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LETTER

FROM

THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY,

TRANSMITTING

A recommendation of the Supervising Architect to extend the limit of cost of public building at Denver, Colo.

FEBRUARY 13, 1885.-Referred to the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds and ordered to be printed.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington, D. C., February 12, 1885.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith copy of recommendation by the Supervising Architect that the limit of cost for the public building at Denver, Colo., be extended to $575,000, in which I concur.

Very respectfully,

The PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE.

H. MCCULLOCH,

Secretary.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF THE SUPERVISING ARCHITECT,

February 12, 1885.

SIR: I have the honor to call your attention to the fact that the limit of cost fixed for the public building and site for the court-house at Denver, Colo., is insufficient to construct a first-class fire-proof building that will afford the accommodations required for the proper transaction of the public business, and that will at all be suitable to the size and population of the city. The limit fixed is $300,000, of which amount $65,000 has been expended for the site, leaving a balance of $235,000 for the building.

I respectfully recommend that the limit of cost of the building alone be increased to $575,000, and that an appropriation of not less than $300,000 be made for the prosecution of the work during the approaching building season.

Very respectfully,

The Hon. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY.

M. E. BELL, Supervising Architect.

LETTER

FROM

THE POSTMASTER GENERAL,

TRANSMITTING

Letter from the Attorney-General, relative to obtaining certain records of the late Confederate States, pertaining to mail contracts.

FEBRUARY 13, 1885.-Referred to the Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads and ordered to be printed.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
Washington, February 10, 1885.

SIR: With this I have the honor to send to you a copy of a letter, dated February 10, 1885, and written to me by Thomas Simons, esq., Assistant Attorney General, relating to the necessity of the Govern ment's obtaining possession of the record or records of the late Confederate States, as bearing on a resolution pending before Congress, authorizing the Postmaster-General, among other things, to purchase the same from parties in possession thereof.

1 am convinced that it is very necessary that the Government should have possession of these records, and therefore have taken this opportunity of sending you the letter of Mr. Simons to strengthen you in your application.

Very respectfully,

BENJAMIN HARRIS BREWSTER,
Attorney-General.

The POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
Washington, February 10, 1885.

SIR: I have been requested to advise you of certain matters in my knowledge, touching a record or records of the late Confederate States, as bearing on a resolution pending before Congress authorizing the Postmaster-General, among other things, to purchase the same from the parties in possession thereof.

A large number of suits have been pending in the Court of Claims, brought by parties who were postmasters or mail contractors in the seceding States, for compensation for alleged service during the period just before secession. In the defense I brought to the attention of the court the fact that the Confederate Congress had made appropriations for payment of this service, and the court ruled that in such suits the

claimant must show that he had not been so paid. Very few of the claimants have as yet been able to meet this burden of proof.

About a year since I had an opportunity in confidence to see the said records, and examined particularly a book which purported to contain a list of the payments made out of said appropriations by the Confederate post-office department and the names of the parties paid. Some leaves had been torn out, but I was satisfied that it was a genuine record of that department, and would be of great use in the investigation of the claims now urged by such postmasters.

The pending resolution requires the Postmaster-General to investigate and pay these claims, if they have not been paid before as above stated, and gives him power to spend so much of the appropriation as he may see fit in getting evidence, a provision which has reference no doubt to the records in question.

For the reason above given the possession of these records is not of as much consequence to the defense as they would be to honest claimants, and as it is not the object of the Government to resist honest claims I have no doubt that the purchase will tend to facilitate the settlement of such claims by the Post-Office Department.

A Mr. Johns, who represents the parties controlling the records, asked me to state the facts to you on the ground that the PostmasterGeneral is intending to consult you in the matter, and that you should be informed of the state of the case.

Very respectfully,

THOMAS SIMONS, Assistant Attorney-General.

The ATTORNEY-GENERAL.

POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT,

OFFICE OF THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL,
Washington, D. C., February 12, 1885.

SIR Referring to Senate resolution No. 13, "To reappropriate and apply the amount appropriated by the act of Congress approved March 3, 1877, to pay certain Southern mail contracts," I have the honor to transmit herewith a letter from the Attorney-General of the United States, covering one to him from Assistant Attorney-General Simons, relative to the importance of the Government's obtaining possession of certain records of the Post-Office Department of the late Confederate States. Having no information relative to the matter beyond what is contained in the inclosed letters, I do not feel free to make any recommendation in the premises, but if the facts are as represented the subject would seem to be deserving of the consideration of Congress. I am sir, very respectfully,

JNO. SCHUYLER CROSBY,
Acting Postmaster-General.

[S. R. 13, Forty-eighth Congress, first session.]

JOINT RESOLUTION to appropriate and apply the amount appropriated by the act of Congress ap proved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy seven, to pay certain Southern mail-contractors. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall at once pay, in full, to the late mail-contractors of the States of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Ten

nessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, or their legal representatives, the amounts which he shall find due under their respective contracts for the years eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, eighteen hundred and fifty-nine, eighteen hundred and sixty, and eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and accruing before said States, respectively, engaged in war against the United States, in the order in which the claims are duly and legally presented; and the appropriation of three hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars made by the act approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, shall be, and is hereby, reappropriated and made immediately available for said payments: Provided, That no payments shall be made for mail services after the claimants ceased to carry the mails for the United States; nor for mail services rendered after May thirty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, when discontinuance was ordered by the Postmaster-General; nor where payments were made, in whole or in part, by the Confederate or any State government for mail services rendered prior or subsequent to such times or said date; nor for services rendered in any State after the legislature of such State, or any State convention therein, had passed a so-called ordinance of secession; nor until all deductions of any fines, or deductions for breaches of contracts which had theretofore accrued, shall have been made; and no contractor shall be paid until all deductions are made for all property of the United States carried away or not accounted for by such contractor; and the provisions of section thirty-four hundred and eighty of the Revised Statutes of the United States shall not be applicable to the payments herein authorized: Provided further, That this act shall not be construed to authorize the payment in any case of one month's extra compensation by reason of discontinuance of said service: Provided further, That the Postmaster-General may expend such part of this appropriation as he may deem proper in procuring proof to protect the United States against overpayments or fraud under this act.

SEC. 2. That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.

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