James Madison Papers
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From James Madison to Congress, 6 December 1816

To Congress

December 6th. 1816.

The 9th Section of the act passed at the last session of Congress “to authorise the payment for property, lost captured or destroyed by the Enemy, while in the military service of the United States, and for other purposes” having received a construction giving to it a scope of great and uncertain extent, I thought it proper that proceedings relative to claims under that part of the Act should be Suspended, until Congress should have an opportunity of defining more precisely the cases contemplated by them. With that view I now recommend the subject to their consideration.1 They will have an opportunity, at the same time of considering how far other provisions of the Act may be rendered more clear and precise in their import.

James Madison

RC, two copies (DNA: RG 233, President’s Messages, 14A–D1; and DNA: RG 46, Legislative Proceedings, President’s Messages, 14A–E2). Both RCs in John Payne Todd’s hand, signed by JM.

1After some debate, Congress passed, and JM signed on 3 Mar. 1817, “An act to amend the act ‘authorizing the payment for property lost, captured, or destroyed, by the enemy, while in the military service of the United States.’” It stipulated that the ninth section of the 9 Apr. 1816 act be applied only to houses or other buildings “occupied by an order of an officer or agent of the United States as a place of deposit for military or naval stores, or as barracks for the military forces of the United States.” Other provisions of the 9 Apr. 1816 act were to be implemented after the gathering of more information, and the act was also to be extended to cover cases of property lost in the wars with Indian tribes between February and September of 1815 (Annals of Congress description begins Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States […] (42 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1834–56). description ends , 14th Cong., 2d sess., 20, 65, 67, 78, 89, 106, 112–13, 119–20, 122, 148, 150, 196, 245, 298–99, 462, 1028, 1035, 1040, 1051, 1211; U.S. Statutes at Large description begins The Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America […] (17 vols.; Boston, 1848–73). description ends , 3:397–98).

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