1. At the first general census, in 1790, there were but little over three millions and a half of inhabitants in the United States, and these mostly settled along the Atlantic seaboard; the country was oppressed with debt, and not recovered from the effects of a desolating war. Its public business, therefore, was comparatively small in amount, and was readily managed by the three Departments, of State, of the Treasury, and of War. The energy of the people, and the great resources at their command, enabled them to surmount all their difficulties[320] in a short time, and the country entered on a career of remarkable prosperity. Its public business kept pace with the general expansion, and new departments were from time to time created, to improve the efficiency of the public service. 2. In 1849 Congress passed a law creating the Department of the Interior, and a Secretary of the Interior, having a seat in the Cabinet, appointed in the same manner, and possessing the same rank, as the other members of the Cabinet, was installed in office.
3. The bureau of the Commissioner of Patents was transferred from the Department of State, and the General Land Office from that of the Treasury.
The supervisory power before exercised by the Secretary of the Treasury over the accounts of the marshals, clerks, and other officers of all the courts of the United States, was placed in the hands of the new Secretary. The office of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, heretofore attached to the War Department, was also transferred to this; and the powers and duties of the Secretary of War, in relation to Indian affairs, were devolved on the Secretary of the Interior.
4. The Secretaries of War and of the Navy were by the same act relieved of their duties in regard to the Commissioner of Pensions, and those duties were thereafter to be perfo............