to which noblemen, impoverished by their vices, order the furniture of theircastles, for the purpose of “raising the wind.”

I shall not detain the committee, Mr. Chairman, by going over the same “eternalround” of elegant and costly furniture with which the apartments on the second story ofthe palace abound. I must not, however, omit to name the ostrich egg mantel ornament onsilver stands, and the superb imperial and royal Wilton, Brussels, and Saxon carpets; someof which, it is said, are deep enough for a good locofoco democrat to bury his foot in ashe walks over them. Let me refer you, sir, to three or four of the carpet bills:

“New York, July 3,1837,The President of the United States, by T. L. Smith, bought of Joseph Lowe, IMPORTER OF ENGLISH carpets, Oil Cloths, &c., 333 Broadway, corner of Anthony street.

98 yards Brussels body, a 18s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $220.5023H do. do. border, a 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.8899 do. do. body, a 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222.7523 do. do. border, a 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51.753 Imperial rugs, ladies’ room and 2 chambers, a $25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.00

$622.88Correct as regards quantities. September 19, 1837. ED. BURKE.29Received payment. JOSEPH LOWE.”

“Martin Van Buren, President U.S., bought of W.W. Chester & Co., 191 Broadway.1837, June 29, 170H yards Saxony carpeting, a $4 . . . . . . . . . . .i$682

1 rug to match . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i35July 31, 2 rugs, a 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i50

$767By remnants, say 1 yard, returned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .i4

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$76320th September, 1837. Correct. ED. BURKE.Received payment of T. L. Smith, W. W. CHESTER & CO.”

“NEW YORK, June 7, 1837.“Major Smith, for the President’s House, Washington, bought of T. L. Chester.429G yards Brussels carpeting a 17s. 2p. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $912.16145K do.5–8 wide bordering, a 14s.2p. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257.4330M do. do. a 17s. 2p. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.6117K do.4–4 ROYAL WILTON, a 32s. 2p. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69.5024H do. 7–8 do. do. a 28s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.75

$1,390.4520th September, 1837. Correct. ED. BURKE.


Received payment. T. L. CHESTER, per WM. HENRY CHESTER.”

“NEW YORK, June 7, 1837.T. L. Smith, agent, bought of Webb & Tenson, IMPORTERS of Carpeting, Floor Cloths, Hearth Rugs, &c., 177 Broadway.107H118H } 226 yards Wilton carpeting, a 24s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $678.00

97G do. do. a 22 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$267.44110 do. Brussels do. a 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233.751 hearth rug— . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.001 do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28.0020I yards Brussels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.29

$1,274.48Received payment, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .WEBB & TENSON.”

I have also before me, Mr. Chairman, other official vouchers, duly receipted, for thefollowing carpeting purchased for the President’s palace since the Reformers came intopower:

From Lewis Veron & Co.515 yards IMPERIAL WILTON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,545.0066 do. IMPERIAL SAXONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214.5026G do. 4-4 wide for stairs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105.00

Blue cloth for do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19.12107 do. Brussels carpet and border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214.00

1 hearth rug to match . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$25.00498 yards Brussels carpet and border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,058.004 Imperial rugs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68.00

Oil cloth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,200.00$4,448.77

Here, sir, we have the sum of $8,499.68 of the people’s cash paid by the “RetrenchingReformers,” for FOREIGN carpets and oil cloths to adorn the palace. Now let me referyou to the 2nd section of the act of Congress, passed the 22d of May, 1826. It is in thesewords:

“That all furniture purchased for the use of the President’s House shall be, as far practicable, ofAMERICAN OR DOMESTIC MANUFACTURE.”

Was it not “practicable” to obtain AMERICAN or DOMESTIC carpeting “for the useof the President’s House?” No gentlemen dare affirm that. Then why did Mr. Van Burenviolate the law in purchasing FOREIGN carpets? Are there no carpets made in the UnitedStates of texture firm enough, and of colors sufficiently gaudy, to please the eye of a dem-ocratic President? Are AMERICAN weavers, and dyers, and manufacturers too dull andtoo stupid to make a decent republican carpet? Is American wool too coarse or too fine—too long or too short, sir, that AMERICAN mechanics cannot form a carpet out of it gen-teel enough for the feet of Martin Van Buren to soil? Why does he prefer ROYAL ANDIMPERIAL WILTONS to the fabrics of his own countrymen? Has he no American patri-otism to call to his aid, and to shield American mechanics from this direct insult to their


skill? Can he not appreciate the feelings of honest pride, that would swell with delight theheart of every true born son of America, at beholding the floors and the walls in thesaloons of an American President furnished with plain, substantial, American manufac-tures? Is this the policy that Mr. Van Buren proposes by which we are to protect thedomestic industry from foreign competition? Will he adopt the strange mode of confer-ring benefits on American artisans by transporting their money to reward the artisans ofEngland, France, Belgium, and Saxony! What will the American wool grower say to thisplan? How will the American weaver relish that? To correct and to punish this outrageagainst American skill and American industry, I rely with full confidence on the friendsand patrons of American manufacturers and mechanics.

With your permission, Mr. Chairman, I will now again conduct you to the first storyof the palace, where we shall enter the great “Court Banqueting room,” in which I canpromise you a sight that will be “good for sore eyes.” It is a genuine locofoco’s dinnertable—set out, arranged in order, and duly prepared to receive the Court guests. In the firstplace, however, I must inform you that this table is not provided with those old andunfashionable dishes, “hog and hominy,”“fried meat and gravy,” “schnitz, knep, and sour-crout,” with a mug of “hard cider.” No, sir, no. All those substantial preparations arelooked upon by gourmands, French cooks, and locofoco Presidents as exceedingly vulgar,and fit only to set before “Bank Whigs,” and men (as the Globe eloquently expresses it)“who adopt the maxims and principles of COBBLERS AND TINKERS.” But the trueorthodox, democratic viands, with which a genuine locofoco furnishes his dinner table,consists in massive gold plate and French sterling silver services, blue and gold Frenchtambours, compotiers on feet, stands for bonbons, with three stages, gilded Frenchplateaus, garnished with mirrors and garlands, and gaudy artificial flowers. During theapostolic days, the saints were commanded to “eat what was set before them, asking noquestions”—but if any good Christian man should, by mistake, find his way to a table thusfurnished, and should incline to obey the precept according to its letter, he would certain-ly have hard fare of it. He might perhaps sustain famishing humanity by browsing on arti-ficial flowers and wreaths, or, peradventure, by touching with the tongue the saccharinecompotiers and bonbons, somewhat after the manner of the very commendable usage saidto have prevailed at an early day among the inhabitants of Kinderhook, of suspending bya cord a large lump of sugar immediately over the centre of the table, so that it mightswing round to the guests alternately. Albeit, sir, there is no food for the palate placed uponthis locofoco’s table, there is a feast of gold for the eye that would have satiated KingMidas himself. And although the wood of several large forests was not cut down to dressthe victuals for this Tamerlane banquet, yet it required the enormous sum of ELEVENTHOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-ONE DOLLARS AND THIRTY-TWOCENTS OF THE PEOPLE’S CASH TO BUY THE TABLE “FURNITURE.”

You seem amazed, Mr. Chairman. Do not believe that I speak not the “words of truthand soberness.” I have now in my hands, sir, the “official vouchers,” which show theexpenditure of every dollar of that large sum, and that the whole amount thereof, with the


exception of $1,125, was expended since the days of the plain, frugal, economical, repub-lican, retrenching reformation of Jackson and Van Buren commenced. And I here in myplace, demand, in the name of my constituents, that the Committee on the Expenditureson the Public Buildings make a report to this House, and communicate copies, not only ofthe vouchers on this subject, but all the vouchers in relation to expenditures for the President’sHouse, furniture, and grounds; that they may be all spread before the people in an “officialform.” This everlasting leakage from the people’s strong box must be stanched.

But I will exhibit to the committee the various bills which form the aggregate of$11,191.32 for the table service of the democratic President.

I will, in the first place, bring to the notice of the committee the bill for the French STER-LING SILVER PLATE and GILT DESSERT SET, bought from a RUSSIAN NOBLEMAN,DE. M. LE GENERAL BARON DE TUYLL,30 resident minister of his MAJESTY THEEMPERIOR OF RUSSIA at Lisbon, for the sum of four thousand three hundred and eightdollars and eighty-two cents.

The silver plate consists of SOUP TUREENS, SAUCE BOATS, PLATES, diversesgrandeurs, BOTTLE STANDS, SOUP LADLES, &c. &c. &c., three hundred and thirty-eight pieces.

The gilt dessert set is composed of TABLE SPOONS, SWEETMEAT SPOONS, TEAOR COFFEE SPOONS, KNIVES, FORKS, &c. &c., one hundred and forty pieces.

The following receipts are endorsed on the bill for silver plate and gilt service.

“Received, June 29, 1833, four thousand three hundred and eight dollars eighty-two cents, being in full for thewithin service of plate. GEO. W. SOUTH.”

“I certify that I have received into the President’s House all the articles contained in the within service, andthey are intended for the use of the President’s House.

Washington, July 1, 1833. J. BOULANGER.”31

It may be proper to remark that pure gold is generally considered too ductile and softto manufacture into knives, forks, and other utensils, which require some degree of firm-ness or want of pliability. The gilt or gold service, therefore, used in the palaces of kingsand at the castles of wealthy noblemen in Europe, is composed of a slight substratum ofsilver, thickly plated or overlaid with pure gold. And hence, I presume, the gilt service ofthe President was manufactured after the same manner. No honest democrat, however, bytaking up the various articles of which it consists, would be led to doubt a moment thatthey are made of gold, without any alloy. They may be pure gold, though I am inclinedto believe otherwise, inasmuch as they were procured from one of the great nobles of theRussian Empire.

Mr. Chairman, in my opinion, it is time the people of the United States should knowthat their money goes to buy for their plain hard-handed democratic President, knives,forks, and spoons of gold, that he may dine in the style of the monarchs of Europe. [Mr.WADDY THOMPSON.32 No wonder. This, you know, is a gold and silverAdministration.] The fact, however, is impudently denied, not only by Mr. Van Buren’s


“organ,” the Globe, but by all the locofoco papers throughout the country. When a certainlawyer, in Columbus, Ohio, told a farmer in his neighborhood that the President had a din-ner service of gold, the locofoco paper published in that place, and called the “OhioStatesman,” made so fierce an attack upon him that the poor man was frightened, andactually retracted the statement—though it was as true as preaching. The editor of thatjournal, after thus obtaining a triumph over truth, proceeds in one of his late papers tomake the “amende honorable.” Please, sir, to notice the cool audacity of the fellow:

“A week or two since, we alluded in our paper to a Whig attorney of this city, that should have attempt-ed to impose on an old farmer, by telling him that Mr. Van Buren eat off of gold plates, and used a gold knifeand fork. We felt indignant that any one whom we held in such high estimation, personally, should havedescended to such a mode of electioneering, NOT THAT ANYONE WOULD BELIEVE IT, but that any oneshould resort to such acts. We were, however, gratified by learning from the gentleman implicated that he wasmisunderstood, and of course we did him injustice, and it gives us pleasure to be thus able publicly to say so.We should have made this statement earlier, but we were anxious to see all parties before we did so.”

Now, sir, I would advise this Whig lawyer not to be quite so timid hereafter as toretract statements based upon substantial facts. And I would further counsel him to visitthe farmer with whom he held the conversation about the gold knives and forks of thePresident, and tell him the whole truth in relation to that matter; for I can assure this hon-est Whig lawyer that the gold service story is a hundred fold worse than he had any con-ception of. I do not know that the rich gold and silver service is shown on all occasions;probably it is only when the elite are invited. But let any gentleman go to the palace whenour now well-beloved cousin from South Carolina, whom the “Official Organ” formerlydelighted to call John Catiline Calhoun, is at the banquet, and then the gold service in allits democratic lustre will be presented to his admiring eyes! Oh! sir, how delightful it mustbe to a real genuine locofoco to eat his paté de foie gras, dinde desossé, and salade à lavolaile from a SILVER PLATE with a GOLDEN KNIFE AND FORK. And how exqui-site to sip with a GOLDEN SPOON his soupe à la Reine from a SILVER TUREEN. Italmost “makes my mouth water” to talk about it.

I will in the next place call the attention of the committee to the bill for the splendidFrench China for dinner service, and the elegant dessert set of blue and gold, with theeagle, ALL MADE TO ORDER in France, and imported by Lewis Veron & Co., cele-brated dealers in Fancy china, &c., Philadelphia.

THE SET OF FRENCH CHINA for dinner service has four hundred and forty pieces,consisting of olive boats, octagon salad-bowls, pickle shells, long fish dishes, &c. &c.,and cost one thousand dollars.

The DESSERT SET, blue and gold, with eagle, composed of four hundred and twelvepieces, including six stands for BONBONS, with three stages; EIGHT TAMBOURS, withthree stages; TWELVE SWEETMEAT COMPOTIERS ON FEET; EIGHT COM-POTIERS ON FEET; SIX LARGE FRUIT BASKETS, on feet; FOUR ICE-CREAMVASES AND COVERS, with inside Bowls; FIVE DOZEN GREEK-FORM CUPS ANDSAUCERS, &c. &c., cost one thousand five hundred dollars.

Mr. Chairman, don’t you think that one of your plain republican “Suckers”would feel


“kinder queer like” to be placed at the President’s table, before these democratic“Tambours with three stages,” and “Compotiers on feet?” Why, sir, he would almostimagine that he had suddenly been translated to the salle à festin en maison royale of LouisPhilippe, King of the French. I have no doubt that some of my constituents would muchrather face the grizzly bear on the Appalachian mountains, than sit down before these“Tambour with three stages,” and “Compotiers on feet,” for five consecutive hours— theperiod usually required by Kings and democratic Presidents to masticate at a state dinner.

The next piece of democratic “furniture” on the President’s table to which I wouldinvite your very particular attention is the “Sourtout,” or bronze gilded Plateau, a largeornamented or pictured tray, which stands on the centre of the table. The Plateau, with therichly-gilded baskets, tripods, and Etruscan vases which accompany it, cost in Paris 6,000francs, or $1,125; and is the only piece of table “furniture” which has not been purchasedsince the democratic days of retrenchment and reform. Some four or five months after Mr.Van Buren took possession of the palace, he paid seventy-five dollars of the People’s cashto Mr. Zachariah Nicholas for dressing up the Plateau, and it now looks quite new. It iscomposed of seven parts, measures thirteen feet six inches in length and two feet in width,and is ornamented with mirrors. It is also handsomely carved and gilded, with wreaths offruits and vines; also with figures representing Bacchus and the Bacchantes, and pedestalsupon which there are sixteen figures holding crowns to receive the lights, and sixteen cupsto change them at pleasure. Accompanying the Plateau are two Etruscan Vases, gilded andgarnished with flowers; also, two richly-gilded tripods, copied from antique patterns; also,three baskets, richly gilded, each with three figures upon a round stand, embellished withivy and lyre-formed leaves, for six lights each, ornamented with flowers.

It does appear to me, sir, that the Plateau, with its fine mirrors, in which the honest,hard-handed locofoco democrats can look at themselves, almost every moment, during theformal progress of a court banquet, would be regarded even by a Bank whig as a prettyformidable article of dinner furniture.

Having disposed of the pictured tray, Mr. Chairman, I will direct your attention for afew minutes to the magnificent set of Table Glass, contained in these several bills. Thefirst bill is for Champagne Glasses, Clarets, Goblets, Cordials, Water Bottles, &c. boughtfrom Messrs. Lewis Veron & Co. for nine hundred and twenty-four dollars. The secondbill is for the richest cut Tumblers, cut Centre Bowls and Stands, cut Floating IslandDishes, cut Pitchers, &c., purchased from Bakewell & Co., for fourteen hundred and fifty-one dollars and seventy-five cents. The third bill I will give you entire.

“NEW YORK, JUNE 8, 1837.Col. T. L. Smith for sundry articles for President’s House.

Bought of James P. Drummund, No. 47 Maiden Lane, between William and Nassau streets,IMPORTER of and dealer in China, Glass, and Earthenware, wholesale and retail—

6 quart and 12 pint, all flute, Decanters, cone stoppers, barrel shape, $20 . $84.00


6 doz. Claret Wines, cut pillar stem, $7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.006 do GREEN FINGER CUPS, $3L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.006 do CUT WINE COOLERS, $9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54.002 do cut Champs, $9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.0018 pint Water Bottles, flint and flint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.002 Casks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75___________ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$240.75

Bottles returned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20.00Duplicate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$220.75Received Payment. JAS. P. DRUMMOND.”

Mr. Chairman, these three bills for table glass, make together, the clever sum of$2,596.50—an amount, I should suppose, sufficiently large to purchase the most democrat-ic set of table glasses in America. What, sir, will the honest locofoco say to Mr. Van Burenfor spending the People’s cash in FOREIGN FANNY KEMBLE GREEN FINGER CUPS,in which to wash his pretty, tapering, soft, white, lily fingers, after dining on fricandeaude vêau and omelette soufflé? How will the friends of temperance—the real tetotallers—relish the foreign “CUT WINE COOLERS” and the “BARREL-SHAPE FLUTEDECANTERS WITH CONE STOPPERS?”

I will now, sir, present you with a receipt for another ornament found on Mr. VanBuren’s dinner table, that tells much, very much, sir, in regard to the true character of hisdemocracy:

“Received, Baltimore, 14th November, 1837, of T. L. Smith, Esq., one hundred dollars, in full for a set ofARTIFICIAL FLOWERS FOR THE PRESIDENT’S TABLE.

“100 Dollars. JOHN THOMAS.”

I am willing to concede that the expenditure of $100 is, in itself, a very small matter.The question, however, is not how much cash was paid by Mr. Van Buren for the bunchof ARTIFICIAL FLOWERS which decorates his table, but whether the People’s moneyshall be expended for such aristocratic French finery? and whether Mr. Van Buren, whohas been raised to the most exalted station on the earth, and whose example upon societymust be necessarily have a most powerful and extensive influence, shall, by the introduc-tion of foreign gew-gaws into the house of the American People, contribute to corrupt theplain, unostentatious, and republican manners of our people, by creating vain desires forexternal show and or foolish displays of splendor, which are not congenial with our fru-gal habits? The influence of this example has already had a most injurious tendency with-in the District of Columbia, where many men are now found vying with each other tomake a splendid appearance, even above their rank and means of support. I will give youan instance or two. Mr. F. P. Blair, the humble editor of Martin Van Buren’s “OfficialOrgan,” came to this city some ten years ago a plain, simple republican in his manners andstyle of living, having been brought up and educated with all the domestic and economi-cal maxims of the hardy and frugal Western country. For some years after his arrival, hewas content to dwell in a comfortable house of fifteen feet front, furnished in a plain, sub-


stantial way; but behold the charm of Executive manners! How altered the man! He nowaims at rivalling all the foreign Ministers and heads of the great Departments of theGovernment in the splendor of his spacious mansion,33 in the profusion of his table, andin every indulgence which an empty vanity can covet. He, too, gives brilliant entertain-ments to the members of Congress and great officers of state, in imitation of the sumptu-ous Court banquets at the palace. On these occasions, as I have been credibly informed,for the purpose of producing a more dazzling effect on the vision of his locofoco brethren,he actually hires rich chandeliers and other showy democratic ornaments at a charge often per cent. on the prime cost, at a splendid china, plate, and glass fancy store onPennsylvania avenue. But I do not feel disposed to interfere with or molest the editor ofthe Globe in his enjoyment of noble mansions, luxurious banquets, borrowed lights, andevery other external advantage which causes “little man to swell into fancied importance,”inasmuch as he enjoys all those advantages, so far as I know, AT HIS OWN EXPENSE.Were it not for the public function of Government Printer that this man has been clothedwith, he would be almost too scant a pattern to notice—for Martin Van Buren manageshim as a showman does his puppet, and he runs or walks, leaps or jumps, as he is direct-ed. And I must here be permitted to say that we ought not to touch any of the small fryof the shoals until we have done with the sharks and the crocodiles. Curiosity may per-haps invite the philosopher to examine the gnats and the mosquitoes, but not until thetigers and hyenas have undergone an analysis. I will therefore not say any thing more ofFrancis P. Blair, but lay him on the shelf for the present; and when Tommy Thumb willafford amusement, we will take him back. I will just remark, however, that whenever myconstituents ask me what sort of man Blair is, rack it, I tell them the story of the Irishmanwho went to see his neighbor, and being asked by his neighbor’s wife, how are they com-ing on at home, replied, “the gray mare had a colt yesterday.” What kind? was the inquiry.Oh! by the powers, it is a born beauty. And I tell my constituents, if they cannot imaginehow beautiful Blair is, he is just that kind of man that, if you tie his hands behind his back,he will take a deeper bite into a water melon than any man I ever saw. And if they are notsatisfied then, I tell them that there is an old woman in Boston who would make him anexcellent wife; for she is so ugly that every morning she has to drink a quart of saffron teato prevent its striking inward and killing her. That is all I have to say on the present occa-sion about this great exemplar of locofoco beauty.

Another instance of the deleterious influence of palace manners upon plain republi-can habits is presented in the person of Mr. Kendall,34 at the head of the Post OfficeDepartment. He, too, after lagging nearly half a century in walks of humble and unosten-tatious poverty, and after looking up with awe to personages greatly his superior in rankand riches, though not in talents, now begins to love equipage and fine garments, to studygraceful attitudes, and to vie with Blair in the magnificence of his soirées. And he, too,like Blair, I have been told, hires at another rich establishment on the avenue most costlydemocratic garniture, with which to deck his shining saloons on those great occasions. Hehas, as is believed, by this foolish vanity, although in the annual receipt of six thousand


dollars in gold and silver, squandered and gossiped away the whole of it, and is nowalmost obliged to subsist upon the contributions of his democratic friends. I feel grievedthat the parade and show of palace manners have had so much influence over the mind ofMr. Kendall, because his soul is certainly crammed with more ardent, more scorching,blazing, burning, fiery LOVE FOR THE DEAR PEOPLE, than the souls of all the otherpatriots, by profession, in America. Indeed, his ATTACHMENT to the dear People, or totheir CASH, is of so vigorous a character that it will, sooner or later, burn into cinder thelittle remaining flesh on his skeleton. And he must, eventually, fall a victim to his noblePASSION FOR THE DEAR PEOPLE’S CASH, unless he can find relief in the “excite-ment of composition.”

But let us return, Mr. Chairman, to the table furniture of the President. The remainingbill, which makes up the sum of $11,191.32, before mentioned, consists of various arti-cles of cutlery, brought from Messrs. Lewis Veron & Co. for $568; amongst which aretable knives plated on steel, silver ferule, and transparent ivory handles, $300. Dessert setto match, guard carvers, &c. &c.

And now, sir, having completed my enumeration of the table furniture, we may, for amoment, imagine the elite of the court (in their brightest, gayest costumes,) embracingforeign ambassadors, all the great officers of State, major and brigadier generals of thestanding army, commodores and commandants of squadrons in the navy, and including theVice President of the United States, the honorable Speaker of the House ofRepresentatives, with the Chairmen of the respective Committees of Foreign Relationsand Foreign Affairs, and a very select few of the most distinguished members of bothHouses of Congress, all seated before the sumptuous array of gold and silver ware, blueand gold French China, compotiers on feet, and tambours elevated with three stages, rich-est cut glass, for use or ornament, plateau with its splendid mirrors, fine gilding, carving,wreaths, garlands, fruits, and vines, and with its sixteen figures presenting crowns bear-ing lights. I ask you, how would a plain, frank, intelligent, republican farmer feel—howwould he look, if he were caught at a table like that? Why, sir, he would feel as if he knewthat that was not exactly the place for him; and he would look “unutterable things.” Andno wonder; for I have been informed that even Members of Congress have, on some occa-sions, been so dazzled with the pomp and pageantry and brilliant display of a court din-ner, that they could “scarcely eat or speak” for half an hour after they had taken their seatsat the Presidential board. And verily, after they had in a good measure recovered the useof their faculties, they were still greatly perplexed to ascertain what dishes might be calledfor, there being no food whatever on the table, and no “bill of fare” immediately at handto designate the character or nomenclature of the various viands upon which the palaceguests were to banquet. The latter embarrassment, however, was soon removed by the but-ler announcing—

For the first course.— Potage au tortue, Potage à Julienne, et Potage aux pois.Second course.— Saumon, sauce d’anchois, Bass piqué à la Chambore.


Third course.— Suprême de volaille en bordure à la galée, Filet de boeuf piqué au vin deChampagne, Pate chaud à la Toulouse.Fourth course.—Salade d’homard monté, Filets mignons de mouton en chevreuil, Cerveau, de

veau, au supreme, Pigeons à la royal aux champignons.Fifth course.—Bécassines, Canard sauvages, Poulet de Guinée piquée.Patisserie.—Charlotte russe au citron, Biscuit à la vanille decoré, Coupe garnie de gelée d’orange

en quartiers, Gelée au marasquin, Gelée au Champagne rose, Blanc mange, Sultane, Nougat, Petitsgateaux varies.Dessert.—Fruits, et glace en pyramide, et en petits moules, Toste d’anchois, Café et liqueur.Followed by Saturne, Hock, Champagne, Claret, Port, Burgundy, Sherry, and Madeira,

“choisest brands.”

I shall not, Mr. Chairman, further trespass on the time of the committee by dwellinglonger on the great Court Feasts which are statedly held in the Palace Banqueting room;but proceed to the performance of the task which I have more immediately before me.Besides the table “furniture,” which, as before remarked, cost $11,191.32, the CourtBanqueting room possesses a great variety of very rich and valuable furniture, such asmirrors, mahogany sideboards, mahogany chairs, gilt cornices, window curtains, bronzebowl lamps, antique patterns, gilded, carved, and garnished with stars and swan-necks,mantel ornaments, Brussels carpets, butler’s stools, &c. &c. Indeed, there is scarcely anything wanting to make the Court Banqueting room resemble in its style and magnificencethe banqueting halls of the Oriental monarchs, but the erection of a canopy of peacock’sfeathers over the chair of the President, and a small ampitheatre (for which there is abun-dant space) covered with brocade and Persian carpets, and furnished with seats for themusic, and places for the buffoons and jesters to show their skill.

I will next call your attention, Mr. Chairman, to a schedule, which I have preparedfrom the “official vouchers” on my desk, of some other articles of democratic furniture,with the price paid for them. Those articles consist of enormous mirrors, looking-glasses, chandeliers, bracket lights, astral and other lamps, and candlesticks; all of whichhave been purchased since the pure, plain, simple, frugal, economical, republican days ofrentrenchment and reform commenced. I will read this schedule:

Articles bought from Messrs. Lewis Veron & Co.Mantel glasses, rich gilt frames, French plates, 100 by 58 inches . . $2,000.00Pier Looking-glasses, in rich gilt frames, 108 by 54 inches. . . . . . . . 2,400.002 Mirrors for Green room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.002 Mirrors for Dining room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.00

Reframing 2 looking-glasses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.003 Chandeliers for the East Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,300.003 eighteen-light cut-glass chandeliers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,800.003 sets heavy bronzed Chairs and Rockers for do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75.004 pairs two-light Mantel Lamps, with drops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356.008 five-light Bracket Lights, bronzed and gilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.004 Pier Table Lamps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180.00


2 three-light lamps for East Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.601 two-light Lamp for the Upper Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.502 three-light Lamps for the Lower Hall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.004 Astral Lamps on pier tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.001 four-light Hall Lamp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.001 pair Bracket Lights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.001 three-light Centre Lamp, supported by female figure . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.002 Astral Lamps for round tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65.002 pairs plated Candlesticks and branches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.002 do. Chamber Candlesticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.006 do. do. do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57.009 do. Table do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76.5018 extra cut Lamp Glasses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.004 French Bracket Lights for East Room . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.001 pair Mantel Lamps for Audience Room. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

All purchased from L. Veron & Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $13,241.00Bought from Campbell and Coyle, 3 Hall Chandeliers . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00Bought from Campbell and Brothers, 1 octagon Hall lamp . . . . . . . . . . 14.00

$13,405.00

What will the plain republican farmers of the country say when they discover that oureconomical reformers have expended $13,405 of the People’s cash for looking-glasses,lamps, and candlesticks? What would the frugal and honest “Hoosiers” think were theyto behold a democratic peacock, in full court costume, strutting by the hour before golden-framed mirrors, NINE FEET HIGH AND FOUR FEET AND A HALF WIDE?Why, sir, were Mr. Van Buren to dash into the palace on the back of his “Roanoke” racehorse, he could gaze at and admire the hoofs of his charger and his own crown at the sameinstant of time, in one of those splendid mirrors. Mr. Chairman, there is much truth andsound philosophy in Poor Richard’s advice:

“Early to bed, and early to rise,Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

But it is clear that our new economists have little faith in early rising, else they would nothave laid out $7,500 of the People’s cash in lamps and candlesticks. The Court fashion of“sleeping on the day and waking on the night,” results in keeping the palace doors closed,save to persons entitled to the entrée, until ten o’clock A. M. It was but a few days agothat an honest countryman, on his way to the fishing landings, after breakfast, havingsome curiosity to behold the magnificent “East Room,” with its gorgeous drapery and bril-liant mirrors, rang the bell at the great entrance door of the palace, and, forthwith, thespruce English porter in attendance, came to the door, and seeing that only “one of thepeople,” “on foot,” was there, slammed it in his face, after saying, “You had better comeat seven o’clock; the President’s rooms are not open for visiters until ten in the morning.”35

Whereupon the plain farmer turned on his heel, with this cutting rebuke: “I’m thinking thePresident’s House will be open BEFORE DAY on the 4th of March next for EVERY-body;forOLD TIP is a mighty early riser, and was never yet caught napping—and does’nt allowserfs to be insolent to freemen.”36 And, sir, may I add, in confirmation of this honest coun-


tryman’s belief in Old Tip’s early rising, that, within the last year, he has been heard, bysome of his intimate friends, to remark that, “HIS HEAD HAD NOT BEEN FOUNDUPON HIS PILLOW AT SUNRISE FOR THE LAST FORTY YEARS.” To this habit ofearly rising is, perhaps, in a good degree, to be attributed to the salvation of the brave armyfrom the scalping-knife and tomahawk of the Indian savage at the battle of Tippecanoe,on the morning of the 7th November, 1811; for, on that occasion, “he arose at a quarterbefore 4 o’clock, and sat by the fire, conversing with the gentlemen of his family, whowere reclining on their blankets, waiting for the signal, which in a few minutes wouldhave been given for the troops to turn out. The orderly drum had already been roused forthe reveille. At this moment the attack commenced.” This custom of early rising, with thegreat activity and temperate habits of his past life, will also fully explain why he stillenjoys such remarkable vigor in his “moral and physical energies” since he has attainedto the age of 67 years. But, sir, I will not indulge in this pleasing theme until I shall havefinished my remarks on the regal splendor of the Presidential palace.

Among the “official vouchers” before me, I find one which testifies that Mr. VanBuren, during the administration of General Jackson, was sometimes disposed to gratifyhis love for rich candlesticks, by acting as caterer for palace furniture:

VOUCHER NO. 6

“Bought at auction, for the President’s House, May 30, 1831:“To chintz covered sofa, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $60.00“2 plated CANDLESTICKS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.70 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$80.00“Received payment, June 7, 1831 M. VAN BUREN.”

But I must present you, Mr. Chairman, with some other articles of democratic fur-niture within the palace. What do you opine of the following specimens—they were all pur-chased by the plain, republican reformers, from Messrs. Lewis Veron & Co.:

2 sets of green tea trays, real gold leaves, 5 in each set, . . . . . . . . . . . . $70.00ORNAMENTAL RAYS over the door, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.007 dozen GILT STARS, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.504 pier tables with Italian slabs, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 700.001 round table, blue and gold slab, large, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135.002 Do. do. do. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.004 bronzed and steel fenders, “new style,” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.0024 arm chairs and 4 sofas, stuffed and covered, mahogany work,

entirely refinished, and cotton covers, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .o$600.00

Can you tell me, sir, in what age of the world it was that real, genuine, plain, hard-handed locofocos first placed Golden Rays over their doors, and bedecked their saloonswith golden stars? I think it was about the time of that great exemplar of locofoco democ-racy, Nebuchadnezzar. What do you think, sir, of the democratic ROSEWOOD PianoForte (octaves) at the palace, got in exchange for a mahogany one, by paying two hundreddollars of the People’s cash for boot money?


I will now direct the attention of the committee to another department of thePresident’s revenues, which I consider highly objectionable. I refer, sir, to the linens, tow-els, table-cloths, &c. bought with the People’s cash for the use of the palace. In thisdepartment there appears to have been no bounds to extravagance. What will the head ofany household in America think of expending for such articles, at one store, within theshort period of ten months, the sum of twenty-four hundred and sixty dollars and twenty-nine cents? The bills for this expenditure on my desk are entirely too long to take up thetime of the committee in reading them; but I have prepared and will submit the followingabstract:

“Huckaback towels, Irish linens, Ticklenberg, Damask diapers, table-cloths, Irish sheeting, MARS QUILTS,flushing, green gauze, slip thread, spools, cotton tapes, and other dry goods, purchased for the use of thePresident’s House, at the store of Darius Clagett, Washington, from the 17th of March, 1837, to the 19th ofJanuary, 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2,460.29Contained in three several bills, viz:

1. Dated 15th March, 1837, and paid 27th May, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.332. From the 17th April, 1837, till 2d June, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,064.80To this account is appended the following order and receipt:“June 23, 1837. Major Smith will please to pay the above account for articles purchased

for the President’s House. A. VAN BUREN.”“Received of Thomas L. Smith the within bill in full. June 24, 1837. R. B. NALLEY,

“For Darius Clagett.”3. From 20th July, 1837, till 19th January 1838 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,324.16“1838, April 26. Received payment in full, thirteen hundred and twenty-four dollars and sixteen cents

“D. CLAGETT”Endorsed: MAJOR VAN BUREN, at President’s House.”37

Will it not, sir, amaze the frugal housekeepers of the United States to learn that thePresident should have considered it necessary to replace or repair the stock of linens onhand and then in use at the palace, by adding thereto the purchase of $2,460.29 in tenmonths? Why, sir, a plain republican locofoco may almost be induced to believe that Mr.Van Buren, at that period, had some half dozen daughters, who had been made happy bygood husbands, and that they were all about being furnished with splendid outfits from thepaternal mansion. This subject is so well understood by the country that I shall not longerdwell upon it. I will, however, remark, that it appears from the vouchers last presented,as well as from others now before me, that Mr. Abraham Van Buren, one of the sons ofthe President, was frequently engaged in purchasing supplies of “furniture” for the palace.Some articles of palace furniture have been procured through Mr. Noland and others; butthe principal agent, appointed by the President to take charge over this branch of the pub-lic service was T. L. Smith, Esq., as the following “official voucher” will abundantly man-ifest.—Voucher No. 32, in abstract No. 1.

“To my expenses in making purchases for the President’s House . . .i$262.63“December 12, 1837. T. L. SMITH.”

I will, for the next place, favor the committee with some real curiosities. Sir, the farm-ers, mechanics, and laborers of the country will look at the “official vouchers”which I


shall next offer for your examination with a far deeper interests than they would behold a“grand review” of Mr. Van Buren’s 1st regiment of “bloodhounds,” now winning gloryand renown in the Florida service.38

“Washington, March 5, 1838.

The United States, Dr., to Thos. Lamb—for the use of the President’s House.Sept. 20, 1837, 34 table knives ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.37H

2 new table knife blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752 cook’s knife blades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50

$4.62HJuly 7, 1838. Received Payment THO. LAMB

“The President’s House To Robt. Keyworth, Dr.Sept. 13, 1837. To 3H feet of silver chain and 1H feet of gilt,

for repairing decanter labels, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.0023, To repairing 4 decanter labels furnishing chain . . . . . . . . . 2.50

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$8.50

Received payment for Robt. Keyworth from T. L. Smith, Sept. 25, 1837. P. SHOEMAKER.

“United States, for the President’s House, To James Cuthbert, Dr.To making 3H dozen pairs sheets at 87H cents per pair . . . . . . . . . . . $15.75

Do 12 dozen pillow cases, at 6H cents each . . . . . . . . . . . . 9.00To hemming 12 table cloths at 25 cents each . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.00

Do 12 dozen glass cloths, at 50 cents per dozen . . . . . . . . . . 6.00Do 12 dozen KITCHEN RUBBERS, at 50 cents per dozen .6.00

To making 6 dozen aprons, at 50 cts. per doz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .003.00To hemming 6 dozen check dusters, at 37H cents per dozen . . . . . .002.25

Do 6 dozen knife cloths, at 50 cts. per dozen . . . . . . . . . .003.00Do 2 dozen STRAINING CLOTHS at 50 cents per dozen001.00Do 7 dozen chamber towels at 50 cts. per dozen . . . . . . . . . 3.50Do 12 dozen table knapkins, at 50 cts, per dozen . . . . . . . . . 6.00repairing 8 pair sheets, at 25 cts. per pair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .002.00

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$60.50Received payment in full of T. L. Smith, Sept. 7, 1837. JAS. CUTHBERT.”

“President of the United States, To Wm. M. McCauley, Dr.1837, June 2. To 2 tin buckets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $2.00`` `` To MILK STRAINER and SKIMMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$0.62H`` `` 17 To chamber bucket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$ 2.00`` `` 20 To 4 dozen tart pans, at 62H cents per dozen . . . . . 2.50

$7.12H

Received payment of T. L. Smith. WM. M. MCCAULEY.”

“President’s House, To George Savage, Dr.1837. Oct. 1. Plate basket $3, 2 Japanned trays 1.50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$4.50

Nov. 8. Two cobweb brushes 2.50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2.50Dec. 6. Large Manilla mat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2.25

2. Large spigots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1.009. Three larding needles, at 25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$0.75

1838, June 5. One oval tub 2.25, one keeler 1.25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$3.50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$14.50Washington, July 8, 1838 Received Payment, GEORGE SAVAGE.”

“President’s House To George Savage, Dr.


1837. April 4. 2 Alicante mats, at $1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2.001 Manilla do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$2.004 hearth brushes, at 75 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$3.001 bucket 62, 1 do. 50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1.12

April 11. 1 covered market-basket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1.50June 1. 1 churn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1.25July 10. 2 mats, 37H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..75Aug. 29. 2 six-hole bottle baskets, at 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.00

2 hair sifters, at 37H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$14.37Washington, Sept. 27, 1837. Received payment of T. L. Smith, GEO. SAVAGE.”

“Baltimore, Sept. 2, 1837.Major T. L. Smith, on account of the President’s House, Bought of T. Palmer & Co.2 sets fine steel tongs and shovel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $28.0010 steel pokers, at $1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.001 pair tongs and shovel supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.001 LIQUOR STAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.001 set waiters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$90.50

Received payment for T. Palmer & Co. J. SCHUTTE.”

“The President’s House To Chas. F. Bihler.To 1 knifeboard and brushes, and chamois for the silver plate . . . . . . .$$3.50Received payment of T. L. Smith CHAS. F. BIHLER.”

19th November, 1838.“Charles Wood for the President’s House, Bought of A. McIntire, Auct.1 double chamber set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$231 single do . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16Packing and cartage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$40Received payment, A. MCINTIRE, Auct.”

“United States, for the President’s House, To Robert Keyworth, Dr.1837, March 11. To toast-rack for Wm. Cuthbert. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$$6Received payment, R. KEYWORTH.”

“William Cuthbert, for the President’s table furniture, To P. Kinchey,1837, Dec. 14. 2 sugar vases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$6.004 basements for the same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6.004 artificial wreaths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.50

July 7, 1838. Received payment for P. Kinchey, THOMAS WHELAN.”

“President of the United States, To Wm. M. McCauley, Dr.1837, March 20, To 2H gallon coffe-boiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$4.501 boiler and 2 do. pots, at 75 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.251 coffee biggon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.50

I certify the above to be correct. James Cuthbert.March 27, 1837. Received the within account in full. WM. M. McCAULEY.”

“Washington, Nov. 4, 1838.President of the United States, Bought of Campbell & Coyle.1 plate warmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$10.50April 19, 1838. Received payment for Campbell & Coyle. GUSTIN RUSSEL.”


“The United States, for the President’s House, To Samuel Redfern, Dr.1837, July 1. To 1 dozen brooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$3.75

H do hand scrubs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.871838, April 13. H do brooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.87

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7.50July 7. Received payment, SAM. REDFERN.”

“President’s House To E. M. Linthicum.1837, March 16. To 2 B.W. Coffee-pots, a 2.25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$4.50

2 doz. B.W. tablespoons, a 1.37 . . . . . . . . . . . . .2.751 do teaspoons, 50 and 87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.372 toasters, a 62 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.251 steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..502 gimlets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..252 hammers, 40 and 50. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$.90

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$11.62I certify the above to be correct. Received payment in full E. M. LINTHICUM.”

Mr. Chairman, these fifteen small bills which I have just read have been selected fromseveral large bundles of others, because they afford a fair sample of the kind of expensesthat are daily incurred on account of the palace establishment. And I must be permittedto say, that I cannot see the propriety or the justice of the President of the United States insaddling the Public with all the little disbursements of his household. He receives anannual salary of TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS, IN GOLD AND SILVER,which gives him $68.50 per day, or $2.81 for each and every hour that passes during thefour years of his presidential term.39 If he enjoys himself five hours at a state dinner, herises from his feast $14.05 richer than when he sat down. If he sleep eight hours, he is sureto get up from his state bed $22.48 better off than before he closed his eyes. Neither doesthe amount of his income depend upon good crops, good seasons, good farming, or goodprices. On the contrary, whilst it is not diminished by any or all of these circumstances,which so vitally affect the income of the farmer, the President’s salary is in fact alwaysenhanced in value, in proportion as the farmer, the mechanic, and the poor laborer suffer.I ask you, therefore, whether it is just and equal for the President to charge the farmer, themechanic, and the poor laborer with the cost of making his sheets, pillow-cases, and ser-vants’ aprons—with the pitiful price paid for HEMMING, YES, HEMMING his kitchenrubbers, or DISH CLOTHS—straining cloths, or STRAINER RAGS? The poor farmerhas not only to purchase a churn, milk-strainers, and skimmers for his own family, but heis also taxed to pay for a churn, milk-strainers, and skimmers for the President of theUnited States, and for HEMMING HIS STRAINER RAGS into the bargain. The poorlaborer with his fifty cents a day, has not only to provide his own coffee pot and pewterspoons, but he is compelled to purchase a coffee pot for the President, and pay for thespoons used by the President’s servants. Ay, sir, he is taxed for the cost of grinding theknives which the servants in the President’s kitchen use in eating their victuals. ThePresident of the United States, in my opinion, should have had more pride of character


than to charge the People with the price of his plate warmers, his toasters, his market bas-kets, his tart pans, and larding needles to stuff his puddings and saucissons. Martin VanBuren must suppose, forsooth, that the farmers, mechanics, and laborers of the UnitedStates are so very stupid, or so very good-natured, that they will without a murmur con-sent to be taxed with the price of his LIQUOR STAND, and for SILVER and GOLDCHAINS to hang labels around the necks of his “foreign barrel shape flute decanters, withcone stoppers,” to apprize his sleek, prim court guests that he has introduced to the palacecellars “Marcobruner Hock,” “Batailly Claret,” “Towers Port,”“Romanee Burgundy,”“Ravini’s Pale Gold Sherry,” and “Red Seal, old, bottled E. I. Madeira.” I had thought thatit was bad enough for the farmers, mechanics, and laborers of the country to provide hayand pasturage for Mr. Van Buren’s race and carriage horses; to pay for the manure on hispotato, celery, cauliflower, and asparagus beds; to pay the hire of a British gardener to top-dress his strawberry vines, cultivate his vegetables, and construct bouquets for his palacesaloons; but, sir, to HEM his DISH RAGS, pay for his LARDING NEEDLES andLIQUOR STANDS is still worse. Ay, sir, worse, if possible, than filling the apartments inthe House of the American people with royal and imperial Wiltons, foreign cut wine cool-ers, French bedsteads, and one hundred dollar artificial flowers. It is worse, sir, becausethere is a degree of littleness in the thing which demonstrates as clearly as if it were writ-ten in characters of living light, that the soul of Martin Van Buren is so very, very, verydiminutive, that it might find abundant space within the barrel of a miliner’s thimble to perform all the evolutions of the whirling pirouette avec chasee asuivant, according to the liberal gesticulations practiced by the most celebrated danseurs.

If there was the least necessity for taxing the People in the manner I have mentioned,I know well they would bear the burden without grumbling; but, sir, there is no intelligentman residing at the seat of Government who is not satisfied that Mr. Van Buren lays upannually from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars. Can you inform me, sir, what greatexpenses encumber his purse, which any other respectable gentleman who occupies a spa-cious mansion in this city has not to meet? All the individuals at the head of the variousDepartments of the Government have to hire houses, stables, pasturage, gardens, and gar-deners; they have to purchase household furniture, raise their own vegetables, and buy hayfor their cattle; and yet they manage not only to get along comfortably, but to hold bril-liant soirées, and make quite a display in carriages and equipage, on $6,000 per annum.There are but two items in the expenditures of the President which can exceed in amountthe disbursements for similar objects incurred by other respectable householders inWashington. I refer to his state dinners and palace servants. In regard to the former, a prettyfair estimate can soon be made. He probably gives 25 state dinners during the long ses-sions of Congress, and 15 at the short sessions—being an average of 20 dinners annually,with 40 guests for each. If we allow $2 to each guest, the actual cost of a state dinner willbe $80.20 state dinners would therefore require $1,600. The sum of $2 for each guest isa very liberal allowance, and within a few francs of the price paid by Louis Philippe, Kingof the French, the richest monarch in the world, to his purveyor, for providing the most


sumptuous banquets at the Tuilleries and Fontainbleau. In relation to the number of palaceservants I shall not be rigid. I am willing to allow 25. In that number I intend, of course,to include all servants that may be employed without as well as within the palace walls. Ipresume the following offices will suffice the President—1 charioteer, 2 postillions, 4footmen, 2 outriders, 2 grooms, 4 French cooks, 1 butler, 1 chief carver, 1 cup bearer, 1porter, 1 turnspit, 1 scullion, and 5 chamber servants. I do not deem it proper to name a“keeper of the President’s dogs”—although the “keeper of the King’s dogs” in England isno inconsiderable nobleman; and a recent London paper announces that “Lord Kinnaird,the new master of her Majesty’s buckhounds, has just taken for four months ColonelCavendish’s mansion at St Leonard’s, within about ten miles of Windsor, for the purposeof being within the immediate neighborhood of the place of his official duties.” Excellentservants can be hired in Washington at from $8 to $10 per month—twenty-five servantswould, therefore, at $10 per month, require a disbursement of $3,000. Now, sir, notwith-standing my admission that twenty-five palace servants may be necessary for Mr. VanBuren, I am unwilling to concede that a real Bank Whig could not go ahead very well withone-fifth of that number. I have supposed, sir, that the state dinners and palace servantsof Mr. Van Buren may together possibly demand an expenditure of $4,500. To that amountmay be added about $2,500 for provisions of every kind, fuel, oil, candles, and corn forforage, and we then have the gross sum of $7,000, which embraces every cent that Mr.Van Buren annually disburses from his private purse, excepting his expenses for clothingand ornaments to decorate his person. And if he is vain enough to spend his money in thepurchase of rubies for his neck, diamond rings for his fingers, Brussels lace for his breast,filet gloves for his hands, and fabrique de broderies de bougran à Nancy handkerchiefs forhis pocket—if he choose to lay out hundreds of dollars in supplying his toilet with“Double Extract of Queen Victoria,” Eau de Cologne, Triple Distillée, Savon DavelineMons Sens, Bouquet and Arabic, Corinthian Oil of Cream, L’Huile de Rose, Hedyosmia,concentrated Persian Essence, and Extract of Eglantine, the latter the most charming per-fume for the assembly or boudoir, imparting to the handkerchief an agreeable, refreshing,and lasting odor, and “patronized by her most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, and herRoyal Highness Dowager Queen Adelaide”—if, I say, Mr. Van Buren sees fit to spend hiscash in buying these and other perfumes and cosmetics for his toilet, it can constitute novalid reason for charging the farmers, laborers, and mechanics of the country, with billsfor HEMMING HIS DISH RAGS, FOR HIS LARDING NEEDLES, LIQUOR STANDS,and FOREIGN CUT WINE COOLERS.

I have now, sir, arrived at the last class of expenditures for the palace establishment,viz: “Alterations and Repairs.”And in this department, after a thorough examination ofthe official vouchers, I am constrained to state that there exists more extravagance, if notmore downright profligacy, than in any other. In the district of country which I represent,a man is said to “repair his house if he patch the old roof, or put on a new one—or if heweatherboard or paint the outside—or if he hang a new door, or mend the hinges, latch,lock, or other fastening of the old one—or if he replace sound panes in the stead of bro-


ken window glass—or if he fasten the old mantel piece, or put up a new one—or if hemend the old floor, or lay a new floor. All these various improvements, and a thousandothers of similar character, may be, legitimately, called “repairs of the house.” By an actof Congress, passed 3d of March, 1837, the sum of $7,300 was appropriated “for alter-ations and repairs of the President’s HOUSE, and for superintendence of the groundsaround the same.” Now, sir, having explained what I understand by “repairs” of aHOUSE, and having referred the committee to the law, I will submit sundry bills for dis-bursements under that law:

“Bill of C. Alexander, Upholsterer, from the 11th of March, 1837, till 16th of May, 1837, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,037.35

Containing among other charges, the following:PRIVATE OFFICE

To scrape the room and size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.0022 pieces paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22.003H pieces border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50putting up 22 pieces paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.50putting up 3H pieces border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.6772 yards scarlet damask . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54.0025 yards of silk pd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18.7550 yards of silk binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.503 sets of cornices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.0036 yards muslin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.0025 yards cotton fringe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.253 pairs of bands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.0021 rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.50making three window curtains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.0051 yards of Brussels carpet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103.0015I yards border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31.50Making 51 yards carpeting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.87Making 31H yards border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.87

GREEN ROOM.30 PIECES OF SILVER PAPER. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00

4 pieces border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.002 pieces bottom border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00

putting up 30 pieces paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.25putting up 6 pieces border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.6096 yards green silk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108.0033 yards of muslin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24.7516 yards cotton fringe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.00making and putting up 2 window curtains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.0075 yards matting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.43Iputting down 75 yards matting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.50

3 pieces green worsted binding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.25removing furniture of the Audience Room to Major Earl’s room,

and the furniture from this room to the Audience Room . . . . . . . . . . . 2.50Bill of C. Alexander, Upholsterer, from May 1837,

till 10th August, 1837 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$1,135.47


Containing among other charges, the following:SQUARE ROOM.40

To taking down 2 window curtains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91.00washing and making again . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7.00

PRESIDENT’S OFFICE.taking down the window curtains and

taking up the carpet and moving the furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4.00CIRCULAR ROOM.

taking up the carpet and 16 yards of linen and rope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6.00washing and repairing 32 chair covers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22.00

CIRCULAR ROOM—2d story.taking down 6 window curtains and taking up the carpet . . . . . . . . . . . . .4.50

BLUE ROOM.taking down the curtains, taking up 2 carpets, and moving the furniture .4.00putting up 2 window curtains in the MAJOR’S ROOM . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1.00putting up 1 window curtain in MR. M. VAN BUREN’S ROOM . . . . . . ..5083 yards matting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31.12Hputting down matting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8.3030 pieces of silver paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .120.00

4 pieces of border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16.002 pieces of bottom border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4.00

hanging 30 pieces of paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11.25putting up 6 pieces of border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4.5043 yards of blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .131.254 yards of silk border . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4.0033 yards muslin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24.7518 yards cotton fringe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4.5010 gilding rings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5.00making and putting up window curtains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30.00By agreement for a carpet, 2 pieces curtain complete, and preparing

the President’s office . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .475.00Bill of Ed. Burke, Upholsterer, 22d August, 1837, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$985.16H

Viz: To making and laying carpets, and making bell pulls . . . . . . . . .$404.58hanging paper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .178.90materials for repairing old work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26.18H

taking up old carpets, and taking down old curtains, and relaying and putting up same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51.00

expenses, &c. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .240.00divan frame, stuffing, and materials for stuffing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84.50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$985.16H”Bill of Zachariah Nicholas 25th August, 1837, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .800.80

Cleaning, repairing and regilding 7 chandeliers,Cleaning and repairing 3 pair of pier table French figures,Cleaning and repairing 1H column astral lampsCleaning and repairing 4 pairs cornucopia brackets, branchesCleaning and repairing 1 pair mantel branch lamps,Cleaning and repairing 1 pair candlesticks,

}$542.00

Cash paid in Baltimore and Philadelphia for glass and expenses . . . . . . . .50.00Taking down and putting up chandelier and other ornaments . . . . . . . . .70.37HPaid for packing boxes and cotton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18.87HPaid for 11 days’ hire of horse and cart, hauling the ornaments and expenses .29.75Cleaning 1 passage lamp and chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3.00Cleaning and repairing a plateau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75.00Expenses, transportation, and putting up plateau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11.00 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$800.00


“Received for repairs of chandeliers, &c. for the President’s House, July 10, 1837, one hundred and fifty dollars.

$150.00 Z. NICHOLAS.”

I have just read five several bills, which exhibit an expenditure, under the set ofCongress last mentioned, for what are denominated “repairs of the President’s House”during the first six months of Mr. Van Buren’s term, amounting altogether to the sum of$4,127.98. By these bills we are taught what is meant by the phrase, “repairs of thePresident’s House,” in the palace vocabulary. It appears that “repairs of the President’sHouse” consist in buying scarlet damask and Brussels carpet for the President’s office;scraping or scrubbing, and making window curtains for the same; purchasing silver paperand green silk for the Green Room; and removing furniture from the Audience room tothe Major’s room, and from this room to the Audience room, taking down window cur-tains, washing and making them again, for the Square room; taking down window cur-tains, and taking up carpets, in the Circular and Blue rooms; putting up window curtainsin the Major’s room and Mr. M. Van Buren’s room; making and laying down carpets; mak-ing bell-pulls, purchasing divans, cleaning and repairing chandeliers, pier tables withFrench figures, column astral lamps, cornucopia bracket branches, mantel branch lamps,candlesticks and plateaus. I think, sir, the farmers, mechanics, and laborers will judge theforegoing items to be a very strange kind of “repairs of the PRESIDENT’S HOUSE.”They will have no hesitation in pronouncing that there is scarcely a single dollar includedin the foregoing bills which can with propriety be said to have been expended in “repairsfor the President’s HOUSE.” I heard a gentleman remark, with most cutting severity,while speaking on the subject of “repairs to the President’s House,” that “it was the dutyof the Government who first built the house to keep it in repair, and shelter its occupantfrom the rains and winds of heaven.”Don’t you believe, sir, that the President adopts amost admirable mode to “shelter” himself from “the rain and winds of heaven”by expend-ing the appropriations made by Congress “for repairs of the President’s House,” in buy-ing silver paper, scarlet damask, and green silk; in fixing “bell-pulls,” cleaning or regild-ing plateaus and cornucopia bracket branches; taking down and putting up window cur-tains; laying down and taking up carpets, and in removing the furniture from the Audienceroom? The honest truth about the whole matter is this, sir. Scarcely $500 have beenexpended during the last twelve years in making legitimate, real, permanent “repairs of thePresident’s House,” excepting on one occasion for painting the entire building inside andoutside, for which a special appropriation of $3,482 was voted by Congress. TheRepresentatives of the People have been gulled—yes, sir, actually gulled, with the ideathat large annual appropriations have been necessary for “repairs of the President’sHouse,” that it might not “fall to pieces and go to ruin;” and when those appropriationshave been made for “repairs of the President’s House,” they have invariably been expend-ed in the manner I have indicated.

But, sir, the phraseology of the act of Congress passed 3d March, 1837, as before


mentioned, embraces the word “alterations” as well as the word “repairs.”What do youunderstand by the term “alterations?” I can tell you what that word signifies at the palace.If the broad walls of the East room have been hung with “paper of the lemon color, witha rich cloth border,” and if the lemon color should be proscribed by the palace dandies asunfashionable, the word “alterations” would in this supposed case apply with remarkableclearness, and would enable the master of the House to substitute “a rich, chaste and beau-tiful” silver paper, with golden borders, for the unfashionable “lemon color, with a richcloth border.” It sometimes happens that the “alterations” suggested to the President areso various in their character that he is unable to decide on their respective merits. In dif-ficulties of this sort he has been known to call in the aid of a professional artist, by whoseplans and drawings the mind of the President may be aided in arriving at safe conclusions.Hence, amongst the official vouchers before me I was not surprised to find the following:

“Dr. The United States to Robert Mills, Cr.1837, July, for drawing of plans, &c. of the President’s House . . . . . . . . . . $20.00

Received the above in full of Thomas L. Smith. ROBERT MILLS.”41

The various suggestions, drawings, plans, &c., submitted to the President, finallyresulted in the adoption and completion of some very material “alterations” in the palace;the specifications whereof have been duly detailed in several reports made by theCommissioner of Public Buildings to Congress. The report of that officer, datedDecember, 1837, states, on the subject of the President’s house, as follows:

“The arcaded screen dividing the corridor from the hall in this building has been completed, as also thescreen to the north entrance into the hall, both of which were so essential to the comfort of the house. To addfurther to this an air furnace42 has been constructed in the basement story, and conduits formed from the same,so as to convey the heated air into the corridors below and above, as also the great dining room and otherrooms.”

“'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful,” that none of the former Presidents—includingGeneral Jackson—never discovered that an “arcaded screen,” dividing the corridor fromthe hall,” and a screen at the north entrance into the hall, were so essential to the comfortof the House.

“'Twas strange, 'twas passing strange,” that an “air furnace had not been constructed,”with the people’s cash, at an earlier day, by the operation of which the occupant of thepalace would have reduced his fuel bills.

The President’s commissioner, by his report, dated in December, 1838, informs us ofsundry other important “alterations” within the palace, constructed during that year,amongst which is the following:

“In the basement story a reservoir has been constructed, which, by means of a double forcing pump, sup-plies the kitchen, pantry, BATHS, &c. with fine pure water.”

Ah! sir, I thought we should soon arrive at the Grecian Baths, for without them theluxuries of the palace would be incomplete. As early as the days of Homer the delights


of a palace bath were highly appreciated. He writes that a bath was prepared for Ulysses,the son of Laertes, at the palace of Circe, and that, after he had enjoyed the luxury of thebath, he was anointed with costly and delightful perfumes, and attired in gay apparel. Iam not a little surprised that Mr. Van Buren is the first President who made the discoverythat the pleasures of the warm or tepid bath are the proper accompaniments of a palacelife. For it appears that our former Presidents were content with the application, whennecessary, of the simple shower bath. Albeit one of them (Mr. Adams) indulged his aris-tocratic propensities, almost every morning, the weather being favorable, by aristocrati-cally walking some 90 or 100 rods, “between day-break and sunrise,” to the banks of thePotomac, and then and there aristocratically laying his aristocratic body, after the mannerof the antediluvians, in the waters of the river. And, on some occasions, more aristocrat-ically still, swimming across the stream, about one mile three quarters wide. At the royalbaths, in some of the palaces of Europe, servants are in attendance who immediately afterthe princely bather leaves the laver, gently whip his back and limbs with wet birch rods,remove the hard skin from his feet with pumice stone, anoint his body with triple distilléeArabic, and present a little wine, sugar and citron, to invigorate him before he lapses in asweet slumber. I presume the luxury of all these royal practices will be duly appreciatedat the Presidential palace. This luxury might doubtless be materially enhanced by caus-ing such “alterations” to be constructed as would introduce to the President’s baths, bymeans of particular conduits and “double forcing pumps,” a copious supply of sea water,after the manner of the magnificent bath establishments of the old Roman aristocracy.

Withholding, on the present occasion, all further observations relative to the palacebaths, let us now make an examination of the moneys expended by the reformers for fur-niture. You will recollect, Mr. Chairman, that I presented to the committee, in the earlypart of my remarks, a list of various appropriations made by Congress since the retirementof John Q. Adams, “for alterations and repairs of the President’s House,” planting trees,improving grounds, &c. Those appropriations amounted, altogether, to the sum of$88,722.58. I will now, sir, offer to the committee a similar list of appropriations, duringthe same period, for furniture for the President’s House.

Act of 3d March, 1829. For furnishing the President’s House under the direction of the President . . . $14,000.00Act of 2d March, 1831. For furniture and repairs of furniture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000.00Act of 2d March, 1833. Furnishing President’s House, in addition to proceeds of such decayed

furniture as he may direct to be sold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20,000.00Act of 30th June, 1834. “For COMPLETING the furniture of the President’s House” . . . . . . . . . .$6,000.00Act of 3d March, 1837. For furniture of the President’s House . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $20,000.00

To these appropriations may be added the proceeds, as before stated, made by the sale ofdecayed and unfashionable furniture, $5,680.40, and we have the gross sum of SEVENTYTHOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY DOLLARS AND FORTY CENTS,expended by the reformers for furniture for the President’s House. And this, too, sir, afterthe reformers had themselves contended and insisted that the President’s House hadbeen furnished by John Q. Adams in a style of “regal magnificence.” But let us look a little


closer at the matter. By the 14th clause of the 1st section of the act of 30th June, 1834, sixthousand dollars were appropriated “for COMPLETING the furniture of the President’sHouse.” The furniture was therefore complete after the expenditure of this $6,000. Now,Mr. Chairman can you tell me how it came to pass that Mr. Van Buren expended$24,127.98 on the palace furniture during the summer and autumn of 1837? The last sum($24,127.98) consists of $20,000 appropriated by the act of 3d of March, 1837, and$4,127.98, of the amount of the five bills already read, for what are denominated “repairsand alterations.” It is to be credited that the reformers have destroyed, in the short spaceof three years, furniture worth $24,127.98? About $8,000 annually wasted; a larger sumby $2,000, than has been invested in the furniture of the princely mansion on the northside of Franklin Square, and immediately opposite the palace.43 If an expenditure of$6,000 is sufficient to provide appropriate and suitable furniture for the most elegant pri-vate mansion in the city of Washington, what will the plain, republican farmers of thecountry say to the expenditure of $70,680.40 by the reformers in completing the furnitureof the President’s House, which was crowded with the richest furniture on the globe at thetime the reformers came into possession?

The President’s House, from the time of its destruction in 1814, was not refinishedand occupied until September, 1817. It was then taken possession of by Mr. Monroe. Thefurniture in the former building had been destroyed with it, and the little that had been pur-chased afterward, for the accommodation of President Madison, in the house which hadbeen rented for him, (the eastern end of the seven buildings,)44 was only second-hand fur-niture, and of trifling value; there was not a carpet in the house, the floor having been cov-ered with blue and green baize, which was entirely worn-out; indeed, it is said that therewas not a single article of furniture used by Mr. Madison suited to the new building. Mr.Monroe, however, had considerable furniture, of good quality, most of which he had pro-cured abroad as American Minister, and the residue for his accommodation as Secretaryof State. This furniture, including a small service of plate, he placed in the President’sHouse, at a valuation (9,071.22H) fixed upon it by two of the most respectable citizens ofthe District. About the same period, an order, limited in amount to twelve thousand dol-lars, was transmitted by Mr. Monroe to the Messrs. Russell and La Farge at Havre, withinstructions to procure some articles of furniture, “strong, massive, and durable,” to bemanufactured for the rooms for which they were respectively intended. These gentlemen,acting under the erroneous impression that the house of the President was to be furnishedin the style of a king’s palace, deviated greatly from the instructions of Mr. Monroe, notonly in the richness and splendor of the articles purchased, but actually ran up their billsto $92,085.85 francs, or $18,417.17, higher than the extent of the order which they hadreceived. All this splendid French furniture was forthwith shipped to America, andCongress subsequently granted the necessary appropriation to cover the deficit. AlthoughMr. Monroe was somewhat unfortunate in the selection of his agents, he was little toblame in the whole affair; for many of the articles deemed proper for the President’sHouse could not at that day have been procured in the United States; and, besides, the


statute which directs “that all furniture purchased for the President’s House shall be, as faras practicable, of American or domestic manufacture” was not enacted until May 22,1826. The furniture of the President’s House was further increased by the purchase of arti-cles in Philadelphia and other Atlantic cities, from time to time, during the administrationof Mr. Monroe, amounting to $22,511.60 H. The entire sum, therefore, invested in furni-ture by him was $50,000, viz.

Private furniture, appraised at . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$9,071.22HBought in France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18,417.17

Purchased at Philadelphia., &c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22,511.60 H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$50,000.00

This sum was paid by three several appropriation bills passed by Congress to wit:March 3, 1817, for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$20,000April 20, 1818, for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20,000April 20, 1818, for deficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,000

$50,000

To the rich stock bought by Mr. Monroe, there was added during the administration ofJohn Q. Adams, other furniture, including a service of plate, taken from Mr. Crawford45 atthe time he left Washington, upon retiring from the head of the Treasury Department; all ofwhich amounted to the sum of $20,000, and for which Congress had granted the necessaryappropriations, viz:

February 25, 1825 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$14,000March 2, 1827 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6,000

The entire cost, therefore, of the furniture in the President’s House on the day thereformers took possession was precisely $70,000. But all the fine things which had beengathered into the palace by Monroe and Adams were not grand enough for our reformers;they must be provided with huge barn-door size mantel and pier mirrors, in golden frames,magnificent cut-glass chandeliers, royal and imperial Wiltons, Italian gold slab pier tables,golden stars, golden rays, Turkish divans, French comfortables, foreign cut wine coolers,barrel-shape flute decanters, with cone stoppers, and one hundred dollar artificial flowers.Our reformers would not be satisfied without the dulcet notes of the “rosewood pianoforte,” (octaves;) nor could they enjoy their French cookery without the zest of a goldenspoon. Oh! how they longed after the genuine democratic gold and silver service of theRUSSIAN BARON, “le General Baron de Tuyll.” Hence our reformers have expendedseventy thousand six hundred and eighty dollars and forty cents to purchase all these loco-foco baubles. The furniture, therefore, at the present time, in the President’s palace, costthe people the sum of $140,680.40. What, sir, will the plain farmers of the country say—what will our industrious and frugal mechanics say—what will the poor daily laborers sayabout the expenditure of $140,680.40 in providing furniture for one house?—and suchfurniture! Is there a locofoco within this Hall of the people’s Representatives who will


justify this extravagance? If there be, I denounce him as the tool of the Executive. Theplain, republican citizens of the United States will not excuse Martin Van Buren for pay-ing for a bunch of artificial flowers to adorn his table a larger sum than the yearly wagesof a poor hireling; ay, sir, more than the annual pension granted by the nation to the braveand heroic soldier who endured the seven years’ toil of our Revolutionary struggle.

Immediately after the installation at New York in 1789 of General Washington asPresident under the new constitution, he took possession of the house in Pearl street, inwhich the President of the Old Congress had resided. After the removal of the seat ofGovernment to Philadelphia, President Washington lived in a house in market street, inthat city, which had been leased by Robert Morris to the Government in an annual rent of$3,000. The rents and all the other expenses of the President’s establishment were paidout of the Treasury, but Gen. Washington received no pay whatever for his services. Onthe contrary, he considered he was in duty bound to relinquish to the people of the UnitedStates two hundred thousand dollars, the amount of his salary for eight years’ services asPresident, in consideration of the rents, and other expenditures incurred by the nation inmaintaining his establishment while in their service. How does the conduct of GeorgeWashington contrast on this subject with that of Martin Van Buren? Washington and VanBuren! Bless my soul, what a falling off! [Loud laughter.] Yes. What a fall was there, mycountrymen! Then you, and I, and all of us fell down. After looking back down the longline of illustrious worthies who have occupied the Presidential chair in this country, is itnot enough to make the heart of a patriot bleed, and to cover his cheek with blushes to seein what that illustrious line ends! What has Martin Van Buren ever done? Who can tellme? I can inform you, sir; he has not only taken twenty-five thousand dollars in gold andsilver for his annual salary, but he has compelled the people to pay for HEMMING HISDISH-RAGS into the bargain. Why, sir, he knows no more of the honorable, high-minded feelings of the patriot than he does of the hardships of a soldier. I think I can tellabout all he knows upon that subject; and it is expressed in the nightly prayer of anIrishman impressed as a marine: “God be thanked that I never killed any body, and thatnobody never killed me! God bless the world, and huzza for the navy!” [Loud laughter.]I do not see why it is that such a nation as this should ever have made so much of so smalla pattern of a man. He never originated any thing to benefit his country; he never foughtto secure her glory; he has done nothing but plot to elevate himself; and yet here are weall thrown into turmoil about one little man, as if he was a hero or a statesman—as if, inthe hour of his country’s extremity, he had been the first to face her foes and present hisbody to their bullets, and, when her danger was past, had retired, like another Cincinnatus,to his plough, and had shone yet more in all the peaceful virtues of private life than he hadbefore shone in the field. Placed by the side of Harrison, what is he? and what has hedone? Let him read General Harrison’s letter to Bolivar, when that pure-minded patriotpointed out to the great Liberator the path of true glory and immortal fame, recommend-ing him to take Washington for his model, and to become, like him, the father of his coun-try. This would have sent him down to posterity with a shining brow. My soul rejoices


that we are at last going to have a president something like the Father of the Revolution.Why did the American people advance General Washington to the Presidency? Becausehe had been the Father of his Country, living and acting only for her. Why did they thenchoose the elder Adams? Because he had been the eloquent defender of independence;because his living words had stirred the fire and blood in the hearts of his countrymen, andhad inspired them to do and die in the cause of freedom. Why did they make Jeffersontheir Chief Magistrate? Because he had been the eloquent writer of the Declaration ofIndependence. And why Madison? Because he had been the able, the profound expounderof the constitution. Why Monroe? Because he was the last of that band of worthies whohad shed their blood in our revolutionary struggle. With him ended the revolutionary race.Why had they then appointed John Q. Adams? Because of his long diplomatic experi-ences, his known political wisdom. Why Jackson? Let New Orleans answer. And whyMartin Van Buren? Echo answers, why? It is true he put on General Jackson’s coat, anddrew on his heavy military boots, and tried to straddle into his footsteps, and that is aboutall.

I had a mind to turn the attention of this committee to a description of Martin VanBuren, by his loving friend and cousin, Alexander H. Everett, of Massachusetts, but I willnot do it—the man is small enough already. Let his friends here point out any one act heever did to benefit his country—let them lay their finger on one single bright page in herannals which has ever been illuminated by deed of his. When we would talk of Harrison,we can say, and say truly, to all the people of the Northwest: he was a father to your coun-try. He saved it from a savage foe. He made all the Indian treaties by which you hold yourlands in peace, and he promoted the improvement and well being of all your settlementsafter he had first rendered them secure. Under his government there was no Indian war,like the contest in Florida, hatched in fraud, and prosecuted in reckless improvidence.46

The Indians themselves admitted the fairness and equity of all his proceedings. They couldrely on his word, they trusted his sincerity; no army was there to march to remove themfrom the lands they had sold to the white man; they retired voluntarily and peacefully. Buthow is it now? You cannot negotiate a single Indian treaty, but what your democratic com-missioners turn out to be such fraudulent rascals that the Indians all complain they arecheated, and being themselves, for the most part, men of uprightness and integrity, theybecome indignant at the wrong, and set your power at defiance. What was the history ofyour Creek war? How did it originate, and were you not obliged to remove the Cherokeesby the bayonet, thus compelling them to observe a treaty they had never made?47 Is therenot at this hour a storm brewing among the Winnebagoes in the Northwest, because, likethe Seminoles, they were cheated by a treaty? It will not do to saddle the blame of thewars upon the Indians, and, when charged with all the millions you have spent, to say: wecannot help it—it is not our fault. You could have helped it, and it is your fault. You ownabominable frauds and oppressions were the cause of the war, and you are justly charge-able with every dollar it has cost the people.

But, sir, I must come back for the present to the “old grudge,” the expenditure for the


palace. On the 2d of March, 1797, Congress passed an act directing “decayed, out ofrepair, or unfit for use” furniture to be sold, and the proceeds of sale, and so much of asum as the President may judge necessary, not exceeding $14,000, to be invested in newfurniture for the use of the President, (the elder Adams.) In December, 1800, theGovernment was removed to its permanent seat at Washington, but before its removal,viz., the 24 th of April, 1800, the sum of $15,000 had been granted to provide “furniturefor the house erected in Washington for the President, to be expended by the heads ofState, Treasury, War, and Navy. The furniture was subsequently increased by three sev-eral appropriations of $14,000 each by acts passed 3d March, 1805, 2dMarch, 1809, and26th July, 1813, respectively. There had therefore, been expended on the furniture of thePresident’s House from the time of its first occupancy in December 1800, up to the peri-od of its destruction by the British army, $57,000.48

I shall not descend to the basement story of the palace, and remark upon the furniturewhich appertains to the numerous rooms provided for the stewards, cooks, and other ser-vants, but content myself with the single declaration, that all the arrangements upon thebasement story are in exact harmony with the style and magnificence displayed in theother stories of the palace.

I have heard many improvements suggested by court favorites as proper for the inte-rior of the palace, amongst which are the following: 1st, a library of gilt bound books; 2d,a cabinet or museum of medals, coins, gems, minerals, shells, plants, insects, worms, fishes, birds, and beasts; 3d, a suit of rooms garnished with paintings by Titian, Rubens,Rembrandt, Raffaelle, Salvator Rosa, Vandyke, Leonardo da Vinci, Carlo Dolci, PompeioBattoni, Andrew Sacchi, and

“Corregio’s Magdalen and Night,The matron of the Chair,Guido’s fleet coursers in their flight,And Claudes at least a pair.”

These paintings would form a beautiful contrast with the charming French prints nowunderstood to be within or near the palace. All these improvements would, of course, beproperly chargeable under the head of “Alterations and repairs of the President’s house.”Other “alterations and repairs of the President’s house” have doubtless been mooted, butwith more abundant caution; these consist in the erection of a throne and the purchase ofa crown, diadem, sceptre, and royal jewels. The pro and con arguments in regard to thesealterations and repairs readily suggest themselves. On the one side it may be contendedthat the introduction of these palace appendages might alarm the democracy; that, at most,they are but empty ensigns of royalty; and that, at all events, it will be best not to agitatethe matter until the sub-Treasury system shall be firmly established, and the projected lawfor raising a standing army of 200,000 men shall be fully enacted. On the other hand, itmay with great propriety be alleged that, as we already have the palace, with its tabouretsand other splendid regalia, palace grounds, palace gardens, grand levees, state banquets,Court ceremonials, Court costumes, stalls for the royal steeds, and royal revenues, we


should not hesitate about a throne, which according to the definition of NapoleonBonaparte, is “six planchis de supin et un tapis de velours”— or SIX PINE PLANKS ANDA VELVET CARPET. Why refuse a crown, which is merely a broad ring of gold, withdiamonds and precious stones set in ouches, the ring being attached to a velvet-gold-embroidered cap, terminating on top with a golden ball or cone? Why deny a diadem, orrichly variegated band, forming the border of a velvet cap garnished with gold tufts andtassels? Why reject a sceptre, or stick thirty inches in length, and lackered with goldenvarnish? And, as to the royal jewels, they can doubtless be easily procured, under theexcellent counsel of the twenty-two Kings, whose good wishes have heretofore been man-ifested in recommending to the favorable consideration of Mr. Van Buren the INDE-PENDENT TREASURY.49 Moreover, there is not a letter or syllable, or word, or clause,or section, or article, found in the Constitution which forbids the introduction of theseregalia; then why hesitate? Will not the pseudo-democracy be better pleased with aPresident who possesses not only the power, but is also covered with the trappings of roy-alty? Caesar was omnipotent at Rome with the plain title of Consul; Cromwell, with thesimple name of Protector, controlled all the power in England; Consul Bonaparte was asabsolute and despotic as the Emperor Napoleon.

Sir, I am unwilling to grant the appropriation of $3,665 in the bill under consideration“for alterations and repairs of the President’s house,” because the money may be expend-ed in the erection of a throne within the “Blue Elliptical Saloon,” and for the purchase ofa crown, diadem, sceptre, and royal jewels, with as little impropriety as former appropri-ations “for alterations and repairs of the President’s house” have been expended; andbecause, after these regalia shall have been prepared, it will not be very inconvenient forPresident Van Buren to exchange his splendid Spanish cloak for a royal stole, and, havingplaced the crown upon his head, the diadem on his brow, and bedecked his person withthe royal jewels, with the lackered sceptre in his hand, take his seat on that throne. Andthus this democratic President, although deprived of the title of royalty, will be invested,not only with its prerogatives, but with its trappings also.

If, sir, it is inexpedient in these hard times to appropriate the money of the People foropening and improving harbors, for erecting light-houses, for constructing roads andcanals, for improving the navigation of rivers, or completing the Cumberland road, andfor other objects of real utility, I think the times are too hard to apply the cash of thePeople “for alterations and repairs” of the President’s palace. I believe that the individualwho now occupies that mansion might suggest such “alterations and repairs”as would notmeet the views of the gentleman who will occupy the same house on the 4th of Marchnext; and, as the building is in excellent condition—as it is as splendid as the palace of theAutocrat of all the Russias, and as richly adorned as the grandest oriental mansion, I thinkthe present occupant might be content with it, particularly as the furniture, since the acces-sion of General Jackson, has cost the People of the United States no less a sum than$70,680, and the palace grounds and gardens, during the same period, the additional sumof $88,722.58. This, one would think, might, at all events, be sufficient to satisfy a plain,


frugal, economical, hard-handed democrat. But, whether he shall be satisfied or not, Ihope the committee will not pass the bill in its present shape; for I do not think the Peoplewant any more slippery elms on the President’s grounds—they had rather see a good rowof buckeyes.50

Sir, I have been controlled in the remarks which I have deemed it my duty to submitin relation to the President’s palace by the same motives and principles which governedthe Jackson party, of which I was an ardent supporter, during the administration of JohnQ. Adams. You will doubtless recollect that the Jackson party at that day, both in and outof Congress, went into the investigation of the palace concerns most thoroughly. On the3d of March, 1825, the following joint resolution was adopted by the two Houses:

“Resolved &c,. That the Commissioner of Public Buildings be, and he is here-by authorized and directed TO TAKE AN INVENTORY OF THE FURNITUREOF THE PRESIDENT’S HOUSE, at such time as may be convenient to thePresident, and to deliver a copy thereof to the President elect, and one copy toeach House of Congress.”

In pursuance of this resolution, a schedule of all the furniture of the President’s House,including the articles in the bed-chambers and kitchen, was reported to Congress on the5th of December, 1825. Subsequently, (8th February, 1826,) the House of Representatives,through its committee, requested the then President to communicate in what manner thelast appropriation for furniture for the President’s House had been expended. After theinformation had been obtained, the committee made a report to the House, viz: 17thMarch, 1826, to which they not only annexed a memorandum of all the table linens,sheets, pillow cases, chamber towels, &c. in the palace, but also a list of all the articlespurchased by Mr. Adams from the 10th of March, 1825, till January, 1826. Embraced inthe list were the follwing items:

“1825. May 26. Legare Kervand, billiard table . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$50.00`` June 6. Littlejohn, for cues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5.00`` Dec. 29. B. F. Pomeroy, billiard balls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6.00

1826. Jan. 1. P. Thompson, chessmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23.50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$84.50

Who does not remember the indignant bursts of eloquence that were then launchedforth within this Hall against gambling, waste of time, neglect of public business, extrav-agance, &c. &c.? With what commendable piety and holy zeal did the leading champi-ons of retrenchment and reform at that day exhort all devout Christians to open their eyesand lend their ears to the full and thorough examination of these subjects! I have beforeme, sir, a speech on this subject delivered on the 4th of February, 1828, by the Hon.JAMES BUCHANAN51 on Mr. CHILTON’S52 resolution to retrench the expenditures ofthe General Government, in which he elaborately discusses the merits of this enormousexpenditure, and shows exceedingly great regard for “the scruples of the pious” in regard


to the purchase with the public’s money of instruments for amusement; an example ofwastefulness and extravagance which he appears to have apprehended “must have a mostpowerful and extensive influence upon the morals of the youth of our country.”

It turned out, indeed, in the end, that Mr. Adams had really paid for the billiard table,&c. out of his own pocket. But no matter, the Jackson party in Congress continued todenounce the purchase of the billiard table, balls, cues, and chessmen. These were thearticles of palace furniture upon which we Jackson men arraigned the administration ofMr. Adams before the country. These articles of extravagance amounted to $84.50. Wewere afraid to pay for a billiard table for the President to spend his precious time at,because he had so many important duties to perform. The arguments used at that time willtingle in the ears of the old Jackson men when they shall discover, what is the fact, thattwo hundred dollars have been paid for boot money on the exchange of a MAHOGANYpiano-forte for one constructed of ROSEWOOD, and that the very reformers who madesuch an everlasting din about the price of a billiard table have expended more than sev-enty thousand dollars of the people’s cash for nine feet mirrors, gold knives, forks, spoons,rays, stars, &., not omitting, however, the bills for HEMMING Mr. Van Buren’s DISHRAGS and STRAINER CLOTHS, and for GRINDING his servants’ knives.

NOTES

1. Prior to 1865 there was no Committee on Appropriations for either chamber of Congress, butvarious committees addressed specific categories of federal expenditures. Ogle was address-ing the Committee on Civil and Diplomatic Expenses. The address took place in the Housechamber.

2. The Washington Globe was founded in 1830 in support of Andrew Jackson’s presidency byFrancis Preston Blair (1791–1876), who published it from then until 1845. To finance this“administration mouthpiece,” Blair was awarded the very lucrative post of public printer,which did all the government’s printing, including the Congressional Globe, in whichappeared the proceedings of Congress, not least of all Ogle’s speech. Blair was an astutepolitician, a member of Jackson’s “kitchen cabinet,” and both a close friend and a loyal sup-porter of President Martin Van Buren.

3. “Old Tippecanoe” was the popular name for William Henry Harrison (1773–1841), gainedfrom the climactic battle that defeated Tecumseh and the Prophet on the Tippecanoe River inthe Indiana Territory, November 7, 1811. This victory, and less celebrated ones, paved theway for Harrison, nearly 30 years later, as “hero” candidate for the presidency. “Hard cider,”homemade, was supposed to be the liquor of the common man.

4. Richard Mentor Johnson (1780–1850) was Martin Van Buren’s vice president. He served inCongress from his native Kentucky for many years and was a prominent political figure, butwas best known for his claim, generally accepted, that with his own hands he killed the greatShawnee chief Tecumseh. For this act he enjoyed legendary status in his own time and wasseen as a suitable foil for the not-so-colorful Van Buren.

5. William Elliott, The Washington Guide (Washington, D.C.: F. Taylor, Printer, 1837).


6. Ogle is mistaken here. The South Portico was built for President James Monroe in 1824 andthe North Portico, although built under Andrew Jackson, was authorized in January 1829, twomonths before the second Adams left office.

7. Ogle’s selection emphasizes evil-sounding specimens.

8. On Thomas Jefferson’s orders early in his presidency, the south grounds were enclosed by astone fence; this fence or wall was a full 12 feet tall, to shield outside views of grounds thatsloped upward from the house. Work on the walls continued for many years. As the wall con-tinued around the east and west sides of the grounds, it was reduced in height. The southgrounds were developed as private, while the public was admitted on the north side.

9. As a note of irony, 13 years after Ogle’s speech sculptor Clark Mills’s bronze equestrian stat-ue of Andrew Jackson was placed in Lafayette Square. The “little kinderhook magician” wasVan Buren, labeled the “Red Fox of Kinderhook,” his birthplace, and “the little Magician,”for his political skills.

10. The presidential election of 1828 was one of the most ferocious presidential campaign con-tests in history, the Jackson Democrats fired by John Quincy Adams’s election in 1824, decid-ed in what they termed a “corrupt bargain” in Congress, and the incumbent tormented byaccusations of an abstract, theatrical sort that he could not easily counter. Much of the fight-ing took place across the aisles of Congress.

11. The “hickory broom,” refers to Andrew Jackson, “Old Hickory” himself, who pledged toclean up a corrupt federal government.

12. One of the battle cries of the Jackson Democrats in the campaign of 1828 was “Retrenchmentand Reform.” The “reform” part aimed at government extravagance and corruption and theneed to return government from the “aristocracy” to the “common man.” “Retrenchment”harkens back 18 years to 1822, when the House set up a Committee on Retrenchment toinvestigate fraud in government contracting. The report of the committee sparked scandalthat extended into the government’s banking and land office operations. The scandal wasmuch used by the Jacksonians against their opponents in the presidential campaigns of 1824and 1828, hence Ogle’s contempt.

13. “Tyro,” a young recruit or greenhorn.

14. Andrew Jackson ordered stables constructed southeast of the White House grounds.Completed in the fall of 1834, they stood approximately where the William T. Shermanmemorial statue now stands, just south of the Treasury. Ogle is double-talking here. Therewas already a stable, true; it was located, with a coach house, in a southward ell of the westterrace, approximately where the Oval Office is today. What is now the Rose Garden was apaved stable yard. This was an innovation of the reconstruction of the house after the fire of1814, but its location beneath the windows of the dining room presented problems.

15. William Noland was commissioner of public buildings under Andrew Jackson and, withJackson’s aide William B. Lewis, supervised all the Jackson renovations to the White House.

16. William Buist was a member of the Buist family of nurserymen who, from extensive farmson Long Island, supplied American gardens with plant material from Maine to the deep South,from the 1830s through the 1880s. Robert Buist’s books on gardening did much to promotethe company’s sales.


17. John Ousley was originally employed as White House gardener by John Quincy Adams, anavid gardener, at the beginning of the fall planting season, 1825. Ousley developed nearly allthe White House gardens over the next nearly 30 years. He was dismissed in 1852 in antici-pation of new plans and new staff associated with Andrew Jackson Downing’s grand—albeitill-fated—designs for the presidential grounds. Little is known of Ousley. Ogle may be cor-rect that he was English.

18. James Maher, who was Irish by birth, was the facilitator for the commissioner of public build-ings of all grounds projects in the city, Capitol, and White House during the 1820s and 1830s.“Jemmy” Maher was a rough, amusing sort of man, and a great pet of Andrew Jackson, wholiked to quote him. His drinking habits might have presented problems had he been in lessfavor. Maher owned farms in Virginia, where he developed nurseries of trees he sold to thegovernment. This arrangement was perfectly legal in the point of view of the time.

19. This galaxy of gilded papier-mâché stars that crowned the archway from the hall were part ofthe “presentation” of Andrew Jackson as he entered the East Room for events. Jackson, whowas ill and feeble prior to surgery in 1832, was very carefully staged, his white hair sweptback from his face, a long, full cape concealing his thin form, almost as a costume. A full-length portrait of him in such a heroic stance hung in the Entrance Hall, to treat the eyes ofvisitors when the great man was not present. To most Americans, Jackson lived in iconogra-phy—heroic, a monument of a man; relatively few ever saw him.

20. The letter was written during John Quincy Adams’s administration, with a pro-Jackson slant.It should be observed that the East Room was architecturally finished in 1818. Ogle’s sourceis correct, for, except for some armchairs and sofas, it was not furnished until 1829, underAndrew Jackson. But even empty it was a magnificent space, its decorations anticipating theflamboyant Greek -revival to come.

21. The “locofoco” party was a radical splinter of the New York Democrats who turned againstthe party, believing that the Jacksonians had betrayed the common man. Van Buren was, ofcourse, not a locofoco.

22. Thomas Hart Benton (1782–1858), U.S. senator from Missouri, author of the Coinage Act of1834, which reintroduced gold coins ($10; $5; $2.50), or “eagles,” in an effort to stabilize theeconomy’s ailments following the destruction of the Bank of the United States. The coinswere sometimes called “Dr. Benton’s yellow lozenges.”

23. Benton had been an enemy of Andrew Jackson but reconciled with him politically in 1825and supported many of his programs. He did not always follow the party line, however.Colorful and articulate, Benton was a prominent figure in politics and political writing for 40years.

24. President Van Buren introduced the blue color that characterized the oval drawing room asthe Blue Room for all time. The room had been crimson, not green, as Ogle says.

25. Lewis Cass (1782–1866), Michigan soldier and statesman who served as Andrew Jackson’ssecretary of war and later envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to France.

26. The Green Room was established in that color by President James Monroe in 1818. The “yel-low” drawing-room is what we know as the Red Room. First yellow under Madison, itbecame red under James K. Polk and remains red.

27. Tammany Hall was originally the nickname of the executive committee of the New York


democratic party—lower case “d” because it predated the Democratic party of Jackson by aquarter century and supported Jefferson very significantly in the election of 1800. By the1830s its power greatly heightened with the election of one of its own, Martin Van Buren.

28. The “Palmetto State” is South Carolina.

29. Edward Burke was Van Buren’s coachman.

30. Baron de Tuyll (1771–1826), while Russian minister in Washington, lived in great magnifi-cence and was much admired for his taste and grandeur. Portions of the huge suite of silverare still in use at the White House. When he died the trappings of his lavish household weresold, including a large silver service purchased by President Jackson.

31. Joseph Boulanger, a Belgian, was steward of the White House for Jackson and Van Buren andlater was a prominent Washington caterer and confectioner.

32. Waddy Thompson (1798–1868), congressman from South Carolina, was a fellow Whig.

33. Blair’s mansion is the same building we know as Blair House, across Pennsylvania Avenuefrom the White House. Today Blair House is the president’s guest house.

34. Amos Kendall (1789–1869), journalist and great supporter of Andrew Jackson, gained greatwealth as Samuel F.B. Morse’s business manager. A great humanitarian, he was the founderof Gallaudet University for the deaf.

35. Martin Renehan, a native of Ireland, was in fact the doorkeeper employed by Van Buren. Heremained in the position until well into the 1850s. His accent was heavy enough to be oftenimitated.

36. March 4 was inaugural day.

37. Major Van Buren was Abraham Van Buren, one of the president’s sons.

38. Van Buren inherited problems in Florida. By the treaties of Payne’s Landing (1832) and FortGibson (1833), the Seminole Indians had agreed to trade their Florida lands for comparablelands west of the Mississippi. When a significant number of them changed their minds,President Jackson sent troops in 1835 to enforce the treaties. The Second Seminole War last-ed for seven years and was denounced by many as immoral; Van Buren, as president, sufferedfor the war, with most of the blame heaped upon him.

39. Ogle seems to have missed the fact that every administration received $20,000 that, in effect,did not have to be accounted for, to cover expenses of the house and extra costs of the presi-dency.

40. This presumably is today’s Treaty Room. In no other White House document is it identifiedas the “square room.”

41. Robert Mills (1781–1855), a native of South Carolina, was architect of the WashingtonMonument and the United States Treasury Building. He served as federal architect underAndrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren.

42. The White House was partially equipped with central heating beginning in 1837, although thesystem was not put into use until 1840. A gravity air system, it featured a furnace in the base-ment’s oval room, beneath the Blue Room, and tubelike ducts up through the walls. Theinstallation of the ducts is probably what called for so much new wallpaper. The glass screens


in the Entrance Hall were to serve the heating system.

43. Ogle departs here from his usual accuracy. He refers to the W. W. Corcoran mansion, whichstood across Lafayette Park from the White House and was the city's grandest residence. Thefanciful mansion was demolished in the twentieth century to make way for the Chamber ofCommerce Building, which still occupys the site.

44. The Seven Buildings was a row of houses on Pennsylvania Avenue at Twentieth Street, a fewblocks from the White House. When the Madisons, having been burned out of the WhiteHouse, found the Octagon House on New York Avenue impossible as a public residence, thegovernment rented the corner house of the Seven Buildings for them, and it served as presi-dent’s house until 1818 when the White House was completed.

45. William H. Crawford (1772–1834), politician and diplomat who served in the cabinets ofMadison and Monroe, was an unsuccessful bidder for the presidency in 1824. He suffered astroke during the campaign and left Washington. Ogle refers to the sale of his householdeffects.

46. Here again, Ogle reflects the anger felt by a large number of Americans over the government’sdealings with the Seminoles in Florida.

47. Ogle refers to the Cherokee Removal from Georgia, considered by many Americans eventhen a dark stain on Andrew Jackson’s reputation. Having relied on the battle skills of theCherokee in the Creek and Florida campaigns, Jackson abandoned them when as president hewas the only individual who could have saved them from the ravages of land speculators.

48. Ogle got this from the 1814 report of the commissioner of public buildings, but it can be con-sidered only an estimate and a low one, because domestic items were constantly purchasedfor the White House, some from the president’s allowance of $20,000, for which he was notrequired to make an accounting. For example, few invoices survive from Jefferson’s veryelaborate purchases of furniture. Ogle also errs in the first occupancy of the White House:John Adams moved in on November 1, 1800, and it was the British navy, not the army thatburned the house in 1814.

49. The concept of an independent U.S. treasury appeared when it became clear that Jackson’sremoval of the Bank of the United States was creating financial chaos. Sub-Treasuries wouldbe established throughout the country, and there federal funds would be deposited, rather thanin the private banks that had lingered on the death of the national bank. Although it failed atfirst, the Independent Treasury became law in 1840, under Van Buren, only to be defeated in1841 by the Whigs.

50. The buckeye, state tree of Ohio, was familiar to the Old Northwest, as known to GeneralWilliam Henry Harrison.

51. James Buchanan (1791–1868), Democratic congressman from Pennsylvania, president of theUnited States (1857–61).

52. Thomas Chilton (1798–1854), Whig member of Congress from Kentucky, a politician andBaptist preacher.


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Documents

White House History #10 The Gold Spoon Speech of 1840