Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1873-08-06
WASHINGTON.
Death of an Old Clerk.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 4.-RObert $. Chew,
chief clerk of the State department, who
died yesterday, commenced his career in
that department under John Forsyth, of
Alabama, Secretary of State to Andrew
Jackson
Official dispatches from Washington ter
ritory report that two white women were
killed by Indians who were returning
from peace commission.
All the claims presented to the Southern
Claims Commission, settled at Washing
ton under act of March Sd, 1871, have now
been numbered and registered. Their
number is found to be % 295 and their ag-
gregate amount, as claimed, is something
i'm excess of fifty-six millions of dollars.
In their last report to Congress the Com
missioners estimated the total number of
claims to be filed under the act at nineteen
thousand, and the amount to be claimed
at fifty million dollars in round numbers.
The extraordinary eXertions of the claim
agents, however, when they found that
the time for filing claims was not likely to
be extended for the present beyond the
two years originally fixed by Congress, re-
suited in q considerable addition to the es-
timated number and amount of the claims
to be filed. No less than 1,27S claims,
representing, according to claimants fig
ures considerably more than three mil
lions of dollars, were filed under date of
March Sd, the last day allowed by law for
the presentation of claims. Many more
were shut out from present consideration
by the somewhat unexpected termination
of the right to present them, and there
are believed to be several thousand persons
yet in the late insurrectionary States who
despite the eXertions Of the Government
agents and the attorneys, have not even
heard of the act of Congress passed for the
benefit of such of them as were not ad-
herents of the confederacy. Claims are
presented to the Quartermaster General
and Commissary General by the residents
of the better informed loyal States
who have but just learned that
Congress passed special act nearly ten
s ag0 to cay for PrS9peEtY tatks4 for ar
General Meigs, the Quartermaster Cen
eral, will not recommend statute of limi-
tations for claims coming before him, as
in the case of the claims before the Loyal
Claims Commission, and the Commissary
General, believing from his daily expert
ence that such statute, whenever passed,
would be certain to exclude some meritori-
Gus claims against the Government from a
! lust settlement. In the case of the South
ern Claims, Congress must either ex-
| tend the time for filing them before the
| commissioners or submit the alternative of
| receiving and considering them singly un-
| der the constitutional right of petition,
and a small number of excluded claimants
!
prosecuting their claims directly before the
| claims Commission of the two branches
of Congress.
Under the settlements so far made by
the commissioner, about 81 100000 has
been distributed among some fourteen
| hundred claimants scattered over the
eleven insurrectionary States, the
awards, except in comparatively
small number of cases being for a few
hundred dollars EACH At the coming ses
sion of Congress, they expect to award
about $1,000, 600 to be similarly distrib-
uted, and will then have disposed of about
twenty-four per cent. of the number o.
claims filed and twenty per cent. OF TIT
amount claimed. Now, that all th'
claims are before them that can be pre-
sented under the original act of Congress
the Commissioners have Hhad EprepareC
and have in press a full digest of tn
claims, giving by States and counties tn
names of claimants aud the amounts claim
ed, accompanied by the explanatory state
ment that the names are those of citizen
of the Southern States, who have withil
the past two years declared themselves t
have been devoted adherents of the Uniol
cause throughout the late war and tn,
: amounts and the values set by the claim
ants upon the supplies contributed volun
tarily or otherwise for the use ofthe UniOl
forces, operating in the South; but tn
, damage, loss ana deslructioh OF real an
personal property suffered through til
9 casualties of war or unauthorized spOlia
/; tions aud depredations OF the troop
l and camp followers, this list of claims an
{ claimants has been prepared chiefly
5 meet the applications OF former officers an
; soldiers of the Union army, curious I
know whom among their acquaintanees {
the war now claiming to have been bot
loyal and opulent ten or twelve years age
!, but the commissioners, for the sake of tn
5 information to be obtained, intend to sen
! the phamplet free of charge to all who az
I ply i'll person or by letter.