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SEC. 2. That the widows of all officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates of the revolutionary army, who were married subsequent to January, anno Domini eighteen hundred, shall be entitled to a pension in the same manner as those who were married before that date.

[Approved, February 3, 1853.]

CHAPTER 81.-Approved, February 26, 1853.-Vol. 9, p. 170.

An Act to prevent frauds upon the treasury of the United States.

That all transfers and assignments hereafter made of any claim upon the United States, or any part or share thereof, or interest therein, whether absolute or conditional, and whatever may be the consideration therefor, and all powers of attorney, orders, or other authorities for receiving payment of any such claim, or any part or share thereof, shall be absolutely null and void, unless the same shall be freely made and executed in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses, after the allowance of such claim, the ascertainment of the amount due, and the issuing of a warrant for the payment thereof.

SEC. 2. That any officer of the United States, or person holding any place of trust or profit, or discharging any official function under, or in connection with, any executive department of the government of the United States, or under the senate or house of representatives of the United States, who, after the passage of this act, shall act as an agent or attorney for prosecuting any claim against the United States, or shall in any manner, or by any means, otherwise than in the discharge of his proper official duties, aid or assist in the prosecution or support of any such claim or claims, or shall receive any gratuity, or any share of or interest in any claim, from any claimant

The Act for the relief of Brevet Brigadier-General Bennett Riley, and to enable him to settle his accounts with the United States, chap. 58, 3 February, 1853, vol. 10, p. 154, extended to him the provisions of the act of 1849, chap. 126, and allowed him a commission of 1 per cent., but, being a private act, is not inserted here.

When a clerk or other officer of the United States shall be sent away from his place of business as a witness for the Government, either with or without papers or books, his salary shall continue; his necessary expenses, stated in items and sworn to, in going, returning, and attendance on the court, shall be audited and paid; but no mileage nor other compensation shall in any case be allowed: sec. 3, chap. 80, 26 February, 1853.

against the United States, with intent to aid or assist, or in consideration of having aided or assisted, in the prosecution of such claim, shall be liable to indictment, as for a misdemeanor, in any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, and, on conviction, shall pay a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or suffer imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding one year, or both, as the court in its discretion shall adjudge.

SEC. 7. That the provisions of this act, and of the act of July twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and forty-six,' entitled "An act in relation to the payment of claims," shall apply and extend to all claims against the United States, whether allowed by special acts of Congress, or arising under general laws or treaties, or in any other manner whatever.

[Approved, February 26, 1853.]

[By chap. 97, 3 March, 1853, vol. 10, p. 189, the annual compensation of the secretary of war was made eight thousand dollars.]

CHAPTER 98.-Approved, March 3, 1853.-Vol. 10, p. 214.

An Act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.

For pay of the army, &c. Provided, That the salary of the military storekeepers of the ordnance department in Oregon, California, and New Mexico shall hereafter be $1250 per annum.2

*

SEC. 2. * * Proviso, That, from and after the 1st day of July next, the act of 23 August, 1842,3 be so modified that the President may, if in his opinion the public interest demands it, place over any of the armories a superintendent who does not belong to the army; and, in order to enable him to decide to his satisfaction, he is hereby authorized to cause the necessary and proper inquiries to be instituted, through the medium of a commission of civilians and military men, with a view of ascertaining which of the two systems is the more economical, efficient, and safe for the managements of the public armories, that formerly existing under the superintendence of civil officers, or that now existing under the superintendence of officers of the ordnance department; and that the secretary of war be, and he is hereby, authorized to abolish such of the arsenals of the United States as in his judgment may be useless or unnecessary.

1 Chap. 66.

3 Chap. 186, sec. 2.

2 Increased $240 by chap. 55, 21 Feb. 1854.

4 See chap. 267, sec. 1, 5 August, 1854.

SEC. 5. That the provisions of the seventh section of the act approved August 31, 1852, entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending the 30th day of June, 1853," shall be construed to extend to all persons who were engaged as receivers of military contributions in Mexico or California during the war with Mexico.

SEC. 6. That the provisions of the first section of the act entitled “An act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending the 30th June, 1851," approved September 28, 1850, granting extra pay to the officers and enlisted men of the army serving in Oregon and California, be extended to the officers and men of the two companies of regiment of mounted riflemen that garrisoned the post of Fort Laramie, Oregon route, during the time they occupied said post; and the amount which may be found due them under this act shall be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.3

SEC. 9. That whenever any lieutenant of the corps of engineers, corps of topographical engineers, or ordnance corps, shall have served fourteen years' continuous service as lieutenant, he shall be promoted to the rank of captain: Provided, That the whole number of officers in either of said corps shall not be increased beyond the number now fixed by law: And provided, further, That no officer shall be promoted before those who rank him in his corps.

SEC. 10. That the secretary of war be, and he is hereby, authorized, under the direction of the President of the United States, to employ such portion of the corps of topographical engineers, and such other persons as he may deem necessary, to make such explorations and surveys as he may deem advisable, to ascertain the most practicable and economical route for a railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean, and that the sum of $150,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be, and the same is hereby, appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to defray the expense of such explorations and surveys.

SEC. 11. That the engineers and other persons employed in said explorations and surveys shall be organized in as many distinct corps as there are routes to be surveyed, and their several reports shall be laid before Congress on or before the first Monday in February, 1854.

[SEC. 14. $10,000 appropriated for purchase of a site for the Western Military Asylum.]

[Approved, March 3, 1853.]

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3 Same also extended to troops composing the garrison at same fort during same period, by chap. 169, 1855, sec. 5; and also to escort of Mexican boundary commission while so engaged.

4 The reports of these several surveys have been published by Congress in twelve or more volumes quarto, and are highly and deservedly valued.

CHAPTER 104.-Approved, March 3, 1853.-Vol. 10, p. 227.

An Act making appropriations for the current and contingent expenses of the Indian department, &c. for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and fifty-four.

SEC. 4. That if any officer who is or may hereafter be charged with the payment of any of the appropriations made by this or any other act of Congress, shall pay to any clerk or other employee of the United States a sum less than that provided by law, and require such employee to receipt or give a voucher for an amount greater than that actually paid to and received by him, such officer thus acting shall be deemed guilty of embezzlement, shall be fined in a sum double the amount so withheld from any employee of government, and shall be imprisoned for the term of two years, and may be prosecuted and punished in any court of the United States having jurisdiction for the trial of such offences in the district where such offence shall be committed.

By chapter 54, May 10, 1854, vol. 10, p. 276, the compensation of master of the sword (at the Military Academy, West Point) was made twelve hundred dollars per annum.1

By chapter 60, May 31, 1854, vol. 10, p. 294, $5996.61 appropriated for the compensation and expenses of civilians and military men appointed under the provisions of the first section of the act of 3 March, 1853, chap. 98, to determine matters connected with the management of the national armories. Provided, That in the payment of such officers of the army as may have served on that commission, their pay as such officers shall be deducted.

1 $800 before; and made $1500 by act 16 February, 1857, chap. 45.

The professors at West Point now receive $2240 per annum, and the assistant professors and instructor of cavalry and artillery tactics receive the pay, &c. of captains of cavalry; the teacher of music, $60 per month, and cadets, $30 per month.

CHAPTER 247.-Approved, August 4, 1854.-Vol. 10, p. 575.

An Act to increase the pay of the rank and file of [the] army, and to encourage enlist

ments.

2. Bounty for re-enlistments. 3. Bounty for meritorious soldiers, in the Mexican war, who re-enlist. 4. Non-commissioned officers recommended for promotion under act of 1847, chap. 61, sec. 17. Bounty to. 5. Promotion of non-commissioned officers. 6. Allowance for fatigue duty.

That the pay of the non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates' of the army of the United States shall be increased at the rate of $4 per month, and to continue for the term of three years from and after the 1st day of January next, and until otherwise fixed by law.

SEC. 2. That every soldier who, having been honorably discharged from the service of the United States, shall, within one month thereafter, re-enlist, shall be entitled to two dollars per month, in addition to the ordinary pay of his grade, for the first period of five years after the expiration of his previous enlistment, and a further sum of one dollar per month for each successive period of five years, so long as he shall remain continuously in the army; and that soldiers now in the army, who have served one or more enlistments, and been honorably discharged, shall be entitled to the benefits herein provided for a second enlistment.

SEC. 3. That soldiers who served in the war with Mexico, and received a certificate of merit for distinguished services, as well those now in the army as those that may hereafter enlist, shall receive the two dollars per month to which that certificate would have entitled them had they remained continuously in the service.

SEC. 4. That non-commissioned officers who, under the authority of the seventeenth section of the act approved March third, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, were recommended for promotion by brevet to the lowest grade of commissioned officer, but did not receive the benefit of that provision, shall be entitled, under the condition recited in the foregoing section, to the additional pay authorized to be given to such privates as received certificates of merit.

1 This was made to embrace ordnance men, by 3 March, 1857, chap. 106, sec. 8; and the pay of privates was made $13 a month by chap. 63, sec. 1, 6 August, 1861.

2 Chap. 61, sec. 17.

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