GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, No. 26. Washington, March 21, 1867. The following Act of Congress is published for the information and government of all concerned: [PUBLIC-No. 70.] AN ACT to declare valid and conclusive certain proclamations of the President, and acts done in pursuance thereof, or of his orders, in the suppression of the late rebellion against the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That all acts, proclamations, and orders of the President of the United States, or acts done by his authority or approval after the fourth of March, anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and before the first day of July, anno Domini eighteen hundred and sixty-six, respecting martial law, military trials by courts martial or military commissions, or the arrest, imprisonment, and trial of persons charged with participation in the late rebellion. against the United States, or as aiders or abettors thereof, or as guilty of any disloyal practice in aid thereof, or of any violation of the laws or usages of war, or of affording aid and comfort to rebels against the authority of the United States, and all proceedings and acts done or had by courts martial or military commissions, or arrests and imprisonments made in the premises by any person by the authority of the orders or proclamations of the President, made as aforesaid, or in aid thereof, are hereby approved in all respects, legalized and made valid, to the same extent and with the same effect as if said orders and proclamations had been issued and made, and said arrests, imprisonments, proceedings, and acts had been done, under the previous express authority and direction of the Congress of the United States, and in pursuance of a law thereof previously enacted and expressly authorizing and directing the same to be done. And no civil court of the United States, or of any State, or of the District of Columbia, or of any District or Territory of the United States, shall have or take jurisdiction of, or in any manner reverse, any of the proceedings had or acts done as aforesaid, nor shall any person be held to answer in any of said courts for any act done or omitted to be done in pursuance or in aid of any of said proclamations or orders, or by authority or with the approval of the President within the period aforesaid, and respecting any of the matters aforesaid; and all officers and other persons in the service of the United States, or who acted in aid thereof, acting in the premises, shall be held prima facie to have been authorized by the President; and all acts and parts of acts heretofore passed, inconsistent with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed. Approved, March 2, 1867. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. OFFICIAL: Assistant Adjutant General. GENERAL ORDERS, WAR DEPARTMENT, No. 27. Washington, March 21, 1867. The following Resolution of Congress is published for the information and government of all concerned: [PUBLIC RESOLUTION-NO. 31.] JOINT RESOLUTION extending the provisions of section two of an act entitled "An act to extend the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims, and to provide for the payment of certain demands for quartermasters' stores and subsistence supplies furnished to the army of the United States," approved July fourth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the provisions of section two of the above-entitled act be, and they are hereby, extended to cover all cases where quartermasters' stores were actually furnished to the forces under the command of Major General Lewis Wallace, and duly receipted for by persons acting under his authority, and whose authority shall be proven to the satisfaction of the accounting officers, during the Morgan raid through the States of Indiana and Ohio in the summer of eighteen hundred and sixty-three; and for the purpose of giving such receipts for property so applied, the said persons shall be held to be proper officers of the government. Approved, March 2, 1867. BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF WAR: E. D. TOWNSEND, Assistant Adjutant General. OFFICIAL: Assistant Adjutant General. |