Monday, December 24.
Three other members, to wit: William Hale, from New Hampshire; Benjamin Pickman, jr., from Massachusetts; and Thomas Newbold, from New Jersey, appeared, and took their seats.
Claims for Military Services in the Old French War.
Mr. Morrow, from the Committee on the Public Lands, made a report on the several petitions of the officers and soldiers, and the heirs of officers and soldiers who served in the British army in America, in the war between Great Britain and France; which was read, and the resolution therein contained concurred in by the House.
The report is as follows:
The Committee on Public Lands, to whom was referred several petitions, claiming lands for military services, performed in the war of 1755, between Great Britain and France, report:
That, considering the subject-matter of the said petitions highly important, on account of the interest it has recently excited, and the speculation it has given rise to in various parts of the United States, the committee have carefully examined the State papers and public documents, of the period of the above war, to ascertain the original foundation of the supposed claim. In pursuing this investigation, the committee have not been able to discover that any engagement or contract whatever was made or entered into by the Government, or under the authority of Great Britain, with the officers and soldiers of the provincial troops, serving in the war aforesaid, for a grant of lands, either as an encouragement to their entering into the service, or as a compensation for services. All that the committee have been able to find on the subject is in a proclamation of the King of Great Britain, of the 7th of October, 1763, (after the closing of the war and disbanding of the troops,) and in the following words:
"And whereas we are desirous, upon all occasions, to testify our royal sense and approbation of the conduct and bravery of the officers and soldiers of our army, and to reward the same, we do hereby command and empower our Governors of the several provinces on the Continent of North America to grant, without fee or reward, to such reduced officers as have served in North America during the late war, and are actually residing there, and shall personally apply for the same, the following quantities of land, subject, at the expiration of ten years, to the same quit-rents as other lands are subject to, in the province within which they are granted, as also subject to the same conditions of cultivation and improvement, viz:
"To every person having the rank of a field officer, 5,000 acres.
"To every captain, 3,000 acres.
"To every subaltern or staff officer, 2,600 acres.
"To every non-commissioned officer, 200 acres.
"To every private man, 50 acres.
"We do likewise authorize and require the Governors and commanders-in-chief of all our said colonies, upon the Continent of North America, to grant the like quantities of land, and upon the same conditions, to such reduced officers of our navy of like rank, as served on board of our ships of war in North America, at the times of the reduction of Louisburg and Quebec, in the late war, and who shall personally apply to our respective Governors for such grants."
In this State paper, the committee can perceive no foundation whatever for the present claim upon the United States. Instead of a contract with the officers and soldiers for land, the proclamation contains a mere instruction to the provincial Governors—an instruction emanating from the munificence of the Sovereign, and for conferring a gratuity, not issued for the satisfaction of any previous claim or demand upon Government. That the grant intended by the above proclamation was rather a testimony of respect and approbation, than a donation of value, appears from the prescribed terms on which it was to be made, they being the same on which lands were granted to others in the provinces, with the exception, that the military grants were to be made free of office fees, and exempt from payment of quit-rents for ten years. Had application been made to the land offices of the provincial governments, as was the duty of all the claimants, there can be no doubt but that grants would have been readily made to the full extent of the bounty intended by the proclamation, subject, however, to the usual condition for settlement and improvement. Forty-seven years have now elapsed since the foregoing proclamation, during which period the above claims have laid dormant, and the committee do conceive, that, upon fair and just principles, those claims would have been considered derelict and abandoned had the Government, under which they arose, continued; but to admit them against the United States, placed as they now are, under a government founded on a revolution, which has intervened, is required by no principle of justice, and would, in the opinion of the committee, be an unauthorized disposition and sacrifice of the public property of the United States. On no principle of national law, or by any treaty or convention between the United States and Great Britain, are the United States bound to perform the engagements of the former government of Great Britain, especially for mere bounties; nor would the purposes for which the several States have ceded land, within their respective jurisdictions, to the United States, warrant the appropriation of those lands for the satisfaction of the claims in question, were the same better founded than by the committee they are conceived to be. The committee, therefore, beg leave to submit the following resolution:
Resolved, That the prayer of the petitioners ought not to be granted.