3. Congress frequently appoints commissioners to obtain information, or to investigate some matter on which they expect to legislate. In all cases they must report their proceedings, either to Congress, to the President, or to the head of the department under whose instruction they act. Permanent commissioners report once a year, or oftener if required, that Congress may know the condition of affairs in their respective bureaus. Special commissioners, after they have performed the work assigned, make their report; after which their duties cease, and their commission comes to an end.
4. The lowest grade of diplomatic agents are called commissioners. We are thus represented at the present time in the Republics of Hayti and Liberia.
5. By recent acts of Congress, the powers of commissioners in some cases have been enlarged. They now examine persons charged with crimes against the laws of the United States; hold them to bail, discharge them, or commit them to prison; and do other magisterial acts, preliminary to the trial of the accused. When acting in such cases, they are clothed with some of the powers of a court.
CHAPTER IX.
OFFICIAL REGISTER.
1. Congress, in 1816, passed an act authorizing and requiring the Secretary of State, once in two years, to print and publish a book called “the official register,” in which he was ordered to register the name of every officer and agent of the government, in the civil, military and naval departments, including cadets and midshipmen, together with the compensation received by each; the names of the State and county where born; and the name of the place where employed, whether at home or abroad.
To the list of persons employed in the Navy Department, the Secretary of the Navy is required to subjoin the names, force and condition of all the ships and vessels belonging to the United States, and when and where built.
This work has been published and distributed, as the law directs, ever since the passage of the act, and is sometimes denominated “the blue book.” It is a very convenient and useful publication, as it shows in compact form the whole official force of the government in each department, together with the cost of maintaining it.
As it contains only names and dates and facts relating to persons, comparatively few would take the pains to read it, and but a small number is published. It can be found in the Congressional library at Washington, where twenty-five copies of each edition are deposited.