Reports of Committees

try became embarrassed, especially after the capture of Washington, the draughts of Commodores Chauncey and McDonough in payment of their previous disbursements were protested for non payment, and lay over for a long time. At other times the draughts were withheld or delayed for the purpose of avoiding the protest as detrimental to the credit of the service.

Messrs. Walton and De Graff were ultimately obliged to receive Treasury notes in payment, instead of the current money of the city of New York, where the draughts were payable; these notes being then at a depreciation below other current paper much exceeding the amount of the commission allowed them as agents.

They were, in consequence of the same disappointments of regular payments, compelled, in order to prevent the utter failure of their contract, the execution of which was of vital importance to the defence of the nation, as well as to their own credit, to make large loans from several banks of the State, on their own personal credit, on which interest to a considerable amount was paid by them, before they were relieved by payment in Treasury notes. All the facts alleged by the petitioners are supported by very full and clear documentary evidence-as the letters of Secretary Jones, Commodore I. Chauncey, the Superintendent of transportation, the protests of the draughts, the certificate of Mr. Ecktor, those of the officers of various banking companies, through which the business was transacted, and of other persons concerned in the management of these transactions. Most of these persons are well known to some of this committee as men of high standing and intelligence, and the evidence and character of others are supported by the certificates of Mr. Dudley, of the Senate, General Van Rensselaer, of the last, and Mr. Arnold, of the present House of Representatives.

Application has been repeatedly made at the Treasury, for allowance for these losses, but without success, from the want of authority in the Department, though the equity of the claim has never been denied. The expectation of some precedent being settled for the adjustment of such losses, or of a general law being passed for allowing the depreciation upon Treasury notes, induced a longer postponement.

The Committee of Ways and Means have at this session been instructed to inquire into the propriety of passing a general bill providing relief for such cases, but, upon deliberate investigation of the subject, they became satisfied of the extreme difficulty of passing any such general law, which would not open the door to great frauds, and thus were in consequence discharged by the House from the further consideration of the subject.

The petitioners can, therefore, obtain relief only by a special act. Their claim, amounting in the whole to a sum between 20,000 and 24,000 dollars, is composed of various items, depending upon the calculation of interest and discounts, the relative depreciation of Treasury notes bearing interest with current money at given times, all which can be adjusted far better by an accounting officer of the Treasury, than by Congress or its committees.

As the several draughts and payments ought, when due, to have been paid in the money then current at par in New York, which, though beneath the par of specie, was much less so than the Treasury notes, this difference seems to be the equitable rule of compensation for the non-fulfilment of the contract by the Government. This was the principle upon which several similar cases have been settled, and is specially recited in the act for the relief of James Bryers, 7 Laws of the United States, 202. It is also in strict

analogy with the rule of damages settled by the Supreme Court of the United States, that, in breach of contract of sale, the measure of damages is the value of the article at the time of breach. 3 Wheaton, 200. 6 Wheaton, 109.

The committee have therefore agreed to report a bill authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to settle the claim of the petitioners upon the above principles.

1st Session.

EXPENDITURES-STATE DEPARTMENT.

APRIL 27,

1830.

Read, and laid upon the table.

Mr. EARLL, from the Committee on the Expenditures of the State Department, made the following

REPORT:

The Committee on the Expenditures of the State Department, report:

That, in the discharge of the duties assigned them, they commenced their examinations with the year 1828. The report of a former committee, made to the House of Representatives, on the fifth day of April, 1828, embraced the disbursements of the State Department up to the first day of January of that year. They have confined their examinations to the years 1828 and 1829. They herewith present a general statement of the expenditures of the Department of State for each of those years. Accompanying this report is a letter from the Register of the Treasury, marked A. Also, a general abstract of accounts, rendered by William Browne, late agent of the Department of State, from January 1st, 1828, to May 2d, 1829, marked B. And also, a general abstract of accounts, rendered by W. C. H. Waddell, the present agent of the Department of State, from the 2d of May, 1829, to the first of January, 1830, marked C.

The committee have examined the accounts of these expenditures, as far as they judged necessary. The accounts appear to the committee to be correct, according to the general abstracts herewith presented.

1828, Jan. 1.