Western Sun, Volume 7, Number 34, Vincennes, Knox County, 27 July 1816 — Page 4

To the Honorable Jonathan Jennings Esquire. SIR. YOU will not deny but the citizens of the new state of Indiana have a right to enquire into your conduct both a a public and private character, before they undertake to bestow upon, or withhold from you, their sum ages at the ensuing election ; your unequivocal answer to the following questions would probably relieve the public mind from gome embarrassments and enable it to form a correct opinion as to your merits or demerit -, and yohr pretensions to the governmental chair of the v state. Q,. I. What pail did you act with iv , .t -t to the law giving a bounty in lands to the Canadian olunteers. ( or refugees ? Did vou, or did you not speak on that bill, and advocate it passage, 6c when members from other territories objected to the location of those Canadian claims in their territories, did you not invite their location in the Indiana tcrritorv ? O. 2. Did you or did vou not know that manv of the rangers

.... , . . and militia, whose pay for their i i 4k. A . . - I i j I

pan Kmc ser ices in aeienaing tne

frontiers had yet been withheld from them were settlers on the public lands which would in all probability be taken from them by those Cana lian claims, and has not that presumption been since realized t (. .1. iis on or w vou not a warm advocate for the bill allowing members of congress an annual salary of $1,500 for their services, and if you did not advd cate either of those bills, did vou take any measures to oppose their passage. CI 4. Was you or was vou not one of the congressional nominating caucus, who endeavored to

lorestal nub he onmion in the

hoice of president and vice-pre

sident of the United Suites ? Your answers to the foregoing enquiries would confer a favor on the public. & particularly on a . Citizen of Gibson.

nings I have no apology to oflfer. Mr. Jennings has long been our delegate to fcongress, he has lately been president of the convention, and now is, governor of Indiana, in expectancy. Thos" considerations, and those alone, entitle charges made by him agairist an idividual, to some atten tion, and imperiously demand of that individual who may be inV fortunate enough to become Hieobject of his malignity, td uive those feharges a serious refutation. I have waited some time for a reply from mr. Jennings to mv last publication, and finding him disposed to shrink frofn a contest where he has been the first assailant; and finding his fortress rendered almost inaccessible b idi-

To the Public. The attack made on colonels Mc.Farland and Evans, by Mr. Jennings in his circular, assailing their conduct as militia officers, and charging to their improper conduct the detention of the pa of those militia who were under

their command in the spring of 1813 appear to require a thorough investigation, not only for the satisfaction of those concerned, but thai the coriduct of miiitia officers, delegates o coovc, secretaries at war, may appear in its pro j o e lours, i am not vain enough to belief e myself i lequate to ich a ia k. but I will venture to submit a few remarks to the n iblie. hen I first saw mr. Jennings's circular, I felt extremely 1 lignant, and in little m( re than an hour I sent a hasty reply to the press, in writing which, I perha b indulged in indignant feel Li i too much, and confined m v Sv Vto the ments of the case too V Ic, which I hope will account for t'.ie defects of langua ;e, stvle, manner or mattei therein conta;ncd 1 say tin- an w , - v to the public only to mr. Jen-

tori a! partiality, I shall makacjjie more feeble effort to lav the subiect of those militia claims, eoncerning which mv conduct has been the subject of fftr. Jennings animadvertion, fairly before the public, in as brief a manner as the nature of the case will admit of, The grand question appears to e, whether there is or is not such an incompatability between civil and military offices as to render inadmissible the discharge of a civil and military duty the same person, at on? and thefeame time. & that they should revive remuneration for each service accordingly. To shew that no such incompatability did exist agreeably to the laws of this territory at the time spoken of, it is only necessary to refer the public to the laws of the territory themselves ; to show that such has been the practice for one and the same person to dischar& the duties of a civil and military office at iKfand the same time, and draw payTwqach service, and that that practice nas been recognized and held ad missable, not only by the laws of this territory, but by the laws of the U. States also ; I will instance a few cases 1st. James Wilkinson and Hull, (if I am rightly informed " were at one & the same time, territorial governors, and brigadier genera's in the service of the V. State-. Sc drew pay for each service accordingly. " d. Amongst the militia, exampies are numerous ; the honble, ft. Parke, was in service from the L8th of Sept. until the 19th of November following, and on the same expedition was the honble W. Taylor, on the general staif

roii trom anout tne 1st ol Sep

tember, 1812, until alc'ut the

ot November following, judge Parke w as in service as nart of a

. . I

1st

their remuneration flows from different sources, and depend on different contingencies. 1st. Militia organized under a call from the general government, are regulated by the laws of that government, and receive compensation for their services, direct from the general government 2d. Militia organized by the commander in chief of any state or territory, and placed at the disposal of the general government, the claims of which must hrst be recognized by the government before they can be discharged bv that government, and in each case the genera! government is bound to liquidate such claims agreeably to the laws of the U. States, and pay them accordingly 3d. Miikia organized by the governor of any particular state or territory, for the defence of that particular stale or territory; such a e a state or territorial corps (as the case may be) and such claims are to be adjusted agreeably to the laws of that particular state or territory, and that particular state or territory alone is bound for the payment of those claims, and only bound agreeably to its ov. n existing laws, and it is only on an appeal to the liberality of the general government, x their assumption of payment, that remuneration is to be expected from t.l source, and it is one of the primary duties of the delegation from sue'; state or territory to endeavor to obtain that assumption on the pstrt of that government. Hence should any difficulty arise to prevent the arsumption of payment of such3 claims, either thro' the error of officers or otherwise. I hold it to be the duty of the delegation from such state or territory to give the earliest possible notice to such officer or officers of such difficulty, that t hey might either explain away the difficulty, or correct the eiTor (if any) and not suffer the claims to be jeopardized, & payment retarded, to hundreds of their patriotic fellow citizens, for their exertions in their countrys cause, merely to gratify the malignant feeling- of the delegate towards an officer to whom he was inimical, nor yet for the sake of making the errors of a young inexperienced officer a hobbyhorse to cany himself inio public favor. The militia commanded by cols. Mc.Farland & Evans were of the 8d, or lat description, (a territorial corn-.) Bv some pub-

nor, by advise of the legislature, organized 16 companies of militia, and placed them under the command of cols. MkFarland & Evans, under whose directions (iiot withstanding they were sitting members of the legislature part of the time) those militia were stationed round the frontier, by which means protection was afforded to the frontier hiU as ample as the most sanguine minds had anticipated. They were r territorial corps, and the laws of the territory guaranteed to them remuneration for their services out of the funds of the territorybut if the general government felt inclined to extend their liberality to the territory by assuming the payment of those claims, they had a right to assume its payment agreeably to the then exist

ing laws of th territory, and not

under

depi

er the semblance of liberality ive the citizen soldier of the

full amount of pay which the laws of the territory had guaranteed to them, the opinion of delegates to congress; secretaries at war. and all officers whose duty it was to inspect those rolls, together with all tbeii; animadversions on the conduct of colonels M'Farland & Evans, to the contrary notwithstanding. But to inforce those truths on the infatuated mind, would require more than the eloquence of a Cicero : while mr. Jennings skims along on favours airy Wing, he feels defiance to all dispassionate enquiriesr; but I call on mr. Jennings to recollect, that the "sovereign people" will sometimes rah e a man without merit, and sink him without a crime

i iap

territorial corps : I have seen him

with hi dragoons on parade at dawn of day, and at ID o'clock of the same day. on the bench of the general court discharging his

official duties : no

were made to the rolls of those officers, notwithstanding it did not appear on the face of them, that they were dischargfor the I es of a civil office at tlVjatiie time, and drawing pay for their v rvices accordingly. I will here apologise to thoe

erentiemen

b r thu

u-inr

their

names. 1 should have avoided it,

if I could otherwise have illustrated my position w it bout adducing such examples. There are different descriptions of militia, organized in different ways, and for different purposes ;

I i it,' ry was left desti

tute oi the prospect of protection from rangers, or other governmental troops, at a time the most perilous and critical of any witnessed during the late war. Tbe citizens on the frontiers were abandoning their homes and property to the mercy of an invading and ruthless savage foe : many of them who felt most tenacious of their existance, and most anxious to preserve it, did not think themselves secure in the territory, and indeed am told, thaifeven mr. Jennings at one time thof with poor I, any OBrifeiif and believed it wise to evaporate if I might be indulged in the ex pression and turned tail to tail, with his brave countrymen. But to he serious, : neb was the aspect of things; and under such circumstance-, the acting gover-

and that tbe languishing dame is not always secure in the arms of her bully, when concealed from the rays of light by tbe thick shades of midnight darkness ; she may for a time carelessly indulge in licentious security. but remember tbe rays of morn may Sometime break on her pfflow, &. discover her form and nakedness to a gazing multitude. I shall now close this address, which is intended for libera! and dispassionate minds alone, and particularly recommending it to the attentive perusal of those brave militia who have most severely felt the effects of thai error (in whomsoever the error has been) which has been instrumental in withholding from them that compensation which theii patient suffering, and patriotic services has so justly entitled them to. Robt. M. Evan? P. S. I do not wifh it unclerflood that i contend for the propriety of vne man difchargii g ihe duties of a civil & military office at ihe Time time, and receiving pay tor e;ich ItMice, but ihe rexrrie Icont ncl that Inch has been the practice and not forbuMcn by the laws of the territory & that ihr officers of the war department ought either to have received ibofc rolls ol the field and H.ff as they were. r to have nj'Cled i htm. but thetr rec prion or n j clhn otigh' not nay COuH not t ft. cl the c n patn rolls, and that nir. Jennings! bolflererj up tale about the diffirulties which thi.? circumftancf prefentrd is ail farcr, or a kind of 111 i f t to t;et himfeif out of a difficulty, and involve others in one, and at the fame time gratifj his malignant feelings owards men to whom he was tnim caI- R. M. E.