551
PAPERS OF 1\iIRABEAU BUONAPARTE LAMAR
either in the :Marine Corps, or the Army proper, after he received this discharge, but he denies the power of the Secretary of the Navy to dismiss him from the service without the order of the President or trial by a Court ::\fartial, and contends, that by the terms of his original enlistment, he was bound to serve, if called upon, at any time prior to the 25th. of Deer. 1837, and being thus bound, he at all times held himself ready to perform any duty either in the Army or Navy which might be required of him, & was consequently entitled to his pay & emoluments. Upon the questions of law growing out of these facts, the Acting Secretary of the Treasury is of the opinion, that the appointment of J\.Ir. Gibson to a Captaincy in the l\Iarine Corps by the Govern- ment, was a surrender of its original claim to his services as a soldier under his enlistment, and that his acceptance of that appoint- ment was a relinquishment of all rights acquired by him in virtue of that enlistment- Or in other words, from the time of his acceptance of that Commission, his relations to the Government were as essentally changed as they would have been had he served out his time as a soldier, or been regularly discharged, and afterwards:. entered into a new engagement of service as Captain of the l\Iarines,, or in any other capacity. . 1'he only question then is, was he legally discharged from the 1\farine Srrvice in Novr. 1836, or did there in fact, exist any such service after that period?- The acting Secretary is of the opinion that the Secretary of the Navy did not possess the power to dismiss an Officm: from the· service without the order of the President.-Whether the President gave such order or not, or whether there were such a corps as the 1\Iarine Corps after that period, were questions of fact, wI1ich the Offi,cers composing the aduitorial board, were alone competent to decide in the first instance.-They have decided adversely to the claim of l\Ir Gibson upon those facts, and the acting Secretary of the treasury has no right to question the propriety of that decision- His duties are simply "to represent the interests of the Republic" before that board, to give his opinions upon questions of law which may arise during the investigation, and to furnish the claimant who may be dissatisfied with the decission, with the reasons as far they are known to him, upon which that decision is founded- The, reasons for the decission are given by the board in the decission itself, a certified Copy of which is hereto annexed, & the other duties properly belonging to the Secretary have been per- formed.
James Webb
acting:,Secy. of the 'rreasury "' ---- >-----
[Endorsed] Gibson VS The Republic Report of Secy
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