•'*^'T^ A, '-^^0^ .^ y ■ V y ^^ ^ ^^ "'^ ^^^ /^ ^-^ „/"-. 1^ . ^^ y ^°-;^ A A .0^ "^^0^ r-0^ .0 y DIALO€iU£ BETWEEN A ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR CLERK K\y WASHINGTON. JACOB GIDEON, JR., PRINTEIl. 1836. i. ^ Whilst the writer of this Dialogue does not profess entire disinterestedness, he never- theless affirms, that he has been induced to publish it, more from his knowledge of the strdtened circumstances of many of his brother Clerks, who have large families, than from any selfish motives. They sought the places they hold— and received them with grateful hearts— and rather than be now thought to complain, many of them would suf- fer even " to the death." Perhaps they may think this act indiscreet ; and would be unwilling to be considered participant in it. The writer deems it proper, therefore, to state, that but few have been made acquainted with the preparation of the Dialogue, or his intention to pubhsh it. These considerations however can weigh nothing against the truths set forth. Tlie facts are notorious— and the arguments employed, he flatters himself, will not admit of easy refutation. Members of Congress in particular, are earnesdy, but respectfully, requested to give the Dialogue a calm and attentive perusal. DIALOGUE. —•»>♦« ® ©<«•»- Clerk. Do you think an application to Congress, for an increase of our salaries, would be attended to, this session ? Member. Perhaps we might notice it, as we did a similar one two years ago. That you know, we answered by a proposition to lessen your salaries. C. And what, I would like to know, could be the motive for such a proposition ? M. Why, it seems to be the general impression, that your salaries are too high. C. Is such the impression in the city of Washington, with those who have a knowledge of the expenses we must necessarily incur ? M. no ; it is the impression of our constituents — and, indeed, of most of the members of Congress, I think, also. But, for my own part, I do'nt know that a salary of 900, or 1,000 dollars is too much, for a man who has a very large family. I think, however, you Clerks must live extravagantly; for, in my country a man can support a large family, in the best style, with i?500 per annum. Some of our Gover- nors get but ^1,000 — and here you say that a salary of iSSll50 — or even 5^1400 is not enough for a common Clerk. C. I am aware you are from the West. I have lived there myself — S200 per annum, there, covered all my expenses, including horse- keeping. I have boarded in first rate village taverns, for iSl,50 per week — and again, I have paid in Cincinnati, the same amount per da3^ But here, you know, boarding is not to be got on as easy terms as in the villages of Ohio : they who have families here, are subjected to ex- penses of which people in the country have no idea. M. Why, my dear sir, living must be cheap here, where so many boarding houses can afford to board us for eight, and ten dollars per week, and do nothing at all for about one half the year, and feed us on the very best the market affords. This you know makes the regu- lar board per year, at four and five dollars per week. C. No one who re)ifs a house, can afford to do such a business. No house that undertakes it can sustain itself for three years. But, pray sir, do you tiiink your per diem too much ? M. Well, I can't say that I do ; but many people do think so. It was proposed, nevertheless — in order to gratify the people — to reduce our per diem also, one fourth. C. And that of the poor Clerks, who now do not get half as much as you, one third. Now sir, were the people convinced that your per diem is not sufficient to support you in the best style, do you not think they would rather it should be increased than diminished ? M. Unquestionably. C. Well then; your pay is undoubtedly no just compensation for the sacrifices many of you must make, in coming to Congress — to say nothing about the expense of electioneering — but the people have not yet thought it politic, tho' perhaps they will, to make compensation for the sacrifices their representatives make to serve them ; deeming the honor and distinction, and the opportunity afforded of gratifying a lau- dable ambition, amply equivalent. They are willing to pay, at least, all the expenses of their servants, actually incurred during the time they are employed. They are willing too, when they have all their time and services, to afford both them, a7id those depending on their exer- tions, ample support, and in a style corresponding with the nature of their service. To this, I venture to say, you have never heard the most rigid economist object. Now sir, we do not pretend to have made sacrifices, lor which compensation is required. All we ask, is, a de- cent support for ourselves and families. And if Congress can be made sensible that the present salaries are not sufficient with rigid economy — what should hinder them, as representatives of the people, from granting a sufficiency ? M. But, my dear sir, there are thousands willing to take your pla- ces for less money — good Clerks too ; and besides, the Clerks' salaries make a heavy item in the expense of Government. C. I doubt not thousands of persons could be got to take your places also, and for half yonv pay. Bui who can doubt the incompetentcy of such persons ? The very fact of their willingness to undertake the ser- vice for less, betrays either unfitness for it, or total ignorance of the ex- penses of the place, in less than a year — tho' competent as Clerks — they would find it impossible to get along. Many who now ask more — myself among them — would, through ignorance of the expense, have accepted their appointments for less than they get. And should every one of us be dismissed to-morrow, our successors would very soon find out what we have discovered, and would feel the same necessity that we feel ; and i/ou would find the new half-starved swarm more trouble- some than the old, which is more than half satisfied. As to what we cost the Government, let us see how much it is, and what proportion of the total expenditure. The receipts into the Treasury last year, ex- ceeded ^28,000,000 and the expenditures ^18,000,000— leaving in the Treasury, a balance of more than ^10,000,000. There are about 300 Clerks in all the Departments in Washington, costing the nation a lit- tle over i^300,000 — one ninety-third part of the revenue, and less than a sixtieth of the expenditures. Now, is not this an item too trifling to arouse the grave deliberation of the representatives of a mighty nation ? And is it not a strange economy, to spend nearly as much in debating the question, as was proposed to be wrung from the worst paid officers of the Government, only to be added, as a mere drop to the ocean, to an enormous balance at the close of the year. Indeed sir, we can scarcely regard your proposition as any thing more than a feint, to frighten us from pressing, in future, our applications for decent support for our families. But we know that we ask no more than is just. It is perfectly within your power to arrive at the truth — and we court en- quiry ; and if, on a fair investigation, you find our assertions false, for one, I will not complain at being dismissed as unworthy of the station I occupy. M. You ought to curtail your expenses. C. Pray, how would you have us live.'' M. You should live plentifully, and like gentlemen, but not extra- vagantly. C. We wish no more. Our style of living, you know, is regula- ted by those around us — our associates. The nature of bur employment causes some degree of intimacy with the highest salaried officers, and other citizens of the first standing. You would not havens appear before them, or even at home — in the costume of out-door day laborers. M. Surely not. You must live like the rest — not indeed, like the Secretaries. What I mean is, you must not live in a large house — your furniture must be very plain — you must have no centre-tables — ' no gilt looking-glasses — no sofas — no jforie pianos, and the like of that. You must not wear the best cloth, or shoes, or hats, and your wives and daughters must not wear silk, and the like — calico is good enough for any of them. Then again, you must not eat turkey, except om Christmas day, nor canvas-backs at all — nor the best butter, nor eggs, during winter, and the like. But, I imagine you are all too extrava- gant. I can't see why it should cost so much more to support a family here, than in my country. C. Permit me to say, with deference, the reason is most obvious; and I am sure you will presently perceive it. What, suffer me to ask, do you have to pay, in the West, for the principal articles which we are obliged to purchase daily for our tables ? M. For beef, about I2 cts. per pound; bacon, 3 to 6 cts.; chickens, 50 to 75 cts. per dozen; eggs, 4 to 6 cts. ; butter 6 cts. per pound ; flour, jS3,50 to ®4 per barrel ; corn meal, 25 cts. per bushel ; potatoes, 25 cents, &c. &c. C. How much would you gllow a small family per day — say mas- ter, mistress, two children, 6 or 8 years old, and two servants? No family can do with less than two servants. M. For six persons, I would allow 3 pounds beef ; 1 chicken ; 1 pound bacon ; I egg ; 5 pound butter ; 3 pound flour ; 2 qts. Indian meal ; ^ peck potatoes, and two small dishes of other vegetables — all which, in my country, would cost about 20 or 22 cents. C. Do you consider this as little as they should be allowed ? M. Yes ; I think it a very moderate allowance. To tell you the truth, to allowance folks thus, in my country, would be like half-star- ving them. C The same, in the city of Washington, would cost — the year round — at least @1,25 ; and you have said nothing about sugar and cof- fee, tea, &c., salt and pepper, and lard, and a thousand little nameless things, necessary in cooking. You must know that beef is 8 to 12 cents per pound ; bacon, 12 to 15 cts.; chickens, 25 to 50 cts. each ; eggs, 25 to 50 per dozen ; butter, 25 to 62^ per pound ; flour, 4 cts. per pound, by the barrel ; Indian meal, 75 to 90 cts. per bushel ; tur- keys, (but these we must not eat) 62^ cts. to ^1.50 each; and canvas- back ducks, ^1.50 to ^2,00 per pair. I will ask you another question. Would you allow him to live in a house with four rooms, and convenient to the office — that is, within a mile, or a mile and a half of it — would you allow him and his wife together ^150 per year for clothes, and ^50 for each of the children, and any thing for physician and apothecary — iov peto rent and ordina- ry church contributions ? M. Certainly, all these things are indispensable — and the allow- ance for clothing appears too small. C. Well, now let us sum it all up — and if you do not agree to vote for an increase of our salaries, I shall set you down as an incor- rigible man. JExpenses for one year. House witli four rooms, and convenient to the office, - - - - $200 00 Table, including bread, and excluding groceries, ..... 455 00 Groceries $3 per week (as little as possible,) 156 00 Milk, one pint four cents, and half a pint cream six and a quarter, per day, 37 00 Clothing for the four 250 00 Schooling the two children, including books, stationary, &.C. - - - 60 00 Fuel, for the kitchen and one fire only for the family, 20 cords pr. annum ^t $5 — sawing and packing same at 50 cts pr. cord, - - . -110 00 Servants wages — $8 per month, for both, 96 00 Church dues, &c, -----15 00 Physician and Apothecary, - - - - ... . . oOOO Taxes on furniture assessed at — say $400 - 5 00 Wear and tear and breakage of furniture, is equal at least to the interest on the assessed value, say, - - . - - - - - .25 00 $1,460 00 This estimate, be it remembered, is made for a family of but four whites — whereas, the families of the clerks consist, generally of twice that number. On this estimate, we must never taste turkey, or canvas-back ducks — never have any kind of desert or any delicacy whatever — The chil- dren may daily importune us, but we must have no straw-berries, cherries, peaches, or other summer fruit — no apples, nuts, West-In- dia fruit, or confectionary, in winter — here nothing is allowed for an increase of family or extra expense of a marriage or funeral ; nothing for additional expenses accruing from growth of children — " The pa- rents cannot read for instruction or amusement, either books or papers — none of the rites of hospitality can be extended — no act of charity performed — no relaxation or recreation enjoyed — no excursion for health." Our sons cannot have a liberal education, or our daughters ordinary accomplishments. Have you not a friend or acquaintance, a resident here, on whose word you can rely? — Show him this estimate, and he will assure you it is true. M. Why, this is a very different result, indeed from what I expect- ed — and the statement appears to be reasonable. According to this, you aught to have at least jg 1,500. 8 C. So thought Congress respecting their own Clerks, when they fixed their salaries, and I have yet to discover a reason for the distinc= tion. What Clerk, permit me to ask, whose salary was less than jgl,400 ever died and left his family in independent circumstances ? Such a thing is impossible. Generally they are left destitute — and his little estate — some five or six hundred dollars worth of furniture, is loaded with debt. His wife with a helpless family of children is driv- en to the dernier resort of the wretched — keeping boardinghouse — a business already overdone and monopolized by others, many of whom have been compelled to bring it in aid of their small salaries. Even they who get the highest salaries leave little when they die. Some- times, from goodness of heart, or fellow feeling, they lend their names to relieve a distressed brother clerk from embarrassment incurred from dire necessity — and if, in those cases, the principal escape the insolvent laws, both estates are swallowed up when death overtakes them ; and both families are left as strangers in a heartless world. — But were things otherwise, were the clerks in circumstances comparatively easy, many of them from their talents and acquirements might be useful members of society, instead of wasting their lives in anxiety for daily subsistence ; — and when they die, might leave something, at least to pay their funeral expenses— and save the bereaved family the double torture of losing a husband and father, and of not knowing where to look for the next day's provision. The life of a clerk sir, is a contin- ued series of anxieties for the present — and of the most gloomy fore- bodings, without a ray of hope to cheer him, for the future. M. This is a sad picture, it is true, but your salaries are better than those of the clerks in general in our cities, and why cannot you live as well as they ? C. In the first place, the comparison is not fair. Those are prin- cipally merchants clerks, who are young single men. But whenever they become heads of families, you find them taken into partnership with their former employers, or doing business on their own account, or in some extensive counting house as head clerk, at @1500 or §2000 per annum. Moreover, if we were in those cities instead of Wash- ington, we would not need so much. But it would be more just to compare us to the clerks of your courts — your registers of wills, and the like — and if you compare their expense of living with ours, you will find that their salaries are more than equal to twice the amount of ours. M. But you are a single man and should be contented with a thousand or twelve hundred dollars. C. That I am a single man is to be charged to circumstances, not to disposition. The salaries of the clerks in general are a sovereign antidote against all matrimonial inclinations. The romantic days of early youth, when fancy pictures " love in a cottage" the most delec- table of all things, cannot have passed away from him who can haz- zard matrimony, in this place, with but iglOOO per annum. The num- ber of single men in office here, is, I believe, comparatively small, but many of them have a charge, for which they are bound to provide — forming a family as large as that of many a married man. Instead of employing all single men, as some Members of Congress would do — I think you aught rather to encourage marriage, as a great means of promoting the morals and happiness of society, and the strength and prosperity of the nation. I would give to every clerk a sufficiency for himself and a specific annuity in addition, for every one he should be obliged to support besides. No clerk, I apprehend, would live single thro' choice. It is his cramped circumstances alone, that forbids him to fulfil one of the great designs of his creator, and that rob him of more than half his value to the world. You would not think of giving less than ®800 or ^1000 to any bachelor who has not a dependent up- on earth, and it is little enough for him, because his boarding and washing, fire, lights and boot cleaning will cost him ^350, to say no- thing of the continued appliances to his pocket for benevolent objects — and does not common justice dictate, that two hundred dollars, one at least, should be added for each dependent ? M. Indeed I am almost converted, and persuaded to advocate your memorial. But why do you not deal for cash, and purchase the prin- cipal articles necessary for your support, by the quantity, and in sum- mer when every thing is cheaper ? this would be a great saving. C. They who have plenty can do this, and then they have an abundance. But we, for the want of a few dollars ahead, are compelled to run in debt, and even, frequently, to anticipate the receipt of our sala- ries by giving drafts on our pay agents; and in raising a small sum in this way to meet an emergency, we have to pay five or six per cent. for a single month. And thus for want of a small sum in hand we lose those many and great advantages of vi^hich you speak. It should be remembered too, that a salary of ^1000 now is not as much as iSSOO 2 10 was at the time when the salaries were established. Then every thing was comparatively cheap — nevertheless, no one in those days — Mo' the Treasury then was poor — thought the clerks received too much for a decent living. But the annual session of Congress has, by degrees caus- ed an enhancement of the prices of all things here, at least one fourth. M. Your reasoning appears to be just, and your case a hard one — But is there no way to curtail your expenses, and to come down to a more humble style of living, and yet maintain your standing in so- ciety } C. If you would improve our domestic economy, you must first set us an example at home. You must commence with yourselves and the servants of the people who occupy the highest stations; you must bring down the President and Secretaries, from modern elegance to that simplicitj'^ which characterized the ancient republics. In- stead of palaces and glittering furniture and splendid equipages, and luxurious tables groaning under plate and every variety of viands to please the palate and the eye — they must live under humble roofs, have none but plain and useful furniture, walk the streets or ride in omnibuses as other people, and, like the elder Cato and your thousand dollar clerks, live on turnips alone, or roast potatoes. And do the people require this? By no means. But what, I would like to know, would the people gain, were we all brought down thus to the condition of canal diggers, and our sala- ries reduced even one half, or more ? would one cent of it go into the people's pockets ? No. Would the people be exempt from paying it into the treasury ? No. No one wdl contend that the burdens of the people would be lightened a single grain by it; no one will contend that the revenue would be reduced one cent, the' the salaries of the clerks and all other public officers in Washington, were reduced tw© thirds — nor would a cent be added to it were their salaries raised in a like degree. No, the people would still have to pay the money into the Treasury, and there it would lie, year after year, an unexpended balance enjoyed by no one, but some Bank. Whereas, when it is paid to the officers of Government, it is immediately paid out again for pro- visions, &c. and thus returns to the pockets of those who paid it into the Treasury, and so passes into the circulation. Yes sir, that por- tion of the products of the farmer and the mechanic which would be purchased by the officers of Government if their salaries would admit of it, must, under the niggardly policy of half paying them, rot upon 11 their hands, or never be produced— axiA hundreds of labourers and ser- vants go unemployed. A Government should adopt no such system of finance; truly it is, as Col. Crocket once remarked ^^ fishing for minnows with a pin hook'^ whilst the great Leviathans sport around you unmolested. Let the Government pay its officers well, give them enough to support their families in a plain decent manner, and with economy to save something for their heirs, and your work will be well done. As the rain returns again to the clouds, so the money you thus expend always goes back in due time to the hands that first earned it. Every part should contribute to the whole, and the whole to every part. M. Why, some may ask, should the clerks, &c. live in any better stj'le than mechanics and labourers ? C. Our style of living is not equal to that of many mechanics in our city, and we are far behind them in independence. And pray, it might be asked, why should Members of Congress live any better? Is it because you represent the sovereign peopWi This is a much stronger reason, T apprehend, why you should live like the majority of your constituents, and have one dollar, instead of eight dollars, per day, and thus set an example of republican simplicity and moderation. But, who are these clerks? they are servants of the people, as important in their places as any officers of government ; or, as the Members of Congress themselves. The chief difference between them and you is, that they are servants and you agents — that you have the fixing of their salaries and their pay as well as your own, and you see proper to give them three or four dollars a day and yourselves eight. It should be remembered too, sir, that for the most part, they are the descendants of those patriots and heroes of the Revolution, who, in achieving our nation's independence, that you might sit unmolested in yon noble edifice, sacrificed their comforts, their fortunes, their health, vigor of youth and manhood — every thing. Yes, some of these very clerks, can say of those glorious achievments and of those perils and sacrifices- ^^ we saw it all, and part we did ourselves ."^ Generally they have been well educated — were brought up in comfortable cir- cumstances and the best society — some to the learned professions, some in extensive counting houses, &c. Some, once were Congressmen, and some Congressmen may yet be clerks. Such is the character of those who ask of you a decent support for their families; enough to educate their children suitably for the stations they must occupy in society and 12 to enable them to provide something for their helpless widows and or- phans in the event of death. This is all, and this, they conceive to be no more than an equitable compensation for their services. Scarce- ly one of us has not some friend or acquaintance in Congress who can- testify to our merits, and who has recommended us to office, and would wish us to have enough to support our families in a decent style. Is it not the case as respects yourself? M. Yes, it is. C. Send for him then, if you have confidence in his declarations, and satisfy yourself of the truth of what I have said. Ask the heads of Departments — of bureaux, &c. — ask private citizens. Tho' we ask additional compensation for ourselves, we would not hesitate to ask it for the places we occupy were we sure of leaving them to-morrow. M. You have convinced me, I will vote for an increase, if a bill should be reported. But why do not the heads of the Departments present your case to Congress and ask for an increase of compensation for you ? I hey aught to know whether you have enough or not, and you may rely upon it, if they would unite and state to Congress that your pay is not sufficient, whatever addition they would ask in reason would be granted. Are you aware of any objection they have to making application for you? or do they really think you have enough? This is to be inferred from their silence. What say you ? C. He that is full knows not the pain of hunger — and the happy rarely sympathize with the wretched. 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