Your petitioners Robert G Ward and Fayette Manzy humbly show that on the 21st day of September 1831 the said Robert G Ward with the said Fayette manzy as his surety executed to Wm T Barry then Postmaster General of the United States a bond for $370.73½ payable on the 1st day of June 1833 that sum being the one moiety of a balance due from Wm Ward the brother of the said Robert G Ward & the then late postmaster at Culpeper C H Va for whom the said Robert G Ward was bound as one of his sureties in his official bond. The said William Ward was at that time insolvent & so remained until his death. The other moiety of the debt due from Wm Ward having been paid to the Post office department nothing further need be said as to it.

Your petitioners further show that some time in the year 1840 nearly seven years after the bond aforesaid fell due a suit was instituted thereon in the District court of the U S for the Eastern district of Virginia and on the 16th day of November 1840 a judgment was rendered thereon. Afterwards and execution was issued on the said judgment and your petitioners with one Thomas [P?] Flint as their surety gave a forth coming bond, upon which afterwards on the 12th day of November 1841 a judgment was obtained against them and now they are threatened with execution thereon

Your petitioners further show that the United States was on the 18th day of September

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1840 indebted to the said Robert G Ward in the sum of $499.97 which your petitioners desire to have set off against the debt due as aforesaid by them to the United States All the facts stated above are fully shown by record evidenced hereto annexed & prayed to be taken as fact thereof. The following statement shows the amount due to the United States after deducting the offsett aforesaid viz

By this statement it appears that there will be a small amount due still to the U S after allowing this offsett;

But Your petitioners humbly represent that considering the great expense and annoyance they have borne in prosecuting their petition before Congress that Congress will exonerate them from the whole judgment. This is now the third time they have had a [?] before Congress on this subject. A bill giving full releif passed one of your honourable bodies and on getting to the other branch was referred to the appropriate committee where the papers were lost or mislaid by some member of the committee who took them to his room for inspection.

On the second petition, after the committee to whom it was referred had determined to report a bill for relief, a similar fate attended the papers. On each occasion your petitioners had to get the papers [renewed?] at considerable cost and trouble. It would be equitable therefore they think, not only to have their offsett allowed but to have a full discharge from the judgment.

Your petitioner F Manzy for himself separately shows that under an equitable construction of the act of Congress limiting suits against the sureties of a Postmaster to two years, he ought to be wholly released form the judgment, for it was nearly seven years after the bond fell due before he was called on to pay it and he had entirely forgotten his liability and in the meantime, his principal R G Ward had become insolvent.

Your petitioners refer to the reported case of the U S vs Morrison to show what other Department of the Government ought to account with the Post office for the offset aforesaid of $499.97. It will then appear that it was on a contract for arms with the War Department that the suit of the U S vs Morrison was brought. And your petitioners will ever pray &c.