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CHAPTER X.

FIFTH AUDITOR OF THE TREASURY.

THE ORIGIN, FUNCTIONS, AND OPERATIONS, OF THE FIFTH AUDITOR'S OFFICE.

Summary of the Laws relating thereto.

The act of the 3d of March, 1817, "to provide for the prompt settlement of Public Accounts," having abolished certain accounting offices, and made certain other modifications in the pre-existing laws relating to the Treasury Department, as already stated in several preceding chapters, and having established four Auditors and one Comptroller, in addition to the Auditor and Comptroller then existing, and having proceeded, in the 4th section, to define the respective duties of the said five Auditors, as already stated of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Auditors, in the chapters on their respective offices, the said 4th section concludes with a like general definition of the functions of the Fifth Auditor, saying: "And it shall be the duty of the Fifth Auditor to receive all accounts accruing in, or relative to the Department of State, the General Post Office, and those arising out of Indian affairs, and examine the same, and thereafter certify the balances, and transmit the accounts, with the vouchers and the certificate, to the First Comptroller, for his decision thereon." And by the 12th section of the said act, the Fifth Auditor, in common with the other Auditors, is empowered "to administer oaths or affirmations to witnesses in any case in which he may deem it necessary for the due examination of accounts." And the said Auditor is subject, equally with the First Auditor, by consequence of his official relation to the First Comptroller, to be directed by him to settle and report forthwith, any account devolving on him to adjust, if further delay thereof be, in the opinion of the Comptroller, prejudicial to the public interest, (so, in like manner, are the Second, Third, and Fourth Auditors amenable to the like order of the Second Comptroller, as shown in the chapters on the Comptrollers' offices, respectively.)

But in process of time, the two largest of the aforesaid three divisions of accounts were withdrawn from the Fifth Auditor, that is to say, by the supplementary act of the 24th February, 1819, the accounts arising out of Indian affairs (except those relating to Indian trade, which were afterwards abolished) were transferred to the Second Auditor; and, by the act of the 2d July, 1836, "reorganizing the Post Office Department," by which the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department was established, the accounts relative to the General Post Office were transferred to him; thus leaving to the charge of the Fifth Auditor, the accounts accruing in, and relative to the Department of State, only, consisting of diplomatic, consular, and bankers' accounts. A few other inconsiderable accounts, however, which are but fragments of the accounts of the State Department, the Post Office, and the Patent Office, still continue to be transmitted to his office for settlement, without any known or intelligible reason, whilst the principal of those accounts are settled by the First Auditor; if, indeed, the continuance of the First Auditor to settle the said salary accounts of the General Post Office does not impugn that provision of the Post Office act, which makes it the duty of the Auditor for that department to receive all accounts arising therein, or relative thereto, and to audit and settle the same, &c. In fine, there surely must have been a sufficient reason, in the absence of legal provision, for assigning the salary accounts of all the civil Departments, and the contingent accounts of most of them, to the First Auditor; but at the same time that reason would seem to be much impaired by the omission to give the same destination to the like contingent accounts of the State Department, the Post Office, and the Patent Office, as also the revenue accounts of the latter office, thereby conforming with the plain rules of analogy, as well as relieving the inconvenience occasionally felt in the First and Fifth Auditors' offices, to discern the exact line of demarkation between their respective spheres of accounting. So that the office of the Fifth Auditor, as an accounting office, has been in a state of progressive dilapidation almost from the date of its establishment, and would hardly have sufficient employment on the diplomatic accounts alone to keep it in motion, if the others had followed the destination of their kindred accounts. But even under these trivial accessions, the whole of the small budget of accounts which now devolve on the Fifth Auditor, make a meager display of business, inasmuch as, from the intrinsic nature of those accounts, they are virtually settled before they come into his office, especially when compared with the complicated accounts of the military, naval, Indian, and other Departments.

"But," says the Fifth Auditor, in his communication to the Secretary of the Treasury, of the 15th October, 1841, "in place of the accounts, [enumerating them,] which ceased and were transferred, a much more important and responsible duty was assigned to me on the 1st January, 1820, by the Secretary of the Treasury, under [or in consequence of] the law of the 23d December, 1817, for abolishing the office of Commissioner of the Revenue

which was, the care and superintendence of the light-house establishment;" adding, that "the constant attention to all the objects embraced in it, and the voluminous correspondence called for by them, leaves me but little time to bestow upon the details of the accounting branches of the office." Thus, it is manifest, that as an Auditor's office, it is nearly extinct in practice. But as "superintendent of light-houses," &c., it is recognized and established by the proviso of that portion of the civil appropriation act of the 3d March, 1845, relating to the "light-house establishment," saying, that "the Fifth Auditor of the Treasury shall continue to superintend the several matters and things connected with the light-houses, beacons, buoys, and public piers [erroneously included] as heretofore, of the United States, and to perform all the duties connected therewith, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, until otherwise ordered by law." In regard, then, to the "superintendence of the lighthouse establishments," which seem now to be the main stay of the Fifth Auditor's office, it is certainly not an auditorship, no more than it was a commissionership of revenue, when it was assigned as an additional duty to the Commissioner of the Revenue, formerly. It has been seen in the outline of organization of the Treasury Department, table I, that the office of "Commissioner of the Revenue," was created by the act of the 8th May, 1792, was abolished by the act of the 6th April, 1802, was re-established by the act of the 24th July, 1813, and was again abolished by the act of the 23d December, 1817-thus vacillating with the enactment and repeal of internal duties and direct taxes, for the superintendence of the collection of which, the office was established; and for want of some convenient disposition of the "superintendence of the light-house establishment," Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to assign to the said commissioner, such other duties as he might deem proper; and he accordingly assigned to him "the care and supervision of the light-house establishments." But, when the office of Commissioner of the Revenue was finally abolished, on account of the repeal of both those branches of the internal revenue, (direct taxes and internal duties,) the superintendence of which in fact constituted the real character and denomination of the office, the supervision of the light-house establishments, was assigned to the Fifth Auditor two years thereafter, by the Secretary of the Treasury, say on the 1st January, 1820. Now it may be asked, did the assignment to the Fifth Auditor's office of a merely contingent or additional duty, which indeed had been superadded to the duties of the commissioner of internal duties and direct taxes, with which it had not the remotest connection or affinity, confer on the Fifth Auditor's office the additional incongruous title of "Acting Commissioner of the Revenue," though in fact he has nothing to do with the collection of the balances outstanding of the old internal revenue? Yet such is the light in which that assignment of light-house affairs is viewed by the Auditor, who accordingly adopts the additional title of "Acting Commissioner of the Revenue," in his printed list of light-houses of the United States. Wherefore, it would appear, that this officer enjoys three titles, viz: "Fifth Auditor," "Acting Commissioner of the Revenue," and "Superintendent of Light-houses," &c., the two latter emanating from one and the same function. There might also be included in this enumeration of titles, that of "Agent (or Law Officer) of the Treasury," for the prosecution of claims in behalf of the United States, which office was transferred from the First Comptroller to the Fifth Auditor by direction of the President, in July, 1820, shortly after it was created, and which the Auditor exercised, until the act of the 30th May, 1830, created the office of Solicitor of the Treasury, to whom the duties exercised by the agent of the Treasury were then transferred by said act. For a further account of this subject, see the chapter on the Solicitor's office.

Summary and Classification of Duties.

The functions of this office, as now exercised by the Fifth Auditor, consist in a cursory examination, and report to the First Comptroller, of the quarterly statements of revenue received on account of patent fees, by the Commissioner of Patents-the settlement of certain quarterly accounts of incidental and contingent expenses of the Department of State, the General Post Office, and the Patent Office, and making reports thereof respectively to the First Comptroller; and the settlement of the diplomatic accounts, and other accounts connected with our foreign intercourse, and making reports thereof respectively to the First Comptroller.

The Fifth Auditor also acts as Superintendent of the Light-house establishments of the United States, and of all matters connected therewith, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, according to the assignment of said duties to him by letter of the Secretary dated the 1st January, 1820, and the proviso appended to the last item of appropriation for the "light-house establishment," in the civil appropriation act of the 3d March, 1845, making said duties permanent until otherwise ordered by law. Those duties consist mainly in making estimates for appropriations in support of the light-house establishments; in conducting a correspondence with collectors as superintendents of the same in their respective districts, in regard to all matters connected therewith, including the making of contracts and agreements respecting supplies, construction and repairs, and the approval thereof, (by himself,) the inspection of said supplies, and of works that may be in progress, according to said contracts, under special inspectors in constant attendance; and also in receiving the collectors' (or superintendents') quarterly accounts of claims arising under said contracts or otherwise in their respective superintendencies, and making administrative examination of the same and transmitting them to the First Auditor for settlement; also in making requisitions on the Secretary of the Treasury for his warrants in favor of such collectors respectively, except in certain cases where the collectors have sufficient funds in their hands accruing out of the customs,

when he directs them to apply the amount required, and charge it in their accounts current of the customs, which are rendered quarterly to the First Auditor for settlement. The Fifth Auditor also keeps the books and files, proper both to the light-house business, and the accounting branch of his office.

The functions here sketched, and more particularly enumerated in the subjoined Tables of Details, seem to be susceptible of arrangement or distribution into sub-bureaus or classes, as follows, viz:

1. BUREAU RELATING TO THE REVENUE RECEIPTS FROM PATENT FEES-Embracing a settlement of the quarterly accounts of receipts by the Commissioner of Patents, making a report of each account, with the vouchers, to the First Comptroller for his decision thereon-and keeping the books or records appertaining thereto. See Tables of Details, (A) 1. a single account, with items I to 7: (E) Books, 1. 1. 2. 2. BUREAU RELATING TO CERTAIN Incidental and CONTINGENT DISBURSEMENTS-Embracing a settlement of the quarterly accounts of the incidental and contingent expenses of the Department of State, the General Post Office, and the Patent Office-the making a report of each account and vouchers to the First Comptroller for his decision thereon-and keeping the records relating thereto. See Tables of -Details, (B) State Department, (▲) I. one account, with items 1 to 6: 11. one account, with items 1 to 5: (B) Ill. (Patent Office) one account, with items 1 to 5: (c) IV. (Post Office) one account, with items 1. 2. 3: (D) Reports, X. 1: (E) Books, 1. 1. 2.

3. BUREAU RELATING TO DISBURSEMENTS ON ACCOUNT OF FOREIGN INTERCOURSE-Embracing the settlement of the accounts of the diplomatic corps, consuls, and bankers, of expenditures made under direction of the President, accounts and claims for indemnities under treaty stipulations, and settling national boundries under like stipulations, together with accounts of expenditures incurred for American seamen in foreign ports-the making a report of each account, with the vouchers, to the First Comptroller for his decision thereon-and keeping the books of record relating thereto. See Tables of Details, (B) V. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6: Vl. (one account, with items 1 to 4:) VII. (sundry accounts) 1. 2. 3. 4: VIII. (sundry accounts) 1. 2. 3. 4: (D) Reports, X. 1: (E) Books, 1. 1. 2.

4. BUREAU RELATING TO THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF LIGHT-HOUSE ESTABLISHMENTS-Embracing the clerical execution of the matters appertaining to the summary hereof given above, and the details of the same given below, in which no settlements of accounts are involved, the Fifth Auditor not acting here, in the capacity of Auditor. See Tables of Details, (C) Light-house concerns, IX. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10: (D) Reports, X. 2. 3. 4: (E) Books, II. 1. 2. 3. 4.

TABLES OF DETAILS.

[The scanty and light routine of accounting in the Fifth Auditor's office having been sufficiently illustrated in the foregoing summaries, it is obvious, without further remark, that his duties as Auditor are little more than nominal, which, indeed, is, in effect, so avowed in his own words quoted above. And yet, if those accounts which properly appertain to the First and Sixth Auditors had their due course, there would remain for his auditing, only the accounts arising out of our diplomatic intercourse, enumerated in table marked (B), classes V, VI, VII, VIII. And as to the process of examining and adjusting the accounts reported from the Fifth Auditor's office to the First Comptroller, the actual burden would be greatly overrated by a reference to the analogous process already given in detailing those operations of “dissection” and “re-examination” in the other accounting bureaus, whilst the correspondence in relation to them is yet proportionably lighter. And the light-house business, which comprises the principal duties of the office, shows no great pressure, judging from a practice (peculiar to this office) of transcribing or recording in extenso the light-house accounts, which are not settled here, but transmitted to the First Auditor for settlement, and are finally filed in the Register's office. A reorganization, erecting it into an office of "Commissioner of the Light-house Establishments," to embrace also the auditing connected therewith, and excluding all other auditing, would obviate all these irregularities and incongruities.]

(A)—REVENUE RECEIPTS, ON ACCOUNT OF PATENTS.

I. The Fifth Auditor receives and audits a Quarterly Account (69) of REVENUE received by the Commissioner of Patents, in fees for patents issued for useful inventions, and fees for other matters connected therewith, consisting of the following items, viz:

1. Receipts on account of fees for original patents granted to American citizens, at $30 each.

2. Receipts on account of fees for original patents granted to British subjects, at $500 each.

(69) It may not be unworthy of remark here, that this account is not an account current, as that of collectors of the customs, receivers of land sales, and postmasters, showing the receipts and expenditures of office, the expenditures of the Commissioner of Patents on account of the Patent Office being made by his requisitions on the Secretary of the Treasury for his warrants on the Treasurer from time to time, for the amounts necessary to meet such expenditures, though paid from the identical fund arising out of these receipts.

3. Receipts on account of fees for original patents granted to all other foreigners, at $300 each.

4. Receipts on account of caveats entered for inventions not perfected, at $20 each, (which makes part of the fee for the patent when desired to be issued.)

5. Receipts on account of the renewal or extension of patents for an additional term of seven years, at $40

each.

6. Receipts on account of annexing an improvement to the specification of a patent, at $15 each.

7. Receipts on account of office copies of records, papers, and drawings, &c., as evidence in courts of the United States, at ten cents the hundred words, &c., &c.

(B)—DISBURSEMENTS, ON VARIOUS ACCOUNTS, EXCLUSIVE OF LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENTS.

(A)-Department of State.

I. The Fifth Auditor receives and audits a Quarterly Account Current of the Disbursing Agent of the Department of State, for the Contingent Expenses of said Department, consisting of the following items, viz:

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II. The Fifth Auditor receives and audits a Quarterly Account Current of the Disbursing Agent of the Department of State, for the expenses of taking the Census every tenth year, consisting of the following items, viz:

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4. Disbursements for extra clerk hire, in revising and correcting marshals' returns, &c.,

5. Disbursements on account of printing and distributing the census,

(B)-Patent Office.

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III. The Fifth Auditor receives and audits a Quarterly Account Current of the Commissioner of Patents, of money advanced to, and disbursed by him, for the incidental and contingent expenses of the Patent Office, consisting of the following items, viz:

1. Disbursements for restoring records and drawings destroyed by the conflagration of the office in 1836, $

2. Disbursements for constructing and restoring models destroyed by the said conflagration,

3. Disbursements for scientific books for the Patent Office library,

4. Disbursements for procuring materials for agricultural statistics,

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5. Disbursements for the contingent expenses of the office, including extra clerk hire, office furniture, stationery, fuel, labor, &c.,

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(c)-Post Office Department.

IV. The Fifth Auditor receives and audits a Quarterly Account Current of the Disbursing Agent of the Post Office Department, for the Contingent Expenses of said Department, consisting of the following items, viz:

1. Disbursements on account of extra clerk hire,

2. Disbursements for the purchase of books for the library of the Post Office Department,

3. Disbursements for office furniture, fuel, labor, &c.,

(D)—Diplomatic Corps, Consuls, Foreign Intercourse, Indemnities.

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V. The Fifth Auditor receives and audits the Quarterly Accounts of the Diplomatic Corps of the United States, and of certain Consuls who receive fixed salaries; also, accounts of Bankers in foreign countries, and of the Disbursing Agent of the Department of State for disbursements on account of said Corps, as follows, viz:

1. Accounts of (seven) ministers plenipotentiary and envoys extraordinary to foreign courts for outfits, salaries, and contingent expenses, including expenses of returning home, and salaries of secretaries of legation.

2. Accounts of (fourteen) chargés des affaires to foreign courts for their outfits, salaries, and contingent expenses, including expenses of returning home.

3. Accounts of salary or compensation to minister resident at Turkey, and of dragoman to Turkish legation; salary to commissioner resident at China, and to commissioner at the Sandwich Islands.

4. Accounts of consuls at London, Paris, (70) and at the Barbary States, for their respective salaries, including presents authorized to be made by the latter to those States to propitiate their cruisers against depredations on our commerce in the Mediterranean and elsewhere.

5. Accounts current of advances to, and advances by, United States bankers in London (or elsewhere) for the payments they may be authorized to make to our ministers abroad for the regular compensations of their office, including contingent expenses, and expenses of returning home; also payments on account of consuls' salaries and Barbary presents; accompanied, respectively, with notarial vouchers to drafts made by those officers on said bankers.

6. Accounts of disbursements by the disbursing agent of the Department of State for contingent expenses of all foreign missions incurred in the United States; for boxes, trunks, &c., &c., before departure on

mission.

VI. The Fifth Auditor receives and audits a Quarterly Account Current of Advances to, and Disbursements by the Disbursing Agent of the Department of State, BY ORDER OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, on account of contingent expenses of "Foreign Intercourse," (called secret service money,) consisting, generally, of the following items, viz:

1. Disbursements for pay and expenses of bearers of despatches,

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2. Disbursements on account of postages accruing out of foreign intercourse,

3. Disbursements for occasional incidents of foreign intercourse, (not specified,)

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4. Disbursements for various contingent expenditures on account of foreign intercourse, (not specified,) $· VII. The Fifth Auditor receives and audits the Claims of individuals, under awards made by Commissioners to settle Indemnities due to citizens of the United States, under Treaties or Conventions with foreign nations for Spoliations committed by their subjects or citizens, of which the following are the principal recent instances, viz:

1. Claims of American citizens, by award of commissioners under treaty of indemnity, by France.

(70) The salary of our consul at Paris has been recently abolished by Congress, though our commerce with England greatly exceeds our commerce with France, making the difference in emoluments from fees, on which the consul at Paris now depends, greatly in favor of the consul at London, independent of his salary; while the expenses of living in Paris cannot be much less than that of living in London.

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