DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, January 21, 1850. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 31st ultimo, and referred by you to this department, requesting the President of the United States to communicate certain information in reference to the appointment of a civil and military governor for the Territory of California, and the organization of a government for said Territory. In answer thereto, I herewith transmit all the information in this department called for by said resolution. I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, To the PRESIDENT. Secretary of the Treasury. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, April 2, 1849. SIR: This will be handed to you by the Hon. T. Butler King, if there should be in his opinion occasion for so doing. The object of this letter is to impress upon you the desire of the President that you should, in all matters connected with Mr. King's mission, aid and assist him in carrying out the views of the government as expressed in his instructions from the Department of State, and that you should be guided by his advice and counsel in the conduct of all proper measures within the scope of those instructions. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, JAMES COLLIER, Esq., Secretary of the Treasury. Collector of the Customs, San Francisco. WASHINGTON CITY, March 29, 1849. SIR Myself and associate will build ten fire-proof stores at San Francisco, California; rent them for a period of fifteen years, at an annual rent of seven thousand dollars per store, payable quarterly. The stores to be four stories high, twenty-five feet wide, and one hundred long, to be built entirely of brick and iron, and in the strongest and most approved manner; the stores to be received as finished; and all to be completed within two years from the date of the contract. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, DANL. SAFFARRANS. Hon. W. M. MEREDITH, Secretary of the Treasury. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, April 3, 1849. SIR: In view of your departure for California, to enter upon your duties, in pursuance of your commission as collector of the customs for the district of Upper California and inspector of the revenue for the port of San Francisco, it is deemed expedient and proper to furnish you with the following preliminary instructions for your information and government: When you shall have executed your official bond as collector, and the same shall have been accepted and approved by the First Comptroller of the Treasury, your compensation, as fixed by the fourth section of the act of 3d of March, 1849, entitled "An act to extend the revenue laws of the United States over the territory and waters of Upper California, and to create a collection district therein," will commence on the date of the approval of your bond. Your compensation, as provided by the act referred to, is "fifteen hundred dollars per annum, and the fees and commissions allowed by law." The official fees are enumerated in the second section of the compensation act of 2d March, 1799-see Compilation of Revenue Laws, by Gordon, page 136-and those specified in the thirty fourth section of the coasting act of the 20th February, 1793-same book, page 39. You will also be entitled to receive a commission of three per centum, as authorized by the second section of the compensation act before mentoned, on all moneys received on account of duties accruing on all goods, ares, and merchandise imported into the district of Upper California, and doly accounted for by authorized disbursements or deposites; and out of the emoluments that would accrue to you as aforesaid in your capacity of collector, you cannot be allowed to retain more than at the maximum rate of three thousand dollars per annum, to be computed from the begining of your official year, as prescribed by the tenth section of the act further to establish the compensation of officers of the customs," &c., approved 7th May, 1822; nor out of the emoluments that shall accrue to you for services performed in other capacities than collector, can you rereire more than at the maximum rate of four hundred dollars per annum. The compensations of the deputy collectors authorized by the act in queson to be stationed at the ports of delivery-to wit: San Diego, Monterey, and at a point to be selected by the department near the junction of the vers Gila and Colorado, at the head of the gulf of California-are fixed by the act at one thousand dollars each per annum, "and the fees and commissions allowed by law." As vessels and cargoes arriving from foreign ports cannot, under existing provisions of law, enter and land cargo and pay or secure the duties at ny other place than at a port of entry, and the ports before designated being ports of delivery merely, no duties can legally be paid or secured at ther of said ports. All vessels from foreign ports must enter and the duties be paid or secured at San Francisco, the port of entry for the district. On this being done, the vessel may proceed with her cargo, or any portion thereof, and land the same at either of the ports of delivery mentioned, on due compliance being had with the requirements of law, as prescribed in the general collection act of 2d March, 1799. The fees ccruing to the deputy collectors for services enjoined by law upon them such cases will be found specified in the compensation acts before mentioned. As no moneys can, for the reasons before stated, be received by these deputies on account of duties on imported merchandise, no comissions can accrue to them in the capacity of deputy collectors. Comsions, however, may accrue to them, at the rate of two and a half per rentur, as agents for the disbursements of moneys placed in their hands the relief of sick and disabled seamen, under the marine hospital laws, as also for disbursements for light house establishments, should it be found necessary hereafter to constitute them such agents. These officers are by law made subject to your control and direction, and should be required to report to you in regard to their official acts, and make such periodical statements and returus as may be found necessary. You will, from time to time, furnish them with funds to pay their salaries, and such public expenses incurred at their ports as may be authorized by law and the instructions. of the department, they accounting to you for all moneys thus placed in their hands. Upon the execution and approval of the bonds, in the penal sum prescribed by the Solicitor of the Treasury, given under the independent treasury act, approved the 6th of August, 1846, you become authorized to discharge the duties of a designated depositary of public moneys under said act. This service being incidental to your office as collector of the customs and revenue, no compensation can legally be allowed for services performed in that capacity. Should you propose to appoint the deputy collectors for the ports of delivery enumerated in the act before reaching your collection district, they should be submitted for the approval of the department, in pursuance of the seventh section of the act of 3d March, 1817. (See Compilation of Revenue Laws, page 226.) When the approval is given, they may qualify by taking the oath of office; and their compensations will commence with the date of their oaths respectively. In pursuance of the same act, you are authorized to appoint, subject to approval as aforesaid, a deputy collector and inspector, to aid you in the discharge of your official duties at the port of San Francisco, who will be allowed the maximum pay of an inspector of the customs-viz: at a rate not to exceed three dollars per day. Upon entering on the discharge of your duties at San Francisco, should it become necessary to employ subordinate officers of the customs, you may, in pursuance of the 2d section of the compensation act of 2 March, 1799, as modified by the act of 26th April, 1816, employ such temporary or occasional inspectors as may be found indispensably necessary for the protection and security of the revenue, to be paid, when actually employed, a sum not exceeding three dollars per day each. Should the employment of permanent subordinate officers of the customs be deemed necessary, you will, in pursuance of the 21st section of the general collection act of 2d March, 1799, nominate, for the approval of the department, competent and trustworthy persons to perform the respective duties men tioned in said section, or such of them as may be needed-taking care to furnish reasons to show the necessity for their employment, and stating the rate of compensation proposed to be allowed, which in no case can, for inspectors of the customs, exceed three dollars per day. These officers cannot be employed or paid until the approval of the department is received; but occasional or temporary inspectors may be employed and paid at the commencement of your duties, as before intimated, without awaiting such approval. As authorized by the 21st section of the act of 2d March, 1799, you are authorized to provide at the port of San Francisco, at the public expense, storehouse accommodations for the safe-keeping of goods, &c., in which building the collector's office may be held. In providing such public store, it is expected that you will exercise proper economy, and pay no higher rent than the rate usual at the port for similar accommodations. 1 1 You will take care to advise the department on this subject, and state the rate of rent proposed to be allowed. Should it become necessary to proride stores for warehousing foreign imported goods under bonds, under the warehousing act of 6th August, 1846, you will be governed by the instructions and regulations issued by the departinent under said act, which have been supplied you. Copies of the laws, with proper forms and instructions, in reference to the safe keeping and rendition of your accounts, together with the periodical returns to be made, and instructions to govern you in the assessments and collection of duties, have been furnished you. The First Comptroller has been instructed to furnish you with the necessary articles appertain ing to the custom-house, for the use of the collector's office at San Franso, and also for the offices of the deputies at their respective ports. It being ascertained that expenses will be necessarily incurred in your 2 district before funds are likely to come into your hands from duties, it is deemed proper, to prevent delay and embarrassment on this account, to rance to you out of the revenue, to be carried with you to your destinaon, a sum of money deemed to be adequate to defray such expenses. The First Comptroller has accordingly been directed to furnish you, by an ader on the collector of New York, with the sum of six thousand dollars, gether with the additional sum of five hundred dollars to defray your n actual travelling expenses incurred in proceeding hence to San Fran With these sums you will be duly charged and held accountable, and Till receive due credits in the settlement of your official accounts for such Sursements, properly vouched, as may be made in pursuance of law and structions. No travelling expenses can be allowed to your deputies or y other subordinate officers who may accompany you to California. uld it become necessary, in the enforcement of the revenue laws, to 2 for additional aid and assistance beyond that afforded by the regular offers of the customs, you are authorized by law to employ the revenue er C. W. Lawrence, assigned to that station, as provided in the 99th secof the general collection act of 2d March, 1799, to which your attenis specially called. It is proper to advise you that you can only receive, in payment of du. coins of the United States, and such foreign coins as are recognised their values established by acts of Congress. la conclusion, I would add that, in view of the great distance of your et from the seat of government, and the consequent infrequency and ertainty of regular communications, much must be left to your good dment and discretion, which the department confidently expects will, ith the limits of law, be judiciously exercised. You will be expected to furnish returns and other official statements ith the utmost punctuality practicable, and will communicate by letter h the department as often as opportunities shall occur, offering such gestions for its consideration as the interests of the revenue and the eral condition of things in your district may, in your opinion, render edrent. JUES COLLIER, Esq., W. M. MEREDITH, Secretary of the Treasury. Collector of the Customs for port of San Francisco, WASHINGTON, April 3, 1849. SIR: I respectfully nominate William Prentiss to be an inspector of the customs for the district of Upper California. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Collector of the Customs for district of Upper California. Hon. Wм. M. MEREDITH, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, April 4, 1849. SIR: Your nomination, under date the 3d inst., of William Prentiss to be an inspector of the customs for the district of California, is approved. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, J. COLLIER, Esq., W. M. MEREDITH, Secretary of the Treasury. Collector, &c., for Upper California. WASHINGTON, April 3, 1849. SIR: I respectfully nominate for the district of Upper California: Alexander Irvin, of Pennsylvania, to be deputy collector at Monterey. Williamson Ferrel, of South Carolina, to be deputy collector at San Diego. Alexander Bradford, of Mississippi, to be deputy collector at the point near the junction of the Gila and Colorado hereafter to be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury. Edwin D. Collier, to be deputy collector at San Francisco. Also, John Caperton, Thomas Harvey, Augustus Richards, Amos Adams, and John A. Collier, to be inspectors of the customs, to be stationed as the public interests may require. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Collector for district of Upper California. Hon. Wм. M. MEREDITH, TREASURY DEPARTMENT, April 3, 1849. SIR: The following nominations made by you for the district of Upper California, under date of to-day, are approved, viz: Alexander Irvin, to be deputy collector at Monterey. Williamson Ferrel, to be deputy collector at San Diego. Alexander Bradford, to be deputy collector at junction of Gila and Colorado. Edwin D. Collier, to be deputy collector at San Francisco. |