out injury to the public interests,
authorized the President, instead of such accounts and vouchers, to make
a certificate of the amount "of such expenditures as he may think it
advisable not to specify," and have provided that "every such
certificate shall be deemed a sufficient voucher for the sum or sums
therein expressed to have been expended."

The law making these provisions is in full force. It is binding upon all
the departments of the Government, and especially upon the Executive,
whose duty it is "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed." In
the exercise of the discretion lodged by it in the Executive several of
my predecessors have made "certificates" of the amount "of such
expenditures as they have thought it advisable not to specify," and upon
these certificates as the only vouchers settlements have been made at
the Treasury.

It appears that within the period specified in the resolution of the
House certificates were given by my immediate predecessor, upon which
settlements have been made at the Treasury, amounting to $5,460. He has
solemnly determined that the objects and items of these expenditures
should not be made public, and has given his certificates to that
effect, which are placed upon the records of the country. Under the
direct authority of an existing law, he has exercised the power of
placing these expenditures under the seal of confidence, and the whole
matter was terminated before I came into office. An important question
arises, whether a subsequent President, either voluntarily or at the
request of one branch of Congress, can without a violation of the spirit
of the law revise the acts of his predecessor and expose to public view
that which he had determined should not be "made public." If not a
matter of strict duty, it would certainly be a safe general rule that
this should not be done. Indeed, it may well happen, and probably would
happen, that the President for the time being would not be in possession
of the information upon which his predecessor acted, and could not,
therefore, have the means of judging whether he had exercised his
discretion wisely or not. The law requires no other voucher but the
President's certificate, and there is nothing in its provisions which
requires any "entries, receipts, letters, vouchers, memorandums, or
other evidence of such payments" to be preserved in the executive
department. The President who makes the "certificate" may, if he
chooses,