The undersigned, a minority of the Committee on Pensions, cannot concur
with the majority of the Committee in reporting a bill for the relief
of the widow of the late James Batchelder. They also dissent from the
report accompanying the bill, which, however, is understood not to
proceed from a majority of the Committee.
In granting pensions, or bounties of a kindred nature, it has been the
habit of the Committee to require evidence of all essential facts and
circumstances,--not, indeed, according to the rigorous forms of a court
of law, but with substantial fulness and authenticity. Applications for
pensions are constantly rejected for defect of testimony. But this
reasonable practice, which is a necessary safeguard against abuse, has
been disregarded in the present case. No evidence of any kind--not
a shred or particle--was produced. The majority of the Committee
undertook to act at once, on loose and general report, gathered from
the public press at a moment of excitement. In this report they have
obviously proceeded with more haste than discretion. Such a course
cannot be in conformity with approved precedents. In itself it will be
a bad precedent for the future.
But this proceeding seems more obnoxious to comment, when it is known
that it appears, from the very sources on which the Committee relied,
that the facts in question are all at this moment the subject of
judicial inquiry, _still pending_, in the courts at Boston. Several
citizens have been indicted for participation in the transaction to
which reference is made, and in which Batchelder is said to have
been killed. Their trials have not yet taken place, but are near at
hand. Under these peculiar circumstances, the indiscreet haste of the
Committee, thus acting in advance of authentic evidence, and _lite
pendente_, is enhanced by possible detriment to the grave interests
of justice, which all will admit should not be exposed to partisan
influence from abroad. The report accompanying the bill, without any
aid from human testimony, undertakes to pronounce dogmatically on facts
which will be in issue on these trials. Anticipating the court, and
literally without a hearing, it gives judgment on absent persons, as
well as on distant events.
On grounds irrespective of the merits of the case, the undersigned
object to any action upon it on the present evidence, and in the
existing state of things. They object for two reasons: _first_,
that such action would become a bad precedent, opening the way to a
disregard of evidence in the distribution of pensions and bounties;
and, _secondly_, that it would be an interference--offensive, though
indirect--with the administration of justice, in matters _still
pending_, and involving the fortunes of several citizens. These reasons
are ample.
But on other grounds, of a different character, and vital to the merits
of the case, the undersigned must dissent from the majority of the
Committee.
Regarding the Act of Congress usually known as the Fugitive Slave Act
as unconstitutional, while it is justly condemned by the moral sense
of the communities where it is sought to be enforced, the undersigned
are not disposed to recognize any services rendered in its enforcement
as meritorious in character. Especially are they unwilling to depart
beyond the clear line of precedent, in voting bounties on account of
such services. This of itself is sufficient reason for opposition to
the proposed bill.
But admitting for the moment the asserted constitutionality of the
Fugitive Slave Act, and its conformity with just principles of duty,
and admitting further, that efforts for its enforcement are to be
placed in the same scale with efforts to enforce other Acts of
Congress, of acknowledged constitutionality, and clear conformity with
just principles of duty, then the undersigned beg leave to submit,
that, according to the practice of our country, such efforts have not
been considered as entitled to the ordinary reward of pensions or
kindred bounties.
The pensions and kindred bounties of our country have been founded
exclusively on _military_ and _naval_ services. In England, _civil_
services, whether on the bench, in diplomacy, or in the departments
of State, are subjects of pension; but it is otherwise here. With us
there are no general laws to this end; nor are there special laws of
such clear meaning and character as to become precedents, sanctioning
pensions or bounties for civil service. A report of this Committee,
made by its Chairman at this very session of Congress, states the rule
and practice of Congress. Here is the whole report.
"IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.
"APRIL 11, 1854.--Ordered to be printed.
"Mr. JONES, of Iowa, made the following report.
"_The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of
Rebecca Bright, beg leave to report_:--
"That the petitioner is the widow of Jacob Bright, an armorer,
who was killed at the navy-yard in this city by the bursting of a
shell. _He being an employee of the Government, and in no sense to
be regarded as in its 'military or naval service,' the Committee
can find no reason, founded in law or justice, for pensioning
his widow._ Her case is precisely that of the widow of a laborer
or mechanic employed by the day or month upon any public work.
They therefore recommend that the prayer of the petitioner be
rejected."[131]
[131] Reports of the Committees of the Senate, 33d Cong. 1st Sess.,
No. 199.
And yet, in the very teeth of this recommendation, made by themselves
at this very session, the Committee now propose to bestow a bounty upon
such services. If the Committee were right in their former report, they
cannot be right now.
The report accompanying the bill shows that three of the Committee have
felt that their recommendation needed the support of precedents, and
they have ransacked the records for them. Two only are produced.
The first is an Act of Congress, bearing date June 7, 1794, which
provides "that the sum of two thousand dollars be allowed to the widow
of Robert Forsyth, late marshal of the district of Georgia, for the use
of herself and the children of the said Robert Forsyth." On search in
the office of the Secretary of the Senate, where this bill originated,
and also at the Treasury, where the money was paid, no papers have been
found showing the occasion of this grant; nor has anybody undertaken to
state any. This precedent, then, can be of little value in establishing
an important rule in the dispensation of national bounties.
The only other precedent adduced by the Committee is an Act bearing
date May 8, 1820, providing "that the Postmaster-General be, and he
hereby is, authorized and directed to pay to the widow of John Heaps,
late of the city of Baltimore,--who, while employed as a carrier of the
mail of the United States, and having the said mail in his custody,
was beset by ruffians and murdered,--out of the money belonging to the
United States, arising from the postage of letters and packets, five
hundred dollars in ten equal semiannual payments." On this precedent
Congress will surely hesitate to establish a rule which will open a new
drain upon the country.
The general laws do not award pensions or bounties for services in
enforcing the revenue laws of the country; and it is not known that any
special acts have ever been passed rewarding such services, though
they have often been rendered at imminent danger to life, as well from
shipwreck as from the violence of smugglers. The proposed bill will
be an apt precedent for bounty in this large class of cases; and it
may properly be opposed by all who are not ready for a new batch of
claimants.
The undersigned venture to make a single comment further on the
report accompanying the bill. This report, not content with assigning
reasons for its proposed bounty, proceeds to take cognizance of the
conduct of the people of Massachusetts, the citizens, the soldiers,
the marshal and his deputies, the mayor and police of Boston, in the
recent transaction, and assumes to hold the scales of judgment. In
this respect it evinces an indiscreet haste, similar to that already
displayed in acting on the present proposition, without authentic
evidence, and during the pendency of judicial investigations. It
appears from the public journals, out of which all our information
on this matter is derived, that the conduct of several public
functionaries, on this occasion, in Massachusetts, has been seriously
drawn in question. The marshal of the district is openly charged with
making the arrest of the alleged fugitive under the fraudulent pretence
that he was a criminal,--a scandalous device, which no honest man can
regard without reprobation. The mayor of Boston is also openly charged
with violation of the primal principles of free institutions and of
the law of the land, in surrendering the city for the time being into
the possession of a military force, and thus establishing there that
supremacy of arms under which all law is silent. But on these things
the undersigned express no opinion. They desire only to withhold all
assent from the blindfold ratification which the report accompanying
the bill volunteers, without reason or occasion, to the conduct of
public functionaries, as well as of others, who, according to some
evidence, may have acted very badly.
CHARLES SUMNER.
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.