_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:
The executive of Virginia having requested payment of the amount of
interest paid by the State for moneys borrowed and paid by it for
services rendered by the militia in the late war, and such claim not
being allowable according to the uniform decisions of the accounting
officers of the Government, I submit the subject to your consideration,
with a report from the Secretary of War and all the documents connected
with it.
The following are the circumstances on which this claim is founded:
From an early stage of the war the squadrons of the enemy entered
occasionally the Chesapeake Bay, and, menacing its shores and those of
the principal rivers emptying into it, subjected the neighboring militia
to calls from the local authorities for the defense of the parts thus
menaced. The pressure was most sensibly felt in 1814, after the attack
on this city and its capture, when the invading force, retiring to its
squadron, menaced alike Baltimore, Norfolk, and Richmond. The attack
on this city had induced a call by the Department of War for large
detachments of the militia of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia,
which, being collected in this quarter, and the enemy bearing, in the
first instance, on Baltimore, were ordered to its defense. As early
as the 31st of August notice was given by the Secretary of War to the
governor of Virginia of the position of the enemy and of the danger to
which Richmond as well as Norfolk and Baltimore were exposed, and he was
also authorized and enjoined to be on his guard, prepared at every point
and in every circumstance to meet and repel the invaders. This notice
was repeated several times afterwards, until the enemy left the bay and
moved to the south.
In the course of the war the State had augmented its taxes to meet the
pressure, but the funds being still inadequate, it borrowed money to a
considerable amount, which was applied to the payment of the militia for
the services thus rendered. The calls which had been made, except for
the brigades in this quarter and at Norfolk, being made by the State,
the settlement with those corps and the payment for their services were
made according to the rules and usage of the Department by the State
and not by the United States. On the settlement by the State, after the
peace, with the accounting officers of the Government the reimbursement
of the interest which the State had paid on the sums thus borrowed and
paid to the militia was claimed, but not allowed for the reason above
stated. It is this claim which I now submit to the consideration of
Congress.
It need scarcely be remarked that where a State advances money for the
use of the General Government for a purpose authorized by it that the
claim for the interest on the amount thus advanced, which has been paid
by the State, is reasonable and just. The claim is the stronger under
the circumstance which existed when those advances were made, it being
at a period of great difficulty, when the United States were compelled
to borrow very large sums for the prosecution of the war. Had the State
not borrowed this money the militia, whose services have been recognized
since by the nation, must have been disbanded and the State left without
defense.
The claim is, in my opinion, equally well founded where a State advances
money which it has in its treasury, or which it raises by taxes, to meet
the current demand.
In submitting this claim to your consideration it is proper to observe
that many other States have like claims with those of Virginia, and that
all those similarly circumstanced should be placed on the same footing.
I invite your attention to a principle which is deemed just, and with a
view that the provision which may be made respecting it may be extended
alike to all the States.