National Banking Associations. to the War Department are not entitled to pass free of postage, and yet they may be clearly official. So may be the letters of a contractor to the Department to which he has given bonds; but he must prepay the postage on them. Even the correspondence of United States judges with this office, though it may be strictly official, must be prepaid, for they are not responsible to the Attorney General. These may be, probably are, defects in the postal law, but they illustrate clearly enough that correspondence with a Department may be official, and yet be not provided for in the sixth class. It follows, then, in my opinion, that letters from proper officers of banking associations, employed as depositaries of public moneys, on business arising from that employment, when certified by them to be on official business, are not transmissible through the mail, free of postage, to the Treasury Department. I think they fall within the ninth. class enumerated in the forty-second section of the postal act, as communications addressed to franking officers, not excepted in the preceding classes, which must be prepaid by postage stamps. 2. You also submit for my opinion this question: Does the term "public moneys" (in the fifty-fourth section of the national currency act of February 25, 1863,) include moneys placed to the credit of disbursing officers on the books of the assistant treasurers, or held by them for disbursement, so that such officers can avail themselves of these associations as they may avail themselves of other designated depositaries? The fifty-fourth section of the act of February 25, 1863, (12 Stats., 680,) authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, whenever in his judgment the public interest will be promoted thereby, to employ any of the banking associations doing business under that act as depositaries of the public moneys, except receipts for customs. What is to be understood by the phrase "depositaries of the public moneys?" I understand it to mean, places where the moneys of the United States may be lawfully National Banking Associations. deposited for safe keeping, just as, under the act of August 6, 1846, the Mint of the United States, in the city of Philadelphia, and the Branch Mint, in the city of New Orleans, and the rooms and offices of the assistant treasurers in New York and Boston, are such places. For this purpose, then, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized by the fifty-fourth section of the act of 1863, to employ banking associations doing business under that act, with the limitation that he cannot so employ them as depositaries of any public moneys that are receipts from customs. Where public moneys are thus deposited in the employed associations, according to law, in my opinion, disbursing officers of the Government can avail themselves of such associations in the same manner as by law they may avail themselves of the designated public depositaries. The act of August 6, 1846, (9 Stats., 59,) having established and designated certain places for the deposit and safe keeping of the public moneys, and authorized the appointment of certain officers, in addition to the Treasurer of the United States, to have the custody and care of the public moneys at those places, provided that the Treasurer of the United States, the treasurer of the Mint of the United States, the treasurers and those acting as such of the various branch mints, all collectors of the customs, all surveyors of the customs acting also as collectors, all assistant treasurers, all receivers of public moneys at the several land offices, all postmasters, and all public officers, of whatsoever character, should be required to keep safely, without loaning, using, depositing in banks, or exchanging for other funds than as allowed by that act, all the public money collected by them, or otherwise at any time placed in their possession and custody, till the same was ordered, by the proper Department or officer of the Government, to be transferred or paid out; and when such orders for transfer or payment were received, faithfully and promptly to make the same as directed, and to do and perform all other duties, as fiscal agents of the Government, which might be imposed by that or any other acts of Congress, National Banking Associations. or by any regulation of the Treasury Department made in conformity to law, &c. The act of March 3, 1857, chap. 114, (11 Stats., 249,) enacts (section first) that the act of August 6, 1846, (just cited,) shall be so amended that each and every disbursing officer or agent of the United States, having any money of the United States intrusted to him for disbursement, shall be required to deposit the same with the Treasurer of the United States, or with some one of the assistant treasurers or public depositaries, and draw for the same only in favor of the persons to whom payment is to be made in pursuance of law and instructions, except when payments are to be made in sums under twenty dollars, in which cases such disbursing agent may check in his own name, stating that it is to pay small claims. Section second provides that the Treasurer of the United States, assistant treasurers, and public depositaries, shall sately keep all moneys deposited by any disbursing officer or disbursing agent of the United States, as well as any moneys deposited by any receiver, collector, or other person, which shall be the moneys of, or due or owing to, the United States. And section third requires every person who shall have moneys of the United States in his hands or possession, to pay the same to the treasurer, assistant treasurer, or public depositary of the United States, and take his receipt for the same, in duplicate, and forward one of them forthwith to the Secretary of the Treasury. These provisions comprehensively declare the duties of the various public depositaries as to receiving, keeping safely, and paying out the moneys of the United States, and also the methods in which disbursing officers and agents are to avail themselves of those public depositaries. In my opinion, the provisions of the above quoted act of March 3, 1857, embrace such banking associations as shall be employed by the Secretary of the Treasury under the fifty-fourth section of the act of February 25, 1863, as depositaries of public moneys. To the extent to which they Case of Delano and Russell. may be employed, viz, as depositaries of all public moneys except receipts from customs, they are "public depositaries" within the meaning of that act; and as such public depositaries, the disbursing officers of the Government may avail themselves of the employed banking associations, as they may avail themselves of other designated depositaries, with the exception stated of public moneys that are receipts from customs. The President has no duty to perform in respect to an application by the sureties in a bond given to the United States under the Guano-Island Act of August 18, 1856, to be released from their obligation in consequence of a breach of the bond by their principal. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, SIR: As soon as my other pressing duties would permit, I have considered the documents which you sent me on the 19th instant, and in regard to which you required my opinion, "whether, by the Constitution or law, the President has any duty to perform in the case; and, if any, what it is?" Although the papers, as a whole, form a considerable volume, yet the case, as presented by those who ask your interposition, lies in a very narrow compass. It seems that J. W. Delano and Wm. W. Russell (as they allege) became securities "on the bonds of the American Guano Company for Jarvis and Baker's Islands, executed in 1856, to the United States of America, as required by the act of Congress entitled 'An act to authorize protection to be given to citizens of the United States who The Franking Privilege. discover deposits of guano,' approved August 18, 1856. They allege, also, that the condition of the bond has been broken by their principal, the guano company; and that they had no power to restrain said company from committing said breach of said act and bonds, and therefore respectfully request that they may be released from such obligations as may attach to them as sureties upon said bonds." That is the whole case, as stated by the parties themselves. And, as I cannot conceive of a man of business who can believe that the mere breach of his bond is a sufficient reason for releasing its obligations, I must suppose that this application to you was aimed at some hidden object not revealed in the petition. Perhaps the hope was entertained that you might be entrapped into the expression of opinions or purposes bearing upon ulterior measures to be taken concerning those guano islands. It is my opinion that, by the Constitution and law, the President has not any duty to perform in this case. I am, sir, very respectfully, The PRESIDENT. Your obedient servant, EDWARD BATES. EXERCISE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE. Under the Postal Act of March 3, 1863, Sec. 42, the head of a bureau in one of the Executive Departments can exercise the authority to send mail matter free of postage, by impressing his name on the outside of the package to be mailed, with an engraved stamp, as well as by writing his signature thereon. ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 21st instant, in which you state that, without your knowledge or authority, it has been the practice of certain heads of bureaus in the Treasury Depart |