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viii

ry, 1867, will appear by the following statement carefully
made up from the certified rolls, returned to this Department:

For final bounty to 720 white Volunteers,

averaged at $65.................... $46,800 00

" full bounty to 190 white Volunteers, at

$300............................. 57,000 00

" final bounty to 1220 colored Volunteers,

at $50............................ 61,000 00

" full bounty to 282 'colored Volunteers,

(free or slave,) averaged at $250..... 70,500 00
" full bounty to 1650 former slaves, at

$100............................. 165,000 00

'' Masters' claims, 389 at f 100.......... 38,900 00

$439,200 00
Estimated for rolls not yet returned,....... 20,800 00

Total amount of claims outstanding and un-
paid on the 1st January, 1867........... $460,000 00

This aggregate will be largely reduced by the forfeiture of
the right of some of the Volunteers to bounty, through deser-
tion, and by the death of others without heirs, entitled under
the law.

But few of the white Volunteers included in the aforegoing
statement, although they were discharged from service more
than eighteen months ago, have filed claims to bounty. The
fact is the same with reference to some of the colored regi-
ments. If these Volunteers had not forfeited their right to
bounty, or being dead, if there is any relative entitled, it is
.more than probable that application for the same would have
been made long since.

The opinion is therefore confidently entertained, that the
entire present liabilities of the State on this account, may be
discharged with less than $350,000. The receipts into the
Treasury during the current fiscal year from ordinary sources
of revenue, will be fully adequate to the payment of this
amount, as well as to the settlement of ordinary demands
against the Treasury.

There may also be deducted from this estimate, the balance
of more than $50,000 remaining in the hands of Bounty and
County Commissioners, and the City Register of Baltimore,
which will be returned to the Treasury. The Commissioners of
Queen Anne's county have already paid in $5,290, a portion
of the excess in their hands.

The attention of the General Assembly is respectfully called
to the necessity for some legislation providing for a settle-
ment with these officers.