Lenoir County, NC - Dallam Caswell Petition, 1804

To the Honorable the General Assembly

Gentlemen,

		As I am going out of office it is my wish to settle all my public 
transactions, particularly those respecting money matters, so as to leave no 
kind of room for complaint. I have an account of some monies which have come 
to my hands as a public officer, and must show the application of the same; I 
have also a bond in the hands of the Treasurer for the purchase of 
confiscated property, which I mean to discharge agreeably to a resolution 
upon my memorial to the General Assembly, in their last session at 
Fayetteville. But in justice to myself and family, who everyone knows (who 
was acquainted with my business) I have much injured in interest by serving 
the public, and as I flatter myself that my public services were effected 
with as much zeal and attention to the Interest and advantage of the State as 
those of any other officer I hope I shall be considered to be entitled to the 
same justice that the other public officers have received from the hands of 
the Legislature; I mean such as have had the depreciation of the of the paper 
money made good to them, to wit, Delegates to Congress, former Governor, 
Judges and others under this expectation I take the liberty of mentioning my 
having been in the executive of Government in the years 1777, 1778 and 1779, 
when the depreciation was rapid, particularly the last year, as at the 
commencement money was at ten for one, when in order to make my salary equal 
to one thousand pounds (a piece) the allowance was ten thousand pounds, at 
the end of six months the money was at twenty five for one, and at twelve 
months end fifty for one, so that supposing that one half to be paid at the 
end of the first period, and the other half the latter the whole amount in 
value to three hundred pounds only.

(Second page)
Having this states matters as they really were, I humbly submit to the 
General Assembly the propriety of their directing the Comptroller on the 
settlement on my Accounts, to allow me the depreciation of my salaries in the 
years 1777, 1778 and 1779, in doing which I shall receive that justice in 
common with others which I conceive I am entitled to. 
							
         Richard Caswell

December 15th 1787

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To the Honorable the General Assembly now sitting
The Memorial of Richard W Caswell respectfully sheweth_

That your memorial is the only child and son of William Caswell deceased who 
was the only son of Mary Mackilwean to whom a Grant did issue under the seal 
of crown dated the 15th of November 1743 for 200 Acres of land situate then in 
Craven County, now Lenoir County. That the said land has decended by heirship 
to your memorialist the patent or Grant for which is in his possession and 
appears by the endorsement on the back thereof to have been recorded in the 
Secretary's Office but so it is that in searching in that office it cannot be 
found on any of the Records. Therefore to the end the title nay be preserved, 
your Memorialist prays the Honorable the Legislature to direct the Secretary 
of the State to place the same on the Records in that office.

Richard W Caswell

No Record can be found in the Secretary's Office of the Grant mentioned in 
the above Memorial.
Will White Sec. 10 Dec 1804

(Reverse side of letter reads)
Richard W Caswell
Secty to Record a Patent
Mary Macilwean, Memorial
Resolution rcd W Bruton
By J Hunt Clerk

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To the Honorable the General Assembly of the 
State of North Carolina

		Dallam Caswell, the only surviving son and Executor of the late 
Richard Caswell, by this his Memorial and petition respectfully sheweth,
		That Richard Caswell, your petitioners father was Governor of 
this State in the years 1777, 1778 and 1779 and that he was again Governor in 
1785, 1786 and 1787, that in course of the time of his being last called to 
the executive business of the state he became accountable, as your 
petitioner, who was then an infant, is since told, for a certain sum of money 
belonging to the public but by what means and in what way he knows not. Those 
monies were in the first place charged by Mr Child, the then Comptroller, to 
Winston Caswell, as private Secretary to the Governor, and a judgment was had 
on the account so raised- This judgment was afterwards reversed for error, as 
being taken against the wrong person, and the vouchers in charge against 
Winston Caswell, were therefore charged to Richard Caswell, then late 
Governor, and judgment and Execution were had and levied on the real and 
personal estate of the said Richard who had some time before died:- All the 
personal estate of your petitioners father has been sold by this and other 
Executions. One or more stays of this Execution, so far as respects the real 
estate, have been granted by the Legislature, but at whose insistence your 
petitioner is not well informed. An account of some irregularity in the 
proceedings or Judgment, this Execution has not yet been satisfied and lately 
your petitioner and all others the Heirs of Richard Caswell have been called 
into the Court of Equity for the District of Hillsborough in regards to the 
unsatisfied part of this Execution.  
Your petitioner, as is above stated, had no knowledge of the origin of this 
debt, but as the money is demanded and saught by the State, he has reason to 
believe it justly due and very sincerely wishes it were in his power to pay 
it, but unfortunately for him as well as for others of the Heirs, the Estate 
of his father has been wasted and distroyed, and there now remains naught to 
him or to them save a small share each in the tract of land lived on as 
aforesaid.  Sell this tract, and your petitioner as well as others who live 
with him will not only be deprived of the remnant of that patrimony to which, 
in more prosperous days, they looked for a competency, but will, literally 
speaking, be left without the means of subsistence.  
Your petitioner has however no wish to excite the commiseration of the 
General Assembly, but would respectfully ask as a matter of justice, that 
this claim of the state may be set off by one which he hopes and believes it 
will be admitted by all is equally just, and due to the Estate of his father 
for and on account of the depreciation of the salary allowed him when first 
Governor of the State.
To shew the amount of his fathers claim on the state in this regard, he 
herewith submits an account stated. To shew that he claimed the depreciation 
charged, he takes the liberty of enclosing the copy of a message sent by his 
father to the assembly at Tarborough in 1787 on that subject and to shew that 
he did not relinquish his claim, because that assembly did not finally act on 
it, your petitioner begs have to refer to the certificate of the public 
Treasurer herewith likewise submitted.  It will seem by the account stated 
that the claim for depreciation, which might indeed be properly charged at a 
much higher rate, amounts even as it is charged by the sum of Fifteen hundred 
and fifty three pounds eight shillings and six pence-and it may be seen also 
by the Comptrollers books that the same in charge against the petitioners 
father is nine hundred and twenty eight pounds six shillings and ten pence. 
As the Legislature thought proper to make good the depreciation of salary to 
the Delegates in Congress to the Judges-and to the former Governors of the 
State as your petitioner finds it is expressly stated they did in the message 
sent them by his father last above mentioned and submitted, he hopes with 
confidence and indeed assured himself your Honorable Body will determine that 
the same measure of Justice is due to all.
His prospects of fortune, through patrimony, have long since ceased and he 
feels no wish to make money at the expense of the public, if it were in his 
power. He does not therefore ask, even for the depreciation charged in the 
account rendered and which he conceives to be justly due, because if it were 
paid it would amount to a mere pittance when divided among those who have a 
right to claim a share. All he therefore would ask of this General Assembly 
is that the one claim may be ballanced by the other, and that the state will 
order the cost of suit commenced by them to be paid making this request only 
and asking no more, he, with the confidence, submits himself and the 
reasonableness and Justice of his petition to the General Assembly.

Raleigh Dec 1804                               D Caswell

(On reverse of last page)
The Memorial and
Petition of Dallam
Caswell

In Senate December 7th 1804
Read & refered to the Committee of
Propositions and grievances 
By order
M Stokes Clk

Dec 4, 1804

The Commissioner of Proposition and Grievances to whom was referred the 
memorial and petition of Dallam Caswell, of Lenoir County, Report,
That they have examined and considered the said Memorial and petition 
together with the account and Documents accompanying the same, and find the 
facts stated therein are true- That is the say, they find that the late 
Richard Caswell was Governor of this state in the years 1777, 1778 and 1779. 
They find also that during those years the salary of the Governor was fixed 
at one thousand pounds of specie value.- They find likewise that Mr Caswell, 
the petitioner, in making out his account estimated the Governor salary at 
eight hundred pounds and not at one thousand pounds, which he might 
rightfully have charged.They find the depreciation of the money of those 
days to have been as is stated and charged in the amount rendered and that it 
leaves a balance calculating an annual salary of eight hundred pounds only, 
after _ _iting all sums received of Fifteen hundred and fifty three pounds, 
eight shillings and six pence 1553.8.6

They find further, that North Carolina has a balance of claim in the Estate 
of the said Richard Caswell, to amount of Nine hundred and twenty eight 
pounds six shillings and ten pence 928.6.10 which being deducted from the 
sum due in depreciation of salary as aforesaid, leaves six hundred and twenty 
five pounds one shilling and eight pence 625.1.8.

The above are the facts as they appear to your Committee. Had the full amount 
of salary been charged and the consequent depreciation your Committee sees no 
just cause wherefore the whole should not have been allowed. However, the 
account rendered being as is above the stated and the petitioner having 
thought proper to request only that the one claim might be balanced and set 
off by the other, and that the costs which have accrued in consequences of 
suits commenced in this regard be paid by the state, Your Committee 
unanimously agree in reporting the following Resolution towit,
Resolved, that the Treasury officers be and they are hereby directed to 
balance the account in charge against the estate of Richard Caswell formerly 
Governor of this State and that the public Treasurer be and he is hereby 
directed to pay out of the public chest all costs which have accrued and 
remain payable, in consequence of the suits in Law or Equity commenced for 
the recovery of the sum so in charge against the estate of the said Richard 
Caswell as aforesaid.

         Alex Martin

In Senate Dec 14th 1804
Read & resolved that this House do concur therewith.
By Order  Jo (unreadable signature)
M Stokes Clerk

In the House of Commons 15 Dec 1804 
Read and concurred with  N Cabarrus
By Order  J. Hunt

On opposite of paper
Report on the Petition of Dallam Caswell
928.6.10

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North Carolina
                                        Treasury Office 7th Dec 1804

		On the application of Mr Dallam Caswell and in compliance with 
his request I hereby certify, that some time in the year 1789, as well as I 
now recollect, a letter was addressed to me as Treasurer, by the late 
Governor Caswell, the prospect of which was to request, that suit might not 
be commenced against his son Winston Caswell for the recovery of a sum of 
money with which he stood charged, by Mr Child the Comptroller, as private 
Secretary to his Father when Gov of the State: In this letter, Governor 
Caswell stated as the ground of the request he made, that the state of North 
Carolina was indebted to him for the depreciation of his salary when and 
during the time he was first appointed Governor of the State. That at the 
Assembly, the next after the date of his letter and which was about to 
convene at Fayetteville, he would apply for the said depreciation, with 
which, if allowed, he would pay off the sum in charge against his son and 
secretary: he added that if the Legislature, contrary to his expectations, 
would refuse to make his sons allowances, that there and as such case, he 
would provide for the payment of the monies charged to his son from other 
sources. 
He died at the commencement of the session of the assembly above referred to, 
and of course had it not in his power to comply with the promise made as 
aforesaid.

                                             John Haywood
                                             Dec 7th 1804 

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North Carolina
Treasury Office 13th Dec 1804

On a second application of Mr Dallam Caswell I certify, that there has not 
been any payment of any kind whatsoever made out of the publick Treasury on 
account of or towards the depreciation of the salary of the late Governor 
Caswell, since the commencement of the year 1787, the time I came into 
office; nor have I any reason to believe that any such payment has at any 
time therefore made; on the contrary, from the Governors application to the 
assembly at Tarbourough for the depreciation of his salary and from his 
subsequent letter to me on the same subject, I have every reason to believe 
that no payment or allowance of this nature ever has been made to him or to 
his representatives. 

John Haywood Treasurer  

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NORTH CAROLINA

        In Senate December 17th 1804

Mr Speaker,
		We propose that the rule heretofore entered into requiring that 
all reports and resolves the object of which being to draw money out of the 
Treasury shall be read three times in each House, before they are allowed; 
shall be dispensed with so far as it relates to the reports of the Committee 
of Claims; and also to the report on the petitions of Dallam Caswell.

By order                                        Jo Riddick

M Stokes Clk

In House of Commons 17th December 1804
Read and concurred with                S. Cabarrus Spkr
By Order
J Hunt

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