The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918 Page: 294
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The South western Historical Quarterly
partment under the commanding general analogous to those at
Richmond.
The president's message summarized the conditions resulting
from Federal control of the Mississippi, the difficulties encoun-
tered by the executive and the heads of departments in administer-
ing the Trans-Mississippi Department at that time, and the im-
possibility that officials east of the river should control operations
west of it. He recommended that representatives of the post-
office and treasury departments be placed west of the river with
authority in the head of each department to vest in the assistant
full power to operate the sub-department; while for military
affairs, he advised that the president and secretary of war be au-
thorized to "delegate to the commanding general so much of the
discretionary power vested in them by law as the exigencies of
the service shall require."25
Resolutions were at once adopted in each house looking toward
the legislation recommended. On January 5, a bill entitled "An
act to authorize the appointment of an Assistant Secretary of the
Treasury west of the Mississippi" went to the senate from the
house. This bill amended to read "agent" instead of "Assistant
Secretary" became a law January 27. This act empowered the
president by and with the advice and consent of the senate to
appoint an agent of the treasury who should reside west of the
Mississippi and discharge such duties as should be assigned him
by the secretary of the treasury. The secretary could empower the
agent to discharge any duty or function west of the river that the
secretary himself could discharge. To make this branch office
effective, other bills were passed in a short time providing for the
establishment in this department of two bureaus of the treasury,
the one of the auditor and the other of the comptroller. The
chiefs of these bureaus were to receive and disburse all the public
money for the department; to keep the necessary accounts; to file
evidences of all claims against the government in this department,
which hitherto had been required to be filed in the state depart-
ment; to receive instructions from and to report all transactions
to the agent of the treasury for the department.26
'Doecember 7, 1863. Off. Recs., ISeries IV, Vol. II, 1045-1046; also in
Richards.on, Messages and Papers of the Confederacy, I, 377-378.
'For the history of these bills see Journal of the Confederate Con-294
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 21, July 1917 - April, 1918, periodical, 1918; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101073/m1/300/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.