If, for the information of his successors, he shall
leave the evidence on which he acts and the items of the expenditures
which make up the sum for which he has given his "certificate" on the
confidential files of one of the Executive Departments, they do not in
any proper sense become thereby public records. They are never seen or
examined by the accounting officers of the Treasury when they settle an
account on the "President's certificate." The First Congress of the
United States on the 1st of July, 1790, passed an act "providing the
means of intercourse between the United States and foreign nations," by
which a similar provision to that which now exists was made for the
settlement of such expenditures as in the judgment of the President
ought not to be made public. This act was limited in its duration. It
was continued for a limited term in 1793, and between that time and the
date of the act of May 1, 1810, which is now in force, the same
provision was revived and continued. Expenditures were made and settled
under Presidential certificates in pursuance of these laws.
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