view of the context, to mean enlisted men of the army. A service of twenty years, a portion of which was rendered in the navy, held not to authorize a re-enlistment.' 62, 91, October, 1893; 65, 257, June, 1894. 2158. Desertion during a term of enlistment rendered service during such term not honest and faithful within the meaning of the act of June 16, 1890, and for the purposes of that act only. Held, therefore, that the question whether desertion constitutes a bar to re-enlistment under the act of Aug. 1, 1894, is a matter to be determined by the Secretary of War. Cards 2004, 2121, January and March, 1896; 3530, September, 1897; 3794, June, 1898.

2159. Held that the term of three months after honorable discharge within which a man may be re-enlisted under the act of August 1, 1894, commences on the day after the day of the discharge. It is a uniform principle in the construction of statutes-which do not expressly describe a different rule that where time is to be computed from an act done, the day on which the act is done shall be excluded." Card 1084, March, 1895.

REGULAR ARMY.

2160. The regular army was mainly distinguished from the other principal contingent of the army of the United States during the civil war-the volunteer force-by the fact that the tenure of office of the officers of the former was not in general limited, either expressly or by implication, to the period of the war. An unlimited tenure, however, is not a necessary or invariable incident of office in the regular army. The eleven new regiments, for example, added to the regular army by the act of July 29, 1861, were "declared to be for service during the existing insurrection," &c. XXXIV, 459, September, 1873. 2161. The term regular army and "volunteer army" are not significant of the methods by which these two branches of the army are brought into the service. The term "regular army" simply means the "standing army "--the military organization of the Government, which it is the intention ordinarily to maintain and continue in existence indefinitely and without regard to whether the country is at peace or at war; and this army is made up of persons who engage voluntarily and directly with the United States to serve. Card 1301, March, 1895.

This conclusion was sustained by a subsequent opinion of the Attorney General of Nov. 23, 1893.

But the provision here referred to and that referred to in the preceding section of the act of Feb. 27, 1893, were repealed by the act of Aug. 1, 1894, "to regulate enlistments in the Army".

See 9 Opins. At. Gen., 131.

And see EXTRA PAY, as to the similar tenure of medical storekeepers of the army; also AID DE CAMP, as to the tenure of “additional" aids de camp.

RELIEF.

2162. An officer or soldier cannot in general properly be relieved by executive authority from the consequences of a military order or proceeding unless the same has deprived him of some specific right capable of being legally restored by the same authority-as a right to pay, allowances, or bounty, or a right of command, precedence, &c. Action not looking to some recognized form of specific relief must in general be superfluous and futile, and to take such action is contrary to the usage of the War Department. Thus where, in the case of a party who, in 1864, had been dismissed the service as an officer of the army by the sentence of a court martial duly confirmed and executed, an application, supported by evidence going to indicate that his dismissal may not have been strictly legal, but not satisfactorily establishing the fact of illegality, was presented in his behalf, asking to have the stigma attaching to his record in the service by reason of the dismissal removed by an official declaration in general orders,-advised, that such form of relief, especially in view of the fact that the party had deceased, would not be within the proper province of the Secretary of War. XLI, 214, April, 1878.

2163. An executive department has in general no power either to undo an executed legal act of the past or to indemnify a party for injury suffered by him therefrom. Thus where an officer claimed that he had been unjustly prejudiced by not having had a higher relative rank in his grade given him by his original appointment, but it appeared that said appointment had been confirmed by the Senate, accepted, and held for nearly thirteen years, and that to increase as desired the relative rank thereby conferred would divest the rights of twelve officers who now ranked the claimant in his grade, advised, that however unjustly his appointment, when made, may have discriminated against this officer, his case was one in which Congress alone could grant the appropriate relief.' XLIII, 206, February, 1880.

REMISSION.

2164. Remission is relieving the person from a punishment or the unexecuted portion of a punishment, but not pardoning the offence as

The authority of the executive department of the Government to grant relief is limited by strict law and to a few subjects. Congress, in our system, is the fountain of general relief. By its authority to authorize special appointments, and to dispose of the public money, it can meet and adequately provide for nearly all the applications for relief presented by officers and soldiers of the army which the Executive is not empowered favorably to act upon.

As to relief by means of the Pardoning Power, see § 1866-1883, ante. As to relief from a dismissal, or from a sentence of court martial, see §§ 1199, 1200, 1214, 2042, ante, and §§ 2367-2373, post.

such, or removing the disabilities or penal consequences attaching thereto or to the conviction. The pardoning of "punishment," authority for which is vested in certain commanders by the 112th Article of War, is remission. An offender can be completely rehabilitated only by a full pardon granted under the pardoning power of the Constitution. XXIV, 679, July, 1867; XXXVII, 613, June, 1876; LVII, 89, October, 1888; 32, 401, May, 1889.

2

2165. Where a soldier, prior to his entering upon a term of imprisonment under sentence, has been held confined in the guard house, it has been a practice of the War Department to credit him with so many days on his term as he was so confined in excess of thirty days. This is a form of remission of so many days of the term imposed by his sentence. 57, 371, January, 1893; 62, 368, November, 1893.

2166. After a sentence is once unconditionally remitted, it cannot be renewed or revived. An order purporting to revoke the order promulgating the remission, would be void and of no effect. Card 2170, April, 1896.

REMOVAL OF DISABILITY.

2167. The so-called "removal of disability," sometimes ordered by the President during the war of the rebellion, was a form adopted in cases of officers of volunteers who had been dismissed the service, and whom, for good cause shown, it was thought proper to reinstate. This form was not an exercise of the pardoning power, nor did it, properly speaking, discharge the party from any disability, since a dismissed officer is under no legal disability to re-enter the army. It simply amounted to a waiver of objection on the part of the Executive to the reappointment of the officer by the governor of his State, or rather an official declaration that, if reappointed, he would be received and allowed to be mustered into the service of the United States, notwithstanding his previous dismissal. Its effect was to remove the stigma of the dismissal, and, if a reappointment followed, to fully rehabilitate the party. This form had of course no proper application to officers of the regular army, and the term "removal of disability" has no longer any significance in our service as applied to cases of dismissal. V, 446, December, 1863; XXIX, 431, November, 1869; XXXVI, 330, March, 1875; XLI, 675, September, 1879.

1Compare Perkins . Stevens, 24 Pick. 277; Lee . Murphy, 22 Grat. 799; 1 Bish. Cr. L. § 763; 2 Opins. At. Gen. 329; 5 id. 588; 8 id. 283-4. 2 Ex parte Garland, 4 Wallace, 380.

REPORTER.

2168. The power to appoint the reporter, under Section 1203, Rev. Sts..' is vested exclusively in the judge-advocate and cannot be exercised by the court. The employment, however, of a stenographic reporter should be resorted to only in an important case. II, 515, June, 1863; XXXIV, 232, April, 1873.

sworn.

2169. The statute does not indicate by whom the reporter shall be In practice he is sworn by the judge-advocate; a form of oath being prescribed in the Manual for Courts Martial. If the same party is employed as a reporter for more than one case, he should, properly, be sworn anew in each case. Cards 294, September, 1894; 4646, 4647, July, 1898; 5169, October, 1898.

3

2170. Par. 959 A. R., provides that when a reporter is employed under section 1203, Rev. Sts., he will be paid not to exceed ten dollars per day, but that "in special cases when authorized by the Secretary of War, stenographic reporters may be employed at rates not exceeding 25 cents per folio (one hundred words) for taking and subscribing the notes in shorthand, and ten cents per folio for other notes, exhibits and appendices." Held that this regulation requires the action of the Secretary of War in each special case, and does not contemplate a delegation of his authority in the matter. Card 5564, December, 1898.

2171. Paragraph 959, Army Regulations, as amended (see 1063 of 1901), authorizes payment of mileage over the shortest usually trayelled route at the rate of eight cents per mile, to a reporter of a court martial and his assistants while going from the place of employment to the place of holding the court, provided the latter place is more than ten miles from the former. Held, that the regulation does not authorize payment of mileage for the return journey. Card 7101, September, 1899.

2172. By circular 22, A. G. O. of 1898, the employment of enlisted men as reporters for courts martial was authorized "without extra expense to the United States." Under A. R. 960 (1064 of 1901), “no person in the military or civil service can lawfully receive extra compensation for clerical duties performed for a military court" and sec.

This section provides: "The judge-advocate of a military court shall have power to appoint a reporter, who shall record the proceedings of, and testimony taken before, such court, and may set down the same, in the first instance, in short hand. The reporter shall, before entering upon his duty, be sworn, or affirmed, faithfully to perform the same."

See pars. 958 and 959, A. R. (1062 and 1063 of 1901).

See Circ. 11, A. G. O. 1894; also note 5, p. 29, Court-Martial Manual (1901). That the reporter should be excluded from the court during its deliberations and not permitted to record the findings or sentence, see § 798, ante.

6 of the act of April 26, 1898 (30 Stats. 365), provides "that in war time no additional increased compensation [. e. additional to the twenty per centum increase] shall be allowed to soldiers performing what is known as extra or special duty." Held that under the regulation and statute referred to no extra pay can be allowed an enlisted man for services as reporter. Cards 5434, December, 1898; 7334. November, 1899.

2173. The army appropriation acts now appropriate money "for expenses of courts martial, courts of inquiry, and compensation of reporters and witnesses attending the same." Reporters for courts of inquiry may therefore be paid out of such appropriation. If the employment of a reporter for a board of officers should be authorized by the Secretary of War, payment for such service would have to be made from the appropriation for the contingent expenses of the army. Card 6971, September, 1899.

REPRIMAND.

2174. A court martial, in imposing the punishment of reprimand, will, if adding anything in regard to its execution, properly direct that the reprimand be administered by the commander who convened the court. A sentence to be reprimanded by an officer inferior to the convening authority is not in accordance with the approved practice of the service. It is not necessary or desirable, however, that the court should direct as to the execution of the sentence, the same being the proper province of the reviewing officer. XII, 18, October, 1864.

2175. Although, in adjudging a reprimand, it is generally intended by a court martial to impose a mild punishment, the quality of the reprimand is nevertheless left to the discretion of the authority who is to pronounce it, and it is open to him to make it as severe as he may deem expedient without being chargeable with adding to the punishment. XXXIII, 498, November, 1872.

REQUISITION.

2176. Whether the Executive shall turn over a military prisoner undergoing sentence of court martial to a governor of a State, upon his formal request, in order that he may be tried and punished by a court of the State, or in order to enable such governor to surrender him to the governor of another State in compliance with a requisition made by the latter for the party as a criminal under the laws of the latter State, is a question to be decided by considerations of policy and expediency suggested by the facts of the particular case. The