United States Statutes at Large/Volume 3/15th Congress/2nd Session/Chapter 81
Chap. LXXXI.—An Act regulating the payments to invalid pensioners.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in all cases of application for the payment of pensions to invalids, under the several laws of Congress granting pensions to invalids,Affidavit of two credible surgeons, &c., stating the continuance and rate of disability, &c., to accompany the application for payment.
Proviso; affidavit not necessary in case of total disability. the affidavit of two surgeons or physicians, whose credibility, as such, shall be certified by the magistrate before whom the affidavit is made, stating the continuance of the disability for which the pension was originally granted, (describing it,) and the rate of such disability at the time of making the affidavit, shall accompany the application of the first payment which shall fall due after the fourth day of March next, and at the end of every two years thereafter; and if, in case of a continued disability, it shall be stated at a rate below that for which the pension was originally granted, the applicant shall only be paid at the rate states in the affidavit: Provided, That where the pension shall have been originally granted for a total disability, on consequence of the loss of a limb, or other cause which cannot, either in whole or in part, be removed, the above affidavit shall not be necessary to entitle the applicant to payment: And provided, also, That this act shall not extend to the invalids of the revolution, who have been, or shall be, placed on the pension list, pursuant to an act of Congress, entitledAct of March 18, 1818, ch. 19. “An act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States in the revolutionary war,” approved the eighteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eight. [eighteen.]
Approved, March 3, 1819.