The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1878-10-17

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/ $10,0O0,000 have been paid to owners
who have proved their claims; but the
lowest estimate of what remains to be
paid to owners under any legislation at
all consistent with their demands is
| $50,000,000, or $22,00O,0OO over and
above the balance legally presumed tc
be in the treasury, but not there in fact.
3. Claims for the value of cotton
seized by agents of the Government
after June 80, 1865, contrary to law and
in violation of their orders. Seizures
under the Captured and Abandoned
Property acts were not made after June
30, 1865; but the treasury agents con-
tinued to search for and seize cotton
sold to the Confederate Government.
and which, though paid for by that
Government, had not been removed
from the possession of the vendors.
These claims are based upon the legal
argument that the sales were in them
selves unlawful, and for an unlawful
and worthless consideration and, as
there had been no delivery, the title had
not passed from the Individual owners,
who are, therefore, entitled to the value
of the cotton so taken from them by the
treasury agents These claims are
estimated to amount to $15,OOO,O0O.
They are, in reality, among the most
shameless which have yet come to
light. They are exactly parallel with
those of the Southern mail-contractors
lately presented in the House of Repre-
sentatives by Mr.. Reagan, of Texas,
which, it was shown by reference to
the Confederate archives, had once
been paid in full by the Confederate
Postmaster General out of funds be-
longing to the Government of the
United States. The seizures of cotton
were made in accordance with records
found on the books of the Confederate
treasury, which showed that the cotton
had been bought and paid for, and that
the vendors were merely holding it sub
ject to the orders of the Confederate
Government.
4. Claims for stores or for supplies,
including steamboats, and other vessels
taken for the military or naval purposes
of the United States These claims are
the most numerous, as we'll as the most
indefinite and uncertain in amount.
Partial relief has been afforded to the
holders of these claims; but what has
been done bears only small ratio to
what is wanted. Persons who were
loyal, and have been able to submit
proofs of that fact, have had, through
the Southern Claims Commission, an
ample avenue for the preferment and
establishment of their claims against the
Government; and it is probable that the
majority of this class of claims have al
ready been paid. Those who were dis
loyal in fact, but who have been renovated
by the general amnesty, have not yet
been allowed to recover anything, and
they are among the most persistent and
lOudest of the classes which are now
clamoring for standing before Con-
gross or the courts. An estimate of the
amount of these claims is necessarily
loose; but, as the claimants means of
proof have strengthened, and the Gov
ernment's means have weakened, by
lapse of time, any legislation of the kind
desired by claimants will take from the
treasury 5000, 100000 at the least.
5. Claims for rent of buildings, wharves
and lands, occupied by the United
States in the insurrectionary districts
during the war. The Federal au-
thorities, being hampered by no con-
tracts, and having no rent to pay, were
quite free in appropriating private build
ings and lands to the public use. No
relief of any sort has been granted to
the claimants of this class They were,
with rare exceptions, disloyal to the Gov
eminent, and no precedent exists for the
payment of such claims. The claims
are, however, numerous, and are vigor-
ously pushed by their agents. It would
probably take $2O,OOO,0OO to pay them,
even under rigid scaling of prices. e'F
6. Claims for property destroyed or
damaged in a deliberate and orderly
manner by competent authority, as a
military necessity on the part of the
United States, in furtherance of the
operations of the Federal forces, or in
obstruction of the operations of the en-
envy. There are no means of getting
very closely at the amount of such
claims, but they would hardly go below
$1O,O0OOO0 3|t.a+ t># .5J7t. G.t q
Z. Claims for slaves enlisted into the
Federal army from the loyal border
States, and only partly settled when
proceedings were suspended by act of
March 80, 1867. These claims, from a
strictly legal point of view, are among
the most meritorious which have yet
been produced. They are numerous,
but Of small amount, and probably do
not amount to more than 100000.
The foregoing enumeration takes no
account of claims for the value of slaves
emancipated as war-measure, or under
the constitutional amendments claims
for loss or damage caused by the depre-
dations of the troops or the casualties of
the march or battle, and claims for the
.spoliation or damage inflicted by the
Confederate authorities or forces upon
loyal citizens of the South. Leaving
all such out of their reckoning, it APP
pears that the demands upon the treas
11ru on accn11nt) ~, what ORC d 40 Hold