man in the Regular Army is service within the meaning of the act of 1838, and that such service, both before and after the passage of the act of June 18, 1878, should be counted in computing longevity pay. The act of June 18, 1878 (20 Stat. L., 150), provides, in section 7: That on and after the passage of this act all officers of the Army of the United States who have served as officers in the volunteer forces during the War of the Rebellion or as enlisted men in the Armies of the United States, Regular or Volunteer, shall be, and are hereby, credited with the full time they may have served as such officers and enlisted men in computing their service f longevity pay. * * * As a result of these two decisions, the decision of Comptroller Butler which reversed Parris, and was, in its turn, reversed by Gilkeson, was followed by Comptroller Tracewell. The officers of the Army who made haste to present their claims under the Watson decision were met with the sweeping order of Comptroller Gilkeson and their claims were disallowed. Those who did not so present their claims found the Treasury doors open to allowance under Tracewell. Thus the old Latin maxim "Tarde venientibus ossa" is reversed. The claims of both are equally just, being identical in character. The officers whose claims were disallowed under the Gilkeson order, based pon a misconstruction of law and a nullification of the decisions of the Supreme Court, finding the Treasury doors closed because of prior settlements, ask that their claims may be settled in accordance with the decision of the Supreme Court and that they be allowed what their brother officers are allowed and what the present comptroller concedes is due them and would be allowed but for the prior settlements based upon error of law. The Committee on War Claims of the House has prepared and caused to be printed a very interesting pamphlet giving a history of these longevity-pay claims. On page 29 this statement appears: The arbitrary rejection in opposition to the opinion of the Supreme Court led to very unjust discriminations. Gen. U. S. Grant, Gen. W. S. Rosecrans, and Gen. Judson Kilpatrick filed their claims and had them allowed in 1889. The claims of their respective classmates, Gen. J. J. Reynolds, Gen. John Pope, and Gen. Guy V. Henry. were filed about the same time and disallowed because Second Comptroller Gilkeson refused to follow the Supreme Court. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan filed his claim in 1889 and it was rejected under Second Comptroller Gilkeson's ruling. His classmate, Alfred E. Latimer, did not file his claim until 1909, and it has been allowed and paid. The account of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman has not been readjusted, though the account of his classmate, Capt. Charles H. Humber, has been. The claim of Maj. Gen. G. K. Warren has, within the past two years, been paid to his legal representatives. The claim of his classmate, Gen. Eugene A. Carr, has been refused consideration because filed and erroneously rejected in 1890. Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter, Brig. Gen. John C. Kelton, and Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg applied to the accounting officers to restate their accounts in 1889 and were denied relief. The claims of their classmates, Maj. J. V. Du Bois, Lieut. Col. John W. Davidson, and Col. George L. Andrews, filed in the same office 20 years later, have been allowed and paid. This shows a reversal of the usual rule of vigilantibus et non dormientibus jura subvenient, in that those officers who applied promptly on the Supreme Court announcing its decision in a test case had their claims rejected through what is now admitted to have been an error on the part of the then second comptroller, while those claimants who did not apply at that time, but who waited until a eorrect practice was established 20 years later, have received their pay. The claims which were disallowed under the Gilkeson order are, 80 per cent of them, of officers who served during the Civil War, many of them with the greatest distinction and with the thanks of Congress Sherman, Sheridan, Meade, George H. Thomas, Hancock, Henry J. Hunt, Custer, Gregg, Horatio Wright, Lorenzo Thomas, Alfred Pleasanton, William B. Franklin, Charles Griffin, Gordon Granger, Philip St. George Cooke; the heroic Cushing, killed at Gettysburg; Wesley Merritt; Garesche, Rosecrans's chief of staff, killed at Stone River; and many another who served as an enlisted man, like Gen. Theodore A. Baldwin, Maj. James Belger, Col. Lewis V. Caziarc, Gen. Adna R. Chaffee; Maj. Richard Comba, 46 years on the active list; Maj. Michael Cooney, Gen. Wirt Davis, Maj. Thomas B. Dewese; Gen. John W. Clous, 44 years on the active list; Gen. John Green, 43 years in active service, four times brevetted for conspicuous gallantry, and awarded the medal of honor; Maj. Myles Moylan, Maj. Daniel Robinson, over 60 years in the Army; Gen. Theodore Schwan, 44 years of active service; and many others, whose claims were disallowed under the order of Comptroller Gilkeson. The statement that there was no such thing as promotion from the ranks at the time the act of 1838 was passed is absolutely without foundation. One of the questions propounded to Comptroller Parris by Paymaster Gen. Towson, as shown by the comptroller's decision, related to the enlisted service of officers promoted before the act was passed. The records and registers of the Army show that long prior to 1838 a great many enlisted men of the Regular Army had been rewarded by commissions in the Regular Army, as they were at the time the act was passed and for many years thereafter. Appended hereto is a list of officers promoted from the Army-from the ranks. Hundreds of other names of officers so promoted might be added if necessary. This list does not include the names of any officer who enlisted for the War of 1812 and was promoted to the grade of lieutenant and honorably discharged at or about the close of that war, as the act of 1838 took no account of a service of less than five years. It contains only the names of those whose enlisted service and promotions were both in the Regular Army. As the Comptroller of the Treasury said in 1908, the sanction of the Gilkeson decision "is to perpetuate error, overthrow the law, and deny to a worthy class of men the rights which the law clearly gives to them." (Comp. Dec., Vol. XIV, p. 795.) ACTS OF CONGRESS FIXING RATIONS. The ration provided for by the act of July 5, 1838, was a 20-cent ration. It was increased to 30 cents by the act of February 21, 1857 (11 Stat. L., 163). By the act of March 3, 1865 (13 Stat. L., sec. 3, p. 497), it was fixed at 50 cents. It was subsequently reduced to 30 cents and so remained until the passage of the act of July 14, 1870 (16 Stat. L., sec. 24, p. 320), which fixed annual salaries for officers of the Army and substituted a percentage on their salaries for the additional ration. This is the language of the act: * * and there That the pay of the officers of the Army shall be as follows: * shall be allowed and paid to each and every commissioned officer below the rank of brigadier general, including chaplains and others having assimilated rank or pay, 10 per cent of thei current yearly pay for each and every term of five years of service: Provided, That the total amount of such increase for length of service shal in no case exceed 40 per cent on the yearly pay of his grade, as established by this act: And provided further, That the pay of a colonel shall in no case exceed $4,500 per annum nor the pay of a lieutenant colonel $4,000 per annum. * * * OFFICERS OF THE REGULAR ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES WHO WERE PROMOTED FROM THE RANKS. PHILIP ANSPACH. Private and sergeant, Light Dragoons, July 13, 1808, to September, 1813; cornet, Light Dragoons, September 23, 1813; third lieutenant April 19, 1814; honorably discharged June 15, 1815. 1812. JOSHUA B. BRANT. Private, sergeant, and sergeant major, Twenty-third Infantry, February 26, 1813, to July, 1814; ensign, Twenty-third Infantry, July 15, 1814; second lieutenant October 1, 1814; transferred to Second Infantry May, 1815; regimental quartermaster June 10, 1815, to December 9, 1819; first lieutenant December 1, 1819; captain March 22, 1832, to December 28, 1832; major December 28, 1832; lieutenant colonel July 7, 1838; resigned November 7, 1839. JAMES VINCENT BALL. Corporal, Light Dragoons, May 1, 1794; lieutenant October 19, 1795: captain February 6, 1799; honorably discharged June 1, 1802; captain, Light Dragoons, April 28, 1812; major, Second Light Dragoons, September 16, BEDEL HAZEN. Private and sergeant, Eleventh Infantry, August 27, 1812, to September, 1813; ensign, Eleventh Infantry September 21, 1813; third lieutenant January 1, 1814; second lieutenant June 15, 1814; regimental quartermaster June, 1814, to June, 1815; first lieutenant October 19, 1816; honorably discharged June 1, 1821. JAMES BELGER. Private, corporal, and sergeant, company H, and sergeant major, Second Infantry, November, 1832, to October 15, 1838; second lieutenant, Sixth Infantry, October 15, 1838; first lieutenant February 27, 1843; regimental adjutant February 1, 1840, to January 1, 1846; captain, acting quartermaster, June 18, 1846; major (quartermaster) August 3, 1861; colonel July 11, 1862; dismissed November 30, 1863; major (quartermaster) March 3, 1871 (by Act of Congress March 3, 1871); retired June, 1879. NOTE. This was a promotion from the ranks (Oct. 15, 1838) about the time the act of July 5, 1838, was passed. OLIVER O. BANGS. Sergeant, Third Artillery, May 6, 1812, to October, 1813; third lieutenant, Third Artillery, October 11, 1813; second lieutenant April 19, 1814; resigned September 30, 1814; second lieutenant, Ordnance, December 2, 1815; first lieutenant August 13, 1819; honorably discharged June 1, 1821. GEORGE BRUCE. Private, corporal, and sergeant, Company H, First Infantry, April 17, 1838, to April 17, 1841; reenlisted; private, corporal, and sergeant, Company H, Second Infantry, July 8, 1841, to July 8, 1848; second lieutenant June 28, 1848. BENJAMIN R. CHRISTIAN. Sergeant, Seventh Infantry, December 29, 1808, to July, 1814; ensign, Seventh Infantry, July 9, 1814; third lieutenant September 1, 1811. RICHARD DOUGLASS. Private, corporal, and sergeant, Fifth Infantry, June, 1812, to June 25, 1812; second lieutenant, Second Artillery, July, 1817; served until 1821. GUSTAVUS S. DRANE. Private, corporal, and sergeant, Light Artillery, April 21, 1812, to April, 1814; third lieutenant of Artillery April 15, 1814; second lieutenant March 17, 1814; first lieutenant, November 15, 1817; transferred to Fourth Artillery June 1, 1821; transferred to Second Artillery August 16, 1821; brevet captain November 15, 1827, "for 10 years' faithful service in one grade"; captain May 30, 1832; died April 16, 1846. JOHN DARLING. Private, corporal, and sergeant, Company H, Fourth Artillery, from January, 1830, to June 22, 1838; second lieutenant, Fifteenth Infantry, July 31, 1838. JOHN ELLISON. Private, corporal, and sergeant from September, 1806, to September 1813; third lieutenant, First Artillery, September 29, 1813; second lieutenant March 17, 1814; honorably discharged June 15, 1815; reinstated in Sixth Infantry December 2, 1815; first lieutenant March 31, 1817. PETER WILLIAM GRAYSON. Private, Seventh Infantry, March 13, 1813, to March, 1815; second lieutenant, Third Infantry, February 10, 1818; dismissed February 5, 1820. THOMAS HENDRICKSON. Private, Artillery Corps, December 13, 1819, to July 18, 1821; private and sergeant, Company F, and sergeant major, Third Infantry, July 20, 1823, to July 20, 1828; private, sergeant, and sergeant major, Sixth Infantry, July 28, 1828, to April 25, 1833; ordnance sergeant, April 25, 1833, to June 10, 1836; second lieutenant, Sixth Infantry, July 31, 1838; captain, January 27, 1853; major, June 27, 1862; retired August 31, 1863. SAMUEL HOUSTON. (United States Senator and first governor of Texas.) Private and sergeant, Seventh Infantry, March 24, to August, 1813; ensign, Thirty-ninth Infantry, July 29, 1813; third lieutenant, December 31, 1813; second lieutenant, May 20, 1814; transferred to First Infantry, May 17, 1815; first lieutenant, May 1, 1817; resigned March 1, 1818. JOHN W. HOLDING. Sergeant major, Twenty-first Infantry, May 18, 1812, to August 1813; ensign, Twenty-first Infantry, August 5, 1813; second lieutenant, March 8, 1814; first lieutenant, July 31, 1814; brevet captain, July 25, 1814; dropped November 11, 1818. DANIEL JACKSON. Sergeant of Gridley's Regiment Massachusetts Artillery, May to December, 1775, and in Knox's Regiment Continental Artillery, December, 1775, to November 16, 1776; second lieutenant, Third Continental Artillery, January 1, 1777; first lieutenant, September 12, 1778; major, Second Artillery and Engineers, June 4, 1798; resigned April 30, 1803. WILLIAM B. HAYWARD. Private, corporal, and sergeant, Company A, and sergeant major, First Artillery, July 21, 1831, to July 7, 1838; second lieutenant, Eighth Infantry, July 7, 1838; first lieutenant, August 31, 1841; resigned December 31, 1842. SAMUEL JOHNSON. Private, corporal, and sergeant, Fifteenth Infantry, December 4, 1813, to June, 1815; sergeant and sergeant major, Light Artillery, June, 1815, to May 11, 1818; second lieutenant, Light Artillery, April 18, 1818; resigned October 9, 1818. NOTE. While his first service was in the Volunteer Army of the War of 1812, he was in the Regular Army when promoted. SETH JOHNSON. Private, corporal, and sergeant, Thirteenth Infantry, May 5, 1812, to November, 1813; ensign, Thirteenth Infantry, October 27, 1813; third lieutenant, January 31, 1814; second lieutenant, August 20, 1814; first lieutenant, May 1, 1819; captain, September 13, 1831. WILLIAM W. LEAR. Corporal and sergeant, Light Dragoons, May 18, 1812, to June 15, 1815; and in Fourth Infantry to March, 1818; second lieutenant, Fourth Infantry, February 13, 1818; first lieutenant, February 24, 1818; captain, May 1, 1824; major, Third Infantry, June 14, 1842; died October 31, 1846. WILLIAM L. MCCLINTOCK. Private and sergeant, Third Artillery, July 1, 1812, to May 20, 1813; third lieutenant, Third Artillery, May 20, 1813; second lieutenant, June 20, 1813; major, June 27, 1843; died October 29, 1848. ANDREW MCINTIRE. Private and sergeant, Twenty-sixth Infantry, July 4, 1814, to June, 1815, and quartermaster sergeant, Light Artillery, to February 24, 1818; second lieutenant, Light Artillery, February 13, 1818; transferred to First Artillery June 1, 1821; first lieutenant, December 1, 1822; resigned March 1, 1826. JOHN R. MORGAN. Private, corporal, and sergeant, Forty-third Infantry, October 12, 1813, and private, corporal, and sergeant, First Corps Artillery, August 4, 1817, to June, 1819; second lieutenant, Corps Artillery, March 3, 1819; died June 18, 1819. JAMES S. SANDERSON. Private, sergeant, and first sergeant, Company B, and sergeant major, Seventh Infantry, March 7, 1825, to March 1, 1838; second lieutenant, Seventh Infantry, March 1, 1838; killed in action May 19, 1840. SAMUEL SHANNON. Sergeant, Thirty-sixth Infantry, March 19 to July, 1814; ensign, Fourteenth Infantry, July 27, 1814; third lieutenant, August 5, 1814; honorably discharged June 15, 1815; second lieutenant, September 10, 1818; first lieutenant, February 23, 1820; captain, July 28, 1831; died September 4, 1836. JOHN STEWART. Private, Thirty-ninth Infantry, July 20, 1814, to June, 1815, and sergeant, Seventh Infantry, June, 1815, to August, 1819; second lieutenant, Seventh Infantry, August 13, 1819; first lieutenant, October 6, 1822; captain, June 30, 1828; died December 8, 1838. GEORGE B. DANDY, of Georgia, reentered the Regular Army as private Company A, First Artillery, November 14, 1854, in which he served continuously as first sergeant until promoted second lieutenant, Third Artillery, February 21, 1857. He served throughout the Civil War, was retired with the rank of colonel in 1894, and as colonel (under the increased-grade act) April 22, 1904. He received appointment as brevet brigadier general of volunteers March 13, 1865. O DECLARATION OF INTERNATIONAL NAVAL CONFERENCE SIGNED BY THE DELEGATES OF THE UNITED TOGETHER WITH AN OPINION OF HON. CONE JOHNSON, SOLICITOR TO THE TRANSFER OF MERCHANT SHIPS DURING WAR PRESENTED BY MR. O'GORMAN AND MR. SIMMONS AUGUST 11, 1914.-Ordered to be printed WASHINGTON GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE |