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1876.] OF THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES 1545
of the opinion of the Goiximittte on Pensions, before that in-
asmuch as the services rendered by said claimants for pen-
sions, were for a common;county it wag not the duty of the
State to pay them, but rather for the General Government,
the Committee determined to report them all unfavorably.
While the petition handed to Mr. Jump by Col Woolford,
was in his (Mr. Jump's) possession, Col. Woolford, accord-
ing to the evidence, shewed great anxiety and solicitude as
to the ultimate fate of the petition of the pensioner from
Somerset county, and upon several different occasions, asked
Mr. Jump if the petition would receive a favorable report
from the Committee. Finally upon being told by "Mr. Jump
that tke petioner, among many others, would be reported
unfavorably, Col. Woolford asked to be allowed to withdraw
the petition from Mr. Jump, which was granted by Mr,
Jump.
Mr. Jump's evidence declares, that in a short time subse-
quent to the withdrawal of the petition by Col. Wooolford,
already alluded to, a bill was reported to the Senate, having
in it the name of the party in the petition. To this fact, Mr.
Jump swears positively, saying: I" knew the name of the
party named in the bill, was the same as that in the peti-
tion," and as if to make his testimony still stronger, says:
"I knew one thing, that it was the same party that this bill
was reported for."
After said bill was reported to the Senate, a special refe-
rence, asked for, and it was referred to the Committee on
Finance. And here it is proper to meet a statement of the
majority report, that the Committee on Finance could not
have a pension bill before it, with the sworn statement of
Mr. Jump, that this bill already alluded to, as having been
reported to the Senate, was specially referred to the Commit-
tee on Finance, and that the Committee on Finance, could
report pension bills when they had been specially referred to
them. A tyro in Legislative proceeding, would not contradict
this statement, as we all knew that when a member reports a
bill, and asks to have it referred to a certain Committee des-
ignated by him, it is so referred unless there is some
striking and glaring reason why such a referencee
would be appropriate and absolutely wrong. Your Com-
mittee thinks that after this presentation of Mr. Jump's tes-
timony it will be apparent that the bill referred to the Fin-
nance Committee, by special request, was for the same party
named in the petition, handed to Mr. Jump by Col. Wool-
ford, and that the party named therein could not possibly
have been Noah Webster, because the relief for Noah Web-
ster was in consequence of having been illegally drafted; and,
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