Mr. HARRIS. I have given to this claim much more attention than I should otherwise have done but for the large amount involved. The bill proposes to grant to this family 75,840 acres of land." It is a large amount; and I have examined it with great attention and with an anxious desire to get at the very right of the case. It is no new claim. It has been before Congress for a long while, and often presented for its consideration. The claim has its foundation in a Spanish grant. Upon the 1st settlement of Louisiana the king of France granted to a person by the name of Duvernay a tract of land running from the Mississippi river to the Atchafalaya river, upon which he settled a colony. Afterward, when the territory of Louisiana came into the hands of the Spanish Government, the Spanish governor ordered this tract of land to be surveyed, and, upon a report of the survey to the Spanish governor he confirmed the grant; so that this claim has for its foundation a grant from the French Government, and then subsequently a grant from the Spanish Government. The tract was transferred to a person by the name of d’Autrive. He lived upon it during his whole lifetime and died upon it. After his death his widow married another person and removed to another with her the infant. of d'Autrive. This tract of land, therefore, was abandoned, and when the territory came into the hands of the U.S. it was unoccupied. The U.S. took possession of this tract of land and have disposed of it. The matter was placed in the hands ofed ward Livingston, who was a member of this body I believe at one time, and a member of the Cabinet in 1821, and remained in his hands for management and presentation to the Government for many years; but he neglected it, paid no attention to it, so far as the case shows. In 1835 an act of Congress was passed allowing claims under Spanish and French grants in Louisiana to be presented to the register and receiver of lands in that land district. This claim was presented to those officers and examined with great care obviously. Their report shows that they examined it with attention, and they reported in favor of the confirmation of this grant; but Congress never acted upon it. This report was made, I think, in 1837. In 1844 another act of Congress was passed allowing claimants in Louisiana to present their claims to the district court of the district in which the lands were located. This claim was brought before the district court in NewOrleans and very fully examined by Judge McCaleb, the judge of the district court at that place; and he wrote a very elaborate opinion on the subject, in which he confirms this grant. But there was an appeal from the decision of the district court, as was authorized by the law, to the SCOTUS, and the Supreme Court reversed that decision upon technical grounds, upon the ground that in this particular case the district court had no jurisdiction; not, however, having examined the case at all upon its merits; so that both these applications have in fact failed, although the reports were decidedly in favor of the claim upon its perits. Then the case was brought before Congress, and it has been before Congress 3 or 4 times. In 1860 a full report was made by the ComPrivLandClms in the House, and the bill passed there. In 1863 another report was made in favor of the claim, and the bill again passed. On one occasion a report was made in this body in favor of the claim, and it passed here; but on all these oc casions the bill failed to pass in the other House; so that it never became a law. Now, the ComPrivLandClms, upon a very full examination of the facts, have reported in favor of the claim. They report only in favor of one of the claimants. As to the claimants residing in Louisiana, the committee are not aware of their condition as to loyalty, and they therefore report for only one 6th of the claim, in favor of the estate of Mr. Bou. ligny, who, at the time of the breaking out of the rebellion, was a member of the HoRep, and a loyal man, and who died in this city in 1864, leaving a widow and 2 children. This bill awards to that family the one 6th of the claim.