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Darien,
April 17th 1837.
To his Excellency William Schley
Governor of Georgia.
Sir,
My absence on my Spring Circuit has prevented me from Sooner receiving your Communication, of 17th ult. [ultimo] I hasten now to reply to it, altho [although] my answer must be written amid the business & haste of term time, and without the time for reflection which I would otherwise have given to it.
I should be disposed to give a liberal construction to the section referred to. The intention of the Legislature appears to have been to prevent any pecuniary loss to such of the Citizens of Georgia, as had come forward with, gallantry to defend their States and their fellow Citizens from the attack of the savage. I should construe the words "while employed in actual service," to mean any loss sustained by any means by the volunteer, after he had reported himself to the proper officer for Service and before he had been discharged or retired from such service. I can perceive that this construction renders


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the words "lost in battle, or in the immediate pursuit of the Indians" surplusage, since the words "actual service" would include the two other contingencies, but I cannot suffer this difficulty to outweigh what seems to me to have been the spirit of the law & the intention of the Legislature.
But whilst I would be disposed to give a liberal construction to this section, I would not carry it beyond a reasonable limit. When the Legislature declared that the lost "wearing apparel of the soldier" should be paid for, they certainly did not suppose that a man going to fight the Indians & to encounter the hardships & fatigues of Such a campaign, would carry with him the same wardrobe as if he were going on a Summer turn with ladies. They used the word " soldier " in its usual acceptation. Nothing therefore that was unfit either in quality or quantity to such a campaign, ought to be paid for. To give it a different construction would go to defeat the object the lawgivers had in view. An embroidered vest or a broad-cloth cloak do not constitute the necessary wearing apparel of a soldier engaged in hostile movements against savages in a wild & swampy country, and yet these articles if


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lost, would entitle the wearer, under a different construction than that which I now give, to be compensated for them -- I think therefore, that only such articles should be paid for, as were adapted to the occasion, or at least that not more than the cost of such articles should be given. What would be the necessary wearing apparel of a militia soldier called out to defend his Country, I am not sufficiently versed in such matters to answer, but I presume that point could easily be ascertained

I have the honor to be
Your Excellency's Ob. Servt [Obedient Servant]
[Signed] Robert M. Charlton
Judge "Supr [Superior] Courts" E.D. Geo. [Eastern District Georgia]





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18 [illegible text]

Single
To His Excellency William Schley Governor of Georgia Milledgeville
Mail

Judge Charlton's Opinion

Letter &
opinion of
Judge R. [Robert] M. Charlton

17 April 1837
Judiciary