American Republican and Baltimore daily clipper. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1844-1846, 1846-08-11

hmiied time allowed me, before your adjourn
ment, makes it impossible to reierate the
facts and arguments by which in preceding
Congresses, these claims have been success
fully resisted. The present is period partl-
Cularly unfavorabe for the satisfaction OF
claims of so large an amount, and, to say The
least of them, of so doubtful a character
There is no surplus in the Treasury. pub
lie debt of several millions has been created
within the last few years. We are engaged
in foreign war uncertain as to It's duration,
and involving heavy expenditures; TO prose.
cute which war, Congress has, at its present
sessi,n, authorized a further loan. So that
in effect the Government, should this Bill be-
come law, would have to borrow money
and increase the public debt to pay these
claims. 1t is true, that by The provisions of
the Bill, payment is directed to be made
in land script instead of money, but the eff
feet upon the Treasury will be the same
The public lands constitute one of the sour
ces Of public revenue, and if these claims be
paid in land script, it will, from the date of the
issue, to great extent, cut off from the Trea-
sury the annual income from the sale Of public
lands; because payments for the lands sod by
the Government may be expected to be made
in script until it is all redeemed. Ifthose claims
ID
nothing less valuable. The bill provides that
they shall be paid IN land script, whereby they
are in effect, to be a mortgage upon the public
lands in the new States, mortgage, too, held
in great part, if not wholly, by non-residents of
the States in which the lands lie, who may Sc
cure these lands to the amount of several mil
lions of acres, and then demand for them exor-
btant prices from the citizens of other States,
,tl,p ia than
ment, or they may keep them out of the mar
ket, and thus re;ard the prosperity and growth
of the States in which they are situated. Why
this unusual mode of satisfying claimants up
on the Treasury has been resorted to, does not
appear. 1t is not consistent with sound pub
lie policy. If it be done in this case it may be
done in all others. 1t will form precedent for
the satisfaction of all other stale and questona-
BILE claims, and would undoubtedly be resorted
to by all claimants, who, after successive trials,
shall fail to have their claims recognised and
paid in money by Congress.
The bill proposes 10 pay five millions of dolls,
to be paid in land script and provides "that no
claim OF memorial shall be received by the COM
missioners" authorised by the act, sunless ac-
companied by release or discharge of the U.
S. from all other and further compensation than
the claimant may be entitled to receive under
the provision of the act" These claims are
estimated to amount TO a much larger sum thar
five millions of dollars, and yet the claimant il
required to release to the Government all othe
compensation, and TO accept his share Of a funC
known to be inadequate.
If these claims be well founded, it would b,
unjust to the claimants to repudiate any portion
of them, and the remaining sum could hereaf
ter be resisted The bill proposes to pay these
claims not in the currency known to the Con
sttution, and not to their full amount.
Passed, as this bill has been, near the close
of the session, and when many measures ofim
portance necessarily demand the attention o.
Congress, and possibly without that full and de-
liberate consideration which the large sum il
approprates and the existing state of the trea'
sury and of the country demand, deem it to be
my duty to withhold my approval, that it may
hereafter undergo the revision of Congress.
have come to this conclusion with regret. In
nterposing my objections to its becoming a
law, am truly sensible that it should be an
extreme case which would make it the duty oil
the Executive to withhold his approval Of any
bill passed by Congress upon the ground of its
expediency alone. Such case | consider this
to be. JAS. K POLK.
Washington, Aug. s, 1916.