574 FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS. Sess. III. Ch. 234. 1873. general of the army or the surgeon-general of the navy, evidence that the disease or injury which resulted in the disability or death of the person on whose account the claim is made originated in the service and in the line of duty; and if such evidence is deemed satisfactory by the officer to whom it may be submitted, he shall cause a record of the fact so proved to be made, and a copy of the same to be transmitted to the commissioner of pensions, and the bar to the prosecution of the claim shall thereby be removed. w;,m,,_pm°,, Sec. 25. That if any pensioner, or any person entitled to a pension, entiflegltoupen- who during the pendency of his application therefor has died since March 2‘:‘ig;:• fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, or shall hereafter die, his widow, emu, me accrued or if no widow, his child or children, under sixteen years of age at the Hfsslzgl *11*:11 1*; time of his death, shall be entitled to receive the accrued pension to the ,,,,5,,. cgi15m:; date of death, such accrued pension shall not be considered as a part of the assets of the estate of deceased, nor liable to be applied to the payment of the debts of said estate in any case whatever, but shall inure to the sole if there is no and exclusive benefit of the widow or children; and if no widow or child
- ';°1°;; survive, no payment whatsoever of the accrued pension shall be made or
pe,,!;,,;,, to be allowed, except so much as may be necessary to reimburse the person who made except for bore the expenses of the last sickness and burial of the decedent, in cases °°"”·“‘ °xP°”°’· where he did not leave sufficient assets to meet such expenses. Failure toclaim Sec. 26. That the failure of any pensioner to claim his or her pension P°‘¤1°¤ "°*' *1***** for three years after the same shall have become due shall be deemed years after, &c., _ . .d h ch . . to be p,w,mp_ presumptive evi ence t at su pension has legally terminated by reason tive evidence of the pensioner’s death, remarriage, recovery from the disability, or
h” otherwise, and the pensionefs name shall be stricken from the list of
Name to be pensioners, subject to the right of restoration to the same on a new applicaag;°l;\;¤’l°;g¤;;l¤l» tion by the pensioner, or, if the pensioner is dead, by the widow or minor mmdjmd hom children entitled to receive the accrued pension, accompanied by evidence satisfactorily accounting for the failure to claim such pension, and by medical evidence in cases of invalids who were not exempt from biennial examinations as to the continuance of the disability. Kaw, &c_,°f Sec. 27. That when the rate, commencement, and duration of a pen— pension by spe- sion allowed by special act are fixed by such act, they shall not be sub- $1::i:§*b"°* W lm ject to be varied by the provisions and limitations of the general pension Y gen" . . ,,,,,,1;.,,,,, laws, but when not thus fixed the rate and continuance of the pension shall be subject to variation in accordance with the general laws, and its Specialactmay commencement shall date from the passage of the special act, and the 3: f11P` commissioner of pensions shall, upon satisfactory evidence that fraud was mud, uml, &c_ perpetrated in- obtaining such special act, suspend payment thereupon until the propriety of repealing the same can be considered by Congress. 1;,,,,,,,,,,;,,,, 6X_ Sec. 28. That the term of limitation prescribed by sections sixteen and tendedjn pwd- twenty-three of this act shall, in pending claims of Indians, be extended iflgigggfls "f to two years from and after the passage of this act; that all proof which Proof hereto- has heretofore been taken before an Indian agent, or before an officer of
- `¤*i*$l$¤¤ 1>¤f<>T: any tribe, competent according to the rules of said tribe to administer oaths,
Q*b;a;°$,?§°:,, shall be held and regarded by the pension-office, in the examining and &c. determining of claims of Indians now on file, as of the same validity as if taken before an officer recognized by the law at the time as competent to pmogwmung administer oaths; that all proof wanting in said claims hereafter, as well wbstnksn bc- as in those filed after the passage of this act, shall be taken before the f°’° “g°°t‘ agent of the tribe to which the claimants respectively belong; that in Dates. regard to dates, all applications of Indians now on file be treated as though they were made before a. competent officer at their respective dates, and if found to be in all other respects conclusive, they shall be allowed; and 1,,,,;,,,,, ex. that Indians shall be exempted from the obligation to take the oath to empted from obli- support the Constitution of the United States, required by the act of gjjggg}1*j£§f’ February fourteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy»one, providing for 1871, cu. 50. pensions to certain soldiers and sailors of the war of eighteen hundred and V°rx"i·· P- *11- twelve, and to widows of deceased soldiers.
