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with and directs the solicitor of the treasury as to suits in which the United States are concerned, pending in the inferior courts of the United States, and he directs and prosecutes appeals to the Supreme Court of the United States, in suits involving title to land in the new territories acquired by the United States.

§ 497. He also examines the title to all lands purchased by the United States for the purpose of erecting thereon armories, arsenals, forts, navy-yards, custom-houses, lighthouses, or other public buildings; and without his certificate of the validity of the title, no public money can be expended in such purchases. It is not his duty to give official opinions to the Senate or House of Representatives. His salary is $8000,

§ 498. The act above referred to, does not declare what effect shall be attributed to the advice and opinion of the Attorney-General when given to the President, or the head of a department; but it is believed that the practice of the government has almost invariably been to follow it.

§ 499. The following is a list of the Attorneys-General of the United States:

EDMUND RANDOLPH, of Virginia. Appointed 26th September, 1789. Appointed Secretary of State 2d January, 1794.

WILLIAM BRADFORD, of Pennsylvania. Appointed 28th January, 1794.

CHARLES LEE, of Virginia. Appointed 10th December, 1795. LEVI LINCOLN, of Massachusetts. Appointed 5th March, 1801. signed in 1805.

Appointed 2d March, 1805.

ROBERT SMITH, of Maryland.
JOHN BRECKENRIDGE, of Kentucky.
CESAR A. RODNEY, of Delaware.
Resigned.

WILLIAM PINKNEY, of Maryland.
RICHARD RUSH, of Pennsylvania.
WILLIAM WIRT, of Virginia.

Re

Appointed 23d December, 1805.
Appointed 20th January, 1807

Appointed 11th December, 1811. Appointed 10th February, 1814. Appointed 13th November, 1817, in

recess of the Senate. Nomination confirmed and appointed 15th December, 1817.

JOHN MACPHERSON BERRIEN, of Georgia. Appointed 9th March, 1829. Resigned.

Roger B. Taney, of Maryland. Appointed 20th July, 1831, in the recess of the Senate. Nomination confirmed and appointed 27th December, 1831.

BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, of New York. Appointed 15th November, 1833, in the recess of the Senate. Nomination confirmed and appointed 24th June, 1834. Resigned.

FELIX GRUNDY, of Tennessee. Appointed 7th July, 1838. Resigned. HENRY D. GILPIN, of Pennsylvania. Appointed 10th January, 1840. JOHN J. CRITTENDEN, of Kentucky. Appointed 5th March, 1841. Resigned.

HUGH S. LEGARE, of South Carolina. Appointed 13th September, 1841. JOHN NELSON, of Maryland. Appointed 1st July, 1843, in the recess of the Senate. Nomination confirmed and appointed 2d January, 1844. Resigned.

JOHN Y. MASON, of Virginia. Appointed 5th March, 1845. Resigned Appointed Secretary of the Navy 9th September, 1846.

NATHAN CLIFFORD, of Maine. Appointed 17th October, 1846, in the recess of the Senate. Nomination confirmed and appointed 23d December, 1846.

ISAAC TOUCEY, of Connecticut. Appointed 21st June, 1848.

REVERDY JOHNSON, of Maryland.

Resigned.

JOHN J. CRITTENDEN, of Kentucky.
CALEB CUSHING, of Massachusetts.

Appointed 7th March, 1849.

Appointed 20th July, 1850.
Appointed March 7, 1853.

§ 500. These departments employ a large number of clerks. By an act of March 3, 1791, every clerk and other officer appointed in any of the departments, before entering on the duties of the appointment, must take an oath or affirmation before one of the justices of the Supreme Court, or one of the judges of a district court of the United States, to support the Constitution of the United States, and well and faithfully to execute the trust committed to him.

§ 501. By an act passed March 3, 1853, and its supple

ments, the clerks in the Departments of the Treasury, War, Navy, the Interior, and the Post-Office, were arranged in four classes. The clerks in class number one receive an annual salary of $1200 each; those in class number two, $1400 each; those in class number three, $1600 each; those in class number four, $1800 each.

§ 502. No clerk can be appointed into either of the four classes until after he has been examined and found quali fied, by a board to consist of three examiners, one of them to be the chief of the bureau or office into which he is to be appointed, and the two others to be selected by the head of the department to which the clerk is to be assigned. The same act distributed a certain number of clerks, of the different classes, among the various departments, as the whole permanent clerical force of such departments.

§ 503. Various laws have been passed by Congress for the purpose of securing, as far as possible, honesty and integrity in the persons connected with these departments of the government. Any officer of the United States, or person holding any place of trust or profit under or in connection with any executive department of the government, or under the Senate or House of Representatives, or any senator or representative, who shall act as agent or attorney for prosecuting any claim against the United States, or aid or assist in the prosecution of any claim, o receive any share of a claim for having aided in its prosecution, is, by an act of February 26, 1853, made liable to indictment, and upon conviction may be sentenced to pay a fine not exceeding $5000, or suffer imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding one year, or both, as the court in its discretion shall adjudge.

§ 504. The same act prohibits bribery, or the undue influencing of members of Congress, or any person hold

ing any office of trust or profit in connection with any department of the government, or under the Senate and House of Representatives. The person giving and the person receiving the bribe, are each liable to indictment as for a high crime and misdemeanor, and upon conviction may be punished by fine or imprisonment; and the person receiving, if an officer, is also forever disqualified from holding any office of honour, trust, or profit under the United States.

§ 505. An act of Congress, passed August 23, 1842, declares that no officer in any branch of the public service, or any other person whose salary, pay, or emoluments is, or are, fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay or extra allowance or compensation whatever, for any other service or duty, unless the same shall be authorized by law, and the appropriation explicitly set forth that it is for such additional pay, extra allowance, or compen sation.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE JUDICIAL POWER.

ARTICLE III.

ARTICLE I. as we have seen, treats of the legislative department, and Article II. of the executive department. We now enter upon Article III., which treats of the judicial department.

"Article III. SECTION. 1. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office."

§ 506. Prior to the adoption of the present constitution, the people of the United States, had not any national tribunal to which they could resort for justice. The administration of justice was confined to the State courts, in which the people of other States had no participation, and over which they had no control. There was then no general court of appellate jurisdiction, by which the errors of State courts, affecting either the nation at large or the citizens of any other State, could be revised and corrected.

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