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Report on the Petition of Barent I. Staats, [27 February 1794]

Report on the Petition of Barent I. Staats

[Philadelphia, February 27, 1794
Communicated on March 3, 1794]1

[To the President of the Senate]

The Secretary of the Treasury to whom was referred by the Senate the petition of Barent I Staats2 respectfully reports thereupon as follows

The claim of the petitioner appears to be one of those, for the due consideration and adjustment of which, provision is made by the Act passed the 12th of February 1793 relative to claims against the United States not barred by any act of Limitation and which have not been already adjusted.3

It appears therefore adviseable that the Petitioner should be left to the Course of relief prescribed by that Act.

Which is respectfully submitted

Alexander Hamilton
Secy of the Treasy

DS, RG 46, Third Congress, 1793–1795, Reports from the Secretary of the Treasury, National Archives.

1Journal of the Senate, 3rd Cong., 1st Sess. description begins Journal of the Senate of the United States of America, Being the First Session of the Third Congress, Begun and Held at the City of Philadelphia, December 2d, 1793. And in the Eighteenth Year of the Sovereignty of the Said United States (Philadelphia: Printed by John Fenno, Printer to the Senate of the United States [1794]). description ends , 68.

2On November 21, 1792, the “petition of Barent I. Staats was presented [to the Senate] and read, praying compensation for services rendered the United States during the late war, which is stated to have been delayed by reason of a mistake in the officer appointed to liquidate the public accounts.

Ordered, That this petition be referred to the Secretary of the Treasury, to consider and report thereon to the Senate.” (Annals of Congress description begins The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States; with an Appendix, Containing Important State Papers and Public Documents, and All the Laws of a Public Nature (Washington, 1834–1849). description ends , III, 616.)

Staats’s petition may be found in RG 46, Third Congress, 1793–1795, Reports from the Secretary of the Treasury, National Archives.

31 Stat. description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America (Boston, 1845). description ends 301–02. See “Report on the Petition of Stephen Porter,” February 12, 1794, note 4.

This claim was presented to the auditor on April 30, 1794. The auditor’s report states that the claim was founded on a note of hand of January 3, 1780, given by John Harrison, who was assistant to the deputy quartermaster general of New York, Udny Hay. Accounts and papers of both Hay and Harrison were allegedly destroyed by fire. The auditor concluded by stating that he objected to all claims of this type on the ground that “the Treasury … possessed no … documents showing the bills to have been issued for valuable considerations” (ASP description begins American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States (Washington, 1832–1861). description ends , Claims, I, 173, 178).

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