Thursday, December 28.
Gen. Kosciusko.
The Speaker laid before the House a letter and report from the Secretary of the Treasury, in pursuance of a resolution of the House, of the 23d instant, relative to the claim of General Kosciusko. The report states, that the accounts of the General were settled at the Treasury in 1784, when a certificate was issued to him for $12,280 49, bearing an interest of six per cent. from the 1st of January, 1784, which was stipulated by a resolution in February following, in common with the interest due to all the foreign officers, to be paid annually at Paris; that in May, 1792, moneys were granted by Congress to discharge the principal and interest of these debts, at which time it was supposed that all the officers had received their interest to the 1st of January, 1789; but it now appears by the banker's account at Paris, that no interest had been received by General Kosciusko for four years, viz.: from 1785 to 1788. Sufficient funds to pay the interest from 1789 to 1792, were, in 1792, placed in Amsterdam, subject to the disposal of our Minister at Paris; that by his direction a bill for the amount was remitted to Mr. Pinckney in London; but, pursuant to the direction of General Kosciusko, Mr. Pinckney wrote to the banker at Amsterdam to remit the amount to Leipsic or Dresden. That in September, 1792, a notification was published, that provision had been made for paying the principal of the debt due to foreign officers, on application at the Treasury, after the 15th of October following, and that the interest upon their demands would cease after the last day of December in that year. That though the certificate issued to the General is stated by him to have been lost or destroyed, yet the powers of the officers of the Treasury are competent to the payment of $12,280 54, the principal, and $2,947 33 interest, for the years from 1785 to 1788, on receiving a bond of indemnification from the General: but that they cannot advance the interest supposed to have been remitted to Leipsic or Dresden, though payment will be immediately made for any sum which may be hereafter redrawn, and credited to the United States at Amsterdam; nor is it in the power of the Treasury to allow any interest on said principal since the 1st January, 1793.
On motion of Mr. Dawson, this report was referred to a Committee of the Whole for Monday.