Page:Memoirs of the United States Secret Service.djvu/454

 JOSHUA D. MINER. 435

favorably compare with those of any administration the country has ever had, take them all in all. Among these appointees none have been more happily selected than Col. Whitley, at the head of the Secret Service. He know« his business thoroughly, and his wondrous success has proved that he not only understands it, but attends to it faithfully.

The Chief is ably sustained also by the Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Geo. S. Boutwell, who holds to the opinion that public ofBces are for the nation's benefit, rather than for individual gain ; and who requires the strictest accounta- bility as well as (ituess, application and industry, in those who serve under his immediate control. The institution of the U. S. Secret Service by law is part and parcel of the administration of the Treasury Department ; aud the present efficient head of that brancli of the Government is not slow to appreciate true merit among those who serve in such close communion with him as does the Chief of this Division. Secretary Boutwell applies the most rigid ob- servance of the laws in exacting honesty and devotion to duty among his subordinates ; aud the cordiality with which he seconds and approves the effoi*ts of Col. W. in the per- formance of his trying but faithfully executed duties, is the best evidenee that he appreciates this official, deservedly.

The Solicitor of the U. S. Treasury, Hon. E. C. Banfield, and the present able U. S. Commissioner of Internal Bevenue, have promptly and generously accorded Col. W. their powerful aid and counsel in the engrossing duty which' engages him ; and in the grand results which have accrued, so far as the detection and conviction of criminal counterfeit- ers and Bevenue defrauders go, in the last three years, the punishment of these busy offenders, and the protection of the Treasury interests, Mr. Banfield has performed his duty to great acceptance.