The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1901-05-11
A CLAIM OF ELIGIBILITY
C0Iored Women Anxious to Join
the d. \. Il.
Leans of Money to the Government
During the Revolution Cited rs
Sufficient to EntitIe Them to Mem
bcrship in the Organization.

Basing their claims to membership in the
National Society Of Daughters Of The
American Revolution, on an official com
nunicatiou which was sent by
Miss Susan Riviere HetzeI. the
Registrar General of the society,
to Mrs. Amos c. Draper. a prom
inent member of the Daughters of the
American Revolution, Of this city, and
the import of which was sanctioned by
the Daughters Of the American RevOIu-
ton Congress of 1893, a number of promi-
nent coIored women OF this city and ir
all parts of the county, will, il is said,
make formal application for membership
in the Daughters Of the American RevOlu-
ton.
They claim that there are many of their
race who had as ancestors men and We
men who loaned money to the Gov
eminent during the Revolutionary war,
which act, according to the above-men-
toned letter, entities them to membership
in the Daughters of the American RevoIu-
ton They also claim that according to
the terms of the letter, the Daughters Of
! the American Revolution guarantee such
| descendants membership in the society
without requiring additional qualifications,
/ and cannot reject their application or deny
them admission on any pretext, after they
once have established the validity OF their
claim
The letter which has caused this move
mcnt is dated January 81, 1893. is signed
by Miss Susan Riviere Hetzel. Registrar
General National Society Daughters of
the American Revolution, and is address
cd to Mrs. Amos G. Draper. District CT
/ Columbia The claim is based on the fol-
! lowing sentence in the letter:
I beg to acknowledge receipt of your
! favor of January 80, and in reply would
say that the descendants of those who
I loaned money to the Government during
the Revolutionary war are entitled to
membership in ttis society"
Mrs Draper. who has been a prominent
member of the Daughters of the American
/ Revolution almost since its inception. has
compiled and published a pamphlet con-
/ tanning the names OF those Massachusetts
patriots who contributed money toward
the cause of 1776, among whom can be
found the names of q number of colored
/ men Speaking Of the matter, Mrs ORA
/ per said:
/ About two years ago, while I was ex-
/ amining some Of the many articles of in
! teTest in the Treasury Department. the
/ clerk in charge, said: Here is a book in
watch you, as a Daughter of the Ameri-
! can Revolution, may be interested 1t
/ contained among other papers. such as
/ account of Sales No 4, of 291g5 Mexican
/ Dollars in Bills of Exchange. drawn on
! Hon Benz Franklin, esq, Minister Plen-
! ipotentiary at the Court Of Versailles. at
! % days sight Receipts of Interest paid
! by Commissioner Of Mass. to set
/ tie the public accounts three accounts
! which especially attracted my attention
/ They were the intended receipts for
warded TO the National Treasury by the
/ loan Offices in Massachusetts, which had
I been discovered about twenty-five years
/ before, while the office was undergoing
/ repairs. and bound for the sake of pre-
servation- I at once recognized their val
( ue as 4 means of establishing a claim for
( entrance into the Daughters of the
American Revolution; for if ever a. person
/ rendered material aid surely those did
. who loaned money to the Government in
the early days, when its fate was stiIl IN
| certain Moreover as many Of the de-
. posters were from Nantucket Martha 5
I Vineyard, etc, and presumably QuakeTs-
/ ana many OF them were women, It was
! a fair supDOSition that this was the only
official evidence Of the patriotism Of
Z large majority Of them
"A letter was sent to the Secretary Of
the Treasury, in which permission was
asked TO copy the names, but not the
amounts, that he might know that the de
sired copy could not be the foundation for
spurious claims against the Government,
which might take time to refute- After
q long TeNatiouS delay. during which
time I repeated 20 each official to whom
NY letter was referred that my object
was purely to obtain historical infOrna-
ton and in no way to injure the Gov
eminent the desired permission was
granted The three accounts were care
| fully copied. compared with the original,
/ and the names arranged alphabetically
As many deposited more than once. how
ever and some as many as eight times,
Ia reality the names Of only about $500
different persons are given. One family
/ is represented by father and son to the
fourth generation, and several to the
! third While it Is not allowable TO give
the amounts Of any individual. il Is
fact that some Of the amounts deposited
. were Sl1.tF, ana one woman who bought
bonds at several different times. deposit
ed in one day Z30y1- Although most Of
the dep0sitOrs were from towns in Mass
achUsettS proper, a number hailed from
} New Hampshire. and one man, HOzediah
EcNain. gave Vermont his address.
that evidently being sufficient to identify
! him in the suIndS Of the authorities
Most Of the persons at that time seem
ed 30 have but one Christian name, yet
{ noticed that the Esq is carefully added
( whenever possible. Some persons evident
Is changed the spelling Of their names as
the wears went by. 1t seemed best in such
cases 10 follow the original strictly even
where there was room 70 suspect ciCT-
zeal error The name Samuel Ware me
/ gTOl. Boston. is entered close to that Of
oliver Wendell. Esq, Boston: and that
/ 'f.ben'r StOrer (Harvard College, Some
Of the names arrest ones attention from
their ouaiutueSs or from the associations
connected with them Notably such are
Hannah Winthrop. HopestiI,' 'SOphri-
ma, among the wOmenS names, and Cot
ten Tufts among those of The men
Wv hiie the names were undoubtedly
forwarded according to law. in 1II9 and
1893. I found that the abstracts Of the
receipts were Transmitted to the Treasury
with the abstracts of subscription to the
loan proposed by act Of Congress. 18th of
( August 11gl The change of wording Is
significant Before 17S3 Congress passed
Resolves. after that date it passed
Acts
Ms early as May ~. III. and again on
April Il, I4Is, bills Of credit were issued
FOR the redemption of which the faith Of
the Uaited States was solemuly pledged,
and all persons throughout the country
/ were exHOrted to show their patriotism
10y taking them on January , 1873. a res
cIutiun was passed by Congress Withdraw
. ing from circulation the whole emissions
. Of the above mentioned dates. ana pro-
vidinS that all such bills deposited in the
{ various loan Offices before the first Of
Iuur Of that year be redeemed This
date was aftoTward changed TO January
!. 1850. by resolution OF Congress. July 2
iI1g chiefly on the representation of the
Legislature of North Carolina. that from
the difficulties of communicating iut-lIi-
EgGcs in that State. and the remote situa-
ton Of its inhabitants it was Impossible
that they should receive SeasOnabIe no
tice.' II was ordered that the names Of
each person dcpGsiting bills at any OF the
l,eu Offices be registered, together with
the amounts deposited and that these
names and amounts be forwarded 10 the