News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1915-10-27

lRePty XXI 12s
DepartnEaer1t p
How did the custom originate of the
president of the United States dating
official documents from the year of the
Declaration of Independence?
There is no law on the subject. 1t
originated before the adoption Of the
constitution, during the days of the
confederacy. The original articles Of
confederation show they were signed
by the delegates sat Philadelphia, in
the state of Pennsylvania, the 9th day
of July in the year Of our Lord, 177S,
and in the third year Of the independ-
ence of America" The first proclama-
ton issued by Washington as presi-
dent was "Given under my hand and
the seal of the United States, in the
city of New York, the 18th day of Au-
gust, A. d. 1890, and in the fifteenth
year of the sovereignty and independ-
ence of the United States"
Where can | get information in re-
gard to vacant government lands which
are open to homesteaders?
There are public lands open to entry
in dozen different states and from
one to three or four land offices in
each state. A land entry can only be
made in person at the office. Perhaps
you might obtain further information
! by writing the honorable commissioner
of the land office, Washington.
How did negroes come to be called
contrabands during the civil war?
1t was a curious application of
well established principle. Under the
laws of war a belligerent may hold
as contraband and may seize and con-
denim anything calculated to aid the
enemy and prolong the war. Early in
the war, when General B. +. Butler
was in command at Fortress Monroe,
some fugitive slaves came into his
lines, and as he needed laborers in field
works he put them at work. When
their former owner demanded to know
what the general intended to do with
his negroes the general replied, II
shall detain them as contraband of
war" Butler held that slaves might
be used against the United States gov
eminent by it's enemies and were
therefore contraband of war. From
that time fugitive slaves were called
contrabands.
What was the SO called ironclad oath
that once prevailed in some parts of
this country?
1t was not state or local regula-
ton, as your question might imply, but
measure that grew out of the war
of the rebellion. In 1862 congress
passed a law that persons appointed
to office from the seeded southern
states should take an oath that they
had in no way aided or abetted seces-
sion. This came to be called the IRON
clad oath because majority of per-
sons in the southern states could not
take it, but many did who sympathiz-
cd with secession, though they had
not actually aided or abetted it. After
awhile the oath was modified and final
~ repealed.
Suppose we should get into war with
private capital that they had invested
in this country, such as railroads, brew
cries, factories, mines or any other away
from them and keep them forever?
International law as now practiced
does not permit the confscation of the
private property of individual citizens
Of one belligerent country found in an
other at the outbreak of war. An au
thority says: "Whenever government
grants permission to foreigners to ac-
quire property within its territories or
to bring and deposit it there it tacitly
promises protection and security. The
property of a foreigner placed in an
other country by permission of its laws
may justly be regarded as a deposit of
which the society is a trustee. How
can it be reconciled with the idea of
trust to take the property from its
owner when he has personally given
no cause for the deprivation"
would like to know what is the
greatest depth of the Atlantic ocean,
revealed by deep sea soundings.
The greatest sea depths known to
man is in the south Atlantic ocean,
midway between the island of Tristan
da Cunha and the mouth of the Rio de
la Plata river, the bottom being there
reached at a depth of 1926 feet, or
more than seven and one-half miles.
The average depth of the Atlantic is
to be about 10000 feet.
If the United States should be in
volved in war, who would be liable to
military duty7
All male citizens of the United States
between the ages of eighteen and for
ty-five are subject to military duty in
case of war.
Will you please be so kind as to tell
me whatever you can of carlotta, the
widow of Maximilian7 Nowhere can
ind any record of what became of her
after she became insane.