after election, what then? The President is not all of the Executive. He cannot get along without the men whom he appoints, with and by the consent and advice of the Senate; and they are really integral parts of that branch of the government which he titularly contains in his one single person. The characters and training the Secretaries are of almost as much importance as his own gifts and antecedents; so that his appointment and the Senate’s confirmation must be added to the machinery of nomination by convention and election by automatic electors before the whole process of making up a working executive has been noted. The early Congresses seem to have regarded the Attorney-General and the four Secretaries[1] who constituted the first Cabinets as something more than the President’s lieutenants. Before the republican reaction which followed the supremacy of the Federalists, the heads of the departments appeared in person before the Houses to impart desired information, and to make what suggestions they might have to venture, just as the President attended in person to read his “address.” They were always recognized units in the system, never mere ciphers to the Presdential figure which led them. Their wills counted as independent wills.
- ↑ State, Treasury, War, Navy.
