Memorials and petitions from the beginning testify to the sleeplessness of these claims. On the 5th of February, 1802, only forty-six days after the promulgation of the Convention of 1800, they began, and they have continued from that early day down to this very session of Congress, making in all four thousand six hundred and two. Of these, nineteen hundred and thirty-one were in the Senate, two thousand six hundred and seventy-one in the House. They are chiefly from original sufferers, their executors, administrators, assigns, widows, and heirs, residing in the large seaports from which the despoiled vessels originally sailed; but there are some from all parts of the country, where, in the vicissitudes of life, the representatives of original sufferers have been carried,--all of which may be seen in the list of these petitioners.[114] Two several times--once under President Polk, and again under President Pierce--both Houses of Congress concurred in an act for the relief of these claimants; but this tardy justice was arrested by Presidential veto. In the face of this constant succession of reports, resolutions of State Legislatures, and petitions, constituting not only “continual claim,” but continual recognition of the claim,--the whole crowned by two several Acts of Congress,--it is impossible to infer negligence in the claimants, or, indeed, any assumption of inordinate confidence. They have had good reason to believe that they should be successful. Under such circumstances, the lapse of time, sometimes urged against them, becomes an argument in their favor; for it adds constantly recurring testimony to their merits, besides a new title from the disappointment to which they have been doomed. Claims beginning thus early, and thus sustained, may be ancient, but they cannot be stale. II.--POSSESSORS OF THE CLAIMS ARE NOT SPECULATORS. A trivial remark, which is rather slur than objection, may justify a moment’s attention. It is sometimes said that these claims are no longer the property of the original sufferers or their representatives, but that they have passed, like a fancy stock, into the hands of speculators. This remark, if it had foundation in fact, has little in equity. It would be hardly creditable for a government to take advantage of its own procrastination, and refuse just compensation, because the original sufferer had been compelled by unwelcome necessity to discount his claims.