2d Session. No. 66. ABNER MERRILL. [To accompany bill H. R. No. 720.] FEBRUARY 2, 1855. Mr. HENDRICKS, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions, made the following REPORT. In The Committee on Invalid Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Abner Merrill, of the State of Maine, find that he served in the war with Great Britain in 1812, and while in the line of hist duty received an injury that entirely disabled him for work. 1834 he was placed upon the pension list; since that time he has gradually grown worse, until, as is testified by two physicians, he is entirely disabled. Your committee, therefore, respect fully report a bill for an increase of pension from four dollars to eight dollars per month, and recommend its passage. 2d Session. No. 67. ISABELLA CROUGH. [To accompany bill H. R. No. 721.] FEBRUARY 2, 1855. Mr. FAULKNER, from the Committee on Military Affairs, made the following REPORT. The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred the memorial o Mrs. Isabella Crough, mother of the late Michael P. Doyle, of the 15th regiment U. S. infantry, have, according to order, had the same under consideration, and submit the following report: It appears that the said Lieutenant Doyle, previous to his death, which occurred at the castle of Perote, Mexico, during the war with that country, submitted his account with the government as acting assistant commissary of subsistence at Fort Mackinac, as well as recruiting officer at Detroit, during the second quarter of the year 1847; that the statement of the said account, as submitted by the said Lieutenant Doyle, different from that audited by the Third Auditor of the Treasury, in the sum of $64 19, which difference placed the said Lieutenant Doyle as debtor to the government in the sum of $46 69, instead of the creditor of the government in the sum of $17 50, as he had supposed. It further appears that, his death occurring soon after, his mother made application for the pay and allowances due her late son, which application was met with the refusal to pay her the amount due to her son, until the small balance of $46 69, found against him on the books of the treasury, should be settled. It is to authorize the accounting officers of the treasury to credit her son's account with the balance against him, that she may draw his pay and allowances, that the memorialist now petitions Congress. The committee, taking the opinion expressed in an official communication of the Third Auditor on the case, that there is not the least suspicion that there was any wrong or dishonesty attending the discharge of the duties devolved upon Lieutenant Doyle; on the contrary, I feel satisfied that everything would have been properly arranged and accounted for, had it not been for his untimely death;" and also looking upon the small amount of the balance, as well as the little experience he possessed in the discharge of those duties, the amount of travel that he had to perform, and the hurry with which he started to Mexico, have concluded to recommend that the said Lieutenant Doyle's account be credited with the said balance, and therefore they report a bill. CONGRESS, , LEWIS BENEDICT. [To accompany bill H. R. No. 722.] FEBRUARY 2, 1855. Mr. HILLYER, from the Committee on Private Land Claims, made the following REPORT. The Committee on Private Land Claims, to whom was referred the memorial of Lewis Benedict, report: That a bill was reported by the Committee on Private Land Claims of the House at the 1st session of the 30th Congress, and passed the House at that session, went to the Senate, and was reported on favorably by a committee of that body. The report which accompanied that bill is approved of by this committee, and is adopted by them. The report reads: "That it appears from the memorial and accompanying papers presented before the committee, that by a treaty entered into between. the United States and the Pottawatomie tribe of Indians of the Prairie, and Kankakee, made at Tippecanoe on the 20th of October, 1832, a section of land situated below the State line on the Kankakee river,' was reserved to an Indian chief called Ab-be-le-ke-zchic. "That on the 20th day of August, 1835, the said chief sold the section of land so reserved to one Samuel P. Brady, for the sum of one thousand dollars, as appears by the original deed from the said chief, presented before the committee, duly executed and acknowledged before a justice of the peace of Cook county, Illinois, through a sworn interpreter. "That on the 26th day of August, 1836, the said Brady and wife conveyed the same section of land to the claimant for the sum of one thousand and three hundred dollars, as by the original deed, duly executed and acknowledged by the grantors, and produced before the committee, also appears, and the affidavit of the grantor, S. P. Brady, shows that the claimant has actually paid to him the consideration money expressed in such deed. That the claimant afterwards, together with his wife, conveyed the same premises to Joseph Roby, who afterwards, and on the 8th day of February, 1847, reconveyed the same to the claimant; that the consideration in the deed from elaimant to Roby was the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars. "It also appears, by the affidavit of Mr. Roby, that while he was the owner of said section, he made application to the surveyor general |