ence, free alike from the reality and the suspicion of bias. The fact, however, is, that it was not completed till after his retirement from public office, and therefore could not have been applied to his accommodation in his character of president. It was Mr. Adams to whom the offer was made, and by whom it was declined. Towards this gentleman, however, the warmth of attachment was neither so intense nor so widely diffused; and conditions were annexed to the offer, certainly not contemplated in the original intentions of the legislature, and hardly compatible, as it appears to me, with the honour and dignity of the commonwealth. The grounds upon which Mr. Adams felt himself bound to decline the favour, were the obligations of that article of the constitution which forbids the receipt by the president either from an individual state, or from the United States, of any other emolument than the yearly salary attached to his office.[1]
- ↑ The following is an extract from a note, dated March 3d, 1797, addressed by Governor Mifflin to the president elect. "In the year 1791, the legislature of Pennsylvania directed a house to be built for the accommodation of the president of the United States, and empowered the governor to lease the premises. As the building will be completed in the course of a few weeks, permit me to tender it for your accommodation, and to inform you, that, although I regret the necessity of making any stipulation on the subject, I shall consider the rent for which you might obtain any other suitable house in Philadelphia, (and which you will be pleased to mention,) as a sufficient compensation for the use of the one now offered." The reply of Mr. Adams was promptly conveyed. "The respect to the United States," says he in a note of the same date with the above, "intended by the legislature of Pennsylvania in building a house for the president, will, no doubt, be acknowledged by the Union as it ought to be. For your kind offer of it to me, in consequence of their authority, I pray you to accept my respectful thanks, and to present them to the legislature. But as I entertain great doubts, whether by a candid construction of the constitution of the United States, I am at liberty to accept it, without the intervention and authority of Congress, and there is not time for any application to them, I must pray you to apologize for me to the legislature for declining the offer." See Journal of the House of Representatives of the Pennsylvania Legislature.
