312 FRANCES PACKARD YOUNG 1819, to consider the subject of fortifications. It made a report on April 24, 1820, which was laid on the table without any debate. The fulfilling of the Mix or Rip Rap contract for fortifica- tions on the Chesapeake Bay caused Cal- THE Mix OR houn to be severely criticised. 42 The RIP RAP House of Representatives appointed a CONTRACT committee to investigate the affair, and CONDEMNED BY they gained the following information CONGRESS about the forts. The contract had been given to Mix in April, 1818, but the com- mittee was sure that other men could have been found who would have furnished the stone much cheaper. After the work was started, Mix did not deliver the stone at the appointed time, and sold parts of the contract to other men. The chief engineer of the government, who was a relative of Mix, bought an interest in it and the committee suspected some fraud in that transaction. They condemned the engineer for not adver- tising the bids and for the careless methods used in issuing the contract. The testimony of several stone merchants was taken and most of them agreed that Mr. Mix had DEFENCE OF furnished the stone for a very low price MR. Mix and that if the cost of freight and labor had not unexpectedly dropped, he would have lost money. The lowering of freight rates made it possible for him to make profit. Whether or not the stone was deliv- ered on time was not decided. The engineer who succeeded the one mentioned above, asserted that it was not customary to ad- vertise for bids, when the work was to be done in such a closely settled district as the region about the Chesapeake Bay. 42 Hunt, G. John C. Calhoun, 60.
