Part 67

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Footnote 269:

See his Eulogium on Rittenhouse.

Footnote 270:

His salary was two thousand dollars per annum.

Footnote 271:

A particular instance, of a similar kind, occurred within the knowledge of the Memorialist. Mr. Peter Getz was, lately, a self-taught mechanic of singular ingenuity, in the borough of Lancaster; where he many years exercised the trade of a silver-smith and jeweller, and was remarkable for the extraordinary accuracy, elegance, and beauty of the workmanship he executed. This person was a candidate for the place of chief coiner or engraver in the mint; and, on that occasion, he offered to present to Dr. Rittenhouse, in the summer of 1792, a small pair of scales—such as are commonly called gold-scales—of exquisite workmanship as well as great exactness, as a specimen of his skill as an artist. The Director conceived, that an instrument equally well suited to the use for which this was designed, though less ornamental, could be procured for the mint, if desirable, for less money than this was worth as a matter of curiosity; he would not, therefore, purchase it for the mint: but being determined not to accept it as a present, and desirous at the same time to make compensation to the artist for his work, he insisted on his receiving twenty dollars for the instrument; on payment of which, he retained it himself.

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When Dr. Rittenhouse resigned the Directorship of the Mint, in June 1792, he was succeeded in that office by Henry William De Saussure, Esq. of South Carolina, a gentleman of distinguished talents and respectability. But Mr. De Saussure did not long hold the appointment: Some invidious and illiberal, as well as ill-founded insinuations, were soon cast upon the establishment and the manner in which it was conducted, by certain persons in the government, who had very early evinced an hostility to the institution itself; and it is not improbable, that some of this description were also influenced in their inimical views towards it, by personal considerations. Mr. De Saussure, disgusted with such unworthy conduct, retired from the Directorship, after having held that office only a few months; during which short period, he executed his trust in such a manner, as to obtain the approbation of President Washington, and entitle him to the public esteem.

The following letter, which was addressed by Mr. De Saussure to the editors of the Charleston City Gazette, and published in that paper, soon after his resignation, will serve to elucidate this subject: as a vindication of that gentleman, and also of his predecessor, from the injurious aspersions so unjustly thrown out against the institution of the Mint by its enemies, that publication is entitled to a place in the Memoirs of Rittenhouse; it shall now close the narrative of Dr. Rittenhouse’s connexion with the Mint.

“Messrs. Freneau and Payne,

“I was filled with no less indignation than surprise, on reading the debates in the house of representatives of the United States, on Tuesday the 19th of January, respecting the Mint, to find that a good deal of censure had been thrown out by some of the members against the management of that establishment, in such general and indiscriminating terms as might be deemed to implicate me, during the short time I was in the Directorship.

“Several members spoke in hasty and unguarded terms; and one member, whose name the printer had not given, passed all the bounds of moderation. He is represented as having said, “that the institution is a bad one, and is badly conducted: it had been most scandalously carried on, and with very little advantage to the public. If the institution is not better carried on than it has been, it ought to be thrown aside.”—If I could tamely endure these imputations, which in their generality may be supposed to reach me, I should be unworthy the esteem of my fellow-citizens.

“It ought, perhaps, to be sufficient for me to produce to the public eye the entire approbation which the President of the United States was pleased to express of my conduct, when quitting the office of the Director. I laid before him a full and exact state of the situation of the Mint, and of the coinage prior to, and during my being in office. His approbation is contained in a letter which he wrote me at the moment of my leaving Philadelphia,—dated the 1st of Nov. 1795; from which these words are an extract—“I cannot, at this moment of your departure, but express my regret, that it was not accordant with your views to remain in the Directorship of the Mint: Permit me to add thereto, that your conduct therein gave entire satisfaction; and to wish you a pleasant voyage, and a happy meeting with your friends in South Carolina.”

“To those who know the President of the United States well,—who know the caution with which he is accustomed to speak, and that he possesses the talent of correctly estimating, as well as vigorously overcoming, the difficulties which present themselves in every circumstance of business,—this would rescue any character from the unqualified censure of the members of the house of representatives. But I will go further, and will shew the grounds on which the President formed his judgment, so that every man may form his own opinion.”

The Writer then proceeds with some details, respecting the condition of the Mint on his coming into office, and at the time he left it; in the course of which he states some difficulties, and unavoidable obstructions to the progress of the coinage, which existed in the time of his predecessor, and some of which could not be obviated while he remained in the direction: and to this statement he annexes a table, exhibiting an account of the gold and silver coinage at the Mint, from its establishment to the close of October, 1795; at the foot of which he remarks, that “there never was any period at which the Mint was supplied with bullion, in a state for coinage, sufficient to keep it regularly and fully employed for any considerable time; except,” continues the writer, “near the close of my direction; to wit, from the 1st to the 24th of October.” Mr. De Saussure thus concludes his very satisfactory letter on this subject:

“Whilst I am vindicating myself from the censure, indiscriminately thrown upon the management of the Mint, I do by no means concede that the censure is justly applicable to my respectable predecessor. The solid talents of Mr. Rittenhouse will be remembered with pride, and his mild virtue recollected with tenderness, by his countrymen, when many of his censors will be forgotten in the silent dust. His lofty and correct mind, capable alike of ascending to the sublimest heights of science, and of condescending to regulate the minute movements of mechanical machinery, organized the Mint, and created the workmen and the apparatus; amidst the complicated difficulties from which the most persevering minds might have shrunk without dishonour. A very long and debilitating state of ill health prevented him from giving the establishment all the activity of which it was susceptible; and he long wished to retire before he was permitted. His country suffered him to retire, without remembering, that it was the duty of a liberal nation to provide an independent retreat in his old age, for one of the noblest of her Philosophers; and to this neglect, it is attempted to add unmerited obloquy.

“I quit the ungrateful theme with disgust. I am consoled by the approbation of him, by whom to be approved, will gladden the heart through a long life. I rejoice that I quitted an office which subjects its holder to such unjust censure, by the advice of my friends, who in prophetic spirit told me, ‘that such offices were suited to men who could bear up against censure, though they did not deserve it,’ which they did not believe me formed to endure.”

“HENRY WM. DE SAUSSURE.

Charleston, S. C. Feb. 5. 1796.”

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A national coin having been always considered as a proper, if not an absolutely necessary, attribute of the sovereignty of a state, the establishment of a Mint, for the United States, was pretty early contemplated. A plan for that purpose was brought into the view of congress, in the last year of the war; although no national coinage was instituted until ten years afterwards. The early part of the year 1780 was extremely disastrous to the affairs of the United States. The fall of Charleston, S. C. depressed the spirits of the country: and the almost total failure of public credit, accompanied by a want of money, and other means of carrying on the war, about that period, paralyzed the measures of the government. Such was the apathy of the public mind, in regard to the perilous condition of the country at that crisis, that many members of the general assembly of Pennsylvania, which was convened on the 10th of May, in that year, came thither with petitions from their constituents, praying to be exempt from the payment of taxes.

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Footnote 272:

“Coinage is peculiarly an attribute of sovereignty: to transfer its exercise into another country, is to submit it to another sovereign.” See a Report made to congress, in the year 1790, by Thomas Jefferson, Esq. then secretary of state, on certain Proposals for supplying the United States with Copper Coinage, offered by Mr. John H. Mitchell, a foreign artist.

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But while this assembly were in session, a letter was received from General Washington by the Supreme Executive Council of the state, and by them confidentially communicated to the legislative body, in which the distressed condition of the army was faithfully described. Among other things the General stated, that, notwithstanding his confidence in the attachment of the army to the cause of their country, the distresses of the soldiery, arising from a destitution of those necessaries which were indispensable, had become extreme; insomuch, that appearances of mutiny were so strongly marked on the countenances of the army, as to occasion in his mind hourly apprehensions of the event.

This appalling information, and from such a source, elicited some latent sparks of public spirit. Voluntary contributions were immediately begun; and Robert Morris, Esq. a merchant of the highest credit—as well as a man whose patriotism, talents and enterprize, inspired confidence—contributed two hundred pounds, Pennsylvania currency, in (what was then called) hard money. This subscription commenced the 8th of June, 1780: but it amounted, in the whole to only 200l. hard money, and 101,360l. in the public bills of credit, or paper-money, denominated continental.