5, 1920 (41 Stat. 951), making appropriations for the support of the Army: Completion and preservation of the selective service records.

By the act of July 9, 1918 (40 Stat. 851), a fund of $15,751,000 was appropriated "for all expenses necessary in the registration of persons available for military service and in the selection of certain such persons and their draft into the military service," of which $3,500,000 was reappropriated by the act of July 11, 1919 (41 Stat. 109), as set forth above.

2258. Officers to be citizens of the United States.-That no part of the appropriations made in this Act shall be available for the salary or pay of any person hereafter, in time of peace, appointed an oflicer in the Army who is not a citizen of the United States. Act of Aug. 29, 1916 (39 Stat. 649).

2259. Execution of commissions.-That hereafter the commissions of all officers under the direction and control of the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Secretary of Agriculture shall be made out and recorded in the respective Departments under which they are to serve, and the Department seal affixed thereto, any laws to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided, That the said seal shall not be affixed to any such commission before the same shall have been signed by the President of the United States. Act of Mar. 28, 1896 (29 Stat. 75).

Similar previous provisions, as to making out and recording, etc., in the Treasury Department, commissions of all officers employed in levying or collecting the public revenue, of R. S. 238, were superseded by this act.

Notes of Decisions.

Form of commission issued by head of a department. A commission issued pursuant to the foregoing act should show upon its face that it is the commission of the President, but his actual signature is not necessary. The document should declare the act to be that of the President, performed by the head of the Navy Department as his representative. (1898) 22 Op. Atty. Gen. 82.

Power of department head to issue commission. The Secretary of the Navy may

issue commissions to the naval officers serving as military governors of the islands of Guam and Tutuila. (1904) 25 Op. Atty. Gen. 292.

A commission, whatever its form, is but evidence of the fact that the President has exercised his constitutional power of appointment; there is no provision of law requiring a specified form of commission to be issued to officers in the military service. O'Shea v. U. S., 28 Ct. Cls. 392.

* * and here

2260. Officers permanently commissioned in a branch.after all appointments in the line of the Army shall be by commission in an arm of the service and not by commission in any particular regiment. Sec. 2, act of Oct. 1, 1890 (26 Stat. 562).

Officers of all grades in the Infantry, Cavalry, Field Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps, Corps of Engineers, and Medical Department; officers above the grade of captain in the Signal Corps, Judge Advocate General's Department, Quartermaster Corps, Ordnance Department and Chemical Warfare Service, all chaplains and professors, and the military storekeeper shall be permanently

commissioned in their respective branches. Other officers may be either detailed, or with their own consent, be permanently commissioned, in the branches to which they are assigned for duty. Sec. 4, act of June 3, 1916 (39 Stat. 167), as amended by sec. 4, act of June 4, 1920 (41 Stat. 760–761).

Notes of Decisions.

Appointment must be accepted.-An appointment or commission, in order to take effect at all, must be accepted; but when accepted, it takes effect as of and from its date, i. e., the date on which it is completed by the signature of the appointing power, or that as and from which it purports in terms to be operative. See Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137; U. S. v. Bradley, 10 Pet. 304; U. S. v. Le Baron, 19 How. 78; Montgomery v. U. S., 5 Ct. Cls. 97.

Power to fill vacancy during recess of Senate. The power of the President to fill a vacancy in the Army during a recess of 2261. Number of officers.

the Senate may be exercised by a letter from the Secretary of War, and such a letter may constitute his commission, there being no law which prescribes the form of a military commission. O'Shea v. U. S., 28 Ct. Cls. 392.

Where the President is authorized by law to reinstate a discharged Army officer, he may do so without the advice and consent of the Senate. Collins v. U. S., 14 Ct. Cls. 22.

An officer of the Army or Navy of the United States does not hold his office by contract, but at the will of the sovereign power. Crenshaw v. U. S., 134 U. S. 98.

On and after July 1, 1920, there shall be five hundred and ninety-nine colonels; six hundred and seventyfour lieutenant colonels; two thousand two hundred and forty-five majors; four thousand four hundred and ninety captains, four thousand two hundred and sixty-six first lieutenants; two thousand six hundred and ninety-four second lieutenants; and also the number of officers of the Medical Department and chaplains, hereinafter provided for, professors as now authorized by law, and the present military storekeeper, who shall hereafter have the rank, pay and allowances of major; and the numbers herein prescribed shall not be exceeded: * Sec. 4, act of June 3, 1916 (39 Stat. 167), as amended by sec. 4, act of June 4, 1920 (41 Stat. 760).

2262. Additional officers.Officers now carried as additional numbers shall be included in the numbers provided for by this Act, and, after June 30, 1920, shall no longer be additional, and any officer hereafter appointed, under the provisions of law, to a grade in which no vacancy exists, shall be an additional number in that grade until absorbed, and no longer. Sec. 127a, added to the act of June 3, 1916 by sec. 51, act of June 4, 1920 (41 Stat. 785).

* *

* Provided, That no

2263. Commissions proportioned to enlistments.-part of this appropriation shall be paid to any officer of the line of the Army who shall be appointed or promoted in violation of any of the terms next hereinafter specified: That of the whole number of officers of Cavalry, Field Artillery, Coast Artillery Corps, Infantry, and of Engineers serving with the enlisted force of the Corps of Engineers necessary to fill vacancies created or caused in said arms of the service by reason of the second increment, authorized in said arms by Act of Congress approved June third, nineteen hundred and sixteen, not more than one-fourth shall be appointed or promoted until, exclusive of enlisted men belonging to said arms on June thirtieth, nineteen hundred and sixteen, at least one-fourth of the second increment of enlisted men authorized for said arms by said Act shall have been enlisted; not more than one-half of said whole number of officers shall be appointed or promoted until at least onehalf of said increment of enlisted men shall have been enlisted; and not more