[ 55.]

[Laws of the U. S., Statutes at Large, vol. 9, page 563.]

No. 16. A resolution to amend a resolution approved on the tenth of August, eighteen hundred and fifty, relative to the payment of dividends or interest on war bounty scrip.

Secretary of the Treasury authorized to pay the dividend or interest due on war bounty scrip at the time of its redemption.

APPROVED, SEPTEMBER 26, 1850.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed, where the principal has been heretofore redeemed of any war bounty scrip, to pay the dividend, or dividends, or interest, due at the time of such redemption, to the person or persons who would be entitled to the same under the resolution to which this is an amendment, in case such scrip was hereafter presented for payment or redemption, or that he pay the same to the assignee, attorney, or legal representative, as the case may be.

[56.]

[Laws of the U. S., Statutes at Large, vol. 9, page 520.]

CHAP. 85. An act granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have been engaged in the military service of the United States.

1. Certain classes of persons in the military service of the United States during the war of 1812, the war with Mexico, or Indian wars, or their widows or minor children entitled to lands in proportion to certain periods of service. 2. The period during which any officer or soldier was a prisoner to the enemy to be added to his time of actual service. 3. Those entitled to land under this act to receive a certificate from the Department of the Interior for land which may be located at any land office of the United States: The widow of any officer, &c., killed in battle, to receive the benefit of this act 4. All sales, mortgages, and letters of attorney, affecting any title to land warrants, if made before the issue of said warrants, to be void.

APPROVED, SEPTEMBER 28, 1850.

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, or the widow or minor children of deceased commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, or privates, whether of regulars, volunteers, rangers, or militia, who performed military service in any regiment, company, or detachment, in the service of the United States, in the war with Great Britain, declared by the United States on the eighteenth day of June, eighteen hundred and twelve, or in any of the Indian wars since seventeen hundred and ninety, and each of the commissioned officers who were engaged in the military service of the United States in the late war with Mexico, shall be entitled to lands, as follows: Those who engaged to serve twelve months or during the war, and actually served nine months, shall receive one hun

dred and sixty acres, and those who engaged to serve six months, and actually served four months, shall receive eighty acres, and those who engaged to serve for any or an indefinite period, and actually served one month, shall receive forty acres: Provided, That wherever any officer or soldier was honorably discharged in consequence of disability in the service, before the expiration of his period of service, he shall receive the amount to which he would have been entitled if he had served the full period for which he had engaged to serve: Provided, The person so having been in service shall not receive said land, or any part thereof, if it shall appear, by the muster rolls of his regiment or corps, that he deserted, or was dishonorably discharged from service, or if he has received, or is entitled to, any military land bounty under any act of Congress heretofore passed.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the period during which any officer or soldier may have remained in captivity with the enemy shall be estimated and added to the period of his actual service, and the person so detained in captivity shall receive land under the provisions of this act in the same manner that he would be entitled in case he had entered the service for the whole term made up by the addition of the time of his captivity, and had served during such time.

Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That each commissioned and non-commissioned officer, musician, or private, for whom provision is made by the first section hereof, shall receive a certificate or warrant from the Department of the Interior for the quantity of land to which he may be entitled, and which may be located by the warrantee or his heirs-at-law, at any land office of the United States, in one body and in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, upon any of the public lands in such district then subject to private entry; and upon the return of such certificate or warrant, with evidence of the location thereof having been legally made to the General Land Office, a patent shall be issued therefor. In the event of the death of any commissioned or non-commissioned officer, musician, or private, prior or subsequent to the passage of this act, who shall have served as aforesaid, and who shall not have received bounty land for said services, a like certificate or warrant shall be issued in favor, and enure to the benefit of his widow, who shall receive one hundred and sixty acres of land in case her husband was killed in battle, but not to her heirs Provided, She is unmarried at the date of her application: Provided further, That no land warrant issued under the provisions of this act shall be laid upon any land of the United States to which there shall be a pre-emption right, or upon which there shall be an actual settlement and cultivation, except with the consent of such settler, to be satisfactorily proven to the proper land officer.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all sales, mortgages,

letters of attorney, or other instruments of writing, going to affect the title or claim to any warrant or certificate issued, or to be issued, or any land granted, or to be granted, under the provisions of this act, made or executed prior to the issue, shall be null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever; nor shall such certificate or warrant, or the land obtained thereby, be in any wise affected by, or charged with, or subject to, the payment debt or claim incurred by such officer or soldier, prior to the issuing of the patent: Provided, That the benefits of this act shall not accrue to any person who is a member of the present Congress: Provided further, That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of the General Land Office, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, to cause to be located, free of expense, any warrant which the holder may transmit to the General Land Office for that purpose in such State and land district as the said holder or warrantee may designate, and upon good farming land, so far as the same can be ascertained from the maps, plats, and field notes of the surveyor, or from any other information in the possession of the local office, and, upon the location being made as aforesaid, the Secretary shall cause a patent to be transmitted to such warrantee: And provided further, That no patent issued under this act shall be delivered upon any power of attorney or agreement dated before the passage of this act, and that all such powers of attorney or agreements be considered and treated as null and void.

[57.]

[Laws of the U. S., Statutes at Large, vol. 9, page 598.]

CHAP. 32. An act making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of Government for the year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-two, and for other purposes.

APPROVED, MARCH 3, 1851.

Surveys of Public Lands.-For surveying the public lands, in addition to the unexpended balance of former appropriations, viz: For surveying the public lands, including incidental expenses, to be appropriated to the several districts according to the exigencies of the public service, the part to be applied to the surveys required by the location and survey of private claims in Florida, to be disbursed at augmented rates, one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars: Provided, That no land bounty for military services granted by the act of twenty-eighth of September, eighteen hundred and fifty, entitled "An act granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers who have engaged in the military service of the United States," or by virtue of any other act of Congress heretofore passed, granting land bounties for military

services, shall be satisfied out of any public land not heretofore brought into market, and now subject to entry at private sale under existing laws.*

*This proviso is found ensconsed in what is familiarly called the omnibus bill "making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending the 30th June, 1852, and for other purposes," as a rider on the appropriation "for the surveys of public lands." It is not probable that it has struck the attention of many, though a very potent little proviso; for, under the restriction it imposes, the vast amount of warrants which have been and must continue to be issued under the act of September, 1850, can never be located, for want of a sufficient quantity of the public domain which has already been offered at public sale. It is probable, however, that it will be gotten over by construction, a potent little convenience, also.-EDITORS.

BOUNTY LANDS AND PENSIONS

ΤΟ

SEAFENCIBLES, FLOTILLAMEN, RANGERS, &c.*

[1.]

[Laws of the U. S., vol. 4, page 366.]

CHAP. 334. An act authorizing the President of the United States to raise certain companies of rangers for the protection of the frontier of the United States.

1. The President authorized, in case of actual or threatened invasion of any State or Territory by any Indian tribe, to raise not exceeding six companies, to act on the frontier as rangers. 2. Organization of each company of rangers. 3. When the rangers arm and equip themselves, they are each to receive one dollar per day, and seventy-five cents without a horse: Commissioned officers to receive the same pay as officers in the army. 4. Officers and privates raised pursuant to this act to be entitled to like compensation in case of disability, as officers and privates in the military establishment: The provisions of the act fixing the military peace establishment, extended to persons within the intent of this act: This act to continue in force until the 2d of August, 1813. 5. The President may appoint all the officers proper in the recess of the Senate.

APPROVED, JANUARY 2, 1812.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States, whenever he shall have satisfactory evidence of the actual or threatened invasion of any State or Territory of the United States, by any Indian tribe or tribes, be, and he is hereby, authorized to raise, either by the acceptance of volunteers or enlistment for one year, unless sooner discharged, as many companies as he may deem necessary, not exceeding six, who shall serve on foot, or be mounted, as the service in his opinion may require, shall act on the frontier as rangers, be armed,

We have thrown together these acts here, not on account of anything peculiar that is observable in their provisions, but rather to attract attention to certain anomalies in national defence, auxiliary to the naval and military service, whether on the seaboard. in the harbors, or on the frontiers of the United States. With the same view, the act of July 4th, 1836, is also inserted under this head, on account of its provisions for the widows and orphans of rangers and seafencibles, although it provides generally for widows and orphans of officers and privates of the militia and volunteers, as expressed in the act. The laws providing pensions and land bounties for the marine corps, and pensions for privateersmen in time of war, would also have been embraced in this class of anomalous auxiliaries to the regular naval and military defence of the country, except that the permanency of the one, and the ubiquity of the other, (exceeding the naval force itself in the revolutionary war, and not far short of it in the war of 1812,) seemed to entitle them both to the association that has been given them under the naval head. The rationale, however, of these technical distinctions in the nomenclature of the two branches of the national defence seem to deserve consideration in other quarters.