pointed by the President, subject to the consent of the Senate (which is practically never refused), and may be removed by the President alone. Nothing marks them off from any other officials who might be placed in charge of a department, except that they are summoned by the President to his private council. None of them can vote in Congress, Art. xi. § 6 of the Constitution providing that "no person holding any office under the United States shall be a member of either House during his continuance in office."

This restriction was intended to prevent the President not merely from winning over individual members of Congress by the allurements of office, but also from making his ministers agents in corrupting or unduly influencing the representatives of the people, as George III. and his ministers corrupted the English Parliament. There is a passage in the Federalist (Letter xl.) which speaks of "Great Britain, where so great a proportion of the members are elected by so small a proportion of the people, where the electors are so corrupted by the representatives, and the representatives so corrupted by the Crown." The Fathers of the Constitution were so resolved to avert this latter form of corruption that they included in the Constitution the provision just mentioned. Its wisdom has sometimes been questioned. But it deserves to be noticed that the Constitution contains nothing to prevent ministers from being present in either House of Congress and addressing it,sas the ministers of the King of Italy or of the French President may do in either chamber of Italy or France.* It is entirely silent on the subject of communications between officials (other than the President) and the representatives of the people. In Washington's days ministers did occasionally speak to Congress, but they soon ceased to do so, and now never

h

In February, 1881, a committee of eight senators unanimously reported in favour of a plan to give seats (of course withou to vote) in both Houses of Congress to cabinet ministers, tend, on alternate days, in the Senate and in the House. T tee recommended that the necessary modification in the 116 be made, adding that they had no doubt of the constituto. the proposal. Nothing has so far been done to carry out this "The Italian ministers usually are members of one or ot! Of course they cannot vote, except in the House to which been chosen.

appear before any body larger than a committee. We shall presently see how this arrangement, while seeming to defend Congress against presidential intrigue, tends to weaken its legislative efficiency and to embarrass its relations with the executive.

The President has the amplest range of choice for his ministers. He usually forms an entirely new cabinet when he enters office, even if he belongs to the same party as his predecessor. He may take, he sometimes does take, men who not only have never sat in Congress, but have not figured in politics at all, who may never have sat in a State legislature nor held the humblest office. For instance, in 1869 President Grant offered the post of secretary of the treasury to Mr. A. T. Stewart, the owner of a gigantic dry goods warehouse in New York, who had never so much as made a political speech. Generally of course the persons chosen have already made for themselves a position of at least local importance. Often they are those to whom the new President owes his election, or to whose influence with the party he looks for support in his policy." Sometimes they have been his most prominent competitors for the party nominations. Thus Mr. Lincoln in 1860 appointed Mr. Seward and Mr. Chase to be his secretary of state and secretary of the treasury respectively, they being the two men who had come next after him in the selection by the Republican party of a presidential candidate.

The most dignified place in the cabinet is that of the Secretary of State. It is the great prize often bestowed on the man to whom the President is chiefly indebted for his election, or at any rate on one of the leaders of the party. In early days, it

The nomination was withdrawn because it was discovered that Mr. Stewart, being engaged in business, was ineligible by statute.

"In Mr. Cleveland's cabinet, formed in 1885, the secretary of state had been, for sixteen years, a senator, and recognized as one of the leaders of his party; the secretary of the treasury was a leading politician in New York State who had never sat in Congress; the secretary of war had been a judge of the supreme court of Massachusetts, and candidate for the governorship of that State; the secretary of the navy was a lawyer, and a prominent politician in New York; the secretary of the interior had sat in the House of Representatives, and had been, for nine years, a senator; the postmaster-general was a lawyer practising in Wisconsin, and a political leader there; the attorney-general had been governor of his State, and (for eight years) a senator.

was regarded as the stepping-stone to the presidency. Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and J. Q. Adams had all served as secretaries to preceding Presidents. The conduct of foreign affairs is the chief duty of the State department: its head has therefore a larger stage to play on than any other minister, and more chances of fame. His personal importance is all the greater because the President is usually so much absorbed by questions of patronage as to be forced to leave the secretary to his own devices. Hence the foreign policy of the administration is practically that of the secretary, except so far as the latter is controlled by the Senate, and especially by the chairman of its committee on Foreign Relations, The State department has also the charge of the great seal of the United States, keeps the archives, publishes the statutes, and of course instructs and controls the diplomatic and consular services. It is often said of the President that he is ruled, or as the Americans express it, "run," by his secretary; but naturally this happens only when the secretary is the stronger or more experienced man, and in the same way it has been said of Presidents before now that they were, like sultans, ruled by their wives, or by their boon companions.

The Secretary of the Treasury is minister of finance. His function was of the utmost importance at the beginning of the government, when a national system of finance had to be built up and the Federal Government rescued from its grave embarrassments. Hamilton, who then held the office, effected both. During the War.of Secession, it became again powerful, owing to the enormous loans contracted and the quantities of paper money issued, and it remains so now, because it has the management (so far as Congress permits) of the currency and the national debt. The secretary has, however, by no means the same range of action as a finance minister in European countries, for as he is excluded from Congress, although he regularly reports to it, he has nothing directly to do with the imposition of taxes, and very little with the appropriation of revenue to the various burdens of the State."

'See post, chapter on Congressional Finance, where it will be shown that the chairmen of the committees of Ways and Means and of Appropriations are practically additional ministers of finance.

The Secretary of the Interior is far from being the omnipresent power which a minister of the interior is in France or Italy, or even a Home Secretary in England, since nearly all the functions which these officials discharge belong in America to the State governments or to the organs of local government. He is chiefly occupied in the management of the public lands, still of immense value, despite the lavish grants made to railway companies, and with the conduct of Indian affairs, a troublesome and unsatisfactory department, which has always been a reproach to the United States, and will apparently continue so till the Indians themselves disappear or become civilized. Patents and pensions, the latter a source of great expense and abuse, also belong to his province.

The duties of the Secretaries of War, of the Navy, of Agriculture, and of the Postmaster-General may be gathered from their names. But the Attorney-General is sufficiently different from his English prototype to need a word of explanation. He is not only public prosecutor and standing counsel for the United States, but also to some extent what is called on the European continent a minister of justice. He has a general oversight it can hardly be described as a control of the Federal judicial departments, and especially of the prosecuting officers called district attorneys, and executive court officers, called United States marshals. He is the legal adviser of the President in those delicate questions, necessarily frequent under the Constitution of the United States, which arise as to the limits of the executive power and the relations of Federal to State authority, and generally in all legal matters. His opinions are frequently published officially, as a justification of the President's conduct, and an indication of the view which the executive takes of its legal position and duties in a pending matter. The attorney-general is always a lawyer of some position, but not necessarily in the front rank of the profession, for political considerations have much to do with determining the President's choice."

Another variance from the practice of England, where the opinions of the law officers of the Crown are always treated as confidential. The solicitor-general is a sort of assistant to the attorney, and not (as in England) a colleague.

It will be observed that from this list of ministerial offices several are wanting which exist in Europe. Thus there is no colonial minister, because no colonies; no minister of education, because that department of business belongs to the several States;10 no minister of public worship, because the United States Government has nothing to do with any particular form of religion; no minister of commerce, because the activity of the Federal Government in that direction, although increasing, is still limited; no minister of public works, because grants made for this purpose come direct from Congress without the intervention of the executive, and are applied as Congress directs.11 Much of the work which in Europe would devolve on members of the administration falls in America to committees of Congress, especially to committees of the House of Representatives. This happens particularly as regards taxa tion, public works, and the management of the Territories, for each of which matters there exists a committee in both Houses! The well-meant attempt of the founders of the Constitution to keep the legislative and executive departments distinct has resulted in leading the legislature to interfere with ordinary administration more directly and frequently than European legislatures are wont to do. It interferes by legislation because it is debarred from interfering by interpellation

The respective positions of the President and his ministers are, as has been already explained, the reverse of those which exist in the constitutional monarchies of Europe. There the sovereign is irresponsible and the minister responsible for the acts which he does in the sovereign's name. In America the President is responsible because the minister is nothing more

10There was established thirty-six years ago a Bureau of Education, attached to the department of the Interior, but its function is only to collect and diffuse information on educational subjects. This it does with assiduity and success.

"Money voted for river and harbour improvements is voted in sums appropriated to each particular piece of work. The work is supervised by officers of the Engineer corps of the United States army, under the general direction of the war department. Public buildings are erected under the direction of an official, called the supervising architect, who is attached to the treasury department. The signal service weather bureau is a branch of the war department, the coast survey of the navy department.

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