Comptroller the accounts which shall have been finally adjusted, and to preserve such accounts with their vouchers and certificates; to record all warrants for the receipt or payment of moneys at the Treasury, certify the same thereon, and to transmit to the Secretary of the Treasury copies of certificates of balances of accounts as adjusted. Subsequently the Register was required to perform various duties in relation to the issue and transfer of certificates of the public debt. By act of March 3, 1817, one Comptroller and four Auditors were added to the Department; by act of July 2, 1836, one additional Auditor for Post-Office accounts; by act of March 3, 1849, a Commissioner of Customs, who, as to customs' accounts, was authorized to decide upon the same, as had been previously the duty of the First Comptroller. By other provisions the Commissioner of the General Land Office (an officer of the Department of the Interior) audits all accounts relative to the public lands, and reports them to the First Comptroller for decision, in the same manner as other accounts are reported by an Auditor. The First Auditor receives and examines all accounts accruing in the Treasury Department, all accounts relating to receipts from customs, including accounts of collectors and other officers of the customs, all accounts accruing on account of salaries in the Patent Office, all accounts of the judges, marshals, clerks, and other officers of all the courts of the United States, all accounts of the officer in charge of the public buildings and grounds in the District of Columbia, all accounts of the expenditures of the Department of Agriculture, all accounts relating to prisoners convicted in any court of the United States, and, after examining them, certifies the accounts of customs and of collectors and other officers of the customs to the Commissioner of Customs for his decision thereon; and the balances of all other accounts to the First Comptroller for his decision thereon. In like manner the Second Auditor receives and examines accounts relating to the pay and clothing of the Army, subsistence of officers, bounties and premiums, military and hospital stores, and contingent expenses of the War Department, and accounts relating to Indian affairs, and of agents of lead and other mines, and certifies the balances to the Second Comptroller for his decision thereon. The Third Auditor examines accounts relative to the subsistence of the Army, the Quartermaster's Department, and, generally, all accounts of the War Department other than those provided for, certain other Army accounts, and Army pension accounts, and certifies them to the Second Comptroller for his decision thereon. The Fourth Auditor examines all accounts accruing in the Navy Department or relative thereto, and to Navy pensions, and certifies the balances to the Second Comptroller for his decision thereon. The Fifth Auditor examines all accounts accruing in or relative to the Department of State (which includes foreign intercourse), all internalrevenue accounts, and accounts of the contingent expenses of the Patent Office, and relating to the census, and certifies them to the First Comptroller for his decision thereon. The Sixth Auditor examines accounts accruing in the Post-Office Department, relative to mail and postal service (not including salaries and expenses in the Department), and audits and settles the same, and certifies the balances thereon to the Postmaster-General. Various other duties are performed by this Auditor. He countersigns warrants drawn on the Treasury by the Postmaster-General, and is the register of the accounts which he settles. The Postmaster-General, or any party dissatisfied with the settlement of an account by him, may, within twelve months, appeal to the First Comptroller, whose decision in such case is final. The revenues and funds of the Post-Office Department go into the Treasury, but the accounts thereof are kept separate from those of the general Treasury, and these funds are appropriated separately, and only for the postal service. The Second, Third, and Fourth Auditors keep and register the accounts audited by them, separate from those kept by the Register. The decisions of the First and Second Comptrollers, and of the Commissioner of Customs, on accounts audited and certified to them, are final, subject to appeal to the courts or to Congress; and the settlement of an account by the Sixth Auditor is final unless an appeal be taken to the First Comptroller within twelve months. The Comptroller of the Currency has control of the organization and the general supervision of the national banks, as also of the preparation and issue of circulation to them. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue has the supervision of the internal-revenue assessments and collections, and the decision of various questions connected therewith. The Light-House Board, of which the Secretary of the Treasury is exofficio president, consists of two officers of the Navy, of high rank, two officers of the Corps of Engineers of the Army, and two civilians of high scientific attainments, whose services may be at the disposal of the President, together with an officer of the Navy and an officer of Engi neers of the Army as secretaries. The Coast Survey is in charge of a Superintendent, who has the assist ance of officers of the Army and Navy detailed to that duty. The Director of the Mint has the superintendence of the mint, branch mints, assay offices, and of assay and coinage of precious metals. Under Presidential order of January 23, 1874, a Board on behalf of the Executive Department, of the Government was appointed by the President to represent the Government in its participation in the International Exhibition of 1876, and consisted of one member each from the Treasury, War, Navy, Interior, Post-Office, and Agricultural Departments, and one from the Smithsonian Instituttion. On the Board Hon. Frederick A. Sawyer, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, represented that Department until his resignation during the month of June, 1874, by which his official connection with the Exhibition ceased. Subsequently, Mr. Robert W. Tayler, First Comptroller, was appointed to represent the Treasury as a member of the Board, and has continued in that position to the present time. Very little was done by the Department toward representation at the Centennial Exhibition, until the latter part of April, 1876; but on an increase of the money appropriated, made in the act of May 1, 1876, work was pushed forward as rapidly as practicable; still the articles put in place for exhibition were incomplete at the opening of the 10th of May. The sum appropriated for the Treasury was not sufficient to warrant as large an exhibition by that Department as would have been desirable; still the exposition was highly creditable to the Department and the Government, and, except in quantity and space, not inferior to that of any other Department. It was of objects wholly devoted to commerce and other peaceful pursuits; many of them to humane purposes. The exhibitions on the part of the Treasury Department were made by the Light-House Board; the Superintendent of the Coast Survey; the Commissioner of Internal Revenue; the Director of the Mint; the Supervising Architect; the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; and the Superintendent of Life-Saving Service. The catalogues of articles exhibited by these several branches of the Treasury Department are hereto appended, and will convey to the reader a general idea of the work performed by these branches, which come within the general scope of the Exhibition. The historical sketches which accompany these catalogues were prepared by the respective offices. |