The Division of Lands and Railroads; having charge of matters pertaining to the General Land-Office, and the construction, &c., of land-grant railroads.
The Division of Pensions and Patents; having charge of matters pertaining to those offices.
The Division of Public Documents; having charge of the distribution of the public documents and the Department Library.
The Division of Appointments; having charge of all matters pertaining to the force of the department, the preparing, recording, etc., of Presidential appointments under the Interior Department.
The Superintendent of the building; having charge of all repairs, the oversight of the laboring force, heating apparatus, etc.
The head of the Department is the Secretary of the Interior. His subordinates are the Commissioners of the Public Lands, Patents, Indian Affairs, and Pensions, and the Superintendent of the Census. The Secretary is charged with the general supervision of matters relating to the public lands, the pensions granted by the Government, the management of the Indian tribes, the granting patents, the management of the Agricultural Bureau, of the lead and other mines of the United States, the affairs of the Penitentiary of the District of Columbia, the overland-routes to the Pacific, including the great Pacific Railways, the taking of the Census, and the direction of the acts of the Commissioner of Public Buildings, the Insane Hospital for the District of Columbia, and the Army and Navy, is also under his control.
The first Secretary of the Interior was Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, appointed by President Taylor; and Columbus Delano, of Ohio, is the present Secretary.
The General Land-Office was established as a branch of the Treasury Department by act of Congress, approved April 25, 1812, which authorized the appointment of a Commissioner, at a salary of $3,000 per annum, and the employment of a Chief Clerk, and such other clerks as might be necessary to perform the work, at an annual compensation not to exceed, in the whole, $7,000.
By the act of July 4, 1836, the office was reorganized and the force increased. The number of clerks now employed is one hundred and fifty-four; and even this force is not sufficient to meet the requirements of a constantly growing business. Upon the creation of the Interior Department, in 1849, the Land-Office was placed under its jurisdiction.
The Commissioner of the General Land-Office is charged with the duty of supervising the surveys of private land claims, and also the survey and sale of the public lands of the United States. At present this supervision extends to seventeen surveying districts and ninety-two local land-offices.