The act of the 28th January, 1814, grants pensions to certain regiments authorized by said act, under the rules and regulations of those disabled in the regular army-see the act 28th January, 1814......... The act of the 3d March, 1815, directs the pension provisions, with the regulations from the President, for the peace establishment of the 16th March, 1802, to be adopted for the peace establishment of 1815,* as fixed by said actof 3d March, 1815.... The act of the 16th April, 1816, directs the officers and soldiers of the militia, including rangers, sea fencibles, and volunteers, disabled during the late war, to be placed on the pension roll in the same manner as those of the regular army, under rules of evidence to be prescribed by the President, with a provision that these shall not interfere with those of the 2d August, 1813-see the act 16th April, 1816........

All invalids (revolutionary or since the revolution, military or naval) now on the pension roll of the United States, or may hereafter be placed on the roll, to receive in lieu of what they are now entitled to, certain increased rates, as follows: 1st lieutenants, $17; 2d lieutenants, $15; engineers, $13; noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates, $8; the same being applicable to officers and soldiers of the militia and volunteers in the service of the United States, as well as the regular army; but the said rates not to diminish the pension of any person now entitled to a higher rate by special provision of law-act 24th April, 1816.......

The act of the 3d March, 1819, establishes new rules for ascertaining disabilities, in all cases of application for pensions to invalids, (revolutionary or since the revolution,) withholding the benefits thereof from those revolutionary pensioners who shall avail themselves of the benefits of the act of the 18th March, 1818, on account of indigence; which rules are to be complied with every two years-see the act 3d March, 1819..............

The act of the 15th June, 1832, directs that officers, commissioned and non-commissioned, and privates of the mounted volunteers, recognized for the defence of the frontiers, who may be disabled in the service, be allowed the like pensions as are granted to the military establishment of the United States -see the act, 15th June, 1832.........

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The aforesaid act 3d March, 1819, repealed by act 14th July, 1832, chap. 233.......... Invalids of the regiment of dragoons, raised for defence of the frontier, (in place of mounted rangers disbanded,) to be placed on the pension roll-act 2d March, 1833..... Invalids of volunteers and militia disabled in the service to suppress Indian hostilities in Florida, are allowed the same rates of pension as conferred on invalids of the regular army-act 19th March, 1836...... Invalids of the corps of Cherokee warriors disabled in the service of the United States in the war of 1812, are allowed the same rates of pension as are conferred on invalids of the regular army-act 14th April, 1842.............. 213 Invalids of volunteer corps disabled in prosecuting the war with Mexico, are allowed the same rates of pension as are conferred on invalids of the regular army -act 13th May, 1846......... Invalids of the ordnance corps, including artificers and laborers of said corps, disabled in prosecuting the Mexican war, are allowed pensions on the same footing as officers and others of the regular army-act 10th July, 1848..... 227 Invalid pensioners disabled in the military service (navy invalid pensioners not mentioned in the act) are entitled to the privileges of the Military Asylum at Philadelphia, on surrendering their certificates of pension for the time -act 3d March, 1851...............

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IV. Navy Invalid Pensioners, including Marines, Privateers, Engineers, Coal-heavers, Firemen, and latterly the Revenue Cutter Service, disabled since the Revolution. For seven or eight years after the war, Congress having devoted all its attention, in regard to provisions for invalids disabled in the service of the United States, to making provisions for the invalids of the revolution-there having been little or no occasion to legislate for invalids disabled since the revolution, until it became necessary, by the act

The same provisions are applicable to the invalids of the peace establishment of the act of 2d March, 1821, which act made no provision, nor altered any previous provision for pensions. (See Mr. Wirt's opinion, 17th November, 1826, appendix I, page 385."

of the 30th April, 1790, again to regulate the military establishment of the United States with regard to existing emergencies, ordering the enlistment of able-bodied men, &c., for whose wounds and disabilities that might occur in the line of duty, timely provisions were made, without reference to the naval service-and the younger sister act of July 1, 1797, providing a naval armament, having also made provision for the like wounds and disabilities that might occur in the navy-the legislation providing for army and navy invalid pensions thus became more distinct thereafter than they had been for the invalids in the revolutionary service; and the establishment of the marine hospital fund, and the navy pension fund, and the privateer pension fund, tended to keep them distinct. Page.

Invalids of the naval armament as authorized by this act-officers, seamen, and marines, disabled in the line of their duty, to be placed on the list of invalids of the United States, at rates proportioned to their disability-act 1st July, 1797....

Invalids of the marine corps, officers, and privates are allowed the same pensions, according to rank, as officers and privates of the military establishmentact 11th July, 1798.......

Invalids of the naval armament, officers, seamen, and marines, disabled in the line of their duty, to receive half pay for life for total disability, and in like proportion for inferior disability, to be discharged by prize money accruing to the United States, constituted a fund for that purpose, under the management of the Secretaries of the Navy, the Treasury, and the War Departments-act 2d March, 1799........

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Invalids of the naval service are to be allowed pensions under the regulations to be prescribed by the aforesaid commissioners of the navy pension fundact 26th March, 1804..... Invalids of private armed ships, officers and seamen, to be placed on the privateer pension roll at fixed rates of pension, to be paid out of the privateer pension fund established by act of June 18th, 1812, under direction of the Secretary of the Navy, and repeated by-act 26th January, 1812.............. 252 Invalids of private armed ships, to be pensioned and paid as above-act 13th February, 1813...........

The same, under the aforesaid act regulating pensions to officers, &c. disabled on board private armed ships, explained so as to authorize the Secretary of the Navy to place all such invalids on the pension roll-act 2d August, 1813.... Invalids of the revenue cutter service, disabled whilst co-operating with the navy, * are to receive pensions as those disabled in the naval service-act 18th April, 1814..... Invalids disabled at Dartmoor prison, in England, to be placed on the roll of navy invalid pensioners-act 2d April, 1816...

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Pensions to invalids of the navy to be regulated according to the pay of the navy in force, as existing on the 1st January, 1835, and to commence from the date of disability-act 3d March, 1837.... The same restrictions of the rates of pensions to invalids of the navy, to the rates of pay of 1835, are repeated-act 23d August, 1842..... Engineers, coal-heavers, and firemen, disabled in the naval service, (since the 31st August, 1842,) to be allowed pensions in the same manner as officers, seamen, and marines, at specified rates-act 11th August, 1848....... Invalids of the marine corps, disabled in the war with Mexico, to be placed on the same footing with the regular army-resolution 10th August, 1848.......... 296

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V. Indigents of the Army and Navy who served in the Revolutionary War. This small class of enactments, for the remnant of the revolutionary worthies, was the first effort to revive the half pay extraordinary of the revolution in the form of pensions, and did not cover the whole ground, as was done ten or fifteen years thereafter.

By the act of the 18th March, 1818, all commissioned and non-commissioned officers, musicians, private soldiers and seamen; and all officers in the hospital department and medical staff; who served in the revolutionary war, and who are, or may become, reduced, in circumstances, so as to need

The words co-operating with the navy should be substituted by-in the line of duty--as revenue cutters are auxiliaries of the navy.

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the assistance of their country, shall receive a pension, at fixed rates, under regulations prescribed by the said act-see the act 18th March, 1818... 126 The aforesaid provisions and regulations of the 18th March, 1818, are amendedby act 1st May, 1820....... The Secretary of War is authorized and required to restore to the pension roll, any persons who have been placed thereon, under the act of 18th March, 1818, and stricken therefrom in pursuance of the act of 1st May, 1820, if such person shall satisfy the Secretary of War that they are unable to support themselves without the assistance of their country-see act, 1st March, 1823. 139

VI. The surviving Officers, [soldiers and seamen,] who served in the Revolutionary War.

This more extended class of enactments, growing out of the insufficiency of the preceding class to give every imaginable sweep that could be devised to the army pay extraordinary of the revolution, may have been supposed to have accomplished that object completely, at the time of passing the act of the 15th May, 1828, as to the army, and that of June 7th, 1832, that of July 4th, 1836, and others, both in regard to the army and navy; but, in regard to the latter, the act of the 3d March, 1837, shows that there was a loop hole left through which to fix an eye on the navy pension fund, which might, by the plausible title of the act, be made available for purposes entirely precluded by the specific objects for which the fund was set apart as a vested fund, that forbid a different application of it.

By the act of the 15th May, 1828,* (formerly executed at the Treasury Department,) the surviving officers of the army of the revolution, of the continental line, who were entitled to half pay by the resolve of the 21st October, 1780, shall receive full pay from the 3d March, 1826, during the residue of their lives-see the act, 15th May, 1828...

The provisions of section 2, of the aforesaid act, so restricted as not to apply to invalids by act, 31st May, 1830...

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The 3d section of said act is restricted in like manner-by act, 14th July, 1832...... 175 The act of the 7th June, 1832, supplementary to the aforesaid act of 15th May, 1828, provides that the surviving officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians, soldiers, Indian spies, of the continental line, State troops, volunteers, or militia, who served two years in the revolution, and not entitled to any benefit under the act 15th May, 1828, shall receive the amount of their full pay in said line; and for a term less than two years, and not less than six months, a sum proportionate to full pay-see act, 7th June, 1832.........

The provisions of section 2, of the said act of 7th June, 1832, so restricted as not to apply to invalids—by act, 19th February, 1833....

In executing the said act of 7th June, 1832, the period or conclusion the war shall

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be estimated at the definitive treaty of peace-see act, 2d March, 1833..... 185

This act, 15th May, 1828, is construed to include navy officers also. See act for relief of John Edgar, May 26, 1830, p. 274.

THE FOREGOING ANALYSIS FURTHER CONDENSED AND SIMPLIFIED.

I. Half Pay and Full Pay.

II.

Invalids.

1. INDIGENTS.-The act of the 1st May, 1820, amends the said act of 18th March. 1818, to which it is a supplement, by requiring a schedule of property and oath as evidence of indigence, or subject to be stricken from the list. (See act, page 135.) Also, the supplementary act, 1st March, 1823, restores certain indigents stricken from the list by said act of 1st May.-(See act, 1st March, 1823, p. 139.)

1.

FULL PAY TO SURVIVORS, &c.-The act of the 7th June, 1832, which is supplementary to the said act of 15th May, 1828, formerly executed at the Treasury Department, amplifies and extends the provisions of said act on a liberal scale, (to surviving officers, musicians, soldiers, and Indian spies, of the continental line, State troops or militia,) as stated above, at the end of clause 2, FULL PAY. (See the act, 7th June, 1832, p. 169.)

*This class, III, though gratuitous, is sui generis, or peculiar, as to ratio of stipend, as it does not follow that of invalid half pay, nor that of full pay gratuity.

Invalids of the navy, disabled since the revolution, have been provided for by a distinct system of laws from those of the army, though the same ratio of justice and gratitude is observed towards them. The first enactment on the subject of navy invalids since the war of independence, is found in section Il, of an act providing a "naval armament," passed on the 1st July, 1797, (vol. 2, page 7,) to be in force for one year. This act directs that "the officers and seamen of the navy, who shall be wounded or disabled in the service shall be placed on the list of invalids of the United States, at rates of pay, and under regulations to be prescribed by the President." So that the distinct navy pension system did not commence immediately after the war, nor as early as the date of this act.

On the 16th July, 1798, (vol. 3, page 109,) "an act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen," was passed, whereof section one provides "that from the 1st September thereafter, the master or owner of every [merchant] ship or vessel of the United States, arriving from a foreign port, shall render to the collector of the port at which such vessel may enter, a true account of the number of seamen employed on board such vessel since she was last entered at any port in the United States; and shall pay to the said Collector, at the rate of twenty cents per month, for every seaman so employed; which sum he is hereby authorized to retain out of the wages of such seaman. And that from the 1st of September, aforesaid, no collector shall grant to any ship or vessel whose enrolment or license for carrying on the coasting trade has expired, a new enrolment or license, before the master of such ship or vessel shall first render a true account to the collector of the number of seamen, and the time they have severally been employed on board such ship or vessel, during the continuance of the license which has so expired, and pay to such Collector, twenty cents per month, for every month such seamen have been employed, which sum the master is authorized to retain out of the wages of such seamen. Out of this fund the President of the United States is authorized to provide for the temporary relief and maintenance of sick and disabled seamen, in the hospitals or other institutions then existing in the several ports of the United States. The President is also authorized to purchase or receive donations of ground or buildings, and when necessary, to cause buildings to be erected as hospitals, for the accommodation of sick and disabled seamen. And he is further authorized to appoint persons, to be called directors of the marine hospital of the United States, in the different ports, whose duty it shall be to direct and govern such hospital," &c. &c.

On the 2d March, 1799, (vol. 3, page 266,) an act in addition to "an act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen," provides, that the Secretary of the Navy shall be authorized to deduct, after the 1st day of September next, from the pay thereafter to become due, of the officers, seamen and marines, of the navy of the United States, at the rate of twenty cents per month, for every said officer, seaman and marine, and to pay the same, quarter annually, to the Secretary of the Treasury, to be applied to the same purposes as the money collected by virtue of the above mentioned act is appropriated. And that the officers, seamen and marines, of the navy of the United States, shall be entitled to receive the same benefits and advantages, as, by the act above mentioned, are provided for the relief of the sick and disabled seamen of the merchant vessels of the United States."'

Of the same date, of March 2, 1799, (vol. 3, page 250,) an act for the government of the navy of the United States," provides, "that every officer, seaman or marine, disabled in the service, shall be entitled to receive for his own life and the life of his wife, if married at the time of receiving the wound, one half of his monthly pay, (sec. 8.) That all the money accruing, or which has accrued, from the sale of prizes, shall be and remain forever a fund for the payment of the half pay to officers and seamen who may be entitled to receive the same; and if the said fund shall be insufficient for this purpose, the public faith is hereby pledged to make up the deficiency; but if it shall be more than sufficient, the surplus shall be applied to the making of further provisions for the comfort of disabled officers, seamen and marines, and for such as may not be disabled, who may merit, by their bravery, or their long and faithful services, the gratitude of their country. And that the said fund shall be under the management and direction of the Secretary of the Navy, of War, and of the Treasury, for the time being," &c. &c.

Thus in the act of 16th July, 1798, we see the origin of a fund for the relief of sick and disabled