171
PAPERS OF MIRABEAU BuoNAPARTE LAMAR
of the claims to be adjudicated. I£ founded upon losses sustained in the war, either by the operations of our army or by the spoilations of the enemy, they were considered as strictly within the jurisdiction of this Court as though they had resulted for monies advanced, articles furnished, or services rendered. The powers of other tribunals, were supposed to be subordinate to the extraordinary ones conferred upon this; so that if a claimant for lands, were dissatisfied with the decision of those previously authorized to determine his legal rights, he had only to present his claim to the Auditorial Board and demand an in- vestigation of its equity and justice. Officers of the army and navy as well as the subordinates of every department of the Government could do the same. That it was really the intention of Congress to confer powers so extensive on the Board is a proposition to which the mind assents with great reluctance. And yet from the phraseology of the Act, there is no room for a different construction. The expres- sions are, that "they" (the members composing the Board) "shall have the powers of a Court of Equity, and it shall be their duty) to examine into all claims of whatever amount founded in equity and justice, in relation to the redemption of which the present laws made no provisions"-expressions which would seem broad enough to cover every possible case which could arise in the whole range of human transactions. But as exceptionable as the bestowal of powers so extraoruinary on such a tribunal may seem to be, it is still less exceptionable than the mode of investigating and deciding the claims when presented. From the very nature of the busim!ss to be transacted, the testimony upon which the opinion of the Board was to be formed, was necessarily Exparte. A claimant, for instance, presents a hill against the Govern- ment for articles consumed or destroyed, either by the enemy or by our own army. The account is made out in due form, but from the im- possibility of sustaining it by official vouchers, it becomes a case of equity, and is proven by the affidavits of individuals. But these indi- viduals being wholly unknown to the Board, and whose characters and credibility the Board has no means of ascertaining, its decision as a matter of course must be based upon the evidence furnished by the claimant himself. It is obvious that under such a system of adjudica- tion, the Republic must in many instances suffer extensive injury. There was still another objection to the continuation of this Court, which to my mind, was an important one. It was, that the law au- thorized an appeal either to Congress or the President when the de- cision of the Board was adverse to the claimant, but allowed no such. appeal on the part of the Government, whatever might have been the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury as to the justice and equity of the decision. The decree was final and beyond the reach of future investigation, if against the Government; but not so if against the claimant. For these an_d other reasons I conceived it to be my imperative duty to issue an order 93 suspendin_(J" all further action by the Board, until the meeting of Congress, which I did on the 13th. of July, 1839. But in "This or<l~r is printed in the Telegraph and Texa-s Register of July 17, 1839, a copy of which is in the Texas archives.
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