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28. On the death of a female pensioner, the balance of pension due at the time of her death is, by law, payable to her children then living. Vol. 10, p. 5.

29. The share due each of the surviving children of a pensioner may be paid to his or her attorney, without the production of the original certificate, or a compliance with the regulation on page 12 of the circular of Sept. 1, 1846.*—Vol. 13, p. 25.

30. When a pensioner, who is a widow, dies, leaving children, the amount of pension due at the time of her death belongs not to the executor or administrator, but to her surviving children, to be distributed among them in equal shares.-Vol. 14, p. 38; Vol. 11, p. 104.

31. Payment of arrears due a deceased pensioner, who left no widow, must always be made to surviving children, if any, and not to representatives of children who died during the lifetime of the pensioner.-Vol. 15, p. 426.

32. Children not being entitled to the pension, except upon the marriage of their mother, proof of her marriage, and its date must be filed with their claim.-Vol. 13, p. 341.

33. Where a child is by law entitled to the balance of pension due a deceased parent, the receipt of the child to the pension agent is deemed sufficient, notwithstanding such child may be a feme-covert at the time of signing the receipt.-Vol. 11, p. 65.

34. Where one of the children named in a pension certificate dies unmarried, before the certificate is received, leaving brothers and sisters, the share of pension due him may be paid to the surviving children, without taking out letters of administration.— Vol. 12, p. 147.

35. Where one of two or more children named in a pension certificate cannot be found, and a certificate from the proper court is offered as a voucher by the attorney of the other children, affirming that satisfactory evidence has been produced of the death of such child, or that he has been so long absent, without having been heard from, as to be considered legally deceased by the laws of the State where he had lived, it will be considered sufficient proof of the right of the surviving children to draw the balance of the pension due.-Vol. 12, pp. 134, 146.

36. When several children are embraced in the pension certificate, the oath of indemnity is not required from all, but only from the one who may be authorized by regular power of attorney from the others to receive the pension money due. Vol. 12, p. 87.

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37. A grandchild of a deceased pensioner cannot, in any case, claim to receive the arrears of pension due the pensioner at the time of his death. If no widow or children survive the pension

*These regulations will be found under the head of "Circulars to Pension Agents," No. [1.] ante, Appendix III.-EDS.

er, payment must be made to the executor or administrator.Vol. 14, pp. 44, 344.

38. At the death of the ward the powers of the guardian cease. The balance of pension, therefore, due a pensioner who was under guardianship at the time of his decease, is not payable to the guardian.-Vol. 8, p. 65.

39. Whenever a navy pension has been unclaimed for two years, the application of the pensioner, and all the documents in support of his claim, must be referred to the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury for investigation.-Vol. 8, p. 22.

40. On the application of a guardian for the payment of a pension due his wards, he must furnish proof that they are still living, are under twenty-one years of age, and that he still continues to be their guardian.-Vol. 8, p. 25.

41. Where an invalid pensioner's name has been continued on the rolls, and for a series of years he has not claimed the pension at the agency by producing the required proof of continued disability, and afterwards produces that proof and claims under the original certificate, payment should be made at the Treasury. But if his name was stricken from the rolls of the agency so that he could not obtain his pension by applying there with the proper proof, and is to receive it by virtue of a new order from the Department, he should be paid at the agency.-Vol. 14, p. 63.

42. The pension agent may, if he thinks proper, require the attorney to receive the money at the office of the agency, though if it were paid on receipts executed elsewhere, the voucher would not be objectionable on that account.-Vol. 14, p. 221.

43. The regulations for paying pensions require that the certificate shall be set out in the application, and that the applicant shall make oath that he is the identical person named in that certificate. Vol. 13, p. 123.

44. In cases where there is no county court seal, the pension agent will not reject vouchers for lack of the seal alone, but he will require the certificate of the clerk that there is no seal.— Dec. Sec. Compt., September, 1846.

45. A pensioner residing in Canada may execute his papers before a justice of the peace in the vicinity of his residence, if he is too feeble to cross over to the United States to have his papers authenticated.-Vol. 14, p. 125.

46. Where a pensioner neither signs nor makes his mark to Vouchers requiring his signature, the pension agent is not authorized to pay the money.-Vol. 12, p. 509.

[Pension agents, their vouchers, powers of attorney, and notaries public, &c.]

47. Pension agents may administer all the necessary oaths in the preparation of papers for the payment of pensions. By the act of 19 February, 1849, section 2, the deputies and clerks of

pension agents have the same power as the agents to administer oaths. Vol. 12, p. 219.

48. Notaries public are not considered as authorized, ex officio, to administer oaths in the preparation of pension papers, but if the general authority to administer oaths has been conferred upon them by the statute laws of the particular State in which they reside and are commissioned, the oaths taken before them would be valid and of course respected by the pension agents. It should, however, be shown that such authority exists under the law of the State.-Vol. 12, pp. 1, 83. September 9, 1847.

49. It is required by the proviso in the first section of the act of September 16, 1850, chapter 52, that the official character of a notary shall be established by other evidence than his seal and signature. The proviso in the first section applies only to cases where the notary has certified that oaths or affirmations were taken before him, and not to certificates of acknowledgment of instruments. Vol. 14, p. 111.

50. A pension agent must require that the certificates be set out in the oath of identity.-Vol. 13, p. 21.

51. The omission of the words "duly authorized by law to administer oaths" from the oath of identity or acknowledgment of the power of attorney in the pension papers, is not so important as to render it necessary to reject the papers on that account.— Vol. 11, pp. 404, 423, 437.

52. By the act of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, passed March 22, 1849, notaries are authorized to administer oaths in all cases where an oath is required in the execution of papers to draw pensions at the pension agencies or at the Treasury of the United States.-Vol. 14, p. 62.

53. That section of the pension instructions which requires a witness to pension vouchers where the pensioner or attorney of a pensioner subscribes by a mark in consequence of inability to write, applies to the oath of identity as well as to every other necessary voucher. In all cases, therefore, a witness is required, other than, and in addition to, the magistrate before whom the affidavit is made.-Vol. 12, p. 85.

54. A power of attorney to draw a pension must be dated and acknowledged on, or subsequent to, the day on which the pension becomes due. Vol. 14, pp. 228, 430; Vol. 13, pp. 123, 287, 291.

55. When interlineations and additions are made in a power of attorney to draw a pension, they must be noted by the magistrate. Vol. 6, p. 44.

56. When a pensioner receives from the pension agent a greater sum than was his due, the excess should stand to his debit, and be considered as so much paid, and no further payment shall be made until something shall become due, after deducting the sum so over paid. Vol. 8, pp. 222, 421.

57. A power of attorney to draw a pension is not vitiated in

consequence of its giving authority to draw from a time antecedent to that from which the pension is due.-Vol. 14, p. 88.

58. If the pension agent pay to the attorney more money than the pensioner authorized the attorney to receive, the pensioner is not legally accountable for the excess unless it be shown that he received such excess, or sanctioned the act of the attorney in so receiving it. Vol. 8, p. 438.

59. Pension agents are authorized to have the forms printed and furnished to pensioners and individuals employed in the preparation of vouchers for pensioners, and their charges for the expenditure may be allowed in their accounts for contingencies. -Dec. Sec. Compt., August 10, 1848.

60. NOTE-By the act of Congress approved September 16, 1850, oaths, affirmations, and acknowledgments made before notaries public are to have the same force and effect as if taken before justices of the peace, in all cases where they may be taken before justices under the laws of the United States.

Also the act of July 29, 1850, confers the same power on notaries public in the District of Columbia.

ADDENDA.

[ 1.]

BOUNTY LAND ACT OF MARCH 22, 1852.

An Act making Land Warrants assignable, and for other purposes.

1. All warrants issued, or to be issued, under any law, for military bounty land, declared to be assignable, under regulations of the General Land Office, and may be used in payments for lands sold. 2. Assignees or holders to pay to registers and receivers the same pay for locating said warrants to which they are entitled for locating public lands when sold. 3. Registers and receivers entitled to receive from the Treasury like fees for like locations already performed, with certain exceptions and qualifications. 4. Militia, volunteers, or State troops, who have been called into service, and have been paid by the United States, since the twenty-eighth June, eighteen hundred and twelve, entitled to the benefits of the act of the twenty-eighth September, eighteen hundred and fifty, upon proof of length of service therein required: The last proviso of the ninth section of act of eleventh February, eighteen hundred and forty-seven, repealed; provided, that no person having already received bounty land shall be entitled to additional bounty land by authority of this act. 5. Time consumed, at twenty miles a day, in marching to the place where mustered into service, or from the place of discharge, to be computed in the estimate of term of service that determines the quantity of land to which the claimant shall be entitled.

APPROVED, MARCH 22, 1852.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all warrants for military bounty land which have been or may hereafter be issued under any law of the United States, and all valid locations of the same, which have been or may hereafter be made, are hereby declared to be assignable, by deed or instrument of writing, made and executed after the taking effect of this act according to such form and pursuant to such regulations as may be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, so as to vest the assignee with all the rights of the original owners of the warrant or location: Provided, That any person entitled to pre-emption right to any land, shall be entitled to use any such land warrant in payment of the same, at the rate of $1 25 per acre, for the quantity of land therein specified: Provided, That the warrants which have been or may hereafter be issued in pursuance of said laws, or of this act, may be located, according to the legal subdivisions of the public lands, in one body, upon any lands of the United States, subject to private entry at the time of such location, at the minimum price: Provided further, That when said warrants shall be located on lands which are subject to entry at a greater minimum than $1 25 per acre, the locator of said warrants shall pay to the United States in cash the difference between the value of such warrants at $1 25 per acre, and the tract of land located on.

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the registers and receivers of the land offices shall hereafter be severally authorized to

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