The Footprints of Time: And a Complete Analysis of Our American System of Government, with a Concise History of the Original Colonies and of the United States, in Chronological OrderBancroft, Charles
History
The Footprints of Time: And a Complete Analysis of Our American System of Government, with a Concise History of the Original Colonies and of the United States, in Chronological Order
Bancroft, Charles
United States -- History; United States -- Politics and government
He is aided in his duties by an Assistant Secretary, a Comptroller and
Second Comptroller, five Auditors, a Treasurer and his assistant, a
Register and his assistant, a Commissioner of Customs, a Comptroller
of the Currency and his deputy, and a Solicitor of the Treasury. All
these have their offices in connection with the Treasury Department at
Washington. In several of the large cities are sub-treasuries, each
presided over by an assistant Treasurer, where public funds are received
and disbursed. The Treasurers of the Mints are also, many of them,
Assistant Treasurers of this Department. All these are appointed by the
President and Senate in the same manner as the Chief Secretary.
4. The sums of money actually handled, and the accounts of all moneys
received and disbursed without passing into the vaults of the Treasury,
amount to many hundreds of millions annually, and require the constant
service of some hundreds of clerks. These all need to have clean hands
and pure hearts, which is, unfortunately, more rare among men of all
classes than could be wished. Yet the whole is reduced to so accurate a
system that a loss at any point immediately produces a disturbance in the
whole machinery, and a short examination suffices to reveal the point of
difficulty and the person responsible for it. Accordingly, losses and
defalcations are seldom experienced in or near the central point of the
Department. If they occur, which is sometimes the case, it is usually
some officer at a distance who is found to be at fault, whose sphere
of operations lies far from the centre and only occasionally passes
under scrutiny. Each has his separate sphere of duties which no one else
interferes with, and assumes his own responsibility; and probably no
other institution in the world loses less in proportion to the amount of
money involved and the number of persons handling it.
5. Every account must be carefully examined and approved by the proper
officer before it can be presented for settlement and the money paid out,
and whatever moneys may flow in, none can flow out but according to some
law of Congress definitely appropriating it.
All officers having the handling of public funds are required to give
security for the faithful discharge of their duties. This must, by the
requirement of the law, be done before they can enter their respective
places.
SECRETARIES OF THE TREASURY.
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