STATEMENT RELATING TO CLAIMS ARISING UNDER THE TERMS OF THE CAPTURED AND ABANDONED PROPERTY ACT. Claimants were allowed two years after the suppression of the rebellion in which to prefer their claims to the Court of Claims. It was held by the Supreme Court that the date of the suppression of the rebellion was fixed by the proclamation of the President, the first issued April 2, 1866 (14 Stat. L., 811), declaring the war to be closed in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas, and the other, issued August 20, 1866 (14 Stat. L., 814), proclaiming that the rebellion was at an end, and that peace, order, and tranquillity and civil authority existed in and throughout the whole of the United States of America. (The Protector, 12 Wall., 700.) Parties therefore had the right to bring their actions at any time within two years after the latter date, when the rebellion was entirely suppressed. The first case was filed March 8, 1864. The following table shows the result of the whole business before the Court of Claims: This table includes some cases which were referred by special acts of Congress after the time for bringing suits under the original act had expired, in one of which the sum of $58,419.20 was recovered. THE CAPTURED AND ABANDONED PROPERTY MONEY. Before the passage of the abandoned or captured property act there had existed almost from the beginning of the war an executive system for the collection of property captured from the public enemies or found abandoned by them in the States in rebellion devised and carried on conjointly by the War and Treasury Departments. After the passage of that act not only the proceeds of the property collected by agents under its authority, but also the proceeds of all other property of like kind, previously or subsequently collected by the Army, were treated as captured or abandoned property money. The following statement shows the condition of the account, how much money has been received, what part has been drawn and for what purposes, and by what authority such part has been paid out: Whole amount of abandoned and captured property sales.. Cost of collecting, sale, and other expenses.. Transferred to Freedman's Bureau.. Internal-revenue taxes and commercial intercourse $6,551, 000. 00 $31,722, 466. 20 fees.. 1, 406, 000. 00 Released to claimants by Secretaries Chase, Fessenden, and McCulloch.. 2,550, 675. 24 10,750, 675. 24 Balance recovered into Treasury under resolution of March 30, 1868.. 20, 971, 790.96 From the amount so covered into the Treasury the following payments have been made: On judgments awarded by the Court of Claims under the act of March 12, 1863.... $9,852, 956. 95 Paid under special relief acts of Congress.. Disbursed as expenses under section 3, joint resolution of March 30, 1868, and subsequent acts.... On judgments against Treasury agents under the act of July 27, 1868, (15 Stat., 243)... 65, 276. 79 242, 140. 34 256, 766. 82 On claims allowed by the Secretary of the Treasury under section 5, act of May 18, 1872.. 195, 896. 21 15, 270.00 32, 669. 20 88, 104.21 Judgment Court of Claims, Duffy, Sophia B., private act. Total.... 10,749, 080. 52 Total amount of captured and abandoned property fund is........... 10, 222, 710. 44 NOTE. The funds covered into the Treasury were not all proceeds derived from the sale of cotton, but consisted of rents for property in New Orleans, La., Memphis, Tenn., and other places, and for seizure and sale of miscellaneous personal property. Some of the judgments of the Court of Claims were for other property than cotton. There remains in the Treasury on account of “rents,” $613, 284.96. There are now remaining on the docket of the Court of Claims no cases presenting further claims on money arising under the captured and abandoned property act. The captured and abandoned property act was passed during the very last days of the Thirty-seventh Congress, by the Senate March 2, and by the House of Representatives March 3, 1863. It was not approved when that Congress ceased to exist by constitutional limitation, on the 4th of March, 1863. The parchment roll in the State Department shows that President Lincoln in affixing his name to it eight days after Congress had adjourned sine die wrote with his own hand, "Approved March 12, 1863," so that there can be no doubt as to the correct date of approval. It was President Lincoln's custom to write himself the date of approval in all cases and not leave that duty to a clerk. The validity of the statute as a law has never been drawn in question. The Supreme Court of the United States also took jurisdiction of appeals in those cases and acted upon them as brought under a valid law. Congress, too, recognized its validity by amending it, and extending its provisions. While Mr. Chase was Secretary of the Treasury, and for some time afterwards, the money received from captured and abandoned property was merely deposited with the Treasurer, and was not technically, in department language, "covered into the Treasury," and so according to the construction then given by the Department was not subject to the constitutional provision that "no money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law." More than two and a half million dollars of it was paid out by Secretaries Chase, Fessenden, and McCulloch without any appropriation therefor, when Congress interposed and passed the joint resolution of March 30, 1868 (15 Stat. L., p. 251). |