ments, by the President and Senate; holds his office for four years, unless sooner removed; is a member of the Cabinet; and receives $8,000 a year as salary. Connected with him, as aids in the discharge of his duties, are an Assistant Secretary, a Comptroller, and Second Comptroller, five Auditors, Treasurer, and his assistant, a Register and his assistant, a Commissioner of Customs, a Comptroller of the Currency, and a deputy and a Solicitor of the Treasury; all these officials are appointed by the President and Senate. 4. These, with several hundred clerks, constitute the officials and machinery by which this great department of the Government is operated. It would be quite too tedious, and of doubtful utility, to describe the particular duties of each of these officials. Suffice it, therefore, to say, that each one has his specific duties to perform, without any interference with others; and perhaps the world could not show another establishment, where such a vast amount of business is transacted with more order, skill and accuracy than at this office. 5. Here the accounts of all receivers and disbursers of government money, are presented and settled; after having been examined and approved by several of the above named officials, who are charged with this duty. 6. The Commissioner of Customs attends to the accounts of Collectors of duties imposed on imported goods. The First Comptroller must collect debts due to the United States, and superintend the adjustment and preservation of the public accounts. The First Auditor receives all accounts coming into the department; the Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Auditors each examine the accounts of such department as is assigned to them respectively. It is not necessary to go further in detailing the particular duties of the officers of this department. We have only noticed a few of them, merely as examples of the system of conducting the business of this great branch of the Government. 7. Let it not be understood that all the monies collected and disbursed by the United States are received and paid out at the Treasury building at Washington, which is only the principal office at the seat of Government, for in addition to this there are Sub-Treasuries in several of the large cities, where the public monies are received and disbursed. The head officers of these Sub-Treasuries, are termed Assistant Treasu rers. The law also makes the Treasurer of the Mint at Philadelphia, and the Treasurers of some of the branch mints, Assistant Treasurers, for they have public monies in their keeping, and if so ordered by the Treasury Department at Washington, they disburse it as directed. The same orders are sometimes given to collectors, post-masters, receiver of the land offices, &c., and they disburse as well as receive government funds; but the accounts of all these must be sent to, and settled in the office of the Secretary of the Treasury. 8. Any one would readily suppose that men intrusted with the receipt and disbursement of such large sums of the people's money, should give security for their fidelity to their trusts. This the law requires, and this they must do before they enter upon their respective duties. But in spite of all precautions, dishonest men get into those places; and public defaulters are not rare specimens of humanity, among office holders. 9. The following are the names of all who have been Secretaries of the Treasury, from 1789 down to the present time, with the date of their appointment, and the States in which they lived: SECRETARIES OF THE TREASURY. Alexander Hamilton, N. Y., Sept. 12, 1789. George W. Campbell, Tenn., Feb. 9, 1814. Salmon P. Chase, O., Mar. 5, 1861. William P. Fessenden, Me., July, 1864. Hugh Mc Culloch, Ind., the present incumbent. CHAPTER VIII. The War Department, and Secretary of War. 1. The name of this department sufficiently indicates the design and object of its creation, and the kind of public business committed to its care and management. The Secretary of War is the head of it, its principal officer. He is one of the great officers of State and a member of the Cabinet. He, like all the heads of departments, is appointed by the President and Senate. Four years is the time for which he is appointed, but, with the consent of the Senate, he may be sooner removed by the President, if he sees fit to do so. He receives $8,000 per annum as his salary. In military authority he ranks next to the President. 2. As stated in another place, the Constitution makes no specific provision for this or any other of the departments into which the government is divided. They are all the creations of Congress, and exist by enactments of law. The War Department, with several others, was created at the first session of the first Congress, which met after the Government went into operation under the Constitution, in 1789. 3. We can convey no better idea of the object of establishing this department and the officer at its head, than by quoting the first section of the act by which they were created: "There shall be an Executive Department, to be denominated the Department of War; and there shall be a principal officer therein, to be called the Secretary for the Department of War, who shall perform and execute such duties as shall from time to time be enjoined on or entrusted to him by the President of the United States, agreeably to the Constitution, relative to military commissions or to the land forces, ships, or warlike stores of the United States; or to such other matters respecting military affairs as the President of the United States shall assign to the said department; and furthermore, the said principal officer shall conduct the business of the said department in such manner as the President of the United States shall from time to time order or instruct." 4. According to the act by which this department was established, a Chief Clerk, appointed by the Secretary, was the second officer in authority in it, and acted in his stead in case of vacancy in the Secretaryship. But in 1861 Congress passed an act authorizing the President to appoint an Assistant Secretary of War; and in 1862 another act was passed, authorizing the appointment of two additional Assistants. This, however, was intended as a temporary arrangement, to last only during the existence of the lamentable civil war which was at that time in progress, and which necessarily greatly increased the business of the department. 5. The Secretary of War has in his keeping all books, records, and papers, relating to military affairs. Here are to be found the names of all officers and men whether in the regular army or in the volunteer service. Connected with the War Department, are a number of sub |