Missing pages of history

There have been occasional efforts by historians and social scientists to leaf through the dirty and often rotten heaps of papers in order to cull facts to build their selected data base, but there ends the act of exploration, if any. During my long tenure in a government job, I occasionally came across very old documents and papers that contained highly interesting information on a variety of aspects of life in ages we left far behind. I noticed in an Order Book of the year 1862 that a visiting British officer finding a Babu to be a perpetual latecomer fined him Annas two as token punishment.

Recently, I came upon an absorbing article titled 'Capitol Discovery' by Philip Kopper published in June 2003 issue of the distinguished Smithsonian Magazine. It describes the remarkable discovery of a large bound ledger from a dark subbasement storeroom of the US Capitol by a sheer stroke of luck. During November 2002, the storeroom beneath the main stairs was about to be demolished to accommodate escalators to be installed for the newly constructed visitors' chamber. This hastened the officials to move to save some records stashed in the dank stair room for an unknown number of years. And here they discovered the gem of documents a large dusty and withering volume bound in cloth and leather bearing gilded title 'Senators Compensation and Mileage'. The entries cover the period from 1790 to 1881. Since then the volume passed through the hands of experts and the Library of Congress for scanning and scrutiny and finally it reached the National Archives' conservation laboratory. A digital facsimile of the ledger would soon appear on the Senate Website.

As the title suggests, the ledger contains the long-lost official payroll and expense statements for the Senate's first 90 years. The details of every dollar paid to senators in wages and travel reimbursements are meticulously recorded. The rag-paper pages are covered with notes and entries in ornate script with column after column of numbers and names within neat rules. It is awe-inspiring to see live signatures of approving officials that included personalities like Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr and John Adams. The book was introduced by the First Secretary of the Senate at the first session of the 2nd Congress, October 24th, 1791.

The early entries relate to 26 senate members representing 13 states, then the number rose to 76 from 38 states. Senators were paid $6 per day when the legislature was in session. Travel was reimbursed at 30 cents a mile for up to 20 miles a day. It is interesting to note that two centuries later he senators are reimbursed at only 6 cents more a mile for road trips. The ledger also reveals that Congress raised a senator's pay in 1816 from the $6 per diem to $1,500 a year. Today a senator earns $154,700 a year and $165 a day when travelling. There was also the provision of paid sick leave. One Mr. Richard Potts from Maryland was paid $49 more for his pains as he was detained on the road by sickness.

Records show that every senator paid 5 per cent 'war tax' on salaries during the Civil War. It also shows that the senate deliberated on and consented to the appointment of President John Adams' entire cabinet in a single day in March 1801. It appears from a letter of the Comptroller of the Treasury to the Secretary of the Senate that the Senate had claimed too many expenses in 1832 and thus owed $5,845.20. Many more revealing facts about the financial system and administration of the US government during the nascent years of its existence will creep up as the experts go on 'to unlock all its myriad secrets'.