Year: 1879

sag hour was the consideration Of the pri-
veto calendar. The bill for the retirement
of Gen. James Shields was, amid q good
deal of confusion, referred to the committee
of the whole.


The bill to pay John J. Armstrong, of
Virginia, 81 $40 for the ent of wharf in
Alexandria during the war, was discussed
at length.


Mr.. Conger started off in opposition to
tho bill, contending that, if its principle
was correct one, the troops that marched
across the Long Bridge ought to have been
preceded by army wagons loaded, with spe.
Gle, to meet the enemy and pay the owners
of property which was to be used for war
purposes what they demanded for their
property.


Mr.. Shelley, of Alabama, had no sympa-
thy generally with these war claims. There
were no Confederates presenting such claims.
There were not in Alabama twenty war
claims, and he certainly would not vote
for any Alabama claim wherein loyalty
was set up.


Ben Butler, of Massachusetts,, expressed
his views on war claims. So long as such
claims were presented for damages done
during the war or tor property occupied
during the war, so long would there be
misunderstanding between the SECTIONS of
the Union. Both sides desired that "by-
cones should be by-gones' and that all
about the war should be forgotten. There
was one thing, however, which could not
be forgotten and that was the valor and pa
triotsm of those who fought for the Union
in the hour of its direst peril. Nor would
the bravery and earnestness, and he might
say, loyalty to the cause which they espoused
of those who fought on the other side be
forgotten. He was willing that States
should be put upon the same ground that
the fathers of the Rcpubli, had put them
upon in the var of the Revolution by as
suming their debts for raising and recruit
ing troops, and after that let no claim
arise out of the war, except claims of
manned and disabled soldiers, and with
that determination on the part of the
people of the country, both North and
South, the time would not be far distant
when the feeling of brotherhood would take
into the charge of the government the
MANNED and disabled soldiers of the South
ern army, remembering their courage, their
steadfastness and their gallantry, and for
getting tie mistaken alignment which made
them fight upol the side they did.


Mr.. White, of Pennsylvania, opposed
the bill as a war claim for the use of and
damages to property in an insurrectionary
State.


Mr.. Aiken, of South Carolina, declared
himself opposed to all Southern war claims.
He was glad to hear that some members
on the Republican side were liberal enough
to vote compensation for damages to reli-
gous, educational and elccmosynary institu
tions at the South. For himself his inde-
pendence would not allow him to do even
that. The Southern people should go back
to first principles and so to work and rebuild
such institutions themselves. They had
riskcd everything in war and had no favors
to ask from those who had whipped them.
He honestly believed that if the Southern
States had been represented in Congress in
1871, 1872 and 1873 as they were repre-
esnted to day, there would be no such cry
as that a hundred millions had been drawn
from the treasury to pay Southern war
claims. Judging of all of them from those
that he knew, he could say of these claim
ants that grander set of villains had
never drawn dollar out of the treasury.
Ills OWN llIllc Olate ndu Dccn TcprCScHCcu
in Congress by men who were now, God
only knew where. They had nsver been
South Caroinians, and yet they had voted
the claims Of men who had not just title
to a dollar. He honestly believed that the
treasury was safer in the hands of the men
who defended the Conlederacy, than in tho
hands of those who held it to-day The
people of South Carolina, no matter what
their rebellious procivitcs had been hereto
fore, were to-day as strong and united in de-
fence OF the government us the people of any
State in New England or the Northwest.
lie and those Of his colleagues who truly
represented that State were here to protect
the treasury, and the best way to protect it
$50 far as these claims were concerned,)
was to drive every one of them from the
halls of Congress. Applause on the Dem
Ocratic side.


Mr. Keifer, Of Ohio, criticised Butlor's
speech, citing the part Of it in regard to
pcnsioning Confederate soldiers, and asked
whether he understood him correctly


Butler [ repeat that, whenever the ques-
tions of the depletion Of the treasury by
these claims is over, think that the pity,
the humanity of the North, will take care
of the manned of the war If you wish
to know it, see no more reason why
Confederate soldier, MANNED and crippled in
the honest discharge of what he believed


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