Mr. GRIMES. As I was unable to concur With the majority of the ComNavAdams in recommending the Senate to pass this bill, I define to ask the indulgence of the Senate while I very briefly explain the reasons which impel me to vote against it. On the 9th of March, 1865, at the executive session of the Senate, this resolution was adopted: Resolved, That the SecyNavy be requested to organize a board of. not less than 3 competentpersons.whoseduty it shall be to inquire into and determine how much the vessels churn and steam machinery contractedfor by the Dept in the years 1862and 1863cost the COXlllMlOld over and above the contract price and allowance for extra work, and report the sameto the Senate at its next session. None but those that have given satisfaction to the Dept to be considered." It will be observed, in the 1st place, that this is a resolution adopted solely by the senate, and not by the HoRep, is no act of the legislative anthority of the Government, and that no board that could be organized under it had any authority to bind, either legally or morally, the action of congress. It will also be observed that this resolution only instructs any board that may be created by the SecyNavy under it to examine as to the contracts that were entered into in 1862 and 1863. Let it not be supposed by any Senator that after we shall have passed this bill, which includes about 2 and a quarter millions of money, we aretherefore absolved from making any future appropriations for contracts entered into between private individuals and the Government, under precisely similar circumstances; for I have upon my desk an abstract of contracts between the Government and contractors, made under similar circumstances, upon which there would be claims as ninch entitled to consideration as almost any that are embraced within the bill now under consideration, amounting to nearly 60 million dollars. If there be a loss upon that property equal to the amount which it is claimed has been lost by the contractors provided for in this bill, then the amount that will hereafter be claimed from the Government by those contractors will exceed the sum of $12,000,000. Under the resolution which I have read, the SecyNavy appointed a board of 3 officers. One of them was a sea officer, a commodore nearly at the head of the list; another was a payinaster, and another an engineer. Isu pose, as the report of the proceedings of that board has been published for some months, that the members of this body have probably examined it, and if they have, they will observe that substantially all the testimony taken before that board consisted of the mere declarations of the contractors themselves. So far as my recollection goes, the contracts, even, were not submitted, and there was nobody examined on the part of the government, except that Commodore Gregory, I think, appeared before them once or twice, and wrote them one or 2 letters. Mr. President, I do not wish it to be under stood that I am constrained to vote against the passage of this bill because I believe there are no just claims embraced in it. I believe there are some very stron cases in it that appeal to the justice of the Senate and of congress, and if they stood by themselves, as ordinary claims do stand when they a pear before us and not in an omnibus billJ coupled with other claims that I regard as worthless, I would vote for them. I remember the cele brated case of the Camanchc, a vessel that was sunk in the harbor of SanFrancise o. I believe there is justice in that claim, and it would afford me great pleasure to vote to remunerate the contractors in that instance; but I cannot consent, in order to do justice to those contractors, to vote money out of the Treasury to other contractors who I am just as thoroughly convinced are not entitled to an thing from the Government. fthe members of the Senate will refer to the report of the committee that is in their hands, on the 2nd page, in the list of “wooden double enders machinery, ” they will find that the Min 0e and the Wyalusing were made by Pusey, ones 65 Co., a firm doing business at Wilmington, in the State of Delaware and that the amount allowed to them, and it was all they claimed, for extra work was $5, 817 38 for the Mingoe, and for the Wyalusing it was only one cent less, $5, 817 37. Now, by ref erence to the table which I hold in my hand furnished from the Navy Dept it will be observed that these gentlemen entered into their contract with the Government to con. struct those 2 vessels, one of them on the 15th of August and the other on the 30th day of August, 1862, for $82,000. On the 29th of October, in the same year, the Government entered into a contract With the AJtna Works to construct an engine upon the same model, with the same drawin., tobe delivered at the same time, and for the same sum of money, $82,000. This commission have allowed to Pusey. Jones 8!. Co. for their engines $5, 817 88, and they have allowed to the [Etna Works for the building of the engines of the Peoria $61.75? 51.