Thursday, December 7.
Amy Dardin.
Mr. T. Claiborne said, that during the last Winter, a report had been made by the Committee of Claims, on the petition of Amy Dardin, unfavorable to the petitioner, which, after full discussion, had been disagreed to by the House; and on the 24th of February a motion for appointing a committee to bring in a bill for her relief was made and committed to a Committee of the Whole, but for want of time had not been acted upon. He now wished to bring the matter before the House, and for that purpose moved that a committee be appointed to bring in a bill for the relief of Amy Dardin.
This motion met with opposition. It will, perhaps, be recollected that this, though a strong claim, in point of justice, is directly in the face of the Limitation Act. Messrs. Macon, Sitgreaves, and Harper, wished the matter to go again to the Committee of Claims, as many members now in the House were unacquainted with the merits of the claim; and the latter gentleman, because he thought the House had been surprised into a decision, contrary to fifty other determinations on similar questions, which ought now to be reversed.
Mr. Claiborne opposed this course, and trusted the House would again be influenced by the justice of the claim, to act as they had heretofore done, by passing a bill for the relief of the petitioner.
Mr. Gallatin thought it would be best to commit the business to the same Committee of the Whole to which they had yesterday referred a report of the Committee of Claims on the subject of excepting a certain description of claims from the operation of that act.
The business was, however, closed by Mr. Claiborne's withdrawing his motion for the present.