The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1873-01-12

Seno commissioners to Louisiana to take
gestin6hy fegafding the political trou.
bles, bnt TO stn mon sall needed witness.
ee to come 4 to Washington and give
their testimony here. It is also under.
stood that . deputy Sergeant .at-Arus
was despatched TO New Orleans, this
evening, for that purpose.
Judge Grandon, OF Mobile, has been
IN Washington for several days, looking
after the interest OF his clients in Mobile,
against whom suits have been instituted
Tor the recovery Of duties on. merchan.
dise iDported during the war, and which
pald duties st the same time to the Con-
iederate States authorities. Secretary
boutwell, has decided the question favor
ably to Judge Grandon's clients, and the
decision will be received in manv dis.
tricts OF the South as one of timely re-
lief, and evincing better disposition on
the part OF the Government than has
prevailed hitherto.
The Department of Justice asks
$500. 600 deficiency appropriation, main.
~ incurred in Ku Klux prosecutions.
The Stanley dinner at Willard's was
]aunty affair. Among ths hundred pre-.
sent were Speaker Blaino, Senators Will
son. Thurman, Anthony, Cassetly, Fen.
ton and Cameron, Congressman Cox,
Secretary Boutwell,, Gen. Sherman, Gov.
Cooke, and Judge Lochrane, of Georgia.
In the House, the question at the ad-
Journment yesterday was the amendment
offered by Smith, Of New York, forbid
ding the payment of judgments of the
Court OF Claims for cotton captured be-
lore June, 1865, except special appropti-
atoms arc made for them. Garfield, of
Ohio, replied to Smiths speech, made
yesterday, repelling the idea that any
Judgments had been paid by the Score
tary of the Treasury, except in strict
compliance with law. He cited the
unanimous decision Of the Supreme
Court to the effect that the receipt of a
special or general pardon relieved
claimants OF MI difficulties which they
might Otherwise labor under, in regard
to their loyulty; and that whenever the
United States Government holds proper
ty which it has forcibly seized, it holds
1t only as trustee, and must deliver it
back when the owner comes and proves
his title to it. without regard to his moral
character. Smith, of New York, did not
ask tho House to throw itself in the
teeth OF the decisions of the Supreme
Court; but if the Supreme Court was of
opinion that disloyal claimant, like
Love. OF Georgia, who was Confede-
rate commissioner. and who had already
recovered $475, 1000, and Lamar, of Sa-
vannah, were to be paid, he submitted
that at least it should be on tho report
OF those judgments to Congress, so that
Congress should know, and the country
should know, what was being done. He
reminded the House that in the McArdle
case. Congress had, by an amendment to
the appropriation bill, deprived the Su-
preme Court of jurisdiction, aud he nd
monished Congress. the Supreme Court
and the Administration, that the people
were behind them, determined that loyal
people should be paid the first. If the
Government was going into liquidation,
thoy should prefer their confidential
creditors; that was oil there was in his
amendment.
Potter, of New York, expressed his
satisfaction at hearing the Court of
claims arraigned for not being loyal,
because, if there ever was court in the
United States that had been snperser-
viceably loyal, it was the Court Of
Claims, which had at its head, as chief
justice, the Drake amendment Perce,
OF Mississippi, opposed the amendment
as being an attack on the Southern Sec
ton OF the country. He showed the
various stages OF proof which claimants
had to go through in order to get, not
the full value of their cotton, but the net
proceeds of it, pnid into the Treasury,
aud which, in some instances, did not
amount to one.fourth of the value, and
asked whether they should then be com
pelled to come before Congress, and
have their claims passed upon by parti-
san influence. He appealed to ali South
ern Representatives to vote against the
amendment. Hawley, of Connecticut,
sustained the amendment, and said that
he wanted every Judgment OF this kind
to be reported to Congress, SO that Con-
gress might exercise its discretion whe.
ther it would pay these claims in prefer
ence to the claims OF loyal men, whose
property had been taken or destroyed in
the course OF the war. Sergeant, of
California, denied that the cotton en-
braoed in these claims had been seized
during the war. It had been seized
after the CLOSE Of the war, and after the
proclamation of peace. There was,
therefore, no justification for its seizure,
or for withholding payment from its
owners.
Shelabarger, of Ohio, admitted that,
under the decision of the Supreme