e that period is fully stated
in the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. That officer also
suggests the propriety of assigning by law certain additional duties to
existing establishments and officers, which, with the modifications and
safeguards referred to by him, will, he thinks, enable the Department
to continue to perform this branch of the public service without any
material addition either to their number or to the present expense. The
extent of the business to be transacted has already been stated; and in
respect to the amount of money with which the officers employed would be
intrusted at any one time, it appears that, assuming a balance of five
millions to be at all times kept in the Treasury, and the whole of it
left in the hands of the collectors and receivers, the proportion of
each would not exceed an average of $30,000; but that, deducting one
million for the use of the Mint and assuming the remaining four millions
to be in the hands of one-half of the present number of officers--a
supposition deemed more likely to correspond with the fact--the sum
in the hands of each would still be less than the amount of most of the
bonds now taken from the receivers of public money. Every apprehension,
however, on the subject, either in respect to the safety of the money
or the faithful discharge of these fiscal transactions, may, it appears
to me, be effectually removed by adding to the present means of
the Treasury the establishment by law at a few important points of
offices for the deposit and disbursement of such portions of the public
revenue as can not with obvious safety and convenience be left in the
possession of the collecting officers until paid over by them to the
public creditors. Neither the amounts retained in their hands nor
those deposited in the offices would in an ordinary condition of the
revenue be larger in most cases than those often under the control of
disbursing officers of the Army and Navy, and might be made entirely
safe by requiring such securities and exercising such controlling
supervision as Congress may by law prescribe. The principal officers
whose appointments would become necessary under this plan, taking the
largest number suggested by the Secretary of the Treasury, would not
exceed ten, nor the additional expenses, at the same estimate, $60,000
a year.

There can be no doubt of the obligation of those who are intrusted
with the affairs of Government to conduct them with as l