Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application File S. 48,052, Joseph Wheaton, R.I. 1812
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(3-1776)

SERVICE
R. I.
1812

Wheaton, Joseph

NUMBER 
S. 48052
B.L. Wt. 2286_200 Lieut.
Issued July 25, 1789
No papers

CONTENTS
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[printed form, blanks filled by hand]

42D Congress 2D SESSION. } S. 909,
[Report No. 105.}

A BILL
For the relief of the administrator of the estate of Lieutenant Joseph Wheaton, deceased.
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1872--April 3. - Read and passed to a second reading.

Mr. Coyle desires early action after Bill comes from the Senate
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42D CONGRESS, 2D SESSION. S. 309.
[Report No. 105.]

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

APRIL 3, 1872.

Mr. POOL, from the Committee on Revolutionary Claims, submitted a report, No. 105, accompanied by the following bill; which was read and passed to a second reading.

A BILL

For the relief of the administrator of the estate of Lieutenant Joseph Wheaton, deceased.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represnta-
2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled
3 That the Third Auditor of the Treasury be, and he is hereby
4 authorized and directed to settle and adjust the claim of John
5 A. Clarke, administrator of the estate of Lieutenant Joseph
6 Wheaton, deceased, for the half-pay due him under the act
7 of Congress of October twenty-first, anno Domini seventeen
8 hundred and eighty, as a lieutenant of infantry in the Rhode
9 Island line during the Revolutionary War; and in the settle-
10 ment and adjustment of said claim, the principles recognized
11 and embraced in the decision of the Court of Claims of the
12 United States in the case of Thomas H. Baird, administrator
13 of Doctor Absolom Baird, deceased, and which was sanctioned
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2

14 by an act of Congress approved August eighteenth, anno
15 Domini eighteen hundred and fifty-six, shall be accepted by
16 the Third Auditor as the basis on which such settlement and
17 adjustment shall be made: Provided, That upon the final
18 settlement and adjustment of said claim, there shall be
19 deducted from the amount ascertained to be due, all moneys
20 paid, by commutation or otherwise, on account of said half-
21 pay.

1 SEC. 2. That the amount thus ascertained to be found
2 due the estate of the said Lieutenant Joseph Wheaton shall
3 be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury, out of any money
4 not otherwise appropriated, to the administrator of the estate
5 aforesaid.
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[handwritten letter with printed letterhead]

Treasury Department
THIRD AUDITOR's OFFICE
Washington, D.C. February 29th, 1884
Sirs
In reply to your letter of 27th inst, herewith returned,
I have to inform you that the records of this Office
show payments to Rev James Laurie, Committee in the 
Estate of Joseph Wheaton, Lieut of Inf'ty, appointed by the
Judges of the United States for the Dist. of Col. on account
of pay due said Wheaton from 3 Mar. 1826 to 2 Mar. 1828
$414.20 and from 3 Mar. to 2 Sept. 1828 $160. And that
these payments were Certified by Comptroller and Register
25 Nov. 1828 and $72 - from 3 Sept. to 23 Nov. 1828, which
Cash payment was certified by Comptroller and Register
15 Dec 1828 ~
Very Respectfully,
[signed] M R Cogbelly[sp]
Auditor       

A.J.H.
The Hon. Comm of Pensions,
W.S.B

[upper left corner]
illegible initials 
2 Euc 
[/upper left corner]
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42D CONGRESS, 2d Session. SENATE. REPORT No. 105.
===================================
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.

APRIL 3, 1872. -- Ordered to be printed.

Mr. POOL made the following

REPORT:

To accompany bill S. 909.]

The Committee on Revolutionary Claims to whom was referred the memorial of the administrator of the estate of the late Lieutenant Joseph Wheaton and the letter of the Secretary of the Interior of the 27th of March, 1872, relative to the same, report:

That the evidence before the committee shows that Lieutenant Joseph Wheaton served in the Rhode Island line from the commencement to the close of the revolutionary war; that his father and ten brothers all held commissions as officers in the British service, and that he alone sacrificed his home and domestic ties for the cause of liberty; that he was disinherited by his father, Colonel Caleb Wheaton, who commanded a regiment of British pioneers, who, to the day of his death, never forgave his son for what he considered a disloyalty to the King of Great Britain in joining the Yankee rebels;" that on the 11th of May, 1775, and long before war was declared, he joined a band of volunteers, and took an active part in capturing the Margaretta and two other armed British schooners, which was of great service to us in after times, and was the first advantage gained over our enemies on the waters. In this service he received a severe saber wound on the head, which troubled his mind through life and terminated in his dying in the insane asylum, in Baltimore, in the year 1828.
After the war was declared Joseph Wheaton joined the Rhode Island line in Colonel Israel Angell's regiment, and sharing in all the battles in which that part of the Army was engaged, which seems to have been many, never left his regiment until the end of the war. He was invested with a commission as colonel in the war of 1812, through the whole of which he served with distinguished ability.
By the acts of Congress of 3d and 21st of October, 1780, the Government of the United States promised to pay to each and all the officers, individually, who should continue to serve until the end of the war, half-pay for life, and to pay the same to said officers, or their legal representatives, in specie or other current money, at the end of each and every year for life. This was a distinct offer and covenant, stipulated by the most solemn act of the Government, in 1780, after four years and upward of hard service in field and camp by Joseph Wheaton, among others, and was offered as an inducement to cause him to continue in the service until defeat or victory should mark the close of the contest. If defeated, he, with his compeers, had nothing to hope for
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2
ADMINISTRATOR OF LIEUTENANT JOSEPH WHEATON.

but the rebel's fate; if victorious, he would have the stipulated compensation of the promised half-pay to buy him bread for the balance of his days. He accepted the offer, fulfilled the contract, and served to the end of the war, thus establishing his unqualified right to said half-pay.
It was decided by the Court of Claims, in the case of Thomas H. Baird, administrator of Dr. Absalom Baird, deceased, that the acts of
Congress of 3d and 21st of October, 1780, created a legal liability against the United States in favor of the officers therein referred to, which no subsequent legislation by Congress could release without the assent of the other party. Your committee find that this decision of the Court of Claims was sanctioned by Congress by an act approved August 18, 1856.
The Committee on Revolutionary Claims, in the Thirty sixth Congress, made a favorable report in this case, and in the Thirty seventh Congress the claim was referred by resolution of the House to the Secretary of the Interior for adjustment. In reply, the Secretary of the Interior submits the following letter:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
Washington, March 27, 1862.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a resolution of the House of Representatives, adopted on the 14th instant, referring to this Department for adjustment the claim of Mary A. Berault, administratrix of the late Joseph Wheaton.
Upon an examination of the papers referred to me, I am fully satisfied of the justice of this claim, and concur in the report of the Committee on Revolutionary Claims in its favor. The services of Lieutenant Wheaton were of a highly meritorious character, and continued from a time anterior to the passage of the act of Congress of October, 1780, promising half-pay for life to those who should serve until the end of the war, until the final and successful termination of the revolutionary struggle.
The principle upon which the claim is based has been recognized and sustained by the Court of Claims, in the case of Dr. Baird, and the decision of that court has received the sanction of Congress.
I should not hesitate to adjust and allow the claim, as recommended by the resolution of the House of Representatives, if any fund were placed at my disposal from which it could be paid, but no appropriation has been made which is applicable to the payment of claims of this character.
I therefore return the papers, with a recommendation that an appropriation be made by Congress for its payment.
I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
CALEB B. SMITH.
Secretary of the Interior.

Hon. GALUSHA A. GROW,
Speaker of the House of Representatives.

At the last session of the Forty-first Congress the claim was passed by the House by a two-thirds vote, and this committee unanimously reported in favor of its passage by the Senate, but owing to the lateness of the session no action was taken upon it by the Senate.
Your committee are of opinion, from a careful examination of the case, that this claim is embraced within the acts of the 3d and 21st of October, 1780. The half-pay should terminate on the 24th day of March, 1818, when Lieutenant Wheaton was placed on the pension roll, and there should be deducted from the said half-pay any payments made by the Government to said Wheaton on account of his said services.
Your committee report the accompanying act, and recommend its passage.
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Mr Cmm, Asst. Chief of Record Div. Says that he went to Chief of Law Div with these papers which were sent to him from that Div. whose chief said that they were received without any letter from [illegible] W. C.   
D .J. Riordan who forwarded these in a blank envelop + there is no beginning or end to the letter by which to determine who wrote it.

[overwritten]
Miss Wilson Room 94
no other papers                                           
J.T.C asst Chief Rec. 
[/overwritten]

[date stamp]
Jan 14 1911
[/date stamp]

The papers were a franked envelope of D.J. Riordan  M.C. addressed to Comm. of Pensions  portion of a letter without beginning or end asking for pension  in account of service of gr. gr. uncle Major Wheaton in Rev. 
over
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and type written copy of an extract
from the New York Times of Oct. 5, 1883
relative to death of Mrs Susan Dayton
Anderson daughter of a Rev. Officer,
Major Joseph Wheaton.

All of said papers return to
Hon D. J. Riordan  Jan 16. 1910

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PROCEEDINGS
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[printed form, blanks filled by hand]

(3-230.) Cll
INVALID.  (Series Rev. War).
Cert. No.   8
Name, Joseph Wheaton
Rank, __________ ; Service R.I. Line Also U.S. A. War of 1812
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Original Roll ___________________         
Agency. { District of Columbia
["Transf'd" lined thru] _____, 18__, to _____
" _____, 18__, to _____
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[left side on edge]
______Issue. Class _______
Entered _____
[/left side on edge]

Issued March 30, 1818
Mailed_____, 18__
Rate and Period, $_____, from  March 24, 1818
also pensioned under Act May 15, 1828.

Deductions: _____ 
see Heitmaris[sp] Hist. Reg. of Rev. for history of above soldier.
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[left side, on edge]
______Issue. Class _______
Entered _____
[/left side on edge]

Issued _____, 18__
Mailed _____, 18__
Rate and Period, $_____ , from_____, 18__
_________________
Deductions: _____
Disability: _____
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[8246─10 M.]
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                                       INDORSEMENTS.
JAN 16 1911                 Status to Hon D.J. Riordan
a desc no little to pension.
JAN 31 1911                  Data relative to half pay
claims to Hon D.J. Riordan
1911 Sept. 6   Hist to Mrs. Jos H. Tucker
1913 May 21   Mrs Juliet H Price to apply to And.
Interior Dept for data of soldiers death
1915 Mch 17.  Hist to Francis B. Culver
1931 Nov 24    Hist to Dr Thos.
J.W. Brown                         MCS
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House of Representatives U.S.            J.D. Riordan
Official Business-Free

                                       Commissioner of Pensions
                                                          Washington,
                                                                       D.C.