As this pressure was gradually removed, and the national resources became more apparent, these claims were naturally urged with more confidence, until, on the final extinction of that debt, they occupied the attention of the best minds in…

No single question in our history has been the subject of such a succession of able reports.

They all tend to the conclusion that it is the duty of Congress, without further delay, to provide for these claims; and Senators and Representatives are earnestly requested to use their best exertions for an Act of Congress to carry this…

Two several times--once under President Polk, and again under President Pierce--both Houses of Congress concurred in an act for the relief of these claimants; but this tardy justice was arrested by Presidential veto.

Claims beginning thus early, and thus sustained, may be ancient, but they cannot be stale.

The great speculator has been Death; for there are few of these claims that have not passed through his hands.

It is well known that in many families these claims still exist as heirlooms, transmitted by ancestral care in full confidence that sooner or later they will be recognized by the Government.

Looking at the practical consequences of this suggestion, it will be found, that, though plausible in form, it is fatal in substance.

Any postponement must inevitably throw these claims into direct competition with those now accumulating on account of losses during the Rebellion, having in their favor the swelling sympathies of our time.

It is not unjust to human nature, if the Committee say that the distant in time, like the distant in space, is too often out of mind.

If the earlier claims are just, they should not be exposed to the hazards of any such competition, when feeling will be stronger than reason.

The resources of the people are tasked to put down the Rebellion which Slavery has aroused.

The just debts of the Republic must be paid, to the last dollar.

The Republic will have new title to love at home and to honor abroad, when with one hand it overcomes the Rebellion now menacing its existence, and with the other does justice to ancient petitioners, long neglected, constituting the only…

We are fighting for national life, assailed by belligerent Slavery; yet such is the solidarity of nations, and so are mankind knit together, that our battle now is for the liberty of the world.

Therefore, putting aside all preliminary objections from alleged antiquity, from the character of the actual possessors, or from the present condition of the country, the Committee insist that the present obligations of the United States…

The history of French spoliations on our commerce is a gloomy chapter, where a friendly power, assuming the name of Republic, shows itself fitful, passionate, and unjust.

Here were spoliations, confessed at the time to be in violation of neutral rights, which still rise in judgment.

Merchants hesitated to expose ships and cargoes to such cruel hazards.

Thus, at the very beginning, these spoliations were recognized by both Governments in their true character.

Offspring of wrongful violence in the heat of war, they were regarded on both sides as indefensible.

By such vigorous measures were the rights of these claimants asserted, while the country assumed an attitude of defence.

They were not “individual,” but “national,” being founded on alleged violations of treaty stipulations assumed by the United States in return for the aid of France in the establishment of national independence.

The triumph with which the War of Independence happily ended came tardily, after seven years of battle, suffering, and exhaustion; but it was hastened, if not assured, by the generous alliance of France.

Let us at all hazards prevent the extension of Slavery and the increase of the Slave Power.