Daily National Intelligencer

At the request of a very respectable citizen, we copy the following, being the 5th No. of a series of papers, on the same subject, from The Times, printed at Hartford, Conn. To expose the abuse of law, we hope, will not be regarded as hostility to the principles of the law, nor wound the feelings of any honest pensioner. We have no personal knowledge of the alleged abuses, but are assured that the following picture is not overcharged:

REVOLUTIONARY PENSIONS.

FROM THE TIMES.

As I am not eligible to any office in the state, and with my present feelings should not wish any if I were so, I express my sentiments, probably, with more freedom than one would who chose to be popular rather than to be just. I am conscious that every man who openly avows his opinions, will always find that some of his fellow citizens very honestly disapprove of them. Doubtless many of mine are incorrect; but, while I am writing upon a subject of public importance in the best manner that my humble powers will enable me, I shall not permit myself to be turned out of my course by the illiberal epithets of any hireling scribbler. It is far from my main purpose to expose individual imperfections; nor should I ever introduce them, except to illustrate some general proposition; still, whenever it becomes necessary on this account, I shall do it fearlessly, and without being much disturbed by the irritation it may excite.

With much pleasure I can say that the work of reformation has already commenced. Mr. Rich, of Vermont, and Mr. Taylor, of New York, who have been so often distinguished for the correctness and purity of their conduct, have brought this subject before the assembly of the nation. A committee has been appointed to enquire into the expediency of amending the bill, to ascertain what abuses corrode and vitiate the good tendency of the law, and to determine which class of individuals should, and which should not, be pensioners. Their names have been published, and thousands wait with anxiety for their report. I would suggest the propriety of adopting measures similar to that which has been pursued by the city of Middletown, to communicate some facts from this state, which may not be altogether unimportant to that committee.

I am confident that many think too lightly of this subject. During the last year, three millions of dollars were distributed to pensioners; which prevented so much of our public debt being liquidated. This sum paid annually, together with the compound interest, at 6 per centum for ten years, will amount to thirty-nine millions, which, calculating the present population at nine millions, is equal to four dollars thirty-three cents for each person in the United States. This computation may be supposed chimerical, because our taxes will never be collected in this manner. But a slight examination will show the fact to be otherwise. For the national revenue accrues chiefly from duties laid upon imported articles, such as sugar, tea, rum, cloth, &c. which every poor family in this country uses with almost as much profusion as the wealthy, and of course must contribute towards the expenses of the government in the same proportion.

In one year, the cost of pensioning, when distributed equally among every individual in the Union, will amount to about 33 1/3 cents for each. A laboring man, therefore, who has a wife and six children, must pay about 2 dollars 67 cents per annum; and, by the calculation made above, if these pensions should continue for the space of ten years, it would cost a man who has a family of eight, about 34 dollars 64 cents to meet their payment. From this estimate, it appears that the sum which a laborer in Connecticut contributes towards these sinecures exceeds all his town and state taxes. But not only so, the old and decrepit who are exempt by our statutes, the poor and feeble whose taxes are abated by the selectmen, are not excepted. Does this seem a trifle to one who earns his living by labor? Do such men understand that a considerable part of this sum goes into the hands of some of the wealthiest persons in the state? Do they reflect on it in the morning when they rise for their daily toil, while the rich pensioner is sleeping upon his downy bed of rest, without being angry that it is so? Do they sit down to a scanty but hard earned breakfast, while the man whose luxury they sweat to increase feasts upon all the delicacies which the market will afford, without cursing the villain who has perjured himself into their pay? If they do so, their forbearance courts the yoke of servitude, and, I had nearly said, deserves to receive it. This does not militate in the least against the old soldier that needs your assistance. Charity and generosity pleads in his favor, and no poor man will be deaf to such advocates; but the rapacious nabob who pilfers from you your hard earnings, should feel the lash of censure, and carry upon his back the stripes which may separate him from the honest and honorable.

The worst has not yet come. The Secretary of the Treasury has reported that the expenditures will probably exceed the income of the government about five millions of dollars for the year 1820; and this defalcation may be attributed in a great measure to the enormous sum which is paid to pensioners. Would any person believe, if it had not been officially authenticated, that the amount consumed by these subsidies, is nearly equal to all the civil, diplomatic and miscellaneous expences of the general government? These truths call loudly for redress; and I presume the only question which remains to be determined, is, in what manner shall it be done?— Some have supposed it practicable to leave it to the selectmen of each town, to examine the cases and decide thereon; but I am disposed to think that this mode will not entirely accomplish the end in view; for they are not responsible to the national administration, and they will always feel backward about reporting their immediate neighbors. Let, therefore, a board, consisting of three or four men of decision, be constituted for each state.

I wish it might not be thought that I would detract one particle from the merit which belongs to the revolutionary hero. Those who then possessed the characteristics of a noble soul, still retain them. Those who now appear so deformed, tho' at an anterior period they may have worn a garb of a more beautiful hue, even then had within them those quiescent propensities which required only a sufficient object to bring them into action.

It may be a subject of some speculation in the neighboring states, how it was possible that any wealthy citizen in Connecticut should dare to violate so directly our religion and our laws. I can inform them how it happened; a few Generals and Honorables, some of whom were at the seat of government, as they supposed for the last time, since their successors had already been elected, feeling that they had nothing more to expect from the affections of the people, and hoping perhaps that the knowledge of this truth would never reach their homes, led the van; and when these facts became extensively circulated, many who had never before harbored the least idea of coming within the provision of the law, quieted their consciences by saying, "General such a one, and the Honorable Mr. such an one, have property and have pensions, and why should not I?" Thus, without originally thinking it to be correct, they argue themselves into a belief of its justification, by comparing their own situations with that of others. Now, I say, let those who advanced first in this march of villainy, and countenanced, by the enlistment of others, have their names first erased from the roll.

But "locus non virum, sed vir locum gloriosum facit," titles and honors do not of themselves make an individual noble in the estimation of an enlightened society; if not coupled in excellence, they serve only to bring into public view those blemishes and imbecile traits in his character, which might have been buried, but for his ill-judged ambition, in their primitive obscurity. Nobleness, patriotism, and piety, are frequently clothed in home-spun garments.

The contrast is very striking between these titled pensioners, and the venerable looking old man that drives the stage over Talcott mountain. He is verging towards seventy, and has been six years a soldier in the American revolution; he carries upon his neck a scar which was made by a British bayonet; and when asked, whether he receives a pension, he answers, "I disdain it." I know not what other people think of this man, but for myself, I have no hesitation in saying, that, although the box of his carriage is the summit of his ambition, I consider it an eminence from which he can look down upon the wealthy pensioner and his superfine coat, to pity him for his littleness, and to detest him for his criminality.

LUCIUS.