CONGRESS IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. FEBRUARY 9, 1864.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. ANTHONY made the following REPORT. [To accompany bill S. No. 105.] The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the petition of E. F. & Samuel A. Wood, report: This claim is for the issuing of nineteen "duplicate Oregon war bonds," and certain coupons attached, amounting to the sum of seven thousand three hundred and fifty dollars. It appears from the evidence that on the nineteenth day of July, A. D. 1862, E. F. & Samuel A. Wood, (E. F. Wood & Co.,) of San Francisco, California, were the owners of nineteen Oregon war bonds of the United States, with interest coupons attached; also, that on the same day of July, 1862, they caused these bonds and coupons to be duly registered and enclosed in a package by F. J. Thibault, a notary public, and his notarial seal to be affixed to the wrapper of the package; that the package so scaled was then directed to N. A. Rogers, esq., New York city, New York, to be forwarded to him by the way of Panama, and in presence of A. G Stiles, of San Francisco, delivered, by the notary public, to James Benson, the "letter clerk " in the United States post office at that city, and by him deposited and registered in the post office at the request of said E. F. Wood & Co.; that James Benson caused said package to be duly mailed on the 21st day of January, 1862, and delivered with the mails of the United States on board the steamer Golden Gate, to be forwarded as directed, which steamer sailed from San Francisco city on the same day. It is also proved that the above-named bonds and coupons were never received by N. A. Rogers, the correspondent of E. F. Wood & Co., in New York city, but that the steamer Golden Gate, with the United States mails and their contents, was destroyed by fire on the voyage from San Francisco to Panama. It therefore appears to your committee that the petitioners are entitled to have the prayer of their petition affirmatively decided, upon filing the usual bond of indemnity with the Treasurer of the United States. Your committee, in accordance with these views, have prepared, and submit herewith, a bill for the relief of the aforesaid petitioners. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES. FEBRUARY 11, 1864.-Ordered to be printed. Mr. HENDERSON made the following REPORT. [To accompany bill S. No. 110.] The Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, to whom was referred a letter of the Postmaster General communicating to the Senate, in answer to a resolution of the Senate of the 19th ultimo, information in relation to the contracts of Shepherd and Caldwell to carry the mail on certain routes in Missouri, and also a bill (S. 110) for the relief of said Shepherd and Caldwell, have had the same under consideration, and respectfully report: That they find all the facts in the case embodied in a report made to the House of Representatives during the third session of the thirty-fourth Congress from its Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, which report is as follows: "JANUARY 24, 1857. Mr. FLAGLER, from the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, made the following "REPORT. "The Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, to whom was referred the petition of John H. Shepherd and Walter K. Caldwell, late contractors on mail routes numbered 8818 and 8849, also on mail routes 8819 and 8872, in the State of Missouri, have had the same, and the proofs therewith submitted, under consideration, and respectfully report: "That in March, 1854, said Shepherd & Caldwell, being farmers in said county of Pike, put in a bid for carrying the United States mail on route S$18, from St. Charles to Hannibal, for three times a week during the suspension of navigation on the Mississippi, to wit: from the first of November till the first of March in two-horse coaches, and three times a week on horseback the balance of the year, for the sum of $2,100 per year, with an additional clause to said bid by which they proposed to carry the mail on said route six times a week during the said four months, viz: from first of November till the first of March, in two-horse coaches, for $400 additional (or extra) pay, leaving it discretionary with the Post Office Department either to accept the bid for carrying the mail three times a week throughout the year, as aforesaid, for the sum of $2,100 per year, or to accept it with the three additional trips during said four months for $2,500 per year. That said Shepherd & Caldwell, at the same time, also put in a bid for carrying the United States mail on route No. 8849, from Hannibal, Missouri, to Keokuk, Iowa, three times a week for said period of the suspension of navigation on the Mississippi, to wit: from first of November till the first of March in two-horse coaches, and three times a week on horseback the balance of the year, for the price of $1,460 a year, with the additional clause to said bid to perform three extra trips during said four months in two-horse coaches for the sum of $500 extra or additional pay, leaving it discretionary with the Post Office Department either to accept the bid for the weekly service throughout the year, as aforesaid, for said sum of $1,460, or to accept it with the extra trips during the said four months for the sum of $1,960. But soon after said bids were made and mailed to the Post Office Department, said Shepherd & Caldwell became satisfied that they had made a mistake in their estimate for carrying the mail for the said three extra trips during said four months, on each of the routes aforesaid, to the extent of at least $700 a year on the former route and $300 a year on the latter route, or $1,000 per year on the two routes, making some $4,000 of an under estimate for the four years, from the 1st of July, 1854, embraced by the proposals-a mistake which, if their bid for the three additional trips for the said four months were accepted, and they held by the department to perform the same, would be ruinous to them, limited as were their means and small as was the margin left for any profit, independently of the three additional trips during the winter. They at once notified the Post Office Department of said error against themselves, by letter and through the then member of Congress from their district, the Hon. Alfred W. Lamb, and requested to be allowed to withdraw so much of their said bids as related to the three additional or extra trips aforesaid; that the same was made purely by mistake, and that they could not possibly carry the mail at that rate for the three extra or additional trips. This notice and request was laid before the Post Office Department at least ten days before the opening and examination of the bids. After this, and on the opening and examination of said bids, said Shepherd & Caldwell were notified that their bids for tri-weekly service on said two routes were accepted; and the postmaster at St. Charles was notified that the said bid of Shepherd & Caldwell had been accepted for tri-weekly service on said first-named route; that said Shepherd & Caldwell accordingly filled their bonds with satisfactory security (as required by the instructions of the department) for the tri-weekly service on each of said routes throughout the year, and forwarded and had them filed in the archives of the Post Office Department. This was done in accordance with their said notice to the department, before the said day of letting, and by the request of the department, which was sent along with the bonds in blank, and in accordance with the notice of the department to them in relation to route No. 8S49, and the notice of the department to the postmaster at St. Charles and their printed schedule for the route, made out after the letting, and in accordance with the form of the bond sent to them in blank for route No. 8818, all of which was for tri-weekly service alone. Accordingly, on the first of July, 1854, they commenced to carry the mail on each of said routes, and continued to carry it, according to the stipulations of their said bonds, and apprehended no further difficulty, as it appears, on the score of the said erroneous proposal for the three-times-a-week extra trips, till they received, in October, 1854, a letter from the Post Office Department, bearing date October 6, 1854, stating that the department would require them to perform the three extra trips during said four months, on both sail routes, for which they would be paid the sums specified in the addition to their original bids sent on; and further stating, that "the clerk employed in drawing the contracts had omitted the additional service, during the suspension of navigation, proposed by them, and accepted by the Postmaster General ia connexion with, and at the same time with, their bids for the regular service. And that, under these circumstances, new contracts, embracing the |