The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the Senate bill, (No. 106,) to authorize the payment of invalid pensions, in certain cases, beg leave to report:

That this bill (then No. 39) was referred to this committee at the 1st session of the 32d Congress, and by it reported back, with an amendment, and accompanied by all the information to be obtained in relation thereto. The amendment of the committee was concurred in, and the bill as amended passed the Senate. In the House it was referred to the Committee on Pensions, who failed to report upon it.

The committee adopt their report of February 3, 1852, and report the bill back without amendment, and recommend its passage.

IN SENATE, FEBRUARY 3, 1852.

The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred "a bill (S. 39) to authorize the payment of invalid pensions, in certain cases," beg leave to report:

That by the first section of the act of May 15, 1828, each surviving officer of the continental line of the army of the revolution was to receive a pension, "to begin on the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, and to continue during his natural life." The second section provided, "that whenever any of said officers has received money of the United States, as a pensioner, since the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, aforesaid, the sum so received shall be deducted from what said officer would otherwise be entitled to under the first section of this act; and every pension to which said officer is now entitled shall cease after the passage of this act."

Previous to the passage of the act of May 15, 1828, several officers of the continental line had, in consequence of the wounds they had received in battle, been placed on the pension roll as invalid pensioners; and having availed themselves of the provisions of that act, their pen

sions, as invalids, were deducted or withheld from the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six.

On the 31st of May, 1831, an act was passed to "amend" that of the 15th of May, 1828, which provides that the latter "shall not be construed to embrace invalid pensions, and that the pension of invalid soldiers shall not be deducted from the amount receivable by them under the said act."

Since the passage of the amendatory act of May 31, 1831, petitions have been presented to Congress from widows and heirs of officers whose invalid pensions had been deducted and withheld under the operation of the act of the 15th of May, 1828, praying for the payment to them of the amount so deducted or withheld; and the committee find that on the 15th of June, 1836, two acts were approved giving the relief asked; one for the relief of the widow of Samuel Gibbs, and one for the relief of the heirs of Richard Anderson. Another similar act, for the relief of the heirs of Moses White, was approved July 26, 1848, and another on, the 8th of January, 1849, for the relief of the heirs of William Evans. The committee have not made a thorough examination, and know not but other acts of the kind may have been passed.

From the legislation in the cases alluded to, it would appear that the Commissioner of Pensions did not place the construction upon the act of May 31, 1831, *hat was intended, or that the terms of the act were so carelessly drawn that they warranted a construction not intended, and the effects of which it required subsequent legislation to correct. If it were intended by that act that the sums which had been deducted and withheld from invalid pensioners, in consequence of their receiving the benefit of the act of May 15, 1828, should be restored to them by the Commissioner of Pensions, the act was not, perhaps, sufficiently plain and explicit, for he has construed the act to have simply a prospective operation; and hence the subsequent legislation in the individual cases above mentioned.

As early as February 9, 1843, an attempt was made in the other house to enact a law which should embrace all the cases where invalid pensions were withheld under the act of May 15, 1828. A report was then made from the Committee on Invalid Pensions favorable to such a law; and accompanying the report was a statement exhibiting the names of the officers from whom amounts had been withheld, the sum withheld from each, &c. The statement then made contained the names of nine officers, and the total amount withheld is stated to be $9,829 12. Since that period, however, the heirs of two of said officers have obtained the amount withheld, by means of special acts. The chairman having requested a new and correct statement from the Commissioner of Pensions, that officer has furnished the following:

In the above statement the name of James Glentworth is added to the list furnished by the Commissioner of Pensions in 1843; while the names of Moses White and William Evans are omitted, being embraced in the special acts alluded to.

Being disposed to admit the correctness of the grounds which Congress has repeatedly assumed in passing the acts for relief in 1836, 1848, and 1849, the committee have agreed to report an amended bill, to embrace all the cases now unprovided for, as shown by the statement of the Commissioner of Pensions.

The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred the Senate bill, (No. 106,) to authorize the payment of invalid pensions, in certain cases, beg leave to report:

That this bill (then No. 39) was referred to this committee at the 1st session of the 32d Congress, and by it reported back, with an amendment, and accompanied by all the information to be obtained in relation thereto. The amendment of the committee was concurred in, and the bill as amended passed the Senate. In the House it was referred to the Committee on Pensions, who failed to report upon it. The committee adopt their report of February 3, 1852, and report the bill back without amendment, and recommend its passage.

IN SENATE, FEBRUARY 3, 1852.

The Committee on Pensions, to whom was referred "a bill (S. 39) to authorize the payment of invalid pensions, in certain cases," beg leave to report:

That by the first section of the act of May 15, 1828, each surviving officer of the continental line of the army of the revolution was to receive a pension, "to begin on the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, and to continue during his natural life." The second section provided, "that whenever any of said officers has received money of the United States, as a pensioner, since the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six, aforesaid, the sum so received shall be deducted from what said officer would otherwise be entitled to under the first section of this act; and every pension to which said officer is now entitled shall cease after the passage of this act.”

Previous to the passage of the act of May 15, 1828, several officers of the continental line had, in consequence of the wounds they had received in battle, been placed on the pension roll as invalid pensioners; and having availed themselves of the provisions of that act, their pen