The National tribune., 1899-11-16
DEPARTMENT NEWS.
Decisions, Rulings, ETC., of Interest to Sol
diers and Sailors and Their Heirs.

REMARRIAGE - MEXICAN WAR
WlDOWS.-1n the case of the widow of
Charles II. Otis, Mexican War, the claim
ant was penSioned under the act of Jan.
%, 1897, until her remariage in 1882.
She subsequently applied for restoration.
claiming that as she had not remarked
prior to the date of the act, Jan. %, 1887,
her subsequent remarriage could not prop
the terms of thesact. The Pension Bureau
rejected the claim on the groung that re-
marriage terminated her right, according
TO the terms Of the section 410S, Revised
Statutes, which provides that ION the
remarrlagc OF any widow having a pension
such pension shall cease"
On appeal the view of the Pension Bu-
reau is sustained. assistant Secretary
Davis, Sept. 30, 1899 The decision saws:
1T is an interesting question raised by
this appeal on account of the language
used in the statute under which the pension
was allowed to claimant in the second sec
ton OF the act, and it is not believed has
been heretofore directly passed upon by
the Department.
The act Of Jan. %, 1887, provides in the
first section, among other matters, for a
pension to the surviving widow Of such
officers and enlisted men; provided that
such widows have not remarried.'
And IN constituting the proviso the De
partment held in the case Of Hannah vii.
son (Mexican War widows, 3 p. D., 283)
lildl D1IOft Jan. -, 1901, the
widow Of a soldier of the Mexican War
bars her right to pension under the act of
that date.
1T is contended in the present case that,
although the ruling in said Wilson case
is correct, that the act in section pro-
vides:
That pensions under section 1 of this
act shall be PAYABLE ONLY from
and after the passage Of this act, for and
during the natural lives of the persons
entitled thereto, or during the continuance
of the disability for which the same shall
be granted
That this excludes all conditions on
which a pension could be stopped and gives
pension during the natural life of claim
ant, she having pensionable status at
the time OF the passage of the act.
Section 47OS, Revised Statutes, pro-
vides that:
1.-The remarriage of any widow =
having pension such pension shall cease. >
Every act of Congress granting a pen
sion TO widows, with amendments. from
the widows Of soldiers of the Revolutionary
War down to the act of June 81, 1890.
unless 1t be the one under consideration,
contemplates, and, as a rule, in some
specific language, that there must be or
has been widowhood during the time the
widow IS granted or receives the pension
and that the pension is continued only so
long as widowhood continues.
1t IS not believed that the act of Jan.
%, 1887, is an exception.
1T is clear from the language of tbe
act, and so construed by the Department
IN the decision above cited, that if a widow
OF Mexican War soldier had remarked
prior 10 thelpassage of the act, even though
She be again widow by the death of the
second husband, is not pensionable. tire
remarriage having extinguished the right
or title TO pension. This is not the case
with some other laws by specific amend-
me1t by act of Congress.
The language used in section 2 Of the
raj lives of the persons entitled thereto ,
etc, IS admitted to be different from that in
any other pension act; but it should be.
as tins Mexican War act is the only act that
grants pension to a widow when at any