Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 16.djvu/713

 FORTY-FIRST CONGRESS. Sus. HI. Ch. 22, 25. 1871. 679 burg, were, on the fourteenth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty- nine, destroyed apd wholly lost by the falling of said distillery warehouse, without any ncghgencc or fault on the part of said Joseph S. Finch and Company; and whereas said spirits were subject to the mx and duty of Efty cents per proof gallon, amounting to the sum of twenty thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight dollars and ninety-one cents, for which said Joseph S. Finch and Company had given bonds as required by law, and the above facts constitute equitable grounds for relief from the pay- ment of said taxes: Now, therefore, Be it cnacterf by t}¢c Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Amerzya an Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treas- Amount of my be, and he is hereby, mithorized and directed to abate and remit the *°¥‘2“ °¤ °°’*~*-iu taxes on said spirits so destroyed and lost, or so much thereof as the ;g:€;°Qi%l§°0“ph evidence submitted shall show to have been actually destroyed and lost, S- Finch sud and to credit the amount of the same on the bonds of said Joseph S. °°“'P“7· Finch and Company given to secure the payment of the same. APPROVED, January 18, 1871. CHAP. XXV.—.An Act xg g gwon, Vwdow of lacob Harmon, Ju. 21, 1871. Wnmzms in the fall of eighteen hundred and sixty-one it was decided Preamble. by the Secretary of War to cause to be destroyed all the railroad bridges in East Tennessee, between Chattanooga and Bristol, and accordingly men were sent there to enlist parties to perform said work ; and whereas one Captain David Fry did recruit and enlist as a portion of the force one Jacob Harmon and his two sons. He, Fry, administered the oath to said Harmon aud sous ; there being D0 Bible at hand, he caused them to place their hands on the Union Hag while be solemnly administered the oath to be ever faithful and true D0 tho Union. He then ordered them to destroy the bridge across Lick Creek, and the trestle-work, nearly one mile in length, in Greene county, East Tennessee. They soon picked. their opportunity, and, under the eye of Captain Fry, put fire to the bridge and trestle·work, and destroyed the same. And whereas the said Harmon and two sons were arrested, placed in a rebel prison, were tried by a rebel court-martial, convicted, and Harmon and one son hung till dead, near the town of Knoxville, East Tennessee, on the seventeenth of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-one (tha other son having contracted disease while in prison, died) ; and whereas the said Harmon did employ counsel to defend himself and sons, for which he executed his notes to said attorncys, for the sum of three thousand dollars, and did give said parties a. lien or mortgage upon his real estate to secure the same; a,n d whereas on the twenty-seventh day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-mght, a decree of sale of said land was ordered, for the sum of four thousand out- hundred and ninety-three dollars and fifty cents, which, if no relief is gwen, will leave the widow with five children and but little means left whereby to make a support; and whereas it is evident that said Haupon and sons lost their lives in the service of tho government, and n0w, in the? n ame of justice, honor, and humanity, the Congress of the United States is lll Quty bound to relieve the widow and her children fron? this debt of opprassaop, they never having received one cant for the servmes rendered by hcr smd husband: Therefore, Be it enacted by the Senate and fbusc of Representatwes of the United States q/"America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Tycas- £&m1\%0 ury be, and he is hereby, directed to pay to Maliuda Harmon, the wndcw mon widow 3,- of Jacob Harmon, deceased, of Greene county, East Tennessee, the sum Jacob Harmqg, of four thousand six hundred and ninety-six dollars aryl seventy cents, out of any moneys in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Ammovmn, January 21, 1871.