The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1880-09-18
REBEL CLAIMS.

which is not prohibited by constitutional
amendment, amount to $2,523, O0, 000-a sum
IN excess of the national debt. This Is IN the
programme of the solid South Would Han
cock veto measures for the payment OF those
claims? He has taken care not to say so lie
does not dare to say so.-LdcOH Home JOuJ2,ai
1t is humiliating and dlsgraceful that even
so respectable a sheet as the Home Jou1mol
should cling to this miserable rubbish about
rebel CLAIMS" 1t can only be accounted for
as that heightened republican journal the y.
| \. NdtjOH suggests, on the assumption of a
painful poverty" Of something better to talk
about for there never was more glazing and
arrant humbug. Rebel claims not prohibited
by the constitution" OF what nature or kind
can they be? The 14th amendment of the
constitution prohibits the payment of all debts,
| losses or obligations incurred IN aid Of the re-
bellon. What rebel claims can be imag ned
that don't come under such an inhibition
But there are such claims on file In congress,
says our deluded contemporary, to the amount
of 50 j23 100000, Doubtless he gets his in.
formation from a speech made in congress in
1873 by a Mr.. Hanna Of Indiana, and publish.
ed at the time IN the Congressional Record, CIV
! ing a list of $40 bills up to that time intro
duCed in both houses of congress, asking for
the payment of claims and losses arising out
of the war, all of which, footed up, amounted
TO the above prodlgious sum- But the "loll'
howl that was raised over that list at the time
somehow very suddenly died out and for two
years it has hardly been referred to until the
painful poverty" for something better has
compelled some Of the minor and strictly bu.
collie organs of the republican party to revive
| it, The reason why 1t has been ignored by
the more respectable and better informed or.
gans of the party is that within month after
the publication of Mr.. IIanna's extraordinary
list its disgracetully menGacious character was
SO thoroughly exposed that even its author was
ashamed Oft, 1t was proved by speeches of
May Goth, 1879 Davis of n c., Eden of Hi.
nois and others that Mr.. Hanna's terrible list
of $40 bills, when carefully counted, amount
ed to but 63l and even to make up this mum.
| WI itltatCu thS tltlC vi DllI, WV flJJ
introduced by Mr. Dibrell Of Tennessee TO
pay losses incurred by unioh nien In that state, }
just 81 times bill No $50 was repeated A
times; bill No. S7S, "a times; No. 955, times
No. $780, % times; No. 1919 40 times,-and
so on through the whole list, the actual num-
Der of his pretended 3,710 bills being but $50 !!
But worse and more shameful than this, the
footing of all those bills, instead OF being ST.
523, 100000, was exactly $5,000,107.! Meaner
and meaner still, of this small sum of five mil
lions, barely half-that is So ,573,O2S 80, were
from the rebel states; the official statement of
Mr.. Smith, clerk of the house committee on
claims, is that the whole amount of war claims
before the committee in 1873 was $5,373, 731
ofwhich $4,069527 were from the north and
but 81 ,304 ,203 from the SOUTH; and of these
claims for losses in the rebel states ten were
for the destruction of loyal churches, two tor
loyal academies, one for Truro Almshouse, and
so on: IN fact, there is in the whole list not a
dollar asked for to pay what can be strictly
called a rebel claim, that is, for property
belonging to rebel or dlsunion man. though
heaven knows there were many millions
worth Of such property shamefully, wantonly
and inexcusably destroyed by the union armies
in the south. Yet no CLAIM for dollar of such
losses has ever been presented to congress, for
the simple reason that under the 18th amend.
ment and the law creating the court of south
ern claims in pursuance of 1t, not claim can
DO looked at unless accompanied by full proof
that the claimant was during the war and still
is a union man.
If the ignorance of our contemporary in this
matter Is not assumed, these facts ought to sur
prise HIM, and his surprlseought to amount to
establishment when informed that, questiona-
BILE as all southern claims" presented to con.
gress undoubtedly are, from the year 1867 to
1874, during which time the republicans had
an overwhelming majority in both houses of
congress, oyer 500 900, 900 of such claims were
acted favorably upon by congress and paid
but since the democrats have had possession
of the house less than 100000 of such claims
have been allowed, and of these not dollar
except it had first been approved by the south
ern war claims commission, a tribunal created
by republican congress and composed ex-
clusively of republican judges, who hold their
offices for life. More than that, the present
democratic congress has emphatically laid it
down as PRINCIPLE To pay no 'cdr claims ex-
cept such as are first closely scrutinized and
then allowed by the claims commission. Even
Senator Hill, one OF those terrible rebel briga-
diers, declared IN a speech IN the senate last
March, that "he should vote against the pay
ment of all southern claims no matter wheth-
er presented by loyal or disloyal men, except
possibly in favor of some religious, education.
al or charitable institution; and he did so up