[Copy of A remonstrance to the Secretary, [undecipherable] and also an Answer to Gen^l [undecipherable: Morgan's] caveat] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] Feb 27: 1795 [undecipherable] [undecipherable] Attorney Secretary of [undecipherable] [undecipherable] Having obtained a copy of the caveat Allegations or complaint or whatsoever it may be called which was lodg'd with the [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] by the Honourable Daniel [undecipherable: Morgan] [undecipherable] and others bearing date the [undecipherable] of November 1[7]94 and [undecipherable] has been since turned over to your offices as containing matters cognizable [undecipherable] you in which it is alledged that [undecipherable] Nathaniel [undecipherable: Massie] John O'Bannon and [undecipherable] the [undecipherable] principal surveyor[s] [undecipherable] the others his deputies for surveying Virginia Continental lands on the north west side of the Ohio river had violat[ed] their trust by [undecipherable] the arrangements entered into [undecipherable] location of those lands and instead of [undecipherable] and surveying the same [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] may [be] due to the said Richard [undecipherable] Anderson [undecipherable] O'Bannon and [undecipherable] their own right, or as [undecipherable] and finding that you consider [undecipherable] authorised to [undecipherable] and entertain the [undecipherable] caveat [undecipherable] and hence to [undecipherable] the giving of patents on surveys belonging to either of the parties complained of as aforesaid, [undecipherable] one of the parties and advis'd [undecipherable] only to hear the complaint on one side that you are also authorised to hear the answers on the other, hence to decide, I shall proceed to reply to the allegations aforesaid. In the first place I positively deny the whole of the above statements — In the next place to give you an idea of the business [undecipherable] give the following [undecipherable] in the year 1784 a [undecipherable] of m[a]de under the superintendance of the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] determined that all the good land was taken on the waters of [undecipherable] Cumberland river and that the [undecipherable] on the warrants must be located on the [undecipherable] [undecipherable] side of the river Ohio for this purpose [undecipherable] [undecipherable] the office [undecipherable] first of August 1785 and ran in [undecipherable] [undecipherable] notice was given in the Virginia Gazette on this occasion a board of superintending officers again met at Louisville and made arrangements for conducting the business and locations were commenced and made conformably to those arrangements till the whole number of [undecipherable] warrants went through. The warrants return'd by the surveyors after a certain day to be registered by him as they were [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] were entitled to prior- ity of location as they stood in the register which they received [undecipherable] till the whole were completely gone through, after which locations were made as the parties applied. Knowing this state- ment [undecipherable] be accurate I am utterly at a loss to say on what [undecipherable] information Gen. Morgan has grounded his complaint But this I will say it is not well founded. That far from departing [undecipherable] the arrangements made by the superintendents they have been the rules which uniformly governed the transactions in the offices having said this much to repel the complaint and to enable you to understand the subject in general per- mit me to remark that this business has been in execution for above ten years that many locations to the amount of many thousand acres stand on these arrangements and are subject to be overturned if any regard is or can be paid to such complaints as [undecipherable] I have just answered supposing them to be for a moment to be founded, which however I repeat are unfounded. Will the secretary of war under- take to declare the whole business illegal and void and therefore to be done over again; if he will not undertake to do this which I can hardly suppose, [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to what purpose tends [undecipherable] [undecipherable] in principle [undecipherable] at the whole of the [undecipherable] done on the north west side of the Ohio. Because it is obvious that if one link of this chain of rotation is misplaced the whole from thence forward deranged and to correct the error with an impartial hand all transactions subsequent to the first error must be set aside. Does the secretary at war charge himself with this office and authority? [undecipherable] [undecipherable] to what purpose does he restrain the giving of patents upon a general allegation that the legal arrangements have been [undecipherable] [undecipherable] operating only in particular cases? If the secretary of war means to exercise judicial power between man and man and not merely a ministerial power confined simply to enquiring whether the survey [undecipherable] by the proper vouchers and if the party has [undecipherable] the necessary [undecipherable] to entitle him to the land, then it becomes of importance to those concerned to know the extent of this new judicial authority and in what manner it is to be exercised, whether on the principles of common [undecipherable] [undecipherable] law or law martial? you will pardon my [undecipherable: solicitude] on this subject since I must own that I have not been able in all my researches to find the law which con- stitutes the secretary of war a judicial court in [undecipherable] matters of title or [undecipherable] damages between individuals, nor am I apprised of the authority which enables him to take cognizance of complaints which he cannot adjust. But while I am necessitated to consider the secretary of war as a ministerial officer merely and hence bound to examine the claims of an individual to a patent according [undecipherable] the evidence which he brings to sustain his right independent of all other claims I freely admit that the man who had injured [an]other ought to be amenable for his conduct before the proper tribunal. I know also it would be the duty of the secretary of war [undecipherable] of state to forbear to give a patent prohibited by [undecipherable] tribunals which prohibition would of course [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] actions. In the present case I should even think a Suspension of the grants of the subject of complaint if there was a specific allegation of interference between the claims of [undecipherable: Gen. Morgan], or any other person for whom he undertakes to speak and that of Col. [undecipherable] Anderson or any one of his deputies, but there is no such thing it is not said by Gen Morgan that he has a right to any one of the tracts of land claimed by any of the [undecipherable] of whom he complains. If he had so alleged [undecipherable] [undecipherable] of war is not the judge [undecipherable] of right between the parties and that it does not belong to him to refuse on [undecipherable] such allegation it belongs to the judicial courts who are competent to try the matter of right and to render justice by [undecipherable] [undecipherable]. But a court would not entertain a [undecipherable] complaint so vague as the one presented by Gen. Morgan unless it was really [undecipherable] the locations and surveys which had been made upon it, specifying that they had not been made according to the arrangements of the superintendents. And here to order the whole business to be done over again, for any one who has an idea of equity and who admits the parties complained of have gotten to themselves the best lands as it is alleged and thus injured others would think of compelling a conveyance of any one or all of those good tracts to Gen^l Morgan and his friends who cannot shew any specific right to them but only claims to come in according to general arrange- ments the effect of which cannot positively be known and it is [undecipherable] throughout and which in that case might not [undecipherable] one of Gen^l Morgan's claims on either of those good tracts. If it were true that the arrangements had been set aside [strikethrough: alledged] alledged left by Gen^l Morgan whereby the claims of others have fallen on those good lands it would not follow if those locations were all declared void and the Arrangements of the Superintendents set up again and [undecipherable] [undecipherable] followed that these good tracts should fall to Gen^l [undecipherable: Morgan]. Would then a judge in Equity decree them to him, when he has no specific right as [undecipherable] location was in [undecipherable] of [undecipherable] arrangements [undecipherable] and from thence [undecipherable] [undecipherable] by reason that he was entitled to [undecipherable] lands? [undecipherable] [undecipherable] also [undecipherable] that [undecipherable] knew of those good lands that he ought to [undecipherable] them for him and that he was alone pre- vented by [undecipherable] without them having passed out of turn by [undecipherable] the effectual arrangements. Believing myself [undecipherable] by the [undecipherable] of war will [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] [undecipherable] his powers before he proceeds to examine them and that in [undecipherable] [undecipherable] of these ideas that it properly goes to entertain a complaint officially which he cannot redress, that he is not in [undecipherable] of communication between [undecipherable] injured citizens and the judicial authority. That no ministerial functions give him in this business a right to examine the official documents transmitted by the surveyor and compare them with those in his offices so far as to enable him to certify that the party was entitled to the quantity of land surveyed and that the title vouchers are good and that it does not fall within the line of his duty to investigate adverse claims and that which, properly should restrain him from the attempt [undecipherable] will [undecipherable] him to [undecipherable] similar certificates on [undecipherable] and if the surveys belong to those above named come complete in due form and it shall appear that the party under whom the claim could have obtained a patent in his own name that his legal assigns ought to obtain it in every case respectively. I am Sir dutifully Gen^l [undecipherable] Nath^l [undecipherable] To the secretary of War Philad[elphia] 27 Jan[uary] 1795