staff departments for an indefinite period, tended to get out of touch with the needs and problems of the actual fighting forces. The second group, into which the administrative agencies within the War Department may be divided, embraces those services performing duties of a civil or semi-military character. The Corps of Engineers, while constituting one of the staff departments, was charged with certain duties which were not strictly a part of military administration, namely, the construction of fortifications, internal improvements, and the supervision of the military academy. To insure the proper execution of the first two of these activities, administrative boards composed largely of officers of the Engineer Corps were set up by departmental order. The appointment of a permanent superintendent for the military academy, first authorized by administrative regulation, was later given statutory sanction, while a Board of Visitors, entirely removed from the Engineer Corps, was set up by statute to examine the conduct of that institution. Another semi-military activity was added to the work of the War Department by the act establishing a military asylum, designated later as the Soldiers' Home. Army officers were assigned to superintend this institution, and a board composed of the heads of several of the staff departments was vested with authority to supervise its conduct. The permanent organization of the Pension Office and the Bureau of Indian Affairs by statutory enactment merely gave a more definite status to administrative agencies previously set up in the department by administrative regulation. The frequency with which Congress exercised its authority to legislate upon the subject of the staff departments, and the rather extensive use of administrative boards and commissions in a supervisory capacity, may be said to characterize the organization of the War Department during the period prior to 1860. The entire business of the department was conducted under the immediate direction of the Secretary of War, either upon the authority of direct legislative grant, or as the representative of the President.

CHAPTER VI

THE DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Organization, 1789. The act of September 2, 1789, establishing the Treasury Department, provided for the following officers; namely, “a Secretary of the Treasury, to be deemed the head of the department; a Comptroller, an Auditor, a Treasurer, a Register, and an assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury; which assistant shall be appointed by the Secretary." Two important differences are to be observed in the organization of the Treasury Department, as provided for by congressional enactment, when compared with the organization of the two departments previously created. In the first place, the Treasury Department was placed in an especially intimate relationship to Congress, largely independent of the President, by prescribing that a request for financial information be made directly to the Secretary of that department, without reference to the Chief Executive. The obvious intention on the part of Congress to keep in close touch with the administration of finance, however, was partially thwarted, first by the failure of the House of Representatives to entertain oral reports from the Secretary of the Treasury, and, later, by the vigorous assertion on the part of President Jackson of the President's authority over the heads of departments, through the exercise of the removal power.

The second difference to be noted in the act organizing the Treasury Department, is the detailed character of its provisions with respect to the appointment and duties of subordinate officers. Although the Secretary was designated as the head of the department, all of the subordinate officers, with the exception of the assistant to the Secretary, were to be appointed by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, and were specifically charged with the performance of certain duties, without expressly being made subject to the direction and supervision of the Secretary. The system of financial administration thus devised abounded

1
1I Stat. L., 65.

in checks and safeguards, and although clumsy, has proved a perfect protection against payments from the treasury not authorized by law, or to persons other than the proper recipients.

In making a study of the development of administrative organization within the Treasury Department during the period prior to 1860 it seems desirable to treat separately the subdivisions of the department pertaining directly to fiscal affairs and those concerned with other matters of administration which have no special relation to finance or to each other. Mention has already been made of the establishment, by the act creating the department, of the offices of comptroller, auditor, register, and treasurer. An act approved on September 11, 1789, fixed the salaries of those officers, as well as those of the Secretary and his assistant, and authorized the appointment of a principal clerk in the offices of the comptroller, the auditor, and the treasurer. The Secretary was further authorized to appoint as many clerks as he deemed necessary to perform the work of the department.'

Accountant of the War Department; Commissioner of the Revenue. An important feature of the act of 1789 establishing the Treasury Department was that it provided for the settlement of all public accounts, both primarily and finally, in that department. Somewhat in derogation of this original plan, however, the act of May 8, 1792, “making alterations in the Treasury and War Departments," created the office of "Accountant of the Department of War." Thereafter, disbursements from the Treasury of appropriations for the War Department were to be made, not by warrants of the Secretary of the Treasury countersigned by the comptroller, as directed by act of 1789, but by warrants of the Secretary of War and countersigned by the Accountant of the War Department. The latter officer was required to report his settlement of accounts, however, for the inspection and revision of the comptroller.

Numerous other changes and innovations in the organization and work of the Treasury Department were effected by this act. The office of assistant to the Secretary was abolished, and in its stead the office of "Commissioner of the Revenue" was created, who was charged with the collection of revenues from internal duties

'I Stat. L., 67.

and direct taxes, and the execution of such other services as should be directed by the Secretary. The latter was authorized to superintend the collection of duties on imports and tonnage, to prescribe the form of keeping and rendering all public accounts, and to make or direct the making of all purchases and contracts for army supplies. He was empowered to appoint "two principal clerks to aid him in discharging the duties of his office.

Purveyor of Public Supplies; Accountant of the Navy Department. In accordance with the provision of the above act for the purchase of supplies for the War Department by or under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, and upon the recommendation of the President, the office of "Purveyor of Public Supplies" in the Treasury Department was established by act of February 23, 1795. This officer was charged with the duty of procuring military supplies under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury. The office of "Accountant of the Navy Department" was created by act of July 16, 1798, with organization and duties similar to the corresponding office in the War Department. This act further provided that thereafter all purchases and contracts for supplies for the War and Navy departments should be made under the direction of the heads of those departments, and the accounts for the same to be settled by the departmental accountants, subject to the revision of the treasury officers. The Purveyor of Public Supplies was directed to execute orders from the Secretaries of War and Navy relative to the procuring of supplies and to render his accounts to the departmental accountants. The office of Purveyor was abolished by act of March 28, 1812.* Office of the Commissioner of Revenue Abolished; Commissioner of Claims. The successive enactment and repeal of internal duties and direct taxes, for the superintendence of the collection of which the office of Commissioner of the Revenue was created, led to the abolition of that office by act of April 6, 1802,

I Stat. L., 279. The duties of the Secretary with respect to the superintendence of the collection of duties on imports and tonnage were conferred upon the Comptroller of the Treasury by departmental circular issued on October 25, 1792. Cf. Mayo, The treasury department and its various fiscal bureaus, 7, 59 (1847).

I Stat. L., 419; 610; 2 Stat. L., 696, 697. Cf. American State Papers, Mil. Affairs, I, 61; Ibid., Misc., I, 46.

its re-establishment by act of July 24, 1813, and again its abolition by the President under authority of an act approved on December 23, 1817. The office of Commissioner of Claims was created by act of April 9, 1816, to settle claims arising from the loss of property, either captured or destroyed by the enemy, while in the military service of the United States. The life of this office was limited to two years; at the expiration of which term its duties. were transferred, by act of April 20, 1818, to the office of the Third Auditor. An act passed on the same day authorized the appointment of a chief clerk in the Treasury Department."

7

General Reorganization under Secretary Crawford. William H. Crawford was appointed Secretary of the Treasury by President Madison on October 22, 1816, and he continued as the head of that department under President Monroe, being recommissioned on March 5, 1817. "He [Crawford] signalized his administration," says Thorpe "by introducing some important improvements in the routine of the department arising out of the creation of a second comptroller and four additional auditors." In response to a Senate resolution of April 20, 1816, requiring the secretaries of the four executive departments to report jointly a plan to insure the annual settlement of public accounts and a more certain accountability of the public expenditures, the heads of the departments recommended that the primary and final settlement of all accounts be made in the Treasury Department, as was at first contemplated in the organization of that department. For the performance of this work, they proposed that the organization of the department be modified so as to authorize the appointment of four additional auditors, an additional comptroller, and a solicitor. Their plan called for the abolition of the offices of Accountant of the War and Navy departments, and the distribution of their duties among the Second, Third, and Fourth Auditors. They further recommended that the distribution of duties among the auditors and comptrollers be left to executive regulation, in order that any changes which experience proved to be necessary, might be made with facility."

'2 Stat. L., 149; 3 Stat. L., 39; 401, 402.

3 Stat. L., 261, 263; 445; 466.

'Thorpe, The United States treasury department, Harper's Magazine, XLIV, 493 (March, 1872).

'American State Papers, Misc., II, 396-99.