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Table of the organization proposed for the peace establishment, with a view of its practicable extension in the event of war.

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The principles upon which this extension is made are: 1st. To double the rank and file of companies. 2d. Add a battalion consisting of eight companies to the regiment, with an additional lieutenant colonel. 3d. Promote the first lieutenants of the old companies to captaincies in the new battalion, and one of the second lieutenants of each of the old companies to first lieutenants in the new battalion. 4th. Assign half of the companies of the old battalion to the new one, and in the like manner receive half the companies of the new battalion into the old one.

1 regiment light artillery. 4 regiments foot artillery. 10 regiments infantry.

15 regiments.

2d Session.

No. 41.

ACCOUNT BETWEEN U. S. AND STATE OF MARYLAND. [To accompany Senate bill No. 305.]

JANUARY 30, 1855.

Mr. HIBBARD, from the Committee of Ways and Means, made the fol

lowing REPORT.

The Committee of Ways and Means, to whom was referred Senate bill No. 305, entitled "An act to direct a re-examination of the account between the United States and the State of Maryland," report:

That during the last war with Great Britain, the State of Maryland borrowed, on interest, certain sums of money, to be applied to the purchase of arms and ammunition, and to the equipment and pay of the militia called into service for the defence of the State. Soon after the close of the war, the State presented her claim against the government of the United States for the moneys so borrowed and applied. The claim, amounting to $436,000, was filed in the Treasury Department, investigated, and audited by the proper accounting officers.

It appeared, that between the 19th of June, 1813, and the 15th of August, 1814, inclusive, sums to the amount of $436,000 were, at different times, borrowed by the State, on interest, at the rate of six per cent., pursuant to a resolution of her legislature, passed May 29, 1813. The resolution was silent as to the purposes for which the money was to be raised. Of the sums so borrowed, it was evidenced, to the satisfaction of the department, that $279,626 54 had been expended by the State for the use and benefit of the United States. This sum was allowed to the State of Maryland. The residue of the claim not being shown to have been expended for purposes of the United States, was rejected. Interest on the sums appearing to have been thus expended, and on which the State had paid interest, was sought to be recovered, but was disallowed on the ground, then generally assumed by the government, that the United States would not pay interest except in cases where they had expressly contracted so to do. The amount found due was refunded to the State by instalments, commencing in October, 1818, and ending in December, 1821. It was allowed and paid in extinguishment of the principal, and was so received by Maryland. It may here be remarked that the State, though she complained of the rejection of the balance of her demand for the principal debt, has not since made, and does not now make, claim upon the United States for any part thereof as such.

It also appeared, that on the first day of January, 1817, the State

paid her whole debt for the moneys borrowed and expended as aforesaid, by a transfer to her creditors, at par, of stocks of the United States, then held by her, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent. It should, perhaps, be premised that the payment, by the State, of her debt, is not shown, by any direct proof exhibited to the committee, to have been by interest-bearing stocks, as above stated, but it was always so alleged by the claimants in the discussions which ensued, was never questioned by the United States, and appears to have been virtually admitted by the accounting officers. The committee, therefore, believe such to have been the fact, and have considered the case throughout upon that assumption.

Maryland continuing her claim for interest, Congress passed an act, approved May 13, 1826, entitled "An act authorizing the payment of interest due the State of Maryland." The first section of said act was as follows: "That the proper accounting officers of the treasury be, and they hereby are, authorized and directed to liquidate the claim of the State of Maryland for interest upon loans or moneys borrowed, and actually expended by her for the use and benefit of the United States during the late war with Great Britain."

The second section provided, "That in ascertaining the amount of interest due to the State of Maryland, the following rules shall be understood as applicable to and governing the case," to wit:

1. "That interest shall not be paid on any sum which Maryland has not expended for the use and benefit of the United States, as evidenced by the amount refunded or repaid to Maryland by the United States. 2. "That no interest shall be paid on any sum on which the State has not paid interest.

3. "That when the principal, or any part thereof, has been paid or refunded by the United States, or money placed in the bands of Maryland for that purpose, the interest on the sum or sums so paid or refunded shall cease, and not be considered as chargeable to the United States any longer than up to the time of the re-payment as aforesaid.” Under this act, on the 13th of June, 1826, the claim of Maryland was transmitted for settlement, by the treasurer of that State, to the office of the Third Auditor of the United States, then the late Mr. Peter Hagner.

Its heading was as follows:

"Dr. The United States, in account for interest, per act of 19th Congress, 1st session, with the State of Maryland.

“1826. June 15. For interest on $280,154 54, being so much of the money expended by Maryland for the use and benefit of the United States as said States have refunded, viz:" &c., &c.

The sum allowed, in fact, was $279,626 54, as before stated, instead of the amount set forth in this account.

The account, as stated, made due to Maryland "$163,361 38, with further interest on $127,335 71, from the 15th June, 1826, until paid."

The principle assumed by the State for the computation of the interest was, in the language of the treasurer of the State, "that which postpones any diminution of the capital on which the act allows interest to be computed until the sums refunded exceed, in amount, the interest

accrued at the times they were paid, and then to diminish it only to the extent of such excess."

The accounting officers of the treasury did not adopt this rule, but did adopt a method by which, when the United States had made a payment, by way of refundment, to Maryland, the interest was calculated at the rate of six per cent. up to the date of that payment and carried into the interest column; the amount refunded was deducted from the principal and the remainder formed a new sum, upon which interest was calculated until another payment was made, when the interest that had accrued in the mean time was again carried into the interest column, the amount refunded again deducted from the principal, and so on.

The Auditor also departed from the mode of settlement proposed by the State in this: that be allowed no interest after January 1, 1817, when Maryland paid her debt by the sale and transfer of her interestbearing stocks.

The amount of interest thus allowed was $66,563 22. It was received by the State, though under a protest from her legislature in the form of a memorial, addressed to Congress, to the effect that the mode of adjustment adopted was not "upon the principles of established usage and common justice," and asking, in substance, that a law might be passed authorizing such a settlement as the State desired. A similar claim has been asserted by acts and resolutions of her legislature at different times since said last-named adjustment. No further application in this behalf appears to have been made to the Treasury Department, except that in February, 1827, a member of the U. S. House of Representatives, from Maryland, in consequence of resolutions passed by her legislature, addressed a note to the Third Auditor of the Treasury, asking to be informed "wherein he had departed, if at all, from the rule in the adjustment and allowance of interest due the State of Maryland, from that observed in the like account with the State of Virginia." To this the Third Auditor replied that he was "not aware, in the settlement of the interest account of the State of Maryland, of having departed, in any respect, from the rule of allowance which governed in the adjustment of the interest account preferred by the State of Virginia." No other application or notice was made to that department until since the pendency of the present bill.

One or more agents of Maryland appear to have been at Washington for the purpose of urging her claim against the government for interes', at different times, during a period of several years, after the allowance of interest under the act of 1826, and prior to the introduction of this bill.

During the second session of the nineteenth Congress, February 5, 1927, the State made application, by memorial presented to the House of Representatives, for an additional allowance of interest on this same account. The memorial was referred to the House Committee of Claims. The committee, at the same session, reported adversely, and were discharged from the further consideration of the subject.

At the first session of the twentieth Congress, the State renewed her application by a resolution of inquiry, introduced in the House. On the 12th of March, 1828, the Committee of Claims, to whom the subject

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