session and until the first day of the second session, the certificates for the monthly compensation of Members and Delegates in Congress, which certificates shall be in the form now in use, and shall have the like force and effect as it is given to the certificate of the Speaker." NOTE. For the laws as to the conclusiveness of payments from the contingent funds of Senate and House, read act of October 2, 1888, 25 Stat., 546.

SEC. 59. The bonds given pursuant to the two preceding sections Now filed with Secretary of the (bonds of Secretary of the Senate, Clerk of the House of Representa- Treasury. tives) shall be deposited in the office of the First Comptroller of the Treasury.

SEC. 178. In case of the death, resignation, absence of the chief of Vacancies, how temporarily any bureau, or of any officer thereof, whose appointment is not vested filled. in the head of the department, the assistant or deputy of such chief or of such officer, or if there be none, then the chief clerk of such bureau, shall, unless otherwise directed by the President, as provided by section one hundred and seventy-nine, perform the duties of such chief or of such officer until a successor is appointed or such absence or sickness shall cease.

by

sec. 9 of the

SEC. 191. The balance which may from time to time be stated by the Repealed Auditor and certified to the heads of departments by the Commissioner Dockery Act. of Customs or the Comptroller of the Treasury upon the settlement of public accounts shall not be subject to be changed or modified by the heads of departments, but shall be conclusive upon the executive branch of the Government and be subject to revision only by Congress or the proper court. The head of the department before signing a warrant for any balance certified to him by a comptroller may, however, submit to such Comptroller any facts in his judgment affecting the correctness of such balance, but the decision of the Comptroller thereon shall be final and conclusive as hereinbefore provided.

SEC. 225 (as amended in 1877). The Secretary of War is authorized to detail one or more of the employees of the War Department for the purpose of administering the oaths required by law in the settlement of officers' accounts for clothing, camp and garrison equipage, quartermasters' stores, and ordnance, which oaths shall be administered without expense to the parties taking them. In settling the accounts of the commanding officer of a company for clothing and other military supplies, the affidavit of any such officer may be received to show the loss of vouchers or company books, or any matter or circumstance tending to prove that any apparent deficiency was occasioned by unavoidable accident or lost in actual service, without any fault on his part, or that the whole or any part of such clothing and supplies had been properly and legally used and appropriated; and such affidavit may be considered as evidence to establish the facts set forth, with or without other evidence, as may seem to the Secretary of War just and proper under the circumstances of the case.

Power to administer oaths.

3, 1817.

SEC. 236. All claims and demands whatever by the United States Taken from or against them, and all accounts whatever in which the United States the act of Mar. are concerned, either as debtors or as creditors, shall be settled and adjusted in the Department of the Treasury.

SEC. 243. No person appointed to the office of Secretary of the Treasury, or First Comptroller, or First Auditor, Treasurer, or Register, shall directly or indirectly be concerned or interested in carrying on the business of trade or commerce, or be owner in whole or in part of any sea

Limitation on holding office.

Limitation on holding office.

ery Act.

vessel, or purchase by himself, or another in trust for him, any public lands or other public property or be concerned in the purchase or disposal of any public securities of any State, or of the United States, or take or apply to his own use any emolument or gain for negotiating or transacting any business in the Treasury Department, other than what shall be allowed by law; * *

*

SEC. 244. Every clerk employed in the Treasury Department who carries on any trade or business in the funds or debts of the United States, or of any State, or in any kind of public property, or who takes or applies to his own use any emolument or gain for negotiating or transacting any business in the Department shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished by a fine of five hundred dollars and removal from office.

Repealed by SEC. 250. The Secretary of the Treasury shall cause all accounts of sec. 12 of Dock- the expenditures of public money to be settled within each fiscal year, except where the distance of the places where such expenditure occurs may be such as to make further time necessary; and in respect to expenditures at such places the Secretary of the Treasury, with the assent of the President, shall establish fixed periods at which a settlement shall be required.

Reports of Au

ditors for War

SEC. 260. The Secretary of the Treasury shall lay before Congress at and Navy De- the commencement of each regular session, accompanying his annual partment. statement of the public expenditure, the reports which may be made to him by the Auditor charged with the examination of the accounts of the Department of War and the Department of the Navy, respectively, showing the application of the money appropriated for those departments for the preceding year.

Offices abolished by Dockery Act. Comptroller

SEC. 268. There shall be in the Department of the Treasury a First First Comptroller and a Second Comptroller, each of whom shall be appointed known as Comp- by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, troller of the and shall be entitled to a salary of five thousand dollars a year. Treasury. SEC. 269. It shall be the duty of the First Comptroller:

Repealed by Dockery Act.

First. To examine all accounts settled by the Fifth Auditor, and by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and to certify the balances arising thereon to the Register.

Second. To superintend the adjustment and preservation of the public accounts subject to his revision.

Third. To countersign all warrants drawn by the Secretary of the Treasury which shall be warranted by law.

Fourth. To superintend the recovery of all debts certified by him to be due to the United States, and for that purpose to direct all such suits and legal proceedings, and to take such measures as may be authorized by law and are adapted to enfore prompt payment thereof. Repealed by SEC. 270. Whenever the Postmaster General or any person whose Dockery Act. accounts have been settled by the Sixth Auditor is dissatisfied with the settlement made by the auditor, he may within twelve months appeal to the First Comptroller, whose decision shall be conclusive. Amended by SEC. 271. The First Comptroller in every case where, in his opinion, 6 of the Dockery Act for further delays would be injurious to the United States shall direct the First and Fifth Auditors of the Treasury forthwith to audit and settle any particular account which such officers may be authorized to audit and settle, and to report such settlement for revision and final decision by the First Comptroller.

sec.

amendment.

sec. 12 of the

SEC. 272. The First Comptroller shall make an annual report to Repealed by Congress of such officers as shall have failed to make settlement of their Dockery Act. accounts for the fiscal year within the year or within such further time as may have been prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury for such settlement.

Repealed

SEC. 273. It shall be the duty of the Second Comptroller: First. To examine all accounts settled by the Second, Third, and Dockery Act. Fourth Auditors and certify the balances arising thereon to the Secretary of the department in which the expenditure has been incurred. Second. To countersign all warrants drawn by the Secretaries of War and of the Navy which shall be warranted by law.

Third. To report to the Secretaries of War and of the Navy the official forms to be issued in the different offices for disbursing the public money in those departments and the manner and form of keeping and stating the accounts of the persons employed therein.

Fourth. To superintend the preservation of the public accounts subject to his revision.

by

ferred to Comp

Treasury.

of the

SEC. 274. The Second Comptroller may prescribe rules to govern the Duties transpayment of arrears of pay due to any petty officer, seaman, or other troller person not an officer on board any vessel in the employ of the United States, which has been sunk or destroyed, in case of the death of such petty officer, seaman, or person to the person designated by law to receive the same.

SEC. 275. The Second Comptroller may detail one clerk to sign in the place of the comptroller all certificates and papers issued under any provision of law relating to bounties; but the comptroller shall be responsible for the official acts of such clerk.

Repealed Dockery Act.

by

by

sec. 3 of the

SEC. 276. There shall be connected with the Department of the Modified Treasury six auditors of accounts, who shall be appointed by the Dockery Act. President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall be known as the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Auditors, respectively. Each auditor is entitled to a salary of four thousand dollars a year.

SEC. 277. The duties of the auditors shall be as follows:

First. The First Auditor shall receive and examine all accounts accruing in the Treasury Department, all accounts relating to the receipts from customs, including accounts of collectors and other officers of the customs, all accounts accruing on account of salaries in the Patent Office, all accounts of the judges, marshals, clerks, and other officers of all the courts of the United States, all accounts of the officer in charge of the public buildings in the District of Columbia, all accounts of the expenditures of the Department of Agriculture, all accounts relating to prisoners convicted in any court of the United States; and, after examination of such accounts relating to the receipts from customs, including the accounts of collectors and other officers of the customs, he shall certify the balance and transmit the same, with the vouchers and certificates, to the Commissioner of Customs for his decision thereon, and he shall certify the balances of all other accounts, and transmit the same, in like manner, to the First Comptroller for his decision thereon.

Second. The Second Auditor shall receive and examine all accounts relating to the pay and clothing of the Army, the subsistence of officers, bounties, and premiums, military and hospital stores, and the contingent expenses of the War Department, all accounts relating to

Modified Dockery Act.

by

Duties of Auditor War Department pre

Indian affairs, and to agents of lead and other mines of the United States; and, after examination of such accounts, he shall certify the balances, and transmit such accounts, with the vouchers and certificates, to the Second Comptroller for his decision thereon.

Third. The Third Auditor shall receive and examine all accounts relative to the subsistence of the Army, the Quartermaster's Department, and generally all accounts of the War Department other than those provided for; all accounts relating to pensions for the Army, and all accounts for compensation for the loss of horses and equipments of officers and enlisted men in the military service of the United States, and for the loss of horses and equipments, or of steamboats, and all other means of transportation, in the service of the United States by contract or impressment; and, after the examination of such accounts, he shall certify the balances and shall transmit such accounts, with all the vouchers and papers and the certificates, to the Second Comptroller for his decision thereon.

Fourth. The President may assign to either the Second or the Third Auditor the settlement of the accounts in the War Department existing at the conclusion of the war of eighteen hundred and twelve.

Fifth. The Fourth Auditor shall receive and examine all accounts accruing in the Navy Department or relative thereto, and all accounts relating to Navy pensions; and, after examination of such accounts he shall certify the balances, and shall transmit such accounts, with the vouchers and certificates, to the Second Comptroller for his decision thereon.

Sixth. The Fifth Auditor shall receive and examine all accounts accruing in or relative to the Department of State, all accounts of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, all accounts relating to the contingent expenses of the Patent Office, and all accounts relating to the

census.

Seventh. The Sixth Auditor shall receive all accounts arising in the Post Office Department, or relative thereto, with the vouchers necessary to a correct adjustment thereof, and shall audit and settle the same and certify the balances thereon to the Postmaster General. He shall keep and preserve all accounts and vouchers after settlement. He shall close the account of the Department quarterly, and transmit to the Secretary of the Treasury quarterly statements of its receipts and expenditures. He shall report to the Postmaster General, when required to do so, the manner and form of keeping and stating the accounts of the Department, and the official forms of papers to be used in connection with its receipts and expenditures. He shall report to the Postmaster General all delinquencies of postmasters in rendering their accounts and returns, or in paying over money-order funds and other receipts at their offices. He shall register, charge, and countersign all warrants upon the Treasury for receipts or payments issued by the Postmaster General, when warranted by law. He shall perform such other duties in relation to the financial concerns of the Department as may be assigned to him by the Secretary of the Treasury, and make to the Secretary or to the Postmaster General such reports respecting the same as either of them may require.

SEC. 278. The Second Auditor shall audit and settle the accounts of line officers of the Army, to the extent of the pay due them for their scribed by the services as such, notwithstanding the inability of any such line officer Dockery Act. to account for property intrusted to his possession, or to make his

monthly reports or returns, if such Auditor shall be satisfied by the affidavit of the officer or otherwise that the inability was caused by the officer's having been a prisoner in the hands of the enemy, or by any accident or casualty of war.

SEC. 279. The Second Auditor may detail one clerk to sign in the place of the Auditor, all certificates and papers issued under any provisions of law relating to bounties; but the Auditor shall be responsible for the official acts of such clerk.

See note to

sec. 278, R. S.

act of Mar. 3,

SEC. 280. Any moneys paid by a paymaster in the Army to an Taken from enlisted man as an advance bounty shall be allowed in the settlement 1863. of the accounts of the paymaster, notwithstanding the discharge of such enlisted man before serving the time required by law to entitle him to payment of such moneys.

from

act of Mar. 16,

SEC. 281. The proper accounting officers are authorized, in the settle- Taken ment of the accounts of the paymaster of the Army, to allow such credits 1868. for overpayments made in good faith on public account, since the fourteenth day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and before the sixteenth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, as shall appear to them, by such vouchers and testimony as they shall require, to be just.

resolution 42.

SEC. 282. In all cases where it has become necessary for any officer Taken from or enlisted man of the Army to file his evidence of honorable discharge of May 4, 1870. from the military service of the United States, to secure the settlement of his accounts, the accounting officer with whom it has been filed shall, upon application by said officer or enlisted man, deliver to him such evidence of honorable discharge; but his accounts shall first be duly settled, and thẻ fact, date, and amount of such settlement shall be clearly written across the face of such evidence of honorable discharge and attested by the signature of the accounting officer before it is delivered.

SEC. 283. The Auditors charged with the examination of the accounts of the Departments of War and of the Navy, shall keep all accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the public money in regard to those departments and of all debts due to the United States on moneys advanced relative to those departments; shall receive from the Second Comptroller the accounts which shall have been finally adjusted, and shall preserve such accounts, with their vouchers and certificates, and record all requisitions drawn by the Secretaries of those departments, the examination of the accounts of which has been assigned to them. They shall annually, on the first Monday in November, severally report to the Secretary of the Treasury the application of the money appropriated for the Department of War and the Department of the Navy, and they shall make such reports on the business assigned to them as the Secretaries of those departments may deem necessary and require.

Amended by sec. 10 of Dockery Act.

SEC. 284. In every case of the loss or capture of a vessel belonging. "Paymaster " inserted in lieu to the Navy of the United States, the proper accounting officers of the "purser" by act Treasury, under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy, are author- of Feb. 18, 1875. ized, in the settlement of the accounts of the (paymaster) (purser) of such vessel, to credit him with such portion of the amount of the provisions, clothing, stores, and money, with which he stands charged on the books of the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury, as they shall be satisfied was inevitably lost by such capture or loss of a public vessel; and such purser shall be fully exonerated by such credit from all