The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-17
OF CIVIL WAR I Reviewed ir,s dOuSe Of
 ReDr< atatiyes.
 
 THE C. Al OF MOODY & co. Recalls. Peculati0nS in Ere mOnt'S Department. Result of Investigation at the Time Not Published by Lincoln's Order, Owing to the Gigantic Frauds Unsarthsd.

Washington. Jan. 16.-The House devot- ed the day to private war claims. passing about twenty. The two features of the day were the defeat of 8 claim of B. F. Moody & Co. of Keokuk, Ia.. for the pay ment of the amount deducted from their contract for furnishing equipment to the ard Iowa Cavalry by the famous com mission which unearthed the army con- tract frauds in St. Louis in 1863 and the fight of MT. Payne .the floor leader of the majority. against an omnibus resolution to refer ninety Southern claims. aggrs- gating $40O0O0 for stores and supplies taken by the Union army during the Civil War to the Court of Claims for finding of fact under the Tucker act.
 The former bill led to lively contro- versy between two Iowa members, Messrs. Smith and Hedge. MT. Hit of Illinois. the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Cem-. mittee, was the stenographer of the com mission and was able personally to cor roborete Mfr. Hedge In his opposition to the bill.
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 The combination in favor of the cmni- bus claims resolution was too strong for Mir. Payne but on the final vote the quorum failed. As the previous question has been ordered the vote on the Bdop- ton of the resolution will be the first thing in order on the next claims day. Mfr. smith Qa.) was in charge of the claims of B. F. Moody & Co. The original amount of the claim exceeded e6o,0o0 hut 1t was scaled down by the coTnmitte to S. .46S Mir. Smith contended that the claim was just, the contract having been exc cuted under the authority of Gen. Jchn c. Fremont through his agent, Gen. Cy- rus Bussey.
 Mir. Hedge Ua.O, Mfr. Smiths col- league, impeached the claim, first on the ground that 1t had been allowed to slum- Der for thirty years without being pre- sented to Congress and then proceeded to point out that 1t had it's origin in the ac- tion of the famous commission, consist ing of David Davis. Hugh Campbell and Joseph Holt, which unearthed the alleged frauds in General Fremont's department of the St. Louis in lS62. He declared that General Fremont had been superseded because of the intoleranle conditions that were found to exist
 The report of that commission, said he, was never printed because Lincoln be- lieved that its revelations would make the people despair.
 T have that record here" said MT. Smith, raising aloft h package of papers musty and yellow with age.
 But 1t was never printed" insisted MT. Hedge.
 Gigantic Frauds Developed.
 MT. Hit, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. who had been the stem ographer of the St. Louis commission. corroborated MT. Hedge, saying that the report which Mir. Smith had displayed had been written by his own hand. He told of the gigantic frauds unearthed in that investigation and of the unwilling ness of the authorities to permit the com plete story to become public, owing to the disheartening effect it might produce on the people. He did not remember the de- tails of the particular claim of Moody & Co.
 MT. Smith insisted that the claim was not fraudulent in law or in fact.
 The House, however, voted the bill down 30 to 70.
 Among the bills passed was one to pay 6, ,6S3 to Mrs. Flora A. Darling, for dam ages growing out of her arrest by the military authorities of New Orleans in 1864, while she was on a flag of truce boat under safe conduct.
 MT. Payne. the floor leader of the ma- jority. led a strong fight against an om- nibus resolution to refer to the court of claims ninety separate claims, aggregat- ing $4O0, 0OO, flor finding of fact under the provisions of the Tucker Act. He con- tended that the resolution would remove the stay of limitation which already bar red many of these old claims The claims were all for stores and supplies taken by the Federal forces during the civil war.
 Mir. Payne conducted flibuster. but he was overridden by friends of the meas ure. who comprised all the Democrats and half of the Republicans. On a roll call on the adoption of the resolution, however. a quorum failed, the vote stand ing s7 to b1, and the House at 4:45 p. u adiourned