The Capitol Dome

42 THE CAPITOL DOME Expenses and the Committee on Mileage were either barren or mentioned Member pay only in passing. Yet they did reveal a wealth of detailed information on the expenses which kept the House functioning, such as the cost of firewood, stationary, and glue, and even how much paper folders, messengers, or cleaning women were paid. Gradu- ally, the outline of the mechanics of the congressional pay process was gradually pieced together—to set the congres- sional funding wheels in motion, the Speaker of the House periodically sent a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury ask- ing for a set amount; the Secretary then ordered the Trea- surer to issue a warrant payable to the Clerk of the House. e Speaker signed each Member's pay voucher before they were distributed by the Sergeant at Arms, who recorded all Member pay and mileage information complete with check numbers, date of issue, amounts, and miles traveled. Mem- bers "certified" their accounts by signing the journal at the close of each session. is painstaking process at last led to the Auditors of the Treasury records and an obscure entry which contained battered bound volumes that held Lin- coln's elusive official signed pay and mileage records (fig. 12). ese journals proved to be of extra interest because they contained the signatures of every House Member between 1813 and 1889. e only signature missing from Lincoln's time in the House was that of John Quincy Adams, who died shortly aer the irtieth Congress opened, requiring his estate executor to sign in his place for the amounts owed. 37 Although the Whigs secured victory in the 1848 presi- dential election, Lincoln's term as a national legislator was irrevocably coming to a close—in large part due to his politically necessary promise two years earlier not to seek reelection. Already in August 1848 Lincoln knew that his replacement in Congress would be Democrat omas L. Harris. 38 e short second session of the irtieth Congress was gaveled to a close at 7:00 A.M. on Sunday morning, 4 March 1849, aer an all-night session replete with a flurry of last-minute legislative activity and "much excitement on the slave question." 39 As President-Elect Zachary Taylor demurred staging his inaugural on the Sabbath, Lincoln and other Members of the outgoing and incoming Congresses had to wait until the next day to take their places outside the Capitol to witness the president's oath of office. Lincoln had energetically campaigned for Taylor and the Whig plat- form and remained in Washington aer the inaugural hop- ing that his past efforts might be rewarded, if only as a sop to the beleaguered Whigs in Illinois. Yet "Old Rough and Ready" would disappoint Lincoln on all counts, as the admin- istration saw no reason to ladle out precious patronage appointments to an ex-representative of no influence and with no large political following. Having blasted the Demo- cratic Party's previous use of patronage to reward its follow- ers, Lincoln expressed annoyance that Taylor did not follow suit by wholesale removal of incumbent federal office- holders to make way for eager Whig replacements. 40 Fig. 12. Lincoln's official mileage records, upon which his per diem pay (which included mileage expenses) was based Fig. 13. Days aer leaving Congress, Lincoln penned this letter of recommendation to the new secretary of State on behalf of his medical advisor and fellow Whig stumper, Dr. Anson Henry.

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