CHAPTER 163.-Approved, June 21, 1860.—Vol. 12, p. 67. An Act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending thirtieth June, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.

For the manufacture and purchase of apparatus and equipments for field signals, two thousand dollars, and that there be added to the staff of the army one signal officer, with the rank, pay, and allowances of a major of cavalry, who shall have charge, under the direction of the secretary of war, of all signal duty and of all books, papers, and apparatus connected therewith.

SEC. 2. That there be added to the medical corps of the army four surgeons and four assistant surgeons,1 to be appointed in accordance with the existing laws.

SEC. 4. That the allowance of sugar and coffee to the noncommissioned officers, musicians, and privates of the army, as fixed by the seventeenth section of the act of 5 July, 1838, shall hereafter be ten pounds of coffee and fifteen pounds of sugar2 for every one hundred rations.

SEC. 8. That upon the passage of this act, or as soon thereafter as practicable, a commission shall be appointed in the manner hereinafter designated, to consist of two senators, two members of the house of representatives, and two officers of the army, which commission shall examine into the organization, system of discipline, and course of instruction of the United States Military Academy, with a view to ascertain what modification or changes, if any, are desirable, in order that the academy shall best accomplish the object of its establishment. That the said commission shall reports the result of its examination to the President of the senate and Speaker of the house of representatives. That the Commissioners from the senate shall be appointed by the President of the senate, those from the house of representatives by the Speaker of the house, and those from the army by the President of the United States.

[SEC. 9. $15,000 appropriated to defray the expenses of the commission.]

1 The medical corps was further increased by sec. 2, chap. 42, 3 Aug. 1861, and by chapters 55 and 127, July, 1862.

2 Was 6 pounds of coffee and 12 pounds of sugar by that act, chap. 162.

3 The commission, consisting of Jefferson Davis and Solomon Foot of the Senate, and John Cochrane of the House, and Major Robert Anderson and Captain A. A. Humphreys of the army, reported a bill to reorganize the Military Academy, which has not been considered by Congress.

CHAPTER 205.-Approved, June 23, 1860.-Vol. 12, p. 91.

An Act making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of government for the year ending June thirtieth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty

one.

SEC. 3. [That all purchases and contracts for supplies or services in any of the departments of the government, except for personal services, when the public exigencies do not require the immediate delivery of the article or articles, or performance of the service, shall be made by advertising, a sufficient time previously, for proposals respecting the same. When immediate delivery or performance is required by the public exigency, the articles or service required may be procured by open purchase or contract at the places and in the manner in which such articles are usually bought and sold or such services engaged between individuals. No contract or purchase shall hereafter be made unless the same be authorized by law, or be under an appropriation adequate to its fulfilment, except in the War and Navy Departments for clothing, subsistence, forage, fuel, quarters, or transportation, which, however, shall not exceed the necessities of the current year.]

No arms nor military supplies whatever, which are of a patented invention, shall be purchased, nor the right of using or applying any patented invention, unless the same shall be authorized by law and the appropriation therefor explicitly set forth that it is for such patented invention.

CHAPTER 49.-Approved, February 21, 1861.—Vol. 12, p. 147. An Act making appropriations for the naval service for the year ending thirtieth June, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.

SEC. 5. That the third section of the act entitled "An act' making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the government for the year ending 30 June, 1861," approved June 23, 1860, be, and the same is hereby, repealed, except so far as the said section hibits the purchase of patented fire-arms, as to which the said section shall still be in force.3

pro

1 Sec. 5, chap. 49, 21 February, 1861, repeals this section, except so much thereof as relates to the purchase of patented fire-arms; but sec. 10, chap. 84, 2 March, 1861, after reinstating the part repealed, which is between brackets above, repeals the remainder of the section.

2 Chap. 205, ante.

3 Sec. 10, chap. 84, 2 March, 1861, repeals all of sec. 3, chap. 205, referred to above, but re-enacts all but the concluding sentence. See note thereto.

CHAPTER 60.-Approved, February 28, 1861.—Vol. 12, p. 177.

An Act to amend an Act1 supplementary to an Act approved March third, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, to organize an institution for the insane of the army and navy of the District of Columbia, in the said District, approved February seventh, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.

That, as a substitute for the second section of the supplementary act aforesaid, which is hereby repealed, the secretary of the interior shall have power to grant his order for the admission into the Government Hospital for the Insane of any insane person not charged with a breach of the peace, upon (1) the certificate of any judge of the circuit or criminal court for the District of Columbia, or of any justice of the peace of the District, stating that two respectable physicians, resident of the District, appeared before said judge or justice, and certified under oath, and under their hands, that they knew the person alleged to be insane, and that, from personal examination, they believed him or her to be insane and a fit subject for treatment in said hospital, and that he or she was a resident of the District at the time he or she was seized with the mental disorder under which he or she then labored; also stating that two respectable householders, residents of the District, appeared before him, the said judge or justice, and certified under oath, and under their hands, that they knew the person alleged to be insane, and that from a personal examination into his or her affairs they believe him or her to be unable to support himself or herself and family (or himself or herself, if he or she have no family) under the visitation of insanity, and to pay his or her board and other expenses in said hospital, and the certificate under oath of such physicians and of such householders shall accompany the certificate of such judge or justice; and (2) upon an application requesting that such order may be issued, made in writing, within five days after the date of the affidavits aforesaid, by a member of the Board of Visitors of said hospital, upon an inspection of said affidavits and certificate thereto; and it will be the duty of said visitor to withhold his application if he has reason to doubt the indigence of the party in whose behalf the application is desired, till such doubt is removed by testimony satisfactory to said visitor. SEC. 2. That, if it shall appear in the case of any insane person'

1 Chap. 199.

whose insanity commenced while he or she was a resident of the District of Columbia, that he or she is able to defray a portion but not the whole of the expenses of his or her support and treatment in the Government Hospital for the Insane, then the Board of Visitors of the said hospital is authorized to inquire into the facts of the case; and if it shall appear to said board, upon such inquiry, that such insane person has property and no family, or more property than is required for the support of his or her family, then, as a condition upon which such insane person admitted, or to be admitted upon the order of the secretary of the interior, shall receive or continue to receive the benefits of said hospital, there shall be paid to the superintendent, from the income, property, or estate of such insane person, such portion of his expenses in said hospital as a majority of the said board shall determine to be just and reasonable under all the circumstances.

[Approved, February 28, 1861.]

CHAPTER 84.-Approved, March 2, 1861.-Vol. 12, p. 214. An Act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the government for the year ending June thirtieth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.

SEC. 10. That all purchases and contracts for supplies or services in any of the departments of the government, except for personal services, when the public exigencies do not require the immediate delivery of the article or articles, or performance of the service, shall be made by advertising, a sufficient time previously, for proposals respecting the same. When immediate delivery or performance is required by the public exigency, the articles or service required may be procured by open purchase or contract at the places and in the manner in which such articles are usually bought and sold or such services engaged between individuals. No contract or purchase shall hereafter be made, unless the same be authorized by law, or be under an appropriation adequate to its fulfilment, except in the War and Navy Departments for clothing, subsistence, forage, fuel, quarters, or transportation, which, however, shall not exceed the necessities

1 See sec. 3, chap. 205, 23 June, 1860, and sec. 5, chap. 49, 21 Feb. 1861, ante. These two sections, with the present, exhibit a curious specimen of awkward legislation.

of the current year. And the third section of an act entitled "An act making appropriations for the legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the government for the year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and sixty-one," shall be, and the same is hereby, repealed.

[Approved, March 2, 1861.]

CHAPTER 3.-Approved, July 13, 1861.-Vol. 12, p. 255. An Act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes.

That whenever it shall, in the judgment of the President, by reason of unlawful combinations of persons in opposition to the laws of the United States, become impracticable to execute the revenue laws and collect the duties on imports by the ordinary means, in the ordinary way, at any port of entry in any collection district, he is authorized to cause such duties to be collected at any port of delivery in said district until such obstruction shall cease; and in such case the surveyors at said ports of delivery shall be clothed with all the powers and be subject to all the obligations of collectors at ports of entry; and the secretary of the treasury, with the approbation of the President, shall appoint such number of weighers, gaugers, measurers, inspectors, appraisers, and clerks as may be necessary, in his judgment, for the faithful execution of the revenue laws at said ports of delivery, and shall fix and establish the limits within which such ports of delivery are constituted ports of entry, as aforesaid; and all the provisions of law regulating the issue of marine papers, the coasting trade, the warehousing of imports, and collection of duties, shall apply to the ports of entry so constituted, in the same manner as they do to ports of entry established by the laws now in force.

SEC. 2. That if, from the cause mentioned in the foregoing section, in the judgment of the President, the revenue from duties on imports cannot be effectually collected at any port of entry in any collection district, in the ordinary way and by the ordinary means, or by the course provided in the foregoing section, then, and in that case, he may direct that the custom-house

1 Chap. 205, ante.