Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-03-16
WASHINGTON.
Southern War Claims Pressing on
the Treasury.
Specimen Bills In Their In.
terest.
Cor. New York Hsrald.l
WASHINGTON, March 10, 1882.
SOUTHERN WAR CLAIMS.

al SOUTHERN WAR CLAIMS H
, The Southern war claims business is
aourishing here, under joint Repub-
lican and Democrat auspices, in 4
quite remarkable manner, and unless
} public opinion is sufficiently aroused
to prevent schemes now hatching the
! present Congress may pass laws, al
ready proposed and in some cases
reported, which will commit the counl
{ try TO the payment OF several hundred
millions, aud perhaps even more, for
Southern claims Of various kinds.
A small sample of what is getting
itself ground through Congress quietly
and without public attention being
drawn to ii is found in a bill of lis
pages, lately reported from the COM
mittse of War Claims by Mr.. Houk,
Republican, of Tennessee, its Chair
man. This bill orders the payment Of
1885 war claims alleged to have been
examined and allowed by the proper
accounting officers since December,
1880.
HOW CLAIMANTS ARE DISTRIBUTED
The claimants thus to be paid out Of
the Treasury for damages sustained in
q wal which closed seventeen years
ago T thus distributed as to States
New York, New Mexico and Illinois,
each; Dstrict Of Columbia. A; Kan
sas, II; Indiana. q; Ohio, AZ; Mary
land, ~; West Virginia, IS; Missouri,
So; Kentucky. 227; Tennessee, 758.
Most of the claims are for small
amounts, but the aggregate of 1895
claims in this single bill fOots up more
than 500, 600.
MORE TO COME.
But this bill Is a mere trihe to what
is to come if the claim agents can get
their measures adopted BY Congress.
1t is the general testimony of Southern
men here who are not claim agents
that these Southern claims are in the
fewest cases in the hands Of the claim
ants. They are owned or controlled
By claim agents who have, for years
past and in fact ever since the war
ceased, made it a business to get up
claims in all parts OF the South and
specially in Kentucky, Tennessee and
other Southern States where our
armies were said to have found Union
men. The agents, it is asserted,
usually charge at least sixty and often
seventy. five per cent of the claim for
collecting it, and this has been for
years a great business.
At this distance Of time, seventeen
years after the close of the war. proof
of q mans ~disloyalty during the war
is, Of course, difficult for the govern-
ment to obtain, and all sorts of claims
by all sorts of persons are now more
urgently and impudently than ever
before pressing upon Congress, because
the $l50,0O0,000 of surplus revenue
wrung from the taxpayers by bad
revenue laws inspires these Us we'll as
other jobbers with renewed activity
THE TINE DEEMED PRoPITIoUs.
A gentleman familiar with the
operations of these Southern claim
agents writes your correspondent:
The time is now deemed propitious
for bringing forward legislation for the
payment of losses Of Southerners dur
ing the war. There is a formidable
movement on foot designed to effect
this purpose which, on its face, seems
quite innocent, but which, stripped of
its covering, shows the Treasury door
wide open TO the rapacity of the whole
Southern country. The pretense is to
simply remove the investigation of
war claims from the Quartermaster
and Commissary Generals Offices,
where it was placed by the act Of July
4, 1854, to the Court Of Claims. This
movement. inaugurated by attorneys
and agents of Southern claimants,
when all its parts are completed pro
vides for all who lost supplies of any
and all kinds, and all damages to
property in any Of the States lately in
rebellion, to prefer their claims by Pc
ton to the Court Of Claims within the
next two years, in addition to the
transfer to bat court of all the claims
now on file in the War and Treasury
Departments, millions of which have
been disallowed BY the Quartermsster
and Commissary General. There are
some two or three bills and substi
tutes now on the calendar of tho
House and one or two provisOs in the
Army Appropriation bill which, com
bined, will, if passed, perfect the
scheme and involve the Treasury in
the payment of many millions. In the
present method Of investigation the
claimant must prove that he was loyal
to the United States government dur
ing the rebellion. Ifthis scheme sue.
ceeds it is believed that the decision
Of the Supreme Court that the pardon
by the Executive restores the loyalty
Of a rebel claimant will have to be
recognized by the Court Of Claims. OIL
course this change would involve the
reconsideration and payment Of all
claims rejected on account Of disloy-
atty. No doubt the success Of this
project will involve an amount greater
than the present public debt.
SAMPLE or THE BILL.
That this is in no way an exaggera-
ton may be seen from a bill OF Mr..
House, OF Tennessee, Republican, and
Chairman Of the War Claims Commit.
tees. The first section Of this bill is
simply a broad invitation to an inyas.
ion Of the Treasury. 1t declares
That hereafter it shall be lawful for
any persons or their legal representa-
tives owning property, or living In the
States of Alabama, Arkansaw ,Florids,
Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North
and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, .
and Virginia, the said States having
been IN rebellion, whose property was
taken by force, or 10 any manner seized
for the benefit Of the United States, or
received in the name Of a purchase by
any officer or other person authorized
I - A. HI c. I