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power vested in the President by the act of 1809; and no transfers could, from that time, be made from any of those branches to any others not enumerated. It did not, of course, restrain the President's discretion within the same branch of expenditure."

By the terms of the act of 1820, the President's power of directing a transfer was limited, so that he could direct a portion of the moneys appropriated for any one of the following branches of expenditure in the military department-viz: for the subsistence of the army, for forage, for the medical department, for the Quartermaster's department-to be ap. plied to any other of the before-mentioned branches of expenditure in the said department. "It protected all other branches of expenditure, except those enumerated, from the discretionary power vested in the Presi dent by the act of 1809. It did not, of course, restrain the President's discretion within the same branch of expenditure." At the date of the act of 1820, and for many years preceding, the appropriation for the Quar termaster's department was in gross-as," for the Quartermaster's depart ment, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars"-to be applied to the vari ous objects of expenditure within the range of its duties, at the discretion of the Department of War. In the act of 3d March, 1821, the first at tempt at specification, by law, of the items to which the appropriation should be applied, was made. The specification has become more minute; and, in the act of 17th June, 1844, there are six branches of appropriation under the control of the Quartermaster's department. Is it competent for the President to direct a transfer from one to the other? The act of 1820, which contemplated the appropriations for the Quartermaster's department as one gross appropriation, has been modified since its passage, in that aspect, but in one instance. The act of 1817 forbade transfers of appropriations made for forts, arsenals, armories, custom-houses, docks, navy yards, or buildings of any sort, to be applied to any other object. The act of 2d July, 1836, modified this law so far as concerned fortifications, authorizing the President to direct transfers from one head of ap propriation for fortifications to that of another for a like object. By the act of the 31st August, 1842, the power to authorize transfers of appropri ations for the navy was taken away, the power in regard to those made for the army remaining. It does not appear to me that the specification of the items of expenditure in the appropriation acts restrains this most necessary power of the 'resident, but that his power may be exercised under the acts of 1809 and 1820, in the same manner as if the appropria tions for the Quartermaster's department were now in the form in which they stood then, subject only to the restriction imposed by the act of 1817. This act does not affect the subject now under consideration. I am therefore of opinion that the President may, if he deems it conducive to the public interest, direct the transfer of the sum asked, from the branch of expenditure of incidental expenses of Quartermaster's department to the other branches of barracks, quarters, &c., and of transportation of officers' baggage.

I have the honor to be, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
J. Y. MASON.

To the PRESIDENT.

PENSIONS-HOW AFFECTED BY ACT OF MARCH 3, 1845.

The fourth section of the act of 3d of March, 1845, providing that accounts adjusted by the accounting officers of the treasury shall not be re-opened with out authority of law, and that no account shall be acted upon at the treasury unless presented within six years from the date of the claim, does not affect applications under a general law for pensions.

Pensions are gratuities, and are not claims or accounts, within the meaning of the statute; yet when these are once placed on the pension-roll they become claims to semi-annual payments, which, if not asserted within six years, cannot be audited without the authority of Congress.

The act does not affect claims for half-pay to officers of the Virginia State line, provided for by the act of the 5th of July, 1832.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE,

April 22, 1845.

SIR: Your letter of the 15th of March, with the accompanying communication from the Commissioner of Pensions, has received a most careful examination. The questions presented are of great importance to the community, and in the daily business of the Treasury Department. The fourth section of the act of the 3d of March, 1845, making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of government, directs that from and after the passage of this act, no accounts which have been adjusted by the accounting officers of the treasury shall be re-opened without authority of law; nor shall the accounting officers of the treasury act upon any account which shall not be presented within six years from the date when the claim first existed, unless the person having the claim was an infant, lunatic, or feme covert, and then within six years after the disa bility; provided, that this section shall not apply to cases where special acts have passed, or shall pass, for the relief of individuals." This is a section of an appropriation act, and constitutes a qualified act of limitation, suspending proceedings at the treasury without taking away the right of individual claimants, who may appeal to Congress in all cases where redress is denied them by the inhibition thus imposed on the ac. counting officers. It repeals no law, and does not operate in any case either in re opening adjusted accounts, or in taking up for audit, accounts of more than six years' standing, if the claim be founded on a special act of Congress passed for the relief of individuals. The Commissioner of Pensions asks if its provisions apply to several descriptions of claims which he details, and which may be included in two classes: 1st, to pensions under the various circumstances stated; 2d, to claims for half pay under the act of July 5, 1832, entitled "An act to provide for liquidating and paying certain claims of the State of Virginia."

1st. Does the fourth section apply to pensions? If the pension has been granted by a special act for the relief of individuals, the law does not apply. If the pension applied for is under a general law, then it does not appear to me that the section under consideration affects the application. A pension is a gratuity, and is not a claim or account, within the meaning of the statute; but, if once placed on the pension-roll, and thus acquiring a legal claim to a semi annual payment of a certain sum of money, the pensioner shall fail to assert this claim for six years, he cannot have his account audited without the authority of Congress. The computation of time is to commence from the failure to demand the payment when due, and not from the date of the pension certificate.

2d. The act of the 5th of July, 1832, for the liquidation and payment of certain claims of the State of Virginia, in its first section directs the

payment to that Commonwealth of her accounts for half-pay paid to the officers of the State line for services in the war of the Revolution; the second provides for the payment of judgments recovered against the State by officers thus entitled-which judgments had not been paid by the State; and the third directs the settlement and payment of the half-pay claims of the officers who were entitled on the principles settled by the supreme court of appeals of Virginia, and who had been paid their claims, or prosecuted them to judgment. Before the passage of this act, the offi cers of the Virginia State line and navy had no claim on the treasury of the United States for the fulfilment of an engagement entered into with them by the State itself. It was a part of the revolutionary debt, and by this act the United States assumed the liability, and made provision for this class of officers by agreeing at once to refund to the State the payments which she had made to pay to her the unsatisfied judgments recovered, and in a separate section provides for the settlement and payment of the half pay claims of those who had not recovered judgment or been paid. Does the fourth section of the appropriation act apply to these claims? They are clearly within its operation, unless the proviso protects them. It declares that this section shall not apply to cases where special acts have passed, or shall pass, for the relief of individuals. The inquiry, therefore, is limited. Is the act of 1832 a special act for the relief of individuals?

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"Municipal laws are public and general, or private and special. Public acts relate to the public at large; private acts to certain individuals, or to particular classes of men. Statutes which concern all the clergy are general laws, but those which concern bishops only are special In a general act there may be a private clause. A general or public act regards the whole community; special or private acts relate only to particular persons or to private concerns. These are the legal definitions given by Dwarris in his Treatise on Statutes. Applying them to the case under considera.. tion, the conclusion seems to me unavoidable. The State of Virginia made a promise of half pay for life to a class of officers engaged in her service in the war of the Revolution. To some of these she made pay ment; others recovered judgment against her; and those individuals of the class who had received no payment and recovered no judgment were provided for in the 3d section of the act of 1832. This section afforded relief to particular persons, and did not regard either the whole commu. nity or the whole of the class to which they belonged, and, according to the established rules of construction, is a special statute, which passed for the relief of individuals who, without it, had no claim on the govern ment of the United States. After a most careful examination, I am decidedly of opinion that claims founded on the act of 5th July, 1832, are protected by the proviso from the operation of the 4th section, which forms the subject of inquiry, and are affected by its inhibitions. I have the honor to be, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant, J. Y. MASON.

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THE CHICKASAW TRUST-FUND-HOW AFFECTED BY ACT OF 1845.

The 4th section of the act of 3d March, 1845, making appropriations for civil and diplomatic expenses of government, is a qualified act of limitations, suspending proceedings at the treasury, without taking away the right of individual claimants who may appeal to Congress in all such cases where redress is denied them by the inhibitions thus imposed on the accounting officers.

The accounts of the Chickasaw fund are within this section, and, once passed upon, cannot be reconsidered without the authority of a law.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE,

April 26, 1845.

SIR: Your communication of the 21st instant, transmitting certain letters from the Second Auditor of the Treasury, and others, on the subject of an alleged error in the account of the trust-fund kept at the treasury for the Chickasaw tribe of Indians, under treaty stipulations, and asking my opinion whether, under the 4th section of the act making ap propriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of government, ap. proved the 3d March, 1845, the account can now be re opened, has been received and considered.

In an opinion communicated to the Secretary of War on the 22d instant, I spoke of this section as "a qualified act of limitations, suspending proceedings at the treasury, without taking away the right of individual claimants, who may appeal to Congress in all such cases where redress is denied them by the inhibitions thus imposed on the accounting officers." In construing the unqualified prohibition against re opening adjusted accounts by mere executive authority, resort may very fairly be had to the principles of construction established by the courts in expounding those acts of limitations which bar recovery on accounts within their range. The statutes of limitations, says the Supreme Court, "are entitled to the same respect with other statutes, and ought not to be explained away. They are not enacted to protect persons against claims fictitious in their origin, but against claims of long standing, whether well or ill founded." So, in declaring that the accounting officers of the treasury shall re open no accounts which have been adjusted, a fair interpretation must be given, however apparent or injurious the error may be.

In considering the question submitted, therefore, I am not influenced by any opinion or belief that there is no such error as suggested; but ain confined to the inquiry, whether the account of the Chickasaw fund kept at the treasury is within the provisions of the section of the act under consideration. The terms of this section are as comprehensive as could have been employed: "No accounts which have been adjusted shall be re opened without authority of law." Is the account with this Indian tribe adjusted at the treasury? By the treaties with the Chickasaws in 1832 and 1834, it was provided that the United States should survey and sell the lands belonging to the nation, subject to certain reservations; that the proceeds of sales should be invested, and constitute a fund for the benefit of the nation, under the management of the United States. Certain charges on this fund are authorized by the treaty. By an act of Congress approved 20th April, 1836, entitled "An act to carry into effect the treaties concluded by the Chickasaw tribe of Indians," &c., it is enacted that all moneys received from the sale of the Chickasaw lands shall be paid into the treasury of the United States, in the same manner that moneys received from the sale of public lands are paid into the trea

sury. The 2d section appropriates all moneys required to be invested by the treaty, and directs that they shall be drawn from the treasury as other public moneys are drawn therefrom; and by the 3d, it is directed that a special account of the funds under the said treaty shall be kept at the trea sury, and a statement thereof shall be annually laid before Congress. In pursuance of this law, accounts have been kept at the treasury, and a statement annually submitted to Congress. They have been audited and passed on by the Comptroller as other accounts of moneys paid into and drawn out of the treasury. It is suggested that it is an account-current of the transactions of the United States as trustee of this fund, and is not a settled account. But it is to be observed that the law directs that an account is to be kept, and annual rests or adjustments are indispensable to enable the department to make its reports to Congress. By the 11th article of the treaty, the fiduciary management of the fund by the United States for the Chickasaws is to continue for fifty years certainly, and indefinitely in a certain contingency. If these annual accounts are not to be regarded as adjusted when passed on by the accounting officers of the treasury, and pro tanto closed on the books of the treasury, then the accounts will be open and unadjusted for at least a half century.

I am constrained to the conclusion that the accounts of the Chickasaw fund are within the 4th section of the act of 3d March, 1845, and cannot be re-opened without authority to be given by law. If I felt at liberty to doubt on this subject, the proceedings of the Senate and House of Representatives on the subject during the late session of Congress would remove it. A memorial was presented to the Senate, representing, among other things, that large sums of money had been drawn from the Chickasaw fund without authority from the Chickasaw nation; that these sums had been paid to persons and appropriated for purposes not authorized by any treaty with said nation, but in violation of their letter and spirit. The Senate passed a bill to enable the Chickasaw nation to try the validity of their claims in the courts of the United States. This bill failed in the House of Representatives, and that body adopted a resolution requiring a detailed statement of the accounts of the Chickasaw fund to be laid before the House at the next session of Congress; thus showing on the part of both houses a purpose to adopt a different mode for the correction of the errors alleged to exist, than by reference to the accounting officers of the treasury. And by the same Congress, the law was enacted declaring that all accounts which have been adjusted by the accounting officers shall not be re-opened without authority of law.

I have the honor to be, respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,
J. Y. MASON.

Hon. ROBERT J. WALKER,

Secretary of the Treasury.

EXTRA COMPENSATION TO SALARIED OFFICERS.

Extra compensation cannot be allowed an officer whose salary is fixed by law for the discharge of a public service; but travelling expenses may be. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE,

May 7, 1845.

SIR: I have the honor, herewith, to return the papers relating to the claim of Mr. Thompson for compensation for carrying despatches to the

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