REMARKS ON THE HALF-PAY ACTS. THE RISE AND PROGRESS

OF THE REVOLUTION. THE END, ETC.

ON reference to the act of October 21, 1780, and other subsequent acts, it will be perceived that the Continental Congress created a national debt for the purpose of carrying on a war waged against the country for the purpose of bringing it into unconditional subjection to a foreign tyrant. This national debt was made due and payable to all military officers who would espouse the cause of the country, engage in the war, and continue therein to the end.

The Revolutionary war, in opposition to the encroachments of Great Britain on the civil rights of the American Colonies, commenced on the 19th April, 1775, by the shedding of human blood at Lexington, in the State of Massachusetts, and finally closed with the evacuation of New York by the British, on the 25th November, 1783. As the news of war spread with the velocity of the hurricane, it roused the energies of the soul to the highest tone of feeling, and to deeds of the most lofty action. The lawgiver left the senate-house, the lawyer the court, the judge the bench, the mechanic his shop, the husbandman his plough, and rushed forward to the seat of danger; while the wild war-cry of vengeance took the wings of the tempest.

The time had come when all must "hang together" in one common cause, or else "hang separately." They hung together, cemented by the great principle, that, "Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of its ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it." The bright star of victory led them onward and onward, through the dark shades of war, casting light and hope athwart the path of the war-worn American soldier.

On the 6th July, 1775, the Provincial Congress announced its intention to resist Great Britain in the following words: “We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an unconditional submission

to the tyranny of wicked ministers, or resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary slavery."

On the 4th of July, 1776, the same Congress, within hearing of the fierce thunders of war, declared that these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent. But where now was the revenue of the country? How shall this infant nation procure the means of driving from her soil her cruel invaders? A well-fed, numerous, and powerful foe were about taking possession of the strong-holds of the country to awe into subjection the patriot army. Commerce had already been driven from her harbors, and her vessels captured and plundered on the high seas. "Appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of her intentions," she sent forth Commissioners "in the name and by the authority of the good people of these United Colonies" to negotiate loans from friendly powers, to replenish the military chests of the country, and provide the means of war. Means were provided, plans of operation were matured, the war went on, and patriots flocked to the standard.

On the 16th September, 1776, Congress promised land. This encouraged enlistments, increased the ranks, and new light enlightened the cause. This land, however, was promised for services to the end of the war; but distant as the reward appeared, thousands, hoping to realize it, left private fortunes to suffer at home, and came up to the aid of the nation.

The war progressed. Dark clouds often hung over and obscured the American cause. The patriot army were often found fleeing before a dark and powerful British host, yet sullen and dangerous in its flight. By deeds of daring, sanguinary battles, and miraculous escapes from destruction, the American army, still bearing her cause in characters of blood on her banners, reached the eventful period of 1780.

In the spring of this year, a great portion of the army, whose terms of enlistment for three years had expired, were about to leave the army, and abandon the cause of liberty as hopeless. Time had not yet obliterated the remembrance of the gloomy encampment at

Valley Forge. Traitors were abroad in the land, who, with the insidious tory, conducted fearful conspiracies against the cause of liberty. Officers could not maintain themselves with proper decency in the service, and resignations, actual and threatened, were frequent, much dreaded, and deplored. The enemy, ever vigilant and active, conspired to weaken and thin the American ranks by encouraging desertion. The arch-traitor and prototype of the infamous Catiline, had raised his arm to blast forever, with one fell swoop, the struggling germ of liberty in America; but that "Supreme Judge of the world," to whom the voice of patriotism had ascended for the justice of its intentions, in mercy averted the blow, and hurled the fiend and his foul instrumentality in fury down, and the same army, which had been made the devoted object of destruction, halted at Tappan, and suspended between heaven and earth the deluded instrument by which the downfall of liberty had been attempted.

Amid those impending evils, the Commander-in-Chief, prolific in expedients, suggested a remedy as follows: "I have no scruple in declaring that I most firmly believe the independence of the United States never will be established till there is an army on foot for the war."

On the 21st of October, 1780, seventeen days after those words were penned, Congress resolved: "That the officers who shall continue in service to the end of the war shall be entitled to half-pay during life, to commence with the time of their reduction." Here Congress entered into a solemn contract with the officers of the army, and on the faith of the Colonies therein represented, created a national debt, which could not be annulled, or discharged by any subsequent legislation, except by an act giving a full and perfect equivalent for the half-pay for life. As the value of an annual salary cannot be calculated in the lifetime of the annuitant, no equivalent therefore can be rendered for it. Some officers did by their memorial solicit a commutation of their half-pay for an equivalent, but Congress, by its act of March 22, 1783, reserved to itself the power of determining that equivalent; and as no equivalent could be equitably calculated, the memorial of the officers should have

been rejected, as a proposition admitting of no equitable grounds of action. The officers asked for a fish, but Congress gave them a stone. They received as the commutation of their half-pay securities on interest, which they supposed to be a fish, but when offered for sale, brought only the price of a stone, and therefore must have been the equivalent of a stone. It is true the officer thankfully received his commutation certificate, thinking that in the worst view of the case he ought to get for it the full value, less the interest, that would accrue. But Congress fixed no time for the payment of those certificates. The officer carried about in his pocket a certificate from the Continental treasury stating that five years' full pay, with interest, from November 4, 1783, was due him, which he offered for sale. But, says the capitalist, when is it to be paid, and by whom? Some military leader may spring up and plunge the country into another war. The stock is unsafe.

These certificates, immediately after their issue, sank in value, and at once reached a depreciation of eight dollars for one in specie; and from the close of the war in 1783 to the organization of the government under the new constitution in 1787, no man could tell how or when those certificates were to be redeemed. In 1790 and 1791, they were funded in a stock bearing three per cent. interest, and were finally paid in full by the government, but not until the officer had lost all his interest in them, by circumstances brought about by the condition of his country, over which he could have no control.

As the commutation act of March 22, 1783, was a failure, and did not discharge any legal obligations entered into by Congress, it therefore becomes the duty of the country to revive the half-pay acts of the Continental Congress, and restore to the revolutionary officer, his heirs, or legal representatives, the benefits of the original contracts. Petitions for the revival of these half-pay acts have been before Congress ever since 1790. Congress having restored some officers to the benefits of the act of October 21, 1780, by special acts of August 11, 1790, and subsequently, a precedent is formed for the others. But it may be said that the act of August 11, 1790, was a pension act alone. This could not have been the