APRIL 9, 1832.] Revolutionary Pensions. [H. OF R. an important, and, as yet, an unappreciated and uncom-But in two or three memorable instances they saved the pensated share, to whatever of success crowned the Ame-army. One happened when Washington lay before Bosrican arms. I promised to avoid details, but I will remind ton, early in 1776, and another some time subsequently in you that the army which shut the British up in Boston, and the Jerseys. It was in the gloomy period of the short enfinally drove them from it, consisted, when the siege was listments, the old were expiring, the new were not yet nearly raised, of twenty thousand men, of whom six thousand filled, and a prompt and strong levy of yeomen and mewere militia. That siege began, you may say, in April or chanics alone enabled him to present to the enemy the May, 1775, and down to August, 1775, the entire besieging show of a considerable armed organization. But it is needforce was a mere militia. The continental line did not less to pursue this topic. There can be no doubt that this exist in name or in fact until August, 1775. That other force, whenever exerted, powerfully aided the cause of army, which captured Burgoyne, consisted of ten thou- the revolution. It prevented the enemy, to some extent, sand men, of whom thirty-eight hundred were militia; and from undertaking those predatory incursions upon the at Yorktown the American forces amounted to eleven coast and frontier, which were so distressing when underthousand, of which four thousand were militia. Besides taken. It protected to some extent the agricultural labor this, they shared in every triumph and every defeat which of the country, without which the war could not have successively illumined or darkened the long and changing|been maintained two years. It kept down disaffected perscenes of that awful drama. The brilliant victory at Cow-sons. It sustained the spirit of the people and of the pens, to which the gentleman from New York [Mr. WARD]|leaders of the people, by lightening in some degree the has alluded, and which, in its consequences, rescued two burden, and breaking off the horrors of civil war. States from the enemy, was won by an army, two-thirds of There is nothing, then, in the amount or character of the service rendered by this part of the army, which warrants whom were militia. It is interesting, too, to call to mind how many of what a discrimination in favor of the continental troops. It was may be termed the turning incidents of the war, how many directed against the common enemy--it aided the common of the more showy and startling achievements, which pro-cause--it was military service. duced a permanent and extended influence upon the tem- Can any other reason be assigned for this discrimination? per and feelings of the people and the enemy, and upon Will you say the militia and State troops were better paid the course and issue of the struggle; how many of these than the line? The reverse is the fact. The rate of their you owe to the single-handed daring of the militia. Gen wages may have been more or less, but more generally tlemen have reminded you of Lexington and Bunker Hill. they clothed and armed themselves. They were paid in Yes, sir, the children in the infant schools can tell that the the same kind of paper. The contract with them for men who fought there never heard the beat of an enemy's compensation was no better kept than that with the regudrum before in their lives. But how few of all the bat-lar army. It was not kept so well. Generally, the State tles of history have produced such results or drawn after paper depreciated earlier and faster than the continental them such consequences, and how little of all the blood paper. That of Massachusetts began to fall nearly twelve shed in war has been shed to such good purpose as this! months before that of the confederacy; and, therefore, in The capture of Burgoyne was an eventful incident of the the long run of the war, they suffered more from depreciawar. The most popular of our historians, in his peculiar tion than the other portion of the army. And, generally, expression, remarks that "this event was the hinge on is there any reason to doubt that the sufferings, privations, which the revolution turned." It secured to us the alli-and perils of the militiaman who served his nine months ance of France, and put the ultimate independence of the in the field, were as severe as those of the continental country beyond hazard. He says, with much more accu-soldier who served his? Gentlemen say that nine months' racy, I think that "the battle of Bennington was the first service in a seven years' war is below the regard of this link in the grand chain of causes which finally drew on the prosperous and grateful country. Why, nine months is a ruin of the royal army." All that glory, too, was gather. long campaign, and a very short campaign has many times ed by the militia--by Stark's own." That high-spirited in modern war changed the face of the world. Besides, soldier sent the official account of the battle, not to the continental Congress, but to the Legislature of Massachusetts, and the trophies of the victory are hanging up to-day in her Senate house. Will the gentleman allow me to remind him that the Southern campaigns illustrate remarkably the nature and value of the revolutionary services of this species of force? There is hardly recorded a series of more desperate, romantic, and useful enterprises and conflicts, than they were engaged in, day and night, seed time and harvest, summer and winter, for three years. Without them, the patriot cause would have been for the present wholly ruined in at least two States. They fought in every battle, "shoulder to shoulder," with the troops of the line. But beyond and better than that, they maintained under Sumpter, Pickens, Marion, cum multis aliis "the bravest of the brave," a desperate partisan guerilla warfare of less his torical celebrity, but hardly less useful than the continental campaigns of Gates, Lincoln, or even Greene. I do not wonder that some students of this portion of our history have exclaimed that we owe our independence to the militia. Remember, too, that it happened more than once during the war that a seasonable recruit of these soldiers saved, when nothing else, perhaps, could have saved, the army of Washington itself from disappearing and dissolving away. Every week almost, requisitions were made on them for direct co-operation with the continental troops to meet the various emergencies of the war. you have long ago settled the principle, that service for nine months alone in the line gives a title to a pension. All the peculiar hazards of that civil war, the soldiers of both classes incurred together. They ran the same risk of falling in the field, of the prison ship, and the scaffold. Nay, I take it that those who served in the earlier scenes of the war, before it assumed the form of recognised and national hostility, came much nearer to the pains and penalties of rebellion than those who entered later. In other respects, I have thought the lot of the militiamen the hardest of the two. Generally they were older; oftener they had families, and a business which required their attention. They could not have left home to attend court, as jurors, for a fortnight, without inconvenience; and yet they were often summoned without the preparation of a moment to a campaign of twelve months. They were called up at midnight to leave comfortable dwellings, happy but helpless families, and fields ripening to the harvest; and they knew that, if they survived to return, it might be to find those fields trampled down by an enemy's cavalry, and those families without a house over their heads. This was peculiarly the case with the Southern militia. I really suppose that they suffered more in health, feeling, and interest, than the same number of troops of the line; and I think that this ought to be remembered, now that we are finally making up the revolutionary pension roll. But it is urged that although pensions are equitably due to the militia and State troops and volunteers, the States, and not the General Government, ought to pay them. The gentleman from South Carolina holds apparently this opinion. They served, it is said, under the States, and often, if not generally, for the mere local defence of the States. Their contract was exclusively with the States. From them they received their wages and bounty; and from them also, it is said, some have actually received pensions. There is an appearance of plausibility in this suggestion, which is dispelled by a closer examination. The truth is, as the gentleman from New Hampshire [Mr. HUBBARD] remarked, the principle has long been settled, that pensions are properly payable by this Government to the militia, as well as to the troops of the line. From the adoption of the federal constitution, down to the year 1818, it was the invariable practice of this Government to bestow them, without any discrimination, upon both these descriptions of force alike. In 1818, for the first time, a different rule was adopted. Before that year, our only pension system was an invalid pension system. The invalid pension act, passed in 1806, provides, in sub. stance, that all persons wounded in the war of the revolution, "in service against the common enemy," whether of the line, State troops, volunteers, or militia, shall receive pensions. You perceive that this act goes the whole length of the principle of this bill. It comprehends all these descriptions of force, and it makes service against the common enemy, and that only, wherever, and under whatever contract rendered, the title and basis of the grant. But the principle had been settled long before. In 1785, the old Congress recommended to the States to provide for the payment of pensions to persons disabled in the war of independence, whether of the line or the militia, and resolved to allow in account the sums thus paid. The States gave pensions accordingly, and, by the first Congress of the new constitution, a law was made, substantially reimbursing to the States their expenditures upon this object, and adopting their pensioners into the family of national pensioners. From that time down to 1818, the practice of the Government was settled and uniform. It gave pensions to invalids only, but it gave them to all alike, precisely as this bill gives them. [APRIL 9, 1832. ther authorized or unauthorized by the United States.” And whether I think, sir, more than enough has been said to show that the claims of the militia, State troops, and volunteers, rest on precisely the same grounds of right and merit with those of the continental troops. This is sufficient for the defence of the bill. But two or three other objections taken by the gentleman from South Carolina are entitled to notice. I understood the gentleman to say that three of the states (South Carolina, Virginia, and North Carolina) have long since given pensions to the same class of persons living within their respective limits, whom this bill provides for; and he argues that it is unjust to compel these States thus to contribute over again to the support of the pensioners of other States. This objection, sir, I take it, And, sir, in a more general view, if pensions are equi-is not supported in point of fact. I shall be surprised to tably due to the militia at all from any Government, they learn that either of those States has ever given pensions would manifestly seem to be due from this Government, to any persons except invalids. I know very well that, as which pays the debt of the revolution. They form so troops from time to time were called for, the States, to much addition to the price of independence, and the induce them to enlist, engaged to pay them bounties, and whole of that price you pay. The National Government also engaged to pay pensions to such as should be disabled has actually assumed on itself the obligation to reimburse in service, and to the widows and children of those who to the States the wages which they paid this force. How should fall. Further than this, I apprehend, they did not then can it be argued that pensions, which are only the go. To the class of persons, then embraced in this bill, arrears and incidents of wages, are due from the States, the States mentioned by the gentleman did not, I suspect, and not from you? In 1790, the act for settling the ac- give pensions. This is not a bill for invalid pensioners. counts of the revolution was passed. It allowed to the All such are provided for by the act of 1806. To that law States all their expenditures during the war, whether in- the objection might have been relevant, but perhaps not curred for particular or for common defence. This would weighty. To this it has no application. comprehend these wages. I know that the act was less liberally executed by the commissioners. But its terms are sufficiently broad to embrace this precise expenditure; and that such was its intention, also becomes quite manifest by reference to Hamilton's celebrated report on public credit, of January 9, 1790, wherein the great principle on which the accounts of the revolution ought to be settled, is stated, and briefly and luminously vindicated. It is certain that this act was passed for the purpose of carrying into effect the views of that report, and one therefore may properly explain the other. I take leave to refer you to a few passages of that performance, so worthy of the great and clear mind, and noble policy of him, sometimes called the most intellectual of our depart ed statesmen. "Let each State," he observes, "be credited for all moneys paid, and articles furnished, to the United States; and for all other expenditures during the war, either towards general or particular defence, whe The gentleman says the time is unsuitable for the pas sage of such a law. Putting this suggestion into very plain English, what is it? The gentleman and his friends are zealously engaged in an attempt to break down your protective system, not gradually, but at a blow. It is part of their tactics to seize the occasion of the extinguishment of the public debt, to abolish the duties which sustain that system. This bill, he argues, makes an appropriation of money. It has some tendency to keep up the duties, and thus it opposes some obstacle to his favorite enterprise; therefore, he says the time is unsuitable, if there were no other objection. The time is unsuitable! Sir, this is delicately and adroitly stated. It seems to imply that the claim is a good one, and that some fifteen or twenty years hence it may fitly be acted on. The gentleman says a pension system endures forever. One might suppose he thought these old soldiers would live forever. Sir, the current which is bearing APRIL 9, 1832.] Revolutionary Pensions. [H. OF R. Sir, if you can hew and rear that statue of the departed commander in chief which we have just now voted to his sublime virtues and unapproachable fame, you can bestow the spare comforts of life upon those aged and wea ried men who shared in his labors, and contributed to his glory. them and us away, will hardly pause in its course to the ought you not, to multiply and present to those who shall shoreless and deep sea, to give you time to adjust the serve you in these great crises, inducements to serve you tariff controversy. To delay such a bill is to defeat it. well? You give them wages, bounties, promotion, swords, Why does not the gentleman say at once that this appro-and medals. May you not, and ought you not, to be able to priation bill helps the protective system, and therefore he point them also to the laurels which a grateful country has will now, and at all times, resist it? To the suggestion, wreathed around other brows, and to the glory which coin that form, I have only one word to say. I should hold vers the living and the dead of other fields? May you not it to be unprincipled legislation on my part, to vote for a secure future service by generously rewarding past serneedless or an unconstitutional application of the public vice? May you not honor the dead, and pension the aged, money for the purpose of sustaining the system of protec- that the living and the young may be stimulated to an tion, although I believed that system fraught with every equally salutary emulation? blessing which a good man could ask in prayer of God for his country. But I hold it to be just as unprincipled to refuse a necessary and proper application of money for the purpose of breaking that policy down. The true rule would seem to be this, try every demand made against your treasury upon its merits. If it is well founded, allow it; if it is ill founded, disallow it. But do not turn away a I have adverted, imperfectly, to the leading objections public creditor, because the mode of taxation which is to urged by the honorable gentleman to the bill. Shall I say raise the money will be more burdensome to one portion that it did not seem to be so much his object to insist on of the country than to another. You say you cannot bear these, as to present generally an exposition of the docthe tariff. Rid yourselves of it, then, in such manner as trines, claims, and determination of the South in relation your principles will permit; but do not, in this sense, or to what is called the existing crisis? I do not complain of in any sense, hang it about the necks of the old soldiers. him for availing himself of this occasion to effect this obThe gentleman says that the pensioners under the ex-ject. But I am satisfied that, as a friend of the bill, I ought isting law are almost all north of the Potomac, and appre-not to attempt a reply to this portion of his able speech. hendis that it will be so under this bill. Well, sir, what I had designed to make the attempt, but I repress myself then? Where should they be? Where did the honorable by the reflection that it is the time of the old soldiers I am gentleman expect to find the white-haired and bending consuming, and that it is indiscreet, if not unjust, to conveteran, but there, where his fathers found the young and nect such a claim as theirs with the perplexed and excitthe brave in the day of their "own great extremity?” Is ing politics of the day. it strange that the States which furnished so large a part I hope the amendment offered by the gentleman from of the army should furnish an equal proportion of the sur-Vermont will be adopted, and that the bill, thus amended, vivors? Besides, does the residence of your creditor affect may become a law. his standing in this high court? Consider, too, that the fruits of the labors of these men, independence and union — omnes omnium caritates complectentes-are on both sides of the river, and on both sides of the mountain. Mr. DEARBORN manifested much surprise at the temper exhibited by the gentleman from South Carolina, [Mr. DAVIS,] especially in reference to the residue of many of the pensioners now upon the roll. The gentleThe gentleman doubts your constitutional power to give man was opposed to the whole system, because the result pensions for revolutionary military services. Sir, re-of it was to dispense money in the North; and he had conspectfully submit that this objection comes too late. If trasted the large number of pensioners in the Northern the constitution is a thing to be loved, enjoyed, and exe- and Eastern States, with the comparatively few who were cuted, and not a book of riddles and puzzles for ever-found south of the Potomac. Admitting the fact to be lasting disputation, the question is closed. This Govern- as he had stated, was there any thing astonishing or unment has given pensions from the day of its institution to accountable in it? Had not the first blow of the revoluthis hour. It has done so, whoever has administered it;tion been struck in Massachusetts? It was her troops that and it has been done with the approbation of the whole had been first called to the field. Boston had been bepeople of America. The constitution has received an leaguered by the enemy. Our army had been sent through interpretation which forms a part of the writing itself. the wilds of the Kennebeck to Quebec; another by the Let me say, however, that if it were an open question, it is a plain one. way of Lake Champlain to Montreal; and scarcely had the enemy been driven from her capital, when her troops, The honorable gentleman severely and eloquently ar- with those of New Hampshire and Rhode Island, were raigns the policy of instituting a military pension system. called to the South to defend New York, New Jersey, and I agree entirely with him, that great judgment, coolness, Pennsylvania. Again: when a haughty enemy poured his and measure, are requisite to the safe bestowment of pen-legions down the valleys of the Hudson, what troops were sions. I agree that the tendencies of the practice are to they who were assembled to confront and to arrest his abuse and perversion, and that, when thus abused, it may progress? It was the troops from the Northern States. produce the consequences so strikingly portrayed by him. Throughout the war, those troops were to be found every It is the ordination of God, that his choicest blessings and where, in the South as well as in the North. Nor could best gifts, in their perversion, become the greatest curses. it be otherwise. The population of the North was more Government may thus change into an intolerable tyranny, dense; they were therefore the more exposed to deand religion into a blind and bloody superstition. But what struction; and every where they were called to aid in then? Will you, therefore, pull down the fair and well rolling back the tide of invasion and ruin. It was histocompacted architecture of your constitution, or vote with rically true that more than one-fourth of the revolutionarevolutionary France, that there is no God in the universe?ry army had been raised within the State of Massachusetts; The eloquent warning voice of the gentleman may fitly and if New Hampshire and Rhode Island should be taken teach us with what caution we ought to give any the slight-into the account, it would be found that from those States est extension to our present system. But his warfare is came more than one-third of all the troops that were in the upon the system itself. I venture yet to say that that sys- field during the war. This was the true and simple ex. tem, when consummated by this bill, may be defended as planation why the numbers on the pension roll were so resting on a wise, or at least a safe, policy, and a sound great in proportion to the census of those States. And reading of the constitution. You have the power of en-was this to be a matter of censure? Were such deeds to gaging in war, and of maintaining armies. May you not, be considered dishonorable? And were the muster rolls H. OF R.] Revolutionary Pensions. [APRIL 9, 1832. of those States to be thrown back upon them in rebuke? cause the individual had been disabled in the service? In He trusted not. There could be no need for his recapitu- either of these latter cases, he would go for allowing a lating the patriotic services which these troops had per- pension; but beyond that he would not go. It was unformed, and which had been so ably adverted to by his safe, it was unwise. The House was about to establish colleague, [Mr. CHOATE.] The appeal had been made by the principle that extraordinary rewards must be providthe gentleman from South Carolina to the patriots, civil ed for all military services. This was a principle which and military, who had lived and acted during our revolu- the country would not be able to follow up hereafter; tionary war. The gentleman had supposed, that if those while it was one which they might not be able safely to men could look down and behold what was here transacting, refuse, when it might be petitioned for by disciplined lethey would be indignant at the policy now pursued in re-gions, at the close of some well fought war. lation to the interest of this country. Mr. D. rather be- The gentleman had said that there were no plausible lieved that if those lofty spirits did indeed lean from the objections to the system, either in principle or in sound battlements of their celestial abode, and watched the policy. He could not agree to this position, as in his course of human events, in the world they had left--and opinion the amendment involved a principle of the greatif we could now hear their voice, its language would be, est importance, and of much danger. But he would not reward our fellow-sufferers in the war of independence. digress, by pursuing that idea further. Dole not out to them a mere pittance in charity, but act towards them in a spirit of noble beneficence. We demand the merited reguerdon of their great and patriotic services. As to the policy of stimulating the youth of the country by the hope of pecuniary reward, if gentlemen analyzed it, they would find that its tendency was to sap all true principles of patriotism, and to foster a mercenary Mr. BELL, of Tennessee, said that he agreed with spirit, which should never pervade a republican army. those gentlemen who were of opinion that the House Let him tell gentlemen that it was not the expectation ought not hastily to adopt the proposed amendment of the of pecuniary reward that was to sustain this country in gentleman from Vermont, till it should have undergone the hour of danger. Sure he was that the venerable further investigation. Those who were opposed to the gentleman before him [General THOMAS, of Louisiana,] bill in its present extent, were perhaps right in conclud- though the frost of sixty winters had whitened his head, ing that the bill would pass in some shape. But, should would scorn the idea of being rewarded by pension, if the present amendment be adopted, on what conceivable called by an unexpected emergency again to serve that ground could any one found further opposition to the bill? country he loved so well, and for which he had endured It would then be too late for the opponents of it to take so much. Yet Mr. B. admitted that he had been led into any ground with the hope of success. It was a proposi- an argument, which, to a certain extent, was in vain, since tion which went to introduce a totally new feature into the he admitted that the pension system had already gone be. pension system. Should it be adopted, Mr. B. cared yond the principle which he had laid down. It might be comparatively nothing about any further modification of useful to inquire to what extent it had proceeded. By the bill. The amendment of the gentleman from Virginia the act of 1818, and those that followed it, the Govern[Mr. CRAIG] amounted, in effect, to nothing, or next to ment had declared that it would relieve the troops of the nothing. To such an amendment, he should himself be continental line of our revolutionary army, when it should opposed. The whole question turned on the adoption be satisfactorily proved that they were in reduced circumof the new principle proposed to be introduced by the stances. The construction which had been given to these gentleman from Vermont, [Mr. EVERETT.] Mr. B. would laws was, that the applicant must be in need, not merely not now enter upon an examination of the details of the of the comforts, but of the necessaries of life; in other bill. He did not feel himself at present prepared to do so. words, that he must have become mendicant, and a burBut, seeing that none else seemed disposed to take the floor den on society or his friends. His whole property must in opposition to the amendment, he would briefly pre-not be over three hundred dollars; and none would consent one or two views on the principle it contained. tend that an old man of seventy years, especially one who He was well aware that himself and the other gentle- had seen service and suffered its hardships, could on such men who attempted any opposition to this bill, in any of a sum procure himself even a meagre subsistence. As to its parts, labored under a great disadvantage, while those comfort, it was out of the question. Still, it must be adin its favor enjoyed an advantage proportionably great.mitted that the officers of Government, in administering They came forward in that House, and before the nation, the law, must have been very liberal indeed; or how else as the advocates of generosity, of humanity, of liberal was the fact to be accounted for, that the number of penprinciples and views; while those who were constrained sioners should bear so large a proportion to the number to oppose the bill were liable to be viewed, both in the of those now living of the same age? Mr. B., however, House, and out of it, as opposed to those virtues. The cared nothing for that; no matter what the practice might feelings of the House, and of the country, were at once be. Still the precedent of pensioning, in the statute book, up in behalf of the old soldiers. He must, nevertheless, went no further, nor could it be quoted in aftertimes, to call the committee seriously to look at the composition justify an extension of the policy. The rule remained, submitted to them; notwithstanding their own good feel- and it was invaluable. No matter how much fraud might ings, and the strong popular prejudice at home in favor have taken place, the fraud was not recognised by the of the bill, it behooved them to be careful, lest they might rule; it was against the rule; but now the House was asked inadvertently graft a principle upon the Government, to break down the rule itself. Now the principle was which would prove greatly detrimental, not only to our avowed that the Government was bound, not merely to rerepublican institutions, but to liberty itself. If he were lieve necessity, but to increase existing comforts and ease, called upon to decide on the general principle which and to let in all; for such would be the result. Would ought to regulate the extent of our pension system, he they not let in all? Could there be any stopping point? should lay this down as the rule--that the House should There could be none. As soon as they passed the boungo no further than it was bound to go, by the positive ob- dary of supplying the absolute necessaries of life, there ligation of the Government, or by a moral duty of equal would be no limit fixed; all must come in. Mr. B. admitforce, with positive obligation. Taking this principle for ted, indeed, that the Government's having gone so far, his guide, he inquired, under what obligation did the was in itself a good argument why it should go further. country lie to relieve every man who happened to have A premium had been held out to improvidence, idleness, served for three or for six months in the revolutionary and vice--a temptation to fraud and perjury. And such war, unless in fulfilment of an express contract, or be- had been the effect: the frugal, industrious, and honest APRIL 9, 1832.] Revolutionary Pensions. [H. OF R. soldier, proud hearted and erect as when he served in children. Such a plan would not be attended with half the ranks, scorned, for the sake of a miserable pittance, the difficulties which were inseparable from the pension to expose a schedule of his poverty, and make oath to system. If gentlemen were sincere when they talked of beggary. And the consequence was, that such persons debt, let them come frankly out. He would accede to were actually taxed to relieve, not only those who were their principle, and give it his support. The Governdisabled in the service, (for such it would always be their ment would thus avoid the setting of a new precedent; pleasure to relieve,) but those whose claims were wholly and what was, if possible, better, it would defeat the evil fraudulent. The operation of such a system could not effects of what had been already done. He would include fail to leave a deep sense of injury in the minds of those the whole-the continental troops, State troops, and miwho were not relieved. What then was the consequence? litia. Let them all be paid in proportion to the real serMr. B. admitted, that if the argument were to stop here, vice they had rendered. Mr. B. invited gentlemen on the Government ought to go further. But had it the both sides of the question to consider this proposition. means to go further? Could it go further with safety? He should not enter into the details of the bill; he had When he spoke of means, he did not allude to the present never intended to do so; but there were some parts of overflowing condition of the treasury; nor, when he spoke the argument of the gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. of danger, did he refer to the existing condition of the CHOATE,] which called for a reply. The gentleman had country. He looked in both instances to future times. insisted that the amendment proposed would prevent He spoke of the operation of the system upon soldiers frauds. So far from this, Mr. B. insisted that frauds would yet to be enlisted into our armies. be infinitely multiplied: for, what did the bill propose? The gentleman from Rhode Island, [Mr. BURGES,] and To grant a pension on the simple oath of the applicant other gentlemen who took the same side, had very confi- himself. Mr. B. would make one general observation as dently stated it as their opinion, that the system never to the operation of the bill on the public morals. In the could extend beyond the revolutionary war-that there whole range of the economical and moral considerations conwere traits about that war, which must forever shield it nected with the operations of the Government, there was from being a precedent hereafter. Other gentlemen put nothing that called for more attention than the effects the claim of these soldiers on the ground of debt, and which had already followed from this system. There therefore insisted that it would not operate as a precedent were on the rolls ten or eleven thousand of the continentwith soldiers who had received their full pay. But Mr. al troops, and two thousand survivors who were not on B. insisted that there was no stopping point. Soldiers the rolls. It appeared, then, that out of fourteen thousand who had served in other wars would seize it as a prece- men now surviving, there were twelve thousand whose dent, and found their claims upon it. If the Govern- whole property was below three hundred dollars, and who ment laid down the principle, that soldiers who had serv- were in actual want. A great portion of these had served ed for six months in the revolution were entitled to a pen- only for nine months; a few had served for one year, fewer sion, why was the soldier, who, in the last war, had served yet for two years, some for five, and some during the for three years upon the frontiers, and who had fought whole war. What, then, must be the deduction from battle after battle through all that bloody period, to be such a state of things? None other than this: that so paallowed nothing? He warned gentlemen that the example ralyzing and ruinous was a period of nine months' military would have force hereafter, when the decision of the service, as utterly to prostrate all the industry and energy House came to be proclaimed throughout the country. of those who passed through it for the whole of the rest of But why need he advert to the future? He would call their lives, so as actually to reduce them to a state of pauthe attention of the committee to what was before their perism. The House must believe that there had been no eyes. The officers engaged in the last war had already stimulant in our free institutions--in liberty itself in the put forth their claim, and one of the most powerful, in- high prices of labor, the highest in the world: no salubrifluential, and popular leaders in that House, and in this ty of climate, which had been sufficient to rouse the proscountry, had undertaken the patronage of it. A proposal trate energies of the soldier, or to cure the vices of a nine bad been made to admit the claim, and to grant them the reward, not indeed in money, but in land. And supposing the officers should succeed, it was not in the power of our system of Government to prevent the private soldiers from receiving a similar mark of the public liberality. Could any gentleman believe that it would be possible to prevent the soldiers from sharing with them? The moment the principle was admitted, every man engaged in the last war would have a right to claim a pension in proportion to his services. He thought this matter entitled to the most serious attention. The proposition had met with no such opposition as went to indicate that the House would promptly refuse to listen to it-that it would be put down on its first entrance within the doors. He did not care by what title the late war was designated-whe- man within those walls believe that such was actually the ther it was to be called the second war of independence, fact? Surely not. The supposition was too monstrous. or by any other title gentlemen might like better; certain He asked the House to look at the picture. He passed it was that service of the most arduous kind had been per- over the frauds which had unquestionably been committed: formed both by the regular soldiers and militia; and if he would not advert to the assignments of property to chilthose who had served only six months in the revolution dren, for the purpose of enabling the applicant to take were to be rewarded, how were they to be refused who the oath. Glad should he be if such suggestions were had served through the whole period of the late war? not forced upon the mind by the undeniable effects of the Gentlemen had said that the pension was a debt; if they went really on that ground, he would propose, both to the friends and adversaries of the bill, to pay all the arrears which were due according to the scale adopted by the confederation; to pay the debt with interest, and, where the soldiers were dead, to pay it to their wives or months' term of service in war! They must admit that, or else it was impossible to account for five-sevenths of the whole number being reduced to beggary. Out of [Mr. HUBBARD here interposed, and explained. The act of 1818 had continued in operation till March, 1820; during that time sixteen thousand had been admitted to the list, without any reference to their property. this number, only one thousand two hundred and eightynine had been afterwards excluded under the act of 1820, on the ground of having too much property.] Mr. B. resumed. This would show that more than five-sevenths of the whole number were incapable of procuring the necessaries of life, and rendered so by the consequences of even the shortest term of military service. Could any system. But the system was mercenary in its very essence, and such results must always follow it. But what was now proposed? To invite thousands, upon their own mere oath, to come forward and get the fruits of this bill. The Government possessed no muster rolls which could check them, or very imperfect ones indeed; and it called |