Checks and balances

“ Assume that the executive and the legislative body are the front wheels of a governmental vehicle, and the check and balance between them the axle that connects them; that the judiciary and individual rights are the hind wheels, and the check and balance is represented by the axle between them; and that the reach connecting the two axles represents the checks and balances between the four elements. ”

“ When the act to regulate the pay and mileage of members and the compensation of officers of the Senate and House of Representatives was transmitted to me I found, upon examination of its provisions, some features inconsistent with the law for the organization of the Treasury Department, and the general policy of protecting the Treasury by checks and balances, so as to restrain officials by the records of the Department itself. ”

“ The maintenance of the system of checks and balances characteristic of republican institutions requires the co-ordinate departments of government, whether federal or state, to refrain from any infringement of the independence of each other ”

“ The present governmental system, with its checks and balances—legislative, executive and judiciary—has proved far from satisfactory, since it results either in a deadlock between the various authorities, or else some one of them, as for example, the courts in the United States, assume the final [Pg 133] authority. In neither case is it possible for the average man to get to the bottom of the difficulty. ”

“ Clear-cut, definite and prompt action is possible, with proper checks and balances, because units are not mixed. The governor can introduce a balance without throwing the administrative machine out of gear to avoid stripping its cogs. ”

“ The whole theory of mechanical checks and balances, however consecrated, is unsound; it belongs to the times of jealousy between monarchs and their subjects; the hope of a commonwealth lies in the more genial policy of disposing all its members to the common wood. Methods of securing deliberate action may be devised in the interest of all; but no ingenuity can really devise a method of permanently dividing the national will and making it check itself. ”

“ He attempts also to devise a system of checks and balances such as he supposes to have been intended by the ancient legislators. We are disposed to say to him, as he himself says in a remarkable passage, that 'no man ever legislates, but accidents of all sorts, which legislate for us in all sorts of ways. ”

“ Since balances are sometimes paid by checks on some central institution in which credit balances may be obtained by rediscounts of commercial paper, this necessity can be met without the use of any form of currency other than that furnished by banks themselves. ”

“ The manner in which clearing and other balances between banks are met also has an influence on the amount of reserves required. If such balances are paid daily and always in cash, the amount needed for this purpose is much larger than if they are paid in checks on some one or a few institutions and at longer intervals. ”

“ But this was done with such accounts and checks on the parts of treasurer and almsgivers of this house that a strict monthly or annual residencia was taken from them by the purveyor and other deputies, the balances resulting either against or in favor punctually. Their revision was entrusted to the purveyor and secretary of the board and immediately they proceeded to the satisfaction of the said balances of all parties. ”

“ Where, then, will be the check to prevent encroachments on the rights of the people? There is not a third essentially distinct branch, to preserve a just equilibrium, or to prevent such encroachments. In developing this plan of government, we ought to attend to the necessity of having checks. ”

“ National banks in the reserve and central reserve cities are also clearing centers for the enormous volume of checks and drafts which the administration of the checking accounts of the banks and trust companies of the country bring into existence. ”

“ If you make your check payable say, to William Armstrong or order,
nobody but William Armstrong, or some one to whom he indorses the check,
can collect the amount, and if through fraud or otherwise some one not
entitled to it gets the money which the check calls for, the
responsibility is not yours, but the bank's. It is for that reason that
bankers and business men use such great care in accepting checks. ”

“ In vain had the laws cautiously stationed the Register, the Comptroller, the Treasurer, as checks upon the Secretary of the Treasury, so that the most trifling sum in the treasury should never be accessible to any one or any two men. ”

“ Stat., which require the auditor to keep account of taxes collected, keep a correct list of balances due by individuals to the commonwealth, audit and enter in account all demands payable at the treasury, report to the attorney general all public debtors who fail to render their accounts at the proper time or to pay the money in their hands due the commonwealth into the treasury, and grant written authority to the treasurer to receive money from public officers or other persons, due to the commonwealth. ”

“ It shall be lawful for collectors of internal revenue to receive for internal taxes and all public dues certified checks drawn on National and State banks, and trust companies during such time and under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe. ”

“ In the first place the checking branch must have a personal interest in checking the other branch. One interest must be opposed to another interest. Vices, as they exist, must be turned against each other. ”

“ The next, and not less important, benefit is to be found in the perfect facility with which all the public payments are made by checks or treasury drafts, payable at any place where the bank has an office; all those who have demands against government are paid in the place most convenient to them; [Pg 256] and the public moneys are transferred through our extensive territory at a moment's warning without any risk or expense, to the places most remote from those of collection, and wherever public exigencies may require. ”

“ They hold, therefore, a complete check and control over the powers of the people in this respect, even admitting that those powers are truly and strictly represented in the other branch. It is true that the check is mutual ”

“ As checks on bankers are in constant use, and have been adopted by the commercial world generally as a substitute for other modes of payment, it is important, for the security of all parties concerned, that there should be no mistake about the status, which the holder of a check sustains towards the bank on which it is drawn. ”

“ Finance departments, where they existed, were weak and lacked traditions of effective control over public expenditure. An integrated system of financial control coupled with efficient audit is one of the essential adjuncts of democratic government. ”

“ Treasury settlements of the kind are only prima facie evidence of the correctness of the balance certified; but it is as competent for the accounting officers to correct mistakes and to restate the balance as it is for a judge to change his decree during the term in which it was entered. ”

“ This is in substance to claim that however contracted the money volume of a country may become, the system of checks and clearing-houses—on the principle of the compensating balance—will expand in a proportion directly corresponding to the contraction of the currency; that the greater the reduction of the volume of money in the country the greater the increase in the transactions of the clearing-house. ”

“ Senate and House of Delegates in Congress assembled shall have the exclusive right of coining money—regulating its alloy and value—fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout United States. ”

“ Every contract and obligation must be of record, all property bought or constructed must go upon the books, and, when expended or used up, must go off in due form; and especially must an accurate system of checks guard all earnings and expenditures, and a comprehensive system of book-keeping consolidate innumerable transactions into the great variety of boiled-down figures and statistics necessary for officers and stockholders to fully understand what the property is doing. ”

“ The balances which may from time to time be stated by the auditor, and certified to the heads of departments by the commissioner of customs, or the comptrollers of the treasury, upon the settlement of public accounts, shall not be subject to be changed or modified by the heads of departments, but shall be conclusive upon the executive branch of the government, and be ubj ect to revision only by congress or the proper courts. ”

“ Many people, especially in the rural districts, write checks in lead pencil. How easy it is for such checks to be changed if they fall into the hands of dishonest parties. The rejection of the account of any person, who will be so careless, is plainly only the part of safety. ”

“ But political checks will no more act of themselves than a bridle will direct a horse without a rider. If the checking functionaries are as corrupt or as negligent as those whom they ought to check, and if the public, the mainspring of the whole checking machinery, are too ignorant, too passive, or too careless and inattentive to do their part, little benefit will be derived from the best administrative apparatus. ”

“ The necessity of reciprocal checks in the exercise of political power, by dividing and distributing it into different depositories, and constituting each the guardian of the public weal, against invasions by the others, has been evinced by experiments, ancient and modern ”

“ The practice of maintaining savings departments seems to have become extensive in recent years, without challenge by the government. (Report of the Comptroller of the Currency; Treasury Reports, 1912, p. 361.) ”

“ A certified statement of the balance due and a report thereof to the comptroller, is not such a transcript from the books and proceedings of the treasury as may be given in evidence under the second section of the act of the 3d March, 1797. ”

“ For to suppose that Governments rest upon reason is a pitiful solecism. If mankind were reasonable, they would want no Government. Hence, checks are required in the distribution of the power among those who are to exercise it for the benefit of the people. Did the people of America vest all power in the Legislature? No; they had vested in the judges a check intended to be efficient—a check of the first necessity, to prevent an invasion of the constitution by unconstitutional laws—a check which might prevent any faction from intimidating or annihilating the tribunals themselves. ”

“ Although factors have a lien upon goods actually in their hands, or the proceeds of them for a general balance, it is only for a balance due by the principal, against whom it is sought to be asserted. ”

“ The revenue measures of every civilized government constitute a system which provides for its enforcement by officers commissioned for that purpose. In this country, this system for each State, or for the Federal government, provides safeguards of its own against mistake, injustice, or oppression, in the administration of its revenue laws. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That no balances hereafter to be certified, as due from the United States, shall be registered in any other name, than that of the original claimant, or of his heirs, executors or administrators; and such balances shall be transferable only at the treasury, by virtue of powers actually executed after such registry, expressing the sum to be transferred, and in pursuance of such general rules, as have been, or shall be prescribed for that purpose. ”

“ With each report of the auditor is a 'statement of differences,' purporting to show in what particulars the amount stated by the auditor differs from that rendered by the collector. It begins by setting down 'the balance due the United States per his account ending' at such date, and this balance is increased by the addition of such sums as the collector has taken credit for, but which the auditor has refused to allow. ”

“ If the people wished a national bank as a permanent branch of their institutions, or if they desired a chief magistrate who as to that would consider it his duty to watch the course of events and give or withhold his assent according to the supposed necessity, then another than himself must be chosen. ”

“ That the power rests in the discretion of the legislature to decide whether the sum to be levied shall be a fixed one, and, if not, to determine in what manner and by what means the amount shall be determined. ”

“ The Comptroller General shall be afforded full facilities for verifying transactions with the balances or securities held by depositaries, fiscal agents, and custodians. The Comptroller General may make and retain copies of such books, accounts, and other records as the Comptroller General deems appropriate. ”

“ And on account of this power the Financier should have no accounts with the public himself, but wherever expenditures are necessary in his department, he should employ proper persons therein, subject to the same powers and modes of accounting with every other person employed in expending public property; or if of necessity he shall at any time have accounts with the public, Congress can appoint a committee, or special board, to examine and settle his accounts. ”

“ Upon the point of responsibility, I cannot subscribe to the opinion of the secretary of the treasury, if it is meant that the ability to pay the amount of any deposits which the government may make, under any exigency, is greater than that of the state banks; that the accountability of a ramified institution, whose affairs are managed by a single head, responsible for all its members, is more simple than that of a number of independent and unconnected establishments, I shall not deny ”