Woodbury, Levi. Remarks by Mr. Woodbury, of New-Hampshire, on the First Decision of the Bill for the Relief of the Surviving Officers of the Revolution. Washington: Printed by Green & Jarvis, 1828. First Edition. [11200]
Self-wraps, 9 1/2 x 6 inches, 12 pp., long ago folded into fours to fit in a pocket. Good. Pamphlet.
Remarks made by a US Senator to the US Senate in defense of supplying financial relief to the surviving American officers of the War for Independence. Woodbury states that these payments are due them, and that now that the Federal government is solvent their payment is long overdue. He says that the French, and foreign officers who fought for the Americans were paid, and that even the American Tory officers had received their payment from the British government.
"They are not suppliants for mere favor or charity, though we know that nothing but the proud spirit which helped to sustain them through the distresses of our revolution, has withheld most of them from reliance for daily bread on the alms provided by the present pension act. No, Sir, they come as petitioners for their rights." p. 3.
Levi Woodbury (1789-1851), Dartmouth graduate (1809), studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He became an associate justice of the New Hampshire Superior Court, and was governor of New Hampshire (1823-1825), and US Senator from New Hampshire (1825-1831). He was secretary of the US Navy (1831-1834), and as a Democrat he was appointed Secretary of the Treasury in 1834, providing assistance to President Andrew Jackson in his tumultuous relations with US banks. Re-elected to the US Senate in 1841, he remained there until President Polk nominated him for the US Supreme Court, where he served as an Associate Justice (1845-1851).
