Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1878-08-30

found on the books of the Confederate
Treasury, which showed that the cot
ton had been bought and paid for, and
that the venders were merely holding
il subject TO the orders of the Confed-
crate Government
4. Claims for stores or for supplies,
including steamboats, and other vessels
taken for the military or naval pi'r-
poses of the United States. These
claims are the most numerous, as well
as the most indefinite and uncertain in
amount Partial relief has been af-
forded 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 proof of that fact, have had,
through the Southern Claims Commits
sion, an ample avenue for the prefer
ment and establishment of their claims
against the Government; and it is prob
able that the majority of this class of
claims have already been paid. Those
who were disloyal 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 a stand
ing before Congress or the Courts.
Any estimate of the amount of these
claims is necessarily loose; but, as the
claimants means of proof have
strengthened, and the Governments
means have weakened, by lapse of
time, any legislation of the kind de-
sired by claimants will take from the
Treasury 5000, 600, 900 aJ the least.
of huilHinng
wharves and lands, occupied by the
United States in the insurrectionary
districts during the war. The Federal
authorities, being hampered by no con-
tracts, and having no rent to pay, were
quite free in appropriating private
buildings 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 Government, and no precedent eX-
lists for the payment of such claims.
The claims are, however, numerous,
and are vigorously pushed by their
agents. 1t would probably take $780,
900, 900 to pay them, even under rigid
scaling of prices.
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 60 be-
low S10,000,000.
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
strictly legal point of view, are among
the most meritolious which have yet
| been produced. They are numerous,
| but of small amount, and probably do
not amount to more than S6,OOO,OO
The foregoing enumeration takes no
account of claims for the value of slaves
emancipated as a war-measure or under
the Constitutional Amendment; 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 loval citizens of the South. Leav-
| ing all such out of their reckoning, it
appears that the demands upon the
| Treasury on accounts ofwhat are called
Southern claimsn amount to not less
than $3.50, 900, 900 and may amount to
much more.
| Take, for instance, the claims tor
property used for military purposes, as
! distinct from the cotton, rent and dam
age claims. Within two years, under
q law and procedure calling for posi-
| tive averment of constant loyalty, 22,-
600 claims, footing up $50, 200, 900, were
filed before the Southern Claims Com
mission. 1t is estimated that, if the
averment and strict proof of loyalty
were not exacted. the claims presented
would be at least 1900 in number,
footing up $400, 900; for it is to be
remembered that it was the disloyal
who were the most opulent and con-
tributed most largely to the enforced
support of the Federal armies. Now,
allowing a deduction of one-third in
amount for false, exaggerated and mis-
taken demands, it follows that there
there would be over 5000, 900, 900 in this
class alone to pay, il proof of actual
LOYALTY was not required, and if the
Government should be held liable to
pay market value for all property
taken.
A letter was published in the Tribune
of April so, giving an analysis of the pro-
visions of bill of much the same pur-
port. in which it was shown that, in
consequence of the general amnesty
proclamation of President johnson,
issued Dec. %, 1868, any action by Con.
gress which should give any court juris.
diction of Southern war-claims would
open the doors at once for the payment
to late rebels of full damages for all
the losses they had sustained in conse,
quence of their acts of treason
The Supreme Court has decided that nc
power exists in Congress to limit the
operations of the Presidents pardoning
power. A very large number of South
ern war-claims are now pending before
the Treasury, the Quartermaster-Gen.
erals and the Commissary-General S
Departments, and the Southern Claims
Commission, and the majority of them
have been thus pending for years
These claims amount to perhaps $780,
OO0, 900. AS the tribunals referred tC
are not courts within the constitutional
meaning of the term, the limitations
contained in the acts of Congress giving
them jurisdiction are still operative
notwithstanding the amnesty. Every
one of these acts provided that, as :
first requisite in each case presented
the claimant should prove that he haC
never given aid or comfort to the enc
mics of Government, and nearly all O
these claims are invalid on account o.
the known disloyalty of claimants
Should this bill become law, these
claims will be removed from the tri
bunals where they are, and transferred
to the Court of Claims, where NJ
question as to loyalty or disloyalty car
be raised; and hence they will, IN so fal
as that point is concerned, at once bC
validated. This would not prepare the
| ,yo,, Gov. drayUino from the Traasurv th,