Monday, February 19.
Amy Dardin.
Upon motion of Mr. T. Claiborne, the following resolution was agreed to—45 to 40:
"Resolved, That a committee be appointed to bring in a bill for the relief of Amy Dardin."
[This claim has been long before Congress, and been several times the subject of discussion. It is for the value of the famous horse Romulus, the property of the husband of the petitioner, pressed into the service of the United States during the war. The case of the widow is evidently a hard one, and this is the second time a vote has been obtained in her favor, which has afterwards been reversed.]
The committee rose, reported their agreement to the three resolutions, and had leave to sit again. The House took up the two first, agreed to them, and directed the Committee of Claims to bring in a bill or bills accordingly. When the third resolution came to be considered, the yeas and nays were called for, and its adoption was strongly opposed by Messrs. Harper, Nicholas, and Bayard, on the ground of its throwing open a door to every claim which had heretofore been determined as barred, as cutting up by the root all the acts of limitation; that it was also setting aside these laws in the most objectionable way, by inviting every person, who had an unsatisfied claim, to petition Congress for relief, which would of course engage much of their time. If the acts were to be set aside, it would be much better and less expensive therefore to authorize the proper department to settle these claims, than that the time of the House should be engaged in investigating and settling them.
On the other hand, its adoption was advocated by Messrs. Gallatin and T. Claiborne. This was stated as a hard case; that this determination would not open the acts of limitation to any but such as Congress might deem extremely hard cases; that it would give the Treasury no power whatever to settle any claim: the power, therefore, could not be abused, except they themselves abused it; that whatever policy there might be in acts of limitation, they were certainly liable to strong objections; they knew they were honorably indebted a sum of money, but they determine not to pay it, merely because the paying it might render the accounts at the Treasury less simple, or because they would be liable to pay more than is convenient. This policy might be justifiable, but it bore very hard upon individual sufferers. It was argued, therefore, that without opening the acts generally, when a strong, unequivocal claim was presented, which was in the hands of the original holder, and where, of course, there could be no possibility of fraud, relief might and ought to be granted.
Mr. J. Williams was an enemy to acts of limitation, as he thought a debt once due must always be due until paid; but he would either have them opened generally, or not at all.
The yeas and nays upon agreeing to this proposition for setting aside the act of limitation in this case were taken, and decided, yeas 35, nays 55, as follows:
Yeas.—David Bard, Lemuel Benton, Samuel J. Cabell, Thomas Claiborne, William Charles Cole Claiborne, Matthew Clay, John Clopton, Thomas T. Davis, John Dawson, George Dent, Lucas Elmendorph, John Fowler, Albert Gallatin, James Gillespie, William Barry Grove, Carter B. Harrison, David Holmes, Walter Jones, Edward Livingston, Matthew Locke, Matthew Lyon, James Machir, Blair McClenachan, Joseph McDowell, John Milledge, Anthony New, John Rutledge, jr., William Smith, Richard Sprigg, jr., Thomas Sumter, Abraham Trigg, John Trigg, Joseph B. Varnum, Abraham Venable, and Robert Williams.
Nays.—John Allen, George Baer, jr., Bailey Bartlett, James A. Bayard, Thomas Blount, David Brooks, Nathan Bryan, Stephen Bullock, Dempsey Burges, Christopher G. Champlin, John Chapman, James Cochran, Joshua Coit, William Craik, Samuel W. Dana, Thomas Evans, William Findlay, Abiel Foster, Dwight Foster, Henry Glenn, Chauncey Goodrich, William Gordon, Andrew Gregg, Roger Griswold, John A. Hanna, Robert Goodloe Harper, Thomas Hartley, Jonathan N. Havens, Wm. Hindman, Hezekiah L. Hosmer, James H. Imlay, John Wilkes Kittera, Samuel Lyman, Nathaniel Macon, Wm. Matthews, Daniel Morgan, Lewis R. Morris, John Nicholas, Harrison G. Otis, Isaac Parker, John Read, James Schureman, Samuel Sewall, William Shepard, Samuel Sitgreaves, Nathaniel Smith, Samuel Smith, Peleg Sprague, Richard Stanford, George Thatcher, Mark Thompson, Thomas Tillinghast, John E. Van Allen, Peleg Wadsworth, and John Williams.
Mr. Harper then proposed the following resolution, which was agreed to:
Resolved, That the prayer of the petition of Amy Dardin ought not to be granted.