ters,
vouchers, memorandums, or other evidence of such payments, to whom paid,
for what, and particularly all concerning the northeastern-boundary
dispute with Great Britain."

With an anxious desire to furnish to the House any information requested
by that body which may be in the Executive Departments, I have felt
bound by a sense of public duty to inquire how far I could with
propriety, or consistently with the existing laws, respond to their
call.

The usual annual appropriation "for the contingent expenses of
intercourse between the United States and foreign nations" has been
disbursed since the date of the act of May 1, 1810, in pursuance of
its provisions. By the third section of that act it is provided--

That when any sum or sums of money shall be drawn from the Treasury
under any law making appropriation for the contingent expenses of
intercourse between the United States and foreign nations the President
shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause the same to be duly
settled annually with the accounting officers of the Treasury in the
manner following; that is to say, by causing the same to be accounted
for specially in all instances wherein the expenditure thereof may in
his judgment be made public, and by making a certificate of the amount
of such expenditures as he may think it advisable not to specify; and
every such certificate shall be deemed a sufficient voucher for the sum
or sums therein expressed to have been expended.

Two distinct classes of expenditure are authorized by this law--the one
of a public and the other of a private and confidential character. The
President in office at the time of the expenditure is made by the law
the sole judge whether it shall be public or private. Such sums are to
be "accounted for specially in all instances wherein the expenditure
thereof may in his judgment be made public." All expenditures "accounted
for specially" are settled at the Treasury upon vouchers, and not on
"President's certificates," and, like all other public accounts, are
subject to be called for by Congress, and are open to public
examination. Had information as respects this class of expenditures been
called for by the resolution of the House, it would have been promptly
communicated.

Congress, foreseeing that it might become necessary and proper to apply
portions of this fund for objects the original accounts and vouchers for
which could not be "made public" with