36TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. ( REPORT C. C. 2d Session. No. 261. RICHARD S. COXE, ADMINISTRATOR OF ANNA GIBSON. DECEMBER 18, 1860.-Reported from the Court of Claims, committed to a Committee of the Whole House, and ordered to be printed. The COURT OF CLAIMS submitted the following REPORT. To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: The Court of Claims respectfully presents the following documents as the report in the case of RICHARD S. COXE, ADMINISTRATOR OF ANNA 1. The petition of the claimant, brief and supplemental petition. 2. Extract from proceedings of the accounting officers under act of February 12, 1793. 3. Solicitor's brief, with appendix. 4. Opinion of Judge Scarburgh, adverse to the claim. 5. Opinion of Judge Loring, concurring. 6. Opinion of Judge Hughes, dissenting. By order of the Court of Claims. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said court, at Washington, this 17th day of December, A. D. 1860. [L. S.] SAM'L H. HUNTINGTON, Chief Clerk Court of Claims. IN THE COURT OF CLAIMS. RICHARD S. COXE, ADMINISTRATOR OF ANNA GIBSON, DECEASED, vs. THE UNITED STATES. Petition, &c. The petition of Richard S. Coxe, of the city and county of Washington, D. C., the administrator of Anna Gibson, deceased, respectfully showeth : That his intestate was the widow of Colonel George Gibson, who served under General A. St. Clair in the diastrous campaign against the Indians in the year 1791. In the course of this unfortunate expedition Colonel Gibson, fighting gallantry for his country, received a mortal wound, from the effect of which he shortly after died, leaving your petitioner's intestate his widow and several young children. Your petitioner further showeth that on the 12th February, 1793, an act of Congress was passed entitled "An act relative to claims against the United States not barred by any statute of limitations, and which have not been already adjusted." (1 Stat., 301.) By this act it was provided that all claims upon the United States, enumerating those of several descriptions, which had not already been barred by any statute of limitations, and "which shall not be presented at the treasury before the first day of May, 1794, shall be forever barred, &c.;" provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to effect loan office certificates, &c. The second section of this act provided "that it shall be the duty of the Auditor of the Treasury to receive all such claims aforesaid as have not been heretofore barred by any act of limitations as shall be presented before the time aforesaid, with the certificates or other documents in support thereof, and to cause a record to be made of the names of the persons and of the time when the said claims are presented; which record shall be made in the presence of the person or persons presenting the same, and shall be the only evidence that the said claims were presented during the time limited by this act. tion 3 enacts that it shall be the duty of the accounting officers of the treasury to make report to Congress upon all such of the said claims as shall not be allowed to be valid according to the usual forms of the treasury. Sec In conformity with the provisions of this statute, an elaborate report was made on the cases thus required to be presented to the treasury, by R. Harrison, the Auditor, and addressed to 0. Wolcott, Comptroller of the Treasury, bearing date January 19, 1795, which was examined, considered, and admitted by the Comptroller January 20, 1795, and certified on the 22d of January, 1795, by Joseph Nourse, Register, as on file in his office. This document, with the certificate of the above-mentioned officers of the department, was transmitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury, under date of the 23d of December, 1795. The whole will be found at length in Gales and Seaton's edit. of the State Papers, title "Claims," pp. 172, &c. From this document it appears that on the 30th of March, 1794, and consequently within the time limited by said act of Congress, Anna Gibson, your petitioner's intestate, did present, through John Nicholson, at the treasury of the United States, " continental bills of old emission" to the amount of $27,235. The Auditor, in his detailed report upon these claims, places this particular one in class No. 7, (see above-cited volume, p. 174,) and, in reference to them, observes: "This class is composed of three claims presented by John Nicholson, all of which are founded on bills of credit issued by the government, commonly called bills of the old emis เ sion. For these Mr. Nicholson claims payment at par-that is, one specie dollar for one dollar in paper. The only provision hitherto made for this species of paper is by the act of Congress of the 4th of August, 1790, entitled An act making provision for the debt of the United States.' How far it may comport with justice to make provision on different principles for the particular cases now under consideration, is a question proper for the decision of Congress." The act of Congress of August 4, 1790, thus referred to, (1 Stat., 138,) fully recognized the obligation on the part of the United States to pay the full amount of such certificates of debt, with interest at the rate of six per centum per annum; and the preamble is couched in these strong, emphatic, and honorable words: "Whereas justice and the support of public credit require that provision should be made for fulfilling the engagements of the United States in respect to their foreign debt, and for funding their domestic debt upon equitable and satisfactory terms." It would seem that Congress never acted upon the suggestion made in the report of the Auditor above quoted, and the position of Mrs. Gibson (left a widow with several young children) prevented her from availing herself of the advantageous terms proposed by the government, so that the debt due to her has never been paid either in whole or in part. It is now asked that payment of principal and interest, according to the terms of the original obligation, may now be made. to her representatives. Mrs. Gibson, at her death, left three children-Francis, the eldest, formerly of Perry county, in Pennsylvania, who is now dead; George, now a general in the army of the United States; and John B. Gibson, late chief justice of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, now deceased. General Gibson is therefore the sole surviving representative and child of his mother, and, as such, she having died intestate, exclusively entitled to administration upon her estate. At the special instance and request of General Gibson, letters of administration upon the estate of his mother have been granted to your petitioner, who, in that capacity and as the sole legal representative of the said Anna Gibson, now presents this claim before your honorable court. RICHARD S. COXE, In pro. per. Of Counsel with Claimant. Be it remembered that on this thirteenth day of November, in the year 1856, personally appeared before the subscriber, a notary public in and for the county and District aforesaid, duly appointed and qualified, Richard S. Coxe, the claimant in the foregoing petition named, who, being duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that the facts set forth and the averments made in said petition are true, to the best of his knowledge and belief. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and fixed my [L. S.] notarial seal, on the day and year first before written. B. P. SMITH, Notary Public. IN THE COURT OF CLAIMS. RICHARD S. COXE, ADMINISTRATOR OF ANNA GIBSON, DECEASED, US. THE UNITED STATES. Brief of petitioner. In the petition originally filed in this case a statement was made presenting the circumstances under which the individual whose name appears on the record as the claimant was personally introduced as the acting party in the case. It was at the special instance and request of General George Gibson, the well-known veteran soldier, now the only surviving issue of his mother, and consequently alone entitled to letters of administration on her estate, that the present claimant asked for and procured such letters upon the estate of the late Anna Gibson. He therefore is acting in a fiduciary character, bound to prosecute all just claims of his intestate, under an equally imperative obligation to account for all his proceedings, responsible to those whose interests have been intrusted to his care for all that may actually come into his hands, and for everything in the shape of property which by the exercise of due diligence he might have received. It is with a due appreciation of this high responsibility, and with the most sincere and full conviction of the justice of the claim, that your petitioner presents himself before this honorable court, asking nothing more than strict law authorizes him to demand, and what the nation's honor is pledged to afford. Colonel George Gibson was an officer in the army of the United States, serving under General St. Clair, in the disastrous campaign against the Indians in the year 1791. In this unfortunate expedition, which resulted in the defeat of the troops under the command of that meritorious officer, Colonel Gibson received a wound which proved to be mortal. Dying in the discharge of his duty to his country, which he had performed with the utmost gallantry, as recorded in the history of the times, he left your petitioner's intestate a lonely widow with a family of young children-Francis, the eldest child, formerly of Perry county, in Pennsylvania, long since deceased; George Gibson, now by brevet a major general in the army of the United States and commissary general; and John B. Gibson, late chief justice of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It would be a work of supererogation before this court to dilate upon the personal character of the two last named individuals-these worthy sons of a worthy father. The one is identified with the military history of his country, and has won by his services the high rank which he now enjoys. The name of the other illustrates the judicial history of his country, and especially that of his native State, from the highest position on its highest tribunal he so long administered the law. As has been already intimated, Colonel Gibson at his death left a widow and three young children. They were thrown upon the world, deprived of their natural protector and guardian. The widow appears to have been the proprietor of a considerable |