CHAPTER XIV. THE FIFTH AUDITOR OF THE TREASURY. 630. This officer was originally provided for by the act of March 3, 1817, already referred to. 631. His duties are to receive and examine all accounts accruing in or relative to the Department of State, all accounts involved in the collection of internal revenue, all accounts relating to the contingent expenses of the Patent Office, and all accounts relating to the census. (R. S., § 277.) 632. Whenever any sum of money shall be issued from the Treasury for the purpose of intercourse or treaty with any foreign nation pursuant to law, the President is authorized to cause the same to be duly settled annually with the proper accounting officers of the Treasury, by causing the same to be accounted for specifically, if the expenditure may in his judgment be made public; and by making or causing the Secretary of State to make a certificate of the amount of such expenditure as he may deem it advisable not to specify; and every such certificate shall be deemed a sufficient voucher for the sum therein expressed to have been expended. (R. S., § 291.) 633. This office is also provided by law with a Deputy Auditor, who performs such duties as are assigned him by his superior, and acts in the place of the latter in case of sickness, absence, or of a vacancy. The statutes also provide for the appointment of two chiefs of divisions. 634. One of these chiefs is assigned to the charge of the Diplomatic and Consular Division, wherein are adjusted all accounts for salaries, contingent expenses of diplomatic and consular officers, together with those for fees received by the latter. 635. The other chief is in charge of the Division of Internal Revenue, embracing the adjustment of all internal-revenue accounts. 636. The business of the office pertains mainly to the adjustment of the following-named accounts: Accounts for salaries and contingencies of United States ministers abroad, chargés d'affaires, secretaries of legation, interpreters, dispatch agents, &c. . Accounts for salaries, emoluments, and contingencies of United States consuls, consular agents, commercial agents, consular clerks, &c., and for fees received by consuls for which they are required to account. These accounts embrace also their expenditures for the relief of United States seamen in foreign ports, and for their passage home when destitute; as likewise all amounts received from masters of vessels for three months' extra wages of seamen discharged in foreign ports. Accounts of the Disbursing Clerk of the Department of State for expenses of editing, publishing, and distributing the United States statutes; for stationery, furniture, books, maps, lithographing, postage of the State Department, contingent expenses of foreign missions, expenses of rescuing shipwrecked United States seamen, &c. Accounts approved by the Secretary of State for expenses under sundry appropriations, such as those for surveys of boundaries between the United States and the British possessions; for salaries and expenses of Claims Commissions, adjusting controversies between our citizens and subjects of foreign powers; for extradition of criminals; for interpreters for consular courts; for marshals for consular courts of Japan, China, Siam, and Turkey; for rent of prisons for United States convicts in those countries; for interpreters, guards, and other expenses of consulates at Constantinople, Smyrna, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Beiroot, in the Turkish dominions. Accounts of the Disbursing Clerk of the Department of the Interior for the expenses of taking the census; for contingent expenses of the Patent Office, and for plates, lithographing, drawings, tracings, &c., in that office; for expenses of distributing public documents; for preservation of collections in the Smithsonian Institution, &c. Accounts of Disbursing Clerk of the Post Office Department for contingent expenses of that department.. Accounts for salaries and miscellaneous expenses of the office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, embracing attorneys' fees, rewards, travelling expenses, stationery, rent, telegrams, &c. Accounts of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for internal-revenue stamps of the several classes of stamps for distilled spirits, tobacco, snuff, and cigars; for special-tax stamps, beer stamps, documentary and proprietary stamps. Accounts of collectors of internal revenue for collections and disbursements. Accounts of stamp agents authorized to sell stamps. Accounts for refunding taxes illegally assessed, and moneys received on lands sold for direct taxes. Accounts for the engraving and printing of internalrevenue stamps and for stamp paper. Accounts for salaries and expenses of internal-revenue agents, surveyors of distilleries, fees and expenses of gaug ers, &c. Accounts of the Secretary of the Treasury for awards to informers out of fines, penalties, and forfeitures collected. Accounts for the expenses of the detection and prosecution of fraud upon the internal revenue, &c. CHAPTER XV. THE SIXTH AUDITOR. 637. Previous to the revision of the United States statutes, the duties of this position devolved upon an officer known by the awkward title of the Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department. The Revisers sought to harmonize the statutes, as regards the auditing officers, by naming them in a regular sequence; and accordingly they denominated this one the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury. In a subsequent act (that of March 3, 1875,-an appropriation act) Congress seems to have overlooked the fact of the change of name of the officer, then recently made, by the Revised Statutes; for it used in that act the old name in designating the office appropriated for. The Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Department is in reality the Sixth Auditor of the Treasury. 638. This office was originally created by act of Congress of July 2, 1836. Previously the duties had devolved upon the Fifth Auditor, in addition to his other duties connected with the settlement of different accounts. 639. The duties of the Sixth Auditor bear relation both to the Treasury and Post Office Departments. He is an officer of the Treasury, and under the direct control of the Secretary; but, at the same time, he is also by law subject in certain respects to instructions which may be given by the Postmaster-General. He is to report to the latter when required, and to certify to him all official balances found on settlements of official accounts. He is substantially an officer of both departments. (7 Opin., 445.) 640. He is assisted by a deputy, who acts in his place in case of absence and sickness. The law authorizes eight heads of division. The office is formed into eight divisions, as follow: 1. Examining Division. 2. Registering Division. 7. Pay Division. 8. Money-Order Division. 641. The duties of the head of the office, as specified by statute, are as follow: He is required to receive all accounts arising in the Post Office Department or relative thereto, with the vouchers necessary to a correct adjustment thereof, and to audit and settle the same, and to certify the balances to the Postmaster-General; also to keep and preserve all accounts and vouchers after settlement. He is required to close the account of the department quarterly, and to transmit to the Secretary of the Treasury quarterly a statement of its receipts and expenditures. He is required to report to the Postmaster-General, when the latter desires, 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 is required also to 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, and likewise to notify him of the discovery of deficiencies in such accounts. It is made his duty to register, charge, and countersign all warrants upon the Treasury for receipts or payments, issued by the Post |