There is
also annexed a table of foreign weights and measures reduced to the
standard of the United States, together with blank forms to facilitate
the transaction of business.
It is recommended that the duties herein suggested shall be collected
exclusively in gold or silver coin. These duties can only be collected
as a military contribution through the agency of our brave officers of
the Army and Navy, who will no doubt cheerfully and faithfully collect
and keep these moneys and account for them, not to the Treasury, but to
the Secretaries of War or of the Navy, respectively.
It is recommended that these duties be performed by the commandant of
the port, whether naval or military, aided by the paymaster or purser or
other officer, the accounts of each being countersigned by the other, as
a check upon mistakes or error, in the same manner as is now the case
with the collector and naval officer of our several principal ports,
which has introduced so much order and accuracy in our system. It is
suggested that as in some cases the attention of the commandant of the
port might be necessary for the performance of other duties that he be
permitted to substitute some other officer, making known the fact to the
Secretaries of War or of the Navy, and subject to their direction.
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