Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1879-02-20
THE "sOUTHERN,' WAR CLAIMS.

THE "SOUTHEkN'', WAX ,CLAlMS:{
In the House Of Representative on Fri
day, a general discussion ensued upon the
question of "Southern war claims" which
will be read by the Southern people with in
terest. The bill to pay John j. Armstrong,
of Virginia, $3.50 for rent of wharf in
Alexandria, during the war, was called up,
when .... -.'. a.
i Mr.. Conger, of Michigan, started off in op-
position to the bill, contending that if its
principle was correct one, the troops that
marched across the Long Bridge ought to
have been preceded by army wagons loaded
with specie, to meet the enemy and pay the
owners of property which WAS to be used for
war purposes what they demanded for their
property. III. ..r..,... ....
Nh. Shelley, of Alabama, had no .sympa-
thy generally with these war claims. There
were no Confederates presenting such claims.
There were not in Alabama twenty war
claims, and he certainly would not vote for
any Alabama claim wherein loyalty was set
up. ,''.s-...f .sn~- -,.3rf '-iHb II !
Ben. Butler, of Massachusetts,, expressed
his views on war claims, $50 long asr such
claims were presented fSrl damages Done dur
ing the war, or for property occupied during
the war, so long would there be misunder-
standing between the sections Of, the Union.
Both sides desired that by-gones should be
by-gones" and that all about the war should
be forgotten There was one thing, however,
which could not be forgotten, and that was
the valor and patriotism of those who fought
for the Union ih the hour of its direst peril.
Nor would the bravery and earnestness, and
he might say, loyalty to the cause which they
espoused of those who fought on the other
side, be forgotten. He was willing that States
should be put upon the same ground that the
fathers of the Republic had put them upon in
the war Of the Revolution by assuming their
debts for raising and recruiting troops, and
after that let no claim arise out of the war,
except claims of manned and disabled SOL
diers, and with that determmatioI On sthe
part of the people of the country, both North
and South, the time would not be far distant
when the feeling of brotherhood would take
into the charge of the government the MAIN
ed and disabled soldiers Of the Southern ar
my, remembering their courage, their stead
fastness and their gallantry, and forgetting
the mistaken Judgment which made them
fight upon the side they did. ~. =. -
Mr.. White, of Pennsylvania, opposed the
bill as war claim for the use of and dam.
ages to property in an insurrectionary State.
Mr.. Aiken, of South Carolina, declared
himself opposed to all Southern war claims
He was glad to hear that some members on
the Republican side were liberal enough to
vote compensation for damages to religious, ed
ucational and eleemosynary institutions at the
South. For himself, his independence would
not allow him to do even that. The South
ern people should go back to first principles
and 20 to work and rebuild such institutions
themselves. They had risked everything in
war and had no favors to ask from those who
had whipped them. He honestly believed
that if the Southern States had been repre-
sented in Congress in 1871. 1872 and 1873, as
they were represented to-day, there would be
no such cry as that hundred millions had
been drawn from the treasury to pay South
ern war claims. Judging of all of them from
those that he knew, he could say of these
claimants that grander. set of villains had
never drawn u dollar out of the treasury.
His own little State had been represented in
Congress by men who were now, God only
knew where. They had never been South
Carolinians, and yet, they had voted rfor, the
claims of men who ihadinot a just title to a
dollar. He honestly believed that the treasury
was safer in the hands of the men who defend
ed the Confederacy, than in the hands Of those
who held it to-day. The people of South
Carolina, no matter what their rebellious
pfoclivities had been heretofore, were to day
as strong and united in defence of the govern
ment as the people Of any State in New Eng.
land or the Northwest He and those of his
colleagues who truly represented that State
were here to protect the treasury, and the best
way to protect it $50 far as these claims were
concerned,) was to drive every one Of them
from the halls of Congress. Applause on
the Democratic side. .., ,...".s. .-....
Mr.. Kiefer, of Ohio, criticised Buffers
speech, citing the part Of it in regard to pen
sioning Confederate soldiers, and asked wheth-
er he understood him correctly.
Butler: / repeat that. whenever the ques-
tion of the depletion of the treasury by these
claims is over, think that the pity, the hu
manity of the North, will take care of the
manned of the war. ! If you wish to Know it,
l see no more reason why Confederate SOL
dier, manned and crippled in the honest, dis
charge of what he believed to be his duty,
should not be pensioned, than why Confed-
crate general, who honestly believed he was
doing his duty should be put into Republi.
can Cabinet. General applause and clap.
ping Of hands on the Democratic, side. ],rI,,
MIR. Blackburn, on the question of the al
legged disloyalty of the Southern seminaries
asked who had shed lustre on American arms
before the war broke out who had not been
a'graduate of West Point and had notthen
learned [from Rowles Commentaries On the
Consttution) everything that he ever knew
of the limitations of the Constitution That
"horn-book Of the nation" was certainly the
most advanced advocate of the right of Sc
cession. He entered his protest against the
injustice done to the South in imputing to it
any responsibility for these war claims The
South did not ask for the pensioning of her
soldiers. She had staked her all on her con-
victons and had lost. She had not com.
planned, and never in the future would com,
plain She bore her losses, and simply pro-
tested that it was neither generous, ner kind,
nor mani y, nor msrciful, to drag'hef into this
question, and to make her the football of the
passions of men who seemed to have at heart
the serving Of partisan purposes rather than
the advancement Of the common good. [Ap-
plause on the Democratic side -
MI. Reagan, of Texas, expressed the wish
that some means should be adopted either to
wholly exclude all such claims, or to refer
them all to a tribunal where they could be
passed upon on their merits He regretted