The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-08-12
SBMI-JUDICIAL POWER.
An Ex-Comptroller of the
Treasury Defines the Duties
Of the Office Bowler
Upheld.


WASHINGTON. Aug. 12, 1S95-No de-
cision is expected from Comptroller
Bowler in regard to the payment of the
sugar bounty claims for some time, prob
ably not before the return to the city of
Secretary Carlisle. which will be about
the first of September. The general i'm
preston is that the Comptroller VIII take
the position that his action has already
Indicated viz, he will decline to approve
the warrant for the bounty to the Ok
nard Beet Sugar Company and the case
VIII have to go to the courts for deter
mination. A lengthy communication is
published in the Times" this morning
from William Lawrence of Bellefontaine,
for number of years Comptroller of the
Treasury, in which he approves the at
tftude assumed by Air. Bowler.
In doing this, Mr.. Lawrence antag-
on:zes the position of Messrs. Teller,
Lamar and Hoke Smith, secretaries of
the interior which was quoted by judge
semmes in his argument before Mr..
Bowler Saturday. They agreed in in
structing a subordinate official of the de-
partment over which they presided, that
it was his duty, as it was that of any
executive officer to carry out the terms
of a law as he found it.
Judge Lawrence's communication ira
verses the argument made last week by
Senator Blanchard. and in the course of
it he says
ssWhenever the exercise of that power
requires an executive officer to pass on
the constitutonality of an act Of Con
gress, his authority IS necessary as
that Of a court in eases in the. judicial
domain. The constitution itself is law
the highest law-and the. Comptroller
is bound by his official oath to support
it as the highest law over and above
any attempt by Congress, in the form of
a statute, to repeal, annul or disregard
..-Fhe conclusion IS inevitable that
the Comptroller has just as ample pewer
to decide ON the conssitutEonalaty on san
act of Congress in the allowance OF
claims as a court has in other matters
within its appropriate jurisdiction"
"If an act of Congress Is passed 70
tuition declares cannot exist against the
governments such claims are not war
ranted by law. The statute has thus
expressly invested the Comptroiler with
the power and made it his duty to de-
eide whether they are 50 warranted.
This power is as much an eHecutlVe
lar power in courts is a, judicial func-
ton in cases over which they nave Jdrls-
diction.
1T was in view of this that Mr.. Mad
ison said in the first Congress that the
duties of the Comptroller 'partake of a
judiciary quality as well as executive.
The principal duty seems 70 be deciding
upon the lawfulness and justice o. o.
watkins tssiiilf Versus sr the tinted states g
Wall, 76D. refers to the duties as re-
curing intelligent scrutiny and de-
cisIon.' Here then are recognitlonS OF
the unqualified power of the Comptroiler
to judge, as fully. as court can, OF
every question arising upon the right
of a claimant, including the. constitu-
tioilal validity of the act of Congress
under which claim is made. And this
power is so ample and unlimited that 1t
Isl we'll settled that no court. can by man
damus. mandatory injunctions or other
wise, interfere with or control the eX-
ercise Of the power.
Congress and the President together
could abolish the office of Comptroller
lust as the States could abolish the office
Of Senator But while the office of
C,onptroller exists with it's present pow
tee of the Senate nor Congress can i'm
trefere with the Comptroller in the dis,
charge of his duties. Even a Senatorial
Investigation could not terrify man
fit to be Comptroller into either the al
lowance or rejection of a claim.
"There was another investigation in
Congress to which the Senator has not
controversy between the, head Of a de-
suited, not to the discomfort of the
g,anlntroller.' but did result in the act of
March 80, 1885, which, yet in force, makes
the allowance of claim by the Comp
troller conclusive upon the executive
branch of the government, but. of
course. subject to the power of Congress
to refuse an appropriation to pay it or
revise it ~