Immigrants and the Right to Petition - NYU Law Review

Imaged with the Permission of N.Y.U. School of Law
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW
[Vol. 78:667
Many noncitizens petitioned Congress for compensation for their
wartime contributions. 89 In fact, the first and third private bills enacted
by the First Congress were in response to petitions by German
war veterans, 190 and the fifth private bill was enacted in response to
the petition of a "Canadian sufferer or refugee."' 191 Another early petition
that provoked extensive congressional debate, this time by the
Third Congress, sought assistance for French refugees from Haiti who
had fled political unrest and landed in Baltimore. 192
The following are brief histories of three early petitions by noncitizens,
each of which resulted in enactment of a private bill. The
strength of these petitioners' connections to the national community
are varied. At one extreme is the Baron de Glaubeck, a German soldier
who fought in the Revolutionary War, departed for Europe upon
the cessation of hostilities, and later returned to the United States in
order to petition for a financial award. At the other end are French
refugees from Haiti, who arrived in Baltimore in 1793 and petitioned
immediately, despite having no ties to the United States whatsoever.
Between these, on the spectrum of ties to the national community, are
the de Grasse daughters, who came to the United States from France,
destitute and without personal connections to the country, but who
petitioned for assistance on the strength of their deceased father's
wartime contributions. Their ties to the national community, while
weaker than those of Glaubeck, were arguably greater than those of
the French refugees from Haiti. Despite the many objections raised to
each of these eventually successful petitions, the Verdugo-Urquidez
189 Among the first petitions submitted, for example, were applications from French veterans.
Id. at xxv; 7 Documentary History, supra note 104, at xv & n.4 (describing failed
petition of French volunteer Louis-Pierre Penot Lombart, chevalier de la Neuville).
190 See Act of Sept. 29, 1789, ch. 26, 6 Stat. I (allowing Baron de Glaubeck pay of
Captain in Army of United States); see also Act of June 4, 1790, ch. 16, 6 Stat. 2 (adjusting
and satisfying the claims of Frederick William von Steuben). Steuben was regularly termed
a "foreigner," though in fact he had naturalized under the laws of New York by the time he
petitioned the First Congress. See infra note 204.
191 H. Journal, 1st Cong., 2d Sess. 232 (1790). John McCord was a native of Northern
Ireland who came to Quebec before the Revolution. His petition to the First Congress
sought reimbursement for supplies provided to the American army in Canada, 7 Documentary
History, supra note 104, at 76-78, and resulted in enactment of a private bill settling
his account and granting a further sum in satisfaction of his claims "for lands and
rations granted by several resolutions of Congress to Canadian sufferers." Act of July 1,
1790, ch. 23, 6 Stat. 2 (satisfying claims of John McCord against United States). William
Maclay, a member of the Senate committee examining McCord's petition, initially believed
that McCord's "claims [did] not seem over well founded in point of law or any act of
Congress"; but Maclay eventually expressed "no difficulty in allowing" McCord the sum,
as "[hie had suffered greatly in Canada." Journal of William Maclay 287, 298 (Edgar S.
Maclay ed., N.Y., J.D. Appleton & Co. 1890) [hereinafter Maclay Journal].
192 See infra notes 205-29 and accompanying text.