If the forces of the United States had failed, then would these Loyalists have lost everything, country, property, and all,--that is, if really loyal, according to present professions. It was our national forces that saved them from this sacrifice, securing to them country, and, if not all their property, much of it. A part of the property of the present claimant was taken in order to save to her all else, including country itself. It was a case, such as might occur under other circumstances, where a part--and a very small part--is sacrificed in order to save the rest. According to all analogies of jurisprudence, and the principles of justice itself, the claimant can look for nothing beyond such contribution as Congress in its bounty may appropriate. It is a case of bounty, and not of law. It is a mistake to suppose, as has been most earnestly argued, that a claimant of approved loyalty in the Rebel States should have compensation precisely like a similar claimant in a Loyal State. To my mind this assumption is founded on a misapprehension of the Constitution, the law, and the reason of the case,--three different misapprehensions. By the Constitution property cannot be taken for public use without “just compensation”; but this rule was silent in the Rebel States. International Law stepped in and supplied a different rule. And when we consider how much was saved to the loyal citizen in a Rebel State by the national arms, it will be found that this rule is only according to justice. I have no disposition to shut the door upon claimants. Let them be heard; but the hearing must be according to some system, so that Congress shall know the character and extent of these claims. Before the motion of my colleague,[41] I had already prepared instructions for the Committee, which I will read, as expressing my own conclusion on this matter:-- “That the committee to whom this bill shall be referred, the Committee on Claims, be instructed to consider the expediency of providing for the appointment of a commission whose duty it shall be to inquire into the claims of the loyal citizens of the National Government arising during the recent Rebellion anywhere in the United States, classifying these claims, specifying their respective amounts, and the circumstances out of which they originated, also, the evidence of loyalty adduced by the claimants respectively, to the end that Congress may know precisely the extent and character of these claims before legislating thereupon.” As this is a resolution of instruction, simply to consider the expediency of what is proposed, I presume there can be no objection to it. Afterwards, on motion of Mr. Sumner, the bill, with all pending propositions, was recommitted to the Committee on Claims. TRIBUTE TO HON. JAMES HINDS, REPRESENTATIVE OF ARKANSAS. SPEECH IN THE SENATE, JANUARY 23, 1869.