The Committee of Claims, to whom was referred the petition of James Dun ning, report:

A favorable report was made upon the claim of the petitioner at the first session of the 32d Congress, accompanied by a bill, which passed the Senate, but was not acted on by the House of Representatives.

The facts upon which the claim is grounded, as set forth in the petition, are fully authenticated by the letter of the quartermaster general, dated January 7, 1850, hereto annexed; from which it appears, that on the 18th day of June, 1850, there was due to the petitioner from the government, by the terms of a charter-party, referred to in his petition, the sum of $13,470 62, payment of which was duly demanded on that day, and was refused solely in consequence of the appropriation being exhausted, and could not, from that cause, be made until the 12th of October following.

In the opinion of the committee, this case should form an exception to the general rule, on which the government refuses to pay interest, and that the petitioner is entitled to relief. They, therefore, report the accompanying bill, which is identical with that which has once received the sanction of the Senate, and recommend its passage.

The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the petition of Mrs. Mary C. Hamilton, widow of Captain Fowler Hamilton, late of the United States army, for a pension, report:

That this case received the favorable action of the Committee on Pensions of the Senate at the last session of the last Congress. The evidence is unchanged. The facts are correctly set out in the report. of the last session, and this committee adopt that report as a full and accurate statement of the case.

IN SENATE, JANUARY 24, 1853.

Mr. STOCKTON made the following report on the petition of Mrs. Mary C. Hamilton:

That the petition of Mrs. Hamilton, verified by her oath and sustained by ample testimony on file in the War Department, details fully the meritorious services of Captain Hamilton and the causes which produced his untimely death.

Captain Hamilton, it appears from the rolls, was appointed a 2d lieutenant of dragoons on the 1st of July, 1840; promoted 1st lieutenant 31st August, 1843; appointed major in the 10th infantry 9th April, 1847; and promoted to lieutenant colonel in the 16th infantry May 23, 1848. On disbandment of this regiment at the close of the Mexican war, he was reappointed in his former position of 1st lieutenant 2d dragoons August 5, 1848, under 4th section of act of July 19, 1848; promoted captain of 2d dragoons 25th July, 1850, and died August 8, 1851, on the El Paso road, while in discharge of the duties of the service.

It appears that Captain Hamilton served with distinction in the Florida war, and throughout the Mexican war. During the latter war, he rose by rapid promotion to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Such was the admiration and respect for his gallant services in that war, that the legislature of New Jersey, (his native State,) February 8, 1849, presented him a sword inscribed "For gallant conduct displayed

in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterey, at Vera Cruz, and the Bridge of Madeline." During his service in the Mexican war, his leg was broken by the kick of a horse, the wound from which, never having healed entirely, co-operating with a chronic diarrhoea, there also contracted, greatly debilitated his strength and undermined his constitution.

In August, 1851, on the frontier of Texas, while in pursuit of a band of marauding Indians, he died suddenly of exhaustion, produced by the exposure and hardship of the expedition, operating on a constitution already enfeebled from the hardships and injuries of previous

service.

He died, as testified by Major Merrill, his commanding officer, under whose orders he was acting, "in the field, and in the discharge of his duty, and I am satisfied (Major M. says) that the expedition was the direct cause of his death."

The deceased has left a widow and child in indigent circumstances, and your committee think that they should be indemnified for the irreparable loss of the husband and father, whose life was sacrificed in the service of the country and in the line and discharge of duty.

If Captain Hamilton had died of wounds received in battle with the Indians, his widow, under the existing laws, would be entitled to a pension. Your committee are of opinion that her case is fully within the reason and spirit of the pension laws, though, strictly construed, not within their letter. It belongs to Congress to remedy the defect of those laws when inadequate to relieve cases justly within the scope of the humane purposes to which they owe their enactment.

Your committee, therefore, report the accompanying bill, and recommend its passage.