1st Session. OFFICERS, &c. WHO SERVED PRIOR TO 1780. MEMORIAL OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE REVOLUTION. DECEMBER 20, 1831. Referred to the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. To the Congress of the United States of America: The memorial of the subscribers, in behalf of themselves and others, officers and soldiers of the line of the revolutionary army of the United States, who served prior to the 1st day of March, 1780, and who have received no gratuity or compensation from the United States, or from their respective States, either in land or money, RESPECTFULLY REPRESENTS: That the claims of the officers and soldiers who served in the revolution ary army, from 1780 to the end of the war, are founded on two positions: 1st. That a debt of gratitude is due to those who achieved our indepen dence. 2d. That Congress had not fulfilled their bargain with those officers and soldiers, that is to say, that upon fair and strict calculation, there is something due to them by contract. Strong as the claims of those officers and soldiers are acknowledged to be, there are circumstances which your memorialists beg leave to recall to the minds of your honorable body, which give to their application, as they humbly believe, a still stronger title to the public consideration. When the war commenced, Congress had not a dollar in their treasury, nor the means of commanding one. Those who engaged at that time, could not have been influenced, in the slightest degree, by motives of interest. They suffered every species of privation, and thousands perished for want of necessaries. No officer could have kept up a decent appearance, without the aid of his private resources; officers commanding regiments must have spent fortunes. It was by these men, however, that the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill were won; that Ticonderoga, St. Johns, Montreal, and the rest of Canada, down to Quebec, were taken; that the British were expelled from Boston; that the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Bennington, and Saratoga, were gained; Burgoyne and his army captured; the British and tories at King's mountain taken by Shelby and his volunteers, and all the British forts and garrisons in the western country taken by Clarke and his associates.. But you have read what is called the history of the revolution, and have heard of these and other events. The men who achieved them did it without pay and without clothing, and often, very often, without food. We knew that the United States had no means of paying, or feeding, or clothing us; and we knew that if our efforts should fail of success, our reward would be poverty and ignominious death, if the vengeance of tyrants could stamp with ignominy the virtuous efforts of freemen: we were not appalled by this perspective, nay, we were stimulated to more patient endurance of privations, and to more desperate exertions. Before 1780, these and similar events, and more, the unrelenting perseverance manifested by our citizens under the severest trials, gave us reputation in Europe; reputation produced sympathy, and gained us credit, and allies. The French fleet and army came to our relief; we were enabled to make loans in Europe; and in March, 1780, when the army was re-organized, it felt secure of pay, clothing, and necessaries, and entitled to the rights of war. The army formed at that period was as much a mercenary army, as that of any kingdom in Europe. They had made terms with their employers to their satisfaction; these terms ought to be strictly fulfilled. But the heat and burthen of the day was past, the revolution was accomplished, patriotism was no longer invoked to fill our ranks. Certain engagements were also made by Congress to the officers and soldiers who served before 1780; they were offered pay and rations. Let these deficiencies be made up, and if a debt of gratitude be due to any description of the officers of the revolutionary army, it is eminently due to that portion of which your memorialists make a part. We have chosen a time when the overflowing treasury of the United States has become an object of solicitude and alarm, lest this superabundance of national wealth might tend to corrupt the morals of our rulers, and endan ger the peace of the country and the permanency of the Union, in the struggle for distribution. A very small pittance of this surplus, would enable us to terminate the short residue of our existence in comfort and repose. The Congress under the old confederation, thought it an act of common justice to settle and discharge the debts due from the United States to individuals, for supplies and for services other than military, not by the nominal amount in their paper currency, but by a scale of depreciation, in which it was professed to charge payments thus made according to the actual specie value of the paper at the time of payment. This had a semblance of justice; but, in point of fact, the paper currency was in that scale rated at something more than its actual value; yet even this meagre justice was not granted to the officers and soldiers of the army, although it must be allowed that they were creditors of the highest grade. We, therefore, respectfully ask, that a fair estimate may be made of the sums due us for pay and rations, crediting to the United States the sums paid in paper currency at the actual specie value at the time of payment, and that the balance thus found due, may be paid to us, with interest, or that compensation may be made to us for that balance in such other way as to your wisdom may seem more expedient, or that we may receive such other remuneration for our services, privations, and losses, as to the justice and liberality of your honorable body may seem equitable. ALBT. PAWLING, JAMES HEDDEN, N. J. NEW YORK-REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS. DECEMBER 20, 1831. Referred to the Committee on Revolutionary Pensions. Printed by order of the House of Representatives. To the Honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled: Your memorialists respectfully represent that they are a remnant of the army of the revolution, who enlisted at some period of that war, for three years, were honorably discharged, and have not been compensated for their services. Your memorialists further represent, with a view to a better understanding of the subject, that the army of the revolution was composed mainly of troops that enlisted for the war, and of those that enlisted for three years. This army was kept up by requisitions of Congress on the several States, and by voluntary enlistments. Rendezvous were established from an early period to the close of the war, where both descriptions of troops were indiscriminately recruited. When embodied, no distinction was known between them. Many of those who enlisted for three years, repeated their enlistments, whilst many who engaged for the war, enlisted late in the contest. Your memorialists concede to their companions for the war a greater responsibility, and rejoice in their better fortune; but for this, and for every other consideration in their favor, they have been compensated with valuable land grants now long enjoyed. Our officers have been rewarded with commutations, lands, and pensions; and soldiers for the war, with, lands and pensions for life: and the soldiers of the last war have had prompt pay, full rations, and land bounties. But your memorialists, who served with fidelity in the war that emancipated their country, and fought her most decisive battles, have been left for more than forty-eight years with but a pittance of their monthly pay. Your memorialists feel happy in the reflection, that all Congressional grants for revolutionary services, have been sanctioned by the almost unanimous voice of the nation; and they cannot believe that, in the abundance of her present means and prosperity, she has ceased to be grateful. Your memorialists forbear a long detail of their services, their sacrifices, and their sufferings: they are well known to your honorable body, and to the American people. Amongst those who now address you, are many who served their country in the war of the revolution from three to seven years who fought at Lexington and Bunker Hill, in Canada, on Long Island and Rhode Island-at White Plains, Saratoga and Monmouth-at Stoney Point and Springfield, and in other minor battles. Amongst them are those who mingled parting tears with their illustrious Commander-inChief at West Point, and New York, in '83; and saw, with him, the last invading foe leave the land their valor had protected: and they now, for themselves, and for all others situated as they are, respectfully ask your honorable body that they may share equally with their companions for the war, in the pension bill of 1828, or that your honorable body may make such other provisions for them as may be deemed meet and proper: and, in duty bound, will ever pray. SETH CAPRON, for himself, and a number of his associates who have authorized him to act on their behalf. WALDEN, Orange Co. N. Y. November 24, 1831. 1st Session. CASE OF SUSAN DECATUR, ET AL. To accompany Bill H. R. No. 98. DECEMBER 23, 1831. Reprinted by order of the House of Representatives U. S. No. 1. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: The memorial and petition of Susan Decatur, widow and sole representative of Stephen Decatur, Esquire, deceased, late a Captain in the Navy of the United States, in behalf of herself and of the officers and crew of the United States' ketch Intrepid. Your memorialist and petitioner most respectfully shows unto your honorable bodies, that, on the night of the 16th of February, 1804, the late Captain Stephen Decatur, then a Lieutenant in the navy of the United States, the volunteer commander of a volunteer crew, on board a small ketch, entered the harbor of Tripoli, boarded, captured, and destroyed a frigate of the largest class belonging to the enemy, and succeeded in effecting his retreat from this perilous enterprise without the loss of a single man. For this gallant and most distinguished achievement, planned and executed with consummate courage and skill, redounding equally to the national glory and advantage, your petitioner most respectfully solicits that Congress would be pleased to award that compensation which has been so liberally bestowed in other cases. The grounds upon which this application rests are numerous and weighty. On ordinary occasions it might wear the appearance of vain glorious boasting, for the petitioners to Congress to descant upon the value of those services for which they ask a remuneration. No such imputation can exist on the present occasion. Your memorialist, in recapitulating some of the circumstances which accompanied, and some of the benefits that resulted from this exploit, is but performing a sacred duty, hallowed by every feeling which can attract regard or awaken sympathy. She confidently trusts, therefore, that such a recapitulation will be received with pardon, if not with favor, and that she may be indulged in a feeble effort to bring before the recollection of the Representatives of the nation, circumstances which the length of time may have obliterated from the minds of many, and in detailing some facts, which have, perhaps, never been fully presented to more than a few. This hazardous and important enterprise was originally conceived and planned by the same individual who executed it. Young and ardent, devoted to the cause of his country, ambitious of distinction, zealous for the reputation of the navy, Lieutenant Decatur proposed a plan for the cap |