could be vitalized and molded by Wirt, it was to be done. After his long occupancy (1817–1829) the attorney-generalship had certainly risen in importance and was considered as more closely allied to the whole executive administration than ever before. It cannot be said that Wirt's suggestions influenced directly congressional action, for there is no proof of such influence. But there was at last a man in the attorney-generalship with a few clear ideas on the subject of organization which he was ready to make effective. This, at any rate, Congress must have understood.
The details of administrative organization it is not the province of this paper to consider. It is enough to say that Wirt was provided by congress with a clerk in 1818 and a small sum of money ($500) for office-room and stationery. In response to criticism over inequalities in the salaries of the secretaries, these salaries were raised and equalized the next year (1819); and the salary of the attorney-general was increased to thirty-five hundred dollars. Other improvements of a minor character were made during his long term of service.[1]
Early in his term Wirt had intimated to the House that by the law creating his position he could not be reckoned legal counselor to that body.[2] When, in January, 1820, the House sent an order for his official opinion on a certain subject before them, he deliberately declined to give the opinion. This was his mode of reasoning:
It is true that, in this case, I should have the sanction of the House. and it is not less true that my respect for the House impels me strongly to obey the order. The precedent, however, would not be less dangerous on account of the purity of the motives in which it
- ↑ Act of April 20, 1818, sec. 6. Annals of Congress, 15th Cong., 1st sess., vol. ii, p. 2566. Lowndes complained in the House April 20, 1818, of allowing "any longer the discrimination which had heretofore existed in the salaries of the Heads of Departments." Ibid., vol. ii, 1779. In the following November, the subject of salaries came up in both Senate and House. The discussion led to the Act of February 20, 1819. Annals, 15th Cong., 2d sess. (1818–1819), vol. i, pp. 21 et seq., vol. ii, page 2486. Easby-Smith, The Department of Justice, page 10, gives sundry details.
- ↑ House Documents, No. 68, 16th Cong., 1st sess., vol. v. "Letter from the Attorney-General . . . in reply to an Order of the House of Representatives," page 2. Dated February 3, 1820.
