1st Session.

THE PETITION

OF

SAMUEL MARTIN, OF CAMPBELL'S STATION, TENN.

DECEMBER 19, 1831.

Read, and laid upon the table.

Printed by order of the House of Representatives of the United States.

To the House of Representatives of the United States:

Your petitioner respectfully asks of you a serious consideration of the following, which he believes of more importance to the nation than any subject matter that can come before you, as all agree that on the diffusion of information, the stability of this Government depends, and in fact all Governments, unless it is those governed by mere force.

In the first place, he believes that, to actual subscribers, all newspapers and pamphlets, not exceeding one sheet, ought to pass free in the mail. That all those who own a printing press and types, and all men engaged and working as printers, send and receive their letters free. That the wo cents allowed postmasters for delivering each free letter, be dispensed with, and that, as the national debt is paid off, the whole post office establishment be supported from the general funds of the nation. This will, in a few years, require three millions yearly. Even in England, it is believed, there is no postage on newspapers, and the nobility, generally, receive their letters free. I would further respectfully ask your attention to the propriety of allowing publishers of newspapers, one hundred dollars each for publishing the laws and the advertisements for the Post Office Department. As it is, the laws are not generally published, only two papers in each State being paid for it. This is rather objectionable, as it confers favors on a few only, and sometimes not the most worthy. As I am the first who suggested this matter relating to supporting the establishment out of the general funds of the nation, entering this on the journals of the house, and printing it for the use of the members, would confer a very great favor on

SAMUEL MARTIN,

Of Campbell's Station, Tennessee.

December 3, 1831.

1st Session.

MEMORIAL ON CERTAIN CLAIMS OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA AGAINST THE UNITED STATES.

DECEMBER 19, 1831.

Referred to Messrs. Barbour, of Va., Nuckolls, Kendall, A. H. Sheppard, J. King, Burd, and Marshall.

WASHINGTON CITY, Dec. 19, 1831.

SIR: I have to request that you will submit, for the consideration of the House of Representatives, the accompanying memorial on the subject of certain claims of the State of Virginia against the United States. The documents, and other evidence referred to in the memorial, are in my possession, and await the disposition of the House of Representatives.

With esteem, &c., yours,

THOMAS W. GILMER, Commissioner on behalf of the State of Virginia.

To Hon. ANDREW STEVENSON.

To the Speaker and Members of the House of Representatives, and the Senators of the United States, in Congress assembled:

The Memorial of Thomas W. Gilmer, Commissioner on behalf of the State of Virginia, respectfully represents:

That the General Assembly of Virginia, believing that their State" has a valid and substantial claim on the United States for various large sums of money which have been paid, and which that Commonwealth may be bound to pay, on account of the services of the troops of her State-line, during the war of the revolution"-made provision by law, at their last session, for the submission of such claim to the proper authorities of the United States. Your memorialist has been charged by the Executive of Virginia, under authority of the Legislature, with the duty of presenting this subject for your consideration.

It is not expected or desired, that the United States should compensate the State of Virginia for the losses and sacrifices which that Commonwealth sustained during the revolution. These were borne in common with the other States, and the reward has been enjoyed by all, in the permanent es• See sessions Acts of Assembly, 1830-31, page 131.

* See sessions Acts of Assembly, 1830-31, page 131, No. 1.

tablishment of those rights and liberties, for which the "lives, the fortunes, and the sacred honor" of the American people were pledged. Virginia solicits no boon from your generosity-she would invoke your justice, with that confidence which is inspired by a scrupulous observance of faith, as well between governments as individuals. She asks on the present occasion, only that the United States will discharge those obligations which have been voluntarily assumed, in that spirit of comprehensive justice, which has always distinguished the intercouse of the States.

* The unanimous resolution of the Virginia convention on the 15th of May, 1776, declaring the independence of that Commonwealth, and instructing its representatives in Congress, to propose a similar declaration on behalf of the United States, was immediately followed by the most active and energetic preparations, to maintain so perilous a position. Admonished by the previous effusion of blood, that all hope of honorable reconciliation had passed, the Convention did not hesitate to place the entire resources of the State in requisition, to meet the impending struggle. Besides meeting the demands of the continental service, with all the promptness of which she was capable, Virginia was compelled throughout the war to maintain a large military and naval force, to repel invasion from her own territory which was generally the theatre of active hostilities. These troops of her State line were not employed only in her own defence. Their services in the most distant quarters of the Union, are attested by many of the most arduous campaigns of that eventful war. Το preserve the chartered limits of her territory, Virginia carried her arms far into the west, at an early period of the war; and holding a vast dominion by the double right of compact and conquest, she had to protect an extensive maritime and inland frontier from invasion. Without commerce or fiscal resources adequate to the occasion, after resorting to loans as far as her credit allowed, she could do no more than encourage her troops to persevere in the dubious struggle, by multiplying large promises of reward. Like all the engagements of the States at that period, these promises were contingent; their fulfilment depending on the successful termination of the war. Virginia relied chiefly on her western domain, as a fund which would ultimately enable her to redeem the very liberal promises of money and of land— bounties which she made to her troops both on continental and State establishment. This same policy was pursued also by Congress, to an extent greatly beyond the means then possessed by the United States. bounties were promised by Congress to the continental troops as early as September, 1776, while Congress were without the means of fulfilling their engagements. It was resolved at the same time, that "Such lands shall be provided by the United States, and whatever expense shall be necessary to procure such lands, the said expense shall be borne by the States, in the same proportion as the other expenses of the war."†

Relying on the ample prospective resources in which she then abounded, Virginia provided by an act of Assembly, passed in May, 1779, that the officers in the service of the State, on continental or State establishment, "who shall serve henceforward, or from the time of their being commissioned, until the end of the war; and all such officers who have or shall become supernumerary on the reduction of any of the said battalions, and shall

* See Henning's Statutes at Large, vol. I. page 7, No. 2.

† See Journals of Congress, Sept. 1776, No. 8.

agais enter the said service, if required so to do, in the same or any higher rai, and continue therein until the end of the war, shall be entitled to half My during life, to commence from the determination of their command or service." The motives which induced the passage of this act may be easily appreciated by those who will advert to the history of that period of our revolution. It was designed to nerve the arms of a desponding soldiery -to encourage them to fight the battles of their country, with the hope that their toils and perils would be finally compensated. The effect which was produced on the army by this act, can be attested still by the surviving witnesses of those times.

The war had no sooner closed than the claims of the troops became a a subject of anxious solicitude, both with the States and in Congress. Destitute of means to fulfil their engagements, either domestic or foreign, and without authority to adjust the embarrassing questions which had already arisen, Congress was dependent on the States, to whose indulgence and magnanimity, it had occasion more than once to appeal. Virginia responded to these appeals, by the prompt and voluntary surrender of her western domain, whereby an ample fund was provided for the redemption of all the pledges which Congress had given. Three flourishing States have sprung from this cession, whose representatives, in common with those of the Union, are now asked to do justice to Virginia.

Virginia was thus left with diminished resources, to provide for the payment of the numerous and large debts which had been contracted during the war, while her territory reached from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. The establishment of Kentucky soon afterwards, as an independent State, still farther diminished these resources. Notwithstanding these considera. tions, before she had repaired the ravages of war, Virginia undertook to arrange her disordered finances, and to provide for the immediate and faithful discharge of her engagements, as well to private individuals as to her troops.

In settling the claims of her troops, a question arose as to the half pay of the supernumeraries of the State line, under the above recited act of May, 1779. The Auditor of public accounts having refused to pay these claims, or grant certificates for them, the officers appealed to the district and chancery courts, where the decision of the Auditor was reversed; and the Commonwealth appealed from these decisions to the Supreme Court of Appeals. The decision of the Auditor was here affirmed, and the t claims rejected, without prejudice on fuller proof."

By levying burdensome taxes on her citizens, Virginia began to extinguish her debt immediately after the restoration of peace, and had discharged a large portion of it, when the proposition was made, soon after the adoption of the present Federal Constitution, to fund the State debts as part of the general debt of the United States. Virginia was opposed to this measure, as she conceived it would operate very injuriously on her interests. She believed that she had paid a much larger portion of her debt than many the other States, while the evidences or certificates had been destroyed as they were paid, so that it would be impossible to estimate them in the assumption by Congress. The journals of the Virginia Legislature testify,

• See Henning's Statutes at Large, vol. 10, page 25, No. 4.

†See Chancellor Wythe's Reports, page 62, No. 5.

+ See Journals of House of Delegates, 1790.