Memoirs of Aaron Burr Part 45

Your father,

A. BURR.

FROM DR. BENJAMIN RUSH.

Philadelphia, 24th September, 1792.

DEAR SIR,

This letter will be handed to you by Mr. Beckley. He possesses a fund of information about men and things. The republican ferment continues to work in our state; and the time, I think, is approaching very fast when we shall universally reprobate the maxim of sacrificing public justice and national grat.i.tude to the interested ideas of stock-jobbers and brokers, whether in or out of the legislature of the United States.

Your friends everywhere look to you to take an active part in removing the monarchical rubbish of our government. It is time to speak out, or we are undone. The a.s.sociation in Boston augurs well. Do feed it by a letter to Mr. Samuel Adams. My letter will serve to introduce you to him, if enclosed in one from yourself. Mrs. Rush joins me in best compliments to Mrs. Burr, with

Yours sincerely,

BENJAMIN RUSH.

TO MISS THEODOSIA BURR.

Westchester, 8th October, 1792.

--I rose up suddenly from the sofa, and rubbing my head--"What book shall I buy for her?" said I to myself. "She reads so much and so rapidly that it is not easy to find proper and amusing French books for her; and yet I am so flattered with her progress in that language, that I am resolved that she shall, at all events, be gratified.

Indeed, I owe it to her." So, after walking once or twice briskly across the floor, I took my hat and sallied out, determined not to return till I had purchased something. It was not my first attempt. I went into one bookseller's shop after another. I found plenty of fairy tales and such nonsense, fit for the generality of children of nine or ten years old. "These," said I, "will never do. Her understanding begins to be above such things;" but I could see nothing that I would offer with pleasure to _an intelligent, well-informed girl of nine years old_. I began to be discouraged. The hour of dining was come.

"But I will search a little longer." I persevered. At last I found it.

I found the very thing I sought. It is contained in two volumes octavo, handsomely bound, and with prints and registers. It is a work of fancy, but replete with instruction and amus.e.m.e.nt. I must present it with my own hand.

Your affectionate

A. BURR

Footnotes:

1. Major Prevost, who was a widower, and whose children were left in the care of Mrs. Burr while he made a voyage to England.

2. In the ninth year of her age.

3. Nephew of Colonel Burr

CHAPTER XVI.

The correspondence in the last chapter between Mr. and Mrs. Burr has been selected and published that the world may judge him as husband and parent, so far as his letters afford a criterion. As literary productions they cannot fail to interest and amuse.

On the 8th day of March, 1790, the legislature pa.s.sed an act appointing Gerard Bancker, treasurer, Peter Curtenius, auditor, and Aaron Burr, attorney-general, a board of commissioners to report on the subject of the various claims against the state for services rendered, or injuries sustained, during the war of the revolution. The task was one of great delicacy, and surrounded with difficulties. On Colonel Burr devolved the duty of making that report. It was performed in a masterly manner. When presented to the house, notwithstanding its magnitude, involving claims of every description to an immense amount, it met with no opposition from any quarter. On the 5th of April, 1792, the report was ordered to be entered at length on the journals of the a.s.sembly, and formed the basis of all future settlements with public creditors on account of the war. In it the various claimants are cla.s.sified; legal and equitable principles are established, and applied to each particular cla.s.s. The report occupies eighteen folio pages of the journals of the a.s.sembly. An extract from it is made, as justly meriting a place in this work.

The said report is in the words and figures following:----"The treasurer, the auditor, and the attorney-general, pursuant to the act ent.i.tled _An act to receive and state accounts against this state_, did forthwith, after the pa.s.sing of the said act, give such notice of their appointment and duties, and of the times and places for the execution thereof, and of the period by the said act limited for receiving and auditing claims, as is directed by the said act. And do herewith transmit to the legislature their report upon the accounts and claims against the state, which have been thereupon exhibited.

"The anxiety of the commissioners to render the execution of this trust useful and acceptable has occasioned a delay of some weeks; if their success in this attempt has been in any degree proportioned to their attention to the subject, it will furnish their excuse; indeed, when the legislature shall have seen the number, the variety, and intricacy of the matters which have been submitted to the consideration of the commissioners, it is hoped that a further apology will be thought unnecessary.

"The commissioners have endeavoured to reduce these various demands into cla.s.ses, in such manner as to present to the legislature, in one view, all which have appeared to depend on similar principles.

Notwithstanding their utmost attention to this object, they have found it necessary to report on a considerable number of single cases. As the authority under which they have acted required of them a state of facts, together with their opinion thereupon, whenever there was a want of uniformity either in the facts submitted or in the principles to be applied in the determination, they have thought that strict justice could not be done to the merit of the claim without a separate discussion, though this has tended to lengthen the report beyond what could have been wished, and to a degree which perhaps may in some instances be thought prolix, yet the commissioners supposed it of moment that their investigation should be not only satisfactory to themselves, but that it should be apparent to the citizens upon whose claims they have p.r.o.nounced, that each hath received a distinct attention, and that demands substantially different from each other have not been inconsiderately blended. If the perusal of the proceedings now submitted shall give an impression of this kind, it will, in the opinion of the commissioners, tend to produce a more cheerful acquiescence in the determination of the legislature, when that determination shall reject the demand, and prevent a revival of claims which shall now be extinguished. The commissioners have thought that these were desirable objects, and have therefore been cautious of generalizing, so as to destroy real distinctions, or suppress a fact even of the lightest importance.

"In order to preserve uniformity in their opinions, the commissioners have adopted certain principles, from which the hardship of any particular case hath not induced them to depart. The most general and important of these are,

"_First_. Where any species of claims is barred by an act of the legislature, they have considered the act as a bar to their investigation, farther than to ascertain it to be unquestionably within the meaning of the law. This principle will be found to extend to all claims for pay and rations alleged to be due for militia service; to most of the demands against forfeited estates; to all claims for property sequestered, when the sequestration was warranted by the resolutions of the convention and the authority of the commissioners; to all claims of payment of state agents' notes, and to some other particular cases, which will appear in the report. In support of this principle the commissioners have considered, that to sanction by their opinion the admission of claims against the spirit and letter of the statute would be an impeachment of the wisdom of those laws; would be arrogating an authority not exercised by, or permitted to, any court of law or equity, and would open a door to the importunate and perhaps least deserving cla.s.s of citizens, while others, having similar demands, had withdrawn them from a spirit of submission to the laws, by which these demands were precluded. The commissioners have been confirmed in the propriety of their ideas by a reflection that, if it shall for any reasons seem expedient to the legislature to repeal or suspend the limitation of these or any of those statutes, the avenues to redress will at once be open through the ordinary officers of the state, without farther legislative interposition; and that the opportunities of recompense would then be notorious and equal; but that the redress, if any should be obtained through the medium of the commissioners, would be partial in its operation, and to the exclusion of those who with equal merits had acquiesced in the known laws.

"_Second._ In the cases of claims for services done and supplies furnished during the war, when the demand, though originating under the authority of this state, is properly against the United States, the opinion of the commissioners is against the allowance of any recompense, because those claims should more properly be preferred to Congress; and for that this state can have no credit with the United States for payment or a.s.sumptions after the 1st day of October, 1788.

"And that, therefore, the claimants having neglected to exhibit their demands within the period during which this state could without loss have a.s.sumed them, cannot complain if they are now referred to the proper tribunal. Payments by the state were in such cases, at all times, of favour, and not of right.

"_Third._ All claims for the subsistence and services of the levies and militia, or other troops, composing a part of the continental army, or destined to join the army, and moving to such places of destination, or under the command or orders of a continental officer, and all claims for supplies and services beforehand for such troops, are considered as proper against the United States only, and are cla.s.sed accordingly; the commissioners have been led to a more strict attention to this distinction by the reasons just before mentioned, and are warranted by the practice of the continental commissioners for settling accounts, in declaring that such accounts and demands were proper against the United States.

"Principles of more limited operation, and other remarks, will appear in those parts of the report to which they apply.

"Explanatory of particular parts, and of the general form of the report, it may be proper to observe,

"That where the claim or account appears, upon the face of it, to be evidently against the United States only, or for other reasons palpably inadmissible, the commissioners have thought it would have been superfluous to state the proof, and have therefore, in those cases only, given such abstracts of the claim or account as suffice to render the exception apparent.

"In giving their opinion, the commissioners have not detailed all the reasons which led to it, but have given a summary of such as appeared to them most conclusive; and, as well in this as in stating the facts, have aimed at as much brevity as appeared to them to consist with perspicuity. If they shall be found in any instances obscure, a reference to the claim and proofs will probably elucidate them. When the claim is provided for by existing laws, the opinion of the commissioners refers the claimant to the mode pointed out by such law.

"Demands of different natures by the same person are placed under the head which comprises the greater demand. The claim and vouchers being in such cases usually contained in the same paper or annexed together, it was necessary so to place them in the report that there might be no confusion in the references.

"To produce facility in the review of these proceedings, the doc.u.ments referred to are all herewith delivered, and are in bundles, marked agreeably to the heads under which they are cla.s.sed.

"_Claims for Militia Pay._

[In the report a number of cases are here inserted.]

"By an act pa.s.sed the 27th of April, 1784, ent.i.tled _An act for the settlement of the pay of the levies and militia for their services in the late war, and for other purposes therein mentioned_, the mode in which the rolls and abstracts for pay and subsistence are to be made out and settled is particularly pointed out, and competent powers and directions for the liquidation of those accounts are thereby given to the treasurer and auditor."

"By the 14th section of an act pa.s.sed the 21st of April, 1787, ent.i.tled _An act for the relief of persons who paid money into the treasury, &c_., the aforesaid act of the 27th of April, 1784, is repealed. The commissioners consider this repeal as an exclusion of all further claims for pay and subsistence of the militia and levies.

They are constrained to adopt this opinion, not only from the obvious intention of the act, but because, by the absolute repeal of the act of the 27th of April, 1784, there remains no prescribed mode of authenticating these demands; that any rules which the discretion of the commissioners should lead them to adopt would have been unknown to the claimants, who could therefore have had no opportunity of adapting their demands to such rules; and because, if the legislature shall be disposed to direct compensations for such services, it will, in the opinion of the commissioners, be most properly effected by a revival of the said act of the 27th of April, 1784, with such further provisions and checks as may be thought necessary; or by some other general statute, to be pa.s.sed for those purposes, and which may give equal opportunities to the claimants, and place the liquidation and settlement of such demands in the hands of the ordinary officers of the state.

"_Claims for services, supplies, and losses, which, if admissible, can be made against the United States only._

[In the report details follow, and the commissioners remark]--

"The foregoing claims and accounts the commissioners conceive to be proper against the United States only. This is, in their opinion, sufficiently evident in most of the cases from a bare statement of the demands. Some few appear to require a more special report. The resolutions of Congress of the 7th of May, 1787, and 24th of June, 1788, relative to the settlement of accounts between the United States and individual states, will show the extent of the powers of the Continental Commissioners, and will serve to explain the opinions in such of the preceding cases as may appear to require farther ill.u.s.tration."

"_Claims for payment of State Agents' Certificates_.