Names of clerks departments to be gress at the com year, &c. AN ACT legalizing and making appropriations for such necessary objects as have been usually included in the general appropriation bills, without authority of law, and to fix and provide for certain incidental expenses of the departments and officers of the government, and for other purposes. SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the and other persons duties of the Secretaries of State, of the Treasury, War, and employed in the Navy, * * * to report to Congress, at the beginning of reported to Con- each year, the names of the clerks and other persons that have mencem'nt of each been employed, respectively, during the preceding year, or any part thereof, in their respective departments and offices, together with the time that each clerk or other person was actually employed, and the sums paid to each; and also whether they have been usefully employed; whether the services of any of them can be dispensed with without detriment to the public service; and whether the removal of any individuals and the appointment of others in their stead is No greater al required for the better despatch of business; and no greater be allowance shall be made to any such clerk or other person law allows, except than is or may be authorized by law, except to watchmen and messengers for any labor or services required of them beyond the particular duties of their respective stations, rendered at such times as does not interfere with the performance of their regular duties. lowance to made than the &c. No allowance or extra work or services. SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That no allowance or comcompensation for pensation shall be made to any clerk or other officer, by reason of the discharge of duties which belong to any other clerk or officer in the same or any other department; and no allowance or compensation shall be made for any extra services whatever which any clerk or other officer may be required to perform.* Duty of chief clerks. SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of each chief or principal clerk in the respective departments, bureaus, and other offices to supervise, under the direction of his immediately superior officer, the duties of the other clerks therein, and to see that their duties are faithfully executed, and that such duties are distributed with equality and uniformity, according to the nature of the case. And such distribution shall be revised from time to time by the said chief or principal clerk for the purpose of correcting any tendency to undue accumulation or reduction of duties, whether arising from individual negligence or incapacity, or from increase or diminution of particular kinds, of business ; *The separate duties of the several clerks in the department, except where they are specifically designated in particular cases by statute, are assigned to such clerks by the head of the department; and no posterior claim to extra compensation can be founded on the official acts done by a clerk, provided those acts constituted any part of the lawful general duties of the department.-(Opin. 6, 583.) See note to act of March 3, 1839, ante, and act of March 3, 1853, forbidding salary for extra services. The 4th section of the act approved March 3, 1849, prohibits a clerk or other officer from receiving the salary of a Secretary or head of bureau for having acted in his stead while such Secretary or head received such salary. and such chief or principal clerk shall report monthly to his superior officer any existing defect that he may be aware of in the arrangement or despatch of business; and such defect shall be amended by new arrangements of duties, dismissal of negligent or incompetent officers or otherwise. SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the several heads of departments in communicating estimates of expenditures and appropriations to Congress, and to any of the committees thereof, to specify, as nearly as may be convenient, the sources from which such estimates are derived, and the calculations upon which they are founded; and, in so doing, to discriminate between such estimates as are conjectural in their character, and such as are framed upon actual information and application from disbursing officers; and in communicating the several estimates, reference shall be given to the laws and treaties by which they are authorized, the dates thereof, and the volume, page, and section in which the necessary provisions are contained. Manner of submitting estimates. extra clerks may be employed. SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That no extra clerk When shall be employed in any department, bureau, or office, at the seat of government, except during the session of Congress, or when indispensably necessary to enable such department, bureau, or office to answer some call made by either house of Congress at one session, to be answered at another; and not then except by order of the head of the department in which, or in some bureau or office of which, such extra clerk shall be employed; and no such extra clerk, for copying, shall receive more than three dollars per day, or for any other service more than four dollars per day for the time actually and necessarily employed. Compensation allowed. other persons not author SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That no messenger, Messengers and assistant messenger, laborer, or other person shall be em- to be employed unployed in any department, bureau, or office at the seat of gov-leys under ernment, or paid out of the contingent fund appropriated to such department, bureau, or office, unless such employment shall be authorized by law, or shall become necessary to carry into effect some object for which appropriations may be specifically made; and not exceeding one hundred dollars per Not more than annum shall be applied by each department (except the De- one hundred dolpartment of State) for the purchase of newspapers for such department, and all the bureaus and offices connected there- purchase of newswith; and such papers shall be preserved as files for said department. lars per annum to be applied to the papers. the depart SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That all stationery for How stationery * * * of every name and nature for the use of the several ments is to be prodepartments of government, and for the bureaus and offices * * * in those departments at Washington cured. for and reception tract. * Advertisement * * * for sealed proposals for furnishing such articles, of proposals. or the whole of any particular class of articles, specifying in such advertisement the amount, quantity, and description of each kind of articles to be furnished, and all such proposals shall be kept sealed until the day specified in such advertisement for opening the same, when they shall be opened by, or under the direction of the officer making such advertisement, in the presence of at least two Award of con- persons; and the person offering to furnish any class of such articles and giving satisfactory security for the performance thereof, under a forfeiture not exceeding twice the contract price in case of failure, shall receive a contract for doing the same;* and in case the lowest bidder shall fail to enter into such contract and give such security within a reasonable time to be fixed in such advertisement, then the contract shall be given to the next lowest bidder who shall enter into such contract and give such security. And in case of a failure to supply the articles * * * by the person entering into such contract, he and his sureties shall be liable for the forfeiture specified in such contract, as liquidated damages, to be sued for in the name of the United States, in any court having jurisdiction thereof. Bids to be preserved, &c. Application of for books, &c. [The portions of sec 17 omitted relate to the public printing, which is executed in accordance with other enactments.] SEC. 18. And be it further enacted, That all such bids or proposals shall be returned by the person authorized as aforesaid to receive the same, to the executive department from which such authority is derived, and shall be preserved in said department, subject to such examination as Congress may at any time order and direct. SEC. 19. And be it further enacted, That no part of the contingent fund contingent fund appropriated to any department, bureau, or office shall be applied to the purchase of books, periodicals, pictures or engravings, or other thing, except such books, periodicals and maps, or other thing, as the head of such department shall deem necessary and proper to carry on the business of such department, and shall by written order direct to be procured for that purpose. Accounting or disbursing officers or charges without SEC. 25. And be it further enacted, That it shall not at not to allow or pay any time hereafter be lawful for any accounting or disbursing certain accounts officer of the government to allow or pay any account or pecial appropria- charge whatever, growing out of, or in any way connected with any commission or inquiry, except courts-martial or courts of inquiry in the military or naval service of the United States, until special appropriation shall have been made by law to pay such accounts and charges. tions. *A head of a department, advertising according to law for proposals for stationery, is the competent and only judge of the matters of fact involved in the acceptance or rejection of any of the proposals.-(6 Opin., 226.) AN ACT to regulate the appointment and pay of engineers in the navy of the United States. * * * * * neither the chief nor the Be it enacted, &c., assistant engineers shall hold any other rank than as engineers. SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of Enlistment the Navy shall be authorized to enlist and employ the requi- firemen. site number of firemen. * of for their govern scribed. SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of Uniform for enthe Navy shall be authorized to prescribe a uniform for the gineers and rules said chief engineers and assistant engineers, and to make all ment to be prenecessary rules and regulations for the proper arrangement and government of the corps of engineers and assistant engineers, not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States. The said engineers and assistant engineers Engineers subshall be, in all respects, subject to the laws, rules, and regu-regulations of the lations of the naval service, in like manner with other officers navy. of the service. * ject to laws and assist- Assistant en SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That ant engineers shall be appointed by warrant from the Secre-gineers, how aptary of the Navy, in such form as he may prescribe. pointed. authorized. [SEC. 7.] And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of Depots of coal the Navy be and he is hereby, authorized to establish, at such places as he may deem necessary, suitable depots of coal, or other fuel, for the supply of steam ships-of-war. Approved August 31, 1842. (Vol 5, p. 577.) AN ACT making appropriations for the naval service for the half calendar year beginning the 1st day of January and ending the 30th day of June, 1843, and for the fiscal year beginning the 1st day of July, 1843, and ending the thirtieth day of June, one thousand eight hundred and forty-four. and other materi Provided, That all provisions and clothing, hemp, and How provisions other materials of every name and nature, for the use of the als for the navy are navy, and the transportation thereof, when time will permit, to be procured. shall hereafter be furnished by contract by the lowest bidder, as follows: the Secretary of the Navy shall advertise once a * See act of July 4, 1864, establishing the number of engineers and their pay. + Not to apply to ordnance, gunpowder, medicines, or the supplies which it may be necessary to purchase out of the United States for vessels on foreign stations, act of March 3, 1845; nor to butter and cheese destined for the use of the navy, or things contraband of war, act of March 3, 1847; nor to tobacco for the navy, act of August 3, 1848; nor to bunting for the navy, act of March 2, 1865. Flour may be procured as Secretary of Navy may deem best, act of March 3, 1863; hemp, in open market, act of March 3, 1851. By the act of September 28, 1850, preference is to be given, in making contracts and purchasing articles for naval purposes, to articles of American growth, production, and manufacture, all other things being equal, including price and quality. (See act of March 2, 1861, regulating purchases and contracts for supplies in the departments.) Purchases in open market cannot be resorted to except in cases of and in reference to such articles as are wanted for use so immediate as not to permit of contracts by advertisement. (4 Opin., 475.) for and reception of proposals. tract. Advertisement week for at least four weeks,* in one or moret of the principal papers published in the place where such articles are to be furnished, for sealed proposalst for furnishing such articles, or the whole of any particular class of articles, specifying in such advertisement the amount, quantity, and description of each kind of articles to be furnished ;|| and all such proposals shall be kept sealed until the day specified in such advertisement for opening the same, when they shall be opened by or under the direction of the officer making such advertisement, in the presence of at least two persons ;§ and the Award of con- person offering to furnish any class of such articles, and giving satisfactory security for the performance thereof, under a forfeiture not exceeding twice the contract price in case of failure, shall receive a contract for furnishing the same;¶ and in case the lowest bidder shall fail to enter into such contract and give such security within a reasonable time, to be fixed in such advertisement, then the contract shall be given to the next lowest bidder, who shall enter into such contract and Bids to be pre- give such security ;** and that all such bids or proposals shall reported to Con- be preserved and recorded, and reported to Congress at the commencement of every regular session; and the same shall contain a true and faithful abstract of all offers made, embracing as well those which are rejected as those which are accepted. The said abstract shall embrace the names of the party or parties offering, the terms proposed, the sums demanded, and the length of time the agreement is to continue. And in case of a failure to supply the articles, or to perform the work, by the person entering into such contract, he and his sureties shall be liable for the forfeiture specified in such contract, as liquidated damages, to be sued for in the name of the United States, in any court having jurisdiction thereof. Approved March 3, 1843. (Vol. 5, p. 617.) served, &c., and gress. Survey of the coast-how to be conducted. AN ACT making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of government for the fiscal year ending the thirtieth day of June, eighteen hundred and forty-four. Be it enacted, &c., * * * for survey of the coast of the United States: * * * Provided, That this and all other ap * This is repealed by act of September 28, 1850, so far as relates to proposals for transportation for supplies for the use of the navy, which advertisements may be made for a period of not less than five days. See act of March 3, 1845, section 12, as to advertisements in papers in Washington. All proposals to be accompanied by a written guarantee, &c.; act of August 10, 1846. By act of August 5, 1854, the classes only of materials are to be stated in the ad vertisements. § All persons offering bids have the right to be present when the bids are opened and to inspect the same; act of March 3, 1863. ¶ See joint resolution of March 3, 1863, and act of July 4, 1864, amending it, as to what bids may be rejected and who are not to be received as sureties; also act of July 17, 1862, prohibiting the transfer of interest in contracts. The clause in italics has been modified by act of August 10, 1846, which provides that if the accepted bidders fail to enter into an obligation within the time prescribed by the Secretary of the Navy, he "shall proceed to contract with some other person or persons for furnishing the said supplies.' |