Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress Page: 2,823
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2323
GALES & BEATON'S REGISTER
2824
H. or fir.]
Revolutionary Claims.
[Feb. 27, 1834.
most universally granted in 1784. Why should it not
have been so? They were ready, upon application and
the production of the proper evidence; and he put it to
the House, whether the provisions of that resolution, and
the rights accruing under it, considering the circumstan-
ces umler which it was passed, upon the application of
the officers themselves, must not have been known to
every officer living within the limits of the United States?
Mr. P. thought it utterly incredible that it should have
been otherwise. Whenever there had been any action
upon the subject of pensions, in later times, what pe-
riod had elapsed before that action, whether favorable or
unfavorable, and almost every particular attending it,
had, through one channel or another, reached the humble
dwelling of every survivor of that noble band? But, upon
the supposition that, from their remote situation from the
accounting officers, some might, by possibility, have been
precluded from obtaining their rights, an act was passed
on the 27th of March, 1792, suspending the operation of
the limitation acts for two years; and, under this exten
sion, remaining claims, or such as were presented, were
adjusted at the Treasury Department, by what were then
termed "certificates of registered debt." Again, he in-
quired whether it was within the bounds of reasonable pro-
bability that any claims were held up after this period,
if they were ever intended to be enforced? Sir, (said Mr.
P.,) it is to be remembered that, during all this time, it
was not, as it unfortunately now is. There were hosts of
living witnesses among the officers with whom the claim-
ants served, and the soldiers whom they commanded. Nor
is the advantage which the officer had, from his position
over the private soldier, of proving every particular con-
nected with his service, and its duration, to be overlooked.
Men engaged in the same great cause, and serving in the
same camp, were no strangers to each other; never, per-
haps, was there a band bound together by such ties of
affection, intimacy, and confidence. Genius, honor, and
unshaken valor then went hand in hand, and were in ex-
ercise, not from low considerations of personal aggran
dizement, but to vindicate a nation's rights. The links
that bound men together at that day exist not now. Their
intimacies and their friendship were those which, per-
haps, from our very natures, can only spring up and flour,
ish amidst the mutual dangers and privations of a camp.
At the period of which he spoke, every incident of the
exciting and eventful struggle through which they had
just passed, must have been fresh and vivid in the recol-
lection of all: nothing need then have been left to doubt,
nothing to presumption. But this is not all. From 1794,
down to this hour, there had been the same opportunity
to obtain equitable rights, by application to Congress,
that exists at present.
With these facts before us, (said Mr. P.,) if the natural
presumption be not that all just claims have been satisfied,
according to the provisions of the resolution of 1783, he
confessed that tiie conclusions at which he had arrived
were singularly erroneous. The House had nothing to do
with the question of the value of the certificates; they
were, without doubt, nearly valueless in the hands of a
large portion of the original holders. This subject was most
satisfactorily discussed in the able and elaborate reports
made to both Houses at the first session of the twenty-
first Congress, when the act was passed providing for the
officers who were entitled to haif-pay by the resolve of
1780, and for the non-commissioned officers and soldiers
who enlisted for, and served to, the close of the war
The views taken in these reports were interesting and
instructive upon this subject. But he was considering what
was the natural presumption as to commutationrights
still existing; and, if his views were in any tolerable de-
gree correct, it was diametrically opposed to the legal
presumption to be established by the passage of this bill.
Sir, (continued Mr. P.,) we are told that the evidence
of records is exceedingly imperfect, and I assure the
House that such is the fact to a much greater extent
than T had supposed, before applying to the department
for information. The muster-rolls had been almost en-
tirely destroyed by fire, and all the records, from various
casualties, were broken; but this deficiency of record evi-
dence was, in his estimation, much more the misfortune
of the Government than of the claimants, who came here
after the lapse of fifty y ears. But pass your presumptions,
sir, (said lie,) and you will have little occasion for evi-
dence. It is said that the rules which are to be regarded
as fixed principles by the department, provided "this bill
pass, are the same which the committee have adopted in
the investigation of claims coming before them. If so,
and they accorded with the sentiments of the House, he
confessed it was a matter of very little consequence whe-
ther they were applied here or elsewhere; and he was
happy that the bill had been reported, that the opinion of
the House might be deliberately and understanding^ ex-
pressed upon the propriety of their adoption. Sir, (said
Mr. P.,) will not their operation be that of a new law
upon the subject of commutation? Look at, the first pre-
sumption of the bill; it has the advantage of being plain;
there is no ambiguity about it:
" It being established that an officer of the continental
line was in service as such on the 21st of October, 1780,
and until the new arrangement of the army provided for
by the resolution of that date was effected, he shall be
presumed, unless it appear that he was then retained in ser-
vice, to have been reduced by that arrangement, and
therefore entitled to half-pay for life, or the commutation
in lieu of it."
The onus probandi was shifted; the burden of proof
was not left where it was intended it should rest—with
the claimant, but it was thrown upon Government. He
presumed it was not expected that the Government would
send agents abroad to obtain negative evidence from liv-
ing witnesses. How, then, was it to be shown, in the
present imperfect state of the records, that an officer was
not reduced, and did voluntarily leave the service? The
effect of such instructions would virtually be to give com-
mutation to all who were in service on the 21st of Octo-
ber, 1780, and until the new arrangement was effected,
instead of to those only who were actually reduced, as was
originally contemplated. He called the attention of the
House to the second presumption:
"2d. A continental officer, proved to have remained
in service after the arrangement of the army under said
resolution of October, 1780, shall be presumed to have
served to the end of the war, or to have retired entitled
to half-pay for life, unless it appear that he died in the
service, or resigned, or was dismissed, or voluntarily
abandoned an actual command in the service of the Unir
ted States."
This, also, manifestly made new provision; granting
commutation to those who were in service after the new
arrangement in 1780, instead of to those who actually
served to the close of the war; for, in the state of re-
cord evidence, as declared by the committee, how was it
possible for the Government to prove, in very many in-
stances, that the claimant, or the ancestor of the present
claimant, "died in the service, or resigned, or was dis-
missed, or voluntarily abandoned a command in the ser-
vice of the United States?" There was no possible means
of doing it. Mr. P. would pursue the subject no further.
If there was no fallacy in these premises, and the con-
clusions were legitimate, they were sufficient for his pur-
pose. The House would not think of passing the bill in
its present shape. He ought not longer to ask the atten-
tion of gentlemen, for which he was already under great
obligation. Such were some of the objections to the
bilt' that had occurred to Mr. P., and thus much he
thought it his .duty to say. For the committee making
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Gales, Joseph, 1761-1841. Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress, book, 1834; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30766/m1/22/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.