This corruption not only affected all branches of the Civil Service, especially the War and the Navy and the Treasury, but poisoned legislation itself.
They had to deal with claims amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, some wholly fraudulent, some grossly exaggerated and some entirely just.

Some of these belonged to persons who had contracts with the Government for constructing and supplying a powerful Navy, or for supplies to the Army.

There were demands still larger in amount from the inhabitants of the territory which had been the theatre of the War.

This class of claims was wholly new in the history of our own country.
There were few precedents for dealing with them in the experience of other countries, and the Law of Nations and the law of war furnished imperfect guides.
Men wounded or disabled in the Military or Naval Service, and their widows and orphans, were to be provided for by a liberal pension system.
These were a part only of the questions that must be studied and understood, under the gravest personal responsibility by every member of either House of Congress.

Under the Administration of Grant and those that succeeded, of course, there was a constant struggle on the part of the party in power to keep in power and on the part of its opponent to get power.