Brief Prepared by James Monroe in Monroe v. Skinner, 20 October 1824 - Page 2

amicable way, but the negotiations on the subject always failed, from causes not now
necessary to be mentioned, that your Orator, or rather his agents, had some matters
of account with the said defendant, which he was anxious to settle, and in 1823 he
renewed his efforts to obtain the said land. He therefore proposed to purchase
from the said defendant the said 80 or 85 acres, that referees should settle this
accounts, that they should say whether the land had been forfeited, in which case
your orator would have nothing to pay; if not forfeited, they were then to ascertain
it value, taking into consideration the date of the lease, and the ages of the cest'que vies,
if they, or one of them should be alive. That the proposition was agreed to by
the defendant; that on the 25th, day of October in the year 1823, your Orator and
the defendant met the referees, who had been selected by mutual consent: that
the said referees, to wit, William Ellzey, and James Hixon were unwilling to
proceed unless the reference was made in writing and signed by the parties. The
paper, therefore, marked A, hereto annexed as part of this bill was written by
your Orator on the spot; signed by the parties, attested by witnesses, and delivered to the
referees. This paper through hastily, and perhaps inaccurately drawn, shews the intentions
of the parties to have been precisely as it is here represented and the decision of the
referees soon afterwards pronounced, and a copy of which is hereto annexed marked
[?], clearly proves that they so understood it. By virtue of the decision your Orator
considered himself as entitled to the immediate possession of the said land, and
that the term of one year, allowed to the defendant, was to enable when I
bring evidence that the Cest'que vies, or either of them, was alive. That your
Orator, at the time when the said decision was pronounced, was so much engrossed
by the duties pressing upon him in consequence of the approaching session of
Congress, that he did not pay much, if any attention, to this transaction, after
the reference as above stated, was completed, and the decision pronounced; but
learning that the defendant, availing himself of your Orator's absence from
the County, and his demotion to public business in the District, was cultivating the
land, as usual, instead of giving it up, as he ought to have done, your Orator
sent him a notice of which an authentic copy marked C is hereto annexed; that
your Orator is put to great inconvenience in the management and cultivation
of his lands in Loudoun, in consequence of the partition of these 80 or 85 acres, one
line of which many not far from his dwelling house, and the tract itself pressing
in upon the estate in the most awkward and inconvenient form; otherwise he would
be content to permit the defendant to retain possession of the land in question
to any period to which the lives of persons born before 1767 might be supposed to
extend, provided no farther waste was committed. But now so it is, may it
please your honor; that the said defendant also knowing the importance and
convenience of the said land to your Orator, and hoping to bring your Orator to
terms which he likes better than those ascertained by respectable judges chosen by