Continental establishment who is yet a resident of the United States, and who is, or hereafter, by reason of his reduced circumstances in life, shall be, in need of assistance from his country for support, and shall have substantiated his claim to a pension in the manner herein directed, shall receive a pension from the United States; if an officer, of twenty dollars per month during life; if a noncommissioned officer of eight dollars per month during life; Provided, No person shall be entitled to the provisions of this Act, until he shall have relinquished his claim to every pension heretofore allowed him by the laws of the United States.

SEC. 4. That to each commissioned officer who shall be deranged by virtue of this Act, there shall be allowed and paid, in addition to the pay and emoluments to which they will be entitled by law, at the time of their discharge, three months' pay and emoluments.

Act of April 16, 1818 (3 Stats., 427).

AN ACT regulating the pay and emoluments of brevet officers.

SEC. 2. That no brevet commission shall hereafter be conferred but by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Act of May 1, 1820 (3 Stats., 567).

AN ACT in addition to the several acts for the establishment and regulation of the Treasury, War, and Navy Departments.

SEC. 6. That no contract1 shall hereafter be made by the Secretary of the Department of War, except under a law authorizing the same, or under an appropriation adequate to its fulfilment.

AN ACT to increase the present military establishment of the United States, and for other purposes.

SEC. 15. That every commissioned officer of the

staff. exclusive of general officers, shall be entitled to receive one additional ration per diem for every five years he may have served or shall serve in the Army of the United States.

1Excepting contracts for the subsistence and clothing of the Army.

Act of July 7, 1838 (5 Stats., 308).

AN ACT supplementary to an act entitled "An act to increase the present military establishment of the United States, and for other purposes," approved July fifth, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight.

That the act to which this is a supplement shall be, and the same hereby is, explained, limited, and modified as follows:

First. Nothing contained in the said act shall be so construed as to allow to any officer additional rations for time past, commonly called back rations.

Act of March 3, 1839 (5 Stats., 339).

AN ACT making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Government for the year eighteen hundred and thirty-nine.

SEC. 3. That no officer in any branch of the public service, or any other persons whose salaries, or whose pay or emoluments is or are fixed by law and regulations, shall receive any extra allowance or compensation in any form whatever for the disbursement of public money, or the performance of any other service, unless the said extra allowance or compensation be authorized by law; nor shall any executive officer, other than the heads of departments, apply. more than thirty dollars, annually, out of the contingent fund under his control, to pay for newspapers, pamphlets, periodicals, or other books or prints not necessary for the business of his office.

Act of August 23, 1842 (5 Stats., 508).

AN ACT making appropriations for the support of the Army, and of the Military Academy, for the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-two.

SEC. 2. That no officer in any branch of the public service, or any other person whose salary, pay, or emoluments is or are fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation, in any form whatever, for the disbursement of public money, or for any other service or duty whatsoever, unless the same shall be authorized by law, and the appropriation therefor explicitly set forth that it is for such additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation.

AN ACT supplemental to an act entitled "An act providing for the prosecution of the existing war between the United States and the Republic of Mexico," and for other purposes.

*

that appointments

SEC. 7. . . in the general staff, which confer equal rank in the Army, shall not be held by the same officer at the same time; and when any officer of the staff who may have been taken from the line shall, in virtue of seniority, have

obtained or be entitled to promotion to a grade in his regiment equal to the commission he may hold in the staff, the said officer shall vacate such staff commission, or he may, at his option, vacate his commission in the line.

Act of March 3, 1847 (9 Stats., 188).

AN ACT to establish certain post routes, and for other purposes.

SEC. 4. That all letters, newspapers, and other packets, not exceeding in weight one ounce, directed to any officer

of the Army of the United States in Mexico, or at any post or place on the frontier of the United States bordering on Mexico, shall be conveyed in the mail free of postage.

SEC. 5. That the two preceding sections shall continue in force during the present war, and for three months after the same may be terminated, and no longer.

Act of March 3, 1851 (9 Stats., 618).

AN ACT making appropriations for the support of the Army for the year ending the thirtieth of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.

Provided, That all promotions in the staff department or

corps shall be made as in other corps of the Army.

Act of August 31, 1852 (10 Stats., 76).

AN ACT making appropriation for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the Government for the year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, and for other purposes.

SEC. 8. That it shall not be lawful for the officer in charge of any bureau in any of the departments of the Government to print, or cause to be printed, at the public expense, any report he may make to the President of the United States, or to the head of any of the departments.

Act of February 21, 1857 (11 Stats., 163).

AN ACT to increase the pay of the officers of the Army.

That from and after the commencement of the present fiscal year the pay of each commissioned officer of the Army, including military storekeepers, shall be increased twenty dollars per month, and that the commutation price of officers' subsistence shall be thirty cents per ration.

Act of August 3, 1861 (12 Stats., 287).*

AN ACT providing for the better organization of the military establishment.

who

SEC. 15. That any commissioned officer of the Army shall have served as such for forty consecutive years, may, upon his own application to the President of the United States, be placed on the list of retired officers, with the pay and emolument allowed by this act.

SEC. 16. That if any commissioned officer of the Army shall have become incapable of performing the duties of his office, he shall be placed upon the retired list and withdrawn from active service and command and from the line of promotion, with the following pay and emoluments, namely, the pay proper of the highest rank held by him at the time of his retirement, whether by staff

commission, and four rations per day, and without any other pay, emoluments, or allowances.

SEC. 17. That, in order to carry out the provisions of this act, the Secretary of War, under the direction and approval of the President of the United States, shall, from time to time, as occasion may require, assemble a board of not more than nine, nor less than five commissioned officers, two-fifths of whom shall be of the medical staff; the board, except those taken from the medical staff, to be composed, as far as may be, of his seniors in rank, to determine the facts as to the nature and occasion of the disability of such officers as appear disabled to perform such military service, such board being hereby invested with the powers of a court of inquiry and court-martial, and their decision shall be subject to like revision as that of such courts by the President of the United States.

SEC. 18. That the officers partially retired shall be entitled to wear the uniform of their respective grades, shall continue to be borne upon the Army Register, and shall be subject to the rules and articles of war, and to trial by general court-martial for any breach of the said articles.

SEC. 20. That officers of the Army, when absent from their appropriate duties for a period exceeding six months, either with or without leave, shall not receive the allowances authorized by the existing laws for servants, forage, transportation of baggage, fuel, and quarters, either in kind or in commutation.

SEC. 25. That retired officers of the Army may be assigned to such duties as the President may deem them capable of performing, and such as the exigencies of the public service may require.

Act of August 5, 1861 (12 Stats., 316).

AN ACT making appropriations for ratifications, and for other purposes.

who,

SEC. 2. That any commissioned officer of the Army, having tendered his resignation, shall, prior to due notice of the acceptance of the same by the proper authority, and without leave,

shall quit his post or proper duties with the intention to remain permanently absent therefrom, shall be registered as a deserter and punished as such.

AN ACT to prescribe an oath of office, and for other purposes.

That hereafter every person

military,

appointed to any office of honor or profit under the Government of the United States, in the departments of the public service, excepting the President of the United States, shall, before entering upon the duties of such office, and before being entitled to any of the salary or other emoluments thereof, take and subscribe to the following oath or affirmation: "I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I have never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since I have been a citizen thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility thereto; that I have neither sought nor accepted nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever under any authority or pretended authority in hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a voluntary support to any pretended government, authority, power, or constitution within the United States, hostile or inimical thereto. And I do further swear (or affirm) that, to the best of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God;" which said oath, so taken and signed, shall be preserved among the files of the Department to which the said office may appertain. And any person who shall falsely take the said oath shall be guilty of perjury, and on conviction, in addition to the penalties now prescribed for that offense, shall be deprived of his office and rendered incapable forever after of holding any office or place under the United States.

Act of July 17, 1862 (12 Stats., 594).

AN ACT to define the pay and emoluments of certain officers of the Army, and for other purposes.

That officers of the Army entitled to forage for horses shall not be allowed to commute it, but may draw forage in kind for each horse actually kept by them when and at the place where they are on duty, not exceeding the number authorized by law: Provided, however, That when forage in kind can not be furnished by the proper department, then, and in all such cases, officers entitled to forage may commute the same according to existing regulations.

SEC. 2. That major-generals shall be entitled to draw forage in kind. for five horses; brigadier-generals for four horses; colonels, lieutenant-colonels, and majors for two horses each; captains and lieuhaving the cavalry allowance for two horses each.

tenants

S. Doc. 229