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LETTER

FROM

THE ATTORNEY GENERAL,

IN ANSWER TO

Resolution of the 16th instant, transmitting a report of the amounts paid for special counsel and United States district attorneys during the years ending June 30, 1865, 1866, and 1867, and on the organization of this office.

DECEMBER 20, 1867.-Read, referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be

printed.

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S Office,

Washington, December 20, 1867.

SIR: In compliance with a resolution passed by the Senate, December 16, 1867, I have the honor to transmit herewith a report on the amounts paid during the years ending June 30, 1865, 1866, and 1867, for special counsel employed to assist the Attorney General and the United States district attorneys, and on the organization of this office.

Very respectfully, sir, your obedient servant,

Hon. B. F. WADE,

President of the Senate pro tempore.

HENRY STANBERY,

Attorney General.

To the Senate of the United States :

By resolution passed by the Senate December 16, 1867, the Attorney General is requested to inform the Senate

"1. What amount was paid by the United States for special counsel employed to assist the Attorney General in cases depending before the Supreme Court of the United States for the years ending June 30, 1865, June 30, 1866, and June 30, 1867.

"2. Whether the present force in the Attorney General's office is sufficient for the proper business of that office.

"3. Whether the solicitors and clerks, acting as such, in the various departments and in the Court of Claims, cannot be dispensed with, and the duties they perform be discharged under the direction of the Attorney General, so as to bring all the law officers of the government under one head, with saving of expense and benefit to the public service.

4. The amount paid for the years ending June 30, 1865, June 30, 1866, and June 30, 1867, for assistance rendered to the district attorneys."

In answer to these inquiries, (transposing for convenience the order in which they are stated,) I have the honor to inform the Senate that there was paid by the United States for special counsel employed to assist the Attorney General

in cases depending before the Supreme Court of the United States, the following

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The amounts paid for the same years for assistance rendered to the district attorneys are as follows:

. $14,000

16, 000

25,000

For the year ending June 30, 1865..
For the year ending June 30, 1866.
For the year ending June 30, 1867.
which last includes fees paid to special counsel employed in the prosecution of
Mr. Davis for high treason.

These amounts include the sums paid to lawyers called assistant district attorneys, whose compensation is in the form of an agreement for an annual allowance, and to special counsel employed to assist the district attorney in special cases by the Attorney General. The fees of special counsel employed by heads of departments are not included in the amounts stated.

The present force in the office of the Attorney General is not sufficient for the proper business of that office. As to the mere administrative business of the office the present force is sufficient; but as to the proper duties of the Attorney General, especially in the preparation and argument of cases before the Supreme Court of the United States, and the preparation of opinions on questions of law referred to him, some provision is absolutely necessary to enable him properly to discharge his duties. After much reflection it seems to me that this want may best be supplied by the appointment of a solicitor general. With such an assistant, the necessity of employing special counsel in the argument of cases in the Supreme Court of the United States would be in a great measure, if not altogether, dispensed with.

It will be observed that the sums paid to special counsel in that court have for the last three years averaged the sum of $9,100 per year; so that a salary might be allowed to a solicitor general sufficient to command the services of a competent lawyer with a positive saving of expense to the government.

On the third point of inquiry, in my opinion the various law officers now attached to the other departments and the Court of Claims might, with advantage to the public service, be transferred to the Attorney General's office, so that it may be made the law department of the government, and thereby secure uniformity of decision, of superintendence, and of official responsibility. HENRY STANBERY, Attorney General.

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A resolution of 6th instant, transmitting a report from the Secretary of State concerning the International Monetary Conference held at Paris in June, 1867.

DECEMBER 19, 1867.-Read, referred to the Committee on Finance, and, with accompanying papers, ordered to be printed.

To the Senate of the United States:

In answer to the resolution of the Senate of the 6th instant, concerning the International Monetary Conference held at Paris in June last, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, which is accompanied by the papers called for by the resolution.

WASHINGTON, December 17, 1867.

ANDREW JOHNSON.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, December 17, 1867.

The Secretary of State, to whom was referred a resolution of the 6th instant, requesting to be furnished with a copy of all correspondence between the government of the United States and that of France, in respect to the International Monetary Conference held in Paris in June and July last, with a copy of any instructions to, and reports from, the delegate in the conference from the United States, has the honor to lay before the President the papers mentioned in the subjoined list.

Respectfully submitted:

The PRESIDENT.

WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

List of accompanying papere.

Mr. Berthemy to Mr. Seward, January 4, 1867.
Mr. Seward to Mr. Berthemy. February 13, 1867.
Mr. Berthemy to Mr. Seward, May 27, 1867.
Mr. Seward to Mr. Berthemy, May 29, 1867.
Mr. Seward to Mr. Ruggles, May 29, 1867.
Mr. Seward to General Dix, May 29, 1867.

Mr. Ruggles to Mr. Seward, May 30, 1867, (extract, with accompaniments.)
Mr. F. W. Seward to Mr. Ruggles, June 21, 1867.

General Dix to Mr. Seward, June 28, 1867, (with accompaniments.)

Mr. Ruggles to Mr. Seward, July 12, 1867, (extract.)

Mr. Ruggles to Mr. Seward, July 18, 1867, (with accompaniments.)
Mr. Berthemy to Mr. Seward, August 28, 1867.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Berthemy, September 16, 1867.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Berthemy, September 30, 1867, (with an accompaniment.)
Mr. Ruggles to Mr. Seward, October 4, 1867, (extract.)

Mr. Seward to Mr. Ruggles, October 25, 1867.
Mr. Dumas to the President, November 5, 1867.
The President to Mr. Dumas, November 27, 1867.
Mr. Dumas to Mr. Seward, November 5, 1867.

Mr. Seward to Mr. Dumas, November 27, 1867.

Mr. Ruggles to Mr. Seward, November 7, 1867, (with accompaniments.)

Mr. Berthemy to Mr. Seward.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF FRANCE AT WASHINGTON,

Washington, January 4, 1867.

SIR: I have the honor to transmit herewith to your excellency a copy of the text of the monetary convention, concluded December 23, 1865, between France, Belgium, Italy, and Switzerland.

As you will see, Mr. Secretary of State, this act, which went into force the 1st August last, reconstituted, under the guarantee of an international con tract, a monetary union which had existed in fact between these four states, but which diverse measures, adopted without preliminary understanding, had broken up during late years. These measures adopted successively in Switzerland, in Italy, and in France, had a sole object, that of putting an end to the abnormal disappearance of fractional silver money, or standard change money, indispensa ble for payments of trifling amounts. To the same evil they opposed the same remedy, the lowering of the standard, but according to different rules and proportions. The Swiss pieces, for instance, coined at the standard of eight hundred thousandths fine, while those of France and of Italy were at the standard of eight hundred and thirty-five, had to be refused in the public treasuries of the empire, as well as in those of the kingdom of Italy. The inconvenience of this state of things was not long in becoming apparent, and causing, perhaps, more keenly than in past time, the appreciation by the populations of the four bordering states, of the advantages of the monetary communion by which they had been formerly benefited. For the purpose of satisfying the just claims and pressing interests of trade the government of the Emperor last year proposed to Belgium, to Italy, and to Switzerland, to intrust to a mixed international commission the care of re-establishing the ancient uniformity by taking account of facts accomplished, and of the new conditions of the monetary circulation of Europe. Commissioners appointed by these different states assembled at Paris under the presidency of M. de Parieu, vice-president of the council of state, and, in stating the causes for the convention of the 23d December last, they have fully met the immediate end which was assigned for their labors, according to the expression used by the minister of finance of Belgium, on submitting to the Belgian chamber the project of law intended to sanction the convention: "This act contains in effect, within itself, saving the unity of stamp, a monetary system, complete for moneys, (coin,) properly so called, to the exclusion of billon, (base coin.")

At this time the gold and silver coinage of these four states is conducted under

conditions that are identical. In what relates especially to fractional silver of the piece of five francs for real change of standard money, which alone can meet the demand for small transactions, the standard of eight hundred and thirty-five thousandths has been definitively adopted; this is the figure which, already adopted in France and in Italy, has seemed best to satisfy the conditions of the problem which was in discussion for a solution-that is to say, to give to fractional metallic coins of the union the highest intrinsic value and the qualities of a good alloy, at the same time doing away the premium they had reached from the relative depreciation of gold, which allowed speculation to melt them up and export them at a profit.

Express provisions limit, moreover, the emission of this legal small change, and serve also as the corrective of the lowering of the standard value. Precise rules reduce to the smallest possible figures the allowances for cost of fabrication, so as to maintain the money of the union in a constant normal condition. In fine, you will remark, Mr. Secretary of State, a clause which is detached from the rest of the stipulations, exclusively destined to determine the monetary regulations of the four countries. I desire to say something of the accession which article twelve guarantees to any other state. This clause may be considered as the manifestation of a wish that sprung up in the proceedings of the international conference, and has not been without influence on the happy issue of the negotiations. After having brought about the disappearance of divergencies of which they recognized the inconveniences, the delegates of France, of Belgium, of Italy, and of Switzerland, seeing a population of seventy millions of souls thenceforth endowed with the same monetary system, must quite naturally have been led to fix attention on an interest more general. Without entering on the examination of a question which it was not their mission to solve, they expressed in the name of their governments the desire to see the union, as yet restricted to four countries, become the germ of a union more extended, and of the establishment of a general monetary circulation among all civilized states. The government of the Emperor would be very happy to see this proposition well received, but, at the same time, cannot dissemble the difficulties and objections it might encounter. But it doubts not, at least, that the views which are thus inspired correspond with necessities which henceforth must press upon the solicitude of governments.. In proportion as the solidarity which now exists between economic interests becomes more and more close, each nation, in view of advantages already realized, better understands the importance of removing the obstructions still met with in international relations, one of the most onerous and annoying results assuredly, from the diversity of coinage which multiply the fluctuations of exchange. The idea of the unification of the monetary systems makes, then, every day fresh progress. It is under its influence that, since the 24th January, 1857, there has been concluded the treaty which has markedly simplified the monetary régime of the States comprised in the ancient Germanic confederation; and more recently, in 1865, the same tendency has manifested itself in the discussions and in the votes of the German commercial diet; in fine, the convention, even of the 23d December, has been spontaneously the object on the part of several foreign governments of an investigation which bears sufficient evidence of their solicitude about the interests which attach to it. A new monetary law has already introduced in the Roman States the régime stipulated by the convention of Paris; and, in the United States, public opinion has been called to this question even in the deliberations of Congress.

If, for the moment, objections too weighty prevent the federal government from adhesion to the convention of 23d December, the government of the Emperor would not the less attach special value to being informed of these obstacles, and to learn what observations may have been drawn forth by the examination of that international act. In the absence of more immediate results, there would be incontestable advantage in being enabled to appreciate exactly

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