a superior official position, and provides that such officials or clerical superiors shall not receive any gift or present offered or presented to them from persons in the Government employ receiving a less salary than themselves, and that no officer or clerk shall make any donation as a gift or present to any official superior. The penalty for violation of such provisions is dismissal from the Government • employ

Act August 29, 1890 (26 Stat. L., 371), provides that no officer, clerk, or employee of any executive department, who is a notary public or other officer authorized to administer oaths, shall charge or receive any fee or compensation for administering oaths of office to employees of such department required to be taken on appointment or promotion.

DETAIL OF CLERKS TO MAKE SPECIAL EXAMINATIONS.

ACT JULY 25, 1882, AMENDING SECTION 4744, REVISED STATUTES (22 STAT. L., 175).

"SEC. 4744. The Commissioner of Pensions is authorized to detail from time to time clerks or persons employed in his office to make special examinations into the merits of such pension or bounty land claims, whether pending or adjudicated, as he may deem proper, and to aid in the prosecution of any party appearing on such examinations to be guilty of fraud, either in the presentation or in procuring the allowance of such claims; and any person so detailed shall have power to administer oaths and take affidavits and depositions in the course of such examinations, and to orally examine witnesses, and may employ a stenographer, when deemed necessary by the Commissioner of Pensions, in important cases, such stenographer to be paid by such clerk or person, and the amount so paid to be allowed in his accounts."

POWERS AND DUTIES OF SPECIAL EXAMINERS.

ACT OF MARCH 3, 1891 (26 STAT L., 1083).

That the same power to administer oaths and take affidavits, which by virtue of section forty-seven hundred and forty-four of the Revised Statutes is conferred upon clerks detailed by the Commissioner of Pensions from his office to investigate suspected attempts at fraud on the Government through and by virtue of the pension laws, and to aid in prosecuting any person so offending, shall be, and is hereby, extended to all special examiners or additional special examiners employed under authority of Congress to aid in the same purpose.

REPORTS OPEN TO INSPECTION.

ACT MAY 28, 1908 (35 STAT. L., 419).

The reports of the special examiners of the Bureau of Pensions shall be open to inspection and copy by the applicant or his attorney, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe.

AUTHORITY OF CERTAIN CLERKS TO ADMINISTER OATHS.

ACT FEBRUARY 13, 1911, AMENDING SECTION 183, REVISED STATUTES (36 STAT. L., 898).

"SEC. 183. Any officer or clerk of any of the departments lawfully detailed to investigate frauds on, or attempts to defraud, the Government, or any irregularity or misconduct of any officer or agent of the United States, and any officer of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps or Revenue-Cutter Service, detailed to conduct an investigation, and the recorder, and if there be none the presiding officer, of any military, naval, or Revenue-Cutter Service board appointed for such purpose, shall have authority to administer an oath to any witness attending to testify or depose in the course of such investigation."

SUBPOENAS FOR WITNESSES.

SECTION 184, REVISED STATUES.

Any head of a Department or Bureau in which a claim against the United States is properly pending may apply to any judge or clerk of any court of the United States, in any State, District, or Territory, to issue a subpoena for a witness being within the jurisdiction of such court, to appear at a time and place in the subpoena stated, before any officer authorized to take depositions to be used in the courts of the United States, there to give full and true answers to such written interrogatories and cross-interrogatories as may be submitted with the application, or to be orally examined and crossexamined upon the subject of such claim.

COMPENSATION OF WITNESSES.

SECTION 185, REVISED STATUTES.

Witnesses subpoenaed pursuant to the preceding section shall be allowed the same compensation as is allowed witnesses in the courts of the United States.

COMPELLING TESTIMONY.

SECTION 186, REVISED STATUTES.

If any witness, after being duly served with such subpoena, neglects or refuses to appear, or, appearing, refuses to testify, the judge of the district in which the subpoena issued may proceed, upon proper process, to enforce obedience to the subpoena, or to punish the disobedience, in like manner as any court of the United States may do in case of process of subpoena ad testificandum issued by such court.

PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE; HOW OBTAINED.

SECTION 187, REVISED STATUTES.

Whenever any head of a Department or Bureau having made application pursuant to section one hundred and eighty-four, for a subpœna to procure the attendance of a witness to be examined, is of opinion that the interests of the United States require the attendance

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of counsel at the examination, or require legal investigation of any claim pending in his Department or Bureau, he shall give notice thereof to the Attorney-General, and of all facts necessary to enable the Attorney-General to furnish proper professional service in attending such examination, or making such investigation, and it shall be the duty of the Attorney-General to provide for such service.

ADDITIONAL AUTHORITY FOR SUBPOENA FOR WITNESSES.

ACT JULY 25, 1882 (22 STAT. L., 175).

That in addition to the authority conferred by section one hundred and eighty-four, title four of the Revised Statutes, any judge or clerk of any court of the United States in any State, District, or Territory shall have power, upon the application of the Commissioner of Pensions, to issue a subpoena for a witness, being within the jurisdiction of such court, to appear, at a time and place in the subpoena stated, before any officer authorized to take depositions to be used in the courts of the United States, or before any officer, clerk, or person from the Pension Bureau designated or detailed to investigate or examine into the merits of any pension claim and authorized by law to administer oaths and take affidavits in such investigation or examination, there to give full and true answers to such written interrogatories and cross interrogatories as may be propounded, or to be orally examined and cross-examined upon the subject of such claim; and witnesses subpoenaed pursuant to this and the preceding section shall be allowed the same compensation as is allowed witnesses in the courts of the United States, and paid in the same manner.

CHAPTER II.

PENSIONS BASED ON SERVICE PRIOR TO MARCH 4, 1861.

The act of March 16, 1802 (2 Stat. L., 135), provided pensions for certain officers and soldiers in the peace establishment, disabled in line of duty.

The act of April 24, 1816 (3 Stat. L., 296), provided varying rates of pension for officers of different ranks, and included in the benefits of the pension laws soldiers of the militia while in the service of the United States.

The act of March 19, 1836 (5 Stat. L., 7), extends benefits to volunteers or militia called into service of United States to suppress Indian depredations in Florida (sec. 1657 R. S.).

Section 4728, Revised Statutes, provides pensions for officers and men of the Navy and marines, disabled in line of duty, and fixes certain relative ranks.

Section 4729, Revised Statutes, provides pension for widows and children of those mentioned in the preceding section, who have died in the service in line of duty.

Section 1656, Revised Statutes, provides for half the monthly pay for five years, to the widows or children of officers and men in the service of the United States, who die at any time from wounds received in the service.

Sections 4725, 4726, 4727, and 4732 relate to half pay pensions to widows and children of officers and men of the regulars, militia and volunteers of the War of 1812, and various Indian wars since 1790.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

Section 1, act April 10, 1806 (2 Stat. L., 376), provided pensions for known wounds incurred by those who rendered service in said war. Section 4 of this act fixed the date of commencement of pension, and section 6 fixed the rates of pension.

Acts April 25, 1812 (2 Stat. L., 719); May 15, 1820 (3 Stat. L., 597); February 4, 1822 (3 Stat. L., 650); and May 24, 1828 (4 Stat. L., 307), continued in full force and effect the provisions of the above-cited act until May 24, 1828.

Act March 18, 1818 (3 Stat. L., 410), made provision for granting a service pension to soldiers and sailors who were in indigent circumstances, and act March 1, 1823 (3 Stat. L., 783), fixed the date of commencement of such pension.

Act May 15, 1828 (4 Stat. L., 269), granted a service pension to officers, noncommissioned officers, and privates who enlisted during the war and continued in service until its termination, but barred

those from receiving its benefits who were then on the pension roll. This limitation was by act May 31, 1830 (4 Stat. L., 426), removed as to officers, and by act July 14, 1832 (4 Stat. L., 600), as to noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates.

Act June 7, 1832 (4 Stat. L., 529), was the third act passed granting service pension to surviving officers and men of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps who served for two years, and who were not entitled to pension under the act of May 15, 1828, to commence March 4, 1831, and to continue during life; and to those serving less than two years but not less than six months, former pensions, however, to be relinquished. This limitation was removed by act February 19, 1833 (4 Stat. L., 612), and construed not to embrace invalid pensioners.

Acts July 4, 1836 (Stat. L., 128), and March 3, 1837 (5 Stat. L., 187), and resolution July 7, 1838 (5 Stat. L., 311), granted pensions to widows of certain officers and men who served in the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps, as mentioned in the act of June 7, 1832, but placed a limitation as to date of marriage.

Acts February 2, 1848 (9 Stat. L., 210); July 29, 1848 (9 Stat. L., 265); and February 3, 1853 (10 Stat. L., 154), extended, and the act of February 28, 1855 (10 Stat. L., 616), removed this limitation as regards date of marriage.

By the joint resolution of July 1, 1848 (9 Stat. L., 336, now sec. 4743, R. S.), the evidence upon which a pension was granted to an officer or soldier of the Revolution in his lifetime was made conclusive as to the service of such person in any claim for pension filed by his widow; and upon proof by her that she was married to such officer or soldier, and of her widowhood, she became entitled to have her name placed on the pension roll at the same rate that such officer or soldier received during his lifetime.

By the act of April 2, 1862 (12 Stat. L., 376, now sec. 4742, R. S.), no claim for pension or increase of pension could thereafter be allowed in the case of the widow, children, or other descendants of any person who served in the Revolution, when such person or his widow died without having established a claim for pension.

WAR OF 1812.

Section 14, act January 11, 1812 (2 Stat. L., 673); section 5, act February 6, 1812 (2 Stat. L., 677); section 1, act Ápril 16, 1816 (3 Stat. L., 286); section 2, act August 2, 1813 (3 Stat. L., 74); and act April 14, 1842 (5 Stat. L., 437), granted invalid pensions to officers and men of the Regular Army and the militia who were wounded or otherwise disabled and to those warriors of the Cherokee Nation and the Southern Indians who were wounded during the War of 1812.

By the act of February 14, 1871 (16 Stat. L., 411, now incorporated in sections 4736-4740, R. S.), pensions were granted to the surviving officers and enlisted and drafted men, including militia and volunteers, of the military and naval service of the United States who served 60 days in the War of 1812 and were honorably discharged, and to such other officers and men, having less than 60 days' service, as had been personally named in any resolution of Congress for any specific service in that war, and the surviving widows of such per