REVOLUTIONARY PENSIONS,

ACT OF JUNE 7, 1832.

The act of 7th June, 1832, provides pensions for the officers and soldiers of the continental line, (not embraced in the preceding acts of 18th March, 1818, and 15th May, 1828,) the State troops, Indian spies, volunteers and militia, and the officers, seamen, and marines of the navy, who served a period of six months, in one or more terms, in the war of the revolution.

All who served two years, are entitled to full pay, according to their rank, not to exceed a captain's pay. All who served less than two years, and not less than six months, are entitled to an annuity proportioned to the term of service. None are entitled whose service, in the aggregate, was less than six months. In case the officer or soldier served in different grades, he is entitled to the benefit of such grades in the adjustment of his pension. Foreign officers are not entitled.

It is under this act that the services of the volunteers and militia are recognized, and under which most of the claims now pending in the Pension Office, are being prosecuted. There have been very many decisions, relative to the operation of this act, issued by proper authority: all of which, deemed in any manner important to a proper understanding of the practice of the office, and the rights of parties claiming, are inserted, following the law.

As it is the desire of the publisher, that his work may be of practical benefit to parties interested, it is not deemed necessary to remark upon the various decisions, but to invite attention to them, and follow them with such forms of declaration, suggestions as to proof of service, and instructions how to proceed, as will enable claimants to draw up the papers necessary to form their claims, and to prosecute the same in the Pension Office to an adjustment.

AN ACT supplementary to the “ Act for the relief of certain survivnig officers and soldiers of the revolution."

APPROVED, JUNE 7, 1832. Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That each of the surviving officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians, soldiers, and Indian spies, who shall have served in the continental line, or State troops, volunteers or militia, at one or more terms, a period of two years, during the war of the revolution, and who are not entitled to any benefit under the act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution, passed the fifteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and twenty-eight, be authorized to receive, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, the amount of his full pay in the said line, according to his rank, but not exceeding in any case the pay of a captain in the said line; such pay to commence from the fourth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, and shall continue during his natural life ; and that any such officer, non-commissioned officer, musician, or private, as aforesaid, who shall have served in the continental line, State troops, volunteers, or militia, a term or terms, in the whole less than the above period, but not less than six months, shall be authorized to receive out of any unappropriated money in the treasury, during his natural life, each according to his term of service, an amount bearing such proportion to the annuity granted to the same rank for the service of two years, as his term of service did to the term aforesaid ; to commence from the fourth day of March, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That no person, receiving any annuity or pension under any law of the United States providing for revolutionary officers and soldiers, shall be entitled to the benefits of this act, unless he shall first relinquish his further claim to such pension ; and in all payments under this act, the amount which may have been received under any other act, as aforesaid, since the date at which the payments under this act shall commence, shall first be deducted from such payment.

Sec. 3. And be it further cnacted, That the pay allowed by this act shall, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, be paid to the officer, non-commissioned officer, musician, or private entitled thereto, or his or their authorized attorney, at such places and times as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct, and that no foreign officer shall be entitled to said pay, nor shall any officer, non-commissioned officer, musician, or private, receive the same until he furnish the said Secretary satisfactory evidence that he is entitled to the same, in conformity to the provisions of this act: and the pay hereby allowed shall not be in any way transferable or liable to attachment, levy, or seizure, by any legal process whatever, but shall inure wholly to the personal benefit of the officer, non-commissioned officer, musician, or soldier entitled to the same.

SEC. 4 And be it further enacted, That so much of the said pay as accrued before the approval of this act, shall be paid to the person

entitled to the same as soon as may be, in the manner and under the provisions above mentioned ; and the pay which shall accrue thereafter, shall be paid semi-annually, in the manner above directed; and, in case of the death of any person embraced by the provisions of this act, or of the act to which it is supplementary, during the period intervening between the semi-annual payments directed to be made by said acts, the proportionate amount of pay which shall accrue between the last preceding semi-annual payment and the death of such person, shall be paid to his widow, or if he leave no widow to his children.

Sec. 5. And be it further enacted, That the officers, noncommissioned officers, mariners, or marines, who served for a like term in the naval service, during the revolutionary war, shall be entitled to the benefits of this act, in the same manner as is provided for the officers and soldiers of the army of the revolution.

The second section of the act was amended by act of February 19th, 1833, so that an invalid pensioner need not on applying for the benefit of this act, relinquish his pension, nor should payments under any other act be deducted from payments under that of 7th June, 1832, viz:

AN ACT to amend an act entitled " An act supplementary to an act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution.”

APPROVED, FEBRUARY 19, 1933.

Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatires of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the second section of the act entitled "An act supplementary to the act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution,” approved the 7th day of June, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, shall not be construed to embrace invalid pensioners; and that the pensions of invalid soldiers shall not be deducted from the amount receivable by them under the said act.

The act of 7th June, 1832, was further amended so as to allow as service, periods of imprisonment, and by a subsequent decision, the time during which an officer or soldier was on parole, is also allowed:

Resolution in relation to the execution of an act supplementary to the act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution.

APPROVED, JULY 14, 1832. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, in the execution of the act supplementary to the act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution, approved June seventh, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, the time of imprisonment as a prisoner of war shall be taken and computed as a part of the period of service.

A Resolution in relation to the execution of the act supplementary to the "Act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution."

APPROVED, MARCH 2, 1833. Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatires of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, in the execution of the act supplementary to the “Act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution," approved June seventh, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, wherever it shall be made to appear that any applicant for a pension under said act entered the army of the revolution, in pursuance of a contract with the Government made previous to the eleventh day of April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, and continued in service until after that period, it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to compute the period of any such applicant's service, from the time he then entered the army, and until the date of the definitive treaty of peace, and to allow him a pension accordingly.

PRIVATEERSMEX.-Persons who served on board of privateers are not embraced in the above act. The language of the act applies to those, who were in the immediate service of the government, and formed a part of the public naval force.- Opinion Atty. Genl., July 21, 1832.

FOREIGN OFFICERS.—The first section of the act of 7th June, 1832, embraces all surviving officers, musicians, soldiers, and Indian spies, who served in the continental line, state troops, volunteers and militia, irrespective of their places of residence, except foreigners who held commissions in the American service.Opinion Atty. Geni., Oct. 27, 1832.

RANK OR GRADES OF SERVICE.-In case an applicant has served in different grades for a time sufficient to entitle him to a pension, the pension must be graduated by the respective terms of service in each grade, commencing with the highest. Opinion Atty. Genl., Oct. 27, 1832.

FORMER PENSION.-The Pension Act of 1832 does not exclude those who may have received pensions under other acts of Congress, where the provisions of this act are more favorable to their interest: thus, a pensioner under the act of 1828 may relinquish the benefits of that act and claim under this.—Opinion of Atty. Genl. as follows:

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, May 18, 1833.

SIR: In reply to your letter of the 16th instant, I have the honor to state that, by a literal construction of the first section of the act of 1832, every officer who was entitled to a pension under the act of May 15, 1828, would be excluded from a pension under the act of 1832; and if such a construction were adopted, an officer who had served to the end of the war as ensign, and who, previously or during the time that he was ensign, filled the office of commissary, would be excluded from a pension under the last mentioned law.

But, looking at the whole act, it appears that those who were on the pension list of 1828 were not excluded on the ground that their claims were less meritorious than those of others; but they were excluded because, being entitled under the act of 1828 to as much as they could receive under the act of 1832, it was deemed useless to make the same provisions over again in their favor. The 3d section of the law shows that it was not designed to exclude any of those who had persions under other acts of Congress were the provisions of the act of 1832 were more favorable to their interests. I understand that a commissary is within the act of 1832, under the construction it has received at the War Department. If the commissary, therefore, had held no rank in the line, he would be entitled to his pension, because he was not provided for by the act of 1828. Did the law intend to draw a distinction between persons who had performed the same description of service, and to give to one what was refused to another for the like service? think not: such a discrimination would have no foundation in justice. And it would, I think, be departing from the spirit and meaning of the law, to exclude one commissary from the act of 1832, because he had been an ensign; and give it to another, who had performed the same duty, but had held no rank in the line. The exclusive words in the 1st section ought to be confined to cases in which the party claims in the same character in which he is entitled under the act of 1828, and for the same description of service.

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