rebellion were
presumed to be disloyal, unless their loyalty were shown affirmatively.

3. A like rule was followed in determining the questions
of payment for the use of buildings, occupied as soldiers'
quarters, or for other official purposes, by the Army, or
injury to them caused by such occupation.

4. Property taken by the Army was paid for at its actual
value to the Government, and not necessarily at its value
to owner.

5. No claim accrued by reason of the destruction of property
whether of loyal or disloyal persons, to prevent its falling
into the hands of the enemy.

6. An exception to the principle above stated, founded not
on any strict principle or established law or conduct of Governments,
but on sound public policy, was adopted in the case of institutions
of charity, education and religion.

I first affirmed that doctrine in the House of Representatives,
in the case of the College of William and Mary of Virginia,
against the almost unanimous opinion of my political associates.
I thought that such a principle would be a great protection
to such institutions in all future wars, that it would tend
to heal the bitter recollections of the Civil War and the
estrangements then existing between the sections of the country.
I have lived to see the doctrine thoroughly established, the
College of William and Mary rebuilt by the Government, and
every church and school and hospital which suffered by the
military operations of the Civil War reimbursed, if it has
presented its claim.

If I have been able to render any public service, I look
upon that I have rendered upon the Committee on Claims, although
it has attracted but little attention, and is not of a nature
to make great public impression, as perhaps more valuable
than any other.

The duties of that Committee, when I was upon it, were very
laborious. I find that in the first session of the first
Congress, I made reports in seventeen cases, each of them
involving a study of the evidence, a finding of the facts, and
an investigation, statement and consideration of important
principles of law, in most cases to be applied to a novel state
of facts. I think that winter's work upon the Committee on
Claims alone required more individual labor than that required
to perform the duties of his office by any Judge of a State
Court, of which I have any knowledge; and that the amount
of money, and importance of the principles involved very far
exceeded that