pensions or bounty lands, and clearly designate the service claimed: and inquiries respecting claims transmitted must be made in writing. 2. Various decisions detailed in relation to bounty lands under the act of September 28th, 1850; and the proper course to be pursued in preparing and presenting those claims, pointed out, and recapitulated, according to established forms, &c.

PENSION OFFICE, January, 1851.

SIR: In reply to your inquiry, I send this circular to you. If you will read it carefully, you will find that it contains not only an answer to your letter, but other matter which may be of importance to you in the transaction of business with this office. It has been found wholly impracticable to prepare written answers to the numerous letters addressed to this office within a few months past. This paper has therefore been drawn up with great care to facilitate the business of the office, and to relieve from anxiety the many persons who desire information relative to pensions and bounty lands.

All claims are taken up in the order in which they are received here. Reports, in writing, are made to the persons who transmit or present the papers. But as claimants are often uneasy, if their claims are not immediately attended to, it very frequently happens that in a short time after the papers are sent to the Department letters are sent to urge immediate attention. This course, so far from expediting an investigation, retards it, because it increases the labors of those who are employed here, and, in numerous instances, occasions mistakes, and consequently dissatisfaction to the parties concerned. It is, therefore, respectfully requested that every applicant will wait a reasonable time before making application to know what has been done in relation to his or her claim. But should any reason exist for supposing that unnecessary delay has taken place, or that the papers have been lost or destroyed, and the claimant, or the attorney employed, should deem it proper to ask information, this letter will be sent with a brief answer written on the margin.

The rules of this Department forbid my giving such information respecting military service as is frequently sought. If, in any case, however, information is asked as to the service of a particular individual, for the purpose of substantiating a claim not to be presented to the executive offices at the seat of Government, and the regiment, company, and line to which the claimant belonged, be clearly set forth, as well as the rank which he held, the necessary proof will be furnished, if within the reach of the Department, and not incompatible with the regulations. In some cases, applicants for pensions before transmitting their papers, ask for information in order to assist them in preparing their claims. In such cases information is generally withheld, for very obvious reasons. But there may be a few cases in which information may be afforded to claimants before they make an effort to perfect their claims. Some persons may be so situated that they may find it impracticable to procure the testimony of any

living witness, and may resort to the Department for information. If such persons should seek information, they must make a declaration under oath, and so describe the service performed, as to enable the Department to effect the necessary search of the rolls, books, or records of this office, when all proper aid will be afforded them in bringing their claims to a due investigation, and they will be informed whether or not the office contains such proof as will tend to establish their claims; but the answer conveying such information will not specify the service which the rolls may contain. Suppositious cases are very often stated to this office, and information asked as to the construction of certain acts, when no benefit whatever can be derived to any one from answers to such inquiries. To put a stop to such unnecessary correspondence, it is sufficient to say, that it is out of our power to bestow time in answering inquiries of this nature. But where an individual has a claim of a doubtful character, and first wishes information for his guidance, before subjecting himself to the expense of taking evidence, if the individual be named, and all the facts connected with the case be clearly set forth, the party will be informed as to the course most advisable to pursue. If we think that the case is provided for, we send forms and rules of evidence. If the case is not provided for, we send this letter with an answer to that effect on the margin.

Much solicitude is often manifested by pensioners when they remove from the limits of one agency to those of another, and apply to have a change in the place of payment. On their making proper application, according to the prescribed rules, steps are taken to make the necessary arrangements for a transfer. It cannot, however, be immediately effected, because we have to wait, in most cases, till we can hear from distant agents, from whom information is derived as to the time to which the pensioner was last paid.

In every case where an inquiry is made relative to claims sent here by mail, or deposited by persons at the seat of Government, particular care should be taken to describe the case. The name of the individual who claims must be given; and, if a widow, the name of her husband also; the service the officer or soldier performed-whether in the army, navy, or militia, and whether for pension or land-whether during the revolutionary war, the war of 1812, or the Mexican war, as also the regiment and company to which the officer or soldier belonged. This is indispensably necessary in all cases, in order to enable us to lay our hands on particular cases inquired for. If in neither of those wars, the particular period when the service was performed must be mentioned. The name of the person who sent the papers to the Pension Office, the time when they were sent, and from what particular post office, must also be given.

Papers in support of claims to land must invariably be drawn

up separately from all other claims, and each set of papers must be complete in itself. The neglect of claimants and their agents to observe this rule has been productive of great inconvenience and loss of time to the parties interested, as well as to the office. This rule applies with equal force to papers in support of pension claims.

Persons frequently transmit papers to this office without any letter showing by whom they are sent. All such papers will hereafter be placed on our files, and there remain until the necessary inquiries be made by the parties concerned. This rule is found to be necessary to prevent frauds as well as mistakes. All correspondents are requested to be particular in writing their names legibly, and to give the name of the post office or post town to which they wish answers to be addressed.

In answer to various inquiries relative to the Bounty Land Act of September 28, 1850, I have to inform you: 1. That where the service has been rendered by a substitute, he is the person entitled to the benefit of the law, and not his employer. 2. That the widow of a soldier who has rendered the service required by the law, is entitled to bounty land, provided she was a widow at the passage of the law, although she may have been married several times; or although her marriage to the officer or soldier may have taken place after he left the service; but if not a widow when the law passed, the benefit of the act inures to the minor children of the deceased soldier. 3. That no person who has received, or is entitled to bounty land under a prior law, is entitled to the benefit of the act of 28th September, 1850. 4. That no soldier is entitled to more than one warrant under this act, although he may have served several terms; but where a soldier has served several terms, he will receive a warrant for the greatest quantity of land to which the several terms consolidated, will entitle him. 5. In all cases where any portion of the marine corps in the several wars referred to, in the act of the 28th September, 1850, were embodied with the army in the field, and performed service as a portion of the line of the army, the marines who so served, if they served the time required by law, and were honorably discharged, are entitled to land. No seaman, nor any other person belonging to the navy proper, is entitled to land. And no teamster or artificer is entitled to land. Persons who were engaged in the removal of the Cherokees from Georgia, in 1836, or in removing Indians at any time, are not entitled to land.

Every one who has any claim for land under the act of September 28, 1850, must first make a declaration before any examination of rolls can be made. The printed forms will direct every claimant how to proceed. The applicant must make the affidavit according to the best of his or her recollection or belief. Clerks cannot prepare from the rolls, any certificates of service before

the declaration is filed; nor can answers be given to letters merely asking for information as to service. In no case can a muster roll be sent from the Department. If the soldier's discharge is lost, or if he had none, the fact must be stated under oath. No one is considered in service unless he left his home under a requisition of the Government, and served in field or garrison.

When an oath is administered by a notary public no certificate from the clerk of a court, as to his official character and signature, is necessary, provided he will fix the notarial seal, and that seal has a device or inscription, which will distinguish it from any other seal.

If a soldier who was in the service at any time between 1790 and 1812, and has no discharge, he must prove his service by credible witnesses, when he applies for land.

All inquiries as to the location of a land warrant, must be addressed to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, Washington city.

This office has no control over a warrant after it has been issued according to law. If the warrantee then dies, it must be disposed of according to the laws of the State in which the warrantee resided.

This Department does not appoint any one to act as an agent or attorney, either in preparing or presenting papers in support of claims against the Government. JAMES E. HEATH, Commissioner of Pensions.

[5.]

1. A power of attorney, legally executed, is essential to authorize an agent to request an inspection of a claim assumed to be placed under his charge. 2. And the granting of such request, or the furnishing an abstract of the papers, will be at the discretion of the Commissioner. 3. Only two re-examinations of claims that have been adjudicated, can be permitted, without the production of additional evidence. 4. Cases finally adjudicated, cannot be re-opened, except on proof of error, and the production of additional evidence. 5. Appeals are admissible within six months. 6. And no application for a re-hearing will be entertained after the lapse of two years.

PENSION OFFICE, April 18, 1851. The following rules and regulations, approved by the Secretary of the Interior, will be observed in the settlement of pension claims against the Government:

1. An agent or attorney asking to examine papers filed in any pension claim, or for the reconsideration of a claim heretofore adjudicated, must produce a power of attorney giving him the necessary authority to act as agent of the claim, which power of attorney must be acknowledged before a justice of the peace or other person qualified to take acknowledgments or administer oaths, and must be certified under a recognised official seal. The party moreover executing such power must have taken an oath

that he or she is directly interested as one of the claimants, and a certificate to that effect must accompany the power.

2. On the presentation of such authority, the Commissioner will, in his discretion, furnish an abstract of the proofs appearing in the papers filed, or permit a personal inspection of such papers.

3. Upon the presentation of the power, as required in the first rule, if it appear that the original party performing the alleged service, or his widow, is the applicant for the reconsideration of a claim heretofore adjudicated, such claim may be re-examined as a matter of right, but there shall not be more than two re-examinations without the production of further material evidence.

4. In other cases than those of the person performing service, or his widow, as prescribed in the 3d rule next preceding, no pension case which has been finally adjudicated shall be reopened, unless on the production of satisfactory proof that the adjudication was erroneous, accompanied by an affidavit of the party applying therefor, showing that such proof has been discovered since the adjudication was made.

5. Appeals may be taken from the decisions of the Commissioner of Pensions within six months from the time the decision is made and communicated to the party or his agent.

6. No application for a rehearing will be entertained after the expiration of two years from the final adjudication of a claim and notice thereof to the applicant or his agent. After that time the party will be left to seek redress by an appeal to Congress.

J. E. HEATH, Commissioner of Pensions.

[6.]

Appeals from the Commissioner of Pensions to the Secretary of the Interior, must be made in writing, stating the grounds of appeal-whether on error of construction of law, or of evidence; and on those grounds only will the appeal be entertained.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, February 6, 1852.

Whereas, serious difficulties and delays have arisen in the transaction of the business of the Pension Office, from the multiplicity of indiscriminate and vague appeals from its decisions, without stating the particular grounds of dissent from such decisions: Therefore, in order to facilitate the business of the office, and ensure a speedy determination of all cases therein, it has been deemed proper to adopt the following regulation:

Any person desiring to take an appeal from a decision of the Pension Office, shall address the application to the Secretary of the Interior, and will be required to state the precise grounds on which the appeal is based; whether the errors alleged be in the *See also a note at the beginning of this Appendix, (III.)