PENSIONS, REVOLUTIONARY, (continued.) Page. dence that they were entitled to them; yet, if they were not, that fact may be proved... 1798 The onus, however, is upon the government to show that they were not entitled.... 1798 General reputation and cohabitation are, in general, sufficient evidence of marriage; 1798 but as this is only presumptive, it may be rebutted by countervailing testimony... 1798 The law should be construed liberally and favorably towards applicants.... There is no authority for making payment of the arrears of pensions due widowsof revolutionary officers at their death, who have left no children, to executors or administrators... 1803 Even where widows have died leaving children, the arrears cannot be received by Widows who had not been such for five years, or who had not exhausted their five The applicants in this case not having been widows for the period of five years, and not having exhausted their pensions under former laws, are therefore not entitled to the benefit of the act of 3d March, 1845, but are left to the generosity and justice of Congress in the premises.. The representatives of a widow of a revolutionary soldier, who received a pension under the act of 7th July, 1838, from the period of her husband's death to her own, have no claim for further payment on the pretence that her pension should have commenced at an earlier date. 1832 1832 1832 2095 The pension having been a personal bounty to the widow herself, and the decision fixing the time for its commencement having been acquiesced in by her, it cannot now be contested by her representatives.. All that passes to them on the death of a widow receiving a pension is the money which shall have actually accrued to her, and remains unpaid, for a pension allowed. 2095 2095 Where the arrears of a pension due at the decease of the widow of a revolutionary officer were paid to the administrator appointed in one county of the State of Indiana, and an administrator subsequently appointed in another county preferred a claim for the same amount-decided, that the Secretary of War who made the payment executed all the power conferred by Congress in respect to it.......... 2133 This decision refers to the case of the United States vs. The Bank of the Metropolis (15 Peters, 400) for the doctrine applicable to the power of Executive officers to review and reverse the action of their predecessors... PENSION AGENTS. Agents for paying pensions are entitled to have their necessary contingent expenses allowed, notwithstanding the act of April 20, 1836; as the prohibitions of that act may be well satisfied by stopping payment of the two per centum commissions which had been theretofore allowed for disbursing pension moneys.. PENSIONS, COMMISSIONER OF. ...... Where a future time is expressed in an act of Congress, like "two years from and after the 4th day of March next," the law makers are to be understood as speaking from the moment when the bill was approved by the President, and became a law. PEPPER, Colonel.. PERRY, Mrs. Mrs. Perry is not excluded by the act of 1821 from the benefit of the act of 1817, and her rights vested under it: so that the act first mentioned is to be regarded as a grant to her and her family, over and above her pension under the last mentioned act... PERSICO, Contract with. The terms of the specific appropriation of the 3d of March, 1829, control the general provisions of the act of 1823, concerning the disbursements of public money, so that the President may fulfil the contract of the late President with Persico.. PERU, chargé d'affaires to... 2133 1287 1070 1307 1071 609 1968 671 35 1248 2028 448 PETTY OFFICERS. (See Navy.) t PEYTON, BALIE.. PHENIX. A Spanish vessel. Payment under the act of May 24, 1824, "for the relief of the assignees and legal representatives of John H. Piatt," may be made to the assignees to the amount of their assignment; and as the amount for which the claim was assigned was not fixed in the assignment, it having been given for advances "made and to be made," the accounting officers must examine into and ascertain the amount actually due the assignees thereon. Notes of the assignor exhibited by the assignees are prima facie evidence of the debt, yet the administrators have the right to controvert it........ Page. 1766 721 447 452 452 The government cannot legally retain out of the moneys directed by the act of Congress of May 24, 1824, to be paid to certain assignees and representatives, a bill against the creditor assigned to the Treasurer under protest.... PIGEON. 457 The pension of Pigeon, the Cherokee chief, to be paid to his personal representatives 1505 PILOTAGE-PIGOT JAMES.... Commanders of public vessels are not required to employ and pay branch pilots upon entering the ports and harbors of the United States.. This exemption extends to all vessels belonging to the United States, and employed in the public service, whether they are armed or not.... PIRACY. Instructions to the district attorney for the United States, at Baltimore, concerning the Fourth-of-July privateer from La Plata, whose separate existence has not been acknowledged by the executive branch of the government, advising indictments against the captain and crew as pirates; also under the act of 1794; and also under the act of 1817.. ..... It is not statutory piracy for the captain of a vessel, to whom the vessel and cargo had been consigned with instructions to proceed to the Pacific, and there sell vessel and cargo, and remit the proceeds to the owners, to fail to remit such proceeds after having made sale according to instructions... Nor has the government the right to order a captain thus in default to be seized and brought to the United States to be tried for his conduct. Such a seizure would be false imprisonment, for which the captain might recover damages.... A Texian armed schooner cannot be treated as a pirate under the act of 30th April, 1790, for capturing an American merchantman, on the alleged ground that she was laden with provisions, stores, and munitions of war for the use of the army of Mexico, with the government of which Texas, at the time, was in a state of revolt and civil war. PILCHLYNN, P. P.. 120 1821 1821 159 492 492 1045 .784, 1278 236 430 1045 1301 .778, 794, 798 1590 1048 1776 .1215, 1494 1627 671 No charge besides that specifically provided by the 15th section of the act of 1825 685 1475 The stamp act (1 Geo. IV, c. 9) declared all periodical pamphlets, or papers, published at intervals not exceeding two days, containing public news, intelligence, or occurrences, or any remarks thereon, and not containing more than two sheets, published for less than six-pence, to be newspapers... 1475 The only indispensable requisites of a newspaper in this country are, that it be published for everybody's use, in numbers, conveying news, in sheets, in a cheap form.... 1475 The New York Bank-Note List is a pamphlet within the meaning of the act of 1825, and should be rated as such. 1669 Letters transported on the mail routes by private carriers cannot be charged with postage.. POSTAGE, (continued.) A pamphlet is defined to be a sheet or sheets of paper stitched together in the form of a book, but not bound... Page. 1669 1701 Nor is it competent to detain a carpet-bag containing letters carried on a mail route contrary to law... 1701 All that the department can do is to enforce the penalties to which all unauthorized carriers of letters are subjected.... 1701 The contents, rather than the form and dimensions of publications, should be the criterion for determining the rates of postage thereon chargeable... To entitle any publication to the privileges of a newspaper, its main object and purpose must be the dissemination of intelligence of passing events; must be issued in numbers consisting of not more than two sheets, whose superficies do not exceed 1,900 inches, at short stated intervals of not more than one month..... This opinion defines magazines and pamp hlets, and advises that the publication styled the "Living Age" be rated as a magazine...... POSTMASTER GENERAL. ......... The act of a Postmaster General in making extra allowances to mail contractors in consequence of alterations made, after the execution of the contract, in the frequency and speed of the conveyances used for transportation, and on account of the increased weight of the mailed matter, are not, where the account is still open, conclusive upon his successor; on the contrary, the latter possesses competent authority to look into such allowances, and where he finds them to have been founded on material errors of law or fact, to correct them as justice shall appear to require...... Postmasters General are merely agents of government, with, limited authority; and none of their acts, except those which are found to be within the scope of their authority and conformable to law, are obligatory upon the government. Contractors with them are chargeable with knowledge of the law, and must be presumed to be acquainted with the extent of their powers, and consequently with any departure from them in respect to contracts for transportation of the mails; and cannot, therefore, legally claim any benefits under acts done in contravention of law; for such are void from the beginning, and no legal right can be founded upon them.... But, although Postmasters General have no authority to bind their successors in matters of purely public concernment, the case is different in respect to transactions with individuals. Their authorized contracts with individuals, when not affected by fraud or material error, are obligatory upon successors-the change of incumbents not in anywise affecting nor impairing the rights of contractors. But the incapacity to vary the contracts of predecessors in office is occasioned by the obligatory force of the contracts themselves-a force as operative, however, upon the officer who made them, as upon his successors-and not because they were made by predecessors. Frauds and material errors, however, may as lawfully be inquired into by successors as by him or them who shall have made the contracts.. The Postmaster General has power to establish a Post Office in the Cherokee country, provided it be upon a road constructed under the act of 1825, to establish a line of posts within it....... See also Judiciary. POST OFFICES. (See Postmaster General.) POST ROADS. POST ROUTES. (See Mail Routes, &c., 1740 1740 . 1740 966 966 966 1487 .685, 1652 The three treaties of 1832 with the Pottawatomie Indians may be considered as forming one transaction; and that, except where special provision is otherwise made, the lands agreed by any one of them to be granted by the United States to individuals may be located within the limits of the cessions made by any one of the three, provided the party entitled to the grant assents thereto, and the President so directs..... PRE-EMPTIONS. (See Lands.) PREMIUM AND DEPRECIATION. The late commissioners to hold treaties with the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians are not bound to account to the governmene for the depreciation of the money deposited by them in bank to the credit of the Treasurer of the United States.... POTTINOER & SPENCER... PORCUPINE'S GAZETTE. ...... 987 708 486 40 POUSSIN, G. T...... Where the chargé d'affaires to New Grenada was authorized to draw upon the Barings for his salary, and such drafts brought a premium-DECIDED, that he was chargeable with such premium, and must be considered to hold it in trust for the government..... The government was bound to pay the minister a stipulated salary of four thousand five hundred dollars per annum; and being thus liable, it was bound to make that amount available to him at his foreign residence; yet, if, in the fiscal arrangements to make such salary available, he receives more than is his due, he is bound to account for it... The government is liable for the costs made in a suit upon a draft drawn upon a banker abroad by the direction of the government, by a chargè d'affaires for his salary, and which was protested for non-payment. The government having devised that method of making salaries available to ministers and agents abroad, and having instructed them to draw upon a given banking house, is bound to make reparation for any damages sustained in the way of costs occasioned by the non-acceptance or non-payment of the drafts........ PREMIUMS ON PUBLIC FUNDS... PRESENTS TO FOREIGN GOVERNMENTS-EXPENSE OF HOW DEFRAYED. The expense of recasting cannon, &c., to be presented to the Imaum of Muscat in return for presents received, may be defrayed from the appropriation for the contingent expenses of foreign intercourse.... This appropriation is placed at the disposal of the Executive, who is charged with the care and management of all our foreign relations...... And as it has been the practice of our government, from its earliest history, to interchange presents with the semi-barbarous nations of Asia and Africa, and as the Executive is vested with a discretion respecting the manner in which friendly relations with them can be best maintained, it follows that if he shall be of opinion that the public interests will be promoted by tendering a present in return for one received, he may legally do so, and cause the expense thereof to be defrayed from the funds thus placed at his disposal... PRESIDENT. Page. 2130 1665 1665 1660 1667 1708 1708 1708 A vessel under arrest, to prevent her from cruising against belligerent powers, may be discharged on the order of the President, communicated to the marshal having her in custody....... Suits against foreigners cannot be interfered with by the Executive.... Though a consul be sued for a transaction in which he acted as the commercial agent of his government, the President has no constitutional right to interpose his authority, but must leave the matter to the tribunals of justice.. The President will not interfere with judicial proceedings between an individual, and the commissioner of a foreign nation when the controversy may have a legal trial. The President will issue death-warrants, in order to give effect to the laws, in cases where they are necessary by the practice of the State in which the sentence is passed... Arrest for trial is a proceeding belonging to the judiciary, not to the executive branch of the government; and the warrant of arrest must be founded on an information on oath. The President has no power to cause an arrest to be made except upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation. (Vide article VI of Amendments to the Constitution.)... The President may issue his proclamation against an offender who has once been regularly arrested and made his escape; for, in such case, the regularity of the arrest implies that the probable case has been furnished on oath according to the constitution...... 236 The executive will not interfere with the judiciary whilst it is in the regular course of giving construction to the acts of Congress, by directing a nolle prosequi of a proceeding against a British vessel for a breach of the navigation act of April 18, 1818, after the district court has condemned her to forfeiture.. The President will not interfere in a matter of private and individual litigation. If the petitioner has been injured, the laws of the country afford him redress....... 263 Where it is claimed by a foreign minister that a seizure made by an American vessel was a violation of the sovereignty of his government, and he satisfies the President of the fact, the latter may, where there is a suit depending for the seizure, cause the Attorney General to file a suggestion of the fact in the cause, in order that it may be disclosed to the court.. 328 PRESIDENT, (continued.) Page. The President has the constitutional power to order the discontinuance of a suit commenced in the name of the United States in cases proper for such an order... 516 It is a high and delicate power, however, and should be exercised only with the greatest circumspection and care; and never in a case in which a court of the United States, free from suspicion of impurity, has taken cognizance of the matter, and thereby given countenance to the claim.. The case of the United States against the mayor, aldermen, and inhabitants of New Orleans, commenced by petition for an injunction to restrain them from selling unoccupied lands, (the corporation claiming property,) is not a proper case for the interference of the President. The President of the United States has, after mature deliberation, determined to leave the execution of sentences of the law in all cases to the direction of the courts, in full confidence that they will give a reasonable time for the interposition of executive clemency in cases where it ought to be interposed.... 516 516 707 The courts of the United States are open to the complaint of the owner of the abducted slave; but the executive authority cannot properly interfere to administer relief in such cases.. 1618 Where an American vessel has brought off a slave from the Cape de Verde islands, 1618 1810 The law has designated the officer to decide upon applications for pensions, and has provided for no appeal to the President; wherefore, he will not undertake to revise the decisions of the Commissioner.. The President is under no official obligation to interfere with the disputed question Although it is the duty of the President to take care that the laws are faithfully ex- 1810 2113 2113 2113 2121 He has no proper authority to employ counsel, at the expense of the government, to advise, protect, and defend the marshal of the southern district of New York in cases arising under the fugitive slave law..... 2121 PRINCESS OF ORANGE. Diamonds of. In legal contemplation the goods (diamonds of the Princess of Orange) are in custody of the Court as soon as the process is issued, and the collector, not the marshal, is the official custodian, until the question of forfeiture is adjudicated. (Buck vs. Trevitt, 1 Mason, 99.).... The decision of Judge Betts in the case of the United States vs. "a box of dia- The jewels of the Princess of Orange, one of the family of the King of the Nether- There being sufficient evidence that they belong to the Princess, and the minister of her sovereign, friendly to the United States, asking their restoration, the President should order the district attorney to discontinue the prosecution, and direct the marshal having them in possession to deliver them over to the minister of the King..... The opinion delivered the 28th ultimo, concerning the discontinuance of the prosecu 794 794 798 798 798 |