- Rothwell
- Hassler
Rain, last night and this morning. Mr. Angier went with me to the
Capitol. Weekly meeting day of the Committee on the Smithsonian
bequest.— Present Adams and Truman
Smith— Habersham was in an adjoining Committee room— No Quorum—
In the house, Roosevelt called
in vain for the consideration of the Message received yesterday from the
President, upon the cravings of
an empty treasury. Halsted by
privilege preference presented a report from the Committee of Elections,
without announcing its purport, or to whom it related— Laid on the table
and ordered to be printed.— Barnard attempted to introduce his resolution for
reorganizing the hall, and discarding the desks, but failed.— The
General Appropriation Bill was resumed in Committee of the whole on the
Union Briggs in the chair.
M’Keon offered a Resolution to
repeal the land distribution Bill, but it was not received— The day was
consumed in debating on the patronage of the public printing, and the
contingencies of the Department of State— Caruthers, Gilmer, Fillmore, Wise, Fillmore again, Samson
Mason, W. Smith,
of Virginia, Cushing and Gentry shared in this discussion, in
which there was sharp shooting between Gilmer and Wise on one side and
Fillmore on the other. Gilmer and Wise are the backstairs Viceroys over
President Tyler; and they are the busiest marplots in the house to
destroy the credit of the administration and of the Country— Fillmore
complained, and was answered by Gilmer by frothy braggings of
independence, and by Wise with overbearing insolence and insult—till the
Committee rose and the house adjourned— Mr Hassler called on me
this evening, with bitter complaint that President Tyler had determined
to break up his double establishment for the survey of the Coast, and
for the manufacture and distribution over all the States of the Union
standard weights and measures— He shewed me a Letter of notification
from Walter Forward Secretary of
the Treasury to Hassler’s Son
dismissing him from the public service which he said Forward told him he
had issued against his own will and earnest remonstrance, by express
command of the President, and he said the President was equally
determined to dismiss him; but he did not think he had lawful authority
so to do— Mr Hassler wished me to interpose
in his behalf; but that is certainly beyond the scope of my authority.
Mr
Rothwell the Treasurer of the Columbian College came this
morning to the Committee room, and this evening to my house; and I
agreed definitively with him upon the settlement of the debt from the
Columbian College to me— I am to receive stocks of various descriptions
and at no little hazard, in payment; to all which I have consented to
assist the College in relieving them from the burden of their debt.