Volume II Part 15 (2/2)
PART II.
AGENTS OF LOYALISTS--PROCEEDINGS OF PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION--RESULTS.
Of course all hope of obtaining relief under the stipulations of the treaty was abandoned by the Loyalists, who ”now applied to the Government which they had ruined themselves to serve, and many of them, who had hitherto been 'refugees' in different parts of America, went to England to state and recover payment for their losses. They organized an agency, and appointed a Committee composed of one delegate or agent from each of the thirteen States,[124] to enlighten the British public, and adopt measures of proceeding in securing the attention and action of the British Ministry in their behalf. In a tract printed by order of these agents (which now lies before us, ent.i.tled _The Case and Claim of American Loyalists impartially Stated and Considered_, published in 1783), it is maintained that 'it is an established rule, that all sacrifices made by individuals for the benefit and accommodation of others shall be equally sustained by all those who partake of it,' and numerous cases are cited from Puffendorf, Burlamaqui and Vattel, to show that the 'sacrifices' of the Loyalists were embraced in this principle.
As a further ground of claim, it is stated that in case of territory alienated or ceded away by one sovereign power to another, the rule is still applicable; for that in the treaties of international law it is held, 'The State ought to indemnify the subject for the loss he has sustained beyond his proportion.' And in the course pursued at the close of the civil war in Spain, when the States of Holland obtained their independence, under the Treaty of Utrecht, and at various other periods, proved that the _rights_ of persons similarly situated had been respected and held inviolate. The conclusion arrived at from the precedents in history, and diplomacy, and in the statute-books of the realm, is, that as the Loyalists were as 'perfectly subjects of the British State as any man in London or Middles.e.x, they were ent.i.tled to the same protection and relief.' The claimants had been 'called by their sovereign, when surrounded by tumult and rebellion, to defend the supreme rights of the nation, and to a.s.sist in suppressing a rebellion which aimed at their destruction. They have received from the highest authority the most solemn a.s.surances of protection, and even reward, for their meritorious services;' and that 'His Majesty and the two Houses of Parliament having thought it necessary, as the _price of peace_, or to the interest and safety of the empire, or from some other motive of public convenience, to ratify the Independence of America, _without securing any rest.i.tution whatever to the Loyalists_, they conceive that the nation is bound, as well by the fundamental laws of society as by the invariable and external principles of natural justice, to make them compensation.'”[125]
Though the treaty of peace left the Loyalists to the mercy--rather to the resentment (as the result proved)--of the American States, and as such received the censure of the House of Commons, British justice and honour recognized the claims of the Loyalists to compensation for their losses, as well as to grat.i.tude for their fidelity to the unity of the empire. The King, at the opening of the session of Parliament, said: ”I have ordered inquiry to be made into the application of the sum to be voted in support of the American sufferers; and I trust you will agree with me, that a due and generous attention ought to be shown to those who have relinquished their properties or professions from motives of loyalty to me, or attachment to the mother country.” Accordingly, a Bill was introduced and pa.s.sed without opposition in June, 1783, ent.i.tled ”An Act Appointing Commissioners to Inquire into the Losses and Services of all such Persons who have Suffered in their Rights, Properties, and Professions, during the late Unhappy Dissensions in America, in consequence of their Loyalty to his Majesty and Attachment to the British Government.”
The Commissioners named were John Wilmot, M.P., Daniel Parker c.o.ke, M.P., Esquires, Col. Robert Kingston, Col. Thomas Dundas, and John Marsh, Esquire, who, after preliminary preparations, began their inquiry in the first week of October, and proceeded, with short intermissions, through the following winter and spring. The time for presenting claims was first limited by the Act to the 20th of March, 1784; but the time was extended by the renewal of the Act, from time to time, until 1789, when the Commissioners presented their _twelfth_ and last report, and Parliament finally disposed of the whole matter in 1790, seven years after its commencement.
The Commissioners, according to their first report, divided the Loyalists into _six_ cla.s.ses, as follows: 1. Those who had rendered service to Great Britain. 2. Those who had borne arms for Great Britain.
3. Uniform Loyalists. 4. Loyal English subjects resident in Great Britain. 5. Loyalists who had taken oaths to the American States, but afterwards joined the British. 6. Loyalists who had borne arms for the American States, but afterwards joined the British navy or army. The reason for this cla.s.sification is not very apparent; for all showed alike who were able to establish their losses, without reference to differences of merit, or the time or circ.u.mstances of their adhering to the Crown.
Every applicant was required to furnish proof of his loyalty, and of every species of loss for which he claimed compensation; in addition to which each claimant was put upon his oath as to his alleged losses; and if in any case _perjury_ or _fraud_ were believed to have been practised, the claimant was at once cut off from his whole claim. The rigid rules which the Commissioners laid down and enforced in regard to claimants, examining each claimant and the witnesses in his behalf separately and apart, caused much dissatisfaction, and gave the proceeding more the character of an Inquisition than of Inquiry. It seemed to place the claimants almost in the position of criminals on whom rested the burden of proof to establish their own innocence and character, rather than in that of Loyalists who had faithfully served their King and country, and lost their homes and possessions in doing so. Very many, probably the large majority of claimants, could not possibly prove the exact value of each species of loss which they had sustained years before, in houses, goods, stocks of cattle, fields with their crops and produce, woods with their timber, etc., etc. In such a proceeding the most unscrupulous would be likely to fare the best, and the most scrupulous and conscientious the worst; and it is alleged that many false losses were allowed to persons who had suffered no loss, while many other sufferers received no compensation, because they had not the means of bringing witnesses from America to _prove_ their losses, in addition to their own testimony.
The chairman of the Commission admits the delay and difficulty caused by the mode of proceeding adopted by the Commissioners. He says: ”The investigation of the property of each claimant, and of the value of each article of that property, real and personal, could not but be attended with a good deal of time as well as much caution and difficulty, each claim in fact branching out into so many articles, or rather distinct causes, in which the Commissioners were obliged to execute the office of both judge and jury, or rather of arbitrators between the nation on one side, and the individual on the other, whose whole patrimony as well as character depended on their verdict.”[126]
The Act pa.s.sed in 1783, authorizing the inquiry, being limited to two years, expired in July, 1785, but was renewed with some additions, one of which was a clause to empower the Commissioners to appoint proper persons to repair to America ”to inquire into such circ.u.mstances as they might think material for better ascertaining the several claims which had been or should be presented to them under this or the former Act of Parliament.” The Commissioners appointed John Anstey, Esq., a barrister-at-law, as agent to the United States, ”to obtain information as to the confiscation, sale, and value of landed estates, and the total loss of the property of the claimants,” respecting which he procured much valuable and authentic information and testimony. They sent Colonel Thomas Dundas and Mr. Jeremy Pemberton, two members of the Board, to visit Nova Scotia and Canada, ”to inquire into the claims of such persons as could not without great inconvenience go over to Great Britain.”
Before the 25th of March, 1784, the latest period allowed by the first Act for presenting claims, the number of claimants was 2,063, and the property alleged by them to have been lost, according to their schedules, amounted to 7,046,278, besides debts to the amount of 2,354,135. The sum was very large, but the losses were undoubtedly very great. The Commissioners made their first report in July, 1784; and after having detailed their a.s.siduous proceeding in the fulfilment of their trust, and care in examining and deciding on individual cases, reported on the part of the cases submitted, and awarded 201,750 for 534,705 claimed, reducing the amount by more than half the amount claimed.
The _second_ report of the Commissioners was made in December of the same year, and states that 128 additional cases had been examined and disposed of, the amount claimed being 693,257, and the amount allowed was 150,935--less than one-fourth the amount claimed.
One hundred and twenty-two (122) cases were examined into and disposed of in May and July, 1785, according to the third and fourth reports--the amount claimed being 898,196, and the amount allowed being 253,613--less than one-third of the amount claimed.
In April, 1786, the fifth report of the Commissioners was presented, announcing that 142 other claims had been considered and decided, the claims amounting to 733,311, on which the Commissioners allowed 250,506--a little more than one-third of the amount claimed.
The Commissioners proceeded in the same manner with their investigations, and with about the same results, in 1786 and 1787.[127]
On the 5th of April, 1788, the Commissioners reported that they had examined into and declared upon 1,680 claims, and had allowed the sum of 1,887,548 for their payment.
Under all the circ.u.mstances, it appears scarcely possible that the Commissioners could have proceeded with more despatch than they did. But the delay caused much dissatisfaction among the Loyalists, whose agents pet.i.tioned both King and Parliament on the delay, or on the course pursued by the Commissioners, or on some subject connected with the claims of the Loyalists. Essays and tracts were published; letters and communications appeared in the newspapers on the subject; in 1786, the agents of the Loyalists presented a pet.i.tion to Parliament, which contained among other things the following touching words: ”It is impossible to describe the poignant distress under which many of these persons now labour, and which must daily increase should the justice of Parliament be delayed until all the claims are liquidated and reported; * * ten years have elapsed since many of them have been deprived of their fortunes, and with their helpless families reduced from independent affluence to poverty and want; some of them now languis.h.i.+ng in British jails; others indebted to their creditors, who have lent them money barely to support their existence, and who, unless speedily relieved, must sink more than the value of their claims when received, and be in a worse condition than if they had never made them; others have already sunk under the pressure and severity of their misfortunes; and others must, in all probability, soon meet the same melancholy fate, should the justice due them be longer postponed. But, on the contrary, should provision be now made for payment of those whose claims have been settled and reported, it will not only relieve them from their distress, but give credit to others whose claims remain to be considered, and enable all of them to provide for their wretched families, and become again useful members of society.”
Two years later, in 1788, a tract was published by a Loyalist, ent.i.tled ”The Claim of the American Loyalists Reviewed and Maintained upon Incontrovertible Principles of Law and Justice.” The writer of that tract thus forcibly states the situation of the Loyalists: ”It is well known that this delay of justice has produced the most melancholy and shocking events. A number of sufferers have been driven into insanity and become their own destroyers, leaving behind them their helpless widows and orphans to subsist upon the cold charity of strangers. Others have been sent to cultivate the wilderness for their subsistence, without having the means, and compelled through want to throw themselves on the mercy of the American States, and the charity of former friends, to support the life which might have been made comfortable by the money long since due by the British Government; and many others with their families are barely subsisting upon a temporary allowance from Government, a mere pittance when compared with the sum due them.”
Shortly after the publication of the pamphlet containing these statements, the Commissioners submitted their eleventh report, April, 1788, and Mr. Pitt, Chancellor of the Exchequer, yielded the following month to the pressing entreaties of the claimants to allow their grievances to be discussed in Parliament. ”Twelve years had elapsed since the property of most of them had been alienated under the Confiscation Acts, and five since their t.i.tle to recompense had been recognized by the law under which their claims had been presented and disposed of.”
We will give an abridged account of the proceedings in Parliament and by the Commissioners in their own words:
”The business came on in the House of Commons on the 6th of June, 1788, which Mr. Pitt opened in a very handsome and eloquent speech respecting the merits of the American Loyalists, and which, he did not doubt, would meet with the unanimous acknowledgment of the House; and he trusted, therefore, there would be no difference of opinion as to the principle, though there might be as to the mode of compensation and the distribution which he thought it his duty to propose.
”The first principle he laid down was, that however strong their claims might be on the generosity of the nation, the compensation could not be considered as _a matter of right and strict justice_;[129] in the mode, therefore, he had pursued, he had marked the principle in the various quotas of compensation he should propose to be made to the various cla.s.ses of the American Loyalists.
”He considered the three first cla.s.ses of them, stated by the Commissioners in their reports as the most meritorious, and who were likewise the most numerous, viz.:
”1st. Loyalists who had rendered services to Great Britain. Number, 204.
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