State of Virginia the amount of the judgments which have been rendered against the said State for and on account of the promise contained in an act passed by the General Assembly of the State of Virginia, in the month of May, A. D. 1779, and in favor of the officers, or representatives of the officers, of the regiments and corps hereafter recited, and not exceeding in the whole the sum of two hundred and forty-one thousand three hundred and forty-five dollars, to wit: 1. To the officers, or their legal representatives, of the regiment commanded by the late Colonel George Gibson, the amount of the judgments which they have obtained, and which are now unsatisfied. 2. To the officers, or their legal representatives, of the regiment denominated the Second State Regiment, commanded, at times, by Colonels Brent and Dabney, the amount of the judgments which they have obtained, and which are now unsatisfied. 3. To the officers, or their legal representatives, of the regiments of Colonels Clarke and Crockett, and Captain Rogers' troop of cavalry, who were employed in the Illinois service, the amount of the judgments which they have obtained, and which are now unsatisfied. 4. To the officers, or their legal representatives, serving in the regiment of State Artillery commanded by the late Colonel Marshall, and those serving in the State Garrison Regiment commanded by Colonel Muter, and those serving in the State Cavalry, commanded by Major Nelson, the amount of the judgments which they have obtained, and which are now unsatisfied. 5. To the officers, or their legal representatives, who served in the navy of Virginia during the late war of the Revolution, the amount of the judgments which they have obtained, and which are now unsatisfied. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, directed and required to adjust and settle those claims for half-pay of the officers of the aforesaid regiments and corps, which have not been paid or prosecuted to judg ment against the State of Virginia, and for which said State would be bound on the principles of the half-pay cases already decided in the Supreme Court of Appeals of said State; which several sums of money herein directed to be settled or paid, shall be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated by law. On the 12th of August, 1848, Congress appropriated a further sum of $81,273.17, for the payment of those Virginia half-pay claims, and made it the duty of the agent of the State to first deposit authenticated copies of the acts or judgments under which the money was paid by the State of Virginia. By act of Congress, approved March 3, 1835, the adjustment of those claims was transferred from the Secretary of the Treasury to the Commissioner of Pensions. We will add a few cases showing the large sums paid to the heirs or legal representatives of officers entitled to half-pay under this act : John Allison, Lieutenant-colonel....... $360 per annum .... $7,989.04 John Applewhaite, Surgeon, Navy.... 800 .... .... 240 8,937.58 4,148.88 7,284.88 John Archer, Lieutenant, Navy... John Allen, Captain of Artillery.. William Armistead, Paymaster.. Edward Worthington, Captain, Shelby county, Ky.. 7,149.50 REVOLUTIONARY PENSION LAWS. PRIOR to the year 1818, Congress passed no pension laws except for the relief of those officers and soldiers who were disabled in the service; consequently, all those who were not disabled, and died between the close of the Revolutionary war and the year 1818, could receive no pension, for all the pension laws require that the soldier shall be living at the date of the passage of the law. The pension acts now in force are as follows: ACT MARCH 18, 1818. SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, in Congress assembled, That every commissioned officer, non-commissioned officer, musician, and private soldier, and all officers in the hospital department and medical staff, who served in the war of the Revolution to the end thereof, or for the term of nine months, or longer, at any period of the war, on the Continental establishment, and every commissioned officer, noncommissioned officer, mariner, or marine, who served at the same time, and for a like term, in the naval service of the United States, who is yet a resident citizen of the United States, and who is, or hereafter, by reason of his reduced circumstances in life, shall be in need of assistance from his country for support, and shall have substantiated his claim to a pension in the manner hereinafter directed, shall receive a pension from the United States: if an officer, of twenty dollars per month during life; if a non-commissioned officer, musician, mariner, marine, or private soldier, of eight dollars per month during life: Provided, no person shall be entitled to the provisions of this act until he shall have relinquished his claim to every pension heretofore allowed him by the laws of the United States. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That, to entitle any person to the provisions of this act, he shall make a declaration, under oath or affirmation, before the district judge of the United States of the district, or before any judge or court of record of the county, State, or territory in which the applicant shall reside, setting forth, if he belonged to the army, the company, regiment, and line to which he belonged; the time he entered service, and the time and manner of leaving the service; and, in case he belonged to the navy, a like declaration, setting forth the name of the vessel and particular service in which he was employed, and the time and manner of leaving the service, and shall offer such other evidence as may be in his power; and on its appearing, to the satisfaction of the said judge, that the applicant served in the Revolutionary war as aforesaid, against the common enemy, he shall certify and transmit the testimony in the case, and the proceedings had thereon, to the Secretary for the Department of War, whose duty it shall be, if satisfied the applicant comes under the provisions of this act, to place such officer, musician, mariner, marine, or soldier, on the pension list of the United States, to be paid in the same manner as pensions to invalids who have been placed on the pension list are now paid, and under such restrictions and regulations, in all respects, as are prescribed by law. SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That every pension, by virtue of this act, shall commence on the day that the declaration under oath or affirmation, prescribed in the foregoing section, shall be made. SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, from and after the passage of this act, no sale, transfer, or mortgage, of the whole, or any part, of the pension in pursuance of this act, shall be valid; and any person who shall swear or affirm falsely in the premises, and he be thereof convicted, shall suffer as for willful and corrupt perjury. The above act relates to the Continental army alone, or those forces raised by Congress and serving in the regular army of the United Colonies, and those serving in the Continental navy. Soon after the passage of this act, applications for pensions numbering about eight thousand had accumulated, so that on the 1st May, 1820, Congress appears to have been alarmed into the passage of an act to the effect that after March 4, 1820, no person shall be entitled to the further benefits of this act "until he shall have exhibited to some court of record, in the county, city, or borough in which he resides, a schedule, subscribed by him, containing his whole estate and income." Being poor, yet possessing too much of the spirit of '76, to permit their "goods and chattels" to be exposed to the gaze of the public, many refused a compliance with the provisions of this act; and others possessed of some estates could not affirm that they stood in "need of the assistance of their country for a support." Many of those who had been admitted to pension prior to the passage of the act of May 1, 1820, made out their schedules as required, but in the opinion of the Secretary of War a large number of them were not entitled to the "assistance of their country for a support," and were consequently dropped from the rolls and ceased to be pensioners. The provisions of this act of May 1, 1820, as the government afterwards discovered, operated strongly on some as an invitation to squander their property, so as to bring themselves fairly within the provisions of the act of 1818; and for this purpose many were known to make over their property to friends or children for mere imaginary considerations. The knowledge of these facts brought forth from Congress another act, approved March 1, 1823, authorizing the Secretary of War "to restore to the list of pensioners the name of any person who may have been, or may hereafter be, stricken therefrom, if |