The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1870-02-02
Terms $500 per amman, d, aarance.


names nj whose names were sold and boupbt--
If the names represented men-ed,,
ceive any Of the money so paid is o,'9.. ~.
sale presumption. fN''S a.
As has been already said all claims Sor -
endorsement tor this class of pames hs.a
heen disallowed by the Commission. II has
been argued to US that such names should BE-
allowed because they were purchased in good
faith by the municipal officers, and, that, In
asmuch as the names were thus accepted by
the government instead of the men that had
been called for, the Commissioners should act
upon the presumption that whatever had the
sanction OF a government official must have
been right and regular
To this argument our reply has been, and
is: /. 1t is by no means a matter of course
that municipal officers acted in good faith
in all cases in the purchases of these names
to fill their quotas.
2. These paper credits" answered the Oh
Jeet for which they were purchased-tney
hominally filed the quota and saved the city
OF town from draft, and having been bought
Ior mat purpose alone there exists no good
reason or argument why the State should
nov. now pay Out money for them under a law
, tnat ulo not then exist and could not lave
been contemplated.
.: Ii we grant that each of these names
OF paper ciedits represents man actually
some
time during the war plior to the date when
they were bought as above, still we had no
legal authority to award reimbursement for
them unless 1t were first proved to us that
enlisted on or after July 2, 1862 In no sin
gle instance where claim was made for these
paper credit men, was one item of evil
dence presented to us going to show the date
of their enlistment. -i
And finally, viewing the whole matter of
these so called 'paper credits" in the best
light Of all the facts that we have been able to
obtain, and the best reasoning we have been
able TO apply to it, it is the honest conviction
of the Commissioners that the whole transac-
ton was wrong and iniquitous; and that all
who actively participated in 1t, or passlvely
consented to it have an unpleasant account to
settle with their Own conscieDces and self-re-
spect at least, il never with tae wronged peo-
pie and institutions.
There is another and smaller class of men
that were claimed and disallowed In the
fall OF 1852 considerable number of men
were enlisted as recruits Tor the old regiments
in the field. Some of these recruits on ar
riving at Augusta, instead OF going forward to
the regiments for which they had been en-
listed, went into the regular army, generally
INTO the 17th U. 5. Infantry. All of which
"as very proper. These men were credited
at the time TO the municipalities that had
furnished them as recruits for Maine regi-
ments, and were not credited as recruits for
the regular army. But In 1864 an order was
issued by the War Department directing su-
periptendents of the recruiting service tor the
regular army to make return to the Adjutapt
Generals OF the several States of the names Of
all men recruited for the regular army alter
September 2, 1862. Under the operation Of
this order, of course the names o the men
above mentioned were returned to the Adju-
lant General OF this State. After the lapse OF
some eighteen months it is not surprising
that the fact was forgotten or overlooked that
some OF the men so returned by U 5. recruit
ing officers bad once been credited as recruits
tor Maine regiments. But when we ind
these men claimed by municipalities as In the
regular army, they are claimed as having been
furnished in 1864 on the quotas beer pending,
and in all cases as having been paid pretty
large bounties. On investigation in such
cases it has appeared that the bounties mark
ed against the names were paid to some per-
son or persons who assumed to sell these
| names to fill the quotas OF towns. The fact
| is one of the mysteries that we have no
means of explaining. The soldiers in ques-
| tion received their bounties, State and munl
| cipal, in the fall of 1862 when they enlisted,
| and were credited to the towns that furnish
| ed them. BY what possible right then any
| man or firm should sell the same names TO
other towns at price of four or five hundred
dollars each IN the season OF 1864, we cannot
comprehend. Cases like this were not very
numerous, but there were enough of them to
have made one man comfortable in money
matters. il one man had sold them all more
especially if he also received State bounty
for each man so sold.
We also found upon some claims and cred
its considerable number of men in the reeu-
lar army who enlisted in the summer and fal-
| OF 1865, long after the war had closed. TIE
crediting OF them may be regarded as cleri-
cal error. We need not add that they were
| disalowed by us.
Just how many men or names of the sever
al classes above described have been disallow-
| ed for the seasons given, we have not taken
| time or pains to estimate. How much mon
| ey was paid to brokers Tor the three classes
the naval commission men," the paper
credits" and the regular army men who en-
listed in 1862 Ior Name regiments, we could
| not state or ascertain by any expenditure ol
time and pains, because as we have intimated
there is good reason to believe that some, ]
not many, municipal ofiicert have ounittsi
such names from their claims. 1t Is safe :,
estimate the amount in hundreds of thous
| ands of dollars. 1t was evidently business
that yielded large profits. 1t made poor men
or men of moderate means, suddenly rich.