ART. VI.-POST-OFFICE DEPARTMENT.

§ 1. The Post-office Department was established by act of Congress, Sept. 22, 1789. It is under the general direction of

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the Postmaster-General. For convenience, the business is distributed through several bureaus. The appointment office is in the care of the first Assistant Postmaster-General. To his bureau are referred all questions relating to the names, establishment, and discontinuance of post-offices, and the appointment and removal of postmasters. In offices where the salary of the postmaster is a thousand dollars a year or over, the appointments are made by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Instructions to postmasters, and the distribution of blanks and stationery for the use of the department, are from this bureau. This branch has charge of the steamship lines on the ocean, and also of all international postal affairs.

§ 2. The second Assistant Postmaster-General has charge of the contract-office. He lets the contracts for carrying the mail; directs in regard to the mode of conveyance, and the time of arrival and departure of the mails on each route; fixes on the offices of distribution ; and advertises for bids for carrying the mails on all routes open to competition.

§ 3. The third Assistant Postmaster-General has the supervision of the financial interests and business of the department, except what comes more properly under the care of the auditor. The postage-stamps and stamped envelopes for prepayment of postage are issued from this bureau. All quarterly returns from the postoffices throughout the United States are made to the third Assistant Postmaster-General. He also has charge of the dead-letter office.

§ 4. The bureau of the chief clerk attends to the reports of the arrivals and departures of the mails, noting all failures and delinquencies on the part of contractors, and prepares all such cases for the action of the Postmaster-General. This bureau provides the mail bags and the mail locks and keys.

The three Assistant Postmasters-General are appointed by the Postmaster-General. The following is a list of the PostmastersGeneral from the establishment of the department to 1868, with dates of appointment:

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§ 1. This department was created by act of Congress, March 3, 1849, and has charge of much of the government-business that previously devolved on several of the other departments. Secretary of the Interior is at the head of this department, and he has one assistant secretary. The business of it is distributed through the bureaus of the public lands, pensions, Indian affairs, patents, and agriculture.

§ 2. The principal officer in charge of the Bureau of Public Lands is called the Commissioner of the General Land-Office. He has charge of the survey and sale of the public lands, their legal

transfer according to the laws of Congress, whether under the homestead act, military bounty act, grants for school-purposes, or internal improvements.

§ 3. The chief officer of the Pension Bureau is called the Commissioner of Pensions. He attends to the adjudication of pensionclaims against the United States, whether due to the soldiers of the Revolution or of the late wars, and whether due in land or money. The principal officer of the Indian Bureau is called the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, who attends to all government-matters connected with the Indian tribes.

§ 4. The Bureau of the Patent Office is under the direction of the Commissioner of Patents, who attends to all business on the part of the government in reference to the issue of letters-patent to inventors. There is a commissioner of agriculture, who has supervision of all the national interests in agriculture.

§ 5. By the act of 1849, organizing the Department of the Interior, the supervision of the accounts of the United-States marshals and attorneys, and the clerks of the United-States courts, were transferred from the treasury to this department. The Secretary of the Interior has supervision of the marshals and others in taking the census of the United States; also of the lead and other mines of the United States, and of the accounts of the agents therefor.

§ 6. He likewise exercises supervisory power over the commissioners of the public buildings, including the Capitol and Department buildings; and over the board of inspectors and warden of the penitentiary of the District of Columbia.

§ 7. The Secretary of the Interior appoints the chief clerk and all other clerks of his department; and the commissions of all officers under the control and direction of the Secretary of the Inte rior are made out and recorded in the Department of the Interior, and the seal of the department is affixed thereto.

§ 8. The Secretary of the Interior is charged with receiving, arranging, safe-keeping, and with the distribution of, all printed journals of the two houses of Congress, and all other books of whatever nature printed and purchased for the use of government,

except such as are printed or purchased for the use of Congress or for the particular use of any of the other departments. He is required to set apart a suitable room in the patent-office for their safe keeping.

The following is a list of the Secretaries of this department from its organization to the present time, 1868, with the dates of appointment:

ART. VIII.-ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OFFICE.

§ 1. By act of Congress, Sept. 24, 1789, there is to be appointed an attorney-general of the United States, who shall be sworn to the faithful execution of his office. He may appoint an assistant at a salary of $3,500 a year.

§ 2. The duties of his office may be classified under the following heads :

1st. He shall prosecute and conduct all suits in the Supreme Court in which the United States shall be concerned. 2d. He shall give advice and opinions on questions of law when required by the President of the United States.

3d. He shall give legal advice and opinions, when requested by the heads of any of the departments, touching any matter that concerns their departments.

4th. He shall advise with and direct the solicitor of the treasury as to the manner of conducting suits, proceedings, and prose

cutions.