plained in another place. It is merely evidence that the person named in it served for such a time in the United States army or navy. The right which a man has by law to alienate or assign his choses in action, is very much curtailed by the acts of Congress of July 29th, 1846, and of February 26th, 1853. The former act provides that whenever a claim against the United States shall hereafter be allowed by a resolution or act of Congress, the money directed to be paid, shall not be paid to any person but the claimant or his executors and administrators, unless such persons shall produce a power of attorney, executed after the enactment of the act, and expressly reciting the amount allowed thereby, attested by two witnesses, and acknowledged in the proper form. The latter act provides that all transfers and assignments hereafter made of any claim upon the United States, or any part thereof, or interest therein, shall be absolutely null and void, unless the same shall be freely made and executed before two witnesses, after the allowance of such claim, the ascertainment of the amount due, and the issuing of a warrant for the payment thereof. The provisions of this act and of the former one are also made to apply to all claims arising under general laws and treaties, as well as special acts, or in any other manner whatever. It would appear to be very plain that a claim for bounty, although assignable otherwise, is deprived of the capacity of being transferred to another by these laws, until the warrant for its payment has been drawn. An assignment may be made with a covenant guaranteeing the collection, and possibly the assignee would recover from the assignor under the covenant, but even this is not certain, because the whole contract might be set aside as illegal. The constitutionality of the acts has never been called in question, it being easier to evade them than to try the question in the courts. That they are commonly and systematically evaded, is notorious. In the matter of prize money, however, it would be hard to show how the acts apply. Prize money is not a claim on the Government; it is the property of the captors, and is placed in the Treasury for distribution by the decree of a prize court. It becomes the property of the captors by the laws of maritime war. They are admitted to a standing in the prize court, and are entitled to have counsel argue their cases and defend their rights. The property never becomes the property of the United States, except so far as the share of the Government; and in some cases the Government has no share at all, the capture being totally the property of the captors. By what show of right, then, can it be claimed that the above acts apply? I confess I cannot see the reason of the application, and I believe that an assignment of prize money is good, whether it comes within the terms of the act or not, and that the proper accounting officer might be compelled to pay it to the assignee by writ of mandaThe Commissioner of Internal Revenue evidently takes the same view of prize money as I do, for he has decided that the papers relating thereto are not exempt from stamp duty under section 6 of the Revenue Act of March 3d, 1863.* mus. *See in relation to this subject, Stone vs. Lidderdale, 2 Anstruther, 533; Priddy vs. Rose, 3 Merrivale, 102; Alexander vs. Duke of Wellington, 2 Russel & Mylne, 35; Comegys vs. Vasse, 7 Peters, 196; Milnor vs. Metz, 16 Id., 221; Couch vs. Delaplaine, 2 Comstock, 397. Sec. 64, act of Congress, 23d April, 1809. CHAPTER VI. PAY AND BOUNTY OF DECEASED SOLDIERS. THE settlement of accounts of deceased officers and soldiers of the army of the United States, including regulars, volunteers, and militia, is made by the Second Auditor of the Treasury Department. When an officer or soldier dies, the fact is duly reported to headquarters, and appears on record in the office of the adjutant-general. Proof, therefore, of the death of an officer or soldier while in the service is not required from a claimant, as the Auditor can acquire from official sources a knowledge of the fact. Under the act of Congress approved 22d July, 1861, and the act approved 11th July, 1862, the personal representa tives of a soldier are entitled to receive from the Govern ment (besides the arrears of pay due at the time of his death), if he died while in the service of the United States, the sum of one hundred dollars bounty. Where soldiers enlisted since the 17th day of July, 1862, and have received on enlistment twenty-five dollars of this bounty in advance, they will receive but seventy-five dollars on their discharge, and it would seem that their relatives are entitled only to the same sum. The arrears of pay due to an officer or soldier is a portion of his personal estate, and as such could be collected by an administrator. The bounty, however, is not a part of the effects or estate of the soldier, but is in the nature of a gratuity, granted by the Government to his surviving relatives, and can therefore, in no case whatever, be collected by an administrator.* The law of 22d July, 1861, granting bounty, gives it to those soldiers who shall serve for the term of two years, or for the war, if sooner ended, so that the soldier does not really earn the bounty, or become entitled to it himself, until he has served the full term of two years, or until the war of 1861 be ended. After a soldier has served the requisite time and the bounty is really due to him, I see no reason why it should not go with the rest of his personal property to his administrator. Taking out letters of administration being attended with considerable expense, the Second Auditor advises that application shall in all cases be made to him without administering in the first instance, he reserving the right to order administration in special cases.t The bounty is only granted to volunteers and regular soldiers, and officers are not entitled to it. WHO ARE ENTITLED TO COLLECT THE PAY AND 1st. The widow. 4th. The mother. 2d. The children.§ 3d. The father. 5th. Brothers and sisters collectively.** * See acts of Congress, 22d July, 1861, and 11th July, 1862. See circular of Second Auditor of Treasury. The widow takes first in all cases. Thus a man may die, leaving children by a former wife, in which case they have no claim on the Government whatever, the widow taking all. The children of the deceased alone are entitled; the children of his wife by a former husband cannot claim. | All claimants of bounty, other than the widow and children, must be residents of the United States, and this must be shown in the declaration. The mother will take in preference to the father in the following cases: When the father is a non-resident of the United States, and where he has aban doned the support of his family. **The brothers and sisters, residents of this country, will receive the bounty where there is no widow or child, and the father and mother are dead or are non DECLARATION BY WIDOW. In the case of the widow, it is necessary that she shall make a declaration before a justice of the peace or other magistrate setting forth that she is the widow of such a person, giving the company and regiment in which her husband served, and the date and cause of his death. She must also give the date of her marriage, by whom she was married, and state whether or not a public or private record of the marriage exists, and her name before her marriage, and that she still remains a widow. She is also to say what she claims, whether pay, bounty, or both. This declaration must be subscribed and sworn to in the presence of two witnesses, who must be certified by the magistrate to be respectable and entitled to credit, and they must swear to the identity of the applicant, and that they have no interest in the claim. To complete this declaration, it is necessary that the signature of the magistrate be certified to be genuine, and that he was such magistrate at the date of the attestation, by the county clerk, or other proper officer.* In order to support this declaration, it is only necessary to prove the marriage. In order to do this, it is necessary, if possible, to procure a certified copy of the public record of the marriage, if any such exists. This copy ought to be made by the keeper of the record, and sworn to by him before a magistrate, unless the keeper be a public officer, in which case his certificate will suffice, without an oath. In the event of there being no public record of the marriage in existence, a copy of any private record should be forwarded. The entry of the marriage in the family Bible, or any other entry of the marriage made and kept as a pri vate record of it, will be considered sufficient. residents. Heirs further removed than brothers and sisters can claim the arrears of pay, but no bounty; and the distribution is made according to the law of the State where the deceased had his domicile. *See circular of E. B. French, Second Auditor of Treasury. |