THE INDIAN DEPARTMENT.

415

Indian tribes, to be "all that part of the United States west of the Mississippi and not within the State of Missouri and Louisiana, or the Territory of Arkansas, and, also, that part of the United States east of the Mississippi River and not within any State to which the Indian title has not been extinguished."

By subsequent acquisition of territory from Mexico, the area of Indian country became greatly extended, with a consequent large addition to the Indian population within the jurisdiction of the Indian Department. In the beginning of the current year, the Department consisted of eight superintendencies, seventy agencies and special agencies, and three sub-agencies. At present there are four superintendencies, four having been abolished by act of Congress, February 14, 1873, providing in lieu thereof five Indian Inspectors, whose duty it is to visit every superintendency and agency, and examine into the affairs of the same, as often as once or twice a year, and to report their proceedings; sixty-eight agencies, nine special agencies and three sub-agencies, with an Indian population, approximately, of 300,000, exclusive of those in Alaska, estimated at between 50,000 and 75,000.

In the Indian service there is also a Board of Indian Commissioners," nine in number, authorized by act of Congress, approved April 10, 1869, men eminent for their intelligence and philanthropy, who serve without compensation, the object of the Commission being to cooperate with the President in efforts to maintain peace among the Indians, bring them upon reservations, relieve their necessities, and to encourage them in attempts at self-support.

The Census Bureau is now a permanent branch of the

Department of the Interior. It is in charge of a superintendent, and is assigned the duty of compiling the statistics which constitute the Census of the Republic. This enumeration is made every ten years. Some idea of the magnitude of the task may be gained from the fact that the tabulation and publication of the census of 1870 were not completed in January, 1873.

The Bureau of Patents is a part of the Department of the Interior, but is in all its proportions and features so vast and imposing, that it is almost a separate department, as, indeed, it must become erelong. It is in charge of a Commissioner of Patents, who is appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. It is intrusted with the duty of granting letters patent, securing to the inventor the control of and the reward from articles beneficial to civilization. It was formerly a part of the Treasury Department, and is one of the best known branches of the Government.

Patents are not, as some persons suppose, monopolies, but are protections granted to individuals as rewards for, and incentives to discoveries and inventions of all kinds pertaining to the useful arts. This Bureau is allowed to charge for these letters of protection only the cost of investigating and registering the invention. It is a self-supporting institution, its receipts being largely in excess of its expenditures.

If you have traced the many Bureaus of the Interior Department thus far, you have come to the conclusion that it needs a public building all to itself, and that it should be an immense one. A large brick building opposite the Patent-Office, on G street, is already exclusively occupied by the Bureau of Education.

THE SUPREME VILTUE OF A PUBLIC SERVANT. 417

The present Secretary of the Interior is Hon. Columbus Delano, of Ohio, a man who has been long in public life, first as Member of Congress from Ohio, then as Commissioner of Internal Revenue, now as Secretary of the Interior. I have but one objection to make to Mr. Delano in the position which he now holds. He found twelve-hundreddollar-positions in his department filled, as they had been from the beginning, by women. He degrades them to ninehundred-dollar-clerkships, to make place for his voters. Judging by the course he pursues, we may believe that he is of the same opinion as the Secretary of the Treasury, that "four hundred dollars per year are enough for any woman to carn," unless she should be a Delano! I hope that Ohio will reward him by not giving him the desire of his heart and making him Senator, till he practices justice as the supreme virtue of a public servant.

Columbus Delano has a face which nature never weakened by cutting it down to absolute fineness, but added to its power by leaving it a little in the rough. Irongray hair, shaggy eyebrows beetling over a pair of straight-forward, out-looking gray eyes, make the more prominent features of a face which you willingly believe in as that of a strong and honorable man.

27

CHAPTER XXXIX.
XXXIX.

THE PENSION BUREAU-HOW GOVERNMENT PAYS ITS

nors

SERVANTS.

The Generosity of Congress to Itself-How Four Hundred Acts of Congress were l'assed-How Pensions have Increased and Multiplied-Sneering at Red-Tape-The Division of Labor-Scrutinizing Petitions-A Heavy Paper Jacket-The Judicial Division--Invalids, Widows, and Mi-The Examiner of Pensions-The Difficulties of his Position-Unsatisfactory Work-How Claims are Entertained and Tested-What is Recorded in the Thirty Enormous Volumes-How many Genuine Cases are Refused-One of the Inconveniences of Ignorance-The Claim-Agent Gobbles up the Lion's Share-An Extensive Correspondence-How Claims are Mystified, and Money is Wasted-The "Reviewer's" WorkTheRejected Files "-The "Admitted Files"-Seventy-Five Thousand Claims Pending-Very Ancient Claimants-The Bounty Land Division-The Reward of Fourteen Days' Service-The Sum Total of what the Government has Paid in Pensions-How the Pensions are Paid -The Finance Division-The Largest and the Smallest Pension OfficeThe Miscellaneous Branch-Investigating Frauds—A Poor "Dependent" Woman with Forty Thousand Dollars-How "Honest and Respectable ' People Defraud the Government-The Medical Division-Examining Invalids-The Restoration-Desk-The Appeal-Desk-The Final-Desk—The Work that Has Been Done-One Hundred and Fifty Thousand People Grumbling-Letter of an Ancient Claimant-The Wrath of a Pugnacious Captain.

"

OMPARED to the generosity with which it rewards

COMP

itself, Congress doles out most scanty recompense even to the Government's most faithful and long-suffering servants. Nevertheless, that it does not neglect or ignore them altogether, the annals of the Pension Bureau accurately attest.

HOW PENSIONS ARE GRANTED.

419

The first Act promising pensions to those disabled by war, was passed in the next month after the Declaration of Independence, August 26, 1776. On September 16, 1776, specified grants of land were promised to those who should enter the service, and continue to its close; and in case of their death, to their heirs.

Under these early enactments, the mode prescribed by law, to decide who were entitled to pensions, was to leave the State Legislatures to decide who should justly receive pensions. Having decided, the State Legislatures paid the pensioners, and were reimbursed by the general Gov

ernment.

Afterward, this method gave way to another, requiring the Judges of district, and circuit-courts, to decide the equity of the demand, and to pay it, as had formerly been done, by the Legislatures of the several States. These payments were not made, however, until after the lists reported by the Judges had been verified by comparison with the rolls on file in the War Department, when they were reported by the Secretary of War to Congress, and placed on the pension-lists, by a resolution of that body. This mode was found to be too slow in detecting frauds, and February 25, 1793, an Act was passed, prescribing rules to be observed by the courts in the investigation of claims, and providing that the evidence upon which the decision was based should accompany the report. This Act prevailed, with slight modifications, until March 3, 1819, when an Act was passed, authorizing the Secretary of War to place on the pension-rolls, without reporting the lists to Congress.

This authority was exercised by the Secretary of War, until March 2, 1833, when a distinct Bureau of the Government was established for the adjustment of pension