X Table of Cases and Subjects in their respective Order. OATH-DRAFTING: In the matter of the right of commissioners of circuit courts to receive compensation from the United States for (1) administering oaths to supervisors of election and special deputy marshals for the purpose of verifying their salary accounts, (2) administering oaths of office to such supervisors and deputies, (3) certifying all such oaths, and (4) drafting such oaths of office... TELEGRAPH COMPANIES: In the matter of the right of telegraph companies to payment for telegraphic services rendered for the Government in a fiscal year in which the postmaster-general does not fix the rate of compensation until September 4. PHELPS, STOKES & CO.'s: In the matter of the right of persons, who invested their own capital in buying and selling for profit corporate bonds and stocks, to a refund of taxes, assessed under section 3408 of the Revised Statutes, on capital so employed HYDROMETER: In the matter of the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury to detail a clerk in the Treasury Department to inspect hydrometers at distilleries. WASHINGTON MONUMENT: In the matter of the right of employés to compensation for the 21st day of February, 1885, in case the Government Printing Office is closed by virtue of the executive order of February 18, 1885...... ASSISTANT-ATTORNEY'S PER DIEM: .... In the matter of the right of a United States district attorney, who is not in attendance on a court of the United States, to per diem compensation for the attendance of his assistant NAVY-LONGEVITY: In the matter of the availability of appropriations for "pay of the navy" to pay so-called navy-longevity claims...... NEW YORK CENTRAL AND HUDSON RIVER RAILROAD Co's: In the matter of the obligation of a judgment against a collector of internal revenue, purporting to be for taxes by him illegally collected; and of the effect on such judgment of a statute changing the rate of interest pending suit BENEFICIARY: In the matter of the power of beneficiaries of the estate of a decedent, other than the legal representatives thereof, to authorize an attorney to receive a Treasury draft issued to make payment of a claim in favor of such estate and against the United States..... ELECTIVE FRANCHISE: In the matter of the construction of su dry sections of the Revised Statutes and other acts of Congress relating to the elective franchise and the qualifications, powers, and compensation of officers and persons exercising rights and performing duties under them CREECY'S: In the matter of the right of an attorney, employed, under a power of attorney, by his client to prosecute a claim against the United States, to receive the Treasury draft issued to make payment thereof, when such client dies before the delivery of his draft Page. 99 111 120 123 129 131 132 137 154 155 197 OSAGE LAND: In the matter of the repeal of the provision of the act of August 5, 1882, relative to the payment of expenses incident to the disposition of Osage trust and diminished reserve lands and Osage ceded lands in Kansas.... UNITED STATES v. JORDAN MEIGS'S RES ADJUDICATA: In the matter of the pendency of a claim, both before the accounting officers of the Treasury Department and the Court of Claims at the same time, and of the effect of a subsisting judgment in said court on an instalment of an account for continuous services FREDERICKS v. COSTER....... CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICAN COMMISSIONERS: In the matter of the compensation of the commissioners appointed under the act of July 7, 1884 (23 Stat., 227, 236), making an appropriation there for O'CONNELL'S: In the matter of the right of a district attorney of the United States to a fee of five dollars in each case in which the grand jury fails to find an indictment against a party recognized by a circuit court commissioner to appear before such court to answer a criminal charge.. Page. 213 216 220 246 248 258 INTRODUCTION. This volume is the last in the series embracing the Decisions of the present First Comptroller, whose official services terminate to-day. It is hoped that the Decisions mentioned may be found of some value. They have been designed to place in accessible form a portion of that information which previously rested only in tradition, or personal memory; to define the jurisdiction of some branches of executive administration; to point out the modes of procedure therein; to describe some of the rights which may be redressed through these agencies; to give interpretation and construction to provisions of the Constitution, Treaties, statutes and regulations of executive departments, in relation to such jurisdiction, procedure and rights; to describe, if not to draw, some of the lines which separate executive from judicial and legislative jurisdiction, powers and administration; to maintain, and resist encroachments upon, the absolute independence and authority of the former from the two latter; to maintain and respect equally the authority of all these jurisdictions; to exercise legally and justly, without fear, favor or affection, the independent and absolute judicial and executive powers and functions of the First Comptroller, with a due observance and regard for similar powers and functions in other officers; to recognize and so declare, if not to make, some of those principles of International Common Law, Inter-State Common Law, and National Executive Common Law administered through the office of the First Comptroller; to point out some of the differences between National Executive and Judicial Common Law, and the reasons on which they respectively rest, and to aid in some limited measure in systematizing and building up those great principles of eternal justice which are essential to the maintenance and security of public and private rights and to human progress. Fully conscious of the little that has been done in these directions, some of the results of nearly five years of assiduous labor are now committed to the generous consideration of the limited number of persons who may have occasion to refer to them. The valuable aid rendered by the able, faithful and efficient chiefs of divisions, clerks in charge of divisions, and clerks in the office of the First Comptroller is recognized, and grateful acknowledgments are made therefor.* TREASURY DEPARTMENT, First Comptroller's Office, March 24, 1885. * This includes at different periods, as law clerks, more especially connected with some portions of the work of the Comptroller, respectively, Richard T. Greener, John Arthur, Felix Brannigan, and Ed. Graham Haywood, Jr., and as stenographer and type writer, Charles B. Parkman. The valuable services, also, of Thomas Robinson and Frank E. Anderson in the preparation of indexes have been noted in the proper volumes, and the equally meritorious services of Mr. Robinson in reading proof in the past three volumes is fully recognized. |