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 incident 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. 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 House 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 ment, provided this bill pass, are the same as those which the committee have adopted in the investigation of claims coming before them. If so, and they accorded with the sentiments of the House, he confessed it was a matter of very little consequence whether they were applied here or elsewhere; and he was happy that the bill had been reported, that the opinion of the House might be deliberately and understandingly expressed upon the propriety of their adoption. Sir, (said Mr. P.,) will not their operation be that of a new law upon the subject of commutation? Look at the first presumption of the bill. It has the advantage of being plain; there is no ambiguity about it "It being established that an officer of the continental line was in service, as such, on the 21st of October, 1780, and until the new arrangement of the army, provided for by the resolution of that date, was effected, he shall be presumed, unless it appear that he was then retained in service, to have been reduced by that arrangement, and therefore entitled to half-pay for life, or the commutation in lieu of it." The onus probandi was shifted; the burden of left where it was intended it should rest-with the claimant but it was thrown upon Government. He presumed it was not expected that the Government would send agents abroad to obtain negative evidence from living witnesses. How, then, was it to be shown, in the present imperfect state of the records, that an officer was not reduced, and did proof was not voluntarily leave the service? The effect of such instructions would virtually be to give commutation to all those who were in service on the 21st of October, 1780, and until the new arrangement was effected, instead of to those only who were actually reduced, as was originally contemplated. He called the attention of the House to the second presumption: "2d. A continental officer, proved to have remained in service after the arrangement of the army under said resolution of October, 1780, shall be presumed to have served to the end of the war, or to have retired, entitled to half-pay for life, unless it appear that he died in the service, or resigned, or was dismissed, or voluntarily abandoned an actual command in the service of the United States." This, also, manifestly made new provision, granting commutation to those who were in service after the new arrangement in 1780, instead of to those who actually served to the close of the war; for, in the state of record evidence, as declared by the committee, how was it possible for the Government to prove, in very many instances, that the claimant, or the ancestor of the present claimant, "died in the service, or resigned, or was dismissed, or voluntarily abandoned a command in the service of the United States?" There was no possible means of doing it. Mr. P. would pursue the subject no further. If there was no fallacy in these premises, and the conclusions were legitimate, they were sufficient for his purpose. The House would not think of passing the bill in its present shape. He ought not longer to ask the attention of gentlemen, for which he was already under great obligation. Such were some of the objections to the bill that had occurred to Mr. P., and thus much he thought it his duty to say. For the committee making the report he entertained the highest respect; and he believed that he was no less disposed than they were to grant, to the utter most farthing, all that was due to Revolutionary officers or their heirs. But (said Mr. P.) pass this bill, and you will do great injustice to the country; you will make a most exhausting draft upon your treasury, to answer, it may be, some equitable claims that may as well be liquidated without it, and you will, it is morally certain, be compelled, under it, to acknowledge a vast number which have no foundation in justice-no foundation anywhere, except in lost records and violent presumptions. 4 C |