too much upon presumption- we had better at once send out these presumptions to be the guide of others, than longer to trust ourselves. Why? Because "The tendency of legislation for individual claims is constantly to enlarge the basis of right,” and we are in danger of being further from those principles which should govern prudent legislators, watchful of the interests of those whom they represent, as they would be of their own, than we now are. Mr. P. said, however just this might be in point of fact, he was not yet prepared to admit it as a principle of action; and, while no one would lend his support more readily to any claim that might come here sustained by proper evidence, he trusted the correctness of such a proposition might never find support in any vote of his.

Speaking of the operation of the limitation acts, the committee say further: "Driven from the ordinary means of redress, individual claimants, from time to time, resorted to Congress for relief. At first, it may have been matter of consideration and of serious question, whether relief should be afforded after the limitation had expired, and the party was at least held to account for his delay, but in process of time it became, as it now is, a matter of course to grant relief in every case in which the claimant brings himself by proof within the terms of the resolution on which the claim is founded, and has not been already paid." Mr. P. trusted that wrong practice and precedent, founded

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in error, were not to be regarded as a guide here. He solemnly believed that if precedent and practice were to be relied upon, gentlemen might readily find justification for going almost any length in any direction. In the case before the House, it was so exceedingly probable, that all claims founded in right were adjusted, and so fallible and uncertain was human testimony, after a lapse of fifty years, that he had no hesitation in declaring it as his firm conviction, that the former course was the proper one; and that applicants who came in after the extension act 1792, should always have been held to account for their delay. It was not, of course, intended to give commutation to those, or the heirs of those, who received certificates in 1784, or who have, at any time since, under any circumstances, received commutation.

Before, then, examining more particularly the presumptions which this bill directs the Secretary to assume, let us consider, for a moment, what are the natural presumptions in the case. The commutation provided for by the resolutions of 1783, was originally directed to be adjusted by commissioners or other accounting officers, appointed by Congress; and it was supposed that certificates were almost universally granted in 1784. Why should it not have been so? They were ready, upon application and the production of the proper evidence; and he put it to the House, whether the provisions of that resolution, and the rights accruing under it, considering

the circumstances under which it was passed, upon the application of the officers themselves, must not have been known to every officer living within the limits of the United States? Mr. P. thought it utterly incredible that it should have been otherwise. Whenever there had been any action upon the subject of pensions in latter times, what period had elapsed before that action, whether favorable or unfavorable, and almost every particular attending it, had, through one channel or another, reached the humble dwelling of every survivor of that noble band. But upon the supposition of their remote situation from the accounting officers, some might, by possibility, have been precluded from obtaining their rights. An act was passed on the 27th of March, 1792, suspending the operation of the limitation act, for two years, and, under this extension, remaining claims, or such as were presented, were adjusted at the Treasury Department, by what were then termed 'certificates of registered debt.'

Again, he inquired whether it was within the bounds of reasonable propability, that any claims were held up after this period, if they were ever intended to be enforced? Sir, (said Mr. P.,) it is to be remembered that, during all this time, it was not, as it unfortunately now is. There were hosts of living witnesses among the officers with whom the claimants served, and the soldiers whom they commanded. Nor is the advantage which the officer had, from his position over the private soldier, of

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proving every particular connected with his service, and its duration, to be overlooked. Men engaged in the same great cause, and serving in the same camp, were no strangers to each other. Never, perhaps, was there a band bound together by such ties of affection, intimacy, and confidence. Genius, honor, and unshaken valor, then went hand in hand, and were in exercise, not from low considerations of personal aggrandizement, but to vindicate a nation's rights. The links that bound men together at that day, exist not now. Their intimacies and their friendship were those which, perhaps, from our very natures, can only spring up and flourish amidst the mutual dangers and privations of a camp. At the period of which he spoke, every cident of the exciting and eventful struggle through which they had just passed, must have been fresh and vivid in the recollections of all. Nothing need then have been left to doubt, nothing to presumption. But this is not all. From 1794 down to this hour, there had been the same opportunity to obtain equitable rights, by application to Congress, that exists at present. With these facts before us, (said Mr. P.,) if the natural presumption be not that all just claims have been satisfied according to the provisions of the resolutions of 1783, he confessed that the conclusions at which he had arrived were singularly erroneous.

in

The House had nothing to do with the question of the value of the certificates; they were, without

doubt, nearly valueless in the hands of a large portion of the original holders. This subject was most satisfactorily discussed in the able and elaborate reports made to both Houses at the first session of the 21st Congress, when the act was passed providing for the officers who were entitled to half pay by the resolve of 1780, and for the non-commissioned officers and soldiers who enlisted for and served to the close of the war.

The views taken in these reports were interesting and instructive upon this subject. But he was considering what was the natural presumption as to commutation rights still existing; and, if his views were in any tolerable degree correct, it was diametrically opposed to the legal presumption to be established by the passage of this bill.

Sir, (continued Mr. P.,) we are told that the evidence of records is exceedingly imperfect; and I assure the IIouse that such is the fact to a much greater extent than I had supposed, before applying to the Department for information. The muster rolls had been almost entirely destroyed by fire, and all the records, from various casualties, were broken, but this deficiency of record evidence was, in his estimation, much more the misfortune of the Government than of the claimants who came here after the lapse of fifty years. But pass your presumptions, sir, (said he,) and you will have little occasion for evidence. It is said that the rules which are to be regarded as fixed principles by the Depart