Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 5.djvu/168

132 withheld from public sale until the first day of December next: Provided, That nothing herein contained, shall be taken or construed as indicating any intention on the part of Congress to confirm said claims.

May 9, 1836.

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Postmaster General be authorized, provided the same can be done at the present rates of compensation, to extend the term of the existing contracts for the transportation of the mail, to the thirtieth day of June inclusive, next succeeding the thirty-first day of December, in each year in which said contracts expire, so that the contract year may, after the first day of January next, commence on the first day of July, instead of the first day of January.

May 9, 1836.

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of War, in preparing his report pursuant to a resolve of the House of Representatives, agreed to on the twenty-fourth of February, eighteen hundred and thirty-two, be, and he hereby is, authorized, without regard to existing rules and requirements, to receive such evidence as is on file, and any further proofs which may be offered tending to establish the validity of the claims of Massachusetts upon the United States, or any part thereof, for services, disbursements, and expenditures during the late war with Great Britain; and in all cases where such evidence shall in his judgment prove the truth of the items of claim, or any part thereof, to act on the same in like manner as if the proof consisted of such vouchers and evidence, as is required by existing rules and regulations touching the allowance of such claims: And that in the settlement of claims of other States upon the United States for services, disbursements, and expenditures during the late war with Great Britain, the same kind of evidence, vouchers and proof shall be received as is herein provided for in relation to the claim of Massachusetts, the validity of which shall be, in like manner, determined and acted upon by the Secretary of War.

May 14, 1836.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized to have all repairs made to the bridge across the Potomac river, which have become necessary from late flood, and that the expenses of said repairs be paid out of the money heretofore appropriated for the erection of said bridge, and which is now in the Treasury, unexpended.

June 7, 1836.