36-1Indian AffairsReport : Claim of of G. Fisher. [1069] Indian depredations of 1813 in Florida.1860-9

House of Representatives Report No. 345, 36th Congress, 1st Session (1860)

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36TII CONGRESS, ~ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. s REPORT, lst Session. ~ ~ No. 345. GEORGE FISHER. [To accompany S. R. No. 8.] APRIL 6, 1860. 1rfr. EDWARDS, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, made the fol- _ lowing REPORT. The Committee on Indian Affairs) to whom was referred a Joint resolu-tion relating to the claim of George Fisher) deceased) respectfully report: That in the year 1813, in Florida, very considerable damage was done to the property of the said Fi:sher, when living, by the troops and militia, in the name of the United States ; that by an act of Congress, approved April 12, 1848, the Second Auditor of the Treasury was directed to examine the proofs of the loss and determine the amount, not however to allow for any loss or destruction by Indians. The Auditor at that time, Mr. McCalla, found the amount of the property destroyed to be of the value of $17,946, and allowed the claimant one-half as destroyed by the troops ; leaving the other half to be re-garded as destroyed by Indians, and allowed no interest on the claim. In December of the same year his attention was again called to the claim and he reviewed his decision, and confirmed it so far as related to damages, except that he corrected an error of one hundred dollars in hi!! former computation, a'ld allowed interest on the part of the claim which he had allowed, from 1832 to 1848, amounting to $8) 7~7 94. In both the examinations he rejected certain depositions which were before him, to wit : those of Wiley Davis, James Turner, and Sam-uel Harrison, for want of authentication. . Subsequently, on the 12th of May, 1849, a Second Auditor, the suc-cessor of McCalla, in accordance with a construction of the act of 1848, by the Attorney Gen~ral, Hon. Isaac Toucey, allowed a further amount of interest of $10,004 89, being for interest on the damages before allowed from 1813 to 1832. In 1850, October 19, the claimants perfected the rejected testimony by due authentication, and filed it with the Second Auditor and asked a further allowance upon the claim. The Auditor declined to enter-tain the application on the ground that the case was closed. At its second session, the 33d Congress passed the following act : 2 GEORGE FISHER. AN ACT supplemental to an act therein mentioned. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Unite States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be the duty o the Second Auditor of the Treasury, under the provisions of the act of Congress for the relief of the legal representatives of George Fisher, deceased, approved 12th of April~ 1848, to re-e:xamine the said case, and to allow the claimants the benefit of the testimony heretofore mar ked '' reJected fo'r the want of authentication,'' provided the same is now legally authenticated by the executive of Alabama; the adjust-ment to be made in strict accordance with the act herein above re-ferred . to, and to which this act is barely supplemental. Approved December 22, ] 854. This act was never executed by the Auditor ; its execution was ob-jected to by the Secretary of the Treasury for reasons which it is not now necessary to refer to. The case was again presented to Congress at the 1st session of the 35th Congress, and a joint resolution was passed transferring to the Secretary of War the duties to be performed by the act of 1854 afore-said, and by the act to which it was supplemental, and the said Sec-retary was required to proceed de novo to execute the said acts in their plain and obvious meaning, and instructed by said resolution to de-duct from such account as he should find equitably due to the legal representatives of said George Fisher all sums which had been here-tofore allowed and paid on account of said claim. Under this resolution the Secretary of vVar made examination of the case ~nd allowed to the claimant in addition to what had been be-fore allowed, on the 13th of C5ctober, 1858, the sum of $9,131 princi-pal, and $30,096 50 for interest thereon from 1813 to the date of the allowance. \ It is now suggested that the Secretary of War, in executing the act aforesaid, disallowed some portion of the amount which had been allowed by McCalla and paid, and that he did not give full effect to the testimony of witnesses whose depositions had been before rejected for want of authentication, . but which were then before him duly authenticated, and Congress are now asked to authorize and require his revisal of his adjudication, and by the joint resolution passed by the Senate he is required so to do, and under instructions ns to the manner in which he shall execute the duty first assigned to him, not contained in the resolution by which the duty was orig inally hnposed. Under this statement of facts the committee are of opinion that the resolution will be sufficiently specific if the Secretary, without any more specific instructions, shall be authorized and required to re-ex-amine the case, and to give effect to all the testimony filed therein, including the depositions before referred to, and to correct any error in his first award, and to make such additional allowance, if any, to the claimant as he shall think the justice of the case requires~ and for this purpose they raport the accompanying amendment to. said resolu-tion. 

George Fisher. (To accompany S.R. no. 8.)

https://shareok.org/bitstream/11244/37448/1/House-36-1-Report-345-Serial-1069.pdf

George Fisher. (To accompany S.R. no. 8.)

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