Speech #510038895

They are all of the very same character of claims. paid by bills anmounting to $600.000 as coming from the Southern Claims Commission and passed here at every session of Congress as coming from the QuartermasterGenerals Department. And it is thus shown that more than half of the claims rejected by the Southern Claims Commission and the Quartermaster and Commissary Generals were so rejected. not for want of sufficient proof of loyalty. but for entirely different reasons. some of the reasons being that the claimants were not shown to be citizens. that some were naturalized citizens. but the legal evidence of the fact had not been produced. others because it appeared that the claimants had become bankrupt and the assignees had not been made parties. and others for the reason that the loyalty of the heirs and creditors of deceased claimants had not been established. We are next told by the gentleman in his minority report that after these cases are transmitted to the Court of Claims they are "reopened and testimony unheard of at the time of the first investigation. and it is claimed not in all cases entirely reliable. is brought forward. establishing. in the opinion of the court. the conclusion that claimants are loyal and should be paid vast sums out of the Treasury." From whom comes this suggestion? Certainly no information has been laid before the committee upon which to base the statement. and it appears for the first time in the report of the gentleman.