prepared for suit, the commissions of delinquent officers or agents of the United States; and also an interest of six per cent. per annum on the balance from the time of receiving the money. Circulars have been issued apprizing officers and other parties holding public funds of the requirements of the law; and the notice that these requirements will be impartially enforced is already found to produce salutary effects. In the settlement of accounts some other requirements, deemed important to protect the public interest, have been promulgated, and are now enforced. It had become quite common for disbursing officers to report, in their accounts, large balances as due to them for funds. turned over to other officers, for advances on account of the government, or for disbursements from their private moneys on public account. It was found, in some cases, that receipts had been given by creditors of the government, when, in fact, no money had been paid; in others, that duplicate receipts for money transferred had been filed, and that there was reason to suppose that, in one case at least, a very large amount had been erroneously allowed, not by the accounting officers, but by Congress, for an alleged advance from one disbursing officer to another, both of whom were dead. In the opinion of this office, no disbursing officer of the government has a right to borrow money, or advance his own funds for disbursements or to other officers, ostensibly for the public use, unless he has been requested to do so by competent authority. If he chooses of his own motion to make such advances, he must certainly show that the money and the expenditure have inured to the benefit of the government before he can have even an equitable claim to be reimbursed by the United States. It is not believed that a legal claim against the United States can possibly arise from such unauthorized proceedings. A point analogous in principle was long since judicially decided. It was held by the court (Maryland district, Winchester, judge) in the United States vs. Barney, that no lien could be permitted to exist against the government for advances, and that in such a case no other remedy remained for a creditor than an application to Congress for payment. (Hall's Law Journal, p. 130.) To prevent a recurrence of difficulties arising from what I cannot but consider as an irregular, dangerous, and most reprehensible practice, the most positive directions have been given that no credit shall be allowed for any balance, great or small, on account of advances by a disbursing officer, whose accounts are subject to the revision of this office, until the necessity of the advance and its application to the public service shall have been fully explained and demonstrated. The officers have also been reminded that it is their duty to estimate and make their requisitions. in season to be placed in public funds for the official expenditures that may reasonably be expected to fall within the scope of the disbursements devolved upon them. Another subject, which has been of late years frequently before the accounting officers, has been investigated, and some disputed points adjudicated, so far as this office has authority to do so. The compensation for travel performed under orders, by officers of the army, is generally established by the regulations at a commutation of ten cents a mile. Numerous and urgent claims have been presented, after the settlement of transportation accounts, for additional allowances, on the ground of an under-estimate of the distance. In all such cases it has been held that payment for travel was designed only as a reimbursement of expenses, and that no executive officer has authority to make it simply as an emolument. It is only upon the theory that the commutation is a ready mode of reaching the probable actual expense that the commutation itself is legal; for as an emolument it would be a direct violation of the acts of March 3, 1839, and August 23, 1842, by increasing the compensation of the officer beyond the amount authorized by Congress. When, therefore, an account for transportation has been settled, and, under the commutation principle or otherwise, a sum has been paid equal to the necessary actual expenses, as no equitable claim could arise for more, it is held that such settlement must stand, and cannot be disturbed for the purpose of making a larger allowance under a commutation, or hypothetical amount of expenses. In another matter of importance a misconception of some of the provisions in the law of January 25, 1828, providing that no money shall be paid to any person for his compensation who is in arrears to the United States, has heretofore created considerable embarrassment. By the proviso in that act, it is declared that "in all cases where the pay or salary of any person is withheld in pursuance of this act, it shall be the duty of the accounting officers, if demanded by the party, his agent or attorney, to report, forthwith, to the agent of the Treasury Department, the balance due; and it shall be the duty of the said agent within sixty days thereafter to order suit to be commenced against snch delinquent and his sureties." This proviso has been interpreted by parties whose pay has been stopped for indebtedness to the United States as imposing upon the officers of government the absolute obligation to bring suit on demand of the debtor, no matter how petty the sum, or under what circumstances of disadvantage to the public interest a suit must be conducted. Such is not thought to be a fair construction of the law. Its main design seems to have been to prohibit to the accounting and other officers a discretion, which they had repeatedly exercised, of paying salaries to persons in default, and not to hamper the government by taking away a right it always held and exercised. The Supreme Court has decided that "the United States possess the general right to apply all sums due for such pay and emoluments to the extinguishment of any balances due to them." (15 Peters, 370.) This right is absolute, and exists independently of any statute upon the subject; and the officers of government have therefore felt at liberty to decline bringing suits when in their judgment it was unnecessary for, or would tend to defeat, the ends of justice. In this view of the subject, the accounting officers are sustained by the head of the Treasury Department, who, under date of March 3, 1856, says, in an official letter: "I consider the department has the election to stop officers' pay for any balances due the United States, and is not compelled to resort to suit at the instance of officers in arrears to the United States. Taking the whole law into consideration and connexion, the election in this class of cases is with the Treasury Department, and not with the officer." The clerks employed in this office during the year have been punctual, diligent, and faithful, and the public business has never been more promptly and satisfactorily performed. I am, very respectfully, &c., &c., Hon. JAMES GUTHRIE, J. M. BRODHEAD, Comptroller. Secretary of the Treasury. C. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Office of Commissioner of Customs, November 8, 1856. SIR Presuming that your letter of November last, requesting a report of the operations of this office during the preceding year, was designed to establish a permanent system of annual reports, which should furnish, somewhat in detail, a statement of its transactions for each year, I respectfully ask leave to submit the following exhibit: The number of accounts of collectors of the customs, and surveyors acting as collectors, received from the First Auditor, revised and finally adjusted in this office, since the first of November last, amounts to two thousand six hundred and forty-eight. There have been received and settled accounts from superintendents of lighthouses, agents of marine hospitals, special accounts for the erection of light-houses, beacons, and buoys, the construction of custom-houses and marine hospitals, and for miscellaneous objects, to the number of two thousand nine hundred and forty-two. The number of requisitions issued upon estimates furnished by the proper officers for the expenses of collecting the revenue from customs, for debentures and excess of deposites, building custom-houses lighthouses, and marine hospitals, the support of light-houses, and marine hospitals, and for miscellaneous purposes, amounts to two thousand five hundred and forty-one. In the execution of these duties, and in the disposal of the large amount of miscellaneous business appertaining to the office, or referred to it by the department, there have been written seven thousand eight hundred and ninety-two letters, all of which have been copied and recorded in the office. The great number of accounts now required from collectors and disbursing agents, owing to the frequency of the settlements, with the correspondence incident thereto, has very much increased the labors of the office, and will call for some additional force, to dispose of them with the care and promptitude their importance demands. The rendition of these accounts punctually at the end of each month, and their settlement here without unnecessary delay, have very essentially contributed to the security of the public revenue, and proved, in every respect, a judicious and valuable reform. It affords me great pleasure to state that these accounts continue to be rendered with uniform punctuality, and that the more recent re quirement subjecting disbursements and other accounts to the same rule is rapidly attaining the same regularity. The accounts of agents of marine hospitals at places where there are large expenditures have occasioned much embarrassment, and given occasion for voluminous correspondence. No labor or care has been spared to keep down these expenditures to the proper limit; and all charges that have not been satisfactorily explained have been rejected, and repeated admonitions given to the superintendents in regard to all unnecessary or unauthorized expenses. The circular about to be promulgated in relation to this subject will furnish a complete system for the government of these institutions, and for the administration of the fund in places where no government institutions exist; the directions contained in the circular are so minute and comprehensive in their character, and all the duties of the superintendents are so clearly pointed out, that it is believed their faithful observance will wholly remedy the irregularities referred to. When this system shall have been fully established, it seems to me that the regulations relating to the collection of the revenue from customs, the disbursements of agents for the expenses necessary thereto, the settlement of accounts, both of collectors and disbursing agents, the administration of the marine hospital fund, and the prompt collection of balances from officers who have gone out of office or ceased to disburse the public moneys, will be as perfect as it is possible to make them. Nothing can exceed the regularity, simplicity, and order of all the accounts relating to the customs; and it is gratifying to be able to state that, with one exception upon the Pacific coast, there has been no instance of defalcation, or even of improper detention of the public money, from any collector appointed since April, 1853; and that, in the exceptional case, the prompt and energetic measures adopted by you have probably secured the government against any considerable loss. Since the first establishment of the collection district at San Francisco, and until within the last fiscal year, the settlement of the accounts has been attended with great embarassment, uncertainty, and delay; the expenses were enormous, and the balances uniformly largely against the collectors. Suits have been necessarily resorted to in every instance, and large sums claimed by the United States still remain due. Since the appointment of the present collector, under new instructions issued by the department, the accounts have assumed a new shape. They are now rendered as regularly and punctually as those upon the Atlantic; and what is still better, the expenses incident to the office have been so regulated, systematized, and reduced, as to compare favorably with those upon the Atlantic coast. In obedience to instructions contained in your letter of November, 1853, particular care has been taken to enforce the prompt settlement of the accounts of such collectors and disbursing agents as have gone out of office or ceased to disburse the public moneys since April of that year. The number of those officers who have gone out of office, either by death, resignation, or removal, since that period is thirty-seven. Of that number, the accounts of twenty-three are finally closed, and the bal ances paid to the United States. All the others are in course adjustment, and none will be debtors to any considerable amount, with the exception of the late collector at San Francisco, whose accounts are now in suit, but whose official bond may not prove sufficient to cover the judgment which may be recovered against him. The transfer of the bonds of collectors of the customs and other officers from the office of the First Comptroller to this, will add something to the labor of the office, and, with the large increase of the regular business, which goes on regularly from year to year, requires additional clerical aid. I would therefore recommend that one additional clerk of the third class be added to the force of the office. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, &c., Hon. JAMES GUTHRIE, Commissioner of Customs. Secretary of the Treasury. D. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, First Auditor's Office, November 7, 1856. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following report of the operations of this office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1856: Accounts adjusted, viz: Collectors of the customs..... Collectors under the steamboat act....... Official emoluments of collectors, naval officers, and sur veyors...... Additional compensation of collectors, naval officers, surveyors, claims for the refunding of duties illegally exacted, and claims for net proceeds of unclaimed merchandise...... The judiciary.. Interest on the public debt... Treasury notes presented for funding and redemption.. Claims for property lost in the military service of the United Inspectors of steam-vessels, for travelling expenses, &c. Superintendents of lights...... Claims for the redemption of United States stock 1,569 266 908 261 1,691 681 52 3 23 144 1,019 447 445 547 151 |