New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1849-02-12
Friday In the House-Board of Claims Bill
Correspondence Of The Tribune.

AL day long in the House on the bill establish
ing Board OF Commissioners iorthe investigation
and settlement Of Claims against the Government
which bill was finally got out Of Committee Il
precisely the shape wherein Il was originally re
ported. Il being now on its third reading, It V
probably pass the HOuse-snd that, / spprehend
will be the last Of il.
cannot give any consistent explanation Of tht
course pursued with regard TO this BIZ by th'
| larger number Of the Looo-Foco Members. These
gentlemen manifest an instructive aversion to Pr
vats Claims a. presented % Congress. and % thC
whole tribe Of lobby members. claim agents an
borsrs whom the current mode Of settling suci
claims inevitably creates They see, as plainly a.
| do, that the present system Is nc1rably viciou'
that It subjects Members # Congress to inces
SAINT annoyance and interruption by or On bcLal
Of clamants-thst i subjects them 70 the possibi.
suspicion Of corrupt in6gences-that II does moi
provide Tor the presentment Of ncle sans side %
the story at all 50 that claim often passes whicf
would not Il both sides Of the case were presented
But the claimant and his advocates tell their story
and %, in their evidence. without cross-exsmIna-
ton or counteractlon no attorney appears for the
| Government. and thus Claims are acted n often
involving the disbursement from the Treasury OF
tens and even hundreds Of thousands OF dollars
You NAV afterward discover fraud or mistake by
some accident, but there is no paying back. The
money is gone irreooversbly.
And bad IS this system is for the Government
il S no better for the honest Claimants. Hun
dreds and thousands Of worthy citizens have had
their property taken by force for public use and,
on applying to the Treasury for redress have been
told that none could be granted here-tbat no pay
nnent could be made from the Treasury, except
upon contracts duly made, and Of money spech-
cally sppropristed-and that application must be
made to Congress for relief. To Congress the ap-
peal is accordingly made but what chance has
Joe Hodgkins or Ike Oxgoad to get an act passed
by the House sent 10 the Senate, there agreed TO-
and sent 70 the President for bis approval, &c. &c
on his ow mere motion n hes not one chance
in a dozen. He must secure friends at Court
must employ an agent who knows the Members
OF the proper Committees and the ways and means
Of getting a bill put through. II nobody speaks
for him, his case may never be reported upon, so
as to get really before Congress at all. And, If
reported, it has but a slim chance among the mul-
tiplcity Of claims ito say nothing OF other busi.
ness) before Congress, and the general dislike to
all Claims. At best, then, he must pay hall bis
claim for help to get the other and then 1t is an
even chance that he never gets il. Some Member
who got up with & sour stomach says, Il object
when the calendar is called over on objection
day, and then it goes down among the unreacha-
bic things Of the session. One day the House is
in good humor and passes sixty bills another
time with that same calendar before it, 1t would
not pass five--perhaps not one. To day very du-
bous claims 60 through with rush tomorrow
the fair and Just are aid Oh the table or objected
as unreasonably. Its seldom that one hall the
Representatives clearly understand the claim on
which they are voting
Now | cannot see why those Members who
most generally oppose Private Claim IN the
Housewife grudge the days devoted to their con-
sideration, and vote 10 adjourn on such days as
early and as often as they have ohsnce-who
seem TO detest most heartily the lobby influences
with which these bills surround Congress and dis
tract the attention Of its Members-should yet
eyince so determined a hostility to bill calculated
TO relieve Congress OF all these annoyances and
perversions and remove the responsibility OF de-
Gliding upon Claims from two hundred and fifty
men who cannot half understand them, and cannot
really spare time to attend TO them, to three men
who having nothing else to do, who must soon
become familiar with the whole subject and must
inevitably substitute consistent and definite rules
for the present domination OF caprice and chaos.
And vet have, to-day as heretofore, seen all the
arts OF Parliamentary strategy exhausted, in al
tempts To- prevent even direct vote on Mr.. Rock
wells Commissioner bill, by the very men who
most uniformly resist favorable action on Private
Claims
leave 10 the regular report the narration of
propositions presented and voted upon to-day.
The debate had been stopped some time before
and this was the second day devoted to the con-
sideration of the bill by sections, with the amend
ments proposed TO each. After the sections had
been gone through. various substitutes Tor the
whole were presented, and finally one OF them
adopted. The Committee now rose and reported
the bill farther amendments being out OF order;
and, on coming out Of Committee, the House DIS
agreed 10 the substitute which brings II back to
vote on the original bill but unfortunately not
the bill as it had been amended by sections prior
to the adoption OF the substitute SO that the gene
rally good amendments adopted in Committee are
all cut off The bill was now ordered to be en-
crossed tor third reading ayes %, Noes 81 y
but objection being made to It's third reading at
this time. II lies over. think it wall be passed
when again reached. but that Is by no means
certain.