The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the following amounts be paid out of any money not otherwise appropriated, to-wit:

For deficiency in appropriation for compensation of the Secretary of the Treasury, Assistant Secretary, Comptroller, Auditors, Treasurer and Register, and clerks and messengers in the Treasury Department, from the thirteenth of October, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to January the thirty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, to-wit: For increase of pay of clerks, &c., under the act aforesaid, sixty-eight thousand dollars.

For deficiency in appropriation for compensation of the Secretary of War, Assistant Secretary, Chief of Bureaus, clerks, messengers, &c., from the thirteenth October, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to January the thirty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, to-wit: For increase of pay of clerks, &c., under the act aforesaid, twenty-one thousand, eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars and twenty-three cents.

For deficiency in appropriation for compensation of the clerks, messengers and laborers in the Post-Office Department, from the thirteenth October, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to January the thirty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, seven thousand, seven hundred and fifteen dollars and twenty-four cents.

For deficiency in appropriation for compensation of the clerks and employees in the Navy Department, from the thirteenth October, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to January the thirty-first, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, nine hundred and seventy-three dollars and fifteen cents.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That non-commissioned officers and privates who have been mustered into service for the war, and to whom furloughs may be granted for not more than sixty days, shall be entitled to transportation home and back: Provided, That this allowance shall only be made once during the term of enlistment of such non-commissioned officers and privates.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That there be appropriated and paid out of any money in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated, the following sums of money, and for the following purposes, viz:

Legislative.—For compensation and mileage of members and delegates of the House of Representatives, one hundred and seventy-four thousand, two hundred dollars.

For compensation of officers, clerks, &c., of the House of Representatives, five thousand, five hundred dollars.

For contingent expenses of the House of Representatives, ten thousand dollars.

For compensation and mileage of members of the Senate, twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred dollars.

For compensation of officers, clerks, &c., of the Senate, six thousand dollars.

For contingent expenses of the Senate, six thousand dollars.

Executive.—For compensation of the President of the Confederate States, six thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars.

For compensation of the Vice President of the Confederate States, one thousand, five hundred dollars.

For compensation of the private secretary and messenger of the President, one thousand and seven dollars and thirteen cents.

For compensation of the private secretary of the Vice President, seven hundred and fourteen dollars and forty cents.

For contingent and telegraphic expenses of the Executive office, four thousand dollars.

Treasury Department.—For compensation of the Secretary of the Treasury, Assistant Secretary, Comptroller, Auditors, Treasurer and Register, and clerks and messengers in said department, three hundred and fifty-seven thousand, eight hundred and ninety-seven dollars and ten cents.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to appoint two clerks, if so many be necessary, to assist the Register in signing bonds and certificates of stock, with the salary of principal clerks in the department; and every bond and certificate signed by one of the said clerks for the Resister, shall be as valid and effectual, to all intents and purposes, as though the same were actually signed by the Register in his proper hand writing.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized to issue coupon bonds and certificates of stock, with interest, payable semi-annually, at the yearly rate of eight per cent., for such amount as may be required in exchange for all treasury notes which are now fundable in eight per cent. bonds, and also to pay for any subscription to the Produce Loan which may remain unpaid after exhausting the one hundred million loan.

SEC. 2. That the said Secretary is also authorized to issue coupon bonds, and certificates of stock, with interest at the yearly rate of seven per cent., payable semi-annually, for such amount as may be required, in exchange for all treasury notes which are now fundable in seven per cent. bonds.

SEC. 3. That all bonds issued under this act shall be made redeemable at the pleasure of the government, after the expiration of five years from their respective dates, but the faith of the government shall be pledged to redeem the same at the expiration of thirty years from such dates.

SEC. 4. That until the bonds authorized by this act can be prepared, the Secretary may issue in their stead certificates showing the right of the holders to demand bonds of like date and amount, as soon as the same can be prepared.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Treasury shall have power to adjust and ascertain the true amount of tax due from the State of Alabama, under the “Act to authorize the issue of treasury notes, and to provide a war tax for their redemption,” and the acts supplementary thereto; and upon such accounting, said Secretary of the Treasury shall refund to the said State whatever sum may have been overpaid by the authorities thereof, under said act.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That there shall be selected, in such manner as the Secretary of War may direct, from each division of infantry in service, one company of engineer troops, to consist of one hundred men, chosen with a view to their mechanical skill and physical fitness, and that the men assigned to such company shall be required to serve in the same only during the balance of their term of service, respectively.

SEC. 2. That each company shall consist of eight sergeants, seven corporals, forty artificers, and forty-five laborers, and that two musicians may be added.

SEC. 3. That the commissioned officers of each company shall consist of one captain, one first lieutenant, and two second lieutenants; and that the original vacancies in these companies shall be filled by the transfer of officers of corresponding grade from the engineer corps, if practicable, and where not, then from the other corps, or from the line or staff of the army, reference being always had to their qualification as engineers, or by selection; but no one shall be selected who is not now serving in or with the army, unless he is a military or civil engineer.

SEC. 4. That the companies shall be organized into regiments of ten companies each, and that the field and staff officers shall consist of one colonel, one lieutenant colonel, one major, one adjutant with the rank of first lieutenant, one quartermaster sergeant, and one sergeant major; and that the original vacancies in the regiments shall be filled in the manner provided for filling the same in the companies, by the third section of this act; and that the sergeant major and the quartermaster sergeant shall be selected from the enlisted men of the army.

SEC. 5. That in each regiment two of the companies shall be assigned to duty as pontoniers, and each be furnished with a bridge train complete.

SEC. 6. That the officer in charge of the engineer bureau, subject to the approval of the Secretary of War, shall prescribe the number, form and dimensions of the wagons, pontoons, treastles, tools, implements, arms and other necessaries for all the troops organized by this act.

SEC. 7. That vacancies in the established regiments to, and including the rank of colonel, shall be filled by promotion, regimentally, according to seniority, except in case of disablity or other incompetency.

SEC. 8. That the monthly pay of the engineer troops shall be as follows: Of a colonel, two hundred and ten dollars; of a lieutenant colonel, one hundred and eighty-five dollars; of a major, one hundred and sixty-two dollars; of a captain, one hundred and forty dollars; of a first lieutenant, one hundred dollars; of a second lieutenant, ninety dollars; and the adjutant shall receive ten dollars per month in addition to his pay as lieutenant.

SEC. 9. That the pay of the enlisted men, per month, shall be as follows: The sergeant major and quartermaster sergeant, each, twenty-one dollars; sergeants, thirty-four dollars; corporals, twenty dollars; artificers, seventeen dollars; laborers and musicians, thirteen dollars.

SEC. 10. That mounted engineer troops may be selected from the cavalry, and be organized according to the provisions of this act, for engineer troops, as hereinbefore specified.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and after the passage of this act, the rank, pay and allowances attached to the office of Quartermaster General of the army of the Confederate States, shall be those of a Brigadier General in the Provisional Army.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all treasury notes not bearing interest, issued previous to the first day of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, shall be fundable in eight per cent. bonds or stock, until the twenty-second day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-three; that from that date until the first day of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, they shall be fundable in seven per cent, bonds or stocks, and after the said first day of August, they shall no longer be fundable at the pleasure of the holder, but shall be receivable in payment of public dues, except the export duty on cotton, and payable six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace, as specified on their face. All treasury notes not bearing interest, issued after the first day of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and within ten days after the passage of this act, shall be fundable in seven per cent. bonds or stock until the first day of August next; and after the said first day of August, shall be fundable only in bonds bearing interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum, and payable at any time not exceeding thirty years from the date thereof; and all such notes not funded, shall be receivable in payment of all public dues except the export duty on cotton, and shall be payable six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate Government and the United States. All call certificates, bearing eight per cent. interest, shall, with the accrued interest, be fundable on or before the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, into bonds of the Confederate States, bearing interest at the rate of eight per cent. per annum, and payable at any time not exceeding thirty years after their date: Provided, That the accrued interest aforesaid, may, at the option of the holder, be paid instead of being funded. All call certificates of every description, outstanding on the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall, after that date, be deemed to be bonds bearing an annual interest of six per cent., and payable at a date not exceeding thirty years from the said first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.

SEC. 2. In lieu of the power heretofore given by law to the Secretary of the Treasury, to issue treasury notes, he shall be authorized to issue monthly, an amount of such notes, bearing no interest, not exceeding fifty millions of dollars, which shall be receivable in payment of all public dues, except the export duty on cotton, and payable within two years after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States, and fundable at the pleasure of the holder, during twelve months from the first day of the month of their issue, in bonds of the Confederate States, payable at any time not exceeding thirty years after date, and bearing rates of interest as follows: If funded within twelve months from the first day of the month of their issue, the bonds shall bear six per cent. interest per annum; if funded after that period they shall be fundable into bonds bearing four per cent interest per annum. These notes shall bear upon their face the month and year of their issue, and if not funded, shall be paid at the time specified on the face, without interest.

SEC. 3. After the passage of this act the authority heretofore given to issue call certificates shall cease, but the notes fundable into six per cent. bonds may be converted at the pleasure of the holder, into call certificates, bearing interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum, from the date of their issue. That every such certificate shall bear upon its face the monthly date of the oldest of the notes which it represents, and be convertible into like notes at any time within six months from the first day of the month of its monthly date aforesaid. But every certificate not reconverted within six months from the first day of its monthly date, shall be exchanged for a bond payable at any time not exceeding thirty years from the expiration of the said six months, and bearing interest at the rate of six per centum per annum. Treasury notes which, by the operation of this act, become fundable into bonds, bearing a yearly interest of four per cent., may be converted, at the pleasure of the holder, into call certificates, bearing interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum from their date, until reconverted or paid; the said certificates beings reconvertible at any time by the holder, into notes fundable in four per cent. bonds, and payable and receivable as heretofore prescribed; but the said certificates may be redeemed by the government, after six months from the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States.

SEC. 4. That all bonds or registered stock authorized to be issued by this act, shall be payable not less than thirty years after date; but shall be redeemable five years after date, at the pleasure of the government, and shall in other respects conform to existing laws.

SEC. 5. The Secretary of the Treasury shall use any disposable means in the treasury, which can be applied to that purpose without injury to the public service, to the purchase of treasury notes bearing no interest, and issued after the passage of this act, until the whole amount of treasury notes in circulation, shall not exceed one hundred and seventy-five millions of dollars.

SEC. 6. The treasury notes hereby allowed to be issued, shall be of any denomination of not less than five dollars, which is now authorized by law, that the Secretary of the Treasury may direct. The authority hereby given shall cease at the expiration of the first session of Congress, after the ratification of a treaty of peace, or at the end of two years, should the war continue so long.

SEC. 7. In addition to the authority hereinbefore given to the Secretary of the Treasury to issue treasury notes, he shall be allowed to issue notes of the denominations of one dollar, and of two dollars, and of fifty cents, to such an amount as, in addition to the notes of the denomination of one dollar, heretofore issued, shall not exceed the sum of fifteen millions of dollars; and said notes shall be payable six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States, and receivable in payment of all public dues except the export duty on cotton, but shall not be fundable.

SEC. 8. That the Secretary of the Treasury be authorized to sell bonds bearing six per cent. interest per annum, and payable as hereinbefore directed, at par for treasury notes issued since the first of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, to such of the Confederate States as may desire to purchase the same; or he may sell such bonds, when guaranteed by any of the States of the Confederacy, upon such plan as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, for treasury notes, on such terms as he may deem advisable, to the highest bidder, and not below par: Provided, however, That the whole amount of such bonds shall not exceed two hundred millions of dollars: And provided further, That the treasury notes thus purchased shall not be reissued, if the effect of such reissue would be to increase the whole amount of treasury notes, bearing no interest, which are in circulation, to a sum greater than one hundred and seventy-five millions of dollars. And the Secretary of the Treasury is also authorized, at his option, after the first of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, to issue and sell, at not less than par, as estimated in treasury notes, coupon bonds of the Confederate States, bearing six per cent. interest per annum, and payable as hereinbefore directed. The said coupons to be paid at the pleasure of the owner, either in the currency in which interest is paid on other bonds of the Confederate States, or else in cotton certificates which pledge the government to pay the same in cotton of the quality of New Orleans middlings. The said cotton to be paid at the rate of eight pence sterling per pound, and to be delivered at any time within six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States, at any or all of the ports of New Orleans, Mobile, Savannah, Charleston or Wilmington, as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct: Provided, however, That the bonds hereby authorized, shall not exceed one hundred millions of dollars, and shall be applied only to the absorption of treasury notes, as prescribed in this act.

SEC. 9. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury, immediately after the passage of this act, to make publication of a copy thereof in each State, in at least two newspapers published in the State, and to have said publication continued until the first day of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That whenever the exigencies of any army in the field are such as to make impressments of forage, articles of subsistence or other property absolutely necessary, then such impressments may be made by the officer or officers whose duty it is to furnish such forage, articles of subsistence or other property for such army. In cases where the owner of such property and the impressing officer cannot agree upon the value therof, it shall be the duty of such impressing officer, upon an affidavit in writing of the owner of such property, or his agent, that such property was grown, raised or produced by said owner, or is held or has been purchased by him, not for sale or speculation, but for his own use or consumption, to cause the same to be ascertained and determined by the judgement of two loyal and disinterested citizens of the city, county or parish in which such impressments may be made; one to be selected by the owner; one by the impressing officer; and in the event of their disagreement, these two shall choose an umpire of like qualifications, whose decision shall be final. The persons thus selected, after an oath to appraise the property impressed, fairly and impartially, (which oath, as well as the affidavit provided for in this section, the impressing officer is hereby authorized to administer and certify,) shall proceed to assess just compensation for the property so impressed, whether the absolute ownership, or the temporary use therof, only is required.

SEC. 2. That the officer or person impressing property, as aforesaid, shall, at the time of said taking, pay to the owner, his agent or attorney, the compensation fixed by said appraisers; and shall also give to the owner, or person controlling said property, a certificate, over his official signature, specifying the battalion, regiment, brigade, division or corps to which he belongs; that said property is essential for the use of the army, could not be otherwise procured, and was taken through absolute necessity; setting forth the time and place, when and where taken, the the amount of compensation fixed by said appraisers, and the sum, if any, paid for the same. Said certificate shall be evidence for the owner, as well of the taking of said property for the public use, as the right of the owner to the amount of compensation fixed as aforesaid. And in case said officer or person taking said property shall have failed to pay the owner or his agent, said compensation as hereinbefore required, then said owner shall be entitled to the speedy payment of the same by the proper disbursing officer; which, when so paid, shall be in full satisfaction of all claims against the government of the Confederate States.

SEC. 3. Whenever the appraisement provided for in the first section of this act, shall, for any reason, be impracticable at the time of said impressment, then and in that case the value of the property impressed shall be assessed as soon as possible, by two loyal and disinterested citizens of the city, county or parish, wherein the property was taken, chosen as follows: One by the owner, and one by the Commissary or Quartermaster General, or his agent, who, in case of disagreement, shall choose a third citizen, of like qualifications, as an umpire, to decide the matters in dispute; who shall be sworn as aforesaid, who shall hear the proofs adduced by the parties, as to the value of said property, and assess a just compensation therefor, according to the testimony.

SEC. 4. That whenever the Secretary of war shall be of opinion that it is necessary to take private property for public use, by reason of the impracticability of procuring the same by purchase, so as to accumulate necessary supplies for the army, or the good of the service, in any locality, he may, by general order, through the proper subordinate officers, authorize such property to be taken for the public use; the compensation due the owner for the same to be determined, and the value fixed as provided for in the first and second sections of this act.

SEC. 5. That it shall be the duty of the President, as early as practicable after the passage of this act, to appoint a commissioner in each State where property shall be taken for the public use, and request the Governor of such of the States in which the President shall appoint said commissioner, to appoint another commissioner, to act in conjunction with the commissioner appointed by the President, who shall receive the compensation or eight dollars per day, and ten cents per mile as mileage, to be paid by the Confederate Government. Said commissioners shall constitute a board, whose duty it shall be to fix upon the prices to be paid by the government, for all property impressed or taken for the public use as aforesaid, so as to afford just compensation to the owners thereof. Said commisssoners shall agree upon and publish a schedule of prices every two months, or oftner if they shall deem it proper; and in the event they shall not be able to agree in any matter confided to them in this act, they shall have power to appoint an umpire to decide the matter in dispute, whose decision shall be the decision of the board; and said umpire shall receive the same rate of compensation for the time he shall serve, allowed to said commissioners respectively: Provided, That said commissioners shall be residents of the State for which they shall be appointed; and if the Governor of any State shall refuse or neglect to appoint said commissioner within ten days after a request to do so by the President, then the President shall appoint both commissioners, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.

SEC. 6. That all property impressed or taken for the public use, as aforesaid, in the hands of any person other than the persons who have raised, grown or produced the same, or persons holding the same for their own use or consumption, and who shall make the affidavit as hereinbefore required, shall be paid for according to the schedule of prices fixed by the commissioners as aforesaid. But if the officer impressing or taking for the public use such property, and the owner shall differ as to the quality of the article or property impressed or taken, as aforesaid, thereby making it fall within a higher or lower price named in the schedule, then the owner or agent, and the officer impressing or taking, as aforesaid, may select each a loyal and disinterested citizen, of the qualifications as aforesaid, to determine the quality of said article or property, who shall, in case of disagreement, appoint an umpire of like qualifications, and his decision, if approved by the officer impressing, shall be final; but if not approved, the impressing officer shall send the award to the commissioners of the State where the property is impressed, with his reasons for disapproving the same, and said commissioners may hear such proofs as the parties may respectively adduce, and their decision shall be final: Provided, That the owner may receive the price offered by the impressing officer, without prejudice to his claim to receive the higher compensation.

SEC. 7. That the property necessary for the support of the owner and his family, and to carry on his ordinary agricultural and mechanical business, to be ascertained by the appraisers, to be appointed as provided in the first section of this act, under oath, shall not be taken or impressed for the public use; and when the impressing officer and the owner cannot agree as to the quantity of property necessary, as aforesaid, then the decision of the said appraisers shall be binding on the officer and all other persons.

SEC. 8. Where property has been impressed for temporary use, and is lost or destroyed without the default of the owner, the Government of the Confederate States shall pay a just compensation therefor; to be ascertained by appraisers appointed and qualified as provided in the first section of this act. If such property when returned has, in the opinion of the owner, been injured whilst in the public use, the amount of damage thereby sustained, shall be determined in the manner described in the third section of this act, the officer returning the property being authorized to act on behalf of the government; and upon such inquiry, the certificate of the value of the property, when originally impressed, shall be received as prima facie evidence of the value thereof.

SEC. 9. Where slaves are impressed by the Confederate Government to labor on fortifications or other public works, the impressment shall be made by said government according to the rules and regulations provided in the laws of the State wherein they are impressed; and in the absence of such law, in accordance with such rules and regulations not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as the Secretary of War shall from time to time prescribe: Provided, That no impressment of slaves shall be made when they can be hired or procured by the consent of the owner or agent.

SEC. 10. That previous to the first day of December next, no slave laboring on a farm or plantation, exclusively devoted to the production of grain and provisions, shall be taken for the public use without the consent of the owner, except in case of urgent necessity.

SEC. 11. That any commissioned or non-commissioned officer or private who shall violate the provisions of this act, shall be tried before the military court of the corps to which he is attached, on complaint made by the owner or other person, and on conviction, if an officer, he shall be cashiered and put into the ranks as a private; and if a noncommissioned officer or private, he shall suffer such punishment, not inconsistent with military law, as the court may direct.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That any district court of the Confederate States may, in its discretion, direct any of its receivers to lease out any sequestered land within his district, on which are any mines or beds of copper, lead, iron, coal, saltpetre or other minerals, for a period not exceeding three years, and in such manner, and upon such terms as the court may prescribe, and such orders may be made, either by the court, or by the judge thereof, in vacation.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all seamen and ordinary seamen now in the service of the Confederate States, between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and whose term of service will expire before the end of the war, shall be continued in the service for three years from the date of their original enlistment, unless the war shall have sooner ended.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Navy be authorized to appoint a register, at a salary of one thousand, eight hundred dollars per annum; a draughtsman, at a salary of one thousand, two hundred dollars per annum; and an additional clerk, at a salary of one thousand, two hundred dollars per annum.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Navy be, and is hereby authorized, to employ for service on board of vessels, used or owned by the Confederate States for purpose of running the blockade of any of the ports of the Confederacy, the most skillful pilots, on such terms as, to him, shall seem best and requisite to secure their services, either by the month, or the single or round voyage.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Navy cause to be paid to those officers of the Navy and Marine Corps, who resigned from the Navy and Marine Corps of the United States, in consequence of secession, and who were arrested and imprisoned in consequence of such resignation, and who subsequently joined the Navy and Marine Corps of the Confederate States, leave of absence pay for and during the term of such imprisonment, and up to the time of their appointment in the Navy and Marine Corps of the Confederate States.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the above entitled act be so amended as to authorize the Secretary of the Navy, in case he should deem it advisable, to contract for all supplies required for the navy, without advertising for proposals as required by law: Provided, [That] this act shall expire at the end of the present war.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and after the passage of this act, it shall not be lawful for any court martial or military court to cause any soldier in the service of the Confederate States to be punished by whipping, or the infliction of stripes upon his person; and that all laws and customs contravening the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

SEC. 2. That article twenty of the Articles of War, be so amended as to read as follows: “All officers and soldiers who have received pay, or have been duly enlisted in the service of the Confederate States, and shall be convicted of having deserted the same, shall suffer death or confinement in a penitentiary, with or without hard labor, for a period not less than one year, or more than five, or such other punishment, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, as the court martial or military court may determine.”

WHEREAS, The Brunswick and Albany railroad, in the State of Georgia, has been run and used as a military necessity, from the month of September, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, to the present time, and no charge for the use of the said road has been made by the proprietors thereof, against the government: Therefore, to preserve the said railroad from being broken up or destroyed,

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the stock and bonds of the Brunswick and Albany railroad company, returned, or which may be returned to the receiver at Savanah, as property of alien enemies, and sequestered, or which may be sequestered by decree of the proper courts, shall not be sold at public auction, nor otherwise disposed of during the continuance of the war, but shall, after the ratification of peace between the Confederate States and the United States, be appraised in the following manner: One appraiser shall be appointed by the judge of the district court of the Confederate States for the district of Georgia; another shall be appointed by the board of directors of said company; and these two shall appoint a third, and their appraisement shall be made under oath and in writing, and filed with the clerk of the said district court. When the said appraisement shall be made, the said company shall have the privilege of paying, within ninety days thereafter, to the receiver at Savannah, the amount of said appraised value; and upon such payment, the possession and title to the said stock and bonds, shall vest in, and be transferred to the said company: Provided, however, That by accepting the relief hereby granted, and upon payment of the said appraised value, the said company shall be held and taken to have relinquished all claim against the Confederate States, for compensation for the use of their said railroad.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and after the passage of this act, commissions in the Army of the Confederate States, and in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, may be issued to persons under twenty-one years of age, except in the case of officers who are required by law to give bond.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and after the passage of this act, the maximum compensation to be paid to route agents in the service of the Post-Office Department, shall not exceed twelve hundred dollars per annum.

SEC. 2. That from and after the passage of this act, the annual compensation of special agents of the Post-Office Department shall be sixteen hundred dollars per annum; and they shall also be allowed the sum of three dollars per day for their travelling and incidental expenses while actually engaged in travelling on the business of the Department.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Postmaster General of the Confederate States is authorized to establish a mail route for the more speedy transmission of letters and dispatches, only, between the States lying east and those lying west of the Mississippi River. Postage on mail matter to be sent by said route shall be prepaid at the rate of fifty cents for each half ounce; but in calculating the weight of such mail matter, any fraction of an ounce less than a half shall be regarded as a half ounce.

SEC. 2. Letters and dispatches for the route hereby authorized shall have preference over all other mail matter in the transmission of the mails across the Mississippi River.

SEC. 3. The Postmaster General is authorized to establish regulations for the prompt mailing, forwarding, and distributing of mail matter on said route, and he may apply the money arising, from time to time, from the postage thereon in the employment of couriers, or other means, for the safer, more frequent, and more rapid transmission of said preferred mails.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That no officer or soldier of the army shall receive pay for any period during which he may be absent without leave, or beyond the leave granted, from competent authority, according to the regulations of the army: Provided, That this restriction shall not affect the sick and wounded in hospitals.

SEC. 2. In order to enforce the requirements of the foregoing section, it is hereby made the duty of commanding officers of companies to state upon the muster and pay-rolls of their companies the length of time any officer or soldier has been absent therefrom, without leave of competent authority, since the previous payment, when the deduction of pay for such absence will be made by the quartermaster from the amount otherwise due the officer or soldier; and any commander of a company who shall fail to note such absence on the muster and pay-rolls of the company shall be required to refund to the Government the amount forfeited by such absent officer or soldier, unless it shall already have been received from the officer or soldier so absent.

SEC. 3. Officers shall certify upon honor on their pay accounts whether they have or have not been absent, without leave by competent authority, within the time for which they claim pay; and if absent without leave, they shall state in their certificates the time and period of such absences. In like manner, commanding officers of companies shall certify on honor on their pay accounts that they have stated fully and correctly on the muster and pay-rolls of their companies the length of time each officer and soldier of the company has been absent without leave since the last payment of the company.

SEC 4. That this act shall not be be construed to relieve any officer or private from any other penalty to which he may be liable by existing laws or regulations.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That it shall be the duty of the Attorney General to select from the laws and resolutions of the present and future sessions of the Congress such as may be of a public nature, and which, in his judgment, require immediate publication, and cause the same to be inserted weekly, for four weeks, in three public gazettes published in each State, selecting such gazettes as shall, in his judgment, most generally distribute the laws and resolutions through the entire limits of the several States.

SEC. 2. Any printer or publisher who may desire to print and publish an edition of the laws of the Confederate States, may do so at his own expense and for his own benefit; and the Attorney General shall grant a certificate of authentication to any such edition of the laws as shall conform to the standard now required for the printing and publication of the laws. Any edition of the laws so authenticated shall avail for all purposes for which the official publication may now be used.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the second section of the of an act entitled “An Act to establish the bureau of Indian Affairs,” approved March fifteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty one, be so amended as that the clerk authorized therein may be appointed without the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That hereafter in all cases of appeal from the decision of the Commissioner of Patents, touching the grant of a patent, the appellant shall, before the appeal is sent up, state in writing his grounds and reasons for said appeal, and file the same with said Commissioner, and the Commissioner shall send up the said statement along with the other papers in the case.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Commissioner of Patents be, and he is hereby authorized to expend from the Patent fund an additional sum of five hundred dollars in the purchase of necessary books for the library of his office.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the second section of the act entitled “An Act to authorize the President to accept and place in the service certain regiments and battalions heretofore raised,” approved on the eleventh day of October, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, shall not be so construed as to authorize any general officer to appoint any of the officers of said regiments and battalions. That said regiments and battalions shall have the right within ninety-days, on a day to be fixed by the commander of the brigade for that purpose, to elect such officers as volunteers have heretofore been authorized to elect: Provided, That this act shall not apply to any case where such office has heretofore been filled by election.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars be, and is hereby, appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to pay the officers and men of the Missouri State Guard (after their transfer to the Confederate States,) who, from imprisonment, absence, and other accidental causes, have not received their pay, under such rules and regulations as the Secretary of War may prescribe.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That in all cases where sales of real property were made under judgments or decrees of the courts of the United States by the Marshals of such courts, within any of the Confederate States before the separation of such States, respectively, from the Union, upon which the Marshal had at the time of such separation made no deed of conveyance; such deed shall be made by the Marshal of the district in which the judgment was rendered, according to the mode prescribed by the thirty-second section of the act approved March sixteenth, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, entitled “An Act to establish the Judicial Courts of the Confederate States of America.”

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President of the Confederate States is hereby authorized to receive into the service of the government private armed vessels, to be organized into a volunteer navy, and to appoint and commission officers for the same, who shall serve during the war, unless sooner discharged, under rules and regulations hereinafter prescribed, and such as may hereafter be established: Provided, however, That no vessel of less capacity than one hundred tons shall be received into said volunteer service.

SEC. 2. Any person or persons applying for service under this act, shall arm, man, provide and furnish the vessel or vessels to be used at his or their own expense, and shall furnish in writing to the Secretary of the Navy the name, armament and character of such vessel or vessels, and the names of the persons to be commissioned and warranted as officers, with the evidence of their character and fitness for the service; and if, in the judgment of the President, the vessel or vessels shall be fit for the service, and the parties named as officers be worthy to command, the President shall be authorized to receive such vessel or vessels into the volunteer navy of the Confederate States of America, and to commission the officers for the same to serve during the war, unless sooner discharged.

SEC. 3. The grades of commissioned officers of the volunteer navy shall be as follows: commander, first lieutenant, second lieutenant, assistant surgeon, and first and second assistant engineers. And the President may direct the Secretary of the Navy to issue warrants to such masters, boatswains, gunners, carpenters, and sailmakers as he may deem necessary for such service; and the pay of the officers and crew shall be as follows: For a commander, twenty-five dollars per month; for a first lieutenant, twenty dollars per month; for a second lieutenant, fifteen dollars per month; for an assistant surgeon, fifteen dollars per month; for an assistant engineer, fifteen dollars per month; for a second assistant engineer, ten dollars per month; for warrant officers, ten dollars per month; for seamen, five dollars per month; but such pay shall be given only for sea service. And the President may prescribe a uniform for the officers, and seamen; and when any vessel or vessels shall be prepared for service and received under the provisions of this act, it or they shall be under the control and direction of the President; and subject to all the laws, rules and regulations of the regular navy of the Confederates States, except as otherwise provided for in this act. It shall be the duty of the commander of every such vessel to transmit to the Secretary of the Navy, as early as practicable, after the organization of his crew, a descriptive list thereof, together with a duplicate of their shipping articles or enlistment rolls, and of the contract between owners, officers, and crew, for the division of prize money.

SEC. 4. That the vessels of the volunteer navy are authorized to seize, capture and destroy upon the sea or within the ebb and flow of the tide, all vessels and property of the United States, and of the citizens thereof; and ninety per cent. of the value of all such captures, less the costs and expenses of adjudication shall be forfeited, and accrue to the benefit of the owners, officers and crews of the vessels making such captures; and all vessels and property captured as aforesaid shall be proceeded against and adjudicated as in other cases of prize under the laws of the Confederate States, which are hereby extended over the same; and the proceeds accruing from such condemnations shall be distributed under order of the court having jurisdiction thereof, according to the written agreement between the parties entitled to the same; but if there be no such written agreement, then one half to the owners of the vessel, and the other half to the officers and crews, according to the rules prescribed for the distribution of prize money in the regular navy.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That any person now being a citizen or resident of the Confederate States of America, loyal to the government thereof, who had secured a copy right in any book, map, musical composition, print or engraving, under the laws of the United States, before the separation of these States therefrom, shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges and remedies secured to authors and composers, by the act to which this act is an amendment, upon complying with the several requirements made of authors and composers by the aforesaid act: Provided, That in ascertaining the term of any copyright, the period during which it was enjoyed under the laws of the United States, shall be computed.

SEC. 2. Any author, composer or designer, who is a citizen of the Confederate States, and loyal to the government thereof, and who has any interest, in the form of a per centage, on the sales or otherwise, in a copyright obtained under the laws of the United States, and owned by an alien enemy, shall have all the rights, privileges and remedies of the owner thereof, under the conditions and restrictions provided in the preceeding section of this act: Provided, That nothing in this section shall be so construed as to prejudice any interest which may be held by a loyal citizen of the Confederate States, other than the author, in any copyright owned by an alien enemy, or the rights of the Confederate States under the sequestration acts, to the copies of any book, map, musical composition, print or engraving, published by an alien enemy.

SEC. 3. Any author, designer or publisher, who may become entitled to the benefit of the provisions of the first section of this act, shall have all the remedies for any infringement of his or her copyright, which may have occurred before the passage of this act, which would exist had such infringement occurred subsequent to its passage.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the officers authorized and appointed under the Act entitled “An Act for the organization of a corps of officers for the working of nitre caves, etc.,” passed the eleventh of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, together with such additional officers, as are authorized by the provisions of this act, shall constitute an independent bureau of the War Department, to be entitled “the nitre and mining bureau.”

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That said bureau shall have charge of all the duties prescribed in the second section of said act, and, shall besides, be charged with all duties and expenditures connected with the mining of iron copper, lead, coal, etc., so far as it shall be deemed necessary to supply the military necessities of the country; and the superintendent thereof shall, under the Secretary of War, have full power to make such leases of real estate and purchases of fixtures as are necessary or appurtenent to any mines it may deem expedient to open or work on government account; and may also contract, subject to the approval of the Secretary of War, for such supplies, by purchase or otherwise, of all copper, lead, iron, coal, zinc and such other minerals as may be required for the prosecution of the war.

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That said bureau shall consist of one lieutenant colonel as superintendent, three majors as assistant superintendents, six captains and ten lieutenants, in which shall be included the officers of the present nitre corps, who shall have the same pay and allowances prescribed for officers of cavalry of the same grades.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the act entitled “An Act to provide for an increase of the quartermaster and commissary departments,” approved February fifteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, be, and the same is hereby amended, by striking out the proviso at the end of the same, and inserting in lieu thereof the following: Provided, That no quartermaster, assistant quartermaster, commissary, or assistant commissary, be authorized to employ as a clerk any one liable to military service; and the commanding officer of quartermasters, assistant quartermasters, commissaries, or assistant commissaries, may detail from the ranks under his command, such person or persons as may be necessary for service in the offices of said quartermasters, assistant quartermasters, commissaries and assistant commissaries: Provided, That only disabled soldiers shall be so detailed, while one can be found for such service.”

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Treasury pay to the proper authorities of the State of Alabama, the sum of ninety thousand dollars, being the sum paid by said State for the steamer Florida, which vessel was turned over by said State to the Confederate States, for a gun-boat.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That the said sum of ninety thousand dollars, be paid in bonds of the Confederate States, bearing interest at the rate of eight per centum per annum, and payable at not less than twenty, nor more than thirty years, and redeemable at the option of the government, after five years, which bonds the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to issue.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That there shall be levied and collected upon the value of all naval stores, salt, wines and spirituous liquors, tobacco, manufactured or unmanufactured, cotton, wool, flour, sugar, molasses, syrup, rice, and other agricultural products, held or owned on the first day of July next, and not necessary for family consumption, for the unexpired portion of the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and of the growth or production of any year preceding the year eighteen hundred and sixty-three, a tax of eight per centum; and on all moneys, bank notes or other currency on hand, or on deposite, on the first day of July next; and on the value of all credits on which the interest has not been paid, held or owned by any person, co-partnership or corporation, on the first day of July next, and not employed in a business, the income derived from which is taxed under the provisions of this act, there shall be levied and collected a fax of one per cent.: Provided, That all moneys owned, held or deposited beyond the limits of the Confederate States, shall be valued at the current rate of exchange in Confederate treasury notes, and the said tax shall be assessed on the first day of July next, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable, and be collected on the first day of October next, or as soon thereafter as may be practicable.

SEC. 2. Every person engaged or intending to engage in any business named in the fifth section of this act, shall, within sixty days after the passage of this act, or at the time of begining business, and on the first day of January in each year thereafter, register with the district collector, in such form as the commissioner of taxes shall prescribe, a true account of the name and residence of each person, firm or corporation engaged or interested in the business, with a statement of the time for which, and the place and manner in which the same is to be conducted, and of all other facts going to ascertain the amount of tax upon such business for the past or the future, according to the provisions of this act. At the time of such registry, there shall be paid to the collector the specific tax for the year, ending on the next thirty-first of December, and such other tax as may be due upon sales or receipts in such business, at the time of such registry, as herein provided; and the collector shall give to the person making such registry a copy thereof, with a receipt for the amount of tax then paid.

SEC. 3. Any person failing to make the registry, and to pay the tax required by the preceding section, shall, in addition to all other taxes upon his business, imposed by this act, pay double the amount of the specific tax on such business, and a like sum for every thirty days of such failure.

SEC. 4. Except where herein otherwise provided, there shall be a separate registry and tax for each business mentioned in the fifth section of this act, and for each place of conducting the same; but no tax shall be required for the mere storage of goods at a place other than the registered place of business. Upon every change in the place of conducting a registered business, there shall be a new registry, but no additional tax shall be required. Upon the death of any person conducting a business registered and taxed as herein required, or upon the transfer of the business to another, the business shall not be subjected to any additional tax, but there shall be a new registry in the name of the person authorized by law to continue the business.

SEC. 5. That upon each trade, business or occupation hereinafter named, the following taxes shall be levied and paid for the year, ending on the thirty-first of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and for each and every year thereafter, viz:

I. Bankers shall pay five hundred dollars. Every person shall be deemed a banker within the meaning of this act who keeps a place of business where credits are opened in favor of any person, firm or corporation, by the deposit or collection of money or currency, and by whom the same, or any part thereof, shall be paid out or remitted upon the draft, check or order of such creditor; but not to include any bank legally authorized to issue notes as circulation, nor agents for the sale of merchandize for account of producers or manufacturers.

II. Auctioneers shall pay fifty dollars and two and a half per centum on the gross amount of sales made: Provided, however, That on all sales at auction of stock or securities for money, the tax shall be one fourth of one per centum on the gross amount of sales. Every person shall be deemed an auctioneer, within the meaning of this act, whose occupation it is to offer property for sale to the highest or best bidder at public outcry. The tax upon the auctioneers shall be deemed a tax upon the personal privilege, to be paid by each individual engaged in the business, and without regard to the place at which the same is conducted. No tax shall be required upon auction sales made for dealers in a business registered and taxed and at their place of business, or upon official sales at auction, made by judicial or executive officers, or by personal representatives, guardi[a]ens or committees.

III. Wholesale dealers in liquors of any and every description, including distilled spirits, fermented liquors, and wines of all kinds, shall pay two hundred dollars and five per centum on the gross amount of sales made. Every person, other than the distiller or brewer, who shall sell or offer for sale, any such liquors or wines in quantities of more than three gallons at one time, to the same purchaser, shall be regarded as a wholesale dealer in liquors, within the meaning of this act. All persons who shall sell, or offer for sale, any such liquors or wines, in quantities less than three gallons at one time to the same person, shall be regarded as a retail dealer in liquors.

IV. Retail dealers in liquor, including distilled spirits, fermented liquors, and wines of every discription, shall pay one hundred dollars and ten per centum on the gross amount of all sales made.

V. Retail dealers shall pay fifty dollars and two and a half per centum on the gross amount of sales made. Every person whose business or occupation it is to sell or offer to sell groceries or any goods, wares, merchandise or other things of foreign or domestic production, in less quantities than a whole original piece or package at one time, to the same person, (not including wines, spirituous or malt liquors,) shall be regarded as a retail dealer under this act: Provided, however, That any mechanic who shall sell only the products of the labor of himself and his own family, shall be exempt from this tax.

VI. Wholesale dealers shall pay two hundred dollars and two and a half per centum on the gross amount of all sales made. Every person whose business or occupation it is to sell or offer to sell groceries, or any goods, wares or merchandise, of foreign or domestic production, by one or more original package or piece at one time to the same purchaser, not including wines, spirituous or malt liquors, shall be deemed as a wholesale dealer under this act; but, having been registered as a wholesale dealer, such person may also sell, as aforesaid, as a retailer.

VII. Pawnbrokers shall pay two hundred dollars. Every person, whose business or occupation it is to take or receive, by way of pledge, favor or exchange, any goods, wares or merchandise, or any kind of personal property whatever, for the repayment or security of money lent thereon, shall be deemed a pawnbroker under this act.

VIII. Distillers shall pay two hundred dollars, and also twenty per centum on the gross amount of all sales made. Every person or co-partnership, who distills or manufactures spirituous liquors for sale, shall be deemed a distiller under this act: Provided, however, That distillers of fruit, for ninety days or less, shall pay sixty dollars, and also fifty cents per gallon on the first ten gallons, and two dollars per gallon on all spirits distilled beyond that quantity.

IX. Brewers shall pay one hundred dollars, and two and a half per centum on the gross amount of sales made. Every person who manufactures fermented liquors of any name or description, for sale, from malt, wholly or in part, shall be deemed a brewer under this act.

X. Hotels, inns, taverns and eating houses, shall be classified and rated according to the yearly rental, or if not rented, according to the estimated value of the yearly rental of the house or property occupied or intended to be occupied as a hotel, inn, tavern or eating house, as follows, to-wit: In cases where the actual or estimated rent shall amount to ten thousand dollars, or more, they shall constitute the first class, and pay an annual sum of five hundred dollars; In cases where said rent shall be five thousand dollars and less than ten thousand dollars, they shall constitute the second class, and pay an annual sum of three hundred dollars; and in cases where said rent shall be two thousand, five hundred dollars, and less than five thousand dollars, they shall constitute the third class, and pay an annual sum of two hundred dollars; in cases where said rent shall be one thousand dollars, and less than two thousand five hundred dollars, they shall constitute the fourth class, and pay an annual sum of one hundred dollars; and in cases where said rent shall be less than one thousand dollars, they shall constitute the fifth class, and pay an annual sum of thirty dollars. Every place where food and lodgings, or lodgings only, are provided for and furnished travellers, sojourners or boarders, in view of payment therefor, the income or receipts from which amount to five hundred dollars, from that source, shall be regarded a hotel, inn or tavern, under this act.

XI. That every place where food or refreshments of any kind are provided for casual visitors, and sold for consumption therein, and every boarding house in which there shall be six boarders, or more, shall be deemed an eating house under this act.

XII. Brokers shall pay two hundred dollars. Any person whose business it is to purchase and sell stocks, coined money, bank notes, or other securities, for themselves or others, or who deals in exchanges relating to money, shall be deemed a broker under this act.

XIII. Commercial brokers or commission merchants shall pay two hundred dollars, and two and a half per centum upon all sales made. Any person or firm, except one registered as a wholesale dealer or banker, whose business it is, as the agent of others, to purchase or sell goods, or seek orders therefor in original or unbroken packages, or produce consigned by others than the producers, to manage business matters for the owners of vessels, or for the shippers or consignors of goods, or whose business it is to purchase, rent, hire or sell real estate or negroes, shall be deemed a commercial broker or commission merchant under this act.

XIV. Tobacconists shall pay fifty dollars and two and a half per cent, on gross amount of sales. Any person whose business it is to sell, at retail, cigars, snuff, or tobacco in any form, shall be deemed a tobacconist under this act. But registered wholesale and retail dealers shall not be taxed as tobacconists.

XV. Theatres shall pay five hundred dollars, and five per cent. on all receipts, which tax shall be paid by the owner of the building. Every edifice used for the purpose of dramatic representations, plays or performances, and not including halls rented or used occasionally for concerts or theatrical representations, shall be regarded as a theatre under this act. Each circus shall pay one hundred dollars, and a tax of ten dollars for each exhibition, which tax shall be paid by the manager thereof. Every building, tent or space, or area, where feats of horsemanship or acrobatic sports are exhibited, shall be regarded as a circus under this act. Jugglers and other persons exhibiting shows, shall pay fifty dollars. Every person who performs by slight of hand, shall be regarded as a juggler under this act: Provided, That no registry made in one State shall be held to authorize exhibitions in another State; and but one registry shall be required under this act to authorize exhibitions in any one State.

XVI. Bowling alleys and billiard rooms shall pay forty dollars for each alley or billiard table registered, which tax shall be paid by the owner thereof. Every place or building where bowls are thrown or billiards played, and open to the public, with or without price, shall be regarded as a bowling alley or billiard room, respectively, under this act.

XVII. Livery stable keepers shall pay fifty dollars. Any person whose occupation or business is to keep horses for hire or to let, shall be regarded as a livery stable keeper under this act.

XVIII. Cattle brokers shall pay the sum of fifty dollars, and two and a half per centum on the gross amount of sales made. Any person whose business it is to buy and sell and deal in cattle, horses, hogs or sheep, shall be considered a cattle broker.

XIX. Butchers and bakers shall pay the sum of fifty dollars, and one per centum on the gross amount of sales made. Any person whose business it is to butcher and sell, or offer for sale in open market or otherwise, the flesh of cattle, hogs or sheep, shall be deemed a butcher under this act; and any person whose business it is to bake and sell, or offer for sale, bread, shall be deemed a baker under this act.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That any Indian Nation entitled to a Delegate in the Congress of the Confederate States, or any citizen or citizens of such Nation, may sue at law or in equity, any citizen or citizens of any State or Territory of the Confederate States, or any person or persons residing or found therein, in any District Court of the Confederate States, where service may be had in any case in law or equity arising under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the Confederate States in the same manner, and to the same extent, as is now provided by act of Congress, and the treaty with the Cherokee Nation, for suits at law or in equity between any State of the Confederate States or any citizen or citizens of such State, and any citizen or citizens of such Indian Nation, or person or persons residing or found therein.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President be authorized to offer suitable rewards for the apprehension of fugitives from justice, not to exceed in any case, the sum of two thousand dollars.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Navy be, and he is hereby, authorized to lease, for a period not exceeding five years, a site, with or without buildings, as he may deem most expedient, near the city of Richmond, for the preparation and safe keeping of ordnance stores: Provided, That the quantity of land leased does not exceed two acres.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the extra pay now allowed soldiers detailed to perform the duties of clerks in any of the public offices in the city of Richmond, by reason of their physical disability to serve in the field, shall be increased from twenty-five cents per day to one dollar per day, from and after the passage of this act.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That in all cases of appraisement provided for in said act, the officer impressing the property shall, if he believe the appraisement to be fair and just, endorse upon it his approval; if not, he shall endorse upon it his reasons for refusing, and deliver the same, with a receipt for the property impressed, to the owner, his agent or attorney, and as soon as practicable, forward a copy of the receipt and appraisement and his endorsement thereon, to the board of appraisers appointed by the President and the Governor of the State, who shall revise the same and make a final valuation, so as to give just compensation for the property taken, which valuation shall be paid by the proper Department, for use of which the property was taken, on the certificate of the appraisers, as provided in the act of which this is amendatory.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby, authorized to issue and deliver bonds or certificates of stock of the Confederate States, bearing eight per cent. interest per annum, to such an amount as may be necessary to discharge all agreements entered into prior to the first day of December, 1862, whereby goods were sold and delivered to the government, and the vendor, at the time of sale, agreed to receive bonds or stock in payment of the price; and the said bonds or stock may bear date on the day of issue, or on the day the vendor was entitled to receive payment; but if dated on the day of issue, the interest which would have accrued had the bonds or stock been issued on the day the vendor was entitled to receive them shall be paid. And the said bonds or stock shall be issued under the same forms, conditions and restrictions as are provided in the Act entitled “An Act to provide further means for the support of the government,” approved twelfth April, eighteen hundred and sixty two, and the Secretary of the Treasury shall, also, be authorized to issue like bonds to any person who shall have actually paid money into the hands of an agent of the Treasury, for the purchase of eight per cent. bonds of the one hundred millionth loan, prior to the twentieth February, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the treasury notes authorized to be issued under the denomination of one dollar, may be issued in such forms and with such authentication as the Secretary of the Treasury shall direct.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That sick or wounded officers shall be allowed hospital accommodations in any of the hospitals of the Confederate States, at one dollar per diem.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, When said officer shall be without money, he shall nevertheless be entitled to the same. The surgeon in charge, at the expiration of every thirty days, shall state the account, and be entitled to draw the amount at any place where the officer might have drawn it, which shall be deducted from said officer's pay in the same way, as if he, himself had drawn it, and any officer drawing the same again, shall be punished as in the case of fraudulent drawers.

The Congress of the Confederate State of America do enact, That the rates of inland postage on newspapers, published in the Conferate States, and sent to regular subscribers, shall be at the rate of one cent for each paper not weighing more than three ounces, and for every additional ounce, or fraction of an ounce, one half cent additional shall be charged on each paper; and periodicals published oftener than semi-monthly shall be charged as newspapers. The inland postage on other periodicals, published in the Confederate States and sent to actual subscribers, shall be on the regular numbers of a periodical, not exceeding one and a half ounces in weight, one cent on each number, and one cent additional on each additional ounce or fraction of an ounce. Regular subscribers to newspapers and periodicals shall be required to pay the postage thereon quarterly in advance, at the office of delivery, unless paid at the post-office of the place of publication. The inland postage on every other newspaper, and on each circular not sealed, hand-bill, engraving, pamphlet, periodical, magazine, or other paper, which shall be unconnected with any manuscript or written matter, and not exceeding one ounce in weight, shall be one cent and for every additional ounce or fraction of an ounce, one cent additional, and books, bound and unbound, not weighing over four pounds, shall be deemed mailable matter, and the inland postage on them shall be at the rate of two cents an ounce or fraction of an ounce; and the postage on all such transient matter and books shall be prepaid, in all cases, except when sent by officers, musicians or privates of the army as provided for in the act of July twenty-ninth eighteen hundred and sixty-one, relating to the prepayment of postage in certain cases. And upon all newspapers, periodicals and books published beyond the limits of the Confederate States, postage shall be double the foregoing rates. On each number of a newspaper, unsealed circular, or any other unsealed printed transient matter, placed in any post-office, not for transmission but for deliver only, the postage shall be one cent.

SEC. 2. That this act shall take effect, and be in force on and after the first day of July eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and that the second section of the act approved May the thirteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, entitled “An Act to amend An Act to prescribe the rates of postage in the Confederate States of America, and for other purposes,” approved February twenty-third eighteen hundred and sixty-one, be, and the same is hereby repealed, from and after that date, except so much of said second section as authorizes the publishers of newspapers or periodicals within the Confederate States to send and receive to and from each other from their respective offices of publication, one copy of each publication free of postage.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Act entitled “An Act to increase the pay of certain officers and employees in the Executive and Legislative Departments,” approved October thirteenth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, be, and the same is hereby extended, and declared to be in force for the period of three months after the thirteenth day of October, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That it was the intention of Congress that the said act should be construed so that the benefits of the same shall extend and inure to the temporary as well as permanent officers and employees in the civil employment of the government in the city of Richmond.

SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That it was not the intention of Congress, by the passage of the above recited Act, to repeal an Act entitled “An Act to provide a compensation for the disbursing officer of the several Executive Departments,” approved May sixteenth A. D. eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and it is hereby declared that the disbursing clerks in the Departments of State, Treasury, War, Navy, and Justice, and in the Post-office Department, and the disbursing officer of the contingent fund of the Executive office shall each hereafter be allowed, in addition to his salary or compensation as clerk, the sum of two hundred dollars per annum, for disbursing the funds of the Department which may be required to pass through his hands.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all machinery for the manufacture of cotton, or wool, or necessary for carrying on any of the mechanic arts in the Confederate States of America, be admitted free of duty until the ratification of a treaty of peace between the Confederate States and the United States.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and after the passage of this act the pay of master's mates in the Navy shall be forty dollars per month.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint by, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, one Chief Constructor in the Navy, whose compensation shall be three thousand dollars per annum, and who shall perform such duties as may be directed by the Secretary of the Navy.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the above entitled act be so amended as to embrace the impressment of supplies required for the Navy as well as the Army.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Navy be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint one clerk to the commandant of the marine corps, and one clerk to the quartermaster of the marine corps, at a compensation not to exceed fifteen hundred dollars per annum each.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the first section of the above entitled Act be so amended that the board of naval officers therein provided for, to make valuation of any armed vessel and its armament, sunk or destroyed under the provisions of said Act, shall have, and are hereby invested with, power to take and receive such depositions, affidavits, official reports, and other evidence, written or oral, as they may deem necessary to enable them to make the valuation required by said Act.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the ten year Bonds and two year Treasury Notes issued under the provisions of an Act entitled “An Act to authorize a loan, and the issue of Treasury Notes, and to prescribe the punishment for forging the same, and for forging certificates of Stock and Bonds,” approved sixteenth May, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, be, and the same are hereby, excepted from the operation of the Act entitled “An Act to provide for the funding and further issue of Treasury Notes,” approved twenty-third March, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and the said ten year Bonds and two year Treasury Notes shall continue subject to all the provisions of the said Act first hereinbefore mentioned, approved sixteenth May, eighteen hundred and sixty-one: Provided, That the said two year Treasury Notes now outstanding shall be funded prior to the first day of August, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That whereas doubts have arisen as to the fees allowed by law to the District Attorneys of the Confederate States, it is hereby declared that they have been and are entitled to the fees established by the laws of the Confederate States in force prior to the act, entitled “An Act to establish the judicial courts of the Confederate States of America,” approved sixteenth March, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, as well as those enacted since that date.

SEC. 2. The amount of compensation received by the District Attorneys from all sources shall not exceed the sum of five thousand dollars per annum: Provided, Each District Attorney shall make returns of the fees received by him, and shall pay the excess over five thousand dollars into the Treasury.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That no person shall falsely forge, counterfeit, or make any counterfeit resemblance or imitation of, or anything purporting to be the great seal of the Confederate States of America, or of the seal of any department, office, or functionary thereof, authorized by law to keep or have a seal.

SEC. 2. No person shall fraudulently begin to make any such forged or counterfeit resemblance, or imitation, or procure the same to be done, or aid in the same, or fraudulently have in possession, or conceal, or aid in concealing, or procure others to conceal, or keep such forged seal, or any instrument, die, blank, or pei[e]ce of metal, or other material, intended to be used in the preparation of such seal.

SEC. 3. No person shall fraudulently forge or counterfeit any paper in imitation of, or purporting to be, an office paper or record, bond, coupon, or other paper issued from any department, office, court, or functionary of the Confederate States.

SEC. 4. No person shall fraudulently begin to forge or counterfeit, or be concerned in fraudulently forging or counterfeiting any such paper, or fraudulently make or prepare, or begin to make or prepare any plate, die, instrument, or material intended for the making or preparation of such paper, or procure the same to be done, or knowingly aid in the same, or fraudulently have in possession, conceal, or aid in concealing, or procure others to conceal or keep any such paper, plate, die, instrument, or material, whether complete or otherwise.

SEC. 5. No person shall fraudulently fix or make the impression of any such counterfeit seal, or of any such genuine seal on any such paper, or on any paper or material intended to be used in the preparation of such paper.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the office of Regimental Commissary be, and the same is hereby abolished, and the duties heretofore devolved by law upon said commissary shall be performed by the Regimental Quartermaster: Provided, That said quartermaster shall, if required by the Secretary of War, execute a new bond, with such additional penalty as he may require.

SEC. 2. That the commanding officer of a regiment or battalion shall, when the good of the service, in his opinion, requires it, detail a non-commissioned officer or private as commissary sergeant, who shall be assigned to the Regimental Quartermaster to perform the duties now performed by commissary sergeants, and the non-commissioned officer or private so detailed shall receive as extra pay twenty dollars per month.

SEC. 3. That the Regimental Quartermasters acting as commissaries shall draw supplies for their respective regiments on provision returns, form fourteen, and not in bulk; and when detached from their brigades, so that it is impracticable to draw supplies from the brigade commissary, it shall be the duty of the nearest brigade or post commissary to supply his regiment on provision return fourteen.

SEC. 4. Sales to officers shall be made by the brigade commissaries to which such officers are attached.

SEC. 5. That quartermasters and commissaries, assistant quartermasters and assistant commissaries, who become permanently detached from divisions, brigades, or regiments, to which they are originally appointed and assigned respectively, whether by resignation or otherwise, shall cease to be officers of the army, and their names shall be dropped from the rolls of the army, unless re-assigned by a special order of the Secretary of War.

SEC. 6. That it shall be the duty of the Secretary of War to issue the necessary orders for the earliest practical enforcement of the provisions of this law, and that he shall communicate to the Chiefs of the Subsistence and Quartermaster's Bureaux the names of the commissaries and assistant commissaries, quartermasters and assistant quartermasters retained and dropped from the rolls under this act.

SEC. 7. That all laws and parts of laws contravening the provisions of this act be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the principal clerks at the offices of the War Tax, the Treasury Note and Coupon Bureaux at Richmond and at Columbia, and of the Produce Loan, be raised to the grade of chief clerks, with a salary of two thousand five hundred dollars, and be charged respectively with all the duties of superintending and conducting the business of the said offices, under the regulations and direction of the Secretary of the Treasury.

SEC. 2. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to employ one additional clerk in the War Tax Office, two more in the Produce Loan Office, and as many male and female clerks in the Treasury Note and Coupon Department as are from time to time necessary to prepare the said notes and coupons at Richmond and Columbia, not exceeding the number now employed, and the salaries now paid, and that the salaries of the clerks at Columbia shall be the same as those at Richmond; and in all cases in making appointments under this act, a preference shall be given to males who are not liable to military duty under the laws of Congress, and to females whose labor is necessary for their support.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of War be, and he is hereby, authorized to purchase or lease any and all real estate which may by him be deemed necessary for the use of the government in the conduct of those works or operations submitted by law to the supervision or control of the War Department, and for which appropriations are made by Congress.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all officers, non-commissioned officers and privates of any legally constituted military organization, which may have been actually received into the service of the Confederate States by any general officer thereof, but were never legally mustered into service, in consequence of the loss of the muster rolls of such military organization, shall be entitled to receive pay from the time they were so received: Provided, The fact of their having been so received into the service, and the time they served, is duly proved to the satisfaction of the Secretary of War, under rules to be prescribed by him.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the troops heretofore raised by the State of North Carolina, and afterwards received into the service of the Confederate States, by the Confederate States, shall be paid from the date of their enlistment.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the following sums be, and the same are hereby, appropriated out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the support of the Government, from the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, to the thirty-first day of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-three:

Legislative.—For compensation and mileage of members and Delegates of the House of Representatives, two hundred thousand four hundred and twenty dollars.

For compensation of officers, clerks, &c., of the House of Representatives, five thousand six hundred and twenty-five dollars.

For contingent expenses of the House of Representatives, fifteen thousand dollars.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That for the purpose of superintending the collection of internal duties, or taxes imposed, or which may be hereafter imposed by law, and of assessing the same, an office is hereby created in the Treasury Department, to be called the office of the commissioner of taxes; and the President of the Confederate States is hereby authorized to nominate, and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to appoint a commissioner of taxes, with an annual salary of three thousand dollars, who shall be charged, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, with preparing all the instructions, regulations, directions, forms and blanks, and distributing the same, or any part thereof, and with all other matters pertaining to the assessment and collection of the duties and taxes which may be necessary to carry the laws, passed for the purpose, into effect, and with the general superintendence of his office, as aforesaid, and the Secretary of the Treasury may assign to the office of commissioner of taxes such number of clerks as he may deem necessary, or the exigencies of the public service may require.

SEC. 2. That for the purpose of assessing, levying and, collecting all taxes and internal duties, each State shall constitute a tax division, over which shall be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, one State collector, who shall be a resident and freeholder in such state, with a salary of one-tenth of one per cent. on the amount collected in each State: Provided, That in no case shall the salary be less than two thousand nor more than three thousand dollars, and said State collector shall, under the regulations prescribed by the commissioner of taxes, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, be charged with the duties imposed upon himself, and with the superintendence and direction of all the duties of the various officers in his division or State, created by this act. The said State collector shall give bond, with sureties, to discharge the duties of his office in such amount as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and shall take oath faithfully to discharge the duties of his office, and to support and defend the Constitution of the Confederate States.

SEC. 3. Each State collector shall divide his State into convenient collection districts, following as nearly as may be practicable the counties or tax districts into which the State may have been sub-divided by its own State government. But the Secretary of the Treasury may authorize two or more sparsely populated counties to be included in one collection district, when so recommended by the State collector, and may sub-divide large towns or cities into two or more collection districts, when so recommended by said State collector. For each of these districts a tax collector, to be called the district collector, shall be appointed by the State collector, subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, and each of these district collectors shall be charged with the duty of causing to be assessed and levied, and of collecting all taxes imposed or required to be paid by any act of Congress, upon any persons or property within the said district. The said district collector shall be a resident freeholder of the tax district in which he shall be appointed, and shall be subject to such regulations as shall be prescribed by the commissioner of taxes, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury.

SEC. 4. That before any such collector shall enter upon the duties of his office, he shall execute a bond for such amount as shall be prescribed by the commissioner of taxes, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, with not less than two sureties, to be approved as sufficient by the commissioner of taxes, conditioned that said collector shall faithfully perform the duties of his office; which bond shall be filed in the office of the Comptroller of the Treasury. And each collector shall, from time to time, renew, strengthen and increase his official bond, as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct. And each collector, before entering upon the duties of his office, shall take oath faithfully to discharge the duties of his office, and that he will support and defend the Constitution of the Confederate States.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all persons serving in the land forces of the Confederate States who shall desire to be transferred to the naval service, and whose transfer as seamen or ordinary seamen shall be applied for by the Secretary of the Navy, shall be transferred from the land to the naval service: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to alter or repeal any law now in force limiting the number of seamen.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That sick, wounded, and disabled soldiers in hospitals shall be entitled to furloughs and discharges under the following rules and regulations: In places where there are three or more hospitals, three surgeons in charge of hospitals, or divisions in hospitals, shall constitute a Board of Examiners for the hospitals to which they belong, whose duty it shall be, twice in each week, to visit said hospitals, and examine applicants for furloughs and discharges; and in all cases where they shall find an applicant for furlough unfit for military duty, either from disease or wounds, and likely so to remain for thirty days or upwards, they shall grant a furlough for such time as they shall deem him unfit for duty, not to exceed sixty days. Said board shall keep a secretary or clerk, who shall issue all furloughs by order of the board, and shall specify therein the time of furlough, the place of the residence of the soldier, his company, regiment and brigade.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That all laws or parts of laws establishing any port or ports of delivery in the Confederate States be, and the same are hereby repealed, and that all ports of delivery heretofore established be, and the same are hereby abolished, except such ports of delivery as are also ports of entry.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That in the several Indian Nations entitled by treaty to delegates in the Congress of the Confederate States, the regulations for holding elections for such delegates shall be as follows: Such elections shall be held in all such Indian Nations on the first Monday in September, A. D., eighteen hundred and sixty three, and on the first Monday of September, in each second year thereafter.

SEC. 2. Such elections shall be conducted according to the mode prescribed by the laws of the several Nations, except so far as such laws may be modified by this act.

SEC. 3. In such elections, every citizen of the Nation entitled to a delegate, who has not forfeited his citizenship by deserting to the public enemy, or seeking protection from the government of the United States, who shall be qualified to vote for a member of the legislative body of such Nation, shall be entitled to vote for such delegate at any place in such nation where he would be entitled to vote for Governor or Principal Chief.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That non-commissioned officers, musicians or privates, when employed on detached or detail service by a departmental or other commander of a district, or under the direction of any of the military bureaux, instead of the compensation now allowed, may be allowed the sum of not more than three dollars per day, in lieu of rations and all other allowances, upon the recommendation of the officer immediately in charge of such men, with the approval of the commander or chief of bureau, as the case may be, and the sanction of the Secretary of War.

SEC. 2. This act shall remain in force for one year from the first day of January, eighteen hundred and sixty-three.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Postmaster General be, and he is hereby, authorized, if found practicable and necessary, to establish express mails for the conveyance of letters and government dispatches only, as a means of securing greater dispatch than can be afforded by the regular mails; and the lines of express mails so established shall be deemed post routes.

SEC. 2. The rates of postage on such lines shall be fixed by the Postmaster General, but shall not exceed one dollar on a single letter not exceeding in weight one half ounce, and at the same rate for any additional half ounce or fraction of a half ounce, for any distance not exceeding five hundred miles, and for any distance exceeding five hundred miles double the said rate to be so fixed: Provided, This law shall not repeal the laws now in force regulating the ordinary mail service.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That citizens of the Confederate States who failed to present their claims for postal services to the Post-Office Department, under the provisions of An Act entitled “An Act to collect for distribution the moneys remaining in the several post-offices of the Confederate States at the time the postal service was taken in charge by said government,” approved August thirty, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and An Act to amend the said Act, approved January twenty-three, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, may present their claims, in pursuance of the provisions of said Acts, within twelve months after the passage of this Act; and such claimants shall be paid under the provisions of An Act entitled “An Act to provide for the payment of sums ascertained to be due for postal services to citizens of the Confederate States by the Postmaster General,” approved September twenty-seven, eighteen hundred and sixty-two.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That in addition to one military court to attend each army corps in the field, as now authorized by an Act entitled “An Act to organize military courts to attend the army of the Confederate States in the field, and to define the power of said courts,” approved October ninth, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, one military court shall be organized in each of such military departments as, in the judgment of the President, the public exigencies may require; to be organized in the manner and with powers prescribed in the act of which this is amendatory.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That whenever, from insecurity or other reason, a district court commissioner shall, in his discretion, deem it inadvisable to commit a prisoner to the jail of the county in which he shall be sitting, he shall commit him to any other jail within his district, or the district within which the offence is alleged to have been committed, which shall seem to him most convenient and safe.

SEC. 2. That whenever it shall appear to a commissioner that good reason exists for the removal of a prisoner already committed, he shall order his removal and commitment to any jail to which he might have committed him under the first section this act.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That unless the Legislature thereof shall otherwise provide, the members of Congress for any district of the State of Louisiana in which an election cannot conveniently be held in consequence of the same being occupied wholly or in part by the troops of the enemy, may, on proclamation of that fact by the Governor of said State, be chosen by the qualified voters thereof, in such portions of the State as shall not be so occupied.

SEC. 2. The election provided for in the foregoing section shall be held at such time and places as may be prescribed by the laws of said State now in force, or as may hereafter be enacted, and shall in all respects, not inconsistent with the provisions of this act, be conducted in the mode prescribed by said laws.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That so much of the act approved October eleventh, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, as exempts from military service “one person, either as agent, owner, or overseer, on each plantation on which one white person is required to be kept by the laws or ordinances of any State, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to military service, and in States having no such law, one person as agent, owner, or overseer, on each plantation of twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to military service,” and also the following clause in said act, to-wit: “And furthermore for additional police for every twenty negroes, on two or more plantations, within five miles of each other, and each having less than twenty negroes, and on which there is no white male adult not liable to military duty, one person being the oldest of the owners or overseers on such plantations,” be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

SEC. 2. For the police and management of slaves, there shall be exempted one person on each farm or plantation, the sole property of a minor, a person of unsound mind, a feme sole, or a person absent from home in the military or naval service of the Confederacy, on which there are twenty or more slaves: Provided, The person so exempted was employed and acting as an overseer previous to the sixteenth April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and there is no white male adult on said farm or plantation, who is not liable to military duty, which fact shall be verified by the affidavits of said person and two respectable citizens, and shall be filed with the enrolling officer: And provided, The owner of such farm or plantation, his agent, or legal representative, shall make affidavit and deliver the same to the enrolling officer, that, after diligent effort, no overseer can be procured for such farm or plantation not liable to military duty: Provided, further, That this clause shall not extend to any farm or plantation on which the negroes have been placed by division from any other farm or plantation since the eleventh day of October, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two: Provided, further, That for every person exempted, as aforesaid, and during the period of such exemption, there shall be paid annually into the public treasury, by the owners of such slaves, the sum of five hundred dollars.

SEC. 3. Such other persons shall be exempted as the President shall be satisfied ought to be exempted in districts of country deprived of white or slave labor indispensable to the production of grain or provisions necessary for the support of the population remaining at home, and also on account of justice, equity and necessity.

SEC. 4. In addition to the State officers exempted by the act of Octotober eleventh, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, there shall also be exempted all State officers whom the Governor of any State may claim to have exempted for the due administration of the government and laws thereof; but this exemption shall not continue in any State after the adjournment of the next regular session of its Legislature, unless such Legislature shall, by law, exempt them from military duty in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That no officer charged with the safe keeping, transfer or disbursement of public moneys, shall convert to his own use, or invest in any kind of property or merchandise, on private account, or lend with or without interest, any portion of the public moneys entrusted to him for safe keeping, transfer, disbursement or any other purpose.

SEC. 2. That no officer charged with the safe keeping, transfer or disbursement of public moneys, or charged with or assigned to the duty of purchasing for the government, or any department thereof, shall buy, trade, traffic or speculate in, either directly or indirectly for the purpose of gain to himself or others by re-sale or otherwise, any article of food or clothing or material of which the same is made, or which enters into or constitutes a part of the same, or any material of war or article whatsoever, which is or may be required to be purchased for the use of the army or the prosecution of the war.

SEC. 3. No officer shall take a receipt in blank for any article or articles purchased by him for the government or any department thereof; and every receipt shall set forth the true amount paid, and on what account; and when payment is made on account of property purchased, the receipt shall set forth the name of the person from whom such property was purchased, and the place of his residence, the thing or things purchased by items, number, weight or measurement, as may be customary in the particular case, the price thereof, and the date of payment.

SEC. 4. No officer who is in charge of transportation, or who is empowered to grant the same, shall forward by government conveyance or at the expense of government, or to the exclusion or delay of government freight, any commodity or property of any kind, unless the same belongs to the government or some department thereof, except as authorized by law.

SEC. 5. Any officer who shall violate any provision in the foregoing sections, shall, upon a conviction before a court martial or military court, be cashiered, and placed in the ranks as a private to serve during the war: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall impair the civil remedy which the government may have against any officer or his sureties for fraud, peculation or misapplication of the public moneys entrusted to him by the government.

SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That any person in the employment or service of the government as aforesaid, and all other persons coming within the purview of this act, who shall violate any of the provisions of the foregoing sections, shall be liable to indictment, and fined in a sum not less than one thousand dollars, and imprisoned not less than one year, nor longer than five years, to be imposed by the judge or jury trying the cause, according to the course of judicial proceeding in force in the several States: Provided, The provisions of this act shall in no wise interfere with or impair the civil remedy which the government may have against any of said officers or their securities or employees for frauds, peculations or misapplication of the moneys entrusted to them respectively, by the Confederate States: Provided also, That all conservators of the peace, who, by the laws of the several States, have jurisdiction to commit or bind over offenders for breaches of the criminal laws of the State in which they may reside, shall have power to commit or bind over in a sufficient recognizance offenders against the provisions of this law, to appear at the next term of the district court of the Confederate States, within the jurisdiction of which the offence was committed, for trial, in the same manner and under the same rules as if such preliminary trial were had before the judge of such district court, and the judges of the Confederate courts having jurisdiction of the offences defined by this act shall, at the commeneement of each session of their respective courts, give this act and its provisions specially in charge to the different grand juries.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That from and after the passage of this act, the regular place for holding the the District Court for the Western District of Texas shall be at Corpus Christi, in the county of Neuces, and the judge of said court is hereby authorized and empowered to make the necessary orders for the removal of the records of said court.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That if the treasurer, any assistant treasurer, or depositary of moneys of the Confederate States, or any clerk in the office of such treasurer, assistant treasurer or depositary, or collector of taxes shall, prior to the first of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the course of the transaction of the lawful business of such office, have received in payment, or in any authorized deposit in such office, any counterfeit or forged treasury notes, and shall establish by proof to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury, that the receipt of any such counterfeit or forged treasury note was not the result of a want of due diligence on the part of such officer, nor caused by his neglect, carelessness or want of attention to his duties, said Secretary shall have power to relieve such officer from liability on account of any counterfeit forged treasury notes so received.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, There shall be a Provisional Navy of the Confederate States, the officers of which shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and hold their commissions during the present war. All officers appointed from the regular navy to the provisional navy shall have, at its formation, the same relative position and rank they held in the regular navy.

SEC. 2 All the warrant officers who may be fit for active service, and all the petty officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen, boys, firemen, coal heavers, and employees of every description, and all the vessels, armament and material of every description belonging to the navy, shall, so far as may be deemed necessary by the President, be considered as transferred to and as forming part of the Provisional Navy; and the President is hereby authorized to appoint such additional officers, and to employ such petty officers, seamen, ordinary seamen, landsmen, boys, firemen, and coal heavers, as he may deem necessary.

SEC. 3. When an officer of the regular Navy is appointed to the Provisional Navy, such appointment shall not alter or affect his rank or position in the regular Navy.

SEC. 4. All commissioned officers of the regular Navy shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, whenever, in his judgment, the public service requires their appointment, and in such numbers as he may think necessary, to the following ranks and grades, viz: Admirals, Vice-Admirals, Rear-Admirals, Commodores, and to such other ranks and grades as may exist in the regular Navy.

SEC. 5. All questions in regard to the assimilated rank between officers of the Provisional Army and Provisional Navy and between officers of the Regular Navy and Provisional Navy shall be fixed by regulation.

SEC. 6. Officers of the Provisional Navy shall be paid as follows: Admirals, the same as is now fixed by law for Admirals in the regular Navy; Vice-Admirals and Rear-Admirals the same as is now fixed by aw for flag officers in the regular Navy; Commodores, the same as is now fixed by law for captains in the regular Navy. All other ranks, grades and persons the same that similar ranks, grades and persons receive in the regular Navy.

SEC. 7. All laws and regulations for the government of the regular Navy shall apply to the provisional Navy.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the commutation value of rations of sick and disabled soldiers of the army shall, from and after the passage of this act, be fixed at one dollar and twenty-five cents each, instead of one dollar, as provided in the first section of the above recited act, and that the provisions of this act, and the above recited act, approved September twenty-seventh, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, shall be so construed as to apply to all sick and disabled soldiers of the army, whether in hospitals or other places, used in camp or in the field as hospitals, and that it shall be the duty of the Surgeon General, under the direction of the Secretary of War, to prescribe such rules and regulations in his department as will secure to all sick and disabled soldiers the benefit of the provisions of this and the act to which this is an amendment: Provided, That twenty-five cents for each ration so commuted shall not be drawn or appropriated until the Secretary of War shall deem the same necessary to purchase suitable supplies for the use of the sick and disabled of the army.

SEC. 2. That the pay to be hereafter allowed to all laundresses in hospitals or other places, in the service of the Confederate States, shall be twenty-five dollars per month, with rations and quarters, instead of the pay now allowed by law.

SEC. 3. That in addition to the hospitals now established, it shall be the duty of the Surgeon General to establish, at convenient and suitable points of location on the different railroad routes, such other hospitals as may be necessary to furnish quarters and rations to sick and disabled soldiers who may be permitted to return home on furlough, or after an honorable discharge from the military service, and the hospitals so established shall be known and designated as way hospitals, and shall be furnished with suitable bedding and provisions, and in every respect be under the same rules and regulations of other hospitals.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the President be, and he is hereby, authorized to appoint officers in the Nitre Bureau and in the Engineer troops during the recess of the Senate, to be confirmed by the Senate at its next session, and the commissions of the officers so appointed shall expire at the end of the next session of the Senate, unless the same be confirmed.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Secretary of the Treasury cause to be paid to those of the North Carolina Cherokee Indians, now living, embraced in the roll of John C. Mullay, or the legal representatives of such of them as have died since their enrollment, the interest annually due upon the sum of fifty-three dollars and thirty-three cents respectively per capita, from the twenty-third day of May, one thousand eight hundred and sixty, and annually thereafter at the rate aforesaid, until the said Indians shall remove to the Indian territory, or shall be allowed to remain permanently in the State of North Carolina by an appropriate act of the said State.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the following named post routes be and the same are hereby established to wit:

In the State of North Carolina.—From Hamilton, in Morton county, to Tarboro', in Edgecombe county.

From South Fork post-office in Ashe county, by Laurel Spring, on the north side of Peach Bottom Mountain, to Andrew Carson's, and returning on the south side of said mountain to said South Fork post-office.

From Taylorsville, in Alexander county, by way of W. W. Stafford's and Henry Payne's, to Sulphur Spring, and thence to Love-lady post-office.

From Flowers' Sulphur Spring, in Caldwell county, to Hickory Station, in Catawba county.

From Raleigh, by J. W. Perry's store, to Nashville.

From Battleboro', by way of Hilliardstown, to Ransom's Bridge.

From Old Hundred depot, on the Wilmington, Charlotte and Rutherford railroad, in Richmond county, by Rockingham, Wadesboro', Lanesboro' and Monroe, to Charlotte, and from Why Not post-office, in Randolph county, to Troy, in Montgomery county.

From Eagle Rock, by way of Kinchen Bailey's, to Wilson.

From Battleboro', in Edgecombe county, to William Moore's, in Nash county.

From Webster, by way of East Laport[e], Cashier's Valley, Tunnel Hill, to Walthat[l]la, in South Carolina.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That, in the State of Tennessee, elections for Representatives in the Congress of the Confederate States, shall be by general ticket for said State, and each voter shall be entitled to vote one ticket, containing the names of one person for each Congressional District in said State; and the persons receiving the greatest number of votes of the whole vote of the State, shall be commissioned as Representatives by the Governor of said State.

SEC. 2. Such elections shall be held in said State, on the first Thursday in August next, and in each second year thereafter, during the war.

SEC. 3. Such elections shall be so held by the officers, authorities or persons appointed or provided by the laws of said State for the purpose of holding such elections, and at the places provided to hold elections for members of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature.

SEC. 4. Such elections shall be conducted according to the mode prescribed by the laws of said State, except so far as the same are modified by this act.

WHEREAS, John Prosser Tabb was by the last will and testament of his father made the residuary legatee of his estate and charged with the payment of the sum of three thousand dollars to his brother Phillip Tabb, during his life-time, with reversion to his child, or children or the survivor of them, payable annually out of the revenues of the estate; And whereas, by a decree of the District Court of the Confederate States for the Eastern District of Virginia, said Phillip Tabb and his children have been declared alien enemies, and their property sequestrated under the provisions of the Ac entitled “An Act for the sequestration of the estates, property, and effects of alien enemies, and for the indemnity of citizens of the Confederate States and persons aiding the same in the existing war with the United States,” approved August the thirtieth eighteen hundred and sixty-one; And whereas, further, it appears that a portion of the property, whence was to be derived the above mentioned revenue, was taken possession of by this government and then abandoned to the enemy; that the whole of it has been laid waste and in great measure destroyed, owing to the inability of the government to protect it; that nearly all the slaves on said property have escaped to the enemy, so that the amount thus lost would constitute a capital which would produce at the usual rate of interest more than three times the said annuity of three thousand dollars; And whereas, furthermore, the estate thus bequeathed, yields no revenue at this time, nor is likely to yield any without a large outlay: Therefore—

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the said John Prosser Tabb is hereby forever released and discharged from the payment of said sum of three thousand dollars each and every year, and do hereby transfer and assign to him and his heirs all the rights and interest accruing to the said Confederate States under the aforesaid Act, the Acts amendatory thereof, and under the aforesaid decree.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the Treasurer of the Confederate States be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to refund and pay over to S. B. Lowe, or to his legal representatives, the sum of two thousand three hundred and sixty-one dollars and sixty cents, the amount paid by S. B. Lowe & Co. as duties on certain roilroad cars entered at the port of New Orleans on the first day of May, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.