The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1859-01-15
BALTIMORE.
SATURDAY, JANUARY Is, 1859.

No American citizen can ever fully appreciate
the meaning of the proverb which tells US that
s'Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, " until he
holds claim against the Government of the
UNITED STATES An English Chancery suit comes
the nearest to it of any thing that we can remem-
Der, but that is by means so mockinglv tan
talizing-that never lifts the cup to the lip
and then suddenly snatches it away. 1t simply
drags its slow length along, YEARLY, monoto-
nously and if the suitors should happen to have
the tenacity of life which has been attributed to
office-holders, of whom JEFFERSON said that ''few
die and none resign" they may finally have the
satisfaction of learning that the has been ad-
Indicated, and that the legal expenses have swal-
lowed up the estate. A claim held by private
individual against our Government differs, how
ever, in some material respects from an English
Chancery suit. If it happens TO be one which
ought not be allowed the greater are its chances
of success. We do not propose to explain this
paradox. We simply desire to state a fact
Everybody knows that doubtful claims have fire.
quenty had preference over just ones, and that,
some how or other, they passed through Con-
gress with marvellous rapidity. 1t is also matter
of history that Congress has shown wonderful
facility in sanctoning enormous land grants at the
instance of jobbers and Spectators and in passing
pension bills for services which had already been
adequately requited. But when it comes to lust
caims-to claims so clearly proper and honest as
not to admit of reasonable doubt--the case is
altered Then Constitutional scrnples are pleaded;
the condition of the treasury; or the fact that
the claims are not held by the original parties, or
Thar w IL do Of
to evade indemnfying the petitioners. The French
Spoliation Bill is case in point. More than a
dozen times the Senate of the UNITED STATES has
emphaticaly acknowledged the validity and the
justice of the claim and the bill has twice passed.
by respectable maorities, both Houses of Congress;
but in the first instance il was vetoed by President
POLK and in the second, by President PIERCE
On Monday last, the bill again passed the Senate
by majority of seven, if we include the vote of
Senator KENNEDY who was known to be decidedly
in favor of the bill, but who was unavodably alb
sent when the vote upon it was taken. 1t has
now to pass the ordeal of the House, and we regret
to say that doubts expressed whether, from the
objections urged against its passage in the Senate
by Senators BIGLER and DAVIS it will be suffered
to become law. 1t has been intimated that those
gentlemen, in opposing the bill, reflected the views
of President BUCHANAN. We can, however, hardly
conceive this to be the fact, inasmuch as Mr..
BUCHANAN himself while a member of the
Senate, voted for the payment of these claims
and must, therefore, have long since convinced
himself that they were just. Indeed, since 1892
when Senator LIVINGSTONE made his able Report
in favor of the petitioners, there has not been in
unprecedented minds any doubt whatever upon the
subject. 1t is remarkable also that on every oc-
casion that the French Spoliation bill has come
up for the action of the Senate it has received its
sanction, and in the only two instances in which
the House has been brought to a vote upon it
majority of the members have voted in lis favor
But it is said that the old plea of want of money
in the treasury is again to be urged as an excuse
for not assuming the payment at this time. If the !
House does its duty, the PRESIDENT certainly can
not, with consistency, base his objections TO the
bill on any such untenabe grounds He we'll
knows that whatever money is required can easily
be obtained, and the very fact that Mr.. Mason has
reported bill to the Senate placing thirty millions
of dollars at his disposal, with view to facilitate
the purchase of CUBA shows that the condition of
the treasury offers insuperable obstacles to the
attainment of any object which may be regarded
as of national Importance, and therefore can offer
none to the liquidation of private claims.