Jno. Withers to Niter And Mining Bureau, March 6, 1864

No. 54. Richmond, March 6, 1864.

I. The following act of Congress and the joint resolution construing the same are published for the information of all concerned:

AN ACT to increase the compensation of certain civil officers and employés in the President’s Office and in the Executive and Legislative Departments, at Richmond, for a limited period.

The Congress of the Confederate States of America do enact, That the salaries and compensation of all civil officers and employés in the Presidents Office, and in the Executive and Legislative Departments, at Richmond, whose compensation or salaries do not exceed the sum of $2,000 per annum, shall be increased from the passage of this act to the 15th of May, 1864, at the rate of 100 per cent. per annum: Provided, The same shall not be thereby increased beyond the rate of $3,000 per annum; and the salaries of all said officers whose compensation is above $2,000, and does not exceed the sum of $3,000 per annum, shall, for the same period of time, be increased at the rate of 50 per cent. per annum; but it is hereby expressly declared that the increased compensation provided for by this act, shall not be paid to any officer or employé in any Executive Department of the Government, who is liable to perform military duty, or is able to bear arms in the field, unless such officer or employé shall first obtain a certificate from the head of the department in which he is engaged, that his services are absolutely necessary to the Government, and that his place cannot be supplied by any one known to the head of the department who is not subject to military duty, which said certificate shall be filed with the Secretary of the Treasury before the money is paid; and it shall be the duty of the said Secretary, at the beginning of each session, to communicate a list of all such certificates to Congress: Provided, That no clerk who, by virtue of a military commission, receives rations, or commutation of rations, shall be entitled to the benetits of this act. Approved January 30, 1864.

JOINT RESOLUTION construing an ”Act to increase the compensation of civil officers and employés in the President’s Office and in the Executive and Legislative Departments, at Richmond, for a limited period,” approved January 30, 1864.

Resolved, That the ”Act to increase the compensation of certain civil officers and employés in the President’s Office and in the Executive and Legislative Departments, at Richmond, for a limited period,” approved January 30, 1864, be, and the same is hereby, construed so as to embrace soldiers detailed for clerical duty in Richmond.

By command of the Secretary of War: