That when any sum or sums of money shall be drawn from the Treasury under any law making appropriation for the contingent expenses of intercourse between the United States and foreign nations the President shall be, and he is hereby, authorized to cause the same to be duly settled annually with the accounting officers of the Treasury in the manner following; that is to say, by causing the same to be accounted for specially in all instances wherein the expenditure thereof may in his judgment be made public, and by making a certificate of the amount of such expenditures as he may think it advisable not to specify; and every such certificate shall be deemed a sufficient voucher for the sum or sums therein expressed to have been expended.

Two distinct classes of expenditure are authorized by this law—­the one of a public and the other of a private and confidential character.  The President in office at the time of the expenditure is made by the law the sole judge whether it shall be public or private.  Such sums are to be “accounted for specially in all instances wherein the expenditure thereof may in his judgment be made public.”  All expenditures “accounted for specially” are settled at the Treasury upon vouchers, and not on “President’s certificates,” and, like all other public accounts, are subject to be called for by Congress, and are open to public examination.  Had information as respects this class of expenditures been called for by the resolution of the House, it would have been promptly communicated.

Congress, foreseeing that it might become necessary and proper to apply portions of this fund for objects the original accounts and vouchers for which could not be “made public” without 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.