Probably if the Senate were inclined to send this matter to the Court of Claims. some little change ought to be made ia some of its phraseology. and possibly we ought to provide for the use of any affidavits and other ex parte testimony that may have been taken in support of this claim before Congress or in the Executive Departments where the affliants are now dead or beyond reach. taken for what weight they are entitled to. the matter has been running so long. It is now almost twenty years since the matter began. the event of carrying the mail. and it is fifteen years since it terminated. and if this claimant has been justly and earnestly endeavoring to have his claim disposed of by Congress. upon the theory. right or wrong in point of lawand I say nothing as to whether it is right or wrongthat the Court of Claims had not adeqate jurisdiction to give him the redress to which he thought himself entitled. that may be sufficient excuse for his coming be at all. and for his not having sued the United States in the Court of Claims for a breach of any contract express or implied that the law authorized him to proceed about. In such a case I should be willing ordinarily. and stating it with reserve and with qualifications. to allow cx parfs affidavits to be considered by the court if t thafe ant was. when the matter came to a judical investigation. beyond reach. so as not to deprive a sincere claimant of any means of supportinghis pretensions. on account of the accident of death or emigration or whatverit might be. while he had been sincerely seeking redress in a tribunal that he believed to be the only one that had adequate jurisdiction to consider the grievance that he thought he ought to be compensated far. The question then is. subject to what I have said. whether this matter ought to he sent tt the Court of Claims at all. or whether the Senate ought on the recommendation of the Committee on Claims to pay out of the Treasury of the United States more than hal a million of dollars upon such evidence and upon such conclusions and facts as the committee have reported to us. If the case is so clear in respect of principle. of history. and of the quantum of redress to which this claimant thinks himself entitled. that there is left no reasonable doubt in the minds of any considerable number of Senators as to the propriety of requiring the taxpayers to pay this half a million of dollars. then we ought to pass this bill.
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emigration