11 ' [ 23 ] 



1847, to the 19th March, 1848, being the end of the first year of the build- 

 ing contract, and set it down at $10,467 50, thus: 



Payments to contractor, about |9,500 GO 



Supernitendence and contigencies, about .... 967 50 



Total from 1 st December, 1847, to 19th March, 1848, about |10,467 50 



These two sums added together will give the total amount expended and 

 to be expended for the above objects, from the commencement of operations 

 to the end of one year from the date of the contract, about |35,470 17. 



It will be observed that the amount paid and to be paid to the contrac- 

 tor within that year, will be less than thirty-one thousand dollars; that is, 

 upwards of ten thousand dollars less than the annual payments to which, 

 by the contract, the contractor is restricted. 



The item of superintendence, with its incidentals, is a considerable one. 

 It is larger this first year than it will be in any subsequent one: first, be- 

 cause of an allowance of about two months' salary to the architect, not in 

 payment of his design, but to repay the actual expenses incurred during 

 these two months and previously, in the mechanical execution of plans 

 and sections of the building, including those which embodied the modifi- 

 cations of the original design suggested by the committee appointed on the 

 9th September, 1846, and subsequently adopted by the board; and, second- 

 ly, because it was necessary to engage the services of the architect and su- 

 perintendent about a month before the actual signature of the contract. 



The annual expense of superintendence is necessarily increased by the 

 circumstance that the architect does not reside in Washington. The 

 committee could not afford to offer him a salary which might have induced 

 him to abandon his New York business; and as in consequence he could 

 be present during a portion of his time only in this city, the alternative was 

 presented to them either to leave the work, during his absence, under the 

 control of the contractor, trusting wholly to his judgment and to his scru- 

 pulous observance of the contract, or to engage die services of a superin- 

 tendent who might be always on the spot, to see that no faulty materials 

 nor insufficient work was admitted into any portion of the structure. They 

 considered this latter the more prudent course, and engaged as superintend- 

 ent a gentleman of much experience as an architect and builder, at a sal- 

 aiy of $1,000 a year. To the principal architect they gave eighteen 

 hundred a year and his travelling expenses — which, as he usually passes 

 between New York and Washington once a month, amount to about three 

 hundred a year — together with actual expenses for stationery, being from 

 fifty to a hundred dollars annually. 



In connexion with this item of superintendence, the committee remark, 

 that the labor and expense of preparing working plans in a style so novel 

 as the Lombard, and for a design so irregular as that which has been 

 adopted, are very much greater than if the style were one common in this 

 country, or the design characterized by greater regularity. 



The expenses necessarily incurred by the building committee — which, 

 hoVever, are small, as one member only of that committee is a non- 

 resident of Washington — are not included as part of the expense of the 

 building; both because a considerable portion of their attention was directed 

 to objects other than the building, hereafter to be mentioned, and with which 

 they were charged by the board, and also because they consider the infor- 



