REPORT OF FIRST COMPTROLLER OF THE TREASURY. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, SIR: In compliance with the request made in your letter of September 30, 1881, I have the honor to submit the following report of the transactions of this office during the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1881. The following-described Warrants were received, examined, countersigned, entered into blotters, and posted into ledgers under their proper heads of appropriations: Accounts have been received from the auditing offices, revised, recorded, and the balances thereon certified to the Register of the Treasury, as follow: Accounts for the construction of public buildings throughout the United States, and the buildings for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the National Museum, Washington, D. C.; for the United States Fish Commission; for the construction of the building for the State, War and Navy Departments; the completion of the Washington Monument, and the care of the public buildings and grounds under the Chief Engineer, U. S. A.; for annual repairs of the Capitol and improving the Capitol grounds; for Coast and Geodetic Surveys; and for beneficiary and charitable institutions in the District of Columbia. 4. Steamboats. Accounts for salaries and incidental expenses of inspectors of hulls and boilers....... Kind. 8. Congressional. Accounts for salaries of the officers and employés, and for contingent and other expenses of the United States Senate and House of Representatives 9. Outstanding Liabilities. Accounts arising from demands for payment of drafts and disbursing-officers' checks which have remained outstanding for three years, the funds from which they were payable having been covered into the Treasury 10. District of Columbia. Accounts of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia and general accounts between the United States and said District. 11. Public Printing. Accounts of the Public Printer for the salaries and wages of the employés of the Government Printing Office, for the purchase of materials for printing, and for contingent expenses of the Government Printing Office.. 12. Treasurer's General Accounts. Quarterly accounts of the Treasurer of the United States for receipts and expenditures, including receipts from all sources covered into the Treasury, and all payments made from the Treasury 13. Assistant Treasurers' Accounts. Accounts of the several assistant treasurers of the United States for the salaries of their employés and the incidental expenses of their offices.... 14. Miscellaneous. Such as accounts with the disbursing officers of the executive departments for salaries of officers and employés, and contingent expenses of the same; accounts for salaries of Senators and Representatives in Congress; for salaries of the judges of the United States Supreme Court, United States circuit and district judges, district attorneys, and marshals; for salaries and contingent expenses of the National Board of Health; and for the expenses of the tenth census Total from First Auditor........ FROM THE FIFTH AUDITOR. 15. Internal Revenue. Accounts of collectors of internal revenue Miscellaneous internal-revenue accounts, such as direct tax ac 16. Diplomatic and Consular. Accounts for the salaries of ministers, chargés d'affaires, consuls, commercial agents, interpreters, secretaries to legations, and marshals of consular courts, accounts for the relief and protection of American seamen, for expenses of prisons in China and Japan, for contingent expenses of legations and consulates, for salaries and expenses of legations and consulates, for salaries and expenses of mixed commissions, accounts of United States bankers in London, accounts of the disbursing clerk Department of State, for miscellaneous diplomatic expenses, &c.... 17. Transportation. Kind. Accounts for transportation of internal-revenue moneys to the sub-treasuries and designated depositaries, and for the transportation of stationery, &c., to internal revenue officers. Total from Fifth Auditor..... FROM THE COMMISSIONER OF THE GENERAL LAND OFFICE. 18. Public lands. Accounts of surveyors-general and the employés in their offices Accounts of deputy surveyors Accounts of receivers of public moneys Accounts for the refunding of purchase money paid for lands erroneously sold. Miscellaneous accounts, such as accounts with the several States for indemnity for swamp and overflowed lands erroneously sold, and for 2 per cent., 3 per cent., and 5 per cent., upon the proceeds of sales of public lands; accounts of surveyorsgeneral for the contingent expenses of their offices; accounts for the salaries and commissions of registers of local land offices not paid by the receivers; accounts with the Kansas, Denver, Central, Northern and Union Pacific Railroads, for the transportation of special agents of the General Land Office; accounts for printing and stationery furnished the several surveyors-general, registers and receivers; accounts of special agents of the Interior Department; accounts for the transportation of public moneys from the local land offices to designated depositaries; accounts for salaries and incidental expenses of agents employed to examine and verify public surveys; for the return of deposits in excess of the amount required for the survey of private land claims; for the transportation of stationery to the several district land offices, &c. Total from Commissioner of General Land Office RECAPITULATION. From Requisitions for the advance of money from the Treasury, in the number following, have been examined and advances thereon recommended: Suits, to the number following, have been instituted against defaulting officers: Internal-revenue collectors' tax-list receipts recorded, scheduled, and referred. Internal-revenue special-tax stamp books counted and certified. 1,535 258 5,043 10,656 Internal-revenue spirit-stamp books counted and certified...... 8,612 8,652 1,665 · 1,784 3,449 Copies of accounts made, compared, and transmitted : Internal revenue.. Public lands... The foregoing statement omits mention of a large amount of official work which does not admit of systematic classification and detailed report, and yet has occupied much time and care; such as, e. g., examination of, and decision upon, applications for the issuing of duplicate bonds and other securities in place of securities lost and destroyed; examination of powers of attorney for collection of money due to creditors of the United States; decisions upon the rights of persons claiming to be executors, administrators, or heirs of deceased claimants, to receive money due from the United States; examination, registry, and filing of official bonds; copying of letters forwarded; answering calls for information made by Congress, the departments, and private persons; receiving and examining emolument returns of officers of courts; investigation of legal points arising in the adjustment of accounts; and other work of a miscellaneous character. LAW CLERK AND STENOGRAPHER. In addition to the regular daily work, which is onerous and steadily increasing, the Comptroller is frequently required to decide upon the validity of claims for large amounts of public money. Many of these claims involve difficult questions of law, and the claimants have, in most cases, the best legal assistance they can procure. As to claims coming before the Comptroller, this office is not only in some sense a court of claims, but also a court from whose decisions there is no appeal as such-though subject to revision by Congress, and in certain cases by the judiciary. The head of the office discharges not only the duties of sole presiding judge, but also those of a solicitor for the government in the investigation of the claims; and he must be prepared to answer arguments of counsel for claimants. For these and other reasons stated in my last annual report, it is essential to the interests of the government that authority should be given to the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint a competent law clerk, and also a stenographer, for this office. It is physically impossible for any one man, in the position of Comptroller, to give to the multitude of important questions constantly arising before him such investigation and sustained attention, unaided by law clerk or stenographer, as they should receive before determination. There is no office under the government in which so many important decisions on questions involving immense demands against the National Treasury are made as in that of the First Comptroller. The officer who is daily called upon to make such decisions should, in justice alike to the government, to those preferring the demands, and to himself be furnished with all the assistance and facilities which are reasonably necessary in order to the prompt and efficient discharge of so momentous a duty; and it is respectfully urged that for these reasons the services of |