TABLE OF CONTENTS. Page. Of the PENSION SYSTEM, its origin and development......... Review of the official compilation of the Pension Laws....... The general policy of the Pension and Bounty Land system elucidated. 2. Invalids since the Revolution...... Of Provisions for SICK and DISABLED SEAMEN, by the institution of several 2. Navy Pension Fund........... 3. Privateer Pension Fund...... Act concerning Letters of Marque, &c........ Management of the aforesaid funds with a view to Pensions, &c............... Of GRATUITOUS PENSIONS, under several heads....... 1. To certain officers of the army and navy......... 2. To individuals, by special acts..... 3. To widows and orphans........ Of BOUNTY LANDS, under several heads......... 1. For Revolutionary services.................... XVIII Of the PUBLIC DEBT, (Revolutionary)-provided for by commutation cer- XXXVII Of MILITARY and NAVAL ROLLS, in different offices, for verification of ser- XXXIX Of VIRGINIA HALF PAY and COMMUTATION CLAIMS......... Opinions of Attorneys General on said claims, not introduced in Ap- Of laws and resolutions on pensions....... Resolutions of the old Congress on pensions-[1] to [20].......... Of military pension laws, with occasional navy pension, and bounty land pro- Of navy pension laws, proper-including marines, privateersmen, and the revenue cutter service, with abstracts of the same-[224] to [297]....... [For bounty land acts of 1853 and 1854, see SUPPLEMENT]............................................ Of regulations, forms, and instructions of Secretaries and Commissioners of Pensions, relating to pensions and bounty lands-under several heads.......... 601 I. Regulations and forms for granting military and navy pensions............. II. Regulations for granting pensions to Cherokee Warriors.... III. Regulations and forms for granting navy pensions proper.. VI. Forms for certificates withheld; renewal of lost certificates; increase of pen- sions; transfer of payment of, to other agencies; and periodical list of pen- VII. Instructions and forms for pension agents respecting their disbursements... 642 VIII and IX. Regulations, forms and instructions respecting bounty land claims, under various acts, from the revolution to the present time-form of warrants, their assignment, and location, &c., from page 651 to......... XI. Official omissions of declarations for invalid pensioners supplied........ XII. Tables of army and navy pay, at different periods from the revolution to [2]. Act 22d February, 1845, limiting widows' pensions...... [3]. Act 5th August, 1854, explaining widows' right to bounty land............... 779 10 CONTAINING THE OPINIONS OF ATTORNEYS GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, WITH THE DECISIONS, RULES, AND REGULATIONS, ADOPTED BY DIFFERENT SECRETARIES, RELATIVE TO THE EXECUTION OF THOSE LAWS. INTRODUCTION. Ir is no less important to understand the general policy of legislation on pensions and land bounties, than it is necessary to be acquainted with the particular provisions of every law relating to those equitable and munificent institutions, in order to execute the latter with a due regard to the former; and to aid in maintaining a consistency with that policy, in all instances of special legislation, for carrying the same into practice. Otherwise, contrarieties would be apt to occur, both in the legislation and in the execution of the laws, that might give rise to discontents among those intended to be benefited by that policy, and blur the beautiful design of the system itself. Nor is it scarcely practicable for the most astute to discover all the beautiful features of the system, or detect the blemishes that insinuate themselves, unobserved, into the laws, as well as the executive practice in executing their provisions. It is sanguinely believed that all difficulty in these two important respects might be obviated by a general survey of that policy, whilst inspecting and executing the specific provisions of each of those laws, where any dubious phraseology may occur. But neither can the spirit of this general policy, nor the details of special legislation, be duly appreciated, except by collating and bringing together all those enactments, with a classified analysis of them all, and a particular examination of the provisions of each. To obtain these necessary lights to consistent legislation and accurate execution of the laws, every one who has turned his attention to the subject knows that scarcely the first step has yet been taken with any adequate approach to satisfaction. This desirable object struck the attention of the Hon. Lewis Cass, then Secretary of War, when he ordered a compilation of the Pension Laws in 1833, as then executed at the War Department. But a material deficiency existed in that compilation, owing to the fact that the navy pension and the bounty land laws were not embraced in it—the former being then executed at the Navy Department, and the latter in a separate Bureau of the War Department. These exceptions to the homogeneous character of the pension system were pointed out in that compilation as demanding correction; and they were corrected, at intervals, by legal provisions transferring those duties to the Pension Office. That the reader may judge how near an approach was then made, under all disadvantages, to exhibit the general policy of the government in this regard, the Introduction to that edition of the pension laws is here subjoined, with appropriate interlineations in brackets, as follows: "Besides the ordinary pay, clothing, and rations, prescribed by law as a compensation for naval and military services, on the principle of wages or monthly stipend, the gratitude of Government has dictated the institution of other remunerations for the casualties of wounds, disabilities and indigence, by way of pension: and in many instances it has superadded, as an encouragement for extra protraction of service, a continuance of pay or half pay, for limited periods or for life: together with an inheritance of half pay for a term of years to the widows and orphans of those who are killed or die of wounds received in the service: which provisions are also viewed in the light of pensions. "Legislative provisions for pensions are sometimes made by promissory resolves, in anticipation of the contingencies on which they are based, by way of encouraging the enterprise of enlistments, continued service, and personal daring. It is remarkable, |