2d Session.

OFFICERS, &c. OF VIRGINIA LINE, REVOLUTIONARY ARMY.

MARCH 3, 1831.

Read, and laid upon the table.

Mr. WICKLIFFE, from the Committee on the Public Lands, to which the subject had been referred, made the following

REPORT:

The Committee on the Publie Lands was instructed by the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 6th January "to inquire into the expediency of amending the act of Congress, passed at the last session, entitled "An act for the relief of certain officers and soldiers of the Virginia line and navy of the continental army during the revolutionary war," so as to change or alter the first section as not to require evidence as to the line on which the resolution warrant of Virginia issued; also, to amend the third section so as to embrace cases where warrants have been located, and surveys or patents prohibited by law, by which the land is lost to the locator; also, to cases of surveys or patents, where, by the highest judicial tribunal of the State or United States, the land has been taken by a prior or better claim; also, to provide for the renewal of lost or destroyed certificates or scrip; also, to change the maximum quantity of land allowed to be appropriated by the said act, to supply the claims embraced by said act; lastly, to make such alterations as the said committee may consider just and equitable."

The committee has deemed it inexpedient to legislate upon any one of the subjects embraced in the said resolution at this time. As to that portion of the resolution which proposes to amend the 3d section of the act of last session, the committee is decidedly of opinion that the act should not be enlarged in its provisions so as to embrace the class of cases indicated.

The act of the last session, as it passed the Senate, had for its object the satisfaction of about 200 acres of land warrants, due to and principally own-ed by the heirs of the officers and soldiers of the Virginia State line, which, in consequence of the mistake in the deed of cession by Virginia to the United States, of the land northwest of the Ohio river, had been unprovided for, and which claims addressed themselves forcibly to the justice of Congress. These warrants or claims for bounty lands were principally in the hands of the original proprietors or their heirs, and could not be located upon any land since June, 1792. They had not, therefore, become the objects of speculation, or of fair barter and sale, to any great extent. The bill was amended in the House of Representatives, so as to include the unsatisfied warrants which had been issued or which were due to the officers and soldiers of the Virginia line upon continental establishment, and to the officers

and soldiers of the line of the continental army, arising under the acts of the 'revolutionary Congress. It is doubted whether this alteration and ame: dment of the bill by the House of Representatives was not an act of hasty and unadvised legislation. The effect of it has been to increase in the hands f purchasers of these land warrants at a cost not exceeding $20 in the hur dred acres, the value thereof to $125 the hundred acres. If the amour unsatisfied which has already been presented to the Department could hav been foreseen, it is confidently believed the amendment of the House a Representatives would not have obtained. For the satisfaction of these warrants, there had been set apart districts of country in the State of Ohio, after the deed of cession by Virginia. Prior to 1792, the bounty land wa rants due either to the Virginia State troops, or troops of Virginia on the continental line, could have been located in Kentucky. Millions of acres upon the two lines had been there located prior to 1792, and other millions due the Virginia troops upon the continental establishment have been located in the State of Ohio before and since the act of cession by Virginia to the United States. These locations upon both lines were, when made, or since have become, mostly the property of others. In many instances, both in Kentucky and Ohio, the locations and surveys upon military land warrants have been made to interfere. They have been, and are yet the subjects of much litigation and speculation. If any locations have not been surveyed, the fault has been that of the proprietors, and not of the Government of Kentucky, where the locations were made. In that State, ample time has been afforded by the Legislature, from time to time, to make the surveys, and to obtain patents from the Commonwealth. It is believed by the committee, that, owing to some cause, whether to the ignorance of the warrant holder, or a desire knowingly to appropriate land which had been previous ly located, thousands upon thousands of acres appropriated in virtue of warrants on both lines have been made to interfere, and consequently a loss has been sustained by some one, but it is believed that such loss has seldom fallen upon the soldier or his representatives. Most generally the loss has happened to those who were the purchasers of those warrants or claims for a very inadequate consideration paid the original proprietors.

If the law should be so amended as to embrace cases where patents have not been issued, or where surveys have not been made in Kentucky, or where the land has been lost by the decision of the courts of the State or nation, in consequence of conflicting claims, it would be difficult for the committee to conjecture the amount of land it would take to meet the claims thus described.

The committee believe such an alteration of the law would tend to a continuation of that system of land speculation which those bounty land claims have ever invited, and that no wisdom of legislation would be equal to guard against the frauds which might be perpetrated upon the interests of the Government.

There exists no legal claim against the Government of the United States in favor of any former or present holder of these bounty land warrants thus situated. No circumstance is presented to the consideration of the committee which favors them, when pressed upon the equity or generosity of Congress. The committee, therefore, recommend for adoption the following

resolution:

Resolved, That legislation upon the subject is inexpedient.

2d Session.

INFANTRY TACTICS, &c.

JANUARY 10, 1831.

Read, and laid upon the table one day for consideration.

Mr. THOMPSON, of Georgia, submitted the following

RESOLUTION:

Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to communicate to this House what measures have been taken to carry into effect the provisions of an act providing for the printing and binding sixty thousand copies of the Abstract of Infantry Tactics, including Manoeuvres of Light Infantry and Riflemen, and for other purposes, approved the second day of March, 1829.

2d Session.

DISTRIBUTION OF SURPLUS REVENUE.

JANUARY 29, 1831.

Mr. MARTIN submitted the following, which, when the report of the Committee on the Distribution of the Surplus Revenue shall be taken up for consideration, he will move as

AN AMENDMENT:

Resolved, That the power of taking money from the people, by laying and collecting duties, imposts, and excises, is one of the most sacred of the trusts vested in governments; that it is conferred solely to enable them to command the necessary means to execute the objects for which they were instituted; and that, to exact money from the people when not necessary for those objects, or more than may be necessary, would be, on the part of the Government, a manifest breach of trust, and to the people unjust and oppressive.

Resolved, That the General Government was created by the people of the States for certain general objects, to execute which particular and specific powers, enumerated in the Constitution, were conferred on it, and, among others, the power of laying and collecting taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, which, like the other powers, was conferred solely as means for effecting the common objects entrusted to the Union; and that, for the General Government to collect taxes, to distribute the proceeds among the several States, would be in fact to acknowledge that the money is not neces sary for those common objects, and would, therefore, be not only unjust and oppressive, but a direct and palpable violation of the Constitution itself.

Resolved, That, to collect money to be distributed among the States must, in its consequences, put to hazard all the objects for which the General Government was formed, as it would necessarily create in all the States powerful factions, whose object would be to obtain a control over the sums distributed, and whose influence would be directed to increase the surplus to be distributed, by arresting or demolishing the appropriations of the General Government, however constitutional or proper they might be, while they would be under the most direct and powerful influence to sustain the General Government as a mere engine for the unconstitutional, unjust, and oppressive purposes of collecting money from the people, for an object never contemplated by the framers of the Constitution, and wholly inconsistent with the purposes for which it was created.

Resolved, therefore, That, to distribute the surplus revenue among the States would be unjust, unconstitutional, oppressive, and dangerous to the General Government; and that the only plan that can be devised, that will be at once economical, just, constitutional, and safe, is, by a reduction of the taxes, to leave the money not necessary for the purposes of the Government in the pockets of those who make it.