pay of deceased teamsters, or other employés of the quartermaster's department, or for the pay of horses killed or lost in the service, to the Third Auditor, and relating to the pay and bounty of persons in the marine or naval service, to the Fourth Auditor.

EZRA B. FRENCH,

Second Auditor of the Treasury Department,
Washington City, D. C.

Form of Application for Arrears of Pay and Bounty.

[If the soldier died unmarried, leaving no child, it should be here stated. If the application is by the mother, she should also state the name of the father of the deceased, his death, or abandonment of the support of his family, giving the date and all facts necessary to a proper understanding of the case. If the application is by the widow of the deceased, she should here state her maiden name, when, where, and by whom she was married to him, and whether or not there is record evidence of such marriage.]

I make this application to recover all arrears of pay or other allowances due to the deceased from the United States, and the bounty provided by the sixth section of the act of July 22d, 1861. (Signature of claimant.)

well known, and subscribed and made oath to the foregoing

statement on this

-day of

186-, before me.

(Name of official title.)

ceased-[If he died unmarried, leaving no child, it should be here stated; and if the application is by the mother, the fact of her widowhood, or the abandonment of her husband, should be stated, as in the application]—and that we have no interest whatever in this application.

(Signature.) (Signature.)

[Certificate of the magistrate the same as above.]

CHAPTER VII.

PENSIONS.

THE United States has had upon its statute books laws granting pensions since April 10th, 1806, when the act which formed the foundation of our pension system was approved. Many acts on the same subject have since become laws, but it is no part of the scope of this volume, or of the writer's intention, to enter into the subject of the past history of the pension laws, except so far as is necessary to elucidate and illustrate the new law. The act of Congress approved July 14th, 1862, is the law which governs all cases arising since the 4th March, 1861, and it would seem to be best to keep the subject as clear as possible of all laws prior to this one, as this must prove, for the future, to be, if not the sole authority under which to apply for pensions, so nearly so as to render allusion to former legislation illusive.

The act has made a revolution in the whole subject of pensions, and is probably the most humane and liberal law of that description ever enacted by a legislative body. It will be found at length in another place, and a careful perusal of it will impress the reader with its completeness and its liberality.

We will discuss the subject at length, and, for purposes of convenience, divide it into several heads.

WHO ARE TO RECEIVE PENSIONS?

The beneficiaries under the act may be divided into two classes the persons who performed the service for which the pension is granted, and those dependent on them for support. The former of these classes includes all officers, non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates of the army, including regulars, volunteers, and militia; and officers, warrant and petty officers, musicians, seaman, ordinary seamen, flotillamen, marines, clerks, landsmen, pilots, or other persons in the navy or marine corps, who have been, since the 4th March, 1861, or shall hereafter be, disabled by reason of any wound received or disease contracted while in the service, and in the line of duty; and they shall be entitled to receive pensions under the act, according to the degree of disability.* See act of Congress approved July 14th, 1862.

Of the second class the law provides that, where any of the persons above named die by reason of any wound received or disease contracted while in the service, in the line of his duty, a pension shall be paid to his widow, if there be one, until she marries again. If there be no widow,t the children under sixteen will receive the pension until they are sixteen. In case the widow marries while the children are under sixteen, they will then take the pension until

*Pensioners enlisting in the Invalid Corps will not be paid pensions while so enlisted, but after the expiration of their enlistment they will resume the pension.

The pension is payable to the widow. If a woman be divorced from her husband in his lifetime she ceases to be his wife, and consequently cannot claim the pension as widow. Otherwise, however, where the divorce is less than a vinculo matrimonii. It would appear that a divorce obtained by the wife against the husband, even although invalid at law for some irregularity or technical defect, bars the woman from claiming as widow. The pension office cannot go behind the record to examine into the validity of the judgment or decree of any competent court. See Opin. Att'y Gen., case of claim of divorced wife of Aaron Burr. In this case the claim rested on the statute of New York, which leaves the wife all rights to the husband's estate when the decree is against him. The claim was overruled on the above principles.

they attain that age.* Where the person dying, as before mentioned, leaves neither wife nor minor child, but leaves a mother who was dependent in whole or in part on him for support, such mother will receive a pension for her lifetime, provided she does not marry after the death of her son. Where there are no representatives of the deceased of either of the above classes, his orphan sisters under sixteen will receive the pension until they are sixteen. In all these cases of pensions to relatives for the service of a deceased soldier or

That is, the children under sixteen will collectively receive the same pension that their mother would be entitled to, had she remained a widow. As the children attain the age of sixteen respectively, they cease to receive a portion of the pension, but still the whole pension continues to those under that age. Thus, suppose there are three children, John aged twelve, James aged six, and Mary aged two years, the pension goes to the three children, till John reaches sixteen, when he has no further claim. James and Mary continue to receive the full pension, and when James becomes sixteen, Mary receives the whole pension till she, herself, reaches that age. Pensions to all classes are designed, not to furnish a luxurious living to an idle class, but to keep from want those who are rendered unable to support themselves by their services to their country, and to provide for persons who have been deprived of their natural providers. It is expected that guardians of orphan children will bring them up to some useful calling, and so educate them as to enable them to earn their own living. For this reason, the pension is granted until they are sixteen, at which age their education will be completed, and they will be able to support themselves by their own labor.

The charitable institutions which are springing up for the purpose of providing for soldiers' orphans, have a noble work before them, and if it could be so arranged, children in those institutions, but especially girls, ought to be educated to a useful calling in them, and their pensions deposited in savings banks until the child leaves the institution, when the amount accumulated would reach a sum sufficient to start the child in life. Suppose a girl is admitted to such an institution at the age of three, an officer of the institution, or other humane person, becomes her guardian and obtains her pension. Let the semi-annual payments be invested at 6 per cent., and the child will have, on its attaining the age of sixteen, the sum of $1,888.26 with which to start out into the world. I commend these ideas to the notice of the charitable. Probably the best method of investing the sums obtained as pensions would be to take out an endowment policy on the life of the child, payable when it attains the age of sixteen. The New York Mutual Life Insurance Company, which is a noble monument of economic phil. anthropy, grants such policies, and the child in this way secures at once a safe investment and the benefits of compound interest.