HISTORICAL.

REVOLUTIONARY PAPERS.

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE ARMY,

ON THE DEPRECIATION OF THE CURRENCY.

To the Honorable Council and House of Representatives in Gen eral Court assembled.

May it please your Honors

The committee from the Massachusetts line of the army would have been particularly happy to have had it in their power to inform this Honorable Court, at their first meeting, that the business on which they were sent was accomplished in such a manner as to have done that justice to the army which they had a right to expect, not only from their long and patient services, under every disadvantage which could possibly attend them, but also from the liberal promises made them by this state; yet we feel a consciousness that no exertions of ours have been wanting to accomplish this desirable purpose; and that we have strained no point beyond the line of justice and equity.

Previous to the last adjournment of the Court, we presented a remonstrance wherein was pointed out the reasons that then accrued why Town Bounties and private hires ought not to be considered in the present settlement. In addition to these reasons, we would beg leave further to observe, that the resolve of Court passed the last session, which excluded those bounties, being published by authority in General orders, was made use of as in inducement for the soldiers to re-engage in the service; a very considerable number, therefore, viewing the matter upon this generous scale, and being fully convinced that the state was determined they should not suffer by the depreciation of the currency, re-enlisted upon those considerations.

Should those bounties now be deducted, and the soldiers who have re-enlisted be deprived of that consideration, which they considered themselves entitled from the publication of a resolve of Court, we fear it would in some measure destroy that confidence' which they ought to place in the faith of the public, and be attended with disagreeable consequences in the recruiting service. On this head we would further observe, that the principal part of those bounties was given to men who engaged late in the year 1777 and in '78, after the currency had depreciated very considerably, and we find by calculation, that those sums received from towns

added to the state and contipental bounties, are not much more valuable than the state and continental bounties alone were, to those who enlisted in the beginning of the year 1777.

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Considering the matter therefore in this point of view, those principles of equal justice, which we are persuaded influenced the court, in their last determination, with regard to Town Bounties, will be destroyed, unless the depreciation is made good on the state and continental Bounties, at the time of enlistment, and the situation of those soldiers who enlisted late, will not by any means be so advantageous as those who first enlisted without a Town Bounty. Another difficulty has arisen in the course of the business which we conceived we had little reason to expect, and that is, the manner of valuing the pay we have received from the continent; we cannot reconcile it to any principle of justice or equity, to consider this pay more valuable than it was when the army received it from the public, for had the payments been delayed these three years past, and the army received no part of their pay till the present time, we cannot imagine that this Honorable Court would, in that case, have thought it just or reasonable to charge the army with the full sum their pay would amount to, if valued by the rate of depreciation settled for each month during the whole time, when, in fact, it would not be worth more than one eighth part of that sum. ***** As the currency has been continually varying, and for the most part rapidly depreciating, we cannot conceive any other possible method of stamping the true value upon the wages received, than by the rate of depreciation at the time when the general payments were made. We are fully persuaded the design of the resolve which promised to make the army good, was, to indemnify them for every loss they had sustained on account of the depreciation of the currency, and it is evident this design will be frustrated, if their continental pay as valued by the rate of depreciation, any number of months before it was received by the army from the public; and the value will appear proportionably greater, as the depreciation was less at that time than when the payments were made; and this loss occasioned by the depreciation from the time it was valued, to the time of payment, will not be made good.

We were entitled, by a resolve of Congress, to our pay at the close of each month, and if the depreciation of this pay is not made good from the time it became due, to the time the payments were made by the public, we find by calculation it will deprive us of a considerable part of what would be otherwise due, on account

of the depreciation of the currency; and as it was no fault of the army that the payments were not punctual; we cannot therefore conceive, that this Honorable Court will think it consistant with reason or justice, that they, and they only should suffer the loss occasioned by that delay, especially as the public was in some degree benefitted by the measure, seeing it kept the sum due to the army out of circulation during the period they were deprived of it.

But perhaps it may be objected, that it was not the fault of this state that the payments were not punctual, but of Congress; in answer to which we would observe, though far from attributing any design of injustice to them; yet as the currency was emitted by the authority of Congress, and was distributed by their direction, consequently the whole of the depreciation is owing to them, and not to this state any further than this state makes a part of the continent, so that the objection of making good any part of the depreciation by this state would equally apply as to making good the depreciation, from the time that the pay became due until the general payments were made.

But as Congress have referred it to the several states to make good the losses their respective quota's of the army have sustained on account of the depreciation of the currency, we would therefore submit it to this Honorable Court, whether this matter does not fall within their province, as we conceive neither the recommendation of Congress, or the resolve of this state, wherein they engage, to make good the wages of the establishment of Congress, will be fully complied with, unless we are indemnified for every disadvantage sustained by the depreciation.

We have been more particular on this head, as it is a claim the committee of Court did not consider themselves at liberty by any resolve to admit; though sensible at the same time that our pay will not otherwise be made good, and it will establish a precedent, by which, in case of appreciation of the currency, the state will in future receive an advantage; though the army will have no more than justice done them in case of depreciation.

We have the honor to be, with the highest respect, your Honor's most obedient humble servants,

AN ORATION,

DELIVERED AT LANCASTER,

FEBRUARY 21, 1826.

IN COMMEMORATION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARĮ OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THAT TOWN BY THE INDIANS.

BY ISAAC GOODWIN, ESQ.

ONE hundred and fifty annual revolutions of the Sun bave this day completed their circuit, since these beautiful plains were desolated by a cruel and unrelenting foe. The event marks a distinct era in our annals, and its anniversary is worthy of solemn commemoration. From the sad recitals of that melancholy day, the heart of sensibility shrinks away intuitively, nor have we come hither only to feast the imagination upon those barbarous spectacles. But, we assemble to pay a tribute of grateful remembrance to the memory of our fathers: to consider the great things they, under the guidance of the Almighty, have done for us: to contemplate their multiplied toils and sufferings on our behalf: to trace the progress of our nation from its humble beginnings to its present exalted state of glory and happiness: to inquire from whence has arisen the fair and splendid fabric of social order and domestic quiet that protects our rights and cheers our hearts: to consider what is our duty as men and citizens: and what is the return we are to render for all these blessings. We have assembled where civilization, and learning, and Christianity were first planted in our flourishing and wide spread County, then an uncultivated waste and a howling wilderness. We behold the spot where our interesting local history commenced; where a remnant of the Pilgrim band, who fled across the Ocean, the exiled heralds of truth, the champions of the Cross, the asserters of the rights of conscience, the fugitives from oppression, set the bounds of their habitations, and found a refuge from their persecutors, and a home for their children.

The history of our State is divided into four great periods or distinct eras, each comprising a space of half a century, and each commencing with some signal event connected with our glory and prosperity, and apparently essential to our national existence. Dating back two hundred years from the point where we now stand, we find the settlers at Plymouth had just obtained a permanent footing in the land, and had surmounted the peculiar obstacles incident to a colonial settlement upon new and original principles, on an untried soil, and in a climate to which Englishmen had been

unaccustomed. At this juncture, we behold, from every part of the European continent, that illustrious band of Confessors, who had suffered from the persecutions of the British hierarchy, beginning to look to the western world for refuge and rest. The forlorn hope had been successful, and the ranks of the centre column were now filled with men of opulence and learning, prepared to found a powerful and lasting state. Endicott, and Winthrop, and Johnson, with their illustrious compeers, "the sacramental host of God's elect," immediately begin to plant the settlements around Massachusetts Bay, and to subdue the wilderness beyond. In a few years the plantations had extended to this memorable spot, and as the emigrations from England had ceased, here were their limits. An uninterrupted peace prevailed, and their numbers and their power greatly increased.

The second period commences with the Indian war with Philip in 1675-6. This contest scattered desolation and death through all the frontier settlements, and jeopardized the very existence of the Colony. It was followed by a series of similar conflicts for the precise period of fifty years, until the treaty made with the Indians at Casco bay in 1726. This was literally a period of blood. The sufferings of the settlers were intense. A numerous foe was continually hovering upon the frontiers, and the deadly blow of their vengeance was seldom foreseen until it was felt. The progress of the settlements was suspended. More than 6,000 of the inhabitants had fallen by the sword. Many of the most flourishing towns were entirely broken up. A large public debt was accumulated. But the calamities of the public were trifling when compared with the miseries of the individual sufferers. "Their days were made heavy with anxiety, and their nights restless with visions of horror." Their distempered imaginations constantly presented to their minds the sounds of savage yells in the howlings of the tempest, and the whispers of prowling assassins in every rustling leaf. The corruscations of the meteor were the lighting up of distant conflagrations, and their dreams were of wandering captivity, and of victims writhing in agony and expiring in torment.

The third period from the peace of 1726 is marked by a series of encroachments upon the rights of the people by the royal Governors, and of resistance upon the part of the oppressed. It little sufficed to satiate the demands of his Majesty's minions, that the people of Massachusetts had voluntarily expended their best blood - and dearest treasures in extending the empire of their Sovereign,