Mr. LANE. Mr. President, at the beginning of the session, very early in the session, I had the honor to present several etitious and memorials from the returned so diers of the State of Indiana, praying for an equalization of bounties. These petitions were very nnmerously signed, and they were also presented, I believe, from every State and Territory of the U.S. In addition to that the Legislature of our State have taken the matter into consideration, and have memori alized conto equalize the bounties of the soldiers. ‘ome wee s ago abill passed the HoRep nomingly for the equalization of the bonuties of the soldiers. I shall endeavor to show very briefly that that bill as it passed the House is not a bill which in any sense can equalize the beauties of the soldiers. The main provision of that bill, differing from the Senate bill, was precisely the difference embraced in the amendment offered by the distinguished Senfrom Iowa. You will perceive that our bill, the Senate bill, proposes an exact equalization of the beauties so far as they have beengiven by the Government of the‘U.S.! The illof the House proposes to equalize bounties given by the General Government, deducting local, State, county, and municipal bounties; and this is the radical difference between the 2 bills. Now, in order to legislate knowingly upon the subject, I have repnred a very brief synopsis of the bounty iiiws we have passed since the beginning of the rebellion. By the act of July 21. 1801, volunteers were to have $100 bounty for 2 years’ service. By the act of July 20, 1801, regulars were placed upon the same foot in as the volunteers were as to boun ties. By no act of March 28, 1862, bounty was given to men employed in the dept of Missouri; that was a special enlistment and mastering into service of the Missouri troops. The act of July 11, 1862, placed regular soldiers enlisted since July, 1801, on the same footing as volunteers respecting bounty, &c. By the act of July 17, 1862, 9 mouths’ troops were allowed 25 dollars bounty, 12 months troop. 50 dollars bounty, 1/2 to be paid in advance. By the act of March 3, 1863, 9 months' troops who enlisted for one year were entitled to the 50 dollars bounty. for 2 years $100. By the act of February 24, 1804, the loyal master of of a.slave drafted was to have the bounty of $100, a provision carried out by an amendment to this very bill to allow tie loyal master a bounty for slaves enlisted. By the act of June 15, 1864, colored soldiers enlisted who were free before A ril 1, 1801, were to receive $100 bounty. uner the call of October 17, 1863, they were entitled to the bounty of $300 for 3 years enlistment where they were free prior to 1861. These provisions have been carried out by an amendment to this bill. By the act of June 20, 1864, regulars who re‘enlisted were to have the bounty authorized by the JtResolution of June 13, 1864, after March, 1861. The resolution of January 13, 1864, continues reenlistment bounties to March, 1864, one year $100, 2 years $200, and 3 years $800. You will perceive, then, Mr. President, that the highest bounties given to any soldiers were $400 bounty to the 3 years’ men who re enlisted for 3 years. This provision goes upon the ground that 8 and 1/3rd dol lnrs permonth will make the highest bounty given to any soldier when you carry it to the whole time of his enlistment, 6 months, 9 months, one year, 2 years, or 3 years. Then the proposition is to equalize the bounties of all the soldiers. unor these several nets you will find that the beauties given by the General Government were unequal, owing to the emergency of the occasion at the particular times when the laws were passed. Vhen we passed the 1st enlistment act it was thought that $100 bounty was sufficient, and under that bounty your armies were speedil filed, and as the distinguished Senfrom hinssnchusetts has said, the troops enlisted in 1861 and 1862, under the $100 bounty, were the troops who bore the brunt of this whole war. But we are met here with the argument that the Government of the U.S. has honestly paid to every enlisted man all that it promised. That is true. But under the emergency of the occasion the U.S. have at one time promised more than they have promised at another; and the services being equally meritorious and equally efficient, it does seem to me that the bounties should be equalized. I can conceive no objection to that. I grant you that in law there is no obligation that could be enforced, but I think in morals there is an obligation that should be enforced, that these beauties should all be equalized. We are told that itwill require a large amount of money. That is doubtless true. It will require from 150 to 170 million dollars, according to to the estimate of your PayMGen, if you pass the Senate bill; it will require perhaps a little less than half that amount if you pass the House bill; but I shall proceed to SIOW you now that it is wholly impracticable to pass the provision as it passed the House. We propose here to utilize the bounties paid by the Government of the U.S. fhat we can readily do, for every cent of bounty paid is determined it on the pay 'rolls‘ by the date of enlistment 0 every soldier in the Army, compared with the laws in existence at the time of his enlistment. The rolls at the War Dept are complete and the Paymnster General can pay the additional bounty as readily as he can pay the month’s pay to each soldier. Then there is no trouble to administer this law as we propose to pass it in the Senate. But suppose you ado ta different rule and say you will equalize the bountics, deducting the amount of local, township, State, and municipal bounty, as provided for in the House bill; it is wholly imrncticable to us ccrtain the amount aid. very county perhaps in my State and in almost all the States raised by taxation or voluntn subscription a fund to pay as a bounty to soldiers to prevent a draft; a different amount was paid in almost every township, and in man instances different amounts were paid to soldiers from the same township. Then I so it is impracticable. You can never find out what the States, townships, counties, and cities paid, for there is no register of it. No register was kept; it was notre turned to the Provost Marshal Generafs office; there is no paper in that dept showing the amount of these local bounties, and in the very nature of the case no such paper could be returned. I have endeavored to show the Senate the utter impracticability of e unlizing bounties by taking into the account COcal, township, and State bountics, because there are no papers returned showing the amounts aid; but even if it were ructicable it would 0 exceedingl unjust, an in my opinion exceedingly impoitic. What would be the operation? suppose we pass a law nominally equalizing the bounties of these soldiers and deducting therefrom the local bounties, the operation would be just this: take for example the county in which I reside; there by taxation we raised $375,000 as abounty fund; that was paid to the soldiers of our county for going in and filling u the ranks. Pass now a bill to equalize the gonnties and deduct that, and no soldier from that county will receive one cent benefit from your action, and they will be taxed to make u for those communities who refused to contri ute anything to fill the ranks of your armies. I can see no justice in this. But my main objection to it is that it is wholly imracticable and can never be carried out. Ta'e the State'of Indiana. We owe today over 17 million dollars bounty fund raised by taxation upon our people to fill the ranks of the armies and to prevent drafts. Pass the House bill and our peeple, who have already contributed, who have already been taxed to pay the debt, will be taxed to pay communities where they raised no bounties, either by taxation or by subscription, while no citizen of Indiana will get a cent. I would about as soon pass no bill equalizin bounties as to pass that bill which can never c carried out, educting local and township and county bounties. Mr. President, I admit, as I have before said, that there is no legal obligation. We have paid to these soldiers all that we promised to them; but after having promised the vct eran soldierwho served 3 years $100 bounty, the very next year we promised and aid $300 and $400. These men fought side y side in the ranks, and theirblood mingled in the same common torrent, upon the same glorious bat tle fields, the one having a bounty of $100 or nothing, the other having a bounty of $400 given by the Government, and perhaps 5 or 600 dollars given by local corporations and township s. I can see no possible justice in this, and fbelieve the public sentiment of the whole country demands this legislation. The instincts of the people are right and honest and proper, and upon all questions of morals the voice of the people, uncorrupted, is the voice of God, echoing the sense of eternal justice which lives in every human heart. The whole country demands it. There is no opposition to it. The only possible opposition is that the condition of the Treasury is such that it cannot stand this drain. I believe no such thing. Who is to pay this national debt? The whole people. 'lhe returned soldiers are a part of the people interested in the payment of the debt. By doingjustice, by dealing liberally with them, you have a much better pros ect of final payment than you have by dissat isfying those who have fought the battles of the country. Mr. President, I shall not enlarge on this subject, nor would it be prudent, perhaps, at this stage of the session, but I do fee that upon this occasion I speak for those who have no right to speak here for themselves; but they have spoken for us elsewhere at the mouth of cannon and by the victors’ shout upon 100battle fie ds; and that we sit here tonight is owing to the exertions, the bravery, and prowess of the ver men whose cause I feebly plead to night. men; we should satisf them not only that the Government is incline to be just but to be liberal and fair, for we must rely in all future wars upon the volunteer forces of the country, we must rely upon the soldiery drawn from the ranks of common life, every man of whom feels that he is a part of the Government, responsible for the conduct of the Government, and every man of whom feels that this is his government. I then shall vote most cheerfully for this amendment. An objection has been urged that this is not the proper place for it, that it should not have been moved as an amendment upon this bill. What is this bill you are considering?. An appropriation bil]. What is the amendment? A provision to appropriate f ur ther to discharge this debt of gratitude and honor audjuslice that we owe to the common soldier. It is strictly germane to the bill, and there can be no point, no time, no occasion when it is not proper and in order to do justice to these brave soldiers of ours. But why is it moved here as an amendment upon this bill? Simply because 4 days ago, when gentlemen sought to consider this bill, we asked that the bounty bill might be taken up in advance, knowing that the appropriation bill would pass any way at any stage of the session. e asked then that a vote should be taken upon the bounty bill. We were then told, “ Do not antagonize it with the appropriation bill; wait.” We did wait until we are now within less than 3 days of the adjournment of this Congress, and I, for one, am unwilling to adjourn without doing justice to the soldier, and this is the only opportunity we shall have. if it is not put upon this bill it is the last you will hear of it this session. There is no other opportunity of getting it up, and it is germane to the subject, precisely right and proper. This is an appropriation bill to pay your civil employees, to pay for the repair of the Mississippi levees, to pay 100other miscellaneous objects. It is in order to do all these things, but exceedingly improper to move an amendment to pay your soldiers and equalize their bountiesl I hope that the Senate, without hesitation, will pass this amendment, and I regret to have been compelled to have said one word in its defense.