I, Joseph Neill, do hereby solemnly swear, that I am in no manner interested in the foregoing claim of William Triplett to southeast quarter of section number thirty six, township number forty-five north, range number four east, under pre-emption act of 22d June, 1838, and that I am well acquainted with the facts of his having lived and having made his home on said tract, together with his wife and children, since many years, and from the 22d February, 1838, until the 22d June following and up to the present day, and of his having cultivated the same at the dates mentioned, and his having considerable improvements thereon, such as a dwelling, outhouses, garden, orchard, meadow, and field.

JOSEPH NEILL.

Be it remembered that on the day and date hereof, before the undersigned, a notary public within and for the county and State aforesaid, personally appeared William Triplett and Joseph Neill, whose names are subscribed to the foregoing affidavits, and made oath in due form of law that the facts as set forth in the affidavits to which their names are severally subscribed are just and true.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my notarial seal, this twenty-second day of January, in the year of our [L. S.] Lord eighteen hundred and thirty-nine.

ALT. R. EASTON, Notary Public.

I do hereby certify that Joseph Neill, whose name is subscribed to the foregoing affidavit, is personally known to me, and am of opinion that full faith and credit should be given to his statements.

ALT. R. EASTON, Notary Public.

The foregoing application of William Triplett for the entry of southeast quarter of section number thirty-six, township number forty-five north, range number four east, under pre-emption act of 22d June, 1838, is hereby admitted, the proof adduced in favor of said application having been found perfectly satisfactory.

JULIUS DE MUN, Register.
SAM. MERRY, Receiver.

The foregoing proof bears the following endorsement, made at the General Land Office: "G. L. O.-This land formerly covered by claim of John Caldwell, but owing to circumstances detailed in Solicitor's report, No. 216, dated December 31, 1838, the land reverted to the United States on 26th May, 1830, and became liable to act subsequent in date to that

period. Subsequent to this entry, the fact of this land embracing the town of Manchester came to the knowledge of the register and receiver; and in letter of the former, dated 26th December, 1839, that fact, and the additional one of the present claimant having, prior and subsequent to 26th May, 1830, made sales, &c., of parts of this land, giving his bond conditioned for the perfection of such titles, &c., was made known to this office. See letter of Commissioner, 14th January, 1840, in reply, cancel. ling this entry and ordering the refunding of the money."

1

2d Session.

ENLISTMENTS IN THE ARMY, &c.
[To accompany bill H. R. No. 662.]

FEBRUARY 16, 1847.

Mr. NIVEN, from the Committee on Military Affairs, made the following

REPORT:

The Committee on Military Affairs, to whom was referred a communication from the Department of War in reference to discharges under civil process in cases of enlistment, report:

It appears, from the correspondence between the officers of the army in command at New York and the Adjutant General, that cases are of very frequent occurrence where recruits, through the intervention of their friends, or others, have applied to judicial officers, who are authorized to allow writs of habeas corpus, and, having been brought before such officers, have been summarily discharged from the service of the United States.

The consequences resulting from this practice, now becoming very common, are decidedly injurious to the service and to the interests of the government, because each recruit, under existing laws, receives a pecuniary bounty, in addition to suitable clothing; and as his discharge is absolute, instantaneous, and unconditional, the United States are wholly unindemnified. Like the offence of mutiny or desertion, this practice is contagious, and needs to be suppressed without delay.

The causes usually assigned for discharging recruits are infancy, mental imbecility, or some kindred reason, which the friends of the recruit are brought forward to establish, and which the military officers in command cannot be prepared to controvert.

The facility with which these discharges are obtained has induced unprincipled men, as is believed, to make it a systematic business-a deliberate scheme of fraud; and these frauds will probably continue to be perpetrated until some penal enactment shall be interposed.

Your committee ask leave to bring in a bill.

entific corps had returned home, and the various collections could be properly arranged and classified, and descriptions laid before the public, whose attention had been directed to the results of the expedition for a long time. Until all this was accomplished the memorialist was bound to avoid all other engagements, and to devote himself solely to the purpose for which he received his appointment.

No provision being made by Congress in the summer of 1842 to secure the collections of the expedition, the memorialist found himself deprived of the salary upon which he had depended for a support until it could meet again. Early in the next session, some temporary provision being made, he was directed by the Secretary of the Navy to resume his duties as naturalist at the seat of government, but at a salary greatly reduced below that guarantied to him in his original appointment. He has since then continued in the performance of the duties assigned him, and attended to them with great fidelity.

The committee having fully considered this case, are unanimous in their opinion that the memorialist is justly entitled to indemnification for the losses suffered by the wreck of the United States ship Peacock. The committee are also of opinion that the services of the memorialist could not be dispensed with on the return of the expedition to the United States, until the collections made by himself and others of the scientific corps, by the direction of the government, were placed in a state of security and preservation, arranged and classified, preparatory to being described in the volumes to be appended to the history of the exploring expedition pub. lished by the order of government. They therefore report a bill to afford full relief to the memorialist, and recommend its passage.