MAY 29, 1834.] Names on the Pension Roll. [SENATE. with precision the number of claims which would proba- the state of facts from which the gentleman reasoned, bly be made upon the Government. His object was to did not conduct him to the disproportions to which he follow up the resolution, when the information should be arrived. He had shown a great apparent disproporobtained upon it, by ordering the publication of the names tion between the population of different States and the in the various counties of the United States where the pensioners in each State, and from the longevity of the applicants for pensions, or the pensioners, reside, and South, he came to the conclusion that the proportion thus by publishing them, prevent fraud upon the Govern- should be the other way. But Mr. W. would submit to ment. In his judgment, there was some radical mistake, the honorable member, how frauds should exist in a greatmismanagement, or fraud, in the pension system, which er proportion in one part of the country than in another; called on Congress to look minutely into it. He came to at least to so enormous an extent? It could not be. We this conclusion from the fact that there were thirty-six must, therefore, look to other causes for an explanation thousand pensioners of the Revolution on the pension of the difficulty. And it might be explained by referroll. And so far from decreasing, since the adoption of ence to one or two considerations. The disproportion the present gigantic system, it had annually increased, in the emigration from different States, and the change in and was increasing, equal to the calculation made at the the population. No fact in the whole range of statistics time of its decrease. There was an actual increase of was more easily explained than the disproportion of pentwenty-five per cent., from which it would seem that sioners in New York and Massachusetts. What was New these revolutionary heroes increase in numbers. When York in the Revolution? It certainly was not to be comthe system was adopted, an elaborate report was made as pared to Massachusetts at that period. What made the to the probable and possible number which would be put population of New York? Half a million of its populaon the roll from it. The estimate was made on the max-lation went to that State after the war. The fighting men imum of numbers which would apply. The calculation rushed to New York after the peace, and the same thing then was, that it could not add more than ten thousand to took place after the Canadian war as at the peace of 1783. the pension roll. [Mr. P. here read extracts from the Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN said, that the rules of longevireport of the committee which reported the act of July, ty of the honorable gentleman from South Carolina were 1832.] The aggregate amount of revolutionary soldiers not correct or applicable; that the latitude given by the were supposed to have been 328,000, and at the time of act of 1832, to those who had served but six months, must the report, that ten thousand might, by possibility, have multiply the number of pensioners; he thought a child of been alive. But instead of ten thousand, in eighteen seven years old at the commencement of the war, might months, the applications had amounted to twenty-four have served his six months before the peace, and not be thousand six hundred, of which the Secretary of War re- a very aged man now. He did not believe the most jealported that about one thousand would probably be reject-ous scrutiny into the matter would disclose any material ed. Up to this time, then, the calculation had been more frauds. He was astonished, after the passage of the act than trebled, and thirty-six thousand were now on the of 1832, on his return home, to see so many old worthies roll. Mr. P. said, it struck him as incredible, that at this applying to the court for pensions. Cer time there should be so vast a number alive. It was well Mr. CHAMBERS said, he had the honor to be a memknown that our pension system was more extensive than ber of the committee by which the act of 7th June, 1832, it was in any other country-agents were appointed in had been reported, and he concurred in the remark that every part of the country to collect claims, and bring the merit of all the labor with which that bill, and the rethem before Congress-many were pushed too far, and port accompanying it, was produced, was due to the pres sustained throughout by fraudulent testimony. Mr. P. ent Governor of Connecticut, then the chairman. related a striking instance of this to sustain a claim for a tainly, the result has been to create a much larger list of pension by a person who served on board the frigate pensioners than the anticipations of the committee, or any South Carolina, during the Revolution. The present re-known standard of computation had authorized us to exsult on the pension books he considered impossible, and pect. How far this excess arises from fraud or mistake, therefore it demanded scrutiny. he had no means of judging. But, sir, said Mr. C., Mr. P. then proceeded at length to show, from various while the Senate is investigating this fact, it strikes me as statistical statements and tables of longevity, that so great quite becoming to look into the matter of errors and misa number of pensioners could not now be alive. He took takes against the intended objects of our bounty. What the estimated population of the United States at the Rev-number of fair and honest claims had been rejected at olution, calculated the proportion of fighting men, and as- the Department I know not; that in some instances insuming the average age at thirty, he came to the conclu- justice has been done, I affirm, as matter of my own persion, upon the ordinary tables of longevity, that there sonal knowledge. It is not a week since my personal could not be one-third the number of old soldiers now in services were rendered, and rendered cheerfully, as they existence that were represented to be living. Mr. P. always are, in aid of an old soldier, of whose participaargued, also, that fraud must exist, from the fact that a tion in the perils and sufferings of the Revolution I have large proportion of the pensioners now on the roll, were not a doubt. He had applied at the Department and was in States which produced no soldiers in the war of the informed, as most applicants are, I believe, that some furRevolution, while those States which furnished the fight-ther form was required. At the session of one of the ing men, had, comparatively, few pensioners. Mr. P. courts in my circuit he produced the printed regulation believed no one was aware of the immense expenditure of the Department, particular requirements of which which was annually made to pensioners, and that we could not calculate the amount to which it would extend if it went on two or three years more. He thought it would be five or ten millions. were marked to indicate his nonconformity. I prepared for him the voucher supposed to be deficient, and a few days ago presented his claim again, when a new printed formula was handed to me, by which it appeared the apMr. WEBSTER said he presumed no member had any plicant must prove the year, the month, and the day, of objection to the resolution of inquiry. If fraud had been his entering into the service, and the precise time he conpractised, or mistake had occurred, in the administration tinued. It was in vain that I described my old acquaintof the pension laws, which was of so much importance as ance as wasted in mind as well as body; that old age to make an inquiry necessary, why, this course was the had transformed the hardy, active, and intelligent solcorrect one on which to commence reform. But while dier of '76, into a decrepit, palsied, enfeebled remhe concurred with the honorable gentleman in this, he nant of himself; and that to ask him to give precise dates would repeat a suggestion he made the other day, that to occurrences of near sixty years ago, which he had VOL. X.-115 SENATE.] Names on the Pension Roll. [MAY 29, 1834. New never reduced to writing, was to require him to commit should have made the observations which it was now his flagrant perjury. All the reply I could receive was, Such purpose to make, had it not been for the fact, that an is the language of the regulations-ita lex est scripta. My honorable Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. WEBSTER] friend who is now at the head of the Pension Committee made explanations, in answer to the Senator from South afterwards suggested, that by giving the names of the Carolina, which were perfectly satisfactory to him, and respective officers with whom he had served, and swear- he had no disposition to protract the debate, or to coning in positive terms to the minimum of his service in each sume the time of the Senate. The argument of the hontour, he might be allowed a pension for the aggregate orable Senator from South Carolina, [Mr. PRESTON,] was time to which these minimums would amount; and I wrote based upon premises which he (Mr. W.) considered unto the Commissioner of Pensions, to ascertain if such sound, and calculated to lead to error. These premises would be the case. His answer, received this morning, were comparisons of the present number of pensioners is now before me, saying, that to allow a pension on such from each State upon the pension rolls, made under the proof, would be in direct violation of the established several pension laws, with the number of troops furnished rules. by each State during the revolutionary war. These comNow, sir, how stands the case with that class of revo-parisons, as made by the honorable Senator, had no reflutionary patriots, of whom this old man may be consid-erence to the present population of the States, and here, ered the representative? They have lived by the honest Mr. W. said, he considered was the radical error. labor of their hands till age and infirmity has disabled York had been made, by the honorable Senator, very them longer to labor; they are now, at the age of some prominent in the comparisons he had presented, formed seventy-five or eighty years or more, worn out in mind upon the basis just mentioned, and which he, Mr. W., beand body, their memory, like their limbs, torpid, inactive, lieved he could satisfy the Senator himself, and the Senand infirm, compelled to ask the generous aid which they late, was unsound. New York, at the time of the Revoare assured is prepared for their acceptance; and when at lution, when compared with some other States, was small much trouble and difficulty, they make their appearance in population; and her quota of troops was small in proat your door, they are repulsed with technical exactions, portion to her population. The inhabited portions of and required to specify dates more accurately than any New York, at that early period, were a narrow tract of honest man, it seems to me, could do even in reference to country along the Hudson river, small settlements upon a transaction of but a few years past. Sir, how is it possible the borders of Lake Champlain and Lake George, and a these men can tell the precise day on which they marched limited portion of the lands upon each side of the Moto the field? Ever ready, they waited the signal of alarm; hawk river, extending westwardly from Albany some the first tap of the drum hurried them to the muster, and hundred miles, more or less. These were the portions of no man thought of waiting to make a record of the mo- the State then embracing nearly all of the white populament; his only desire was to be first at the post of danger; {tion. Mr. W. said he spoke from recollection, and from and in such a scene, often repeated, what was there to a very bad recollection as to statistical facts; but he beimprint on the memory that distinction between one month lieved that, at the commencement of the revolutionary and another which, at the lapse of sixty years should ena-war, the population of New York and South Carolina ble it, diseased by age and decayed by time and exercise, were not greatly variant, and that the troops, both reguto recall precise dates? Is not such a regulation equiva-lars and militia, furnished by these States, were not widelent to the open proclamation of your purpose to grant ly different. How was it now? He would assume the no pension but to the man who will perjure himself? Is population of New York to be 2,000,000, and for all the it not to turn away every man who prefers poverty to purposes of the pension law of 1832, the number must crime? While, then, we talk of the "hardships" of pay- be below the fact; and he believed the population of South ing false pretenders to our bounty, let us do justice to Carolina, of all descriptions, to be now about 500,000. those who have had the promise to receive. We are able Is it then fair to compare the number of pensioners upon to make the declining age of these veterans comfortable. the various pension rolls, residing within these two States, We have professed to make provision for them; let us to determine the fairness of the pension applications, or not delude them; let them have something better than the absence of fraud in the grants of pensions made to the "hope deferred." Believing, as I do, that the regulations citizens of each State? Mr. W. said he could not so conof the Department exact more than in many cases an hon-sider the argument. The population of New York had est man can comply with, and, indeed, offer a premium to increased since the revolutionary war, and before the pasperjury, I will propose to the Senate, unless the Sena-sage of the act of 1832, more than three times its amount tor from South Carolina will adopt it as a modification, to at the time of the war. It had not been so with the popask for the "regulations" of the Department in relation ulation of South Carolina. The increase in New York to the evidence of claims. Mr. CHAMBERS then submitted his amendment, which was accepted by Mr. PRESTON, as before stated. had not been solely from the increase of its original population. It was not true that the population of New York, existing at the time of the Revolution, had multiplied so Mr. WRIGHT said it was not his object to offer any much more rapidly than that of South Carolina; but the opposition to the resolution. On the contrary, he hoped difference had been occasioned by emigration into New it would pass. He thought the statements which had been York from the old States. That emigration was princimade upon the present and former occasion when this pally from the Eastern States; it commenced soon after subject was before the Senate, and the suspicions of frauds the war, and continued until western New York was which were shown to be entertained, had satisfied every principally settled. Mr. W. said his residence was in the member of the body, that some inquiry should be made county of St. Lawrence, the extreme northwestern counwhich would correct the public mind, detect frauds, ty of the State. His recollection was, that settlements if frauds exist, and allay suspicions as to honest appli- were commenced in that county at about the year 1800, cants. He said he would go with the honorable Senator and that the county was organized between that time and to any extent to detect and punish any frauds which might 1804. It was not now a large county in population, relabe found to exist, and he would rather engage in such an tively speaking, and during the war of the Revolution, he inquiry in his own State than in another, because his mo- did not suppose there was an armed white man in it. Still tives would not then be suspected, nor could he be ac it now presented a somewhat numerous list of revolu cused of designing to cast unjust imputations any where. tionary pensioners. He had been informed that at the He also owed it to himself to remark, that upon a former first court of record held in the county, after the passage occasion, when this subject was under consideration, he of the act of 1832, about seventy of the venerable survi MAY 29, 1834.] Names on the Pension Roll. [SENATE. vors of that glorious struggle assembled in that new county army as citizens of those counties, were now to be found to make their applications for the pensions granted by it. at the West, as emigrants from the old to the new parts He did not know the fact, but he presumed that of the of the State. A proper consideration of these facts, he number thus assembled there would not have been found was sure, would convince the honorable Senator that his five who claimed to have served either in the New York mode of reasoning was unjust and must lead him to erroline or the New York militia. The county is almost ex-neous and unjust conclusions. The supposition that the clusively settled from the States of Massachusetts and population of the States had maintained their proportions Vermont, and the pensioners now residing within it are from the time of the Revolution to the present day, was nearly all emigrants from those and other States. Inas- inadmissible, as contradicting known facts, and to suppose much as this county had no white population during the that the soldiers of that seven years' war had remained war, if the premises of the gentleman be sound, it should more stationary than any other equal portion of the pophave no pensioners now, and his reasoning is, that the ulation of the States, was equally against probability fact that it has, raises the presumption that the applica- and fact. tions have been sustained by fraud. or the New York militia, than the proportion which the numbers of those corps, actually in service, would be found to bear to the whole army. Mr. W. said, he was glad that the amendment offered Mr. W. said, he knew the honorable Senator would by the honorable Senator from New Jersey, directing the not contend that this was true as to all these cases, but he call to embrace the line or corps in which each pensioner seemed to think it must be as to a large portion of them. served, had been adopted, because that would show where If the gentleman was as well acquainted as himself with these veterans of each State now reside. He was perthe population, and the progress of settlement of the fectly willing that any proper scrutiny, as to the pensionwestern portions of New York, he would change his ers residing within his State, should be had, and he had opinions. Where, he would ask the honorable Senator, no fear that the call, as now made, would show a greatwas now the population of New York? Of its 2,000,000 er number of those pensioners from the New York line, of inhabitants, he felt confident he should be within the fact when he said that at least 1,000,000 was to be found in portions of the territory of the State where there was no white population at the close of the revolutionary Mr. W. said he felt sure the honorable Senator had not war. The county of Oneida, the most populous county selected New York, so peculiarly, for the purpose of of the State, the city and county of New York alone ex-his comparisons, from any invidious motive. He had excepted, was a wilderness, inhabited by the savages exclu- pressly disavowed any such intention, and he, Mr. W., sively, until long after the close of that war. He believed should not have been able to convince himself of the exit was true that there might have been a block-house or istence of such a motive, if the disavowal had not been two, or some slight works, erected for defence against made. But he must say, it did appear to him, if it had the Indians, within its territory, during or before the ter- been the sole object of the Senator, reasoning from the mination of the war, but the county was unsettled and un-premises he had chosen to assume, to have shown the palinhabited by the whites until after that period. Now, he pable disparity between the troops in service from each believed, if a line were drawn across the State, as far State, and the number of pensioners now residing within cast as the east bounds of this county, nearly, if not quite it, that he might have obtained much stronger instances the one-half of the white population of the State would than that between South Carolina and New York, by be found west of such line. The most of this population turning his attention to the new States of the West. He too, would be found to consist of emigrants from other had told the Senate, that the troops furnished by New States since the Revolution, and they had brought with York and South Carolina were nearly equal, and that the them a full share, he thought he could say a large share, pensioners residing in New York at the present time, of the soldiers of the Revolution. Was it unnatural that were eighteen times as many as those residing in South it should be so? Who so likely to emigrate from the thick- Carolina. If the honorable Senator had taken Ohio, ly-settled portions of the old States to the great West, to how would his comparison have resulted? Mr. W. said the unexplored wilderness, as the soldiers of that war? he had not looked at the report to which the gentleman They undoubtedly came out of that war, as most of them had referred, but he presumed that Ohio now returned a went into it, poor, and unable to purchase the cultivated number of pensioners equal to that of South Carolina. and valuable land of the old States. Mr. W. said it was [Here Mr. PRESTON remarked, Four times as many.] not the rich, but the poor men of a country, in any war, Then, said Mr. W., Ohio has within it four times as many who constituted its soldiery and filled the ranks of its ar- revolutionary pensioners as South Carolina, and Ohio did mies; and it was not the rich, but the poor men of a coun-not furnish a soldier for the service-Ohio did not contry, who constituted the pioneers of its wilderness and first tain a white man, till years after the war. South Caroswept away its forests and cultivated its soil. This would lina, therefore, furnished just as many more men for the always be the work of those whose pecuniary circum-service than Ohio, as the whole number of men she sent stances compel them to earn their living by the labor of into that great struggle, and still Ohio presents four times their own hands, and who can only acquire homes where as many pensioners from that service, as are presented by land is cheap and can be made valuable by their own im- South Carolina. Here Mr. W. said, the gentleman had provements. Such were the soldiers of the Revolution, a comparison, not counting in tens, but in thousands, and and vast numbers of them left their residences in the set- he would not attempt to establish the rate per cent. adtlements and pushed their way into western New York. vantage to Ohio, but would leave it with the other calcuMr. W. said he would remind the honorable Senator lations of the Senator. He must, however, be permitted that the counties of Westchester and Saratoga, perhaps to suppose that the honorable gentleman would see, from more emphatically than any other portions of New York, this instance, the palpable injustice of his comparisons, except the city, were the seat of war, and still he could and the erroneous impressions they would be likely to not be mistaken in supposing that Oneida and many other create. According to his positions, Ohio, Indiana, Illiof the comparatively new counties, would be found to be nois, Misssouri, and the new States at the Southwest, the places of residence of a greater number of revolu- ought not to present a pensioner, as they were not intionary pensioners than either of the counties he had first habited at the time of the war, and therefore presented named. The reason was obvious. Their populations no troops for the service. Still it was admitted that they were much greater, and were composed as much of those all did present pensioners, and surely the gentleman who lived and acted in the scenes of that war, as the peo- would not contend that the single fact of their not havple of those counties. Indeed, many, who served in the ing sent troops into the revolutionary army was proof SENATE.] Names on the Pension Roll. that all the pension applications from those States were false and fraudulent. On the contrary, the error was, that the honorable Senator had not made allowance for the great changes of location of the inhabitants of the old States, and reflection would satisfy him that the grounds he had assumed, and the conclusions he had drawn, from erroneous premises, were manifestly unjust to some of the States. Mr. PRESTON replied at length to Mr. WRIGHT and others, commenting extensively upon the whole pension system; and, in the course of his remarks, compared the number of pensioners in New York with those in Ohio, and compared also the populations of the two States, to show that the population of the latter was half that of the former, while the number of persons receiving pensions residing within the latter, was but about one-fifth of the number appearing to reside within the former. Hence he inferred that Mr. WRIGHT'S mode of accounting for the great number of pensioners residing in New York, by the emigration to that State from other States, was not supported by facts. [MAY 29, 1834. trate the cases of our revolutionary pensioners, he does them injustice. When the Senator shall point us to the history of men fighting for liberty, from the love of liberty, with the known alternative of doubtful independence on the one hand and slavery on the other; when he shows us a people in the first age of their existence, without armies, without money, without concert, rising up against a gigantic and powerful Government which had exercised dominion over them, with a spirit that would not calculate the hazards which opposed their resistance to oppression, with a resolution that neither hunger or nakedness or exposure could subdue, with a purpose to sacrifice life and fortune, and every thing but honor, in the desperate struggle for civil and religious freedom; when he shall show us such a people, and shall then trace their history through perils and sufferings and blood to a successful termination of their struggle, and shall point to us the happy results of their devoted lives and fortunes, in the establishment of a great and prosperous nation, proud in its glorious institutions, the work of their wisdom, abundant in its treasures, the fruit of their toils; then, sir, when Mr. WRIGHT rejoined. He said he should not be we find such a nation looking with a cold and unpitying led by the gentleman into a discussion of the pension sys-eye upon the few lingering monuments of war-worn patem; that the resolution before the Senate, was a call for triots, whose blood was shed, whose purse was drained, information, and he had no disposition to discuss the now mendicants in the streets, inmates of the alms-houses, questions which might arise when the information should or starving on the commons, while their sons are luxuribe obtained, in anticipation, or upon a supposed state of ating in the rich rewards of their sufferings, then, and facts. He should be ready to meet those questions when not till then, shall we have a parallel case. None such the facts were settled, but he must decline wholly at- can be found in any war in any other country, nor in any tempting to settle them upon hypotheses, and especially other war that has been or can hereafter be waged in in considering a call for the facts. His object, therefore, this. I concur in the opinion that in relation to the last in rising at this time, was simply to answer the remarks war, we have carried our pension system to an extreme. of the Senator as to the disparity in the number of pen- Our soldiers fought bravely, but they encountered the sioners between Ohio and New York, and, this done, he ordinary chances of war; honor and fame awaited them would detain the Senate no longer. The answer seemed if victorious; the liberal stipulations of a regular and wellplain to his mind, and, upon its being suggested, he established Government secured them all the comforts a thought it would be equally plain to the Senate. The soldier can require while in service, just provision for revolutionary soldiers were the early emigrants from the themselves if disabled, and a maintenance for their famiold States. They were not modern emigrants, as their lies if slain, with an assurance of honorable treatment ages must necessarily satisfy every gentleman. Western while prisoners, and a certain deliverance if they should New York was opened to them immediately after the fall into the hands of their foes. Not so with the revolupeace of 1783, and they soon began to form settlements tionary soldier and patriot. The certainty of comfortable there. The territory now composing the State of Ohio, provisions for himself and his family was only to be found was then beyond the reach of settlement, and it was many by uniting with the enemy. The treasury from which years after, and when western New York had become his emolument was to be derived was empty and bankmeasurably full, that the emigration flowed over it into rupt. No obligations of ordinary warfare exempted him Ohio. Before that period had arrived, most of these old from the penalties of treason and the ignominy of the soldiers had fixed themselves down in permanent abodes halter if captured. And, finally, if slain, the only legacy nearer to the settlements of the old States. Hence, he could leave to his widowed wife and orphan children, when the tide set most strongly to Ohio, there would was a draft upon the charities of his countrymen, who had have been among the emigrants a much less proportion-no settled Government to redeem it. Pension laws may ate number of revolutionary soldiers. induce a mercenary feeling hereafter, but certainly the Even now, Mr. W. said, their descendants from west-light of heaven never shed itself upon a body of men ern New York were beginning to move on, not into, but less moved by motives of avarice than those who fought beyond, Ohio, into the States of Indiana, Illinois, and Mis-the battles of the Revolution. I repeat, that no case can souri; but few, very few of these aged patriots would be again occur to resemble it; and, therefore, a system of found among the emigrants. They remained at the pensions peculiar to it is strictly proper. homes they had established in their younger days. The How far the apprehensions of the Senator from South weight of years had become too heavy upom them to ren- Carolina, in regard to the "corrupt agencies," may be der them willing again to seek the wilderness and again justified by fact, I am not prepared to say. I would fain to encounter the hardships of a new country. This hope that in regard to members of Congress, there can seemed to him a sufficient reason for the diminution in be no just foundation for them. As a Senator, I should the number of pensioners as the emigration was follow-feel humbled to the last degree could I believe that any ed West. man, honored by the votes of any district in this Union, [The discussion was further continued by Messrs. would condescend to traffic in such business-to abstract SPRAGUE, EWING, PRESTON, FORSYTH, and CALHOUN.] for his pecuniary profit one farthing from the poor pitMr. CHAMBERS said: I do not rise, Mr. President, tance allowed to a revolutionary soldier to secure his old for the purpose of going into the argument upon which age from want. As well might he ask money for the the Senator from South Carolina [Mr. CALHOUN] has enter-crumbs from his table which ministered to the necessity ed, but to express my dissent in toto from his doctrine of his father. If there has been a member of Congress upon the subject of revolutionary pensions. When he who has robbed a poor old soldier of the Revolution refers to the history of other nations--when he refers to of one cent of his country's bounty, by selling the serlater periods, in our own history, for instances to illus-vices which he is bound gratuitously to render, his name MAY 30, 31, 1834.] Adjournment of Congress.-U. S. Marine Corps.—Restoration of the Deposites. should be proclaimed, that he may meet the scorn and reprobation of the community. [Mr. CALHOUN here made some remarks, which have not been reported.] [SENATE. in future. He was in favor of the amendment, but would go further, and apply it both to the marine corps and to the army. He saw no reason, however, why they should not repeal the act as regarded the marine department, alMr. CHAMBERS said he repeated the hope, that the though they might not be able to repeal it at present in Senator's apprehensions as to the speculations upon pen-relation to the army. They might act in the latter case sioners, were unfounded. He did not assent to the pro- when they had occasion to get up an army bill. priety of assigning to "six months men" the odium which Mr. CHAMBERS was as willing to repeal the brevet had been cast upon them. Certainly, those who served act as any one, but he was opposed to selecting any parlonger had more merit, and the law made a just distinc- ticular branch of the military department for this purtion. But even these six months men had, many of them, pose. Such conduct would be invidious, and would be rendered efficient services; and he believed a large pro-striking at that which the soldier held most dear-his portion of the American people felt the same sentiment honor. Suppose Congress were to stop this mode of he did, that rather than see a revolutionary soldier, though promotion in the artillery, and not in the infantry, what he served but six months, bowed down with age, in pen- would be the feeling of the officers of the former body? ury and want, they will divide with him the last dollar Would they not have good reason to consider themselves they have, conscious that they are indebted to him and unjustly treated? his compatriots, not only for that dollar, but for every other enjoyment, civil and political, they possess. The resolution was then, as before stated, laid upon the table for a day or two, to afford further time to quire into the subject. Mr. SOUTHARD regarded the question of command as the one to be settled; that of rank was to be left to the law. Mr. LEIGH thought a lieutenant was entitled to some in-command in right of his office; he held the same relation to the captain that a colonel did to a brigadier general, and Mr. L. thought all were bound to obey the commands of their superiors. The Senate, then, on motion of Mr. CLAYTON, proceeded to Executive business, and after some time spent therein, The Senate adjourned. FRIDAY, MAY 30. ADJOURNMENT OF CONGRESS. A message was received from the House of Representatives, by Mr. Franklin, their Clerk, stating that the House had passed a joint resolution fixing the time for the adjournment of Congress, in which they asked the concurrence of the Senate. UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS. The bill for the better organization of the United States Marine Corps was read a second time, and considered as in Committee of the Whole. Mr. SOUTHARD explained the grounds on which the provisions of the bill were predicated, urged the utter insufficiency of the marine corps, as heretofore organized, specified the nature and design of the provisions of this bill, and argued the importance and necessity of carrying them into effect. Mr. FORSYTH objected to the bill, on the ground that it would be unnecessarily increasing the number and expense of the corps in question. Mr. BIBB moved to insert on the 3d page, 4th line, the following words, viz. "first by promotion, according to rank, and then by selection." The section would then read thus: "That no commissions now existing in the marine corps shall be affected by this act, and that the President may, during a recess of Congress, appoint of ficers, first by promotion, according to rank, and then by selection." A division took place upon the amendment, which was carried. Mr. BIBB then moved to add further, "That all acts authorizing the granting of brevet rank for other than gallant conduct, are hereby repealed." Mr. POINDEXTER was in favor of the amendment of The question was now taken on the amendment, which was lost. The bill was then ordered to be engrossed, and read a third time. RESTORATION OF THE DEPOSITES. Mr. CLAY moved to take up for consideration the joint resolutions submitted by him, relative to the deposite of the public moneys in the Bank of the United States. Mr. BROWN remarked, that these resolutions were very important in their character; he therefore thought, as several seats were vacant, it would be very improper to take them up at this time. He was ready to give his vote at any time upon them, but it was hardly treating absent gentlemen fairly to pass them now. Mr. WRIGHT asked whether it was in order to take up a subject of a public nature, this being a day set apart for the consideration of private bills. absence of other members. His only wish was, that the Mr. CLAY said he had no wish to take advantage of the resolution might be ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, and then let the subject lie over till Monday. Mr. WRIGHT asked the Secretary to read the order days exclusively for private business. which had been adopted, setting apart Fridays and Satur The order was read. Mr. CLAY then gave notice, that, on Monday next, whoever were absent or whoever were present, he would press the resolutions to a final passage. eral bills to a third reading. The bill making a grant of lands, to enable the college of Hanover, in the State of Indiana, to establish an institution for teaching the deaf and dumb, was read the secthe Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. BIBB,] but was of opin-ond time; and, after having been explained and advocated ion that it ought to apply to the officers of the army as well as to those of the marine corps. by Messrs. HENDRICKS and POINDEXTER, and opposed by Messrs. SOUTHARD, GRUNDY, CLAY, and SPRAGUE, the bill was, on motion of Mr. POINDEXTER, laid on the table. Mr. CLAY was opposed to the practice of brevetting for mere length of service. Upon this principle, if the parties lived long enough, the Government might have ten colonels or generals, where only one officer of that description was required for the service of the country. Hle (Mr. C.) was for giving brevets to those who were After disposing of several other bills, the Senate, on at present entitled to them, but he would repeal the act motion of Mr. KING, of Alabama, took up the bill for by which brevets were granted, so as to remedy the evil the relief of Mountjoy Baily. SATURDAY, MAY 31. |