The Daily state register. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1870-1872, 1871-11-12
A TENNESSEE CONGRESSMAN.
It is stated that all of,the Tennes

n SSS66 nN
It is stated that all of'the Tennes-
see wal claims which have been
audited and paid during the past two
years by the Federal Government
are believed to be fraudulent, and
they are to be overloaded. They
have been manipulated by Stokes
andhis cenfederates. Stokes worked
up fraudulent claims In Congress
into the shape of private bills, and
Treasury officials in collision with
him, audited the claims and divided
the spoils. The particular charge
upon which Stokes was arrested was
for conspiracy with Federal officials
and other individuals to defraud the
Government of $50 600 in bounty
claims which have been already paid.
Most of these claims have been
paid to negro troops in Tennessee
and other Southern States. In work
ing up these bogus claims Stokes
used the Freedman's Bureau in every
way possible, and some of those Off
Gals are implicated with him.
Stokes and his confederates appear
to have made a regular business for
years of defrauding the Government
and people while he was amusing
them with loud and continuous
howls about loyalty" @ ku klux,"
etc. His jobs were put upin various
ways. Many OF them were in the
shape ef private bills for the benefit
of fictitious persons, who eve had
any existence outside of the pre-
ambles of the Congressional bills.
A Washington correspondent of the
New York Herald relates an instance
of these transactions:
Private act No. 96, passed July IA,
1870, having peremPtOrily declared.
upon no other authority than its
terms, that a certain David Beatty, of
Tennessee, did, at a particular date
early i'll the war. organize a company
OF scouts, numbering exactly 102 men.
which was continuously engaged till
the end of the war in suppreSSing the
rebellion under the orders of the COM
handing officers of the United States
in Tennessee, without yer being u
tered into the service or having been
paid q cent OF compensation, proceeds
to recognize and declare Captain
Beaty'> company : a part ofthe army,
and as peremptoriiy directs hat they
receive the pay, allowances and pen
>ions OF cavalry regularly mustered
in on proof of active service. But as
this latter provision vas only intro
duced to hooGwink any legislative eye
which might be on the alert, and
would have certainly defeated the end
in view when the proof of service was
required by the War Department, an
other provisO declares the proof of
service to he q roll Of the com pany, to
be made uptive years after the close
of the war. To make this roll effective
fer all the swindlers it was only re-
tquired that it should be sworn to by
the OiJceTS, mo were 10 De the ldTS-
est sharers OF such part of the spoils
as Stokes ard his confederateS had not
already allotted to themselves. To
determine the amount to be paid to
each soldier, as the act designates these
unen in bucSram, it was only neces-
sary to file his purported affidavit of
the time he had served. Surprising
as it will he to all outside the govern
ment bureaus to see on what easy
terms no less than Sill ,029 can be
drawn frosn the Treasury, this acts
but an average sample of a great many
similar enactments varied IN terms.
numbers. names, localities and
amounts TO divertsuSpicion- that have
been rushed through successive Con
crosses, especially through those of
which Stokes was a member, against
all reasonable probability, the REGARD
evidence of the Adiutant Generals Of
flee and the earnest protests of the
War Department.