Year: 1870

/ is one that soldiers may examine with
J pleasure. Its acts and joint resolutions
| taken in order, are these:


/. "a large fund was found to have
accumulated from commutation money


paid by Quakers and others who had
conscientious seruples against fighting


and from the forfeitures and fines arising


from desertions. The sum total was


nearly two millions of dollars. This


was transferred to the support of the ma


tional asylums for disabled volunteer
soldiers. By this and similar previous


Legislation the various institutions of this


character have been made so efficient
that it is no longer necessary for any dis
abled soldier to suffer from lack of a


home or a support.


?. 1t was found that a large body OF


officers and those promoted to be officers,


particularly those in rebel prisons when


promotions in their regiments were


made, had been deprived of their just


pay and allowances, some of them for
many months. A law was passed cor
recting the wrong in all these cases.


3. The Government has taken upon
itself to provide artificial limbs regularly


during life for all who lost them in its
service. Congress at the last session en-
acted that every soldier disabled during
the rebellion, and furnished by the Gov
ernment with limb, shall receive an
other at once, and a new one every five
years hereafter. If, however, those en-
titled prefer, they are to receive the
money value of the artificial limb in
stead. once in FIVE years. This money
is to be paid by the Commissioner of
Pensions upon the certificate of the Sur
geon General. Transportation is also to
be furnished free from the home of the
soldier to the place where the limbs are
manufactured or fitted. Those who are
so injured as not to be able to wear arti-
fetal limbs are entitled to the money
compensation provided by the act.


After the passage of this law it was
found that it had accidentally found limit
ed to soldiers alone. "A supplementary
bill was Immediately passed extending its
provisions to sailors and mariners.


a. All volunteer officers know how
difficult it has been to settle their ac-
counts. Under the red tape of the de-
partments It has been an impossibility
even for some of the most faithful and
careful officers in the field. Congress
has cut through all this tape, by direct
ing that where no frauds appear on the
face of the papers, such credits as seem
Just shall be allowed, and the officers
accounts settled. This applies to the
army and navy alike.


5. The Marine Hospital service was
thoroughly reorganized and placed upon
an efficient footing. Hereafter sick and
disabled seamen viii be comfortably
cared for in hospitals at the principal
forts. This act largely benefits the vol
unteer seamen who served in the navy
during the war, and have since entered
the merchant marine.


8. The pensioners, including. the
large company of widows and orphans,
have had their claims and interests care
fully attended to. Hereafter payments
are to be made every quarter, and the
loss of time and the expense incurred in
visiting the agent at the time of payment
have been rendered unnecessary. The
proper vouchers are to be made out by
the agent and sent by mail to the PEN
sioner, and upon their return in proper
form a check for the amount due is TO be
sent by mail to the pensioner, payable
to his or her order. Congress has di-
rected the petty sums heretofore deduct
ed from the pension for the preparation.
of the vouchers to be paid by the Cow
ernment.


p. When the general bounty act of
1866 was passed, the time for filing
claims under it was limited, and this
time expired during the present summer.
1t was found, however, that large num-
Der of faithful soldiers, either through
ignorance of the steps to be taken, or of
the fact that a limit for fling the claims
had been fixed, would lose their boun-
ties. Upon this representation of facts,
Congress extended the limit until the Ist
of next December.


It was also found that the construction
of certain laws, passed subsequent to
fixing the rate of pensions in a large
class of cases, would decrease the form /
er rate of pay. An act was passed at
once, providing that no pension which
had been definitely fixed should be di-
minished by any Of these general acts.


8. Heretofore it has been customary
TO retain the evidence of honorable dis
charge filed by officers or soldiers in the
settlement of their accounts. Congress,
however, knowing the value of such pa
pers to those who served in the field, and
the universal desire to retain them as
honorable mementoes of the part taken
by each in the contest, directed that they
should in all cases be carefully returned.


Scores of private acts for the relief Of
soldiers have been passed, and hundreds
of deserving ones have been added TO
the pension rolls.


Q. Any officer, soldier or marine can
now obtain a homestead of 100 acres.
And this tract for. every such person will
be double the value Of other selections
made under the Homestead law. By
an amendment to the Army bill it is
provided that any person who served
honorably for ninety days in either the
or naval service of the United
States during the rebellion, and has since
remained loyal, may enter a quarter sec
ton of land along any Of the lines of
railway to which Congress has made a
grant Of land, the selection to be made
from the even numbered sections. As
the minimum price of all such lands is
fixed at 81 50 per acre, the hOmesteads
thus given to soldiers are of double pc
cuniary value, besides being upon lines
of railroad, many of which are now
open, and from which other pre- -enptors
are as yet excluded.


10. The erection of soldiers monu-
ments has been encouraged in all parts
of the country, and not only have all
requests for condemned ordnance, to be
used in the construction of such monu-
ments, been promptly granted, but a
general law was passed by which any
association can obtain such ordnance for
this purpose from the Secretary of War.


II. So far as law of Congress can
settle it, our National Cemeteries are to
be protected in all the States. This law
was passed to meet attempts made by
citizens in several Of the late rebel States
looking to the restoration of the grounds
selected as military burial places to the
former owners. 1t gives Congress ex-
elusive Jurisdiction over all such grounds,
when once any State has consented to
their purchase by the United States. IT.
is further made the duty Of the Secretary
of War to communicate with the Gov
ernors of all the States, within which
such cemeteries are located, for the pur-
pose Of securing consent to such pur-
chase.


In short. wherever it has been shown
that laws passed in the interest of sol