At the seat of government is an executive department, known as the War Department, and a Secretary of War is the head thereof. There is in this department an inferior officer appointed by the principal officer, employed therein as he deems proper, and called the chief clerk in the Department of War, and who, whenever the principal officer is removed from office by the President of the United States, or in any other case of vacancy, during such vacancy has the charge and custody of all records, books, and papers appertaining to the department. The Secretary of War performs such duties as are from time to time enjoined on or intrusted to him by the President relative to military commissions, the military forces, the warlike stores of the United States, or to other matters respecting military affairs; and he conducts the business of the department in such manner as the President directs.

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has the custody and charge of all the books, records, papers, furniture, fixtures, and other property appertain ing to the department. From time to time he causes to be collected and transmitted to him at the seat of government all such flags, standards, and colours as are taken by the army from the enemies of the United States. He defines and prescribes from time to time the kinds as well as the amount of supplies to be purchased by the subsistence and quartermaster departments of the army, and the duties and powers thereof respecting such purchases, and prescribes general regulations for the transportation of the articles of supply from the places of purchase to the several armies, garrisons, posts, and recruiting places, for the safe-keeping of such articles, and for the distribu

tion of an adequate and timely supply of the same to the regimental quartermasters, and to such other officers as by virtue of such regulations are intrusted with the same; and fixes and makes reasonable allowances for the store-rent and storage necessary for the safe-keeping of all military stores and supplies. The transportation of troops, munitions of war, equipments, military property, and stores throughout the United States are under the immediate control and supervision of the Secretary of War and such agents as he appoints. He provides for taking meteorological observations at the military stations in the interior of the continent, and at other points in the states and territories, and for giving notice on the northern lakes and sea coast, by magnetic telegraph and marine signals, of the approach and force of storms. The Secretary of War provides, in the system of observations and reports in charge of the signal officer of the army, for such stations, reports, and signals as may be found necessary for the benefit of agriculture and commercial interests. He is authorised to establish signal stations at lighthouses, and at such of the lifesaving stations on the lake or sea coast as may be suitably located for that purpose, and to connect the same with such points as may be necessary for the proper discharge of the signal service by reason of a suitable telegraph line, in cases where no lines are in operation, to be constructed, maintained, and worked under the direction of the chief signal officer of the army or the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Treasury; and the use of the life-saving stations as signal stations are subject to such regulations as

may be agreed upon by said officials. Whenever satisfactory proof is furnished to the War Department that any non-commissioned officer or private soldier who served in the army of the United States in the late war against the Rebellion has lost his certificate of discharge, or the same has been destroyed without his privity or procurement, the Secretary of War is authorised to furnish on request to such noncommissioned officer or private a duplicate of such certificate of discharge, indelibly marked, so that it may be known as a duplicate; but such certificate is not accepted as a voucher for the payment of any claim against the United States for pay, bounty, or other allowance, or as evidence in any other case. The Secretary of War is authorised to detail one or more of the employees of the War Department for the purpose of administering the oaths required by law in the settlement of officers' accounts for clothing, camp and garrison equipage, quartermaster's stores and ordnance, which oaths are administered without expense to the parties taking them. In settling the accounts of the commanding officer of a company for clothing and other military supplies, the affidavit of any such officer may be received to show the loss of vouchers or company books, or any matter or circumstance tending to prove that any apparent deficiency was occasioned by unavoidable accident, or lost in actual service without any fault on his part, or that the whole or any part of such clothing and supplies had been properly and legally used and appropriated; and such affidavit may be considered as evidence to establish the facts set forth, with or without other evidence, as may seem to the Secretary of War just and proper under the circumstances of the case. Any surplus charts of the north

western lakes may be sold to navigators upon such terms as the Secretary of War prescribes. The chief signal officer may cause to be sold any surplus maps or publications of the signal office, the money received therefor to be applied toward defraying the expenses of the signal service, and an account of the same to be rendered in each of his annual reports. The Secretary of War makes an annual report to Congress, containing a statement of the appropriations of the preceding fiscal year for the Department of War, showing the amount appropriated under each specific head of appropriation, the amount expended under each head, and the balance which, on the 30th day of June preceding such report, remained unexpended. Such reports are accompanied by estimates of the probable demands which may remain on each appropriation. He lays before Congress at the commencement of each regular session a statement of all contracts for supplies or services made by him or under his direction during the year preceding; and also a statement of the expenditure of the moneys appropriated for the contingent expenses of the military establishment. Whenever the Secretary of War invites proposals for any works, or for any material or labour for any work, he reports to Congress at its next session all bids therefor, with the names of the bidders. causes to be prepared and submitted to Congress, in connection with the reports of examinations and surveys of rivers and harbours made by order of Congress, full statements of all existing facts tending to show to what extent the general commerce of the country will be promoted by the several works of improvements contemplated by such examinations and surveys, to the end that public money be not applied, excepting where such improvements tend to

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subserve the general, commercial, and navigation interests of the United States. And he lays before Congress, on or before the first Monday in February of each year, an abstract of the returns of the adjutant-general of the several states of the militia thereof.

The special offices in this department are

1. The office of the AdjutantGeneral.

2. The office of the QuartermasterGeneral.

3. The office of the PaymasterGeneral.

4. The office of the CommissaryGeneral.

5. The office of the Surgeon-General.

6. The office of the Chief of Engineers.

7. The office of the Chief of Ordnance.

8. The office of Military Justice. Some of the salaries paid in connection with these offices are given elsewhere.

There is at the seat of government an executive department known as the Department of the Treasury, and the Secretary of the Treasury is at its head, with two assistant secretaries appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The appointments of this department are so arranged as to be equally distributed between the several states of the United States, territories, and the District of Columbia, according to population. The divisions of this department are those of (1) the Comptrollers; (2) the Auditors; (3) the Treasurer; (4) the Register; (5) the Commissioner of Customs; (6) the Commissioner of Internal Revenue; (7) the Comptroller of the Currency; (8) the Bureau of Statistics; and (9) the Bureau of the Mint.

All claims and demands whatever by the United States, or against them, and all accounts whatever in which the United States are concerned, either as debtors or as creditors, are settled and adjusted in the Department of the Treasury. The Treasury also acts as the bankers of the District of Columbia. The fiscal year commences on the first day of July in each year. The commissions of

all officers employed in levying or collecting the public revenue are made out and recorded in the Department of the Treasury, and the seal of the department is affixed thereto, but not before they have been signed by the President. Separate accounts are kept at the department of all moneys received from internal duties or taxes in each of the respective states, territories, and collection districts, and of the amount of each species of duty and tax that accrues, so as to exhibit, as far as may be, the amount collected from each source of revenue, with the moneys paid as compensation and allowances to the collectors and deputy-collectors, inspectors and other officers employed in each of the respective states, territories, and collection districts. account for contingent expenses at any of the bureaux of the Department of the Treasury is allowed, except on the certificate of the Superintendent of the Treasury Buildings. No person appointed to the office of Secretary of the Treasury, or First Comptroller, or First Auditor, or Treasurer, or Register, shall, directly or indirectly, be concerned or interested in carrying on the business of trade or commerce, or be owner, in whole or

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in part, of any sea-vessel, or purchase by himself, or another in trust for him, any public lands or other public property, or be concerned in the purchase or disposal of any public securities of any state or of the United States, or take or apply to his own use any emolument or gain for negotiating or transacting any business in the Treasury Department other than what is allowed by law; and any one so offending is guilty of a high misdemeanour, and forfeits $3000 to the United States, and upon conviction is removed from office, and becomes incapable of again holding office under the United States. Informers other than a public prosecutor get one-half of the $3000. Every clerk employed in this Department who carries on any trade or business in the funds or debts of the United States, or of any state or in any kind of public property, or who takes or applies to his own use any emolument or gain for negotiating or transacting any business in the Department, is guilty of a misdemeanour, and punished by a fine of $500 and removal from office.

The assistant secretaries examine letters, contracts, and warrants prepared for the signature of the Secretary of the Treasury, and perform such other duties in the Secretary's office prescribed by him or by law. The Secretary may, by an appointment under his hand and official seal, delegate to one of the assistant secretaries of the Treasury authority to sign in his stead all warrants for the payment of money into the public treasury, and for the disbursement from the public treasury of money certified by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury to be due upon accounts duly audited and settled by them, as validly as if the warrants had been signed by the Secretary himself. The Secretary of the Treasury from time to time digests

and prepares plans for the improvement and management of the revenue and for the support of the public credit; superintends the collection of the revenue; from time to time prescribes the forms of keeping and rendering all public accounts and making returns; grants, under the limitations established by law, all warrants for money to be issued from the Treasury in pursuance of appropriations by law; makes reports, and gives information to either branch of the legislature, in person or in writing as may be required, respecting all matters referred to him by the Senate or House of Representatives, or which appertain to his office; and generally performs all such services relative to the finances as he is directed to perform. He directs the superintendence of the collection of the duties on imports and tonnage as he judges best. He causes all accounts of the expenditure of public money to be settled within each fiscal year, except where the distance of the places where such expenditure occurs may be such as to make further time necessary, and with the assent of the President he establishes fixed periods at which a settlement is required from such distant places. He makes and issues from time to time such instructions and regulations to the several collectors, receivers, depositaries, officers, and others who receive Treasury notes, United States notes, or other securities of the United States, or who are in any way engaged or employed in the preparation and issue of the same, as he deems best calculated to promote the public convenience and security, and to protect the United States as well as individuals from fraud and loss. He prescribes forms of entries, oaths, bonds, and other papers, and rules and regulations not inconsistent with law, to be used under and in the execution and enforcement of the various provisions