Mr. CRESWELL. I do not know except that there has been some mysterious delay for nearly the 2 and a half years this act has been in force. It has been asserted, incorrectl, as I think, that this money was now in the ‘reasury and that some legislation was required to get it out in addition to that contained in the 24th section of the act of 1864‘ I think it is a mere technicality. Mr. Timmons makes an estimate that the amount necessar to pay, say 1800 additional claims at $300 each, (he puts 'it at the maximum amount,) would make an addition of $540,000, so that the total amount required to satisfy all these claims in the State of Maryland and the eastern shore of Virginia would be $102,000. Certainly less than $1,000,000 would pay for every enlisted slave of loyal owners. I have only to say in conclusion that so far as my ideas of right and wrong go, it is our duty to satisfy these claims just as much as it was to satisfy the slave owners in the DistCol for their slaves, and especially when we consider the circumstances under which this provision was inserted in the act of 1864. It is known to every gentleman who had anything to do with the passage of the conscription act, as that act was culle at that time, that we were then in a strait to raise troops. It was known that the act of 1803had virtuall failed. It was evaded to such an extent that the Govsernment was not being with sufficient supplied with troops, either white or rapidity by ack more stringent means were necessary; and when, on the 10th of February, 1864, the prop position came from Mr. Srnvnxs in the other House, which is embodied in the 1st section of this law for the enrollment of every colored man in the country, slave or free, and for the counting of every man of that descrition in the national forces, it was received wi 21. mur inui of dissent from the Opposition as being revolutionaryin its character, and by many gentlemen on our side of the House it was conceived to be greatly in advance of any position that we had ever before that time taken upon that subject. It was subsequently amended u)0" the suggestion of my then colleaguo, Mr. enry Winter Davis, by the insertion of this clause: “ The SecyWar shall appoint a commission in each of the slaveStates represented in Goa ress chargedto award a just compensation to each loyal owner of any Plnvo who may voluntarily enter the serviceof the U.S., pay abloout of the commutation money.” And then, as the Senfrom Massachusetts has already stated, the section was reviewed and perfected in the committee of conference until it assumed its present shape. The rop position then came from our side of the house. It wasan effort, as I have already said, not only to raise soldiers when soldiers were needed for the service of the U.S., but as we then frankly stated, to break down the institution of slavery. In both these objects it succeeded. From my Soate alone 8,000 colored men marched out to fight for the Union; and the result showed that when you gave the mus ket to the slave and taught him how to use it, you gave him his freedom also. Now, sir, in my judgment, if we fail in rendering to these claimants what was tendered them by our own proposition, it will be an act of bad faith to which I for one will not be a party.