ng at that time, discloses the fact that among
the consols of 1867 then outstanding there were 107 of the denomination
of $500, 167 of the denomination of $100, and 85 of the denomination
of $50. This statement merely shows that there were numerous bonds
precisely similar to those described as belonging to Mr. Fulford which
had not in July, 1892, been redeemed, though the extreme limit of
their maturity expired on the 1st day of July, 1887. The letter of
the Secretary further discloses, however, that there were two of
these outstanding bonds of the denomination of $500 and two of the
denomination of $100 upon which coupons of interest had not been paid
since July 1, 1872. Of course this lends plausibility to the suggestion
that two of these four bonds, one of each denomination, were those
destroyed when Mr. Fulford's house was burned in July, 1872; but this
suggestion loses its force under the additional statement in the letter
of the Secretary of the Treasury that in July, 1892, there were no
consols of 1867 of the denomination of $50 whose last coupon was paid
July 1, 1872. This shows conclusively that no fifty-dollar bonds of this
class were destroyed by fire in Mr. Fulford's house and casts great
uncertainty upon the description of the other bonds, inasmuch as the
theory of the claimants seems to be that all the bonds destroyed
belonged to the same class.

In 1893, upon an examination of the records of the Treasury Department,
it was found that the two unpaid bonds for $500 reported in 1892 as
outstanding, from which no coupons had been paid since July 1, 1872,
still remained unredeemed, but that one of the two one-hundred-dollar
bonds which were in that condition in 1892 had been since that time paid
and canceled. I think it must be conceded that this late redemption of
this bond greatly weakens any presumption that the other three will not
be presented for payment.

It is perfectly clear that so far as this bill directs the payment to
the persons therein named of two consols of 1867 of the denomination of
$50 each on the ground that such bonds were destroyed by fire in July,
1872, it requires the payment of money to those not entitled to it,
since it is shown that these consols could not have been destroyed at
the time stated, because coupons due on all consols of that denomination
unredeemed have been paid since that date.

While the objections to the payment of the amount of the other two bonds
mentioned in t