The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-03-29

Fraudulent Bounty CIaims-ImpOrtant
New Legislation.
The Second Auditor of the Treasury recently
sent to the chairman of the Senate Committee
on Pensions report of q clerk who had
visited Memphis for the purpose of investi-
eating alleged fraudulent practices of the
claim agents of that region, in preparing appli-
cations for the pay and bounty Of colored
troops. This document contains many start
ling disclosures, and recites a series of well.
sttested facts, which prove that perjury and
fraud have been systematically and freely re-
sorted to to plunder the Government; and it re-
quires no stretch of imagination to believe
that the men capable of these crimes are as
ready to rob the pretended representatives of
the soldiers as the nation. The author of the
report, who carried with him to Tennessee
one hundred applications for bounty in behalf
of widows, found that they were nearly all
fraudulent, and that the testimony by which
they were supported was extracted either
from ignorant witnesses, who did not under
stand the full force of their pretended state
nents, or from hired perjurers, who have
sworn to an array of facts utterly beyond their
knowledge. A scheme is on foot to provide
by these rsscally agencies Widows claim for
pension for every deceased oolored soldier,
and the superserviceable perjurers have
already manufactured host of wives and
minor children who exist only in their fertile
imaginations.
Ii there is any crime in the calendar which
deserves condign punishment, it is the offense
exposed in this report, and no pains should
be spared to bring the villains who thus prac-
tise upon the bounty of the Government to
justice. AS similar frauds, especially in con-
nection with the colored troops of other portions
Of the South are of not unfrequent occurrence,
additional legislation seems to be necessary as
well as the vigorous action of courts, juries,
and jailors. In view of this necessity, Mr..
Wilson, Of Massachusetts, introduced in the
Senate, on Friday last, a bill providing that
''the accounting officers of the Treasury and
Pay Department, charged with the settlement
and payment of soldiers bounties, shall be
directed to pay, or cause to be paid, the sums
found due to the soldiers or their heirs in per-
SOD, and not to any claim agent, or upon any
power of attorney whatever We have not
yet seen complete copy of this bill, but it
seems well calculated to deprive the unprinci-
pied thieves who steal from the taxpayers
with one hand and from the soldiers or their
representatives with the other, of the princi-
pal motive for continuance of their nefarlous
trade.
The whole subject is worthy of the careful
attention OF Congress. The generous provi-
sion made by the Government for the heroes
of the war, or their families, cannot be too
saeredly guarded; and it is a matter Of regret
and reproach that under all our pension laws
far too large share of the treasure nominally
granted as the reward Of patriotism has found
Its way into the pockets of scheming agents.
Any new legislation that can grant additional
protection to the nation and its defenders
should be promptly ad opted.