Omaha daily bee., 1888-05-27
THE NATIONS DEFAULT.
A Record of Persistent Injustice to
National Creditors.
CONGRESS AND PRIVATE CLAIMS.
How the Government Has Treated the
Soldiers of the Revolution and
Their Heirs-A Chapter of
Instructive History.

TO be accounted 1or-that whist, as cOlonlSts,
the Americans were notably faithful and
prompt in the payment of their public obliga-
tons, the Zine gold became dimmcd' almost
as soon as independence doomed bright. DIR.
David Ramsay, in his history of the United
States, shows how favorably colonial integ-
rity operated for the earlier events of the
revolutionary struggle. Speaking of the i'm
possibility of the Americans procuring gold
and silver, he says: paper Of no intrinsic
value was made TO answer all the purposes of
gold and silver, and to support the expenses
of five campaigns. This was, in some degree,
owing to a previous confidence which had
been begotten by honesty and fidelity
in discharging the obligations of the
government. From New York to Geor-
gia, there never had been, in
matters relating to money, an instance of q
breach of public faith. In the scarcity Of gold
| and silver, many emergencies had imposed a
necessity of emitting bills of credit. These
had been uniformly and honestly redeemed.
The bills of congress being thrown into circu-
lation, on this favorable foundation of public
| confidence, were readily received. The en-
thusiasm of the people contributed to the
same effect"
But with q continuation of the struggle
much longer than the generality of the people
had estimated, and the impoverishment of
| many who had been in favorable circum-
stances, besides well meant but injudicious
enactments of congress which produced dis
| astrous effects, popular enthusiasm abated
and extraordinary eXertionS had to be made
| to keep up the contest. An army for the war,
end when it might, sooner or later, must be
created. ST said Washington; so concluded
| congress. The officers already in the service
must be retained as far as possible and new
| ones, for the war, secured. That could not
be done upon the basis of any present pay or
emolument, for the country was unable, and
had been for some time, to find a sufficiency
of money or supplies. The army, and par
ticularly the officers, said, make us no more
| promises which it is out of your power to
fulfil, but guarantee us that whenever the
war is over, independence gained, and YOU
are in a condition to make your promises
good, that you will give us something that
will be of benefit to us as long as we live.
Washington proposed for this half pay for
life. Congress and the army accepted it, and
on the 2lst of October, 1850, an act was
passed guaranteeing half pay for life to every
officer that should serve to the end of the
war. The fall and winter of 1928, follow
ing the British surrender at Yorktown,
brought the desiderated peace.
In the meantime, as the period was plainly
approaching when the pledges to the army at
large, and especially to the officers, must be
redeemed, a popular ferment was excited,
particularly in one or two of the eastern
| states. the object of which was to prevent
the fulflment of the act of October, 1850.
An agrarian and seditious spirit was aroused,
and the army, then mainly quartered along
the shores Of Newburgh bay on the Hudson
river, was profoundly exercised, and only
quelled by the firm and judicIous manage
ment of the beloved chieftain. Appeals were
made to congress-, then at Philadelphia,
which terminated in a new arrangement,
whereby the parties concerned agreed that
the officers entitled should yield the life half
pay and take instead of it five years full
pay in cash down, or securities of equal face
value, with interest at 8 per cent per aDnum
until the securities were wholly paid. Thus
the officers gave up "a lifetime guarantee for
a five year one.
Did the government at length comply with
this much reduced boon to the officers! 1t
did not. 1t did not pay any cash-down, but
handed to the officers certificates of indebt-
edness fof their respective amounts with 6
per cent interest to date of payment. This
took place under an act of congress of date
March %, 1888. When in 1884 the time had
come round to. make the first years payment
of interest, a lNNVision for which had been
inserted the year before in the annual esti-
mate, it was found that the provision had
been secretly erased from the face of the es-
innate so that the officers might get nothing!
General Edward Hand, a gallant officer of
the late Pennsylvania line, moved to reinsert
the item erased and his motion was seconded
by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Thirteen
members voted with Hand and Jefferson
and nme the other way, but the
nine were victorious, for whilst
there was a numerical majority
for reinsertion, a constitutional majority
according to the then regulations of con-
gress) had not voted affirmaJively; so Hands
motion was defeated and the officers were
denied even the interest of the reward guar
anteed to them so sacredly and repeatedly!
What a falling off was here from the honesty
and punctuality of colonial days! The case
would have been reversed if the delegation
of Massachusetts, on April %, 1884, had voted
| .annciStnntlu with tho lnlnnntinn nf tho cnnnn
state on March % of the previous year. But
the Shays spirit was out, and it came to a
head in the rebellion of 1856.
The result was that the officers were, to
repeat the deliberate language of Colonel
Pickering, quartermaster general of the
revolutionary army, ''cheated." Even to
this day the officers of the army of
the revolution, to whom promise after
emu form known among men, have never
been paid-directly to themselves or
indirectly to their heirs and descendants
the reeompense they earned. DO we not,
then, hold by a tenure not honest-and per-
haps not sound III the sight of the Judge of
ala great domain and property bought with
bloodi Would that the nation had more of
the spirit of royal David who refused to APP
propriate to his own use the costly refresh
ment brought by the three mighty men from
the well of Bethlehem.
1t is true that after forty-five years Of re-
fusal to acknowledge the wrongs perpetrated
| upon buC OIuCcIS u ~ ICNplublOut COuHItSS
was induced in 1928 by the herculean eKer-
tons of Webster, Van Buren,, Harrison,
Buchanan, Hayne, and perhaps altogether
the brightest galaxy ever convened in our
national legislative halls, to assist, though
not to ~remunerate, the residue Of revolutions
airy officers then surviving. Efforts have
since then been made, now that our
means are superintendent, to wipe
of the pecuniary obligations yet
undlscharged. In such efforts,
commenced in 1888 and continued to 1875, the
names of the following legislators stand
prominently forward: Senator Evans of
South Carolina, Walker of Wisconsin, Sew
ard of New York, Shields of Missouri,
Broom of Pennsylvania, Marshall of Ken
lucky, Smith of Virginia, Washburne of
Maine, Foster of Connecticut, Comegys of
Delaware, Crittenden of Kentucky, Butler
of South Carolina, Hale of New Hampshire,
Bell of New Hampshire, Fenton of New
York, Cragip of New Hampshire. To these
names should be added, by reason of their
report of April $, 1859, highly favorable to
the claims, the names Of Senators James of
Rhode Island, Sumner of Massachusetts,
Foot of Vermont and Chase of Ohio. The
prominent opponents were Senators Slidell
OF Louisiana, PettIt of Iowa, Craige
of North Carolina, Jones of Tennessee, c.. q.
Clay of Alabama. Brown of MisslssiDpi, FitZ-