It was
intimated by chiefs of departments that men were sent to them
without brains enough to do the work, and that some of those
appointed to perform the delicate duties of the appraiser's office,
requiring the special qualities of an expert, were better fitted
to hoe and to plow. Some employees were incapacitated by age, some
by ignorance, some by carelessness and indifference; and parties
thus unfitted have been appointed, not to perform routine duties
distinctly marked, but to exercise a discretion in questions
demanding intelligence and integrity, and involving a large amount
of revenue.

"The evidence shows a degree and extent of carelessness which we
think should not be permitted to continue. This point was illustrated
to some degree by the testimony of the chiefs of the appraiser's
department, the important duties of which would certainly justify
a reasonable exactness. The invoices, which are recorded in that
office, and which are sent out to the different divisions to be
passed upon and then returned to the chief clerk, are found to
exhibit, on their return, errors on the part of the several divisions
--according to one witness, nearly eight hundred errors a month--
although the number by the appraiser was estimated at a lesser
figure. A part of these errors may be assigned to a difference of
opinion as to the classification of the goods; but fully one-half
are attributed to carelessness. At the naval office it was stated
that the balance in favor of the government, of the many and large
errors which they discover in the customhouse accounts of the
liquidation of vessels and statements of refund, amounts to about
a million and a half of dollars per annum."

The commission entered into a full statement and details as to
irregularities, inefficiency and neglect of duties in different
departments of the customhouse, and recommended various measures
of reform, both in the laws regulating the customs service and its
actual administration. A copy of this report was immediately sent
to Collector Arthur and Naval Officer Cornell, with instructions
to recommend to me the number of each grade for each branch of his
office, with various details designated by me, and to carry into
execution the general recommendations of the commission. I added:

"You will please take your own way, by committee of your officers
or otherwise, to fix the number of each grade requisite to conduct
the business of your office, and