he can contract with sufficient security for the completion of the building within the appropriation, shall not expend any thereof. August 4, 1854. No. 70. Ch. CCXLIV. An Act to graduate and reduce the price of the public lands to actual settlers and cultivators. All public lands of the United States, which have been in the market for ten years, or upwards, at the time of the application to enter the same under the provisions of this act, and still remain unsold, shall be subject to sale at $1 per acre; if for 15 years and upwards, at 75 cents; if for 20 years and upwards, at 50 cents; if for 25 years and upwards, at 25 cents; and if for 30 years and upwards, at 124 cents per acre. This does not apply to lands reserved to the United States, in acts granting lands to States for railroad or other internal improvements; nor to mineral lands held at over $1.25 per acre. Upon each reduction in price, the occupant and settler on the lands shall have the right of pre-emption thereto, at such graduated price, until 30 days preceding the next graduation or reduction; and if they are not so purchased, they shall again be subject to the right of pre-emption for 11 months, as before, and so on from time to time as reductions take place. Any person applying to enter any of the aforesaid lands, must make affidavit at the proper land office, that he enters the same for his own use, and for actual settlement and cultivation, or for the use of an adjoining farm or plantation, owned or occupied by himself, and that, together with such entry, he has not acquired from the United States more than 320 acres. False swearing under this act, is subjected to the pains and penalties of perjury. August 4, 1854. No. 71. Ch. CCXLV. An Act declaring the Southern Boundary of New Mexico. The territory acquired by the Gadsden treaty is made part of New Mexico. August 4, 1854. No. 72. Ch. CCXLVI. An Act for the relief of Thomas Bronaugh, and for the repeal of the Act to aid the Territory of Minnesota in the construction of a railroad therein, approved June 29, 1854. See ante, No. 31, p. 135. August 4, 1854. No. 73. Ch. CCXLVII. An Act to increase the pay of the rank and file of the Army, and to encourage enlistments. $4 a month is added to the pay of the non-commissioned officers, musicians, and privates, to continue 3 years, from January 1, 1855, and until otherwise fixed by law. A soldier, honorably discharged, who shall, in one month after his discharge, reenlist, is entitled to $2 a month, over the ordinary pay of his grade, for the first period of five years from the expiration of his previous enlistment, and a further sum of $1 a month for each successive period of 5 years, so long as he shall remain continuously in the army. Soldiers, now in the army, who have served one or more enlistments, and been honorably discharged, are entitled to the benefits of these provisions for second enlistments. Soldiers in the war with Mexico, who received a certificate of merit, whether now in the army, or enlisting hereafter, shall receive the $2 a month to which that certificate entitled them had they remained continuously in the service; and the non-commissioned officers, who were recommended for promotion by brevet to the lowest grade of commissioned officers, but who did not receive the benefit of that provision, shall receive additional pay, like those privates who received certificates of merit. The President, with the consent of the Senate, may confer the brevet of 2d lieutenant on such meritorious non-commissioned officers, as may be found qualified by an army board of four officers of rank, for the duties of commissioned officers, and attach them to regiments as supernumerary officers. The allowance to soldiers employed at work on fortifications, in surveys, in cutting roads, and other constant labor of not less than 10 days, shall be increased to 25 cents per day, to men employed as laborers and teamsters, and 40 cents as mechanics, at stations east of the Rocky Mountains; and to 35 and 50 cents per day respectively, at stations west of those mountains. August 4, 1854. No. 74. Ch. CCXLVIII. An Act to repeal the first proviso of the fourth section of the Act entitled "An Act granting bounty land to certain officers and soldiers engaged in the military service of the United States," approved September 28, 1850. This permits members of Congress to have the benefits of that act. August 4, 1854. No. 75. Ch. CCXLIX. An Act to extend the Right of Pre-emption over unsurveyed lands in Minnesota, and for other purposes. August 4, 1854. No. 76. Ch. CCLXVII. An Act making appropriations for the support of the Army, for the year ending June 30, 1855. $10,408,459.63 are appropriated. The superintendency of the armories is given to civilians. August 5, 1854. No. 77. Ch. CCLXVIII. An Act making appropriations for the Naval Service for the year ending June 30, 1855. $9,306,806.19 are appropriated. The Memphis Navy Yard is ceded to the city of Memphis. The two general orders of the Secretary of the Navy, of August 31, 1846, and May 27, 1847, upon relative rank, are made law. August 5, 1854. No. 78. Ch. CCLXIX. An Act to carry into effect a Treaty between the United States and Great Britain, signed June 5, 1854. Whenever the President of the United States shall receive satisfactory evidence that the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain and the Provincial Parliaments of Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island, have passed laws on their part to give full effect to the provisions of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain, signed on the 5th of June last, he is hereby authorized to issue his proclamation, declaring that he has such evidence, and thereupon, from the date of such proclamation, the following articles, being the growth and produce of said provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward's Island; to wit: Grain, flour, and breadstuffs of all kinds; animals of all kinds; fresh, smoked, and salted meats; cotton-wool; seeds and vegetables; undried fruits; dried fruits; fish of all kinds; products of fish and other creatures living in the water; poultry; eggs; hides, furs, skins or tails undressed; stone or marble in its crude or unwrought state; slate; butter, cheese, tallow; lard; horns; manures; ores of metals of all kinds; coal; pitch, tar, turpentine; ashes; timber and lumber of all kinds, round, hewed, and sawed, unmanufactered in whole or in part; firewood, plants, shrubs, and trees; pelts; wool; fish oil; rice; broom-corn and bark; gypsum ground or unground; hewn or wrought or unwrought burr or grindstones; dye-stuffs; flax, hemp, and tow, unmanufactured; unmanufactured tobacco, rags; — Shall be introduced into the United States free of duty, so long as the said treaty shall remain in force, subject, however, to be suspended in relation to the trade with Canada, on the condition mentioned in the fourth article of the said treaty: And all the other provisions of the said treaty shall go into effect, and be observed on the part of the United States. § 2. Whenever the island of Newfoundland shall give its consent to the application of the stipulations and provisions of the said treaty to that Province, and the Legislature thereof and the Imperial Parliament shall pass the necessary laws for that purpose, the above-enumerated articles shall be admitted free of duty from that Province into the United States, from and after the date of a proclamation by the President of the United States, declaring that he has satisfactory evidence that the said Province has consented in a due and proper manner to have the provisions of the treaty extended to it, and to allow the United States the full benefits of all the stipulations therein contained. August 5, 1854. No. 79. Ch. CCLXX. An Act making appropriations for the service of the Post-Office Department during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1855. $10,379,000 are appropriated; and $2,344,464 are appropriated to supply any deficiency that may arise in the revenues of the Department to meet the foregoing appropriations. The Postmaster-General is directed to continue the steam mail service during the months of August and September, as is now done for 10 months in the year, between Charleston and Key West and Havana. The Postmaster, at Washington, D. C., is allowed the compensation of mill per pound upon the aggre gate weight of public documents mailed from his office, this allowance to continue for one year only, and to be computed from the ascertained weight for January, 1854. Out of such commissions, he shall pay the employees in his office, not exceeding $250 each, per annum, as their compensation for services upon these documents. The Postmaster General shall establish a daily mail on the Mississippi River, from Cairo to New Orleans, and a mail from Keokuk, Iowa, to Galena, in Illinois. August 5, 1854. No. 80. Ch. CCLXXI. An Act to establish certain additional Post-Roads. August 5, 1854. No. 81. Ch. CCLXXIV. An Act authorizing the payment of balance of the Property Accounts between the United States and the State of New York, for military stores in the War of 1812. The balance is $11,929.45. August 5, 1854. . No. 82. Ch. CCLXXVI. An Act to establish a Land District in the State of Florida, to be called the District of Tampa. August 5, 1854. No. 1. Joint Resolution of Thanks to General John E. Wool. The thanks of Congress are due, and are hereby tendered, to Brevet Major-General John E. Wool, for his distinguished services in the late war with Mexico, and especially for the skill, enterprise, and courage which distinguished his conduct at the battle of Buena Vista. The President is requested to cause a sword, with suitable devices, to be presented to General Wool, as a testimony of the high sense entertained by Congress of his gallant and judicious conduct on that memorable occasion. January 24, 1854. No. 3. A Resolution authorizing an increase of the force in the office of the Superintendent of the Public Printing. February 10, 1854. No. 4. A Resolution for supplying new members of the Senate and House of Representatives with such books of a public character as have been heretofore supplied. February 23, 1854. No. 5. Joint Resolution authorizing a supplemental contract for certain marble for the Capitol Extension. March 1, 1854. No. 6. A Resolution accepting certain volumes and medals presented by her Britannic Majesty's Government to the United States. The presentation volumes and medals, illus. trative of the Exhibition in London, in 1851, are accepted, and placed in the Library of Congress. March 27, 1854. No. 7. Joint Resolution authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury and Light-house Board to determine upon the site, plan, and mode of constructing the Light-house on Cohasset Rocks, and for other purposes. March 27, 1854. No. 8. Joint Resolution relative to bids for provision, clothing, and small stores for the use of the Navy. All such bids may be rejected, at the option of the Department, if made by one who is not known as a manufacturer of, or regular dealer in, the article proposed to be furnished; which fact, or the reverse, must be distinctly stated in the bids of fered. The bids of all who have failed to fulfil any contracts previously entered into with the United States, shall, at the option of the Department, be rejected. If more than one bid be offered for the supply of an article on account of any one party either in his own name, or in the name of his partner, clerk, or any other person, the whole of such bids shall be rejected at the option of the Department. Copartners shall not be received as sureties for each other. Whenever it is necessary for the interest of the government, and the health of the crews of the United States vessels, to procure particular brands of flour, which are known to keep best on distant stations, the same may be procured in market overt. March 27, 1854. No. 10. A Resolution authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to pay the expenses of codifying and revising the Revenue Laws. $5,000 are appropriated; and report of expenditure be made by Secretary of the Treasury, to Congress, in December, 1854. April 6, 1854. No. 11. A Joint Resolution authorizing the accounting officers of the Treasury to adjust the expenses of a Board of Commissioners appointed by the Territorial Assembly of Oregon, to prepare a code of laws; also to adjust the expense of collecting and printing certain laws and archives of the Territory of Oregon. May 3, 1854. No. 12. A Resolution for extending an existing contract for carrying the Mail in Alabama. May 3, 1854. No. 13. Joint Resolution directing the connection of the public surveys in Alabama, with the boundary line between the States of Alabama and Florida. June 29, 1854. No. 16. Joint Resolution explanatory of the 2d section of a Resolution to establish certain Post Routes, approved July 12, 1852. July 17, 1854. No. 17. A Resolution providing for the distribution of the Works of Thomas Jeffer son. July 20, 1854. No. 18. Joint Resolution to fix the compensation of the employees in the Legislative Department, and to prohibit the allowance of the usual extra compensation to such as receive the benefits hereof. 20 per cent. added to their present compensation. July 20, 1854. No. 25. A Joint Resolution directing the presentation of a Medal to Commander Duncan N. Ingraham. It is for rescuing Martin Koszta from the Austrian war-brig Hussar. August 4, 1854. X. REVENUE AND EXPENDITURE. 1. Statement of Duties, Revenues, and Public Expenditures, during the Fiscal Years ending June 30, 1852, and June 30, 1853. [From Reports of the Secretary of the Treasury, Jan. 15, 1853, and Dec. 6, 1853.] The receipts into the Treasury were as fol lows: From customs, viz. :— During the first quarter, ending Total customs, From sales of public lands, From miscellaneous sources, 66 66 Year ending Year ending June 30, 1853. Sept. 30, $14,754,909.34 15,723,935.71 Dec. 31, 9,601,509.40 11,307,465.45 Mar. 31, 12,109,761.80 16,208,498.82 June 30, 10,873,146.08 15,691,965.54 47,339,326.62 58,931,865.52 2,043,239.58 1,667,084.99 345,820.69 738,623.89 Total receipts, exclusive of loans, &c., 49,728,386.89 61,337,574.40 Balance in the Treasury, July 1, 1851 and '52, 10,911,645.68 14,532,636.37 * This includes the salaries of Chargés d'Affaires, and outfits of Ministers and Chargés. |