46th CONGRESS,2d Session.
H. R. 4495.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
February 16, 1880.
Read twice, referred to the Committee on Invalid Pensions, and ordered to be printed.
Mr. Keifer, by unanimous consent, introduced the following bill:
A BILL granting pensions to certain Union soldiers and sailors of the late war of the rebellion who were confined in so called Confederate prisons.
Whereas during the late rebellion many soldiers and sailors of the Federal Army and Navy, through the fortunes of war, became prisoners and were confined in so called Confederate prisons, to the detriment and permanent injury of their health, but whose debility is of such a general and indefinable character as to exclude them from the benefits of existing pension laws: Therefore
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he hereby is, authorized and required to place upon the pension-rolls of the United States, upon application and proof being made to the satisfactionof the Department, all honorably discharged soldiers and sailors of the Federal Army and Navy who, during the late war, were captured and confined, during the period of six months or more, in any of the prisons or places commonly used for the confinement of prisoners by the so called Confederate authorities during the late rebellion, and who are not now beneficiaries, nor entitled to become so under existing pension laws of the United States.
Sec. 2.That such pension shall in each case begin from the date of the discharge of the soldier or sailor aforesaid from the military or naval service of the United States, and shall be at the rate of eight dollars per month in cases where the term of imprisonment shall have been more than six months and less than one year, and one dollar per month additional for each full month of such imprisonment in excess of one year. And the said pension shall be paid at the same time and in the same manner as other pensions are paid:Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize the reduction or to prevent the increase of the pension of any person now receiving or entitled to receive the benefits of existing pension laws.