, 1872-11-05
What to Do with the Alabama
Award. -
Pennsylvania P0Iitics---The Granny
League-.-The Consolidated
City.
Davenport.



prejudice. It is new thing for England to be
paying money to anybody.
WHAT SHALL We DO WITH IT?
Few persons acquainted with the nature and
pressure OF claims protesting to be entitled to
consideration under this award, will leave Wash
ington without expressing the wish that Con-
gress will divert the whole Of it from the hos. Of
greedy and ntigious damage-seekers. Few OF
them we're net losers in many cases, the claims
have been put into pool, and Stock Company
organized upon them; in others, 8hyster-
attorney or clain1-agent has gone over the coun-
try stirring up d litigiouH feeling, and securing
the agency Of quantity Of claims at SO per cent
on what he RECEIVERS. With two or three millions
Of such claims, he take capitalist into busi
ness with hin,-the latter paying the bills for
printing, bribery, Different, etc..
WHAT WAS DONE WITH FRENCH CLAIMS.
The Government has already established q
precedent, in the claims Of commerce for French
spoliation, that it will not undertake to pay
money to Individuals out Of gross sum re-
ceived of a foraign nation under provisions OF
treaty. Anybody who wishes to see the speeches
Of silas Wright, Benton, and Webster upon this
question. can find them in the first volume Of
Benton's Thirty Years"
Webster acted for the vesse1-holders, shippers,
and prlVateersmen Of Boston; Wright and Ben
ton denounced the awarding Of damages to indi-
vidua1 claimanta By Commissioners OF otherwise.
The French claims. so called, were for veseels
and cargoes seized by the French between 1888
and 1900. The French never explicitly recog-
nized theae claims. except to Offset them with
others; but, by the treaty under which Franco
sold Louisiana, che abated 20,000,0 600 francs OF
ia Y131rehq ~ nm f{nt adm al
and pay claims for captures, supplies, and en-
bargoes, by which American citizens we're suf-
ferers.
4 host Of claimants at once appealed to Con-
gress. In 1902 and 1907, Committee Of Con-
gress reported favorably to paying them. In
1855, the Senate passed q bill giving $4,000, 900
to such claimants but the House defeated it
They continued to importune the two Houses
even down to the breaking out Of the Rebellion !;
loafers, and gagabonds, and listless Sons of men
grew up e1pectant on these claims Insurers,
assignees, jobbers, and agents strained their
Wits and ran OF their legs about them. But
Benton showed that, during the period in ques-
ton, men made fortunes If they eaved one ship
in four or i've from the French cruisers; and
the came can be shown to have been the case
during tho Rebellion, when Transports COM
manded enormous hire, and our great shippers
forsook the sea voluntarily to take army con-
tracts and Manufacture and sell supplies. Ina
glno Vanderbilt, the King Of the Sea, losing
1AAt~NA-~~- ''A~
built a monitor, or any importer, OF any sea-
captain.
INSURANCE c1A1us.
As to ineura1ce claims. here is pithy extract
from Benton's speech:
lone OF the most revolving features Of this
ill is its relations to the insurers The most
infamous and odious act ever passed BY Con-
gtess was the Notwithstanding act OF 1793,-
an act passed in favor OF a crowd OF epecula-
tors but the principle of this bill is more odious
han + hat NJ Yayinfr
for their losses The United States, sir, insure! !!
Can anything be conceived more revolving and
atrocious than to divert the the funds Of the
Treasury to such iniquitous uses? It would be
far more just and equitable if Congress- we're to
lneure the farmers and planters, and pay them
their losses on the failure OF the cotton crop;
they, sir, are more entitled to put forth such
claims than especutatorH and gamblers. whose
trade and business is to make money by loases."
/ SUGGESTION.
This money would nearly or wholly build a
ehip-eanal from Lake Erie to Ontario, and make
all the Western cities European ports; or it
would widen the Erie Canal, and make the Vest
ern farmers more independent Of railroads. In
either cage, it"wou1d be money applied to restor-
ing our commerce.
TIE WASHINGTON CLAIM AGENT.
Apropos OF this speech Of Benton, may re-
vive paragraph pertinent to our period, upon
the tnordinate number Of mousers and runners
from all parts OF the Union who subsist here by
lobbying claims through the Departments and
Congress-. Said Benton "There ought to be
come limit to these presentations Of the same
claim. 1t ia game at which the Government
has no chance. Claims become stronger upon
age,-gafn double strength upon tlme,-often
directly by newly-discoVered evidence always
indirectly by the loss of adversary evidence and
by tbs death OF contemporaries.
Two remedies are in the hands Of Congress !:
One to break up claim-agencies by allowing no
claim to be paid to an agent The other, to
break up speculating assignments, by allowing
no more to be received BY an Assignee than he
has actually paid for tbs claim.
"Aesignees and agents are now the great pre-
senters OF claims against the GoVernment.
ident at Washington City. skilful and persever-
ing, acting on system and In phalanx, they are
entirely an overma!ch Tor the succession Of new
members. who come ignorantl3 to the consider
alton OF the caseE which they hive 80 well
dressed up.
ut would be to the honor of Congress and
the protection Of the Treasury to institute a
searching examination into the practices Of these
agents, to eee whether any undue means are
used to procure the legislation they desire"
would come when the Presidents brother-in- law
would become clalm-lotter in Washington,
and Congressman and Heads Of Departments as
we'll.
PENNSYLVANIA MATTERS.
In New York they float the flag OF Grant and
Wilson over the Union League Club. Eet Hor-
ace Greeley eats and lunches there with his
former freedom, for the people OF the League
are gentlemen generally, and bear the philo-
sophie breadth Of character OF met1opolitans.
From the Union League Of Philadelphia, Col
mel John W Forney has been expelled for op-
posing Pennentiary cattle for offices. The hui
man eouptureens there, in the littleness Of their
provincial natures, took this step provdential-
", in order that posterity may have no doubt
about them. It will have none. Contempt will
cover all the inmates like convict-suit, and the
day has already arrived when mans son, in
tended for respectable life and rational employ
ment, will crosa the portal Of Granny League st
his hazard.
Two gentlemen we're talking the other day, in
street-car, as they passed the four hundredth
toll-gate above Market street. They we're still,
however, in the Consolidated City, amongst
the cemeteries.
"n1ickgonigle," said one, !" 8 strange thing
happened at Granny League last night. A gem
temsn from the outer ward, somewhere near
Pittsburgh, came into the Granny League, and
asked for roroyeters. Says he: Some very
hne roroysters; for have been in a distant
part of the Consolidated City, where they won t
transport to keep Bring 'em alive, on the half
all ;o1o f.4u