Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-05-31
$l3,OOO,OOO WITHOUT OWNERS.
Proceeds of Cotton Sales During the Civil
War Now In the Treasury.

Proceeds of Cotton Sales During the Civil
War Now In the Treasury.
The New York Sun.
WASHINGTON, May 35.-"The rec
ords of the treasury are full of. ro-
mapces," said treasury official.
"Take that bureau called the Division
of Abandoned Lands and Property"
for example. 1t is in itself one great
romance. Why, there is about $13,-
100000 in its keeping belonging to
people in the south alone. You see,
during and at the close of the Civil
war valuable property of all sorts fell
into the hands of army officers and
was turned into the treausury. Final
ly the amount became 80 great that
when William E. Chandler became
assistant secretary he created a divis-
ion to have charge of the entire mat
ter. More than $12, ,00o,0o0 charged
to that division is the proceeds of COT
ton taken from plantations and towns
all over the south and sold.
~ know of one case in which ST.
100000 worth of cotton was taken
from far south plantation, when the
staple was worth $500 bale and sold.
The people to whom it belonged were
not rebels at all, but were always 10y
al to the Union. They haven't an idea
where their cotton went to. Their
names were on the bales and it would
not be at all difficult for them to make
their case if they ouly knew what to
do. 1t is nearly 81 years since the
money was deposited there. l don't
know whether any of the owners are
alive or not, and if they are it is hard
ly probable that they will ever get
back what is really their own. All the
testimony in the case is in the posses
sion of the government, and it never
lets 60 anything it gets its hands on.
The agent who took this cotton is dead
long ago, as is the man who sold it..
So you see the owners could not prove
their case by either of them.
"There are other instances similar
to this. In 1863 we received from a
government agent more than $780, 600,
which was the proceeds of cotton taken
from foreigner supposed to be a
blockade runner in one of the larger
cities of the south. When Secretary
McCulloch heard of this he said:
"sThis money is only held in trust
by the government. Some day we
shall be obliged to account for it, for
the United States has really no right
to keep it, But from that time until
now no demand has ever been made
on US for it, and there it lies. I doubt
if the owner ever knew just where it
did 60.
"When General Sherman's army oc.
cupied the towns of the South Allan
tic seaboard the Confederates Destroy
ed all the cotton possible before they
surrendered. Cotton worth millions OF
dollars was burned to keep it from
falling into our hands. The real own
ers could not tell what was thus burn
ed and what was saved. But we know
aud this was the way: The books we
often captured, for instance, showed
that James Brown, merchant, had so
many bales marked in certain way.
The bales not burned could thus be
easily identified from the marks and
names on them. In all cases the books
captured containing the names of the
consignors and owners were sent to
the treasury with the. papers relating
to the capture. Where are these books
and papers? Well, 1 don't know but
suppose they are somewhere in the
treasury vaults.
"As we never knew when the claim
ants might come forward and make a
demand on the treasury for the pro-
ceeds of their cotton, the money it
brought was never turned into the