The New York Journal, And Daily Patriotic Register

To the PUBLIC.
(Continued from this paper of 10th January.)
AFTER the hon Rufus King, Esq. had examined my accounts and claims, and had seen the vouchers referred to, which authorized them, he told me they all appeared just, as to the principal sums; but, as I claimed the interest of the several sums which had become due to me, at different times, whilst I had been captain of the frigate Alliance, that Congress probably would not grant those interests from the times I claimed them; and were I to insist thereon; it might prevent my obtaining the other demands: that on the contrary, if I claimed those interests only from the 6th Jan. 1781, when I was put out of the service, then he would make the report accordingly, in such a manner, and to which the other gentlemen of the committee would assent. that it would pass in Congress, and there be resolved, that the principal sum for pay, subsistence, &c. amounting to 2400 dollars 84-90ths, and interest thereon from the 6th Jan. 1781; with the principal sum of 2400 dollars gratuity, and interest thereon from the 2d Dec. 1777, would be paid to me, as I claimed it, all in ready money. I submitted to that gentleman's advice.
I depended so much the more on the promise of Mr. King, that I should be paid the above sums, agreeable to the foregoing principle, every reason coinciding thereto, that I had no doubt of it; but on my repeated visits to solicit him to report to Congress thereabouts, I perceived a great alteration in his behaviour towards me. and one morning he told me, he had written the report which was to be made to Congress on my account, and the same time shewed it to me. It was such that I took a copy of it, to let the reader judge of my surprize as to its contents, viz.
" The committee, consisting of Mr. King, &c. to whom was referred a memorial of Mr. Peter Landais, report,
" That from a full examination of the claims and accounts of Mr. Peter Landais, late captain of the frigate Alliance, there appears to have been due from the United States to Mr. Landais, on the 6th day Jan. 1781, when he went out of service, 2400 84-90ths dollars, for his pay, subsistence, and extra expences, exclusive of monies advanced him by Dr. Franklin, whilst in the service of the United States.
" Which sum, together with the interest thereof to the 6th day of April, 1785, amounts to 3157 14-90th dollars.
" This sum, the committee are of opinion, should be paid to Mr. Landais, in the manner in which foreign officers have usually been paid; that is. one sixth part thereof in specie, and the remainder by funding it on the public credit.
" The committee further report, that Mr. Landais, by a resolve of Congress of the 9th day of March, 1779, was allowed the sum of 12000 livres, as a gratuity for his services, in transporting military stores to America, which sum was ordered to have been immediately paid to him in France, and for which he stands credited in the treasury books 2400 dollars.
" The committee find, that Mr. Landais has been ever desirous of receiving the gratuity aforesaid, but that it hath not been paid to him, whereupon the committee are of opinion, that the sum with the interest thereof from the date of the resolve of the 9th day of April, 1785, amounting to 3276 dollars, be paid to Mr. Landais in specie.
" With respect to Mr. Landais' claims relative to prizes carried into France, Holland and Norway, as that business is unsettled, the committee are of opinion that Congress cannot, at present, decide on the claims of Mr. Landais, on that account.
" Whereupon the committee submit the following resolves:
" Resolved, That the receiver of continental taxes, in the state of Massachusetts, be authorized to pay to Mr. Peter Landais, on the 6th day of April, 1785, the sum of 3907 39-90th dollars, the same being the amount of a gratuity allowed him by a resolve of Congress of the 9th day of March, 1779, with the interest from that date to the said 6th day of April aforesaid, added to one fifth part of his pay, subsistence, and extra expences, whilst in public service, with the interest thereon from the 6th day of January, 1781, to the 6th day of April aforesaid, and that the president draw his warrant accordingly.
" Resolved. That the board of treasury issue a certificate to Mr. Peter Landais, for 2525 82-90th dollars in interest, dated the 6th day of April, 1785, that sum being the balance of his account for pay, subsistence, and extra expences, while in public employment."
I repeated in vain, to Mr. King, all the reasons which gave me the undeniable right to be paid wholly, in ready money, the sums mentioned heretofore, but he replied so peremptorily, that the foregoing report would not be allowed at all, I therefore suspected he was strongly influenced against me, and determined to prevent my obtaining those just claims. However, I asked of him the favor to be admitted to speak to the committee, before they made their report to Congress; he told me I might, but it would not avail.
I shewed all the gentlemen of Congress, whom I knew, the account I had made, and my claim mentioned heretofore, which they all approved, before I gave it to be examined by the committee; in which was inserted the following reasons why I was to be paid, in my particular case, in ready money, as claimed, viz.
That, as I had been either lawfully, or unlawfully, broken! If lawfully broken, Congress, in keeping any of the money owing to me, would thereby aggravate my sentence and as they have no power to do it, it would be an act of tyranny which I don't suppose they will exercise against an officer already punished: But if condemned and broken unlawfully (by the influence of my enemies, as I have proved I had been, in my memorial to the public) a fortiori, it would be still a greater act of tyranny, to keep those, or any part of those monies, from a dutiful officer, who has already been sacrificed.
That, as by the certificate of the comptroller of the finances, on the 14th January, 1782, the money owing to me for pay, subsistence, &c. is specified to be due in specie; moreover, that as the superintendant of finance, in his letter dated office of finance, Jan. 16, 1782, wrote to me on the same account, that the balance of these monies would remain at my credit on account current, and which decision is implicitly approved, by the resolve of Congress, of the 6th March, 1782, it cannot therefore be denied to be paid me, in ready money, without derogating to my prejudice from said resolve.
That as I was put out of the service so soon as the 6th Jan. 1781, when I ought to have been paid; and that, as by the foregoing resolve of Congress, decision of the superintendant of finance, and the certificate of the comptroller of the treasury, all passed in the beginning of 1782, which concurred together to prove that I was to be paid in specie: therefore, the resolve of Congress, made some years after, that the American officers (who were out of my case, as I was no more in the service) were to be paid in certificates, which could not be applicable to me without annihilating and destroying the former resolve of 1782, and making that last resolve retrospective so far back, in order to prejudice me.
When I was admitted, in Mr. Thomson's secretary office, before the committee, consisting of the honorable Messrs. King, Howard and Beatty, I began to read before those gentlemen my claims, and reasons to support them, and the accounts thereof expounded, which were wrote on a sheet of paper, in the form of a petition to that committee: after I had read the first of those claims, which was the balance due to me on account of extra expences incurred, in following the order of his excellency Benjamin Franklin, to go to Paris, &c. the hon. Mr. Howell and Mr. Beatty said that claim should be paid in ready money. I then read the second claim, which was the extra expences I had incurred when on the ship's business, which those two gentlemen said, likewise, should be paid in ready money. The hon. Mr. King then took the paper out of my hands, and read himself the third claim, which was about my subsistence at sea: Messrs. Howell and Beatty said, also, that ought to be paid in ready money. But then the hon Mr. King seeing, I suppose, that the reasons I gave were so urgent to prove, that all my claims, in my particular case, were so undeniable, that the others would be also granted, said to the other two gentlemen, that he was going to make the report, on my account, to Congress, and went accordingly to write it in a corner of that office, and the two other gentlemen went to the room where Congress sat.
I applied again, there, in vain, to Mr. King, and by continuing to read the obvious reasons contained, to support that I could not, with justice, be denied any one of my claims; but he would not so much as listen to it, seeing which I left him the said sheet of paper, or petition and accounts, to the committee, at the bottom of which was wrote my prayer, subscribed, that said piece might be annexed to the report to Congress, on my account, to render conspicuous the justice of my claims.
I received the following, viz.
"By the United States in Congress assembled, June 2d. 1785.
" On the report of a committee to whom was referred a memorial of Mr. P. Landais,
" Resolved, That the board of treasury take order to pay to Mr. Peter Landais, one thousand, four hundred and ninety-eight dollars and one tenth of dollar, that sum being the amount of a gratuity allowed him by a resolve of Congress of the 9th day of March, 1779, with the interest thereof from that date to the 6th day of May last, added to the amount of his extra expences, subsistence, and one fifth part of his pay as a captain in the navy while in public service, with the interest thereon, from the 6th day of January, 1781, to the 6th day of May aforesaid; and that the commissioner for settling the accounts of the marine department, issue a certificate to Mr. Peter Landais, for eighteen hundred and fourteen dollars and four tenths, bearing an interest of six per cent from the 6th day of May, 1785, that sum being the balance of his account for pay, subsistence and extra expences while in public service.
(Signed) CHARLES THOMSON, Sec."
[To be continued.]