Mr. Cheves on this remarked, that every encouragement was afforded to British naval officers, by their Government, as well by promotions to higher office and to nobility, &c., which were not known in this country, as by pecuniary rewards and pensions, not in all cases by statutory, but by Executive sanctions. He was disposed to be liberal to our officers, to foster our rising navy. But, though friendly to the principle, he objected to the particular details of the bill, which he thought susceptible of modifications which would be better made in select committee than in the House. He, therefore, moved that the committee rise.
Mr. Quincy objected to the principle of the bill, which he thought fundamentally questionable. He was for providing specially by statute for each case after its occurrence, where the circumstances of the case required an exercise of liberality by Congress, and to legislate generally for future occurrences.
The committee then rose, reported progress, and were refused leave to sit again; and,
On motion of Mr. Cheves, the bill was recommitted to the Naval Committee.
Tuesday, January 19.
Privateer Pensions.
The House then resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole, on the bill regulating pensions to persons on board private armed ships.
[This bill directs that the two per cent. reserved in the hands of consuls and collectors, in pursuance of an act of June last, respecting private armed vessels, &c., be paid into the Treasury, to constitute a fund for pensions to persons disabled on board private armed vessels, of the mode and degree of which disability the log book of each vessel is to be evidence.]
Mr. Burwell moved to strike out the vital section of the bill, with a view to try the principle. In support of the motion, he remarked that he conceived it improper to adopt a principle so extremely liable to abuse as this, especially when pensions had been refused to at least equally meritorious sufferers during the Revolution. The evidence which the log book of a vessel would afford, would be so very liable to error, and so indefinite, as not to be entitled to that conclusive weight given to it by the bill. The proper course, he conceived, would be, to leave the subject open to the annual disposition of Congress; which was now the case with certain other pensions.
Mr. Bassett stated, in reply, that, at the last session, two per cent. having been reserved from the wages of the seamen on board private armed vessels, for the avowed and declared purpose of constituting a fund for pensions to the wounded, this bill now merely indicated the mode of carrying this provision into effect. The money had been reserved by the collectors and consuls, and as it was never the intention of Congress to make them a present of it, it remained for Congress to direct the mode of its distribution. If the principle was incorrect, it ought to have been objected to when the pledge was given by the House last session on the subject.