RELATING TO CONTRACTS AND DISBURSEMENTS. 135 5....All purchases and contracts for supplies or services, which are, or may, according to law, be made by, or under the direction of, either the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of War, or the Secretary of the Navy, shall be made either by open purchase or by previously advertising for proposals respecting the same. And an annual statement of all such contracts and purchases, and also of the expenditure of the moneys appropriated for the contingent expenses of the Military Establishment, for the contingent expenses of the Navy of the United States, and for the discharge of miscellaneous claims, not otherwise provided for, and paid at the Treasury, shall be laid before Congress, at the beginning of each year, by the Secretary of the proper Department. 6....No contract shall be made by the Secretary of State, or of the Treasury, or of the Department of War, or of the Navy, except under a law authorizing the same, or under an appropriation adequate to its fulfilment. 7....No advance of public money shall be made in any case whatever; but in all cases of contracts for the performance of any service, or the delivery of articles of any description, for the use of the United States, payment shall not exceed the value of the service rendered or of the articles delivered previously to such payment: Provided, That it shall be lawful, under the special direction of the President of the United States, to make such advances to the disbursing officers of the Government as may be necessary to the faithful and prompt discharge of their respective duties, and to the fulfilment of the public engage ments. 8....No officer in any branch of the public service, or any other person whose salary, pay, or emoluments is or are fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation, in any form whatever, for the disbursement of public money, or any other service or duty whatsoever, unless the same shall be authorized by law, and the appropriation therefor explicitly set forth that it is for such additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation. 9....The moneys which may be received by the proper officers of the army from the sales of subsistence, military stores, and other supplies, shall be exempted from the operation of the act of the third 5...Act 3d March, 1809. Sec. 5. 8...Act 23d August, 1842. Sec. 2. of March, eighteen hundred and forty-nine, entitled, “An act requiring all moneys received from the customs, and all other sources, to be paid into the Treasury, without abatement or reduction." 10....All officers and other persons, charged by this act, or any other act, with the safe-keeping, transfer, and disbursement of the public moneys, other than those connected with the Post Office Department, are hereby required to keep an accurate entry of each sum received, and of each payment or transfer; and if any one of the said officers, or of those connected with the Post Office Department, shall convert to his own use, in any way whatever, or shall use, by way of investment in any kind of property or merchandise, or shall loan, with or without interest, or shall deposit in any bank, or shall exchange for other funds, except as allowed by this act, any portion of the public moneys intrusted to him for safe-keeping, disbursement, transfer, or for any other purpose, every such act shall be deemed and adjudged to be an embezzlement of so much of the said moneys as shall be thus taken, converted, invested, used, loaned, deposited, or exchanged, which is hereby declared to be a felony; and any failure to pay over or to produce the public moneys intrusted to such person shall be held and taken to be prima facie evidence of such embezzlement; and if any officer charged with the disbursements of public moneys shall accept or receive, or transmit to the Treasury Department to be allowed in his favor, any receipt or voucher from a creditor of the United States, without having paid to such creditor, in such funds as the said officer may have received for disbursement, or such other funds as he may be authorized by this act to take in exchange, the full amount specified in such receipt or voucher, every such act shall be deemed to be a conversion by such officer to his own use of the amount specified in such receipt or voucher; and any officer or agent of the United States, and all persons advising or participating in such act, being convicted thereof before any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction, shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term of not less than six months nor more than ten years, and to a fine equal to the amount of the money embezzled. And, upon the trial of any indictment against any person for embezzling public money under the provisions of this act, it shall be sufficient evidence, for the purpose 10...Act 6th August, 1846. Sec. 16. RELATING TO CONTRACTS AND DISBURSEMENTS. 137 of showing a balance against such person, to produce a transcript from the books and proceedings of the Treasury, as required in civil cases, under the provisions of the act entitled "An act to provide more effectually for the settlement of accounts between the United States and receivers of public money," approved March third, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven; and the provisions of this act shall be so construed as to apply to all persons charged with the safe-keeping, transfer, or disbursement of the public money, whether such persons be indicted as receivers or depositaries of the same; and the refusal of such person, whether in or out of office, to pay any draft, order, or warrant which may be drawn upon him by the proper officer of the Treasury Department for any public money in his hands belonging to the United States, no matter in what capacity the same may have been received, or may be held, or to transfer or disburse any such money promptly, upon the legal requirement of any authorized officer of the United States, shall be deemed and taken, upon the trial of any indictment against such person for embezzlement, as prima facie evidence of such embezzlement. 11....On the first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, and thereafter, every officer or agent engaged in making disbursements on account of the United States, or of the General Post Office, shall make all payments in gold and silver coin, or in Treasury notes, if the creditor agree to receive said notes in payment; and any receiving or disbursing officer or agent who shall neglect, evade, or violate the provisions of this and the last preceding section of this act, shall, by the Secretary of the Treasury, be immediately reported to the President of the United States, with the facts of such neglect, evasion, or violation; and also to Congress, if in session; and if not in session, at the commencement of its session next after the violation takes place. 12....No exchange of funds shall be made by any disbursing officers or agents of the Government, of any grade or denomination whatsoever, or connected with any branch of the public service, other than an exchange for gold and silver; and every such disbursing officer, when the means for his disbursements are furnished to him in gold and silver, shall make his payments in the money so furnished; 11...Act 6th August, 1846. Sec. 19. 12...Act 6th August, 1846. Sec. 20. 138 APPENDIX. NO. 2.-LAWS RELATING TO CONTRACTS. or when those means are furnished to him in drafts, shall cause those drafts to be presented at their place of payment, and properly paid according to the law, and shall make his payments in the money so received for the drafts furnished, unless, in either case, he can exchange the means in his hands for gold and silver at par. And it shall be and is hereby made the duty of the head of the proper department immediately to suspend from duty any disbursing officer who shall violate the provisions of this section, and forthwith to report the name of the officer or agent to the President, with the fact of the violation, and all the circumstances accompanying the same, and within the knowledge of the said Secretary, to the end that such officer or agent may be promptly removed from office, or restored to his trust and the performance of his duties, as to the President may seem just and proper : Provided, however, That those disbursing officers having at present credits in the banks shall, until the first day of January next, be allowed to check on the same, allowing the public creditors to receive their pay from the banks either in specie or bank notes. APPENDIX. NO. 3.-BUILDING REGULATIONS. 139 APPENDIX. No. 3. REGULATIONS RELATIVE TO CONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS. HEAD QUARTERS OF THE ARMY, ADJUTANT GENERAL'S OFFICE, GENERAL ORDERS, No. 51. I....The following Rules and Regulations, relative to the construction of permanent public buildings, have been received from the War Department, and are published for the information and government of all concerned: "WAR DEPARTMENT, November 24, 1838. "Rules and Regulations for insuring uniformity and a due economy in the construction of the permanent public buildings hereafter to be erected for the use of the Quartermaster's, Engineer, Ordnance, and all other departments of the army. "1st. Materials.-None but the best of their kind shall enter into the construction. "2d. Workmanship.-Plain, workman-like, and free from all ornament not necessary to a neat finish. "3d. Doors and Shutters.-Framed flat pannels, with a bead round the rails. "For posts, south of the 40th degree of latitude, Venitians may be substituted for the shutters to the quarters and barracks. For store and other houses, the doors and shutters shall be framed, and the pannels flush with the rails. "4th. Roofs, whenever practicable, shall be covered with zinc, tin, sheet iron, slate, tile, or other durable and incombustible substances. "5th. Piazzas are allowed for places where the circumstances of |