Register of Debates in Congress, Comprising the Leading Debates and Incidents of the First Session of the Twenty-Third Congress Page: 2,921
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2921
OF DEBATES IN CONGRESS.
2922
Ma&ch6, 1834.]
Commutation Pension Bill.
[H. os R.
just claims under the resolutions in question must long
ere this have been settled. A moment's reflection would
satisfy the House that this objection is founded in mis-
apprehension. There were many very peculiar reasons,
which existed at the close of the revolutionary war, to
prevent their presentation for settlement. The poverty
of the Government, its inability for a long period after
the peace to meet its engagements, the great and honora-
ble reluctance which many officers doubtless felt to add
to the embarrassments of the country, by making drafts
upon its exhausted treasury, the decease of many of those
entitled to claim, and the operation of the acts of limita-
tion—all contributed to postpone the settlement of these
demands. And when, in addition, we recollect, said Mr.
B-, the acts which Congress have already passed in simi-
lar cases, and advert to the applications now before the
House, upon proofs which the chairman of the Commit-
tee on Revolutionary Claims declares to be sufficient
there could not be a doubt that the objection was entirely
without foundation.
Another objection is the act of 1828, which his colleague
[Mr. Vaxdekboel] supposed was passed, or ought to be
regarded as passed, in satisfaction of claims under the half
pay resolutions. An examination of the act itself, and the
very able report of the honorable gentleman from Rhode
Island, [Mr. Bubgjss,] which accompanied the bill, will
show that it was passed for no such purpose, and should re-
ceive no such construction. If such had been its intended
operation, it would have provided for such officers, and
the representatives of such officers, only as were entitled to,
but had not received, their half pay, or commutation for half
pay, under the resolutions of1780 and 1783. Now, it makes
a certain yearly provision (not to exceed the pay of a cap-
tain) for all the surviving officers, without distinction; and
makes no provision whatever for the heirs and represen-
tatives of deceased officers who have not received the
half pay, or the commutation promised by the resolu-
tions. Ail its provisions show that it has nothing what-
ever to do with the claims under consideration, and could
. have no such construction as seemed to be contemplated
by his colleague.
He would now consider the presumptive proof which
was to guide the action of the Secretary of the Treasury.
Neither the constitution nor the laws have provided any
means by which an action may be brought to enforce the
recovery and collection of a debt due by the Government;
and it is universally admitted that it concerns the honor
and character of the nation to see that its contracts are
faithfully performed. If the committee proposed to ap-
ply the presumptive pf-oofs to the transactions of later
years, he would admit it to be most difficult to meet and
encounter the argument made by his friend [Mr. Pieuce]
from New Hampshire; but when the application of such
proofs is made to the transactions of the revolution, it
will be no very wide departure from the ordinary rules
of evidence. These rules are not arbitrary, nor are they
capricious in their nature; they are made to elicit and de'-
velop the truth, not to stifle and extinguish it altogether;
and it is therefore that the best evidence which the nature
of the case will admit is the rule which prevails in the j uris-
prudence of all enlightened nations. A court of justice
sitting to determine upon the proof required to make out
the due execution of a deed, or other written instrument,
will be guided and governed in some measure by the time
when it professes to have been executed. If it purports
to be a paper of recent origin, a rigorous mode of proof
will be applied and enforced; but if it be an ancient instru-
ment, a more lenient and liberal rule will be suffered to
prevail, or the idea of proving it at all would, in any nine
cases out of ten, be abandoned as utterly hopeless. In a
word, where the nature of the transaction is such, from
its great antiquity, or the impossibility of procuring living
witnesses, that primary evidence cannot be produced,
secondary proof will be admitted. It appeared to him,
therefore, that the committee, in adopting the presump-
tions in the bill, have done nothing more than extend the
same wise and salutary rule to the class of claims embraced
within its provisions. And when an officer is proved to
have been in service on the 21st October, 1780, and con-
tinued in the army until its reduction under the resolution
of that date, and another is proved to have been in ser-
vice within three months of the time of his death, he could
not, in the absence of all adverse proof, give his assent to
the opinion that it was a violent and unreasonable pre-
sumption to say that the first officer was reduced by the
arrangement of the army, and that the second died in the
public service.
It was due to himself to say that he was not preparad
to adopt the principle that officers proved to have remained
in service after the arrangement of the army under the
resolution of October, 1780, should be presumed to have
served to the end of the war, or to have retired entitled
to half pay, unless it "should otherwise appear, until he
learned that it was the same which had prevailed in the
deliberations of Congress for some time past. And such
was the solicitude which he yet felt with regard to the ef-
fect of this provision, that if any gentleman could propose
a less objectionable mode of proceeding, without defeating
the object of the bill altogether, he would willingly go
with him upon any motion calculated to effect that object.
In the event of no such proposition being made, he would
vote for the bill, from a conviction that the right to apply
the presumptive proof could be confided with greater
safety to the Treasury Department than it could be exer-
cised by the legislative branch of the Government. Re-
ductions more or less extensive were effected in the army
during the years 1780-'81-'82, by which no inconsiderable
number of officers lost their commands, and were permit-
ted to retire to their homes, subject to be recalled by the
orders of the commander-in-chief. The army itself was
disbanded in November, 1783; and from causes with which
honorable gentlemen must be quite conversant, many offi-
cers were absent upon furlough at the memorable and
eventful period of its dissolution. Congress will be care-
ful not to avail itself in any manner of this temporary ab-
sence to say that an officer abandoned the service, unless
he prove that he lost his command, or was absent on fur-
lough. To adopt such a rule would be tantamount to a
rejection of the claims altogether. Where, at this late
day, shall a claimant look for this negative evidence of his
fidelity? If he appeals to the muster-roils of the army,
or the records of the War Department, he will discover
that most of them have been lost or destroyed; and if he
appeals to his companions in arms, he will find that time
has removed most of those gallant men from the stage of
action, and age and infirmity has dimmed the recollection
and impaired the faculties of the few survivors. Where,
then, shall he hope for relief, if Congress shall apply the
same severe and rigorous rules of evidence to the trans-
actions of the revolution which the courts would apply to
the transactions of yesterday? 'For his own part, he
would, to the extent of his feeble ability, preserve the
public faith inviolate, and leave no public obligation un-
performed; and rather than leave demands for revolution-
ary services to the fate which too often await individual
applications to Congress, he was willing, with the com-
mittee, to adopt the bill under consideration, with all its im-
perfections, if such they could be termed. If we should
err, let our error be on the side of justice and the na-
tional honor, in favor of those who laid the foundations of
this great fabric of free Government, the steady and per-
severing defenders of human liberty; and while looking
back through the long dim lapse of years, which lie be-
tween our own times and the time of the dissolution of the
revolutionary army, if we should discover among that band
of heroic men one who has not shared the compensation
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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/m1/71/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.