1st Session.

EXPENDITURES-NAVY DEPARTMENT.

MAY 5, 1830.

Read, and laid upon the table.

Mr. AUGUSTINE H. SHEPPERD, from the Committee on the Expenditures of Navy Department, made the following

REPORT:

The Committee on the Expenditures of the Navy Department, report:

count.

That, in discharge of the duty assigned them, they have turned their attention to the report of the Secretary of the Navy, submitted to Congress on the 25th of January last, and purporting to exhibit a view of the contingent expenses of that Department for the year ending with the 30th of September, 1829. From the great number of items and variety of objects into which this head of expenditure divides itself, it could not be expected that your committee would be able to bestow that minute and detailed attention necessary to a judgment critically correct, as to each and every particular acThey have, however, so far examined as to be able to pronounce on their general correctness: a mere clerical error is detected in the specification of an expenditure, but upon looking into the account itself, the amount was found to agree with that stated on the books, and to consist of items constituting a legal demand against the Government. But in applying this general term of approval, your committee feel constrained to qualify its import, by questioning the correctness of certain allowances which were passed either during the last quarter of the year 1828, or early in the year 1829. This objection applies particularly to commissions allowed Pursers and Navy Agents over and above that fixed by law, and in relation to such parts of their duty as were strictly official, and for which no particular compensation was intended. In illustration of this objection, your committee state, that on the first day of March, 1829, an account was passed embracing an allowance to a purser for commissions on sums of money paid to "mechanics and laborers " From inquiry, your committee learn that this practice had not even obtained the sanction of uninterrupted precedent; but, while charges thus obviously wrong had been occasionally disallowed, the applicant was still enabled, in another way, to obtain the same object; and strange as it may seem, a charge for extra clerk hire (when in fact no such expenditure had been incurred) has been resorted to, and allowed, for the purpose of covering this unlawful demand for commissions. Your committee are also of opinion, that commissions have been improperly paid to special agents employed in the discharge of duties which were by law confided to regularly constituted disbursing officers of the Department. Under the head they would re

fer to the account of a special agent, who was allowed commissions upon certain expenditures devolving upon the Captain in charge of the navy yard at Washington city. These, and many other irregularities, which had hitherto obtained and grown up into something like established usage, are wholly disappearing under the present administration of the Department, where there prevails, a laudable purpose of acting as far as practicable within the letter of the law fixing the compensation; and, in all cases necessarily resting upon discretion, no blind obedience is paid to precedent, but a deviation therefrom is adopted, whenever a due regard to economy would seem to require it.

With this view, the Department has determined to limit as near as practicable, the amount paid to its officers and agents for travelling expenses to the sums actually expended; nor will it allow, without a very satisfactory explanation, any extraordinary demand, by reason of the applicant having travelled, to or from the Department, a greater distance than he could have done by following the accustomed route. A saving under this head of expenditure is already obvious; for while, in the year 1828, travelling expenses amounted to thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars fifty-six cents, in 1829 it did not exceed twenty-three thousand two hundred and five dollars seventy cents. For the contingent expenses of the office of the Secretary of the Navy, your committee would refer to the letter of the Secretary, and the accompanying certificates of the Comptroller, showing the liquidation of the accounts of the agent, and a manifest saving to the Government under this division of expenditure. It will be at once perceived that the entire amount for 1829 is materially less than that of 1828; and that, even of this diminished expenditure, a very undue proportion was incurred before the commencement of the present administration of the Department.

SIR: I have the honor, in reply to your letter of the 15th instant, to state, that the contingent disbursements on account of the office of the Secretary of the Navy, amounted, for the year 1828, to the sum of $3,191 62.

That, from the 1st January to the 11th of March, 1829, when I entered upon the duties of this Department, the payment for contingent expenses amounted to $934 35; and from the latter date, to the end of the year 1829, to the sum of $1,906 99; out of which the sum of $597 05 was upon engagements entered into before the present admihistration of this Department. There are also claims against this Department, amounting to $724 51, contracted under the former administration, which still remain unpaid, that have been reported to the Committee of Ways and Means of the House of Representatives.

The amount disbursed during the first three months of the present year, including all engagements for that period, is $482 27.

The disbursements are made with a view to strict economy; and the amount has been lessened by reducing the number of newspapers which had been taken by this office, and obtaining the necessary items of a contingent character of good quality, and upon the most reasonable terms. Strict accountability is observed in the settlements of the agent who is

charged with this fund, as will be seen by the enclosed copies of letters from the First Comptroller of the Treasury, upon the adjustment of his ac

counts.

Hon. A. H. SHEPPERD,

I have the honor to be,
Very respectfully, sir,

Your obedient servant,

JN. BRANCH.

Chairman of the Com. on Expend. in Navy Dep't.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

COMTROLLER'S OFFICE,

November 16, 1829.

SIR: Your account of expenditures, from 11th June to 30th of September 1829, for books, printing, stationery, newspapers, fuel, and extra clerk hire, &c. including the cost of keeping the messenger's horse, from 1st May to 31st August, 1829, has been adjusted at the Treasury, and a balance of $302 08 found due to the United States from you.

Balance per account rendered,

Add amount overpaid Nathan Eaton, by over addition of his account, Vo. No. 21,

As above,

$301 48

60 $302 08

SIR: Your account of expenditures from the 1st October, 1829, to the 14th January, 1830, for printing, stationery, office furniture, fuel, newspapers, extra clerk hire, and keeping the messenger's horse, from 1st September to 31st December, 1829, &c. has been adjusted at the Treasury, and a balance of $18 92 found due to the United States from you, as per your account rendered.

Respectfully,

JOS. ANDERSON,
Comptroller.

Mr. CHRISTOPHER ANDREWS,

Agent Office of the Sec'ry of the Navy.

1st Session.

CHARLES CASSEDY.

MAY 7, 1830.

MR. WHITTLESEY, from the Committee of Claims, made the following

REPORT:

The Committee of Claims, to which was referred the petition of Charles Cassedy, report:

That it appears the petitioner was employed as a Secretary and Clerk to General John Coffee, a Commissioner of the United States, appointed for ascertaining the boundary lines of the cession made to the said States by the Creek nation of Indians, in August, 1814; and that he served in said capacities for eighty two days. It appears by an extract of a letter from Gen. Coffee to the Comptroller, dated the 28th of August, 1818, that the services of Mr. Cassedy were not only important, but that, without the assistance of some person, it would have been impossible for the Commission to have examined, interpreted, and recorded the evidence of the Indian testimony on the subject for which the Commission was constituted. The account of Mr. Cassedy being for eighty-two days, at five dollars per day, amounting to four hundred and ten dollars, was disallowed by Mr. Graham, acting Secretary of War, because there was no law authorizing the payment. General Coffee seems to have entertained the opinion, that these services would be paid for out of the contingent fund appropriated for Indian purposes. The committee have not investigated the law or the subject, but the first impressions are, that they might, with propriety, have been charged on this fund; however this may be, it is fully proven that the services were rendered, that they were necessary, and it is the opinion of the committee that the charge made is reasonable. The account is certified, by General Coffee, to be correct, and it appears, from the statement of the Second Auditor, that it has not been paid. The committee refer to the several documents obtained from the Secretary of War, under a call of the House, and report a bill.