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Internal Revenue Tax on Tobacco.

for exportation, with respect to the time when it was stored, is precisely the same as the right to withdraw tobacco for consumption or sale.

I do not see what difference it makes to the Government whether tobacco is taken from a bonded warehouse or from a manufactory after the 1st of July upon the payment of the new tax, unless possibly the payment may be a little longer delayed in the one than in the other case. On the 6th of June, it is said, there were large quantities of tobacco in transitu from the manufactory to the bonded warehouses, and it certainly seems inequitable that tobacco which reached the warehouse on the 5th of June, and was withdrawn after the 1st of July, should pay a tax of only twenty cents per pound, while the same kind of tobacco that reached the warehouse two days afterward, and was withdrawn at the same time, is compelled to pay a tax of thirty-two cents per pound.

Congress, with a view to the injustice that might be worked by a change in the law before it could be known to those whose interests were to be affected thereby, provided that section 31 should go into effect on the 1st of July and the residue of the act, with a few exceptions, on the 1st of August. Where it was evident no harm could result, the act in a few instances, and where it is so expressly provided, takes effect upon its passage. One of the evils of our legislation is the frequent changes in the revenue system of the country, and unless it clearly appears that the intent of Congress is other. wise, they ought to be construed so as to affect with equal justice all of those upon whom they are intended to operate.

My opinion is that all tobacco stored in bonded warehouses and withdrawn for sale or consumption before the 1st of July, 1872, is subject to the taxes prescribed by the act of July 20, 1868, and that all tobacco in bonded warehouses on the said 1st of July, withdrawn after that date for the same purposes, is subject to the tax prescribed by the act of June 6, 1872.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEO. H. WILLIAMS.

Hon. WM. A. RICHARDSON,

Acting Secretary of the Treasury.

Mineral Lands.

MINERAL LANDS.

The terms "valuable mineral deposits," used in the act of May 10, 1872, chap. 152, to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States, include diamonds; and the title to public lands containing these minerals may, accordingly, be acquired by individuals or associations under the provisions of that act.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
August 31, 1862.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 20th instant, submitting for my official opinion the question whether or not title to public lands producing diamonds can be acquired by individuals or associations under the act of Congress entitled "An act to promote the development of the mining resources of the United States," approved May 10, 1872.

Section 1 of said act provides, "That all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase by citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become such, under regulations prescribed by law and according to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States."

Section 6 of said act also provides the mode in which a patent may be obtained for land claimed and located for "valuable deposits."

Bainbridge, in his work on the law of mines and minerals, (page 1,) says: "A mineral has been defined to be a fossil, or what is dug out of the earth. The term may, however, in the most enlarged sense, be described as comprising all the substances which now form or which once formed part of the solid body of the earth, both external and internal, and which are now destitute of and incapable of supporting animal or vegetable life. In this view it will embrace as well the bare

Mineral Lands.

granite of the high mountain as the deepest hidden diamonds and metallic ores."

Webster gives the following as the definition of a diamond: "A mineral and gem remarkable for its hardness, as it scratches all other minerals."

Diamonds are found under a variety of circumstances, and are generally obtained by mining. They are procured in India and South Africa by digging pits in the earth down to a peculiar stratum called the diamond-bed. In Brazil they are washed out of an agglomerate composed of rounded white quartz pebbles and a light-colored sand.

Diamonds, then, are clearly "valuable mineral deposits," and the provisions of said act are as applicable to lands containing them, as to lands containing gold or other precious metals. Comprehensive words, no doubt, were used to include as well what might afterward be discovered as what might be overlooked in an enumeration of minerals in the statute.

Public lands for the purposes of sale are divided into agricultural and mineral lands. The minimum price of the former is $1.25 and the latter $5 per acre. Mineral lands, exclusive of their valuable deposits, are generally worth little or nothing. Prior to the act of July 26, 1866, (14 Stat., 257,) it was customary for persons to take those deposits without respect to the rights of the United States. Congress then provided a way in which persons locating lands for mining purposes might acquire title, and other acts have since been passed promotive of the same end.

I think these acts ought to be most liberally construed, so as to facilitate the sale of such lands; for in that way, and not otherwise, can they be made to contribute something to the revenue of the Government, and controversy and litigation in mining localities, to a great extent, be prevented.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
GEO. H. WILLIAMS.

Hon. C. DELANO,

Secretary of the Interior.

Case of Nelson H. Davis.

CASE OF NELSON H. DAVIS.

The purpose of the act of June 8, 1872, chap. 351, is to put Nelson H. Davis in the same grade in the Inspector-General's Department, and in the same place relatively in that grade, which he would now hold and occupy had he been regularly promoted to fill the vacancy in that department caused by the death of Inspector-General Henry Van Rensselaer on the 23d of March, 1864.

That purpose will be effected by appointing him to the office of InspectorGeneral, to take rank next after Colonel Schriver; and this would necessarily make him (as by the statute he is entitled to be) senior in rank to Colonel Hardie.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
September 16, 1872.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th of July last, in which reference is made to the recent act of June 8, 1872, authorizing the appointment of Nelson H. Davis, of the Inspector-General's Department, "to the rank and place therein to which he is entitled, and which he would have held had the law of promotions by seniority under the act of March 3, 1851, and the Army Regulations of 1863, been carried out," and in which you present for my consideration the following questions:

"1. What date of rank is he (Davis) entitled to?

"2. Is he entitled to seniority of rank over Colonel and Inspector-General James A. Hardie?"

It appears that on the 23d of March, 1864, a vacancy occurred in the Inspector-General's Department by the death of Inspector-General Henry Van Rensselaer. The Department at that period consisted of four inspectors-general, with the rank of colonel, the name of the deceased standing third on the list, and five assistant inspectors-general, with the rank of major, among whom Nelson H. Davis was the senior officer. In consequence of the death of Colonel Van Rensselaer, Colonel Edmund Schriver, who was next on the list of inspectors-general, was advanced; and on the 24th March, 1864, James A. Hardie, then an assistant adjutantgeneral, with the rank of major, was appointed to the vacant

Case of Nelson H. Davis.

inspector-generalship, taking his place on the roll next to Colonel Schriver.

At the time of this appointment an appeal was made to the War Department by Major Davis, claiming that the law of promotions by seniority, under the act of March 3, 1851, and the Army Regulations of 1863, entitled him to the appointment; but the Department denied the claim, holding that the law of promotions by seniority did not apply to the filling of the vacancy mentioned. Subsequently that officer laid his case before Congress, and the result was the passage of the aforesaid act of June 8, 1872.

Viewing this act in connection with the circumstances which gave rise to it, there can be no doubt as to its meaning and object. It manifestly proceeds on the assumption that the law of promotions by seniority was applicable to the filling of the vacancy in the Inspector-General's Department caused by the death of Colonel Van Rensselaer, and that there had not been a compliance with this law; and it affirms the right of Davis to the rank in that department which he would have held had the law been carried out, and authorizes his appointment thereto. The purpose of the act is plainly to put that officer in the same grade, and in the same place relatively in that grade, which he would now hold and occupy had he been regularly promoted to fill the vacancy caused as aforesaid. This may be effected by appointing him to the office of inspector-general, to take rank next after Colonel Schriver. His relative rank would thus be fixed, not by reference to any particular date, but by the terms of the appointment itself, made in pursuance of said act, and being thereby made next in rank to Colonel Schriver, he would necessarily be, as in my opinion he would be entitled to be, senior in rank to Colonel Hardie.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

GEO. H. WILLIAMS.

Hon. Wм. W. BELKNAP,

Secretary of War.

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