THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE COLLECTOR
PINCKNEY, William (1764-1822), Diplomat, legislator. Autograph letter signed ("Wm. Pinkney"), to Richard Forrest, Baltimore, 11 January 1815. 3 pages, 4to, boldly penned.
細節
PINCKNEY, William (1764-1822), Diplomat, legislator. Autograph letter signed ("Wm. Pinkney"), to Richard Forrest, Baltimore, 11 January 1815. 3 pages, 4to, boldly penned.
RIPPED OFF BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR HIS WORK ON JAY'S TREATY, PINCKNEY DECLARES "I DO NOT OWE THE GOVERNMENT ONE FARTHING." Boiling mad, Pinkney gets right to the point: "I do not owe the Government one farthing as Commissioner under the 7th article of Mr. Jay's Treaty...The way in which I am brought in Debt upon the Treasury Books...is by stopping my salary immediately upon the closing of the Commission and leaving me to maintain myself in London until the month of August following while I was employed under the orders of the President...I sent you some time ago a full statement upon that business - with an account...and vouchers to prove that the General Assembly of Maryland made me the present...upon an assumption that I was to receive (or rather had received with Mr. Monroe's assent) my salary from the United States. I begged you to present this statement...to the proper Department and I relied confidently on the justice of the government...In the meantime I repeat that I will not accept of any show of a compensation and that the placing the $1,000 and the balance of my salary to the credit of my Commissioners account is that and nothing more."
Article 7 of Jay's Treaty called for five commissioners (three American two British) to hear claims for compensation from merchants whose ships and property suffered damage "during the course of the War in which His Majesty is now engaged." Commissioners were to sit for 18-month terms; Pinckney's stretched from 1796 to 1804. His service also included four years as ambassador to Great Britain (1807-1811), a year as Attorney General (1811) and military service in the War of 1812, during which he was seriously wounded. After the war he became U. S. minister to Russia, served in the Senate, and enjoyed a lucrative practice at the Supreme Court bar. He argued the winning side of two of the landmark cases before John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland and Cohens v. Virginia.
RIPPED OFF BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR HIS WORK ON JAY'S TREATY, PINCKNEY DECLARES "I DO NOT OWE THE GOVERNMENT ONE FARTHING." Boiling mad, Pinkney gets right to the point: "I do not owe the Government one farthing as Commissioner under the 7th article of Mr. Jay's Treaty...The way in which I am brought in Debt upon the Treasury Books...is by stopping my salary immediately upon the closing of the Commission and leaving me to maintain myself in London until the month of August following while I was employed under the orders of the President...I sent you some time ago a full statement upon that business - with an account...and vouchers to prove that the General Assembly of Maryland made me the present...upon an assumption that I was to receive (or rather had received with Mr. Monroe's assent) my salary from the United States. I begged you to present this statement...to the proper Department and I relied confidently on the justice of the government...In the meantime I repeat that I will not accept of any show of a compensation and that the placing the $1,000 and the balance of my salary to the credit of my Commissioners account is that and nothing more."
Article 7 of Jay's Treaty called for five commissioners (three American two British) to hear claims for compensation from merchants whose ships and property suffered damage "during the course of the War in which His Majesty is now engaged." Commissioners were to sit for 18-month terms; Pinckney's stretched from 1796 to 1804. His service also included four years as ambassador to Great Britain (1807-1811), a year as Attorney General (1811) and military service in the War of 1812, during which he was seriously wounded. After the war he became U. S. minister to Russia, served in the Senate, and enjoyed a lucrative practice at the Supreme Court bar. He argued the winning side of two of the landmark cases before John Marshall, McCullough v. Maryland and Cohens v. Virginia.