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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Mr. Bragg: "There was this law, and it is 

 recognized everywhere, that he who deserts 

 his country's flag in the hour of his country's 

 peril is entitled to no respect from that coun- 

 try afterward, except such as she gives him by 

 a mere generosity and as a gratuity." 



Mr. Davis, of North Carolina : " If there 

 was no such law, then there is a constitutional 

 right." 



Mr. Bragg: "Mr. Chairman, I am not here 

 to discuss the Constitution. If I were, I should 

 say that the gentlemen who broke the Consti- 

 tution and fled from it are not the men to hold 

 it before me and ask me to support it. [Ap- 

 plause on the Republican side.] 



" If this bill pass, there is no man who was 

 in the American service, whether civil, mili- 

 tary, or naval, but will come back to the Treas- 

 ury of the United States for something which 

 may have been due him for some few days be- 

 fore he deserted his country. 



"I am anxious, Mr. Chairman, as anxious as 

 any man in this House, never to see again or 

 hear of the subject of the Southern rebellion. 

 It strikes me as deeply and keenly as any man 

 upon the floor of this House, and I would fain 

 wipe it out for ever from sight and memory. 

 But I say to my friends from the South, that 

 when you want to end this controversy, when 

 you want to close up these memories, it is no 

 proper way to do it by bringing forward claims 

 here and presenting them for consideration 

 which keep alive those memories by constantly 

 stirring up something that involves the discus- 

 sion of the rebellion and the troubles which 

 have grown out of it." 



Mr. Goode: "I move to recommit the bill 

 to the committee. On that, I believe, I have a 

 right to be heard. 



" Now, Mr. Speaker, since the discussion of 

 this bill on last Friday, I have received a letter 

 from the widow of Captain Page, in which she 

 instructs me peremptorily to withdraw her pe- 

 tition. If I felt at liberty to consult my own 

 feelings or be guided by my own judgment in 

 this matter, I would without hesitation press 

 this bill to a final vote in this House, because I 

 believe her claim to be a perfectly valid one, 

 and the Government is bound to recognize it 

 by every consideration of justice and fair deal- 

 ing. But I feel constrained, as I have stated, 

 to obey the instructions I have received from 

 this petitioner. The House will readily under- 

 stand and fully appreciate the motives which 

 have impelled her to this step. Her feelings 

 have been so wounded by the fierce assault 

 made upon the memory of her dead husband 

 that she is no longer willing to furnish any 

 pretext for a renewal of that assault. Her pe- 

 tition would never have been presented here 

 if she could possibly have foreseen the result. 

 She had not the remotest idea that the simple 

 presentation of a humble petition for payment 

 of a just debt by this Government would be 

 seized upon and made a pretext for a rude and 

 violent attack upon the cherished memory ot 



the honored dead, or harsh and uncharitable 

 comments upon the character of the Southern 

 people. She prefers to relinquish that claim 

 for ever, and allow the Government to hold in 

 its coffers money fairly and honorably earned 

 by her husband, rather than afford any excuse 

 for an attack upon his good name, which she 

 holds more precious than money or even life 

 itself. 



41 Now, sir, witli the permission of the House, 

 I want to make a single remark with reference 

 to myself. Since the debate of last Friday 

 it has been charged by Republican newspa- 

 pers throughout the country, and it wus inti- 

 mated in that debate upon the floor of tins 

 House, that my object in presenting this peti- 

 tion was insidiously to establish a precedent 

 for the payment of Southern war claims. 



" I want to say to this House and the coun- 

 try that no charge could have been more unjust 

 and more destitute of any foundation what- 

 ever. I presented that petition because it was 

 my representative duty to do so after it had 

 been sent to me for presentation. I present- 

 ed it because I believed the country justly 

 owed the amount of money named to the es- 

 tate of Captain Page. I presented it because 

 I believed section 3,480 of the Revised Statutes 

 to be clearly unconstitutional and void, so far 

 as claims of this character are concerned. I 

 presented it because I utterly deny the power 

 of the American Congress to pass any ex post 

 facto law or bill of attainder. I presented it 

 because I did not suppose that a single repre- 

 sentative of the American people could be 

 found who would be willing to withhold from 

 this lady money honestly earned by her hus- 

 band in the service of his country, especially 

 as by that service he had illustrated American 

 prowess, and shed additional luster on the 

 American name." 



Mr. Conger : u Mr. Speaker, I have nothing 

 to reply to the remarks of the gentleman from 

 Virginia if he says that he never has in this 

 House presented or advocated the payment of 

 war losses or war claims so called, with this 

 statement that he excepts from that, because 

 he does not consider them war claims, two 

 cases he has advocated here, one of them the 

 William and Mary College claim, which we 

 all remember, which the country remembers, 

 which was thundered through this land from 

 North to South, exciting apprehension and fear 

 in every hamlet in the North of the conse- 

 quence of passing such a law, and exciting 

 hope and expectation in the hearts of ten thou- 

 sand men in the South who had war claims 

 in which they were interested. I say I have 

 nothing to say in reply to the remark of the 

 gentleman from Virginia that he has never ad- 

 vocated war claims. Of course, we look upon 

 the name of these war claims and war losses 

 differently, and I give the gentleman the full 

 credit for his avowal upon that subject accord- 

 ing to his own construction. 



" But, sir, when the gentleman stands there 



