Page. TIMBER-AGENTS': In the matter of the right of special agents engaged, under the act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat., 623), in preventing timber depredations, to be allowed for sleeping-car fare as part of “transportation" expenses...... ORDWAY'S: In the matter of the right of the person employed to prepare a general index for the journals of Congress, to receive compensation for preparing an index to the Congressional Record.. CONGER'S APPEAL: In the matter of the right of the postmaster at Washington City to an annual salary of $5,000, commencing with the approval of the act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat., 600) ... STAR-ROUTE ATTORNEYS: In the matter of the authority to pay, from an appropriation for the service of a current fiscal year, an allowance made to an attorney retained to assist a district attorney, for continuous service in part rendered during a previous fiscal year.... RE-OPENING DECISION: 526 529 536 541 In the matter of re-opening a decision of the First Comptroller rejecting a claim, for the purpose of referring it for the opinion of the Court of Claims, under the act of March 3, 1883 (22 Stat., 485, sec. 2)........ 544 .... TAX-SALE: In the matter of the authority of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia, or the collector of taxes therein, to employ an auctioneer to make tax-sales...... MISSISSIPPI CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY'S: In the matter of the authority to pay claims against the United States accrued in 1861 for mail-transportation services, from the unexpended balances of deficiency postal appropriations carried to the surplus fund under the act of June 20, 1874 (18 Stat., 110, sec. 5)........ SCHELL'S: In the matter of charging interest on a final judgment for the payment of which the United States is liable, and of opening such judgment, by consent, after the term at which it was rendered has ended.. SWAMP-LAND-FEE: 546 553 578 In the matter of the right of registers and receivers of district land-offices to fees for the selection of swamp-lands for any State 580 ELECTION-PROCLAMATION: In the matter of the authority of the accounting officers of the Treasury Department to decide upon the validity of the proclamation of the governor of a State ordering a special election for a Representative in Congress 584 JORDAN'S (3 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., 274): In the matter of repayment of internal-revenue income-tax to certain citizens of Tennessee.. 586 MEIGS'S: In the matter of the right of a retired Army officer, who is designated by act of Congress and by the Secretary of the Interior to perform duties in connection with the erection of a public building, to receive additional compensation for such services... 588 MARSHAL'S EXPENSE: In the matter of the right of a marshal to be paid the maximum expenses of two dollars a day while his deputy is employed in endeavoring to make an arrest on a criminal charge, when this sum is the total sum expended for a whole day, and the deputy during a portion of the day is attending examinations before a commissioner of the circuit court. GEORGIA: Ante, 354-387. Addition to.. CONNOLLY'S: Ante, 45, 46. Addition to..... Page. 638 641 642 INTRODUCTION. This is the fourth in the series of volumes of the Decisions of the First Comptroller in the Department of the Treasury. The absolute necessity for decisions in the printed form now presented was stated with great ability, force, and clearness by the Hon. James Guthrie, Secretary of the Treasury, in his annual report of December 3, 1855, in which he says: "The decisions in the * * Comptrollers' offices are not preserved in printed reports as a guide and in restraint of themselves and their successors, in analogous cases, but exist in tradition, or a sort of Treasury common law in the memory of experts in the several offices. It is true that some of the Comptrollers have kept a record of their decisions in cases of difficulty, and these have served as precedents in like cases, and cases involving like principles. The decisions of * the Comptrollers, if they existed in printed reports, would give more uniformity to the action of the Treasury. The Auditors and their accountants, and the Comptrollers and their accountants, are left to these unreported decisions, the traditions of the Treasury law, and their own sense of what is right in the particular case. It is, therefore, not sur prising that uniform action has not been had in the accounting offices of the Treasury, and that the departures from uniformity have been greater than those which usually take place in the decisions of courts of law and equity. Moreover, in the extension of the business of accounting, the examination of the accounts stated in the first instance by the Auditor, and then by the Comptroller, on appeal, has, in many cases, been omitted, the Auditor and Comptroller signing their names on the faith of the account stated by their respective accountants; thus opening the door, and increasing the chances of departure from correct principles in the action of the Departments. * * * It would certainly be desirable to have such stated account accompanied by a succinct written report, referring to the law and the evidence, under which the debits. and credits have been allowed and disallowed, and each stated account and report examined and adjudged, first by the Auditor, and then by the Comptroller, and the principles of accounting at the Treasury, as established by law, fully and fairly carried out. * * "To constitute a good Auditor and a good Comptroller, requires legal ability of a high order, a special knowledge of our fiscal and disbursement laws and regulations, coupled with unabating industry, unbending integrity, and promptitude of decision; and scarcely less can be required of the accountants in their offices. The Auditors and Comptrollers, and the accountants under them, constitute the safeguard of the National Treasury, and have to withstand the whole army of claimants and their interested clamor. It is submitted, with their increased business and the change in the value of money, that the Auditors and Comptrollers do not receive an adequate compensation for the high qual. XIX ifications they ought to possess, and the onerous duties they have to discharge. "The system of accounting at the Treasury is easy of comprehension, and as well calculated to prevent frauds, correct errors, and secure a proper execution of the laws, as any that could be devised, and might be extended to all the operations of the Government, without inconvenience, and to the greater security of the National Treasury and National domain. There would seem to be no just reason why the fixed salaries of all the officers of Government should be passed upon by an Auditor and then by a Comptroller, before a warrant can be issued for payment; and that the Commissioner of Pensions and the Commissioner of Public Lands should have the right to pass upon the evidence, and grant pensions out of the Treasury, and bounty land warrants for so much of the public domain, without subjecting their action upon the evidence and the law to the examination and revision of a Comptroller. It may be that this want of revision has been the cause of many of the frauds practiced in obtaining pensions and bounty lauds. It is believed that the action of two Departments should be required, as in the Treas ury, in all cases where the National Treasury or public domain is to be reached or to be affected, and that no accounts, however created, should escape the usual and customary examination and re-examination." In a report made to the United States Senate in 1834 the Hon. Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury, said: "It is manifest that no effectual check can ever exist in any case where the same officer authorizes the expenditure and audits or controls the audit of accounts." (Senate Documents No. 6, page 5-2d session, 23d Cong.; 1 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., 2d ed., App., Ch. XII, 525.) The revision by a Comptroller of all accounts examined and adjusted by Auditors is certainly a great safeguard in the system of accounting. The accounts examined and settled by the [Sixth] Auditor of the Treas ury for the Post-Office Department are not subject to such revision, except on appeal (Rev. Stat., 270); in which respect the accounting system of the Treasury Department for the Post-Office Department is anomalous (McKnight's case, 13 Ct. Cl., 303). If these accounts had been subject to such revision, in the usual mode,* it may well be doubted whether payments of large amounts of money which were made for a time under the so-called "star-route contracts," upon the construction given, however honestly, to the statute regulating "increased" and "expedited" mail service, could ever have been made. Even subsequently to the act of April 7, 1880 (21 Stat., 71), the authority to allow vast sums of money for expedited service was maintained by the PostOffice Department, but was denied by the present Sixth Auditor, whose decision was affirmed when the question finally came before the First Comptroller on appeal. (Star-route case, 2 Lawrence, Compt. Dec., 446.) * At the first session of the Forty-seventh Congress the Hon. Stanton J. Peelle introduced a bill on this subject (see 13 Cong. Record, part 6, page 6376–July 22, 1-82); and at the first session of the Forty-eighth Congress the Hon. N. P. Hill, on April 18, 188, introduced a bill "to provide for the deposit in the Treasury of the receipts of the money-order system, and for the payment of its expenses ont of appropriations." |