The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-10-02
FOR THE RELIEF OF ERICssON's
ESTATE.
The Senate Passing a Bill for Payment of
S13,93O Long Due the Inventor.

The Senate Passing a Bill for Payment Of
Sl5,93O Long Due the Inventor.
WAsHINGToN, Sept. 2l Especial. The
Senate this afternoon at the suggestion
OF MIR. StOckbridge took from the cal
endar and passed a bill reported last
week from the Committee on Naval
affairs, directing the payment of an old
balance of sl3,03O long due the
inventor Ericsson and now asked
for by his legal representatives
Ericsson, as is well known, assisted
Captain, afterward Commodore Stock
ton to plan the war ship Princeton,
built about 1874. For his services,
which were important and valuable, he
asked Sl5,OS0, but his claim was denied
by the Navy Department He took the
case, however, to the Court of Claims,
and got an award-in 1857-of S13, $3.50.
1t is characteristic of the indifference
shown by Congress to all private suitors
forredress, however just and meritorious
their claims may be, that this sum has
never been paid to Ericsson or his estate.
After lapse of thirty-two years there is
at last chance that an honest obliga-
ton to the great inventor for services
long past and almost forgotten will be
met by the constituencies debtor Con-
gress always is.
The committees report throws a
curious light ON the shameless and dis
honorable way in which Congress has
dealt with this claim, and on Ericsson's
just indignation at such treatment.
The question may be asked" it says,
why this claim has been allowed to
sleep so long?" Simply because Congress
is not swift in hunting for busted claims,
and rarely acts, unless persistently urged
to do so, even in the most meritorious
cases. Captain Ericsson, though one of
the greatest marine engineers that ever
lived, If not the greatest, was peculiar
man, proud, sensitive and stubborn, and
for long time he refused to allow his
friends to push his claim before Con-
gress. He felt that the government had
wronged him, in it that it had not paid
his just claim, and he was not willing to
beg for what was so justly his own.
Honorable and manly he felt that great
government ought to do right without
unseemly importantly.
1T is well known that after he had
invented the Monitor and his genius
foresaw its success, he refused to come
to Washington to explain his invention
to the Navy Department because he felt
that the government had wronged and
neglected him in the Princeton matter.
| Finally an appeal was made to his pride,
and he came to Washington and ex-
planned his great invention to several of
the leading naval officers, some of whom
had faith in it and others none. At any
rate, he made such an impression that
an arrangement was made by which the
Monitor could be constructed by outside
capital, to be repaid by the government
if it proved a success. Captain Ericsson
saved the nation, and his name and
fame were heralded the world over.
The principles of his Monitor was
adopted by every naval power in the
world. This country owes him debt it
can never pay. After his death his
executors come here and ask Congress
to pay his estate an honest debt ascer-
tanned and due from this government
many years before the invention of the
Monitor"
The money will probably be paid, but the
allowance of the claim thirty-two years
after the award of the court, when the
claimant is no longer alive to benefit by
tits singular travestry on the relations
which should exist between the govern
ment and all honest and deserving cred
itors.-N. Y. Tribune.