The dignity of the Commonwealth. 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.* *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. As the purpose for which the house had been built was now frustrated, and no other use to which it could be profitably applied presented itself, it became necessary so to dispose of the premises as to reimburse, as far as possible, the expense incurred by the State in their purchase and improvement. By a law passed in March, 1800, they were directed to be sold at public auction; and in July of the same year they were purchased by the University, for the moderate sum of forty-one thousand six hundred and fifty dollars, less than half their original cost. As the purchase money was to be paid by instalments, the trustees were enabled to meet the demands upon 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.-Note to the edition of 1834. them by the disposal of stock, and the sale of a portion of the old College and adjoining premises. A part of this property in Fourth Street they were bound by the conditions of their title deeds to retain in their possession, for the maintenance of a charity school, and the accommodation of itinerant preachers.* By letting on groundrent those unoccupied lots of their new purchase, which fronted on Market and Chestnut Streets, they provided a permanent income, which has very materially lightened the pressure of the first cost upon their resources. Some alterations in the building necessary to fit it for the purposes to which it was now destined, were made immediately after it came into their hands; and a very extensive edifice has since been added for the use of the medical professors. * A part of the old Academy was sold to a society of Methodists, for whom it long served as a place of worship. This portion has recently been taken down and replaced by a new church. The northern half of the building is still standing and in possession of the trustees.-January, 1834. See note to the present edition, p. 12. The schools were not finally transferred to it till the spring of 1802.* * Since this account was written, the buildings alluded to have been taken down, and their place supplied by others, more symmetrical in their external appearance, and better adapted, in their internal arrangements, to the varied business of a great collegiate establishment. The new College hall was opened for the reception of students in the autumn of 1830. During the progress of the building, the classes were accommodated in the old Academy in Fourth Street. A representation of the former University edifice may be seen in the " Views in Philadelphia and its Vicinity," published in Philadelphia in 1827, by C. G. Childs.—January, 1834. |