To the Senate of the United States:
Having seen with regret that occasional errors have been made in nominations to the Senate, sometimes by the omission of a letter in the name, proceeding from casualties in the Departments and in my own office, it would be satisfactory to me if an arrangement could be made whereby such errors might be corrected without the formality of a special message. Where there is an accord as to the person there seems to be no reason for resorting to a renomination for the correction of such trivial errors. Any mode which the Senate may adopt will be satisfactory to me.
JAMES MONROE.
MARCH 25, 1824.
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States:
Having stated to Congress on the 7th of December last that Daniel D. Tompkins, late governor of New York, was entitled to a larger sum than that reported in his favor by the accounting officers of the Government, and that in the execution of the law of the last session I had the subject still under consideration, I now communicate to you the result.
On full consideration of the law by which this duty was enjoined on me and of the report of the committee on the basis of which the law was founded, I have thought that I was authorized to adopt the principles laid down in that report in deciding on the sum which should be allowed to him for his services. With this view and on a comparison of his services with those which were rendered by other disbursing officers, taking into consideration also his aid in obtaining loans, I had decided to allow him 5 per cent for all sums borrowed and disbursed by him, and of which decision I informed him. Mr. Tompkins has since stated to me that this allowance will not indemnify him for his advances, loans, expenditures, and losses in rendering those services, nor place him on the footing of those who loaned money to the Government at that interesting period. He has also expressed a desire that I would submit the subject to the final decision of Congress, which I now do. In adopting this measure I think proper to add that I concur fully in the sentiments expressed by the committee in favor of the very patriotic and valuable services which were rendered by Mr. Tompkins in the late war.
JAMES MONROE.
MARCH 28, 1824.
To the House of Representatives of the United States: