Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16)United States. Congress
History
Abridgment of the Debates of Congress, from 1789 to 1856, Vol. 2 (of 16)
United States. Congress
Law -- United States; United States -- Politics and government
"That the services and sacrifices of the said John de
Neufville to the United States, during the war of their
Revolution, as stated in the said memorial, and vouched by
the testimonies herewith reported, constitute a reasonable
claim, in behalf of his, at present, very distressed widow
and children, on the justice of the United States. That it
being impossible, from various and peculiar circumstances
incident to the services rendered, to ascertain and
liquidate the compensation due into a precise sum, it is
necessary for Congress to decide on and provide for such
allowance as may be deemed equitable and right. That, in
the opinion of the committee, the sum of three thousand
dollars may be a proper allowance. They therefore propose
the following resolution:
"_Resolved_, That provision ought to be made, by law, for
granting to the widow and two children of John de
Neufville, the sum of three thousand dollars, to be equally
divided among them."
This report was advocated by Messrs. HARPER, W. SMITH, SWANWICK, HAVENS,
HEATH, THATCHER, VARNUM, and RUTHERFORD. They stated that the husband of
the petitioner, John de Neufville, was an eminent merchant at Amsterdam;
that he was an influential character there, and, at an early period of
our Revolutionary war, entered with great zeal into the interests of
America; that, meeting with Mr. William Lee, the Commissioner of the
United States, he endeavored to bring about a treaty between the United
Netherlands and the United States, which being discovered by the
British, that Court used its influence with the Government of that
country to harass and drive him out of the country; that during his
residence at Amsterdam, his house was a constant asylum for American
citizens; that he had made large advances in money for the service of
the United States, which obliged him to extend his credit beyond what
was warranted by the regular course of trade, and a failure in the
payment of which (owing to the embarrassed circumstances of the United
States at that time) had greatly injured him, and left him to the mercy
of his creditors. The consequence was, he was reduced from affluence to
poverty at an advanced period of life. Some years ago he arrived at
Boston with his wife and two children, where he subsisted in a very
humble manner upon the bounty of his friends in Holland; those friends
having, by the reverses occasioned by the Revolution, been much injured
in their property, could afford him but a scanty pittance; but Mr. de
Neufville being dead, the petitioner was deprived of this assistance;
and, to add to her repeated misfortunes, the son of her late husband,
from their multiplied sufferings, had been deprived of his reason. Under
this pressure of grievances, the petitioner was come from Boston to lay
her case before Congress, and pray relief. This peculiarly distressing
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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