Note 35 — Chapter XVII · THE PRESIDENCY OF GENERAL GRANT—THE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE.
Reading edition
The value of this class of documents will further appear from two quotations from the official "Digest of the Report of the Southern Claims Commission upon the Disallowed Claims," only two being taken where many might be. "Claim No. 193" was preferred before this Commission by W. R. Alexander of Dickson, Ala., for $13,443, for cotton and horses furnished to the Union army. Mr. Alexander produced evidence to show, and swore himself, that he had been a consistent Union man. The Digest (1 vol., p. 55) says: "Among the papers of the rebel government found at Richmond is a letter, now in the War Department, a copy of which Adjutant-General Townsend has furnished to us. It reads as follows:
"'Dickson, Ala., August 1, 1861.
"Sir: I have heard that the War Department was scarce of arms, and I have taken it upon myself to look up all the old muskets I can find and I now send them to you, and I hope they will kill many a Yankee. I have had one musket fixed to my notion, which I send with the others for a model. All here are delighted with our victory, both white and black. Yours, respectfully,
WM. R. ALEXANDER.
"P. S. I send these guns, ten in number, to the Ordnance Department, Richmond, Virginia.
W. R. A.
"The Hon. L. P. Walker."
"On October 11, 1872, the counsel for the claimant, John J. Key, Esq., appeared before the Commissioners and requested that the claim be withdrawn, admitting the disloyalty of the claimant. The claim is rejected."
"Claim 135" was preferred by J. P. Levy of Wilmington, N. C., for $10,000. After he had sworn to his own loyalty, he was called upon to face some letters found in the rebel archives. The Commission say (p. 33, 1 vol., Digest): "The original letters were furnished the Commission by the War Department from the captured rebel archives, and copies of several of them were filed with this report.... We have in them the claimant at the outbreak of the war calling upon the rebel government to punish the superintendent of his brother's plantation for insulting the rebel flag; and, again, asking the rebel Congress to pass a law granting him his brother's plantation on account of his signal service to the rebel cause; and, again, offering a ship, to be commanded by himself, for the rebel service; also, tendering for the benefit of the rebel army, patent fuse train and soda baking-powders, and boasting and complaining of the large amount due him from the rebel government for supplies for the rebel army. And now this shameless traitor, perjurer and swindler comes before us and swears, with brazen effrontery, that the government of the United States owes him, as a loyal adherent to the cause of the Union and the government throughout the war of the rebellion, for supplies furnished the army, the sum of $10,000. We reject this claim."