Statement of the claims of the Cherokee nation of Indians, according to the principles established by the treaty of August, 1846, between the United States and aid Indians; prepared by the accounting officers in obedience to a resolution of Congress, approved August 7, 1848. Amount granted to the Cherokees by the first article of the treaty of 1835, for their lands east of the Mississippi. Amount granted by the third article of the supplement.. Amount appropriated by Congress for objects specified in the third article of the supplement, per act of June 12, 1838. From which deduct amount paid for ... $5,000, 000 00 600, 000 00 1,047, 067 00 6,647, 067 00 $1,540, 572 27 159, 572 12 .... 264, 894 09 .......... ... ... ... Improvements. Ferries. Removal and subsistence, and commutation therefor, including $2,765 84 expended for goods for the poorer classes Spoliations. of Cherokees, as mentioned in the fifteenth article of the treaty of 1835-'6; and including, also, necessary inci dental expenses of enrolling agents, conductors, commissaries, medical attendance and supplies, &c., viz Bep Removal and subsistence, and commutation therefor... Physicians, matrons, medicines, hospital stores, &c. ........ ..... Superintendent of removal...... Clerk to superintendent of removal.... Interpreter to superintendent of removal... Disbursing agents... Conductors.... ........... Interpreters to various agents. Issuing agents...... Enrolling agents. Contingent expenses of superintendent and disbursing agent. .... 16,418 50 25,983 38 ... STATEMENT-Continued. Amount allowed the United States for the additional quantity of land ceded to said nation. Amount invested as the general fund of the nation.. Brought forward. Balance due Cherokee Indians... 1st Session. No. 177. IN SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. AUGUST 9, 1850, Submitted, and ordered to be printed. Mr. WALKER made the following REPORT: [To accompany bill S. No. 310.] The Committee on Revolutionary Claims, to whom was referred the memorial of H. M. Salomon, for indemnification for advances of money made by his father during the revolutionary war, have had the same under consideration, and respectfully report: That during the first session of the thirtieth Congress, the Committee on Revolutionary Claims in the House of Representatives, consisting of Messrs. King of Massachusetts, Smart of Maine, Outlaw of North Carolina, Morris of Ohio, Butler of Pennsylvania, Iverson of Georgia, Newall of New Jersey, Tallmadge of New York, and Bowdon of Alabama, to whom the House had referred a memorial similar to that which has been laid before this committee, on behalf of Haym M. Salomon, a native of Philadelphia, son and legal representative of the late Haym Salomon, merchant and banker there, carefully inquired into the allegations of the petitioner, and unanimously agreed to a report, from which the following is an extract: "That they have fully examined the mass of documentary evidence submitted by the said memorialist, and having satisfied themselves of its authenticity, do regard it as sustaining the claim advanced by the memorialist; which they therefore recommend to the favorable consideration of the House of Representatives." (Report No. 504.) During the first session of the 29th Congress, the Committee of Claims in Senate, consisting of Messrs. Pennybacker of Virginia, Clayton of Delaware, Dickinson of New York, Morehead of Kentucky, and Johnson of Maryland, unanimously agreed to a report, similar to that adopted by the House committee, but too late for presentation. During the second session, another report was drawn up by Senator Bradbury, placed on file, and is mainly as follows: "That it appears from documentary evidence submitted by the memorialist, that Haym Salomon, his father, contributed largely of his pecuniary means towards carrying on the war of the Revolution, aiding the public treasury by frequent loans of moneys, and advancing liberally of his means to sustain many of the public men engaged in the struggle for independence, at a time when the sinews of war were essential to success. It further appears to be satisfactorily established, that the confidence of Mr. Salomon was so great in the good faith of the government, that he parted with his money, relying on that good faith for its return. "He died suddenly after the conclusion of peace, and the inventory of the estate contains a list of treasury and other evidences of indebtedness of the government of a very large amount, viz: Loan office certificates Treasury certificates Virginia State certificates $110,233 63 18,244 S8 199,214 45 17,870 37 8,166 00 353,729 43 "The petitioner contends that during the extreme infancy of the heirs of Mr. Salomon, his children were most unjustly deprived of this revolutionary paper. But it cannot now be ascertained if the administrator may not have received a small per centage which was paid for that class of debts of the government, some years after his death. Be that as it may, the committee are of the opinion that Mr. Salomon rendered that important and peculiar service in aid of the revolutionary war; that it presents a case where Congress can mark its sense of such services, without injustice to the public treasury, by a suitable indemnity to the heirs of one who was a benefactor and whose family of infant children were left in penury by his devotion to the revolutionary war, and his confidence in the good faith of the country. The claim set forth in this case is, that Haym Salomon, a native of Poland, during the war of the Revolution, largely contributed of his pecuniary means towards carrying it on, assisting the agency of finance by frequent loans of money, and his obligations, from time to time, in sums varying from $20,000 to $40,000, and contributing to the support and sustenance of many eminent men of that time, engaged in the struggle for independence; that this was done without a consideration. That of the moneys advanced by Haym Salomon, no evidence exists of any payments by the government of the United States, in discharge of their obligations to him; and that, in point of fact, no such payments were ever made to his widow or children. The memorialist alleges that the sum of $300,000 was thus advanced by his father, in addition to various sums gratuitously bestowed upon sundry eminent individuals connected with and holding important offices in the administration of public affairs. From the evidence in the possession of the committee, the patriotic devotion of Haym Salomon to the cause of American independence cannot, in their judgment, be questioned. The proof of his eminent charac ter and standing as a citizen and merchant is very clear and abundant. He was the countryman and intimate associate of Pulaski and Kosciusko; and from facts submitted to the committee, it has been fully demonstrated, that, in the depth and sincerity of his devotion to the cause of human liberty, he was not surpassed by either of these illustrious men. For some time antecedent to the revolutionary war, Mr. Salomon had resided in this country, carrying on business as a merchant, and had es tablished that high character for probity and self-sacrificing patriotism which appears ever to have distinguished him. As early as 1775, he became obnoxious to the British government, and was imprisoned in New York, sharing the privations and horrors of the sufferers confined in a loathsome jail called the Prevot: this was about the same period that the patriot William Stockton was confined in the Jersey prison, and contracted a disease thereby, by which he-like Mr. Salomon-was brought to an untimely grave Having escaped from prison, Mr. Salomon is next heard of as the negotiator of all the war subsidies obtained from France and Holland, which he endorsed and sold in bills to the merchants in America, at a credit of two or three months, on his own personal security, without the loss of a cent to the country, and receiving only a quarter per centum; while, as appears from an account now in the archives of the Department of State, relating to the twenty million livres subsidy, $60,000 were deducted in France as the cost of the negotiation. It is also seen by the archives, that Robert Morris charges 100,000 livres to the United States, as having been given to one John Chalomer, 30th September, 1782, in the form of a douceur, to induce him to use his efforts to keep up the rates of exchange on Paris: also, 10,000 livres as paid to one Jones-whereas Mr. Salomon had kept up the prices by the sales of many millions on the French government, before and after the giving of those douceurs by Morris, for which Mr. Salomon did not charge or receive one cent. From a duly authenticated extract from the inventory of Mr. Salomon's personal estate, at the period of his death, it appears that he was the possessor, bona fide, at par value, of revolutionary paper to the amount of $353,744, in which he had invested his entire real estate, as well as his mercantile earnings, in the patriotic manner already described, and of which abundant evidence is presented in the documents exhibited to the committee. The utterly destitute condition of the United States treasury at this period is well known. Mr. Salomon died very unexpectedly, in the prime of life, about the close of the war of independence, intestate. These government obligations were taken possession of by an individual, then a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, and a person acting as treasurer of that State, and no evidence remains to enable the memorialist to trace the disposition of them, or the payment by the government of these public securities. Not one dollar of the proceeds, however, was at any time received by the widow or children, the original and rightful possessors, of which there is unquestionable evidence. When his father died intestate, the memorialist was barely in existence; his brother and sisters were young infants, the eldest scarcely six years of age; their mother was very young, and unacquainted with business; no relative of their father in the country to take charge of his interests, and the times were quite unsettled. Mr. Haym Salomon's principal clerk and manager, Mr. McCrea, a very able man, who had been many years in his service, shot himself shortly thereafter, in a fit of derangement: strangers administered to Mr. Salomon's estate; and, by reference to the register office of probate of wills, it appears that only two of the administrators filed an account, December 23, 1789, charging Rachel Salomon, mother of the memorialist, only for the household furniture, £535 7s. 11d., but that nothing else was ever paid to her or to the children. |