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the Site now occupied, will command universal approbation, is not to be expected. A diversity of opinion upon such subjects, is the un- avoidable result of the diversity of interests and local prejudices, which must necessarily exist in a country so widely extended as ours; but it is believed, that you will perceive in the centrality of its geographical position, the apparent healthfulness of its climate, the beauty of its scenery, the abundance and convenience of its material for constructing the most permanent edifices, its easy access to our maratime frontier, and its adaption to protection against Indian depradations, thereby inviting settlements to one of the finest portions of our country, ample proofs of the judgment and fidelity of the Commissioners, and abun- dant reason to approve their choice. That you and others will experi- ence some privations which might have been spared if the location had been made in a section of the country of greater population and im- provement, is certainly true; but I cannot believe that a people who have voluntarily exchanged the ease and luxuries of plentiful homes, for the toils and privations of a wilderness, will repine at the sacrifice of a few personal comforts which the good of the Nation may require of them. Conceiving the appropriation for the removal of the Government as intended to cover to some extent, the expenses which the officers em- :ployed in the discharge of the public duties would necessarily have to •encounter, I directed such an allowance to be made in money .to the -clerks of the several Departments and Bureaus as would, in the exer- oeise of a rigid economy, enable them to proceed to this place without involving themselves in debt, or encroaching too largely upon salaries, which, from the depreciated state of the currency were already in- sufficient to afford them a comfortable support. That this allowance was necessary and proper in itself I have entertained no doubt. They were entitled to it in justice, because it entered into no part of their -contract when they engaged in the service of the Government, that :any portion of their small compensation, should be expended in remov- ing from place to place. :Many of them were unable from there [sic] -own resourses, to meet the increased expenditures, and without the allowance, the Government would have been deprived of their services at a time when they were not required in re-organizing and arranging the business of their respective offices. For the Heads of Departments, no allowance for traveling expenses was made or required, but such of their household furniture as was essential to their comfort was ordered to be transported at the public expense, with the understanding that the increased expenditure to the Government would be reimbursed by those for whom it was made, if Congress should disapprove the charge; and it now remains for you, gentlemen, to say what course is proper in reference to the matter. To the Executive it appeared both just and reasonable that the .Government should not impose upon a public officer, any pecuniary burthens disconnected with the ordinary duties of his station, and unknown at the time he engaged ·to perform them, without allowing him a suitable remuneration; and it has ever been a rule, approved and practised by all equitable Governments, to allow to Officers employed on extraordinary duty, an additional compensation equal at least to the increased expenditure occasioned by that duty.
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