The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1857-01-01
from the records of the period above men,

LVOV
Gin 1892 distinguished officer of the army
of that war was despatched by the Revolution
airy officers of Massachusetts, to present to
Congress their petition for the settlement Of
the claims of the officers and soldiers of the
Revolution, and by his efforts he secured the
cooperation Of the officers in a number of the
States. be had frequent conversations with
President Washington, aohO acknowledged the
justice Of their claims but as the majority
of Congress thought that the" subject at that
time might interfere with the arrangements
which had been made for the payment of the
public debt, this effort to secure justice to the
defenders of the country proved unsuccess-
fI. '-See History Cf&bc Times.
In the agreement of those officers to accept
the Communication" in lieu of the halfpay
for life, they expected land such, no doubt,
was the mutual understanding on both sdesl
that this communication should be paid in money,
:: something that was equivalent, the neces
sl'ieS 0i those officers at the time being but
100 wei known to all. Thus fitted and nre.
pared by Congress, thus turned ont ;rovoroblr
as victims, they were compelled to sell tboss
certificates, even as their only birthright, which
they had bought so dearly by their unparaI.
leled sufferings and tolls. Or, as General
Washington "declared," in confidential letter
to the Secretary of War, tter hacing suffered
VtIttlt1 UfttCIt HuUtUW
enduring on this side of DEATH" =
A Congress which had repudiated all former
debts and former promises to pay, in 1881, might
Justly be deemed poweress for all good, as to
any Relo promises to pay which they could ever
again make-their prestige and their credit
being gone-those certificates fell, in the hands
of those officers, from the first, as dead. There
fore, should all those Communication certificates,
thus issued by and under the resolve of that
Congress of March %, 1888, in Justice be
deemed void; and the halfpay, as promised by
Congress Ill l777, and again promised in 1880,
should begin in 1888, at the end of the war,
as agreed, and be now paid, with interest for
the long delay, with the deduction therefrom
of those Communication certificates at oneeiQltth
part Of their nominal calae, at which rate and
only they were mostly sold by those i:npover-
ished officers.
We are aware that Congress has, at various
times, made liberal compensation and provision
for the widows and descendants of some of
those officers who were killed in battle in that
war ; while some there yet undoubtedly were,
who served through all the war, and who suf
fered, in all, perhaps even far more than they
all those who, as consequence, found their
graves so early, and as their chief or only re-
ward and inheritance from that war. Justice
seems to require that something be now done
for the widows or descendants of such, for
whom no just compensation or provision was
ever made for the loss, to them, of all, SO I'm.
timely.
The deficiency caused by Tho dopI.o.assu u
the Continental currency, h'oa vas promised
by the resolves of Con rress IN I7SG, rs letoc.
mentioned, should in Justice now be paid, w..i
interest, - a -S0sa 20 uhou It IS us.y due
49, Lon. 4g- EE.ns, IF Sngthl Caroiiaa