In case there are neither public or private records of the marriage, it will be necessary to prove the marriage by the affidavits of persons having knowledge of the fact. The witnesses should state their ages and place of residence, and must state why they are able to testify to the date of the marriage, or how the events became impressed upon their minds, so that they can satisfy the office as to the probability of their being correct as to dates. The identity of the widow must next be proved by the affidavits of two certified credible witnesses, as follows: STATE OF.. COUNTY OF. } 88. On this....day of A.D. 185., personally appeared before me, the undersigned, a Justice of the Peace, in and for said County,. ..and who are to me well known, and who are credible witnesses, and who being by me duly sworn, depose and say, that they are each well acquainted with Mrs.. the above applicant for a pension-that they have years past. That they were acquainted with... known her for. her late husband, having known him for.. ..and.. 18..; and the said.... .years previous to his death that they, the said.. lived together as husband and wife, and were reputed so to be, that deponents never heard the fact of their marriage disputed or questioned. That the said. died on the ......day of..... .has been since that day, and still is reputed to be his widow, which deponents believe to be the fact. That she has never married since her said husband's death, and still is his widow, and that her said husband was the identical man mentioned as a soldier in her declaration, and further, that they, deponents, do reside in the county aforesaid. WITNESS.... SWORN TO AND SUBSCRIBED before me, this.....day of.. STATE OF.. COUNTY OF. A.D. 18.. J. P. .Esq., before whom the fore I hereby certify, that.. going affidavits were made, and who has thereunto subscribed his name, was at the time of so doing a Justice of the Peace, in and for the county aforesaid, duly commissioned and sworn, and that his signatures thereto are genuine. : In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of....Court, for the County aforesaid, this......day of. 185.. Clerk of.. In case the widow is dead, the children surviving her, can claim the form of declaration, &c., applicable will be found under remarks relative to claims under act of 7th June, 1832, on page 36. Administrators may claim under this act for the benefit of the surviving children. The form of declaration applicable will be found on page 37. In both cases the date of the act should be changed. REVOLUTIONARY PENSIONS. PENSIONS FOR WIDOWS. ACT OF JULY 7, 1838. This act, together with those supplemental thereto, provides pensions to the widows of officers and soldiers, who served in the revolutionary war, (who, if living, would be entitled under the act of 7th June, 1832) who were married after the expiration of the service, and before the 1st January, 1794, to commence on the 4th March, 1836, and to continue for five years. WIDOWS' PENSION ACT OF JULY 7, 1838. APPROVED, JULY 7, 1838. Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represeniatires of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That if any person who served in the war of the revolution in the manner specified in the act passed the seventh of June, eighteen hundred and thirty-two, entitled "An act supplementary to the act for the relief of certain surviving officers and soldiers of the revolution,” have died, leaving a widow, whose marriage took place after the expiration of the last period of his service, and before the first day of January, seventeen hundred and ninety-four, such widow shall be entitled to receive, for and during the term of five years from the fourth day of March, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, the annuity or pension which might have been allowed to her husband, in virtue of the said act, if living at the time it was passed : Provided, That in the event of the marriage of such widow, said annuity or pension shall be discontinued. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That no pledge, mortgage, sale, assignment, or transfer of any right, claim, or interest, in any annuity, half-pay, or pension, granted by this act, shall be valid, nor shall the half-pay, annuity, or pension, granted by this act, or any former act of Congress, be liable to attachment, levy, or seizure, by any process, in law or equity, but shall enure wholly to the personal benefit of the pensioner or annuitant entitled to the same; and that before a warrant shall be delivered to any person acting for or in behalf of any one entitled to money under this act, such person shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation, to be administered by the proper accounting officer, and put on file, that he has no interest in said money, by any pledge, mortgage, transfer, agreement, understanding, or arrangement, and that he does not know or believe that the same has been so disposed of to any other person. Sec. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of War shall adopt such regulations and forms of evidence, in relation to applications and payments under this act, as the President of the United States may prescribe. A widow is not entitled under the foregoing act, in case her husband, for whose service she claims, was living on the 7th day of June, 1832. OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL, May 31, 1842. SIR: I have had the honor to receive and to consider your observations of the 30th instant, on the construction heretofore put upon the words of the act of July 7, 1838, in relation to pensions to be paid to the widows of officers who have died, and who, but they were dead at the time of the passing of the act of 1832, would have received their pension under this latter act. Considering it as res integra, I should say that the case of a widow whose husband actually received his annuity under that act, is not within the provisions of the statute of 1838. Besides that, the words do not embrace the case; and, besides the difficulty-insuperable, it appears to me-in the way of a widow drawing pay from the 4th March, 1836, when her husband happens to have survived that epoch, the 4th section of the act of 1832 provides expressly for the case of an officer dying “during the period intervening between the semi-annual payments directed to be made.” The provision is, “that the proportionate amount of pay which shall accrue between the last preceding semi-annual payment and the death of such person, shall be paid to his widow.” The act of 1832, therefore, contemplates the case of a husband entitled under it, and gives the widow all he would have received, and no more. The act of 1836 took up a case not within that of 1832. It provides for a certain description of wife who was totally excluded from all benefit under that act by the death of her husband. The act of 1839 goes a little further. It extends to another description of wives ; but it still contemplates them as it gives to them what their husbands, if alive, would have taken. I do not see how language can be plainer. But Mr. Butler's opinion having settled the practice under the act of 1836, it is perhaps, too late to change your practice in regard to it. The act of 1838 differs from the last mentioned statute in the important feature above referred to. The widow is to begin to draw her pension from March, 1836. Now, if her husband were then alive, it is clear she could not be entitled to an additional allowance in her own right. I hold that to be fatal to the application of Mr. Butler's reasoning to the last act. With respect to this act, therefore, you are free to take the course you shall judge fittest. I should have rejoiced to be able to adopt a construction favorable to the claims of the widows of these brave men. |