Ten Years in Washington: or, Inside Life and Scenes in Our National Capital as a Woman Sees Them ... to Which Is Added a Full Account of the Life and Death of President James A. GarfieldClemmer, Mary
History
Ten Years in Washington: or, Inside Life and Scenes in Our National Capital as a Woman Sees Them ... to Which Is Added a Full Account of the Life and Death of President James A. Garfield
Clemmer, Mary
Washington (D.C.) -- Description and travel; Washington (D.C.) -- History
The Division of Appointments; having charge of all matters pertaining to
the force of the department, the preparing, recording, etc., of
Presidential appointments under the Interior Department.
The Superintendent of the building; having charge of all repairs, the
oversight of the laboring force, heating apparatus, etc.
The head of the Department is the Secretary of the Interior. His
subordinates are the Commissioners of the Public Lands, Patents, Indian
Affairs, and Pensions, and the Superintendent of the Census. The
Secretary is charged with the general supervision of matters relating to
the public lands, the pensions granted by the Government, the management
of the Indian tribes, the granting patents, the management of the
Agricultural Bureau, of the lead and other mines of the United States,
the affairs of the Penitentiary of the District of Columbia, the
overland-_routes_ to the Pacific, including the great Pacific Railways,
the taking of the Census, and the direction of the acts of the
Commissioner of Public Buildings, the Insane Hospital for the District
of Columbia, and the Army and Navy, is also under his control.
The first Secretary of the Interior was Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, appointed
by President Taylor; and Columbus Delano, of Ohio, is the present
Secretary.
The General Land-Office was established as a branch of the Treasury
Department by act of Congress, approved April 25, 1812, which authorized
the appointment of a Commissioner, at a salary of $3,000 per annum, and
the employment of a Chief Clerk, and such other clerks as might be
necessary to perform the work, at an annual compensation not to exceed,
in the whole, $7,000.
By the act of July 4, 1836, the office was reorganized and the force
increased. The number of clerks now employed is one hundred and
fifty-four; and even this force is not sufficient to meet the
requirements of a constantly growing business. Upon the creation of the
Interior Department, in 1849, the Land-Office was placed under its
jurisdiction.
The Commissioner of the General Land-Office is charged with the duty of
supervising the surveys of private land claims, and also the survey and
sale of the public lands of the United States. At present this
supervision extends to seventeen surveying districts and ninety-two
local land-offices.
The following table exhibits the progress of surveys and the disposal of
public lands since the fiscal year, ending June 30, 1861:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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