Mr. DAVIS. I offer the following amendment as an additional section: Abife: That there be and is hereby appropriated out of anymay; in the Treas nry not otherwise appropriated. 81!),000, to be paid by the proper officers of the Treasury to the loyal owners of slaves mustered into the military service of the U.S.under the act of March 3.1864. I will merely read the law on which I base this amendment. The 24th section of the act of March 3, 1804, is in these words: “SEC. 24.Abife: That all able tbwoednietdy male colored persons, between the ages of and 45 years, resident in the U.S., shall be enrolled according to the provisions of this act and of the act to which this is an amendment, and formpart of thenational forces and when a slave of a loyal master shall be drafted and mustered into the serviceof the U.S., his master shall have a certifieate thereof and thereupon such slave shall be free: and the bounty 0f3100, now payable bylaw for eachdrafted man shall be paid to the person to whom such drafted person was owing service or labor at the time of his muster into the service of the U.S. The SecyWar shall appoint a commissioner in each of the slave States represented in Congress charged to award to each loyal personto whom a colored volunteer may owe service.:1 Just compensation, not exceeding$300 for each such colored volunteer, payableout of the fund derived from comiuutations, and every such coloredvolunteer, on being mustered into the serviee shall be free.” Now, Mr. President, I am informed that the fund out of which these bounties were to be paid, that accumulated in the Treasury, amounted to from 12 to 20 million dollars. Under this act that fund ought to have been distributed among the owners of the slaves who were thus mustered into the military service. It was not, but has been used by the Government in its general expenditures. Here is a law of Congress, by which the Government of the U.S. has become indebted to the owners of these slaves, the “ persons to whom serVice was due, ” in' the language of the act. I therefore hope, as a matter of justice, for the payment oft is ample and recognized debt by the U.S., an appropriation will bamade.