much over thirty pages. The five men who came after him, occupying almost exactly eleven years (1829–1841)—equivalent in time to his single term of service—left on record 704 pages. Perhaps Wirt's admirable example of industry may have had something to do with the activity of his successors.[1]
In refusing to be led beyond the limits prescribed by law, Wirt doubtless contracted the action of his office. The restrictions thus placed upon it, however, made its relations clearer to Congress on the one hand and to the executive on the other. They tended inevitably to increase the usefulness of the attorney-general as a member of the cabinet.
III
As a result of the growth of the United States in population, of its development in commerce and wealth and of its ever-widening territory, the administrative work of the government had by 1830 increased enormously. The executive departments and the judiciary—confined, as they were for the most part, to their primitive organizations—were inadequately performing their functions. John Quincy Adams appreciated this fact, remarking on it in his first annual message.[2] Apparently, however, he could accomplish nothing toward remedying it.
- ↑ ‘A comparison of the mere paging in the original volume of Ofznions, efc.,
edited by Henry D. Gilpin (Washington, 1841, Doc’t No. 123), yields the following
results:
1. 1789-1794: Edmund Randolph. 14 pages. 2. 1794-1795: William Bradford 13 " 3. 1795-1801: Charles:Lee 22 " 4. 1801-1864: Levi Lincoln 37 " 5. 1805-1807: J. Breckenridge 5 " 6. 1807-1511: C. A. Rodney 8 " 7. 1811-1814: W. Pinkney. 5 " 8. 1814-1817: R. Rush 30 " 9. 1817-1829: W. Wirt 518 " 10. 1829-1831: J. M. Berrien 159 " 11. 1831-1833: R.B. Taney 86 " 12. 1833-1838; B. F. Butler 292 " 13. 1838-1839: Felix Grundy 82 " 14. 1940-1841: H. D., Gilpin 85 " Appendix: pp. 1383-1471. Odd opinions not included in the above record.
- ↑ Richardson, Messages and Papers, vol. ii, pp. 314–15.
