1st Session. No. 213. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES.. MAY 5, 1852. Ordered to be printed. Mr. BRODHEAD made the following REPORT: The Committee of Claims, to whom was referred the petition of John W. W. Jackson, have had the same under consideration, and report: That the petitioner appears to have entered the service as a private in Captain White's company of Alabama mounted militia on the 12th of May, 1836, and to have left it on the 13th of June of the same year. During this period, his horse was accidentally killed. There is no evidence of its value, and no application was made for compensation for it until 1847, eleven years after the date of the alleged loss, when the claim was rejected by the accounting officer. The grounds of the rejection are not obviated by any evidence adduced by the claimant, and the committee are of opinion that the decision of the Third Auditor was correct. No. 214. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. MAY 5, 1852. Mr. BRODHEAD made the following REPORT: The Committee of Claims, to whom was referred the memorial of John A. Rogers, have had the same under consideration, and report: The memorialist was appointed in August, 1841, by the Secretary of the Treasury, to examine the land offices in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, at a compensation of eight dollars per day while engaged in the examination, and six dollars for every twenty miles travel from his residence to the office at which his examination should commence, and thence from office to office, until his return to his residence. The letter of appointment is dated August 4, 1841, and from that day the per diem is charged until the 24th, as occupied in preparing instructions, &c., when he set out for Columbus, Mississippi, at which place and vicinity he appears to have remained 132 days. He proceeded from Columbus to the other offices, and, in several instances, returning to the same office a second time, and in such cases double mileage is claimed. This second mileage is disallowed by the department, and forms a considerable item in the sum claimed. Other items are disallowed or reduced in consequence of the route charged for not being the most direct one; the reasons assigned for the double or circuitous travel not being satisfactory to the department. The final report made to the department at the conclusion of the service, bears date June 7, 1843, embracing a period of twenty-two months and three days. In connexion with this report he presented his account, Charging for 572 days at $8 per day- For mileage 5,527 miles, at $6 per 20 miles-- Making a total of-- -$4,576 00 1,658 00 215 69 6,449 69 From this account, for reasons set forth in the annexed letter of the commissioner of the general land office to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated January 16, 1845, the accounting officers, with the approbation of the Secretary of the Treasury, made deductions amounting to $1,992 90, disallowing the charges for 143 days service, and for 2,163 miles of travel, and some other items. Mr. Rogers had already drawn $4,565, leaving a balance against him of $108 30, as settled at the Treasury Department. The committee, from a careful examination of the papers before them, are clearly of opinion that the department has done full justice to the memorialist, and that he has received ample and liberal compensation for the services rendered. But if there were any question on this, as there is not believed to be in the present case, the committee would require the most satisfactory evidence that injustice had been done, before they would think it expedient to intervene between a department and persons employed by its authority for special service, and where the duty to be performed and the compensation to be allowed were both fully within the discretion and control of the parties concerned. It is believed that the danger of abuse, in such cases, is not on the side of too rigid an economy of the public money. The committee submit the following resolution: Resolved, That the prayer of the memorial of John A. Rogers, be rejected. GENERAL LAND OFFICE, January 16, 1845. SIR: Your letter of 10th instant, enclosing an account for examination and adjustment presented by Colonel John A. Rogers, late examiner of land offices, has been received. In order to a full understanding of this matter, and as an explanation of the delay which has taken place in making a final settlement, I beg leave to request your attention to the following statement of facts connected with the case. On the 4th August, 1841, Colonel Rogers was appointed by Mr. Secretary Ewing to examine the land offices in Mississippi and Alabama; and about the same time several other gentlemen were appointed to perform a similar duty in regard to the other land offices. The labors of all of them commenced nearly at the same time, and, with the exception of Colonel Rogers, were completed within a year from that date. The duties of some of them were considered fully as arduous as his, and the district of country to be traversed equally as extensive. For these reasons, it seemed to this office that Colonel Rogers was unnecessarily protracting his stay, and he was on several occasions written to and urged to hasten the close of his examinations. Finally, on the 7th June, 1843, nearly two years after the date of his appointment, he presented his account for services rendered and requested a settlement. The balance apparently due him, by his own statement, was $1,884 60. His account and vouchers were carefully examined; where his charges seemed excessive, proper deductions were made; and a full report on his account, as then adjusted, with explanatory remarks, was written out on the 26th July, 1843, preparatory to being sent to the then Secretary of the Treasury for his approval. By this adjustment there appeared to be due the treasury from Colonel Rogers, $103 30. On the 27th July, Colonel Rogers borrowed his account and vouchers, with the adjustment and report made by this office thereon, for the purpose of examining them, and up to this time has failed to return them. As there was no copy made of them, and he had withdrawn all evidence of any claim for services rendered, of course the matter has remained unsettled up to the present time. The present account, enclosed by you to me, is the same originally presented and afterwards borrowed by Colonel Rogers, but is not accompanied by the vouchers to which it refers, and which were then enclosed in it. Enclosed I send you in substance the adjustment above referred to, with the remarks and explanations as written out a few days after the papers had been borrowed by Colonel Rogers, by the clerk to whom the matter had been given in charge. As the original had not been recorded, and this was made from memory, it is, of course, not a literal copy, but the amount of the account, with all the deductions made, and the remarks, in every essential particular are the same. By this adjustment Colonel Rogers appears to have been overpaid $108 30; the whole amount of his account after making only such deductions as are reasonable and proper, being $4,456 70, and the amount he acknowledges to have received from the different receivers while engaged in his examinations, being $4,565. As this office sees no new cause for making an adjustment different from the one made, and considers the reasons stated in that report as amply sufficient for the disallowances made, I would respectfully recommend that this adjustment be approved and the matter finally settled. The papers enclosed in your letter of the 10th instant are herewith returned. With great respect, your obedient servant, Hon. GEO. M. BIBB, Secretary of the Treasury. THO. H. BLAKE Comoxereens |