The republic. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1849-1853, 1852-12-21
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIV

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE
RRIyATE CLAIMS.
Mr.. BROWN, of Mississippi. by unanimous
consent, offered the following resolution
Res"ired, That the following he added to the
rules Of the House of Represt ntat ves
There shall be appointed n standing committee
OF the House of Representatives. TO consist OF fiji
teen members, to be called the General Committee
on Claims whose duty it shall be to report bill at
each session OF Congress making appropriations
| for the payment of private claimants. II shall be
the duty of the other committees of this House,
when they have prepared ~ri,ten report in
favor OF any claim. to transmit their report,
together with the evidence which it is based l.,
| to said General Committee on Claims; and if said
| committee, after due examination, shall concur
| in said report, they shall insert an item for the
payment of said claim in the bill for the pay
ment Of private claimants,' and thereupon sub.
nit to the House the report and evidence afore.
said to be printed, otherwise disposed Of, the
House may direct. And upon the demand of a sim
gle member, vote shall be had on any section of
said bill separately, Notwithstanding the previous
question may have been moved and seconded
Mr., BROWN said it was admitted by every one
| that the mode of disposing of the private bills OF
this House is inefficient and Intellectual, and all
think there ought to be change. For good
many years they had had proposition before
| then, for the establishment of n board of claims
At first he was strongly disposed to sustain this,
but reflection had satisfied him il would an
swer the purpose He then show wed the advantages
possessed by the mode which he had submitted.
Mr. SWEETSER opposed the amendment. He
thought that instead Of facilitating 1t would throw
difficulties in the way of presenting bills to the
House. Another objection was, it would put all
claims on the same footing--a common platform
without the power in voting to make proper die
| crimnation, as in the case OF river and harbor
bilIs More than half Of the claims he thought
ought never tn pass; and the Treasury was already
| sufficiently aPproaohabie to get rid of the public
| money He would throw open the doors Of the
courts OF Justice to those claimants.
Mr.. STEPHENS, of Geor gia, did not see that
| sny evil could result from the proposition. Hc
was not dis posed to look upon the ma jority of
| claimants robbers. He inclined to think
there are many unj ust claims and that there
great many just once, which have been sleeping
half a ccntury-perhaps longer. If the gentleman
should open the courts of justice, and let the Gov
erniGent become party to the suit, !, would be
compelled to pay ".!iona Of dollars nov withheld.
lie spoke OF the neglect by gentlemen, Of private
claims, and contendcd that they would be better
protected by the proposed arrangement
Mr.. CLEVELAND said claimants have been
waiting here for ten, or thirty yrare, or more and
certainly this 10 not right. He opposcd, how
| ever, TO the amendment now pointing, thinking it
would not remedy the evil The remedy was Tor
members to assemble here Fridays and Satur
da ys, end attend to this particular busn ess.
Mr.. STUART opposed the amendment, and said
it was more nor less than this that The entire
question of paying private claims shall be left to
fifteen gentlemen of the House, witho IT appeal
Mr. CAMPBELL, oflllinois, spoke Of the delays
attending the prosecution of private claims The
greatest objection to the amendment was, il makes
omnibus bill, to which he was opposed-a
mutually of interest to carry them all through at
the same time. Hut there can be nothing sug
gested to which serious objection ciI.ot be mad
The question was, will the proposition relieve
claimants from the ditiic ultics under which they
now labor? He believed it would; and there fore
should vote for it.
Mr.. WASHBURN agreed, generally, with the
views expressed by the gentleman who preceded
him. The proposition would have the fec, of
bringing the Cases of the smaller claimants before
the House, which was an important consideration.
He did not consider the objections ~hich hah been
advanced as sufficient to rrjrct the pending amend
ment.
Mr. STANLY said that Of ali schemes ever pre-
scented for the consideration Of til. liOuse this was
the most impracticable and impossible. The diff
Guilty complained Of lie in the orga nizalion of the
House. The nine members composing the Com
mittee of Claims ca not now attend ~ their bust
ness, L'rge bodies move SLOWLY and committee
OF fifteen members can never be gotten together; |
and if they arc, they will do nothing. Better ap
point committee OF three members, if Que
ia to be appointed. But he opposed to the ca
tire proposition, for reasons which he stated.
Mr.. FREEMAN offered a substitute for the pend |
ing cndment-instr uctlng the Committee on |
the Judiciary to inquire into the necessity and pro-
prety of giving to the district courts vi The United
States full power at law to bear and determine |
claims against the Federal Government. lie made
a few remark in favor OF the proposition, stating
that something similar exists in Mississippi, and
acts well
Mr.. SACkETT argued te show that the amend |
mcnt OF the gentleman from Mississippi (Nr |
BaowS) would not facilitate the passage of iust |
elaine, but effect log rolling and combination of |
bills.
Mr.. JOHNSON, Of Arkansas said that ninety |
nine out of hundred righteous claims have to be
a abandoned to utter hopeessness because two hun
dred and thirty three or thirty four of the most in
teliigent men OF the nation have established rules |
which prevent them from doing Justice He ear |
nestly appealed to the House in behalf of private |
and favored the amendment of the gen |
tleman from Mississippi, (Mr. BRowN,) because it |
would approximate to the rendition of Justice. If |
this mode should not answer, let the House go on |
and keep trying something else, until a proper |
plan shall be attained.
The question was tai ken the substitute of Mr.
and decided in the negative-ayes 50,
noes 10.
The question was then sta ted on agreeing to the
resolution OF Mr. BRowN, of Mississippi, when
Mr.. STEWART moved that il be laid upon the
table
This wac decided in the negntive-yeas IT, nays
80
And the resolution was then disagreed to- yeas
"a. nays aq-as follows:
PEAS.-Messrs. Abercrombe, Aiken, Willis AL
len, VIM Appleton, Ashe, Barrere, Bennett, Bibig
haus, Bragg Brenton, Alberto Brown Busby. h.
&. Cabell. Caldwell Lewis ID Campbell, THOMPSON
Campbell, Caskie, Chapman, Chastain, Clemens
Cobb, Conger Cullom, Darby, George r. Davis
Dockrry, Duncan, Durham, Faulkner, Fickiin.
Henry M Fuller, Gaylord, Gray, Isham & Harris
Sampson w. Harris Hillyer Hunter Ives Jnck