Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 8.djvu/197

 FINANCIAL HISTORY OF OREGON. 189 merit of claims for services, supplies, transportation, and so forth, incurred in the maintenance of said volunteers. ' ' These services, supplies and transportation were to be paid for at the same rates as were paid by the regular army. All claims for horses and other property lost or destroyed in the service were to be settled according to a rule established in a previous? act of Congress. It must be remembered that six years had elapsed since the claims had been incurred and no back interest was allowed. Furthermore, the payments were in greenbacks that never had acceptability as a medium of exchange in this region and were soon far below par. Instead of getting $2.00 a day as prom- ised by the territorial legislature, the common soldier was put off with about $20.00 a month. Laborers assisting the regular service in this war had received from $60.00 to $90.00 a month. The use of his horse brought the volunteer about 40 cents a day instead of $2.00 as promised by the legislature. 97 The rule that ' ' all claims for supplies, services, and transpor- tation were to be paid for at the same rates as were paid by the regular army," seemed fair, but in its application the price paid for a lot of Mexican or Indian ponies for the regular army was made the standard for considering the values placed by the settlers on their American horses, as extravagantly high. Horses in many instances sold for 50 per cent more after the war than had been paid for them in scrip during the war. The sugar supplied the volunteers was rated at 10% cents a pound, which was a cent less than it could be bought for at the time in San Francisco. While there had been in- stances of high prices for supplies and services the general fairness and reasonableness of the transactions were vouched for not only by the commission appointed by the Secretary of War, by the special agent, J. Ross Brown, but also by many letters from citizens of Oregon published in the report of the Third Auditor of the Treasury. The statement of Mr. Ander- son, the Delegate from Washington, made on the floor of the House, was probably not far from the truth. He said: "So 97 The Oregon Argus, April 20, 1861.