Ten Years in Washington / or, Inside Life and Scenes in Our National Capital as a Woman Sees Them ... to Which Is Added a Full Account of the Life and Death of President James A. Garfield

by Mary Clemmer

When the examiner has ended his researches, he prepares a brief of the evidence, on which he bases his admission, or rejection, of the claim. He closes it with a statement of his decision, showing from what date, and at what rate admitted, or, if rejected, the cause therefor, and signs his name, as examiner.

This action is entered in a record. The case is taken from out the file of pending claims, and is placed in the hands of a clerk, who is called the “Reviewer.” He is selected for this task, for his superior judgment, and for his familiarity with the law, and the rules of office. He “begins again,” goes over the entire action of the examiner, goes through the entire evidence, in order to be able to approve, or disprove, the examiner’s decision. If he approves, the case passes on to the Chief of the Division, for his approval, which, except in unusual cases, is pro forma. From his desk the case goes to the Certificate Section, for issue. There it receives its certificate and approved brief, decorated with which it departs to the Commissioner’s desk, there to receive his final and crowning signature, and the grand seal of the Department. If the claim is a rejected one, and its rejection receives the approval of the receiver, it is cast into the outer darkness of the “rejected files.” Here it is subject to an appeal to the Secretary, and may be borne forth again to the light, upon the presentation of new and material evidence.

After the triumphant claim has received its certificate, it is treated to a new coat of a wrapper, upon whose back a certificate-number, and its history, is endorsed. It is then entered upon the admitted records. After it has been reported to the Pension Agent, Finance Division, to the Third Auditor of the Treasury, and to the Second Comptroller, it is placed on the “admitted files.”

Seventy-five thousand pending claims are now on file in these two divisions. They are slowly reduced in number, and the receipt of new claims equals the disposal of the old ones. This statement does not include the adjustment of claims filed under the act of February 14, 1871, granting pensions to survivors of the war of 1812, who served sixty days, and to their widows. Their claims have been organized into a separate division, in which a force of fifty clerks has been constantly employed since its organization, May, 1871. This division is known as the “1812 Division,” and strenuous efforts are made to reach very early decisions in all its cases, the extreme age of the applicants making it necessary—if their pension is to reach them “this side of Jordan.”

In this division, the claims are carried through their entire process, from the application to the placing of the pensioner’s name on the rolls.

The Bounty-Land Division forms a part of the Judicial branch. Herein all claims for bounty-land, filed under the act of March 3, 1855, which is the latest general provision, are adjusted. The modus operandi of obtaining land-grants is nearly identical with the process of obtaining a pension.

Under the act of 1855, all persons who served fourteen days, either in the army or navy, are entitled to one hundred and sixty acres, and those who were actually engaged in battle, though their services were less than fourteen days, are entitled to the same.

Under the various laws governing these land grants, warrants representing 73,932,451 acres have been issued, which, estimated at $1.25 per acre, amounts to $92,415,563.75, which, added to $313,170,412.77 that has been paid since the beginning of the Government, as pension, makes a total expenditure of $405,585,976.52, which has been paid in gratuities to the defenders of the Republic.

Where the Judicial Branch ends in the certificate of a pension, the Financial Branch begins. The rolls reported by those divisions are entered in the agency registers, which are arranged to show payments for several years, and the agents’ quarterly accounts of disbursements are compared with these registers, and errors noted.

There are now upon the United States pension rolls the names of 232,229 pensioners, who are paid quarterly through fifty-seven pension agents. When we remember that the accounts of all these agents, for these tens of thousands of names, are adjusted and reported within the short space of three months, it is not difficult to realize the amount of labor involved.