The report thereupon proceeds to state the opinion of the committee, that with all the evidence before them every subsequent Congress having failed to make an award they must have had some unknown reasons for the omission, and that the claim, having been so long neglected, may as well be indefinitely postponed--a surprising mode of reasoning and manner of disposition of a claim.
The report supposes the neglect was due to the fact that the services were rendered to the Secret Service Commission and inclines to think that the two thousand dollars received was considered a sufficient remuneration for the literary work.
"The committee have not been able to find a precedent for payment of claims of this character." * * * "But it would destroy much of the poetry and grandeur of noble deeds were a price demanded for kindred services, and achievements of this nature huckstered in the market as commodities of barter." _And that is all a report intended to be adverse can say against the claim._
One might remark that it is not wholly unprecedented for honorable gentlemen to receive remuneration from the Government for services rendered, or even to ask for their traveling expenses. But this looks somewhat like a sneer.
Was it directed against the noble invalid who had devoted her life and strength, her great ability, and her private fortune to the service of her country for years, with such lavish prodigality and such brilliant success, and had left a fitting award wholly to the determination of Congress, asking only that it should be made in some way that should mark the unusual and distinctive nature of the services rendered?
No; surely it must have been directed against the Government agent who wanted Miss Carroll, for the consideration of $750, to give a receipt in full for a bill of $5,000 remaining--a bill certified by the highest authorities to be sufficiently low or altogether _too_ low for the literary work performed. (No wonder if _such_ huckstering moved Mr. Cockrell's righteous soul.) His remarks also were exceedingly applicable to a liberal-minded person who shortly after sent in a bill recommending that after all these years Congress would kindly allow Miss Carroll a pension of _$50 a month_ for "the important military services rendered the country by her during the late civil war." If any more $50 miseries are proposed we would commend to the committees Mr. Cockrell on "huckstering."