Morning journal and courier., 1885-09-12
THE COURT OF ALABAMA CLAIMS
Counsel CreswelI Starts Up A Breezy COrrespOndeRce Oh The Cutting
 Down Of Salaries Of Special Coun-

Counsel CresvveII Starts Up A Breezy
 Correspondence On The Cutting
 Down Of Salaries Of Special Coun-
 sci.
 WASHINGTON, Sept. 1t.-Judge Harlan, presiding judge of the court of Alabama Claims, being still detained in the West by illness, the communication addressed by him under date of September to Secretary Bay ard containing the courts side of the con tfoversy raised by the accounting officers of the treasury in regard to the disbursements of the court and the authority under which they have been made is still withheld from the public, but In the meantime il breezy cor respendehee has been started with First Comptroller Durham by ex senator cfeswell, counsel for the United States before the court, whose salary MT. Durham has sus- pended. In letter dated September Il ad dressed to Comptroller Durham MT. Cres- well refers with surprise to certain statements given out to newspapers with respect to his official salary and position. He especially objects to the statement that the law only authorized his compensation at an allowance in each case tried to be fixed by the court and that the court had never paid the slight est attention to this law and no evidence on file that he had ever had a case, notwithstanding which he had regularly drawn $S,OOO & year MT. Creswell says to the first comptroller: Knowing you to be the highest accounting officer of the government I am unwilling to suppose-in fact I cannot believe-that these articles emanated from you. 1 have received official communication from you whatever upon the subject. I do not know from any official source whether my salary has been stopped or not. I know have not received it for the month of August. If you have refused to pass it you have left me completely in the dark as to the reasons which have appeared to you sufficient to justify such action and you have failed to give me notice to appear for the purpose of presenting my views in support of the claim.'' Referring to the sec tion in. the original act establishing the court, which provided that he as counsel should receive such reasonable allowance to be apportioned in each claim as might be ap- proved by the court, MT. Creswell says an honest effort was made by the former court to apply this section, but it
 was found imprac.icable and accord ingly went on with his duties for eight months without any pay until the matter could be laid before Congress and some fixed salary could be prescribed by law. He spreads upon his letter copious extracts from the debates in Congress when this mat ter was under discussion showing almost unanimous opinion that his compensation ought to be fixed salary and not by ap- portionmept, the only difference of opinion s19, 800, s1O,O00, ss,OOO and ss per day expenses or $8,OO0: He shows that finally, on motion of Senator (now Secretary Bayard, the latter sum was agreed upon. Thereupon MT. Creswen asks: "Who shall give meaning to this proviso but the Senators who debated it, and who shall
 be better authority than the very Senator who amended to meet his own views and then proceeded to explain precisely what those views are? Observe what MT. Bayard said: I propose to put that counsel on a level with the Attorney General of the United States, Cabinet off cer, and to pay him salary of $S, 900 which it seems to me m is enough for his services. The difference between MT. Bayard on one side and his brother Senators who agreed with him and yourself on the other is irreconcilable, and the inference is inevitable either that Senator Bayard and
 his confreres did not know the meaning of their own language or that Comptroller Dur ham is in errcr."
 MT. Creswell goes on to say that after a careful study of this law and the debate which accompanied it the former court adopted in open court all order fixing his compensation at $s0o0 a year, payable monthly. This order he claims is still in force This is not a new court; it l is the court of Alabama claims re-established | and all the prominent orders of the old court l applicable are deemed to be in force. The matter was, however, duly | considered by the reorganized court and passed upon by the then first comptroller, who on the Fist of December, 1882, officially I notified him of the acceptance and the ap-
 the rate of ss,00O a year. MT. Creswell says the present attitude of Comp | troller Durham is attempt to revive a
 provision which both the court and the Senate thought most onerous and unpleas- | ant, and which the lawmakers believed they l had forever precluded by the provision re- ferred to. He closed by making formal | demand for the continued payment of his salary as sanctioned by law and usage hereto fore or for detailed statement in writing of
 the objections of the first comptroller SO that he may be able to take the proper steps to ! maintain his rights.