It is scarcely probable, if the claim had
been regarded as obligatory upon the Government or constituting an
equitable demand upon the Treasury, that those who were contemporaneous
with the events which gave rise to it should not long since have done
justice to the claimants. The Treasury has often been in a condition to
enable the Government to do so without inconvenience if these claims had
been considered just. Mr. Jefferson, who was fully cognizant of the
early dissensions between the Governments of the United States and
France, out of which the claims arose, in his annual message in 1808
adverted to the large surplus then in the Treasury and its "probable
accumulation," and inquired whether it should "lie unproductive in the
public vaults;" and yet these claims, though then before Congress, were
not recognized or paid. Since that time the public debt of the
Revolution and of the War of 1812 has been extinguished, and at several
periods since the Treasury has been in possession of large surpluses
over the demands upon it. In 1836 the surplus amounted to many millions
of dollars, and, for want of proper objects to which to apply it, it was
directed by Congress to be deposited with the States.
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