ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Washington, June 12, 1830.
The following general order has been received from the War Department. It is published for the information of all concerned:
DEPARTMENT OF WAR,
Washington., June 12, 1830.
Congress at their last session passed an act repealing so much of the military law as imposes the penalty of death on those who " in time of peace" shall be found guilty of the crime of desertion. To give complete effect to the benevolent designs of said act, and that the Army may be correctly informed, it is hereby proclaimed that a free and full pardon is extended to those who at the date of this order stand in the character of deserters. All who are under arrest for this offense at the different posts and garrisons will be forthwith liberated, and return to their duty. Such as are roaming at large and those who are under sentence of death are discharged, and are not again to be permitted to enter the Army, nor at any time hereafter to be enlisted in the service of the country. It is desirable and highly important that the ranks of the Army should be composed of respectable, not degraded, materials. Those who can be so lost to the obligations of a soldier as to abandon a country which morally they are bound to defend, and which solemnly they have sworn to serve, are unworthy, and should be confided in no more. By order of the President of the United States:
JOHN H. EATON,
Secretary of War.
Communicated by order of Alexander Macomb, Major-General Commanding the Army.
R. JONES, Adjutant-General.
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Source: A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Prepared under the direction of the Joint Committee on printing, of the House and Senate Pursuant to an Act of the Fifty-Second Congress of the United States. New York : Bureau of National Literature, Inc., 1897 |