Mr. WILSON. Mr. President, I am not surprised at the earnest manner in which the Senfrom NewHampshire has After having brought. into spokenv this Senate anr ndvtr eated paying for a building used by the rebels as an observatory to see the movements of our armies, I am not at all surprised at it. I say to that Senator if we are to pay the damages occasioned by the movements of our armies, 100s of millions of dollars will be taken out of the public Treasury and put upon the people who fought the battles of this country. Will not vote a dollar of it. The Senator talks about law. There is no law for it. We are asked to make a law forit. I am opposed to making a law for any such thing. am opposed to paying the damages which our armies occasioned or inflicted. Are We to pay for the property destroyed by the march of Sherman s army from Atlanta to Savannah and from Savannah to NCarolina? Are we to pay for Phil. Sheridans destruction of property in the Shenandoah valley by the order of GenlGrant? We have destroyed millions and millions of property by our military “Mr Are men tieember. It is just as much the duty of this govWe owe it to them all, 1866. 673 now and tell us that they were loyal, and are the people of this country to be taxed to pay those men for the destruction occasioned or inflicted by our armies? Where is the law for it? The Senator says we are bound to do it by law. Where? Who made such a law and when was such a law made? No, sir, they want us to make a law of that character. I shall not vote for it. 1,000s of men in this country have lost their all by the war. Are we to ay the merchants of NewYork, of Ihiladelphia, and of Boston for the losses occasioned by the war? Are we to pay them for their ships lost on the seas “I whhere are we to begin and where are we to stop? I said in regard to the proposition made by the Senfrom WestVirginia that I was willing to pay loyal people who had furnished supplies for our Army. whether they lived in the loyal orthe disloyal States. I am willing to treat one just as I will treat the other. Where we have ven certificates that we have taken property there, I hold those certificates to be a contract; and if in some cases it can be clearly shown that the officers of our Army took property for the support of the Army, and that circumstance s prevented their giving the propervouchers for it, [am willing, on amost thorough and exact investigation, to payforthat proiert. But are we to pay for the 1,000s of dive lings burnt, for the miles of fence burnt up, for the vast amount of property destroyed by the march of our armies? Sir, all this was occasioned by the war; it was a part of the necessary loss brought upon the people by the movements of our armies, and Pam not in favor of ying for the wood we have cut down or the ences we have burnt, or the wheat fields tram led under the march of our armies, whether it be in the loyal or disloyal States. We have had burdens enough imposed on the people of this country for generations to come, Without having 1,000s and 100s of 1,000s of traitors professing to be loyal, coming up to Congress every year and asking us to pay forevory little damage occasioned by the movements of our armies. I do not believe in the justice of it. I believe it to be a wrong, utterly indefensible, to put upon the men who have saved this country, to put upon the soldiers of our armies who have by the orders of their commanders, or by the movements of the armies, destroyed property in their marches, the burden of paying for the property destroyed. Sir, we have had a touch of this. A bill was passed at the last session, which, by an act that regard as almost providential, did not become a law. Had it become a law, and had that bill been taken as a precedent here, it was a vote of more than $500,000,000 out of the Treasury, and you had nowhere to step without denying our own action. It is before us, and I trust in God it never is to pass, and that no such legislation is to receive the sanction of this nation that is to provide for the property destroyed by the movements of our armies.