of an omission, or neglect, on the part of the claimant, to assign, in writing, or otherwise, his reasons to the comptroller, within the time limited, as aforesaid, why the suspended credits should be admitted, all future claims therefor shall be, and are hereby forever barred. But in case the claimant shall, within the time aforesaid, assign in writing, or otherwise, his reasons why the suspended credits should be admitted, the comptroller shall immediately consider the same, and decide thereon, according to the principles of equity, and the usages of the treasury department.

27. SECT. IV. In all cases, where the final decision of the comptroller shall be against the claimant, such determination shall be final and conclusive to all concerned.

ACT of March 3, 1797. (Vol. III. p. 421.)

28. SECT. I. When any revenue officer, or other person accountable for public money, shall neglect or refuse to pay into the treasury, the sum or balance reported to be due to the united states, upon the adjustment of his account, it shall be the duty of the comptroller, and he is hereby required to institute suit for the recovery of the same, adding to the sum stated to be due on such account, the commissions of the delinquent, which shall be forfeited in every instance where suit is commenced, and judgment obtained thereon, and an interest of six per cent. per annum, from the time of receiving the money, until it shall be repaid into the treasury.

29. SECT. II. In every case of delinquency, where suit has been, or shall be instituted, a transcript from the books and proceedings of the treasury certified by the register, and authenticated under the seal of the department, shall be admitted as evidence, and the court trying the cause, shall be thereupon authorized to grant judgment, and award execution, accordingly. And all copies of bonds, contracts, or other papers relating to, or connected with the settlement of any account between the united states and an individual,when certified by the register to be true copies of the originals on file,and authenticated under the seal of the department, as aforesaid, may be annexed to such transcripts, and shall have equal validity, and be entitled to the same degree of credit, which would be due to the original papers, if produced and authenticated in court:

30. Provided, That where suit is brought upon a bond, or other sealed instrument, and the defendant shall plead "non est factum," or upon motion to the court, such plea or motion being verified by the oath or affirmation of the defendant, it shall be lawful for the court to take the same into consideration, and (if it shall appear to be necessary for the -attainment of justice) to require the production of the original bond, contract or other paper specified in such affidavit.

31. SECT. III. Where suit shall be instituted against any person or persons indebted to the united states, as aforesaid, it shall be the duty of the court where the same may be pending, to grant judgment at the return-term, upon motion, unless the defendant shall, in open court, (the united states' attorney being present) make cath or affirmation,

that he is equitably entitled to credits which had been, previous to the commencement of the suit, submitted to the consideration of the accounting-officers of the treasury, and rejected; specifying each particular claim, so rejected in the affidavit; and that he cannot then come safely to trial. Oath or affirmation to this effect being made, subscribed and filed, if the court be thereupon satisfied, a continuance until the next succeeding term, may be granted; but not otherwise, unless as provided in the preceding section.

32. SECT. IV. In suits between the united states and individuals, no claim for a credit shall be admitted, upon trial, but such as shall appear to have been presented to the accounting-officers of the treasury, for their examination, and by them disallowed, in whole or in part, un less it should be proved, to the satisfaction of the court, that the defendant is, at the time of trial, in possession of vouchers not before in his power to procure, and that he was prevented from exhibiting a claim for such credit, at the treasury, by absence from the united states, or some unavoidable accident.

33. SECT. V. Where any revenue-officer or other person hereafter becoming indebted to the united states, by bond or otherwise, shall become insolvent, or where the estate of any deceased debtor, in the hands of executors or administrators, shall be insufficient to pay all the debts due from the deceased, the debt due to the united states shall be first satisfied; and the priority hereby established, shall be deemed to extend, as well to cases in which a debtor, not having sufficient property to pay all his debts, shall make a voluntary assignment thereof, or in which the estate and effects of an absconding, concealed or absent debtor, shall be attached by process of law, as to cases in which an act of legal bankruptcy shall be committed. [See Duties, collection of, 65.]

34. SECT. VI. All writs of execution upon any judgment obtained for the use of the united states, in any of the courts of the united states in one state, may run and be executed in any other state, or in any of the territories of the united states, but shall be issued from, and made returnable to the court where the judgment was obtained, any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

35. SECT. VII. Nothing in this act shall be construed to repeal, take away, or impair any legal remedy or remedies for the recovery of debts now due, or hereafter to be due to the united states, in law or equity, from any person or persons whatsoever, which remedy or remedies might be used if this act was not in force.

[See Bank 6: Columbia District 11. Debt 73. Duties, collection of, 98, 101, 111. Fines and Forfeitures. Insolvent Debtors. Light Houses, Beacons, Buoys and Public Piers. Militia 3. Mint. Navy 59. Navy Department, 5 and seq. Post Office and Post Roads 19, 20. Public Officers 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20. Quarantine 2, 3, 4, 6. Seamen 12. Ships or Vessels 10, 67. State Department 13. War Department. Wesbern Lands 35, and seq. 51, 64.]

ACT of February 4, 1791. (Vol. I. p. 278.)

5677

1. SECT. I. Whereas the legislature of the commonwealth of Vir2 ginia, by an act entitled, "An act concerning the erection of the district of Kentucky into an independent state," passed the eighteenth day of December, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, have consented, that the district of Kentucky, within the jurisdiction of the said commonwealth, and according to its actual boundaries at the time of passing the act aforesaid, should be formed into a new state: And whereas a convention of delegates, chosen by the people of the said district of Kentucky, have petitioned congress to consent, that, on the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, the said district should be formed into a new state, and received into the union, by the name of "the state of Kentucky:" It is enacted, That the congress doth consent, that the said district of Kentucky,within the jurisdiction of the commonwealth of Virginia,and according to its actual boundaries, on the eighteenth day of December,one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine,shall,upon the first day of June,one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, be formed into a new state, separate from, and inde pendent of, the said commonwealth of Virginia.

2. SECT. II. Upon the aforesaid first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, the said new state, by the name and stile of the state of Kentucky, shall be received and admitted into this union, as a new and entire member of the united states of America.

ACT of February 18, 1791. (Vol. I. p. 281.)

3. The state of Vermont having petitioned the congress to be admitted a member of the united states, It is enacted, That on the fourth day of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, the said state, by the name and stile of "the state of Vermont," shall be received and admitted into this union, as a new and entire member of the united states of America.

ACT of March 2, 1791. (Vol, I. p. 297.)

4. SECT. I. From and after the third day of March next, all the laws of the united states, which are not locally inapplicable, ought to have, and shall have, the same force and effect within the state of Vermont, ás elsewhere within the united states.

ACT of January 13, 1794. (Vol. III. p. 5.)

5. From and after the first day of May anno domini one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five, the flag of the united states, shall be fifteen stripes alternate red and white. The union shall be fifteen

stars, white in a blue field.

ACT of June 1, 1796. (Vol. III. p. 361.)

6. Whereas by the acceptance of the deed of cession of the state of North-Carolina, congress are bound to lay out into one or more states, the territory thereby ceded to the united states, it is enacted, That the whole of the territory ceded to the united states by the state of NorthCarolina, shall be one state, and the same is hereby declared to be one of the united states of America, on an equal footing with the original states, in all respects whatever, by the name and title of the state of Tennessee. That until the next general census, the said state of Tennessee shall be entitled to one representative in the house of represen tatives of the united states; and in all other respects, as far as they may be applicable, the laws of the united states shall extend to, and have force in the state of Tennessee, in the same manner as if that state had originally been one of the united states. [See Legislature 10.]

ACT of January 31, 1797. (Vol. III. p. 378.)

7. SECT. I. All the laws of the united states, which are not locally inapplicable, ought to have, and shall have, the same force and effect within the state of Tennessee, as elsewhere within the united states. Territory [See Crimes 34, and seq. Mint 20. State Department 6. 16, and seq.]

ACT of August 7, 1789. (Vol. I. p. 30.)

1. SECT. I. There shall be an executive department, to be denominated the department of war; and there shall be a principal officer therein, to be called the secretary for the department of war, who shall perform and execute such duties as shall from time to time be enjoined on, or entrusted to him by the president of the united states, agreeably to the constitution, relative to military commissions, or to the land or naval forces, ships, or warlike stores of the united states, or to such other matters respecting military or naval affairs, as the presi dent of the united states shall assign to the said department, or relative to the granting of lands to persons entitled thereto, for military ser

*This district was ceded to the united states by the ftate of North-Carolina, February 25, 1790, and accepted April 2, 1790, (see vol. I. p. 92,) and acts were passed for the government of it under the name of the territory of the unired Sates, south of the river Ohio, May 26, 1790, (vol. I. p. 118,) and May 8,.1792, (vol. II. p. 125.)

vices rendered to the united states, or relative to Indian affairs: And furthermore, the said principal officer shall conduct the business of the said department in such manner, as the president of the united states shall from time to time order or instruct. [Altered, see Navy Department 4.]

2. SECT. II. There shall be in the said department, an inferior officer, to be appointed by the said principal officer, to be employed therein as he shall deem proper, and to be called the chief clerk in the department of war, and who, whenever the said principal officer shall be removed from office by the president of the united states, or in any other case of vacancy, shall during such vacancy, have the charge and custody of all records, books and papers, appertaining to the said department. [See State Department 13, and Public Officers 12.]

3. SECT. III. The said principal officer, and every other person to be appointed or employed in the said department, shall, before he enters on the execution of his office or employment, take an oath or af firmation well and faithfully to execute the trust committed to him.

ACT of May 8, 1792. (Vol. II. p. 110.)

4. SECT. I. There shall be an accountant to the department of war, who shall be charged with the settlement of all accounts relative to the pay of the army, the subsistence of officers, bounties to soldiers, the expenses of the recruiting service, the incidental and contingent expenses of the department; and who shall report from time to time, all such settlements as shall have been made by him, for the inspection and revision of the accounting officers of the treasury; and the said accountant shall also be charged with the settlement of all claims for personal service authorized by the act of this congress of the twentyseventh of March last, and of all military claims lodged in the late office of the paymaster general and commissioner of army accounts, which are not foreclosed by the acts of limitation of the late congress, and he shall report from time to time, all such settlements as have been made by him, for the inspection and revision of the comptroller of the treasury. The compensation of the said accountant shall be a yearly salary of one thousand two hundred dollars. [Altered, see postea 8.]

5. SECT. II. The treasurer of the united states shall disburse all such monies as shall have been previously ordered for the use of the department of war by warrants from the treasury; which disbursements shall be made pursuant to warrants, from the secretary at war, countersigned by the accountant.

6. SECT. III. There shall be a paymaster to reside near the head * quarters of the troops of the united states. It shall be the duty of the said paymaster, to receive from the treasurer all the monies which shall be entrusted to him for the purpose of paying the pay, the arrears of pay, subsistence or forage, due to the troops of the united states. He shall receive the pay abstracts of the paymasters of the several regiments or corps, and compare the same with the returns or must r rolls which shall accompany the said pay abstracts. He shall certify