In any of the cases mentioned above, except the death, resignation, absence, or sickness of the Attorney-General, the President may, in his discretion, authorize and direct the head of any other Department, or any other officer in such Department, whose appointment is vested in the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to perform the duties of the vacant office until a successor is appointed, or the sickness or absence of the incumbent shall cease. A vacancy occasioned by the death or resignation in any of the cases above mentioned must not be temporarily filled for a longer period than ten days. When an officer performs the duties of another office, in accordance with the foregoing provisions, he is not by reason thereof entitled to any other compensation than that attached to his proper office. Any officer or clerk of any of the Departments lawfully detailed to investigate frauds or attempts to defraud the Government, or any irregularity or misconduct of any officer or agent of the United States, has authority to administer an oath to any witness attending to testify, or depose, in the course of such investigation. Any head of a Department or bureau in which a claim against the United States is properly pending may apply to any judge or clerk of any court of the United States to issue a subpoena for a witness, being within the jurisdiction of such court, to appear before any officer authorized to take depositions for use in United States courts, there to give full and true answers to written interrogatories and cross-interrogatories submitted, or be orally examined and cross-examined upon the subject of such claim; and in case of refusal the court has power to use compulsory processes. No head of any Department shall employ attorneys or counsel at the expense of the United States, but when in need of counsel or advice, shall call upon the Department of Justice, the officers of which shall attend the same. It is not lawful for any person appointed after June 1, 1872, as an officer, clerk, or employé, in any of the Departments, to act as counsel, attorney, or agent for prosecuting any claim against the United States which was pending in either of said Departments while he was so employed therein, nor in any manner, nor by any means, to aid in the prosecution of any such claim within two years next after he shall have ceased to be such officer, clerk, or employé. Balances stated by the Auditor and certified to the heads of Departments by the Commissioner of Customs, or the Comptrollers of the Treasury, upon the settlement of public accounts, shall not be subject to be changed or modified by the heads of Departments, but are conclusive upon the Executive branch of the Government, and subject to revision only by Congress or the proper courts. The head of the proper Department, before signing a warrant for any balance certified to him by a Comptroller, may, however, submit to such Comptroller any facts in his judgment affecting the correctness of such balances, but the decision of the Comptroller thereon shall be final and conclusive. The head of each Department must report annually to Congress, in detail, the expenditure of the contingent fund for his Department, and the bureaus and offices therein; also the names of the clerks and other persons that have been employed, the time of their employment, and the amount paid to each; also, as soon as practicable after June 30 in the year in which a new Congress assembles, he must cause to be furnished to the Department of the Interior a full and complete list of all officers, agents, clerks, and employés employed in his Department, and other statistics, for the Biennial Register, or Blue Book, published under the direction of the Department of the Interior. The annual reports required of the heads of Departments must be made at the commencement of each regular session, except when a different time is expressly prescribed by law, and must embrace the transactions of the preceding year. The head of each Department, except the Department of Justice, must furnish to the Public Printer copies of the documents usually accompanying his annual report on or before the first day of November in each year, and a copy of his annual report on or before the third Monday in November in each year. Each head of Department (including the Department of Agriculture) is required to keep in proper books a complete inventory of all the property belonging to the United States, in the buildings, rooms, grounds, etc., occupied by each department. No Department of the Government shall expend in any one fiscal year any sum in excess of appropriations made by Congress for that fiscal year, or involve the Government in any contract for the future payment of money in excess of such appropriations; all sums appropriated shall be applied solely to the objects for which they are respectively made, and for no others; and no moneys appropriated for contingent, incidental, or miscellaneous purposes shall be expended or paid for official or clerical compensation. of the service, and when so required, the articles or services may be procured by open purchase or contract. Contracts for stationery and other supplies must not be made for a longer term than one year. When a claim is presented in any Department, the amount in controversy exceeding $3000, or based upon disputed facts or questions of law, and where the decision will affect. a class of cases or furnish a precedent, or where any authority, All purchases and contracts for sup- right, privilege, or exemption is claimed plies or services in any of the Depart- or denied under the Constitution of the ments of the Government except for per- United States, the head of such Departsonal services, shall be made by adver- ment may cause such claim to be retising for proposals, when the public ex-ferred, with all the vouchers, etc., to the igencies do not require the immediate Court of Claims for trial and adjudicadelivery of the articles or performance tion. STATE DEPARTMENT. EARLY HISTORY. PRESENT ORGANIZATION. The Department of State is first named of the Executive Departments of the Gov ernment. TARY OF STATE. The Secretary of State conducts all correspondence and issues instructions to the public ministers and consuls from the United States, negotiates with public ministers from foreign states or princes, and has charge, under the direction of the President, of all matters pertaining to foreign affairs. The Department of State was first established as an Executive Department under the Constitution by the act of Congress of July 27, 1789, which act denominated it the Department of Foreign Affairs, POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE SECREthe principal officer therein to be called the Secretary for the Department of Foreign Affairs. It authorized the said principal officer to appoint an inferior officer to be called the Chief Clerk in the Department of Foreign Affairs (whose salary was afterward fixed, namely, by the act of September 11, 1789, at $800 a year), and who should have charge and custody whenever the Secretary should be removed by the President, or in any other case of vacancy, during the pendency of such vacancy, of the records, books, and papers appertaining to said Department. It provided that the Secretary should perform and execute such duties as should from time to time be enjoined or intrusted to him by the President of the United States, agreeable to the Constitution, relative to correspondence, commissions, or instructions to or with public ministers or consuls from the United States, or to negotiations with public ministers from foreign states or princes, or to memorials or other applications from foreign public ministers or other foreigners, or to such other matters respecting foreign affairs as the President should assign to the Department; the business thereof to be conducted in such manner as the President should from time to time order or direct. By the act of September 15, 1789, the name of this Department was changed to the Department of State, and the principal officer thereof to Secretary of State, and it charged him with additional duties relative to the receipt and publication of the laws passed by Congress and to affixing the seal of the United States to civil commissions. He has charge of the seal of the United States, and of the seal of the Department of State. It is his duty to affix the seal of the United States to all civil commissions (except for revenue officers) for officers of the United States appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or by the President alone. The originals of all bills, orders, and resolutions of the Senate and House of Representatives are received and preserved by this Department; and the duty of promulgating and publishing the laws, amendments to the Constitution of the United States, and of commercial information communicated by diplomatic and consular officers, devolves upon the State Department. It is the duty of the Secretary of State to procure from time to time such of the statutes of the several States as may not be in his office. He must, within ten days after the commencement of each regular session of Congress, lay before that body a statement containing an abstract of all returns made to him pursuant to law by collectors of the different ports of the seamen registered by them, together with an account of such impressments and detentions as may appear by the protests of the masters of vessels to have taken place. He must annually lay before Congress the following reports: A statement, in a compendious form, of all such changes and modifications in the commercial systems of other nations, whether by treaties, duties on imports and exports, or other regulations, as shall have been communicated to the Department, including information contained in official publications of other Governments, which he may deem of sufficient importance. A synopsis of so much of the information which may have been communicated to him by diplomatic and consular officers, during the preceding year, as he may deem valuable for public information. BUREAU OF ACCOUNTS. Custody and disbursement of appro FEES CHARGED FOR COPIES OF REC- priations under direction of the Depart ORDS. For making out and authenticating copies of records in the Department of State a fee of 10 cents for each sheet containing one hundred words must be paid by the person requesting such copies, except where they are requested by an officer of the United States in a matter relating to his office. PASSPORTS. The Secretary of State may grant and issue passports, and cause passports to be granted, issued, and verified in foreign countries by such diplomatic or consular officers of the United States, and under such rules as the President designates and prescribes for and on behalf of the United States; and no other person may grant, issue, or verify any such passports. In foreign countries, passports are issued only by the chief diplomatic representative of the United States at a legation; in his absence from a country, by the consul-general, and in the absence of both those officers, by a consul. They are verified by consuls. The Department comprises four bureaus, and other divisions: a general account of the business conducted by each of which is given herewith. CHIEF CLERK. The Chief Clerk has general supervision of the clerks, and of the business of the Department. DIPLOMATIC BUREAU. Has diplomatic correspondence, and miscellaneous correspondence relating thereto. ment; charged with indemnity funds and bonds; care of the building and property. DIPLOMATIC SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES. 720 180 ART. II. Ambassadors, legates, or nuncios only have the representative character. ART. III. Diplomatic agents on an extraordinary mission have not, on that ENVOYS EXTRAORDINARY AND MINIS- account, any superiority of rank. TERS PLENIPOTENTIARY. Per Annum. 1 each to France, Germany, Great Britain, and Russia, each.... ..$17,500 1 each to Austria, Brazil, China, Italy, MINISTERS RESIDENT. Per Annum. 1 to Central American States..............$10,000 1 each to Argentine Republic, Belgium, United States of Colombia, Hawaiian Islands, Hayti (who is also ConsulGeneral), Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Turkey, and Venezuela, each. 1 to Bolivia, who is also Consul-General. 1 to Liberia, who is also Consul-General. CHARGÉS D'AFFAIRES. ART. IV. Diplomatic agents shall take precedence in their respective classes according to the date of the official notification of their arrival. The present regulation shall not cause any innovation with regard to the representative of the Pope. ART. V. A uniform mode shall be determined in each State for the reception of diplomatic agents of each class. ART. VI. Relations of consanguinity or of family alliance between courts confer no precedence on their diplomatic 7500 agents. The same rule also applies to 5000 political alliances. 4000 Per Annum. 1 each to Denmark, Paraguay and Uruguay, Portugal, Greece, and Switzerland, each...... $5000 SECRETARIES OF LEGATION AND Per Annum. 1 Secretary of Legation and Interpreter at Pekin, China...... 1 Consul-General and ex-officio Secretary of Legation at Constantinople, Turkey. 1 Interpreter to the Legation at Constantinople, Turkey.. 1 Secretary of Legation at Paris, France, 1 at Berlin, Prussia, 1 at London, England, and 1 at St. Petersburg, Russia, each...... $5000 ART. VII. In acts or treaties between several powers which grant alternate precedence, the order which is to be observed in the signatures shall be decided by lot between the ministers. ART. VIII. It is agreed that ministers resident accredited to them shall form, with respect to their precedence, an intermediate class between ministers of the second class and chargés d'affaires. For such time as any secretary of legation acts by proper authority as chargé d'affaires ad interim at the post at which he is appointed, he will be entitled to re3000 ceive compensation at the rate allowed by law for a chargé d'affaires at such but not for the same time the compost; pensation also allowed as secretary of legation. 3000 |