[Extract.] NEW YORK, March 9, 1820. RESPECTED FRIEND: The letter you did me the honor to write on the 6th has been duly received. Be pleased to accept my thanks for the attention you have been so kind as to give to my case before Congress: it would have relieved my anxiety to have known that the letter from the Secretary of the Treasury to the contractors for the ten-million loan, dated the 2d May, 1814, (which you inform me had been reported to the Senate,) had been referred to the committee having under consideration my petition, as that would at once have convinced them that I do not rely on verbal explanation for any important point. I bottom my claim on positive rights, growing out of written contracts, the terms of which are, to my view, as plain and clear as the English language can define them. I aver that their sense and manifest meaning was perverted by Mr. Dallas, or the other officers of government who acted with him, and that the arm of power was exerted against me without the semblance of reason or justice; against which a citizen of this republic has no other protection than by an appeal to Congress; and if they will not do him justice, he must submit and suffer. For my rights, I point to the said letter of the 2d May, 1814; for the injustice done me, to the Comptroller's circular of the 30th November, 1814. These two documents are written evidences, and prove all I contend for as matter of right. The other point which the committee seem to think depended on verbal explanations, viz: that of connecting the two subjects together, had better be waived, than for the committee to suppose I wish them to go one step further in my favor than the evidence exhibited will warrant. I do not consider that exhibiting such connecting circumstances as must force conviction on the minds of the committee of the justice of my claim, can be deemed relying on verbal explanations. However, this point, in comparison with those proved by the two documents above mentioned, is so very unimportant, that I regret ever having urged it. The observation of Mr. Crawford, that the letter of the 2d May, 1814, was a circular to all the persons engaged in the loan, does not vary the question. Whether the letter was to one or a thousand, the obligations it contains are equally binding; it is a certificate of the terms agreed on, or, in other words, it is the contract itself. A similar one was made with all the persons supplying a portion of that loan. The advertisement reported by Mr. Crawford contains a promise to put them all on a footing; in compliance with that promise, similar contracts were made with all, varying only in the amount supplied by each; and this is called a circular to all. The term may be proper enough, but I do not perceive any object for introducing it, nor how it can be used to affect the question. Will you do me the favor to submit, informally, if you please, to the committee having charge of my petition, this letter, together with those I had the honor to address to yourself and Mr. Sanford, under date of the 27th and 29th of February, and to urge upon them that all I ask is, for the judges of the Supreme Court to pass on my rights, and not on the measure of favor which I am entitled to receive at the hands of government. The lan guage of the poor petitioner to the French king fits my case: "It is but justice I ask." Very respectfully, I am, your assured friend, The Hon. RUFUS KING. JACOB BARKER. To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress assembled: The petition of Jacob Barker, of the city of New York, respectfully showeth : That your petitioner represented to your honorable body, at the last session of Congress, that the late Secretary of the Treasury had put a construction on the contract for the ten-million loan at variance with the letter and spirit of the said contract, by which great injustice was done to your petitioner; which representation was referred to the honorable Secretary of the Treasury, who, in reporting thereon, did not notice the fact stated by your petitioner, that depreciated bank paper had been received at par for a portion of the twenty-five million loan; therefore, your petitioner begs leave to present to your honorable body the deposition of Dennis A. Smith, esq., from whom such paper was received, as evidence of that fact; also the certificate of Prime, Ward, & Sands, who are money-brokers and stock dealers of the first respectability in this city, of the value of such paper at the several periods when it was received by the Treasury Department; and, also, an extract from the opinion of the Hon. Brockholst Livingston, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the cases between the United States and your petitioner, on the bills of exchange in question, in which he declares that specie is the only currency known to our laws, and, therefore, that this should have formed the basis of calculation, and not depreciated and dishonored paper. The principle here decided would, of course, in a court of law, be equally applicable to all other branches of the loan contract. No citizen being allowed to call the United States into such a court, your petitioner confidently relies on the wisdom and intelligence of Congress, either to do him the same justice as would be there obtained, if he could have his rights decided in such a court, or to authorize a reference of the whole case to the Supreme Court of the United States. And your petitioner respectfully solicits from your honorable body an early consideration of his case, and such a decision thereon as its merits may demand; and your petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray. JACOB BARKER. Be it remembered, that on this sixth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty, at the city of Baltimore, before me, Lewis Eichilberger, a commissioner appointed by the circuit court of the United States for the district aforesaid, in the fourth circuit of the said United States, under and by virtue of the act of Congress entitled "An act for the more convenient taking of affidavits and bail in civil causes depending in the courts of the United States," personally appeared Dennis A. Smith, a witness for the defendant in a certain civil cause now depending in the district court of the said United States for the southern district of New York, wherein the United States of America are plaintiffs against Jacob Barker, and also a witness for the defendant in another civil cause depending in the said court, wherein the United States of America are plaintiffs, and Frederick Depeyster is defendant. And the said witness being by me first carefully examined, and cautioned, and sworn, to testify the whole truth, makes oath, deposeth, and saith, that he is aged thirty-nine years, and resides in Raltimore county, in the aforesaid State of Maryland; that, on or about the 30th of August, eighteen hundred and fourteen, he contracted with the then Secretary of the Treasury to loan to the United States the sum of one million eight hundred thousand dollars, being part of the twenty-five millions of dollars authorized to be borrowed by the act of Congress of the twenty-fourth of March, eighteen hundred and fourteen; for which sum, so to be loaned by deponent to the United States, he was to receive six per cent. stock to the amount of one hundred dollars for each eighty dollars paid; and it was further understood and agreed between the Secretary of the Treasury and him, (deponent,) that he (deponent) should pay for the same in paper of the banks of the District of Columbia, and of the banks of the city of Baltimore, which banks received their own paper at par; and it was further agreed, that, on producing the proper evidence of the payment of the said sum of one million eight hundred thousand dollars to the commissioner of loans of the United States, funded stock to the amount of one hundred dollars, bearing an interest of six per cent. per annum, should issue for each eighty dollars of the paper of the said banks so paid by deponent; that, in pursuance of such understanding and agreement, the deponent did so pay, in the paper of the said banks, the one million eight hundred thousand dollars aforesaid, and did receive therefor funded stock to the amount of two million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars; that the said banks, in whose paper this deponent paid the said one million eight hundred thousand dollars, did not, at the time deponent so paid, redeem their notes with specie; that the place of residence of deponent is more than one hundred miles from the southern district of New York, the place of trial of the aforementioned cause. D. A. SMITH. These are to certify, that the value of the notes of the several banks at Baltimore, and in the District of Columbia, was, in comparison with specie, on the 10th September, 1814, ten per cent. below par; on the 10th October, 1814, twelve per cent. below par; on the 10th November, 1814, twenty per cent. below par; and on the 10th December, 1814, it was twenty-four per cent. below par. PRIME, WARD, & SANDS. NEW YORK, December 14, 1820. Extract from the opinion delivered by his honor Judge Livingston, at a circuit court of the United States, held in the city of New York, in cases of the United States against Jacob Barker and others, brought up to that court from the district court, by writ of error, filed by the said Barker. "It is enough for the purpose of the plaintiff in error, that the difference in fact existed, and that bills of exchange could be bought on better terms for gold and silver than paper; this being the case, and specie being the only known legal tender for a debt, it is the opinion of this court that the district court erred in rejecting the testimony which was offered to show that bills on London could be bought, at the times referred to, at fifteen per cent. discount in specie. This testimony should have been received, and been the basis of the assessment of damages, and not the par of exchange merely, because bills were bought at that value, if paid for in depreciated and dishonored currency. For this error the judgment of the district court is reversed, and a venire facias de novo' awarded." All the payments of the ten-million loan were made in specie, or equivalent thereto. The policy of the contract made by Mr. Campbell was questioned by Mr. Dallas, and for that reason he attempted to overthrow it, by threatening to deprive the holders of stock in the ten-million loan, before half of the twenty-five millions had been contracted for, of all further benefit from the condition, by determining to require receipts in full on the payment of the difference between eighty and eightyeight. The parties refused, and then he determined to issue it to those who held the stock at a subsequent period, in the hope that they would receipt in full. And while the officers of the treasury were preparing to execute their scheme, Mr. Barker, by the recommendation of Messrs. Epps and Golston, members of Congress from Virginia, applied to President Madison on Saturday, after the Secretary had sent the notice to the National Intelligencer for publication, to interpose his authority, and prevent the infliction of so deep a wound on the faith and honor of the administration. Mr. Golston's remark was, that he had rather pay one thousand dollars from his own pocket than to see such a mark of injustice and oppression practised by the government. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, November 19, 1814. SIR: Enclosed you will receive a copy of the opinion of the Attorney General on the legal construction of the contract or contracts made by the late Secretary of the Treasury on the 2d of May, 1814, for the loan of ten millions of dollars, and of a notification issued from this office, founded upon it. I beg leave to request that you will cause the necessary instructions to be given to the several commissioners of loans for issuing the addi tional stock, conformably to the opinion of the Attorney General, and to the said notification. I am, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, The COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. A. J. DALLAS. FEBRUARY 13, 1834. I certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the original on file in the office of the Comptroller of the Treasury. N. B. VAN ZANDT. On Sunday Mr. Dallas informed Mr. Barker that he had altered his mind about requiring receipts in full, and recalled the notice from the printer. The following letters establish the success of the application to Mr. Madison: NOVEMBER 21. Mr. Dallas, late on Saturday, directed the measures for completing the execution of the contract relating to the ten-million loan to be suspended. The Comptroller is requested not to issue the instructions to the commissioners of loans, until further advised on the subject. D. S. FEBRUARY 13, 1834. I certify the foregoing is a true copy of the original on file in the office of the Comptroller of the Treasury. N. B. VAN ZANDT. [Extract.] TREASURY DEPARTMENT, November 22, 1814. SIR: Of the Attorney General's opinion, and the views submitted to the President, you have copies. It is only necessary to add, that all the subscribers to the ten million-loan are placed on the same footing with respect to the instalments actually paid; that the Attorney General's opinion is to be carried into effect, so far as respects the persons entitled to the supplemental stock; but that it is not deemed proper to insist upon a release before the supplemental stock is delivered. In this last respect the government will act upon its rights, without claiming any concession from the creditors which might hereafter be considered a sacrifice on their part. I am, very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, N. LUFFBOROUGH, Esq., LAS. Acting Comptroller. |