in the extent of its grasp of the material and practical interests of the people. It conducts the surveys of the public lands, administers the intricate system growing out of the pre-emption, homestead, timber-culture, and land-grant laws, and directs the sale and disposal of lands pertaining to our vast public domain. It manages all our relations with the Indian tribes. It directs and controls the issue of patents to inventors. It executes the various and complicated pension and bounty laws. It is charged with the collection and diffusion of information respecting the organization and management of school systems, and with the promotion of the cause of education throughout the country.

THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

1099. The Secretary of the Interior is charged generally with the supervision of the public business under the following heads, viz.:

1. The census, when directed by law.

2. The public lands, including mines.

3. The Indians.

4. Pensions and bounty lands.

5. Patents for inventions.

6. The custody and distribution of public documents.

7. Education.

8. The Government Hospital for the Insane.

9. Freedmen's Hospital, District of Columbia.

10. Railroad accounts.

The duties in respect of these branches of business are performed, by his direction and under his regulations, mainly through the several bureaus before mentioned, but the statutes invest him with specific functions and require duties specifically of him, as follow:

1100. He is required to keep in proper books a complete inventory of all public property under his control in

in relation to the discharge by the Secretary of the Interior of his official duties.

1168. The divisions into which the office of the Secretary of the Interior has been organized are not provided for by law, but are founded upon a wise arrangement for the more systematic transaction of business. The heads of the several divisions are designated by the Secretary from clerks of the fourth class, their compensation being increased by authority of law, which provides that the Secretary may in his discretion pay two hundred dollars additional per annum to eight clerks of that class.

1169.

I. THE APPOINTMENT DIVISION.

1169. This division has charge of all matters connected with the appointment, removal, resignation, and charges of official misconduct of officers, clerks, and employees of the Interior Department, whether employed in Washington or elsewhere. It has charge also of all applications for office, which are registered and placed on file, ready for reference when required; also of all records of appointments, &c., and of all correspondence relating to these subjects. It has also charge of the business and correspondence pertaining to leaves of absence of officers and employees, and of the official bonds required by law to be executed by appointees to office in this department.

II. THE DIVISION OF DISBURSEMENTS.

1170. This division is under charge of the Disbursing Clerk of the department. He is required to give a bond to secure faithful accountability for all moneys placed in his hands. The duty devolves upon him of disbursing for the following objects of appropriation. In this he is assisted by the clerks forming the division: For salaries of the Secretary, officers and employees, and for the contin

gent expenses of the department; for annual repairs of the United States Capitol and the improvement of the Capitol grounds; for lighting the Capitol and grounds; and for the expenses of the Freedmen's Hospital and the Smithsonian Institution.

1171. Besides the disbursement of the appropriations made for this department, this division prepares for the signature of the Secretary of the Interior all requisitions upon the Secretary of the Treasury for moneys to pay army and navy pensions; to support and maintain the various tribes of Indians in the United States; to pay Indian agents, surveyors-general, registers and receivers of the public lands and the contingent expenses of their offices; and to pay for the surveying of the public lands. It also prepares the requisitions on account of the Government Hospital for the Insane, of the Columbia Hospital for Women, Children's Hospital, Soldiers and Sailors' National Orphans' Home, and the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, all beneficiaries of the United States located in Washington.

1172. This division also prepares the estimates of appropriations required to be made by Congress annually for the several bureaus of the department, for the payment of army and navy pensions, and for the purchase of Indian supplies.

III. THE DIVISION OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

1173. This division is charged with the examination of applications made by Indian agents for permission to purchase supplies for Indians, the examination of contracts entered into for supplies, transportation, &c., and the examination of deeds made to the Indians for lands. It also examines into claims made on account of depredations committed by the Indians. It attends to the appointment of Indian commissions and boards of appraisement.

1174. In this division, also, an administrative examination is made of accounts of Indian agents and others for supplies furnished the Indians. These accounts are first received by the Board of Indian Commissioners and submitted to the executive committee thereof for examination, revisal, and approval. They are then forwarded by the board, with a statement of the reasons for approval or disapproval, to the Secretary of the Interior. The action of the latter, as regards his approval or disapproval of the action of the Board of Commissioners, is founded upon the examination made in this division of his office. These accounts are then referred to the Second Auditor of the Treasury for adjustment, and are finally examined in the office of the Second Comptroller.

1175. This division is also charged with the examination of the accounts of Indian trust funds, and of the interest on investments of the proceeds of lands ceded by the Indians under treaty stipulations.

1176. It has charge of all correspondence relating to Indian affairs, excepting that relating to charges against officers in the Indian service.

IV. THE DIVISION OF LANDS AND RAILROADS.

1177. This division has charge of all correspondence of the Secretary's office relating to public lands and landgrant railroads. It keeps the docket of cases appealed to the Secretary of the Interior from the decisions of the General Land Office, and the record of the Secretary's decisions therein. It prepares for approval lists of swamp, railroad, internal improvement, and other selections of lands, and attends to matters connected with the administrative or supervisory powers of the Secretary regarding revolutionary bounty land scrip, &c.

number of the public journals of the Senate and House to furnish one copy to each Executive, one copy to each branch of every State and Territorial Legislature, one copy to each university and college of each State, and one copy to the historical society incorporated in each State. It is required that fifty copies of the documents ordered by Congress to be printed shall be used for exchange with foreign countries, and that the residue shall be deposited in the "Library of the United States," subject to future disposition by Congress. Such legations or consulates of the United States may be supplied as may be designated by the Secretary of State by an order recorded in the State Department showing the particular documents suitable for and required by such legations and consulates. (R. S., §§ 503, 504.)

1113. Any sets of documents or odd volumes not necessary to supply deficiencies, either in the executive departments or in State or Territorial libraries, may be distributed by the Secretary of the Interior, as equally as practicable, to the several Senators, Representatives, and Delegates in Congress, for distribution to public libraries and other literary institutions in their respective districts. (R. S., § 505.) 1114. Under his direction, it is required that there shall be compiled and printed, as soon as practicable after the last day of September in each year in which a new Congress is to assemble, a Register, of which fifteen hundred copies shall be published, containing

1. Correct lists of all officers, clerks, employees, and agents-civil, military, and naval-in the service of the United States, including cadets and midshipmen, exhibiting the amount of compensation, pay, and emoluments allowed to each; the State or county in which he was born; the State or Territory from which he was appointed, and the place of employment.