Skip Skip PETITIONS and MEMORIALS.R. RAMSEY presented a memorial of a convention of teachers and friends of popular education, held at Wine na, Minnesota, on the 30th and 3lst of August, 1865 recommending the establishment of n. national bureau of education, and the grantin of lands to the several States for the establisment and support of training schools for teachers, as has been done for the establishment of agricultural colle es; which was referred to the ComPublic Lands. Mr. CHANDLER presented a petition of citizens of Michigan, praying Congress to levy a tariff sufficient to give adequate protection to American industry; which was reerred to the ComManufactures. He also presented a petition of citizens of South Haven, Michigan, praing for an appropriation for the purpose ofy building a ight House and pier li lit at the mouth of the South Black river, in the county of Van Buren, in that State; which was referred to the ComCommerce. He also presented a petition of citizens of South Haven, Michigan, prayin for an appropriation for the improvement of the harbor at the mouth of South Black river; which was referred to the ComCommerce. Mr. WILSON presented the petition of General Philip H. Sheridan and other officers of the Army, praying for an increase of the compensation of Army officers; which was referred to the ComMilAffrs . He also presented the petition of Warren Garrett and others, citizens of Wilmington, in the State of Delaware, praying Congress to so amend the constitution as to forever prohibit any State from making any distinction in civil rights and privileges between persons on account of race or color; which was referred to the JtComReconstruction. Mr. FOOT presented a petition of citizens of Washington, praying that early action may be taken in elation to e purchase of square; 68! and, emb Inthin the proposed extension. of the Capitol grounds which was referred to the Committee onPub o Buildings and Grounds. Mr. HOWARD presented a petition of citizens of Detroit, Michigan, praying Congress to levy a tariff sufficient to give adequate protection to American industry; which was referred to the ComFinance. Mr. CLARK presented the petition of Mrs. Rebecca S. Mine r, ayingJfor compensation for property taken an used y the L U.S. Army in the years 1863 and 1864, in Natchez, Mississippi; which was referred to the ComcClaims. Mr. GUTHBJE presented apetitionof manufacturers of agricultural implements, praying for a reduction of the taxes upon sales of agricultural implements, and for the removal of the tax now assessed upon castings made by themselves for their own machines;, which was referred to the ComFinance. Mr. NESMITH presented the memorial of Robert W. Dunbar, praying to be reimbursed for damages sustained by him in conseque e of a revocation of his appointment as a cut o take charge of public property atOrford, in Oregon; which was referred to the ComClaims. Mr. COWAN presenteda petition of citizens of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, prayin that an amendment to the constitution be adopted to prevent any State from making a distinction hereafter in civil rights and privileges among the naturalized citizens of the U.S. residing within its limits, or among persons born on its soil, on account of race, color, or descent; which was referred to the ComJudiciary. Mr. SHERMAN presented a memorial of the executive committee of the Montgomery County Tobacco Growers Association of Ohio, praying to be placed upon an equality in relation to the tax on tobacco according to the relative value of the tobacco produced in thatportion of the State; which was referred to a ComFinance. He also presented 3 petitions of manufacturers of agricultural implements, praying for a reduction of the tax upon sales of agricultural implements, and for e removal of the tax now assessed upon castings made by themselves for their own machines, which were referred to the ComFinance. He also presented the petition of George H. Wells, a citizen of Marietta, Ohio, praying for compensation for the loss Of his steamboat, Southern Merchant, which, he alleges, was taken from him by the rebels at the beginning of the war, was recaptured by our forces from the rebels, and was sold by the U.S.; which was referred to the ComClaims. Mr. GRIMES. I present the petition of Miss Clara Barton, which, as it contains some very interesting statements, I will ask the indulgence of the Senate to read and tomore particularly state to the Senate than ordinary petitions are stated. She states that during the time our prisoners were being landed at A11 napolis last winter she receiveda large number of letters from all parts of the country, mostly from the wives and mothers of soldiers, desirigher personal assistance in searchin for their 0st husbands and sons who, they adreason to fear, had languished or died in southern prisons.ment, amounting in many instances nearly to insanity, which characterized these letters, led her to regard this as the most poignant grief, and perhaps the most pressinpnecessity at that moment known to our people, prompting her at the same time to devise some means of relief. She decided, if possible, to obtain permission from the Government to inform the public that she would receive and answer all etters addressed to her at Annapolis by the friends of prisoners; that she would then publish the names thus obtained in lists, and cause them to be:osted in the barracks, with the request that all paroled prisoners would examine, and transmit to her, y letter or otherwise, such in fwnmtion as thq of all The intense anxiety and excite P631801“, whose names appeared: there. The information thus gain was forwdrded to. the person who had made the inquiry, including always the address of the soldier who had conferred the information, thus placing in communication the friends of the missin man and the person professing to have knowledge of him, with a view to further inquiry if desirable, or of prov tectin g themselves against imposition or mistake by a course of personalinvestigation, constituting the friends as well as herselfjudges of the accuracy of the intelligence conveye. Her suggestions were received. by President Lincoln and submitted to Major General Hitch cock, under whose direction a few lines addressed to the friends of Union prisoners ap peared in the Chronicle newspaperof this city, and were copied by other papers. In 4 days 360 letters awaited her at Annapolis, and they continued to follow at the rate of 100 perday until the order for discharging prisoners of war and returnin them to their homes rendered it necessary for her either to abandon the search or change her original plan, the results of which had exceeded her expectations. The information sought rested almost entirely with returned prisoners who would now become citizens and scattered over the entire country. They were enfeebled men, and the knowledge of the facts now living in their memories would die with them. e he thought her duty lain, and determined to continue her search y means of printed rolls cir culated over the entire loyal tubes. This required substantial aid, and she sought it at the hands of our present Chief may istrate, with the indorsement of a number o general officers, among whom was Lieutenant GenlGrant. By special direction of President Johnson, the printing of the rolls was assumed by the Government. Securing the services of corn ctent clerks, she recommenced her duties iuaiay. Under is enlarged system she was no longer under the necessity of confining her labors to prison ers, and she decided to include in her search all missing men of the Army. During the month of J nnc she printed and put in circulation 20,000 copies of a roll containing 1500 names of soldiers who had disap cared from the knowledge of their families and filicnds, and of whose personal existence or condition no knowledge was to be obtained from official sources. A cop of this roll was sent to every point from which it was thought information might be derived, including every postoffice in the loyal States, accompanied with a request for information as to each and every name contained on it. Each name in regard to which inquiry had been made was, as received, entered upon a book in ledger form, inal habetical order, specifying, 1st, the name of the missin soldier with a number designatin the order of the receipt of the inquiry secon, his company, regiment and arm of the service; thir, the name and residence of the person making the inquiry; and 4th, the late of its receipt. Corresponding columns were left for entries of information that might be received, and in these were noted as received the name and address of the person giving the information, the date of its receipt, and a brief note of its nature. Some times more than one inquiry was made for the same soldier, and often information concerning him was received from more than one person, but in either case all were noted under the same name and number on the register. As information was received from any quarter it was at once communicated to the person or persons making the inquiries, together with the name and address of the person giving the information, thus putting the seeker in direct communication With the possessor of information. Of the 1500 names contained on this 1st roll she received information of something over 1000, or more than 2/3rds of the entire number. In July last she issued a 2nd roll containing about the same number of additional names, but this roll, from want of means to carry out her project. according to its original design, was never fully circulated. She has since received inquiries for still other missin men, sufficient to make probably more than time other rolls of the same size, or to the total amount of probably 7,500 men. This entire labor of correspondence, of res try, of preparation, and publication of rolls, as so far been carried on by her own efforts and at her own expense, with the expection only of the printing of Lolls as before stated). She states that she has been compelled to suspend her operations simply from the lack of means to carry them on, the work having so far outgrown her exfpectations and yet the work can hardly be sai to have been fairly commenced. The inquiries received probably include but a small fraction of those reported “missing, ” and whose friends still wait in suspense and lingering hope, harder to bear than even the certainty of death and of those for whom she has received inquiries but a small proportion have ct been properly sought after, and thutiuformation obtained of them which the system properly carried out would bring to light. Shc thus finds herselftoday, she says, in possession of a wellor nized system of successful search for the missmg men of the U.S. Army. Having originatedaud carried itforward by herself 8 months, and, as she believes, fully demonstrated its practicability, exhausting her means in the effort, she has decided to submit it to the Governmentfor its more wise consideration and action if deemed proper. In order to secure the best measure of success, the work must be vigorously prosecuted, as the sources of information are rapidly wasting away by disease and premature death. She has found that a soldiers name stands sometimes upon the official records of hisGovernment with the dark word “ deserter ” written against it, while his family has evidence more or less positive that he lay long months after this an onest captive in rebel prisons and died there. The same course which would serve to throw light upon this case, would aid in hringin to view precisely the opposite, if it existed. uch cases as the above, together with all these respecting whose fate the records are silent, she would suggest as suitable names to be placed upon rolls for distribution through out the country, after the manner in which she has hitherto, without access to records, found it necessar deal with all. There wi 1, when all has been done which lies in mortal power, he still a%age remaining of men n on whose fate no light will ever gleam until t 10graves open and thp sea gives up its dead; but this will be less than is gener ally at this day supposed. Her observation warrants her in venturing the opinion that with suitable facilities some trace may be gained of 4/5ths of all who have disappeared amid the quicksands of war. How this work shall be carried on in the future is for the Government to decide. That it should not be permitted to cease would seem to be a proposition on which all rightminded persons must agree. The Government owes it no lessto the brave men who lie in unknown graves than to the anxious and longing friends in whom hope isnot yet wholly. dead, to see that, no stone is oil. untamed to complete the per, sonal record of all its preservers. Whether the work shall be continued by the Government in her hands or placed in those of others she leaves for the wisdom of Congressto determine; and she submits this statement of what she has done and designed, with the prayer that it may in some form he assumed by the Government whose duty it would seem to be to perfect it. Mr. President, I move that this petition, with the accompanyin papers, be reerred to the ComMilAffrs and I trust that it will receive the early an favorable consideration of that committee. The motion was agreed to. PAPERS WITHDRAWN. On motion of