4. The Commissioner of Pensions bas no authority to audit and adjust accounts presented by persons who have borne the expenses of "the last sickness and burial" of deceased pensioners under section 471s of the Revised Statutes. 5. Such accounts must be audited and adjusted by the accounting officers in the Treasury Department. 6. Accounting officers have jurisdiction of demands for unliquidated damages in those cases in which claims therefor lawfully exist against the United States.* The following opinion is published, not only for its compact and clear statement of the law applicable to the questions therein directly considered, but because in principle it applies to the adjustment of many accounts. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, SIR: The question presented by the letter of the Second Comptroller, referred to in and accompanying your communication of the 8th of July ultimo, requesting my opinion, is, whether the accounts presented by persons who have borne the expenses of "the last sickness and burial" of deceased pensioners, under section 4718 of the Revised Statutes, must be audited and adjusted in the Treasury by the accounting officers after an examination of the original vouchers and papers, or whether the Commissioner of Pensions may determine finally the amount properly due for such expenses, and, by withholding the original vouchers from the accounting officers, compel them to audit and allow such claims upon the mere certificate of that officer. It is conceded by the Comptroller, in his letter, that the Commissioner of Pensions is authorized to decide who are entitled to be pensioners and the amounts to be paid to them, respectively, as such, and that his decision is, to that extent, conclusive as to the accounting officers; but he insists that claimants for reimbursement of expenses of the last sickness and burial of pensioners are not in any sense on the footing of pensioners, and that the ascertainment and allowance of the different items of such expenses belongs exclusively to the accounting officers of the Treasury. Section 4718 of the Revised Statutes provides that when a pensioner or a person entitled to a pension and "having an application therefor pending," shall die, not leaving a widow or child surviving him, "no payment whatsoever of the accrued pension shall be made or allowed, except so much as may be necessary to reimburse the person who bore the expenses of the last sickness and burial of the decedent in cases where he did not leave sufficient assets to meet such expenses." It may be assumed as established that the decision of the Commissioner of Pensions placing a person on the pension roll and fixing the amount of his pension is conclusive, and, consequently, that in settling the accounts of pension agents the accounting officers have no authority to go behind the pensioner's certificate. It must be taken as equally clear, that as the pension law determines the amounts to be paid the various pensioners, the action of the Commissioner of Pensions in allowing or directing payment of a pension cannot be said ever to involve an accounting, in any proper sense of that term. The foregoing syllabus of the opinion of the Attorney-General and of the foot-note was prepared by the First Comptroller. The able opinion of the learned AttorneyGeneral is taken from the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Pensions for the fiscal year 1882. As to opinions of Attorney-General to aid an auditor, see 10 Op. Att.-Gen., 48; 11 Op. Att.-Gen., 5, 6; 3 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., Introduction, xvi. An examination of the various provisions under the title "Pensions" in the Revised Statutes will show that, with the exception of said section 4718, there is not one that calls for the auditing and settling of accounts, and that there is an entire absence of any direct or express intention that the Commissioner of Pensions should have the power to audit accounts. So far from it, indeed, the law withholds from him the power to administer oaths, which is expressly conferred on the Auditors of the Treasury, that they may take testimony "in any case in which they may deem t necessary for the due examination of the accounts with which they hall be charged." (§ 297 R. S.) Congress has provided an admirable system for the adjustments of public accounts (chapters 3 and 4 R. S.), and has declared that "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 lebtors or as creditors, shall be settled and adjusted in the Department of the Treasury." (§ 236 R. S.) This system has been in operation from the foundation of the Government, and there can be no doubt as to the general intention of Congress that all unliquidated demands against the Government shall be adjusted by the accounting officers forming the system. Whether we regard sections 4718 and 236 as holding the same relation o one another as when the former was section 25 of the act of 3d March, 1873, and the latter section 3 of the act of 3d March, 1817, or since the nactment of the Revised Statutes as parts of one and the same statute, I perceive no ground whatever for holding that section 4718 was intended to restrict or qualify the declaration contained in section 236 that all demands and accounts whatever against the Government shall be audited and adjusted in the Treasury. It is the first duty of the expounder of several cognate statutes, or of several provisions of the same statute, to give them all a harmonious interpretation, and nothing short of some irreconcilable repugnancy can justify him in imputing to the legislature confused or inconsistent intentions. From the time of the passage of the act of 1873 until a very recent date, according to the Comptroller's letter, these two provisions have been treated as in perfect harmony, and accounts under section 4718 have been audited and adjusted by the accounting officers after an examination of the original vouchers and papers, in the accustomed way, and it is only by a strained construction of this section that any collision between it and section 236 is now produced. It follows, therefore, that the Commissioner of Pensions has no authority to audit and adjust accounts under said section 4718 R. S. It is proper to add that my opinion of the 28th April, 1882, which, the Comptroller says, has been invoked as an authority for the new interpretation of section 4718, does not conflict with this opinion. In the former it was held that Congress intended that a decision of the Commissioner of Pensions as to the amount demandable by a pensioner should be conclusive, while this opinion holds that Congress had no intention to invest that officer with the power to audit and adjust accounts under section 4718. The language of each opinion must be taken in connection with its subject-matter. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, The SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY. IN THE MATTER OF THE RIGHT OF THE UTAH AND NORTHERN RAILWAY COMPANY TO PAYMENT FOR SERVICES IN CARRYING MAILS FOR THE UNITED STATES.-RAILWAY-COMPENSATION CASE. 1. The act of March 3, 1873 (17 Stat., 508, sec. 2), as carried into section 5260 of the Revised Statutes, gives no right to any officer of the Government, to withhold from a railway company, which did not receive aid in subsidy bonds of the United States, the payment of compensation earned by it in carrying mails, even though such company is "controlled" by a bond-subsidized railway company. 2. Neither the so-called "Thurman-act" of May 7, 1878 (20 Stat., 58), nor the act of March 3, 1879 (20 Stat., 420), gives any authority to withhold such compensation from a railway company which received no aid in subsidy bonds of the United States. 3. The statutes relating to the bond-subsidized Pacific railway companies do not repeal, nor in any manner interfere with, the statutes giving jurisdiction to accounting officers of the Treasury Department. 4. The Utah and Northern Railway Company is entitled to payment from the United States for its services in carrying the mails of the United States in pursuance of the regulations of the Post-Office Department. Under the acts of July 1, 1862 (12 Stat., 489), and July 2, 1864 (13 Stat., 356), subsidy bonds were issued by the United States to six Pacific railroad companies, in various amounts and dates, from January 16, 1865, until the roads were completed. In January, 1870, accounts were opened in the Treasury Department against these companies, respectively, charging each for interest paid by the United States on the bonds. In September, 1870, the First Comptroller transmitted to the treasurer of each company a statement of account, showing the balance alleged to be due to the United States, and requesting payment. At October term, 1875, the Supreme Court decided, that the interest paid by the United States on the bonds was not, and would not be, due until the maturity of the bonds thirty years after their date. (United States v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 91 U. S., 72.) The acts of March 3, 1873 (17 Stat., 508, sec. 2), and June 22, 1874, (18 Stat., 200), as carried into the Revised Statutes, provide as follow: "SEC. 5260. The Secretary of the Treasury is directed to withhold all payments to any railroad company and its assigns, on account of freights or transportation over their respective roads of any kind, to the amount of payments made by the United States for interest upon bonds of the United States issued to any such company, and which shall not have been re-imbursed, together with the five per centum of net earnings due and unapplied, as provided by law. "SEC. 5261. Any such company may bring suit in the Court of Claims to recover the price of such freight and transportation, and in such suit the right of such company to recover the same upon the law and the facts of the case shall be determined, and also the rights of the United States upon the merits of all the points presented by it in answer thereto by them; and either party to such suit may appeal to the Supreme Court; and both said courts shall give such cause or causes precedence of all other business." Subsequently to the passage of the act of March 3, 1873 (17 Stat., 508, sec. 2), the balances accruing for transportation of the mails of the United States over the several subsidized roads were certified quarterly to the Postmaster-General as payable to the Secretary of the Treasury, as assignee, and post-office warrants on the Treasurer of the United States were issued in accordance therewith. The act of May 7, 1878 (20 Stat., 58, sec. 2), provides, "that the whole amount of compensation which may, from time to time, be due to said several [subsidized] railroad companies respectively for services rendered for the Government shall be retained by the United States," to be applied, in the mode therein authorized, to the payment of the interest and principal of the subsidy bonds. Under the act of March 3, 1879 (20 Stat., 420), the Post-Office Department declined to issue warrants to pay compensation for services of such companies.* April 21, 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury requested the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department to report to him, "under the proper classification as to fiscal years, the amounts that have already been certified to be due to the various Pacific railroad companies for transportation services performed for the Post-Office Department, in order that the proper credits may be entered on the books of the [Treasary] Department as contemplated by the act [of March 3, 1879, 20 Stat., 420]"; also to "report from time to time such amounts as may hereafter be certified to be due to those companies for like services." * As a further part of the history of these railroads the following may be of some value: February 17, 1879, the Postmaster-General addressed a letter to the The following will explain the practice: By act of March 3, 1879 (20 Stat., 420), the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to make such entries upon the books of the Department as will carry to the credit of the Union Pacific, Central Pacific, Kansas Pacific, Western Pacific, and Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Companies, respectively, the amounts earned by them for transportation of the mails. In order to carry out this provision in conformity to the Treasury system of bookkeeping, a permanent indefinite appropriation, entitled "Mail Transportation, Pacific Railroad," was created. It is an appropriation only in name; no payments of money are made from it. On the adjustment of an account in favor of one of the above-named companies for transportation of the mail, the balance found due to the company is certified by the Sixth Auditor to the Secretary of the Treasury, who, upon receipt of a copy of the auditor's report, or certificate, issues his warrant in favor of the company, making the amount thereof chargeable to the appropriation for “Mail Transportation, Pacific Railroads." The Secretary at the same time issues two counter-warrants covering, or transferring, the amount to the credit of the company. One of these counterwarrants is for the amount which is carried to the sinking fund of the company, the other goes to the account for the reimbursement of interest. Accounts of said companies for Government transportation, other than transportation of the mails, are adjusted by the proper auditors and made chargeable to the appropriations provided for the branches of the public service, respectively, to which the transportation appertained. Counter-warrants are issued for the sums which are to be withheld from the amounts allowed, and the amounts of these counter-warrants are eredited to the companies on the books of the Treasury by the Register of the Treasury as in the case of mail transportation. Secretary of the Treasury relative to compensation claimed by the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company for transportation of mails on a branch road from Fremont to Wisner operated by said company under a lease. This was referred to the Secretary of the Interior for his views, who, in answer, April 12, 1879, expressed the opinion to the Secretary of the Treasury, that section 2 of the act of March 3, 1873 (17 Stat., 508), did not authorize the retention of the amount earned by the transportation of mails over railroads constructed by private enterprise and with no grant of lands, bonds, or other aid, from the Government, although such roads were operated under lease by another corporation which had received such lands or bonds. April 21, 1879, the Secretary of the Treasury in a letter to the Postmaster-General concurred in this view.* *A circular was issued, as follows: (CIRCULAR.) TRANSPORTATION OVER PACIFIC RAILROADS. (1879.-Department No. 168. Secretary's office.) TREASURY DEPARTMENT, SECRETARY'S OFFICE, Washington, D. C., November 29, 1879. The attention of all persons concerned is invited to the provisions of section 5260 of the Revised Statutes, concerning compensation to certain Pacific Railroads, below enumerated, as follows: * "SEC. 5260. The Secretary of the Treasury is directed to withhold all payments to any railroad company and its assigns, on account of freights or transportation over their respective roads of any kind, to the amount of payments made by the United States for interest upon bonds of the United States issued to any such company, and which shall not have been reimbursed, together with the five per centum of net earnings due and unapplied, as provided by law." In accordance with the above provision of law, no payments will hereafter be made, directly or indirectly, in favor of any of the railroads in question. No person entitled to transportation at the public expense will incur expenditure therefor over any of these roads with a view of being reimbursed for the amount, but should secure from the proper authority an order for such transportation; and the Accounting Officers of this Department will allow any road presenting such order, duly receipted, credit for the amount found due, to be applied as required by law. In case the expense of such transportation is properly payable from any appropriation under the control of the Treasury Department, the necessary order will be furnished only by direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. Union Pacific Railroad: From Council Bluffs. Iowa, to Ogden, Utah; 1,033.46 miles. Central Pacific Railroad: From Ogden, Utah, to Son José, California, via Niles; 865.66 miles. Kansas Pacific Railway: From Kansas City, Missouri, to Denver, Colorado; 633.6 miles. Central Branch Union Pacific Railroad: From Atchison to Waterville, Kansas; 100 miles. Sioux City and Pacific Railroad: From Sioux City, Iowa, to Fremont, Nebraska, via California Junction; 101.77 miles. JOHN SHERMAN, Secretary. See the cases of the United States v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 91 U. S., 72; United States v. Kansas Pacific Railway Co., 99 U. S., 455; Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. United States, 16 Ct. Cl., 353. |