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all cases in which the claim to compensation or indemnity shall exceed the sum of two hundred dollars, award a commission to some one or more discreet commissioners, near the places where the witnesses reside, who shall, before they proceed to act, take an oath, or affirmation, before some officer authorized by law to administer the same, that they will faithfully and impartially execute the duties assigned to them in said commission, to the best of their judgment; and the said commissioner shall accompany said commission with directions as to the examination of witnesses, on oath or affirmation, which the said commissioner, or commissioners, so acting, are hereby authorized to administer; which said commission, when executed, together with the examinations taken in pursuance thereof, shall be enclosed, sealed, and returned by mail, to the office of the said commissioner: Provided, however, That in acting on examinations, taken by virtue of the act to which this is an amendment, the said commissioner shall be authorized, in all cases where he shall adjudge the facts not to be sufficiently disclosed to allow a just decision between the claimants and the United States, to award a new commission as aforesaid, and, also, in all cases in which the said commissioner shall deem it proper to appoint an agent to act in behalf of the United States, in executing said commissions; and it shall be the duty of the commissioner, or commissioners, taking evidence in any case, to make inquiry whether any evidence may be had which may be favourable to the interest of the United States, and to take such evidence, and transmit the same to the said commissioner in like manner.

. And be it further enacted, That any person, in the late war aforesaid, who has sustained damage by the loss of any horse, mule, ox, wagon, cart, boat, sleigh, or harness, while such property was in the military service of the United States, either by impressment or contract, except in cases where the risk to which the property would be exposed was agreed to be incurred by the owner, if it shall appear that such loss was without any fault or negligence on the part of the owner, shall be allowed and paid the value thereof.

. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of this act, and the act to which it is an amendment, shall be, and are hereby, extended to cases of property lost, captures, or destroyed, in the wars with the Indian tribes, subsequent to the eighteenth day of February, and prior to the first day of September, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen, in the same manner as if lost, captured, or destroyed, in the late war with Great Britain.

. And be it further enacted, That all claims allowed by said commissioner, of two hundred dollars or upwards, shall be revised by the Secretary of War, on a statement of the facts made to him by the aforesaid commissioner, and may be confirmed or rejected: and the amount of all claims allowed by the aforesaid commissioner less than two hundred dollars, and those of two hundred dollars and upwards, if confirmed by the Secretary of War, shall be paid in the manner prescribed in the tenth and fourteenth sections of the act to which this act is an amendment.

March 3, 1817.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of State be, and he is hereby, authorized to subscribe for, and receive, for the use and disposal of Congress, five hundred copies of the tenth volume of public documents, proposed to be printed by Thomas B. Wait and Sons. The aforesaid volume to be delivered in strong leather binding, at the