Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 13.djvu/251



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, for the purpose of superintending the collection of internal duties, stamp duties, licenses, or taxes, imposed by this act, or which may hereafter be imposed, and of assessing the same, the commissioner of internal revenue, whose annual salary shall be four thousand dollars, shall be charged, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, with preparing all the instructions, regulations, directions, forms, blanks, stamps, and licenses, and distributing the same, or any part thereof, and all other matters pertaining to the assessment and collection of the duties, stamp duties, licenses, and taxes which may be necessary to carry this act into effect, and with the general superintendence of his office, as aforesaid, and shall have authority, and hereby is authorized and required, to provide cotton marks, hydrometers, and proper and sufficient adhesive stamps, and stamps or dies for expressing and denoting the several stamp duties, or the amount thereof in the case of percentage duties, imposed by this act, and to alter and renew or replace such stamps, from time to time, as occasion shall require. He may also contract for or procure the printing of requisite forms, decisions, regulations, and advertisements; but the printing of such forms, decisions, and regulations shall be done at the public printing-office, unless the public printer shall be unable to perform the work. And the Secretary of the Treasury may, at any time prior to the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, assign to the office of the commissioner of internal revenue such number of clerks as he may deem necessary, or the exigencies of the public service may require; and the privilege of franking all letters and documents pertaining to the duties of his office, and of receiving free of postage all such letters and documents, is hereby extended to said commissioner.

. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the commissioner of internal revenue to pay over daily to the treasurer of the United States all public moneys which may come into his possession, for which the treasurer shall give proper receipts and keep a faithful account; and at the end of each month the said commissioner shall render true and faithful accounts of all public moneys received or paid out, or paid to the treasurer of the United States, exhibiting proper vouchers therefor, and the same shall be received and examined by the fifth auditor of the treasury, who shall thereafter certify the balance, if any, and transmit the accounts, with the vouchers and certificate, to the first comptroller for his decision thereon; and the said commissioner, when such accounts are settled as herein provided for, shall transmit a copy thereof to the Secretary of the Treasury. He shall at all times submit to the Secretary of the Treasury and the comptroller, or either of them, the inspection of moneys in his hands, and shall, prior to the entering upon the duties of his office, execute a bond, with sufficient sureties, to be approved by the Secretary of the Treasury and by the first comptroller, in a sum of not less than one hundred thousand dollars, payable to the United States, conditioned that said commissioner shall faithfully perform the duties of his office according to law, and shall justly and faithfully account for and pay over to the United States, in obedience to law and in compliance with the order or regulations of the Secretary of the Treasury, all public moneys which may come into his hands or possession, and for the safe-keeping and faithful account of all stamps, adhesive stamps, or vellum, parchment or paper bearing a stamp denoting any duty thereon, which bond shall be filed in the office of the first comptroller of the treasury. And such