George Washington Papers

To George Washington from Moses Hazen, 16 January 1792

From Moses Hazen

January 16. 1792

To His Excellency the President, the Honorable the Senate, and the Honorable the House of Representatives, Composing the Legislature of the United States of America.

The Memorial of Moses Hazen Esqr., late Brigadier General in the Army of the United States, most Respectfully Sheweth—That your Memorialist did himself the Honour to direct Memorials to the Legislature of America; the former was dated on the 25 October 1791 which Appears to have been read in the House on the 14th November following, and by them Ordered to lay on the table. The latter dated on the 15th December which has not yet been heard of.

Your Memorialist humbly prays that the prayer of his Memorials may be complied with and your Memorialist as in duty bound shall ever pray.1

Moses Hazen

LS, DNA: RG 46, Second Congress, 1791–1793, Records of Legislative Proceedings, Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents.

1Moses Hazen made at least five claims against the government after the American Revolution for half pay for life (which Congress had voted to all officers in 1783), for property losses in Canada, for increased pay following his promotion to brigadier general, for compensation promised him by the Continental Congress for the loss of his British army pension, and for reimbursement of funds he disbursed in Canada in 1776. Congress settled his first two claims in the 1780s but rejected his claim for pay as a brigadier general in 1788 because Hazen only had been brevetted to that rank. Hazen’s other claims remained unresolved at his death in 1803. His desire to settle his claims at this time undoubtedly was prompted in part by ill health; in 1786 Hazen was partially paralyzed by a stroke (see Hazen to GW, 24 April 1789; Everest, Moses Hazen, description begins Allan S. Everest. Moses Hazen and the Canadian Refugees in the American Revolution. Syracuse, N.Y., 1976. description ends 145, 151–54). The House of Representatives tabled Hazen’s petition of 25 Oct. 1791 on 14 Nov., before referring it to the secretary of the treasury for report on 20 December. No petition dated 15 Dec. was presented on the floor of Congress. Hazen renewed his appeal for a prompt settlement in a petition addressed to GW and Congress on 17 Feb. 1792, in which he complained that he had requested nothing “but Copies of essential papers, which could not be Obtaind Otherwise.” He implored Congress to comply with this request, “with this Addition only, that your Memorialist may have a Copy of the late Mr John Pierce’s instructions with regard to the Army” (DNA: RG 46, Second Congress, 1791–1793, Records of Legislative Proceedings, Petitions and Memorials, Resolutions of State Legislatures, and Related Documents). No evidence has been found that GW took any action to speed the resolution of Hazen’s claims (see Hazen to GW, 9 Sept. 1793).

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