REVOLUTIONARY PENSIONS.sion, as to the merits of this bill, we must care

SPEECH OF MR. JOHNSTON, OF VIRGINIA,
ON THE PENSION BILL.

fully analyze its leading principle, and understand, distinctly, the foundation on which it rests. In this matter, the friends of the bill are not agreed among themselves. Some gentlemen say Mr.CHAIRMAN: When, three days ago, I asked that it pays a debt; others claim for it the grace of the committee the opportunity which is now of a generous justice, as they please to term it, offered me, of discussing the merits of the bill or, in other words, a simple act of gratitude to now under consideration, I then stated, that I those who achieved our liberties. Of each of made the request from my unwillingness to give these in their order.

a silent vote against any measure, bearing, how- This bill then, Sir, deserves no support on ever improperly, the name of relief to the sol- the gronnd first assumed; it neither recognizes, diers of the Revolution. This unwillingness nor provides for, the payment of any of the proceeds, as well from the convictions of my debts of the Revolution. A large amount of judgment on the merits of the bill, as from my these debts remain still unpaid, and none of personal feelings on this subject. I beg to say, them are ever hinted at in the bill. Of these, once for all, that no man would go further than the first in order are the claims of the widows I, in the just and generous relief of the veterans and children of those officers and soldiers who, of the war of our Revolution. All the most either under contracts of enlistment, or under cherished recollections of my early youth are contracts for their continuance in service until associated with the fire-side legends of that the end of the war, were entitled to bounties in war, from the lips of one who bore part in it: money or to full or half pay. These claims and now, if I have, (and I hope I have,) any were distinctly acknowledged by the old Confixed principles, any attachments to the gener-gress, just at the close of the war, and in various ous liberty in which all our institutions are subsequent acts of its legislation. The act of founded, they have all been drawn, as from a Congress of May, 1828, provides for satisfaction, living fountain, from the life, and conversation, in the shape of yearly pay, to those officers and and constant admonitions, of one of the men of soldiers who were then living, slighting altothat time. These very feelings and principles gether the equal obligation due to the widows impel me to oppose this bill; not only because and children of those who were dead, and taxit would, if passed, engraft a new principle in ing, in their poverty, those widows and chilthe pension laws, inconsistent with the limited dren, to render to others the justice denied to powers of this Government, administered in the them. A second class of debts is composed of honest spirit of the Constitution, but because it claims for bounty lands, due to soldiers of some does not deserve the name which is claimed for of the States; these claims could be easily sa it by its friends, of "The Old Soldiers' Bill." tisfied out of the inexhaustible fund of our pubThis is not an "old soldiers' bill;" gentlemen lic lands.

may give it some name more significant of its A third class of claims is composed of debts true character; they may call it "a waste dam due the several States, from this Government, to let off surplus revenue." "A safety valve on account of the expenses of the war, and acof the high pressure engine." They may give knowledged by the act of assumption in 1790. it any other name of less obvious import, which The State of Virginia has a claim against this they may please to select, but they have no Government, under the principles recognized right to miscall it "the old soldiers' bill." It in the acts of settlement and assumption amountdeserves not that name, because it does not ren- ing to several hundred thousand dollars, for the der equal justice to those whom it professes to payment of which she is now making applica to relieve; but it creates, on the contrary, most tion to this Congress. She has knocked again invidious and unjust distinctions amongst those at your door during the present session; she is who fought the battles of liberty; and operates now knocking at it, and her claims and calls are very unequally on the different States, and par-disregarded, whilst you are devising schemes of ticularly on the "old thirteen." I beg leave, prodigal gratuity. I beg, however, Sir, that it Sir, here to say, that in the observations which may not be supposed, that either I, or any other I deem it my right and my duty to make, on the member from Virginia, will weary the House general tendencies of this bill, as well in regard with importunate solicitations in her behalf: we to its operation on individuals, as on its forming will content ourselves with a fair and true exa measure of political tactics with a view to bear position of her claims, to this Congress, and on the approaching struggle between the two will rest confident in our appeals to your jusgreat parties now in this House; I mean no per- tice. I have only alluded to the subject now, sonal disrespect, either to the honorable Chair- to show how completely the House is reversing man, or any other member of the Committee by the ordinary rule of public as well as private which it was reported. I mean, Sir, nothing morality, and is hastening to be generous before offensive, either to any individual, or to any par- it has proved itself to be just.

ty in this House. Feeling the kindest respect Much stress has been laid by the friends of for every gentleman present, I shall discuss a the bill, and particularly by the honorable gen measure of large operation, with the decent tlemen from Rhode Island, (Mr. BURGES,) on freedom of debate, which the importance of it the payments made by the old Congress to the demands. soldiers of the Revolutionary army, in depreciat Before we can arrive at any certain conclu-led continental paper, and we are now asked to

repair the injury which they then sustained, by Here, then, we see, Sir, that on this occasion the passage of this bill. How does this matter the interest of the old soldier was not at all stand? About the close of the war, the means consulted. He was not protected by cautious and credit of the Confederacy being almost legislation, as he ought to have been, from the wholly exhausted, settlement certificates of debt arts of greedy speculation, and whilst his fair were given to the soldiers and other creditors claims on the justice of the country were used of the Government, for the amount actually due as a cover for a deep political design, he became them, after they had been charged with the ac-a prey to those, and to the tools of those, who tual specie value of such continental money as deceived the people by the outward show of rethey had received. Alexander Hamilton, dur-gard for the champions of their liberty. ing his administration of the financial affairs of But this bill does not propose to repair the this Government, determined in the general injustice of that transaction; it does not provide execution of a profound political scheme, not for the repayment of these certificates. It prothen generally understood, to pay off these set- vides a pension to those who rendered service tlement certificates by incorporating them with for a certain length of time, and if any of the his famous funding system. The history of that holders of these certificates are included, it affair ought to furnish an instructive lesson to makes no difference between the poor starving the people as well as to the statesmen of this soldier who got two shillings in the pound of country. I will give it to you in the words of his debt, and his more fortunate comrade (and a living witness of the transaction. I read from there were many such) who had it in his power Jefferson's Memoirs : to hold up his certificate, and received its full va"Hamilton's financial system had then passed. lue, or who enriched himself by the spoils of It had two objets. 1. As a puzzle to exclude po- his brother soldiers.

pular understanding and inquiry. 2. As a ma- I may then, Sir, after this brief examination, chine for the corruption of the Legislature. It say with confidence, that none of the debts of is well known that during the war, the greatest the war of the revolution are provided for in this difficulty we encountered, was the want of mo- bill; its provisions have not received the slighney or means to pay our soldiers who fought, test modification with the view of satisfying or our farmers, manufacturers, and merchants, those claims on the honesty of the Government, who furnished the necessary supplies of food arising from its obligation to comply with all and clothing for them. After the expedient of the contracts which it has made. The bill is paper money had exhausted itself, certificates founded in the principle (if principle it can be of debt were given to the individual creditors, called) of unguarded, undiscriminating, prodi. with the assurance of payment, so soon as the gal bounty; it provides equally for the sound U. States should be able. But the distresses of and the maimed: the combatantand the non-comthese people often obliged them to part with batant: the poor and the rich, and will at once these for the half, the fifth, or even a tenth of recruit an army of pensioners larger than our their value; and speculators had made a trade army of soldiers. The honorable gentleman of cozening them from the holders, by the most from Massachusetts (Mr. CHOATE) is mistaken fraudulent practices and persuasions that they as well in the origin of our present pension syswould never be paid. In the bill for funding tem,as in the the manner in which this Governand paying these, Hamilton made no difference ment assumed jurisdiction over the subject. between the original holders and the fraudulent The pension system traces its birth much fur purchasers of the paper. Great and just re- ther back than the law of 1806. In the year pugnance arose at putting these two classes of 1785, the old Congress recommended to the secreditors on the same footing, and great exer- veral States to grant pensions to such of the soltions were used to pay the former the full value, d'ers as had actually received wounds in service and to the latter the price only which they had during the war, and were unable to support paid, with interest. But this would have pre- themselves: recommending further, that the vented the game which was to be played, and for pensioners should be formed into corps, and rewhich the minds of greedy members were al-quired to do garrison duty. The recommendaready tutored and prepared. When the trial of tion was adopted, and many pensioners received strength on these several efforts had indicated on the pension lists of the respective States. the form in which the bill would finally pass, Afterwards, when the first adjustment of acthis being known within doors sooner than with-counts between the confederation and the seveout, and especially than to those who were in ral States was attempted, the Congress in 1788 different parts of the Union, the base scramble recognized the payments made by the States to began. Couriers and relay horses by land, and the pensioners on their lists respectively as swift sailing pilot boats by sea, were flying in charges against the confederacy. Soon after all directions. Active partners and agents were the adoption of our present Constitution, Conassociated and employed in every State, town, gress, by an act passed in 1792, recognized the and country neighborhood, and this paper was obligation of the General Government, under bought up at five shillings, and even as low as the arrangement made between the States and two shillings in the pound, before the holder the old Congress, to pay all pensioners who had knew that Congress had already provided for its been admitted on the pension lists of the differedemption at par. Immense sums were thus rent States. As, however, even in that early filched from the poor and ignorant, and fortunes stage of the pension laws, many frauds had been accumulated by those who had themselves been successfully practised by applicants for penpoor enough before.

sions, very rigid enactments were framed, in ty of their sex, fought by the side of their husorder to guard against the admission of impro- bands, in defence of their hearths and their per persons on the pension list of this Govern- children. If the traditions of those wars could ment. Strict proof was required to show that be embodied, they would furnish scenes of the applicant had been wounded in the actual thrilling interest, and high daring, quite equal service of the country; and in all instances, to any of the transactions of that time. I canclear proof was required of the degree of disa- not understand why the Indian fighter is to be bility under which the applicant suffered, and excluded from the "liberal justice" of the bill. of his circumstances and mode of life. Owing The people of the western country, by giving to the extreme rigor of these enactments, many full employment to the Indians, guarded the persons who had been previously admitted on flanks of the eastern States, and allowed them the pension lists of the several States, were not to direct all their efforts against the British eneallowed a place on the pension lists of the U. my. But the backwoodsmen were not content States, and remained chargeable to the State with this service; in the pauses of the Indian Governments. From a careful examination of the wars, they afforded often times the most effecwhole series of pension laws, from 1785 down to tual relief to their eastern brethren against the 1818, it will appear, that between those two British enemy. The honorable gentleman from periods, the bounty of the country was strictly Massachusetts, (Mr. CHOATE,) has said that the confined to those who had been maimed in her capture of Burgoyne was the hinge on which service. The law of March, 1818, for the first the revolution turned, and that the battle of time, extended the operation of the pension Bennington was the first link in the chain of its system to all the surviving' soldiers of the regu- success. Whilst this may be true, it is equally lar army of the revolution, who, from their re-true that the capture of Cornwallis, at Yorkduced circumstances, required the aid of their town, was at once the crowning glory of that country for their support. This bill assumes a war, and the consummation of our independnew principle, going far beyond any thing yet ence: and it is equally true that the battles of proposed. It proposes to place on the pension King's mountain, the Cowpens, and Guilford, list all those now living, whatever their condi- were the successive steps that led to the height tion in life may be, who served in any capacity of our safety. The battle of King's mountain, in the revolutionary war for the limited period Sir, was fought by the people of the district I of six or nine months. Admitting for a moment represent, and of the surrounding country; just the general principle of the bill to be sound, its after the memorable defeat of the conqueror of details will be found to work gross injustice to Burgoyne, at Camden, when the cause of freelarge classes of meritorious soldiers, and to ex- dom seemed almost hopeless in the south, when clude entirely the inhabitants of large districts the forces of Cornwallis were sweeping the of country, who achieved most and suffered Carolinas without opposition; the men of the most during the war. The bill, instead of re- western country embodied themselves under gulating its bounty by the actual services of the their favorite leaders, Campbell, Sheby, Sevier, soldier, measures his merit, not by his actions, Williams, and others, and leaving their fields in but by time. Like Sterne's "Excellent Cri-seed time, marched to the relief of their suf. tic," the bill observes not the actor, but "looks fering brethren in the south. This battle was only at the stop watch." fought entirely by the western militia; and the

I would not, Sir, in my character of legisla- troops from the district I represent, suffered tor here, adopt narrow sectional views; it is, most in the fight. Furgerson and all his troops however,in every instance, allowable to illustrate were either killed or taken prisoners, and the the partial character of a law, by showing that cause of freedom brightened up from that moit will work injustice to different sections of the ment in the southern States; this was accom. country in which it operates. This law, if passed, plished by militia who were from home just will do gross injustice to the district I have the three weeks; and all these are excluded from honor of representing, and to all the country the bounty of this bill. The district I represuri ounding it. Gentlemen at all conversant sent, whilst it will be called upon to pay its full with the history of that country need hardly proportion of the taxes required by this bill, be told, that at the commencement of the revo- will then be shut out from the just participation lutionary war, a large portion of the State of of its benefits. In the name of that people, I North Carolina, now comprising the State of protest against this injustice. But the injustice Tennessee, and all that portion of the State of of the bill does not stop here. The militia who Virginia which lay west of the Alleghany moun- fought at the Cowpens, at Guilford, and at tains, including the State of Kentucky, was but York, as well as in various other battles in the half conquered by the whites, either from the south, as many of them served for a period short beasts of the forest, or from the men of the fo- of three months, will be equally excluded from rest. In all that country, during the period of the measure of liberality due to them. the war, almost every cornfield was a battle If the operation of this bill, in connexion field; men earned their daily bread, not merely with all the previous pension laws, is examined, by the sweat of their brow, but by their blood; it will be found that the ordinary rules of justice not merely in civil, but in military language, have been completely reversed, and that the every man's house was his castle. Every boy soldiers of the revolution will have been paid that could shoot with a rest was made a soldier, in the inverse ratio of their sufferings and serand even women, forgetting the natural timidi-vices. It is true that some good soldiers are still

alive who will share the common advantage of origin and progress of our present system of this bill: it is equally true that the most fortu- finance, and the attitude of danger in which it nate and the least meritorious derive the most has now placed the country. What I mean to advantage. Those whose constitutions were say on this subject is not only intended to bear, least broken by service; those who escaped un- as it ought to bear, on the bill now under conwounded; those, the waggon drivers and other sideration, but to direct the attention of the menials of the camp, who were never in the committee to the adjustment of the great quesfront of danger, and never dared to raise their tion of revenue and protection which now agiright arms except, perhaps, to wield a whip, in tates and divides the people of these States. the course of nature have lived longest, and Gentlemen on the other side of the House are will be chiefly provided for. The maimed and in danger of falling into mistakes respecting the crippled soldiers who fought your battles, and condition of the people in the plantation States, who, under the rigorous exactions of former and the state of opinion amongst them on this pension laws, derived a scanty pittance from subject, which might lead to the most unhappy the gratitude of their country, are most of them consequences. I hope, then, I may be allowed, gone. And lastly, those who dared all, and in this incidental debate, before the minds of suffered all for their country; who rushed to the members are heated by the angry discussion of front of the battle, and poured out all their conflicting interests, to warn them of the true blood for the liberty of those who survived: condition of affairs.

they lie in forgotten fields; fields fast becoming Let me first, however, attempt to trace the desolate, (in one direction,) by the action of this origin and growth of that system which now government. You have never given even a stone threatens us with so much harm. The remark to them, and now show your gratitude in the made by the honorable gentleman from South "liberal justice" of this bill, by taxing their Carolina, (Mr. DAVIS,) that the main end of widows and children for the benefit of others, all good government ought to be the protection deserving so much less than themselves. of the rights of property, for they were most

I feel impelled, Sir, to present another view of liable to abuse, whilst personal rights are easi this measure, of a more general, and more seri- ly guarded, because they are easily underous character: I mean, Sir, the effect of the stood," is founded in a deep knowledge of the bill on the finances of the country, and its ope- science of government. This position will be ration as part and parcel of the American sys- found to be strongly illustrated by the political tem. The bill will necessarily require, if it is history of this government. In this, as in all passed, such a large expenditure of public mo- other governments, the financial operations neney, that it must be considered as aiding the cessary to its support, are enveloped in a mysdesigns of those who wish to continue the ope- tery beyond the apprehension of the mass of ration of the present burdensome and unjust the people. This is emphatically the case since system of taxation. The advocates of the bill the pernicious invention of the system of indihave entered into abstruse and labored calcula-rect taxation, which, while it is the boast of the tions, to show that it will require the expendi- modern political economist, clothes the operature of “only one million of dollars annually." tions of government in double darkness. ` ImIf we are enlightened by past experience on mediately after the adoption of the present Fethis subject, the very calculations which have deral Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, (who been made ought to satisfy us that the expen- had, in the Federal Convention, been the advoditure of money under this bill, will be very cate of a form of government approaching as much greater than is supposed by its friends. nearly to monarchy as it was supposed the peoIn estimating the sum required under the law ple could possibly bear; and who opposed the of March, 1818, it was supposed that the mus-strong form of a consolidated government, proter rolls of the regular army of the revolution, posed by Governor Randolph, as being too dewould at once afford almost certain criterion of mocratic-as being "pork still, with a little the number of pensioners to be provided for,and change of the sauce,") was entrusted with the a check against all imposition. It was confi- administration of the financial affairs of the Godently pedicted by the friends of that bill, that vernment. He, like all other men coming into it would not require more than $300,000 a year power with strong preconceived opinions, and to pay all the pensions provided for by it: and believing (honestly, no doubt, for he was, in his how was that prediction verified? In less than private character, a purely honest man) that the two years, nearly ten times that amount was re- Government, as established by the present Conquired. Judging by this recent experience, it stitution, was too weak for the purposes for is not saying too much, that the passage of this which it bad been created, begun very soon to bill would add largely to the expenditure of pub-devise means of strengthening his own departlic money, and that it must be necessarily con-ment. I allude, Sir, to his famous reports on the sidered as affecting, in a very important degree, currency and a national bank-on manufactures the financial operations of the Government. In and protecting duties, and his funding system, the consideration, therefore, of this bill, an ex- one of the measures of which I have already examination of the revenue system itself, its pre-plained. In these reports he devised and shasent condition, and its bearing on the great in- dowed out the American System. He is, in terests of the country, is necessarily and greatly fact, its father; and his opinions are, on all ocinvolved. casions, triumphantly quoted by the tariff parI propose, then, to consider very briefly, the ty of the present day. Yet, Sir, he begun his

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system with much caution, knowing that, when members of the Virginia Legislature for words it had once taken root, like the silent, imper-spoken in debate, or for any of their public acts; ceptible progress of vegetation, it would, in the and directed, that whenever any such member lapse of years, acquire strength and hardiness. should be arrested, on such account, he should The duties which he at first recommended, be immediately set at large by the State authowere of so small amount that they could not be rities. The act was intended to prevent the considered as giving effect to a protecting prin- operation of the sedition law on the Virginia ciple, which he yet was dexterous enough to Legislature. This act was followed by the pashave acknowledged, in the preamble of the sage of the Virginia Resolutions of 1798, and first bill passed on this subject. The growth by the purchase of the Armory of Virginia, of the system devised by him, was gradual but which was bought to sustain, if need be, the steady, until it was interrupted by a political rights of the State and the liberties of the peorevolution, produced by a violation of the per-ple against the usurpations of the General Gosonal rights of the people, in the enactment of vernment. The course pursued by the Legisthe alien and sedition laws. And this revolu-lature was well understood in the other States, tion at once illustrates the truth of the remark at that time; and the resolutions of the Legismade by the honorable gentleman from South lature of Massachusetts, as well as of other Carolina, (Mr. DAVIS,) "that, in free govern- States, will show that the same arguments ments, personal rights need little protection, for were then urged against the Virginia measures, that they will protect themselves." which have of late been so generally urged, on

Whilst I am on this subject, I cannot forbear one side, in the various contests between the to state some well authenticated facts, which United States and the State of Georgia. The will set that political revolution in its true light. stand taken by the Virginia Legislature of I allude, not to the new light which has been 1798, was maintained by the Legislature of cast on the opinions of the men of that time, by 1799, and was illustrated by Madison's report the discovery of a fresh leaf in Jefferson's sy- and resolutions, which consummated the tribilline book, for which we have to thank the umph of constitutional liberty. The act secur honorable gentleman from S. Carolina, (Mr. ing the freedom of debate was re-enacted by DAVIS)-I allude, not to mere matters of opi- the Virginia Legislature of 1819, and again renion, but to well-authenticated facts, which have enacted under the amended constitution of that not been generally understood. State during the session of 1830. It now stands The passage of the alien and sedition laws, in on our State code, not a dead letter, but at in June and July, 1798, at once produced much once a living commentary on the doctrines of excitement in various parts of the United '99, and a pledge that Virginia will, whenever States, but no where so much as in Virginia. a great exigency demands her action, defend The Legislature of that State, which convened the liberties of her people. This, Sir, is a true in December, 1798, determined to oppose itself history: I leave it to others to point the moral. to these laws. That Legislature at once assum. The change of parties produced by the reed the position, that no arbiter had been created sistance of the alien and sedition laws, arrested in the Federal Constitution to decide between for a time the progress of Hamilton's system. the General Government and the States, in any The Berlin and Milan decrees, the British orcontests between them concerning the political ders in council, and the great struggle between powers which they might respectively claim; Great Britain and France, produced our war for and that, as the States were the original sove-"Free Trade and Sailors Rights." That war reigns that formed the compact of the Federal produced the rapid growth of the manufactur Government, it necessarily resulted, that when-ing interest in the United States. The adminever the creature of that compact exceeded its istration of Mr. Monroe was the era of the sepowers, in a palpable and dangerous violation of cond and more monstrous birth of Hamilton's, or the Constitution, the seperate States had the as it is now miscalled, the American System. I right to interpose to arrest the progress of the say the second and more monstrous birth; for impending evil, and to carve out the mode and the tariff and internal improvement are the twin measure of redress. That Legislature at once monsters, that like the Siamese Twins, stand proceeded to act on this principle, and to carve shoulder to shoulder, supporting each other, and out their mode and measure of redress. The whistling different parts of the same tune,tied tofirst measure of redress resorted to, was the together, too,by one unbilical cord, the division of passage of an act securing the freedom of speech which would produce their immediate dissolution. and of debate to the members of the Legisla- To drop all comparisons, every one now under. ture. The broad provisions of the sedition law, stands the double game which is played by the included within its penalties, all who, either by operation of the American System. The people speaking or writing, or in any other manner, not understanding distinctly the plan of indirect concerted opposition to the laws of Congress or taxation and protecting duties, or its effects upthe mesures of the Federal Government; and on themselves, are to be bought with their own these penalties attached as well to the members money expended on internal improvement. of the Legislatures of the different States, as to As even this alliance is found not to be strong individuals at their firesides, or in general meet- enough to effect the purposes of the friends of ings of the people. The act of Virginia to the system, they have further aided it, by drawing which I allude, imposed heavy penalties of fine other interests within the sphere of its influence and imprisonment on any who should arrest the and by buying up friends from all quarters, and