Raftsman's Journal

Soldiers' Extra Bounties-Why they are
not Paid.

Congress, just before it adjourned, says
the Detroit Post, passed a bill giving extra
bounties to soldiers. That law was intended
to pay these extra bounties immediately.
It made every necessary provision for so
doing.

Immediately after its passage, the Secretary of War appointed a board, with General
Canby as its President, to decide upon
the proper construction of the law, and to
frame rules to govern the different departments in paying the expected claims. This
board, it is stated in the dispatches from
Washington, has finished his report. The
report declares that the law is explicit, that
the bounties ought to be paid, and also presenting the required rules for carrying it into immediate effect. This report, it is stated by the New York Tribune's correspondent, has been suppressed by the President's
direction. An order was issued, at the same
time, to the Second Auditor of the Treasury, not to pay the bounties until further orders. The New York Herald's correspondent-a Johnson man-says he is authorized to state that the bounties will not be paid
for several months. The soldiers interested will naturally ask why the intention of
Congress is thus defeated, and their just
claims postponed. The correspondent of the
Chicago Tribune answers these questions as
follows:

The contradiction telegraphed over the
country last night, to the effect that the Secretary of the Treasury had not issued an
order forbidding the payment of bounties
under the late act of Congress, is in itself
unfounded. Such an order was in the possession of the Second Auditor last week.
The further statement that the Treasury
Department is awaiting the conclusion of the
report of the commission appointed by the
Secretary of War, to ascertain if the law
would justify the payment of the bounties,
and to frame rules governing the disbursements, is also a misstatement. The facts
are as stated in these dispatches two nights
since. The report of the commission was
ready to be made on Monday, and instead,
it was withheld by the President. The report was in favor of the payment of the
bounties. The whole thing was intended as
a secret attempt to prevent the payment of
any bounties till after the elections, and in
the meantime to create the impression that
Congress did not really intend any payment,
but simply passed some unmeaning words
by which to deceive soldiers and obtain their
votes. The chances are that the unexpected exposure of this transaction will secure
the publication of the report. It is said,
however, that there is a settled determination in Administration circles to prevent the
Republican party from receiving any of
the good will which would spring from the
general payment of bounties before the elections.

The Soldiers can thus see how they were
to be duped, if possible, into supporting the
President, by withholding their bounties.
These bounties are only due to privates and
non-commissioned officers. Gen. Custer and
the other officers who support the Philadelphia scheme, and are attempting to lead the
soldiers into the Copperhead camp, are not
interested in the bounty law. They do not
lose anything by the delay in paying the
bounties; consequently they are well afforded to support the President, who holds in his
hands the power of promotion; but the
keeping back of the poor private's well-earned bounty for three or four months, for
political effect, is a cruel injustice, and, in
many
cases, a great hardship. Congress
voted him the money; he is fairly entitled
to it immediately; and it is a meanness of
the most despicable sort to withhold it, for
the sake of depriving the Republican party
of the political credit of having shown itself
the friend of the soldier.-Telegraph.