lapse of time this policy seems rather to have been inclined to take on the livery of party emulation—which shall excel the other in doing most to distribute the public lands among its political friends, many of whom had been in no engagement in the interminable Indian outbreaks and petty disturbances called wars, from the times of which the memory and the record evidence reacheth not to the contrary. Grant that this is all right and proper in itself, particularly as it will make all wars popular hereafter; yet it is difficult to agree that it was judicious to drop the policy with which we set out, as it may be at least plausibly surmised, that if it had been continued in waging our second war with England, and the recent war with Mexico, we should have greatly abridged the periods of those wars, and have incurred less bloodshed and expenditure any of these States; and they shall be protected in the free exercise of their respective religions, and be invested with the rights, privileges, and immunities of natives, as established by the laws of these States; and moreover, that this Congress will provide for every such person fifty acres of unappropriated lands, in some of these States, to be held by him and his heirs in absolute property.

Resolved, That the foregoing resolution be committed to the committee who brought in the report, and that they be directed to have it translated into German, and to take proper measures to have it communicated to the foreign troops.

The committee to whom the letter from Colonel Wilson was referred, brought in a report which was taken into consideration; whereupon Congress came to the following resolutions:

Congress proceeding to take into further consideration the expediency of inviting, from the service of his Britannic majesty, such foreigners as are engaged therein, and expecting that among the officers having command in the said foreign corps, there may be many of liberal minds, possessing just sentiments of the rights of human nature, and of the inestimable value of freedom, who may be prompted to renounce so dishonorable a service by the feelings of humanity, and a just indignation at the office to which they are devoted by an infamous contract between two arbitrary sovereigns, and at the insult offered them by compelling them to wage war against an innocent people who never offended them, nor the nation to which they belong, but are only contending for their just rights; and willing to tender to them also, as they had before done to the soldiers of their corps, a participation of the blessings of peace, liberty, property, and mild government:

Resolved, That this Congress will give to all such of the said foreign officers as shall leave the armies of his Britannic majesty in America, and choose to become citizens of these States, unappropriated lands in the following quantities and proportions, to them and their heirs in absolute dominion: to a colonel, 1,000 acres; to a lieutenant colonel, 800 acres; to a major, 600 acres; to a captain, 400 acres; to a lieutenant, 300 acres; to an ensign, 200 acres; to every non-commissioned, 100 acres, and to every other officer or person employed in the said foreign corps, and whose office or employment is not here specially named, in the like proportion to their rank or pay in the said corps; and moreover, that where any officers shall bring with them a number of the said foreign soldiers, this Congress, besides the lands before promised to the said officers and soldiers, will give to such officers further rewards, proportioned to the numbers they shall bring over, and suited to the nature of their wants: provided, that such foreign officers or soldiers shall come over from the armies of his Britannic majesty before these offers shall be recalled.

On the report of a committee consisting of Mr. Osgood, Mr. Wilson, Mr. Madison, Mr. Carroll, and Mr. Williamson, to whom was referred a memorial of Brigadier General Hazen, in behalf of himself, officers, and others, Canadian refugees:

Resolved, That the memorialist be informed that Congress retains a lively sense of the services the Canadian officers and men have rendered the United States, and that they are seriously disposed to reward them for their virtuous sufferings in the cause of liberty.

That they be further informed that whenever Congress can consistently make grants of land, they will reward, in this way, as far as may be consistent, the officers, men, and others, refugees from Canada.

On the report of a committee, consisting of Mr. Ellery, Mr. Monroe, Mr. Reed Mr. Wil

in every particular, not to say we could have bought out the government of Mexico by distributing prospectively her own lands among her own oppressed and degraded soldiery.

The general subject of land bounties may be subdivided under the following heads, viz: 1. Bounty lands granted for revolutionary services, and other considerations connectea with the revolutionary war.

2. Bounty lands granted to non-commissioned officers and soldiers for services in the war of 1812, in consideration of enlistments for five years, or during the war; including Canadian refugees, provided for after the war.

3. Bounty lands granted to non-commissioned officers, musicians, marines, &c., who served in the Mexican war.

liamson, and Mr. Spaight, to whom was referred a petition of Jonathan Eddy, and other refugees of Nova Scotia

Resolved, That Jonathan Eddy, and other refugees from Nova Scotia, on account of their attachment to the interest of the United States, be recommended to the humanity and particular attention of the several States in which they respectively reside; and that they be informed that whenever Congress can consistently make grants of land, they will reward in this way, as far as may be consistent, such refugees from Nova Scotia as may be disposed to live in the western country.

CHAP. 43. An act for the relief of the refugees from the British provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia.

APPROVED, APRIL 7, 1798.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, to satisfy the claims of certain persons claiming lands under the resolutions of Congress, of the twenty-third of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, and the thirteenth of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-five, as refugees from the British provinces of Canada and Nova Scotia, the Secretary of the Department of War be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to give notice, in one or more of the public papers of each of the States of Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania, to all persons having claims under the said resolutions, to transmit to the War office, within two years after the passing of this act, a just and true account of their claims to the bounty of Congress.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That no other persons shall be entitled to the benefit of the provisions of the act than those of the following descriptions, or their widows and heirs, viz: first, those heads of families, and single persons, not members of any such families, who were residents in one of the provinces aforesaid, prior to the fourth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-six, and who abandoned their settlements, in consequence of having given aid to the united colonies or States, in the revolutionary war against Great Britain, or with intention to give such aid, and continued in the United States, or in their service, during the said war, and did not return to reside in the dominions of the king of Great Britain prior to the twenty-fifth of November, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. Secondly, the widows and heirs of all such persons as were actually residents, as aforesaid, and died within the United States, or in their service, during the said war; and, thirdly, all persons who were members of families at the time of their coming into the United States, and who, during the war, entered into their service.

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the proof of the several circumstances necessary to entitle the applicants to the benefits of this act, may be taken before à judge of the supreme, or district court of the United States, or a judge of the supreme or superior court, or the first justice or first judge of the court of common pleas, or county court of any State.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, at the expiration of fifteen months, from and after the passage of this act, and from time to time thereafter, it shall be the duty of the Secretary for the Department of War to lay such evidence of claims, as he may have received, before the Secretary and Comptroller of the Treasury; and, with them, proceed to examine the testimony, and give their judgment, what quantity of land ought to be allowed to the individual claimants, in proportion to the degree of their respective services, sacrifices, and sufferings, in consequence of their attachment to the

4. Bounty lands granted for services in various Indian wars, from the year 1790, and for services in the war of 1812, and the war with Mexico, not provided for under the second and third foregoing heads.

We shall be as brief as practicable, consistently with perspicuity and method, in giving a mere synoptical reference to the different acts, and the rate of bounties they grant to the different grades, and durations of service, under these several heads.

1. For revolutionary service, &c.—By the resolution of 14th August, 1776, in retaliation of the invitation and compulsory measures of the British Government to induce our troops to desert our service, it was promised and promulgated, "that all foreigners who shall leave the service of his Britannic Majesty in America, and become members of any of these States, shall be protected in the free exercise of the rights, privileges, and immunities of the native citizens thereof; and "that this Congress will give to all such foreign officers and soldiers, as shall leave the armies of his Britannic Majesty in America, and become citizens of these States, unappropriated lands in the following quantities and proportions, viz:-(see note, p. xxvIII.)

To a Captain................................... 400

"

To a non-commiss'd officer. 100
And to all others in proportion, &c.

แ

And in pursuance of the resolutions of the 23d April, 1783, and the 7th April, 1798, lands were granted to Canadian and Nova Scotia refugees, distinguished into several classes, in the following proportions, viz:-(see note, p. xxix.)

1. To those of the first class, not exceeding 1,000 acres.

2. To those of the intermediate classes, according to prescribed rule.

3. To those of the last class, not exceeding 100 acres.

Under the several resolutions referred to below, officers and soldiers of the United States who served to the end of the war, were entitled to land bounty; and of those who never received the bounty during their lives, their representatives are entitled according to the subjoined rates:-(see the resolutions of Sept. 16, 1776; Sept. 18, 1776; Aug. 12, 1780; Sept. 22, 1780; and Oct. 3, 1780; pp. 299-300;) and for the forms of applications, &c., (see pp. 652-3-4.)

cause of the United States; allowing, to those of the first class, a quantity not exceeding one thousand acres; and to the last class, a quantity not exceeding one hundred; making such intermediate classes as the resolutions aforesaid, and distributive justice, may, in their judgment, require; and make report thereof to Congress. And in case any such claimant shall have sustained such losses and sufferings, or performed such services for the United States, that he cannot justly be classed in any one general class, a separate report shall be made of his circumstances, together with the quantity of land that ought to be allowed him, having reference to the foregoing ratio: Provided, That in considering what compensation ought to be made by virtue of this act, all grants, except military grants, which may have been made by the United States, or individual States, shall be considered, as the just value thereof at the time the same were made, respectively, either in whole or in part, as the case may be, a satisfaction to those who may have received the same: Provided, also, That no claim under this law shall be assignable, until after report made to Congress, as aforesaid, and until the said lands be granted to the persons entitled to the benefit of this act.

SEC 5. And be it further enacted, That all claims, in virtue of said resolutions of Congress, which shall not be exhibited as aforesaid, within the time by this act limited, shall forever thereafter be barred.

850 acres.

........... 500
LL
450

แ

To the Director of the Medical Department...... To the Chief Physician and Purveyor................................ To Physicians, Surgeons and Apothecaries....... To Regimental Surgeons, and assistants to Purveyor and Apothecary.. 400 To Hospital and Regimental Surgeons' mates........ 300 Such were the politic and liberal provisions conceived for locating our vacant public lands at that early day.

2. For the war of 1812, five years' service, or during the war, &c.-By the act of the 24th December, 1811, "for completing the existing military establishment," and by the act of 11th January, 1812, "to raise an additional military force, (the period of each of which acts, though commencing previously to the war, mainly transpired during the war,) also, by the act of the 20th January, 1813, "supplementary" to the act of December, aforesaid, each of the non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, who enlisted for "five years," or "for during the war," and were "honorably discharged,” and "the heirs of those who died or were killed whilst in the service," were promised land bounty of one hundred and sixty acres.

By the sixth section of the act of the 6th February, 1812, "authorizing the acceptance of certain volunteer corps for twelve months," the heirs or representatives of such of said volunteers as died or were killed whilst in the service, were promised a bounty in land of one hundred and sixty acres.

But, strange to say, the "twelve months' volunteers" who served out their engagements, and were discharged, were not entitled to bounty land, under the said act of the 6th of February, 1812, authorizing their enlistment.

And still stranger to say, the act of the 8th April, 1812, authorizing enlistments of men for "eighteen months," provided a bounty of sixteen dollars in money, but no bounty in land.

Nor did the act of the 29th January, 1813, "authorizing an additional force of twenty regiments to be enlisted for one year," provide a bounty of either money or land for the men who enlisted for the said term.

The act of the 10th December, 1814, however, “for making further provision for filling the ranks of the army," promised the double bounty of 320 acres to each of the noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates, who should enlist and serve in conformity with the provisions of said act; that is to say, who "shall have obtained from the commanding officer a certificate that he had faithfully performed his duty," &c.—(For this act see p. 310.)

By the act of the 5th March, 1816, for granting bounties in land and extra pay to certain Canadian volunteers, the said volunteers were entitled to land in the following proportions, respectively, viz:

To each Colonel......

..960 acres. To each Subaltern Officer.........480 acres.
..800 "
To each Non-commis'd Officer,

Musician, and Private...........320

To each Major........... To each Captain...................640 Also, to the Medical and other Staff, the like proportions, according to their rank. But by the act of 3d March, 1817, amending the said act of 5th March, 1816, the bounties in land so promised, were reduced one-half; and the said amendatory act expired by its own limitation on the 3d March, 1818, and was never after revived.-(See the Supplement, pp. 312, 315, 316, for the aforesaid acts of March 5, 1816, March 3, 1817, and March 27, 1818.)

And, in order to make it the more manifest how the provisions of the act of the 28th September, 1850, (presently to be noticed,) retrovert upon and supply the pretermissions of the aforesaid acts providing for the service of five years or during the war of 1812, it may well be assumed that, so far as the said act of 1850 provides for the com

missioned officers, &c., who served in the said war during various periods less than five years, it is supplementary to those acts.

3. For service in the war with Mexico, &c.-By the 9th section of the act of the 11th. February, 1847, "raising for a limited time an additional military force," 160 acres of land, or in lieu thereof scrip of $100, bearing interest, was promised, under certain regulations and restrictions, to non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, who should enlist in the regular army, or in volunteer corps, to serve in the war with Mexico. And by sundry supplementary acts those provisions were variously modified and extended, viz: by the resolution of the 24th March, 1848, the act of the 27th May, 1848, the act of the 10th July, 1848, and the act of the 10th August, 1848-for the abstracts of which the Index of those items, at page 785, might be consulted with advantage. And the act of the 28th September, 1850, so far as it makes provision for commissioned officers who served in the war with Mexico, may in like manner be considered supplementary to this act of the 11th February, 1847. Also, the act of the 22d March, 1852, in authorizing "assignments" of ALL military bounty land warrants, and admitting the time consumed in a soldier's travel to-and-fro to be taken into the computation of his term of service, may be regarded as supplementary to all previous acts whose provisions it enlarges.

4. For services in various Indian wars, since 1790; in the war of 1812; and in the war with Mexico, &c.-The 1st section of the act of the 28th September, 1850, provides bounty lands for the commissioned officers, &c., who served in the war of 1812, and in the war with Mexico, not provided for in the previous acts, at the rates of 160 acres, 80 acres, or 40 acres, according to their respective periods of service, from one to nine months, or over, computing the time that may have been spent in captivity of the enemy, as part of their term of service. It also provides in like manner the same rates of bounty for the similar grades of the army or volunteers who served for like periods in any Indian wars, since 1790. And the act of the 22d March, 1852, in authorizing "assignments" of bounty land warrants issued under this as under all other acts, and admitting the time consumed in a soldier's travel to-and-fro to be taken into the computation of his term of service, may in like manner be regarded as supplementary to this act of the 28th September, 1850.

It would be presently seen, as may well be anticipated now, from the sketch just given under this head, how perfectly homogeneous to one and the same division in the Pension Office, are all the matters appertaining to military bounty lands; but that exposition is deferred for a future occasion, should it be desirable.

VIRGINIA MILITARY BOUNTY LANDS.

It would not be doing full and entire justice to the subject of Bounty Lands granted for military services in general, if we did not also say something of the Virginia military bounty lands, which form so conspicuous a portion of federal legislation, although not constituting any part of the duties of the bounty land division of the Pension Office-those claims, arising out of the promises of Virginia to the officers, &c., of her own State line and navy of the revolutionary war, being executed partly at the land office of Virginia, at Richmond, and partly at the General Land Office, at Washington, totally disconnected with the pension office proper. Hence the military bounty land warrants issued at Richmond, and assumed for location by the United States on the Virginia reservations, according to the terms of her "deed of cession," formed an entirely different class of warrants from those arising out of the claims of her revolutionary officers, &c. of the continental establishment, which, in common with those of officers, &c. of other States on the continental establishment, constituted that immense class of revolutionary bounty land claims of officers, &c. of the continental establishment already referred to in summary under class "1. For revolutionary services," &c.